Cloud Computing and its Types

Introduction:

 

In Today’s world, we often come across the word “Cloud” and “Cloud Computing”. It is often said that cloud is the future. A large number of Companies around the world are already using Cloud technology to meet their IT requirements. Cloud Computing is a very powerful and a rapidly growing technology due to the flexibility and its wide range of applications and benefits. The various online services that we use like dropbox, Office 365, Google drive, Gmail, salesforce, Pixlr, etc. all are cloud services. It is said that in near future, most of the technologies that we use will be cloud based. So what is cloud and why it is so important. Lets have a quick discussion on the Cloud technology.

 

What is Cloud Computing?

 

Well, It is the use of on demand “Computing Resources” like Servers, Storage, Computer Networks, Applications and Services remotely through the Internet. It removes the burden of performing complex task of locally managing your software and hardware resources like your applications, servers and networks or a private data center. It gives you the flexibility to easily access and use a shared pool of resources which may vary from an on-line application to highly optimized data centers. However, depending on the type of cloud applications or services you use, they may be free or pay as you use services.

 

What are the different types of Cloud Models?

 

Cloud Computing can be broadly categorized in two models i.e. service model and deployment model.

 

 

1. Service Model:

 

Service model is defined based on the type of cloud services that it offers. It includes three types of cloud services known as SAAS, PAAS, and IAAS.

 

Software As A Service(SAAS):-

 

• It stands for “Software as a Service”.
• SAAS allows users to run existing online software applications that are accessed over the internet.
• It is designed for the large number of Internet users across the world.
• SAAS may include online Software services like email, Industry applications, erps, various editing tools etc.
• Some examples of SaaS are Office 365, Pixlr, salesforce, etc.

 

 

Platform As A Service(PAAS):-

 

• It stands for “Platform as a Service”.
• PAAS allows users to create and run their own cloud applications using supplier-specific tools and languages.
• There is no control over the underlying architecture like Operating System, Storage, Servers, etc.
• It is mainly designed for the developers to test or run codes and applications.
• Pass may Include cloud Services like Development tools, database, execution runtime, Web server, etc.
• Google app engine, Force.com, Redhat Open Shift, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, etc are some examples of PaaS.

 

 

Infrastructure As A Service(IAAS):-

 

• It stands for “Infrastructure as a Service”.
• IAAS allows users to run any applications they want on cloud hardware of their own choice.
• It is designed for the Administrators to setup and manage the infrastructure as per requirement.
• IaaS Includes Cloud services like Servers, Storage, Networking, Firewall, Load Balancer, etc.
• Various Services of Cloud Providers like Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Google, etc provide hardware infrastructure like servers, Storage, Firewalls, etc to setup your own cloud environment.

 

 

2. Deployment Model:

 

Deployment model is based on the type of deployment which is followed. It includes four types of cloud i.e. Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud and Community Cloud.

 

Private Cloud:- Private Cloud is owned by a single tenant. The cloud provider provides some space to the people in a datacenter  situated in a certain location to setup their own cloud environment. A person or a company has to purchase his own hardware and equipments and has to design and setup his own architecture as per requirement. All the hardware(Servers, firewall, networking) setup and operational (Internet, cooling, power, etc) cost is bared by the person or the company. The Capital Expenditure(CapEx) or in other words, the Upfront cost in a Private Cloud is Higher but the Operational Expenditure (OpEx) is reduced.

 

Public Cloud:- Public cloud is owned by multiple tenants. The Cloud Provider makes resources like applications, hardware, networking, storage, etc available to general public over the Internet. It is less expensive as multiple tenants use a shared pool of resources to setup their own cloud environment. It is an easy and inexpensive to setup as the setup cost is bared by the Cloud Provider. There is also no wastage of resources as you have to only pay for what you use.

 

Hybrid Cloud:- Hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment which uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms. This model is mainly adopted by companies who don’t want to fully relay on or shift to Public Cloud and want to keep some operations running in a private and fully controlled environment. This model is also mostly used by companies who want to slowly shift to Public Cloud or doesn’t fully trust the public Cloud to keep their important data and applications secure and private to them.

 

Community Cloud:- Community cloud is a shared service model that provides computing solutions to limited no of individuals or organizations, which is governed managed and secured commonly by all participating organizations or a third party managed service provider. This model is generally used by groups of financial, medical, educational, business organizations, etc to be connected together and share data, information, collectively perform or manage some tasks, etc.

 

Why is Cloud Computing so Important?

 

Since the introduction of cloud computing, it has gained vast popularity in the IT world due to its various advantages. Some of them are listed below.

1. Lower IT infrastructure cost.

2. Easy Setup.

2. Low maintenance cost.

3. Increased computing Power and scalability.

4. Smother Operations due to easy configuration of services.

5. Instant software and hardware updates.

6. Unlimited storage capacity.

7. Availability of various latest tools and services.

8. High Uptime.

9. Backup, Replication and fault tolerance features.

10. Pay as you use model.

 

Traditional vs Cloud Computing:

 

Traditional Computing:

 

1. Massive setup costs.
2. Freedom to design own computing architecture.
3. Large maintenance cost.
4. Limited in-house knowledge.
5. Self-owned

 

Cloud Computing:

 

1. Pay as you go pricing model.
2. Easy Scalability as per requirement.
3. No maintenance required.
4. Easy migration from one datacenter to another in same or different region.
5. Collaborative innovation and support.
6. Horizontal scaling.

 

 

Companies Offering Cloud Services:

 

Over the years many Cloud Service Providers have emerged and offered excellent cloud experiences to its users. However, there are few cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) which are the top companies in these field in terms of their Market share, Range of services, reliability, Innovation, etc. There are a number of other companies offering SaaS, PaaS and IaaS Cloud Services and have a huge number of users and market share.

 

Let us take a look at Some of the Top cloud Service Providers in the Market.

 

IAAS & PAAS:-

 

1. Amazon Web Services
2. Microsoft Azure
3. Google Cloud
4. IBM Cloud
5. Rackspace
6. VMware
7. Oracle

 

SAAS:-

 

1. Office 365
2. Salesforce.com
3. Slack
4. Dropbox
5. DocuSign
6. Stripe
7. Cloudera
8. G-Suite
9. Cloudfare
10. Github

 

Thank you for your time… Hope it was helpful…!

 

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