Chapter 1- Overview of Cloud Computing

1.1. Introduction
The term cloud in cloud computing refers to the means through which everything—from
computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes, and personal
collaboration—can be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need it. It is a
virtualization-based technology that allows us to create, configure, and customize applications via
an internet connection. The cloud technology includes a development platform, hard disk, software
application, and database. It uses remote servers on the internet to store, manage, and access data
online rather than local drives.

The traditional methods to provide the IT infrastructure need a Data center that comprises Server
Room. The server room may be equipped with a database server, mail server, networking,
firewalls, routers, modem, switches, configurable system, high net speed, and the maintenance
engineers. To establish such IT infrastructure, we need to spend lots of money. To overcome all
these problems and to reduce the IT infrastructure cost, Cloud Computing comes into existence.

Cloud Computing refers to manipulating, configuring, and accessing the hardware and software
resources remotely. It offers online data storage, infrastructure, and application. There are certain
services and models working behind the scene making the cloud computing feasible and accessible
to end users.

1.2. Characteristics of Cloud Computing

The characteristics of cloud computing are given below:

• Agility
The cloud works in a distributed computing environment. It shares resources among users
and works very fast.
• High availability and reliability
The availability of servers is high and more reliable because the chances of infrastructure
failure are minimum.
• High Scalability
Cloud offers "on-demand" provisioning of resources on a large scale, without having
engineers for peak loads.

• Multi-Sharing
With the help of cloud computing, multiple users and applications can work more
efficiently with cost reductions by sharing common infrastructure.
 • Device and Location Independence
Cloud computing enables the users to access systems using a web browser regardless of
their location or what device they use e.g. PC, mobile phone, etc. As infrastructure is off-
site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet, users can connect
from anywhere.

• Maintenance
Maintenance of cloud computing applications is easier, since they do not need to be
installed on each user's computer and can be accessed from different places. So, it reduces
the cost also.

• Low Cost
By using cloud computing, the cost will be reduced because to take the services of cloud
computing, IT Company need not to set its own infrastructure and pay-as-per usage of
resources.

1.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

Advantages of Cloud Computing

• Back-up and restore data

Once the data is stored in the cloud, it is easier to get back-up and restore that data using
the cloud.

• Excellent accessibility
Cloud allows us to quickly and easily access store information anywhere, anytime in the
whole world, using an internet connection. An internet cloud infrastructure increases
organization productivity and efficiency by ensuring that our data is always accessible.
• Low maintenance cost
Cloud computing reduces both hardware and software maintenance costs for organizations.
• Mobility
Cloud computing allows us to easily access all cloud data via mobile.
• IServices in the pay-per-use model
Cloud computing offers Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the users for access
services on the cloud and pays the charges as per the usage of service.
• Unlimited storage capacity
Cloud offers us a huge amount of storing capacity for storing our important data such as
documents, images, audio, video, etc. in one place.
• Data security
 Data security is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing. Cloud offers many
advanced features related to security and ensures that data is securely stored and handled.
• Improved collaboration
Cloud applications improve collaboration by allowing groups of people to quickly and
easily share information in the cloud via shared storage.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

• Internet Connectivity
As you know, in cloud computing, every data (image, audio, video, etc.) is stored on the
cloud, and we access these data through the cloud by using the internet connection. If you
do not have good internet connectivity, you cannot access these data.

• Vendor lock-in
Vendor lock-in is the biggest disadvantage of cloud computing. Organizations may face
problems when transferring their services from one vendor to another. As different vendors
provide different platforms, that can cause difficulty moving from one cloud to another.

• Limited Control
As we know, cloud infrastructure is completely owned, managed, and monitored by the
service provider, so the cloud users have less control over the function and execution of
services within a cloud infrastructure.

• Security
Although cloud service providers implement the best security standards to store important
information. But, before adopting cloud technology, you should be aware that you will be
sending all your organization's sensitive information to a third party, i.e., a cloud computing
service provider. While sending the data on the cloud, there may be a chance that your
organization's information is hacked by Hackers.

1.4. Cloud working models

There are two working models for cloud computing:

1. Deployment Models
Deployment models define the type of access to the cloud, i.e., how the cloud is located?
Cloud can have any of the four types of access:
• Public
The public cloud allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public.
Public cloud may be less secure because of its openness.
• Private
The private cloud allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. It is
more secured because of its private nature.

• Hybrid
The hybrid cloud is a mixture of public and private cloud, in which the critical activities
are performed using private cloud while the non-critical activities are performed using
public cloud.

• Community
The community cloud allows systems and services to be accessible by a group of
organizations.

2. Service Models
The service models on which Cloud computing is based are categorized into three basic
service models which are -
• Infrastructure-as–a-Service (IaaS)
IaaS is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is a computing infrastructure
managed over the internet. It provides access to fundamental resources such as physical
machines, virtual machines, virtual storage, etc. The main advantage of using IaaS is that
it helps users to avoid the cost and complexity of purchasing and managing the physical
servers.
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
PaaS offers the runtime environment for applications. It also offers development and
deployment tools required to develop applications. PaaS has a feature of point-and-click
tools that enables non-developers to create web applications. PaaS cloud computing
platform is created for the programmer to develop, test, run, and manage the applications.
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
This model provides software application as a service to the end users. It refers to a
software that is deployed on a host service and is accessible via Internet. SaaS is also known
as "on-demand software". It is a software in which the applications are hosted by a cloud
service provider. Examples include: Billing and invoicing system, Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) applications, Help desk applications, Human Resource (HR)
solutions.
1.5. Cloud Computing Technologies
There are certain technologies working behind the cloud computing platforms making cloud
computing flexible, reliable, and usable. These technologies are: Virtualization, Service-Oriented
Architecture (SOA), Grid Computing, and Utility Computing.

Virtualization
Virtualization is a technique, which allows to share single physical instance of an application or
resource among multiple organizations or tenants (customers). It does this by assigning a logical
name to a physical resource and providing a pointer to that physical resource when demanded.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Service-Oriented Architecture helps to use applications as a service for other applications
regardless the type of vendor, product or technology. Therefore, it is possible to exchange the data
between applications of different vendors without additional programming or making changes to
services.

Grid Computing
Grid Computing refers to distributed computing, in which a group of computers from multiple
locations are connected with each other to achieve a common objective. These computer resources
are heterogeneous and geographically dispersed. Grid Computing breaks complex task into smaller
pieces, which are distributed to CPUs that reside within the grid.
Utility Computing

This process relies on the pay-per-utilize model. It gives computational services on demand for a
metered benefit. It mainly helps in cost-cutting by reducing initial investment. As the computing
requirements for a business change, the billing also changes accordingly, without acquiring any
additional cost. If the client usage has decreased, then billing cost also reduces accordingly.

1.6. Cloud computing architecture

Cloud Computing architecture comprises of many cloud components, which are loosely coupled.
We can broadly divide the cloud architecture into two parts: Front End and Back End. Each of the
ends is connected through a network, usually Internet.

The front end refers to the client part of cloud computing system. It consists of interfaces and
applications that are required to access the cloud computing platforms, Example - Web Browser.

The back End refers to the cloud itself. It consists of all the resources required to provide cloud
computing services. It comprises of huge data storage, virtual machines, security mechanism,
services, deployment models, servers, etc.

It is the responsibility of the back end to provide built-in security mechanism, traffic control and
protocols. The server employs certain protocols known as middleware, which help the connected
devices to communicate with each other.