Cloud computing is about hardware-based services involving computing, network and storage capacities. These services are provided on-demand, hosted by the cloud provider and can easily scale up and down.
Cloud computing is about hardware-based services (involving computing, network and storage capacities), where:
- Services are provided on-demand; customers can pay for them as they go, without the need to invest into a datacenter.
- Hardware management is abstracted from the customers.
- Infrastructure capacities are elastic and can easily scale up and down.
There is a powerful economic force behind this simple model: providing and consuming cloud computing services generally allows to have far more efficient resource utilization, compared to self-hosting and data center type of hosting.
Cloud Computing refers to manipulating, configuring, and accessing the hardware and software resources remotely.There are certain services and models working behind the scene making the cloud computing feasible and accessible to end users. Following are the working models for cloud computing:
- Deployment Models
- Service Models
Deployment Models (Cloud computing environments)
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, Private, Hybrid, and Community.
Public cloud
With this environment the services and infrastructure are provided over the internet but are off-site. An anxiety with public cloud surrounds the sharing of resources; this type of environment brings security concerns and concerns of governance. This type of environment offers the greatest levels of efficiency.
Community cloud
Rather than having the infrastructure and services available to the public as with public cloud, community cloud is utilized by a group of organisations with shared interests. It may be on or off site, managed by the organisation or a third party.
Private cloud
The services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network. This environment offers the greatest levels of security and control, with the downside being that the organisation is responsible for the software and infrastructure thus reducing the cost savings. This environment is well suited to and organisation where security and control are paramount.
Hybrid Cloud
This is a mix. Hybrid cloud is probably where most organisations will find themselves. It’s a combination of consuming public services through the public cloud as well as private cloud, while still maintaining some sort of internal network as well.
Cloud service models
NIST Definition of Cloud Computing list three service models: These service models are categorized according to the responsibilities and how it is divided among the cloud service provider.
Software as a service (SaaS): At this level everything is way more simple for the customers to consume, since they are provided with actual services generating business value to them. Service providers handle all the technological complexity and provide the support as needed.
Platform as a service (PaaS): Platforms that deploy applications provided by customers or partners of the PaaS provider. Design, develop and run applications.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Servers, storage and network are delivered as cloud service. The consumer does not responsible for underlying cloud infrastructure but they have the responsibility of operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and also a limited control of some selected network components such as firewalls.
From the development perspective, cloud computing is a brand new field (which is especially true for the .NET world).
Related links:
- Source of this article
- Cloud Computing on Wikipedia
