Cloud Delivery Service Models: As cloud computing has grown in popularity,
several different models have emerged to help meet specific needs of different users. Each
type of cloud service provides you with different levels of control, flexibility, and
management. There are three main models for cloud computing. Each model represents a
different part of the cloud computing stack.
(i) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): Infrastructure-as-a-Service is a service
model that virtually provides various resources like Processors, Storage, Servers,
Switches, firewall, and routers to its users on an economical and on-demand basis. It
boosts to start-up and enterprise fields by providing infrastructure on a pay-per-use and
on-demand basis. IaaS work as a supportive service, which reduces the burden of buying
the infrastructure to individuals, start-up, small and large enterprises. Popularity and
acceptability of IaaS services depend on factors like availability, reliability, efficiency,
cost, and security. Some well-liked cloud services in the IaaS category are AWS, EC2,
S3, Glacier, GCE, Microsoft Azure, Computing on-demand, and Cloud Sites.
There are the following characteristics of IaaS.
o Resources are available as a service
o Services are highly scalable
o Dynamic and flexible
o GUI and API-based access
o Automated administrative tasks
(ii) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): Platform-as-a-Service is a service model that
offers a flexible and optimized environment through providing development tools like
Database support, Programming languages, Operating systems, and many more that
allow users to implement, compile, and run the applications. Cloud services in the PaaS
category are Google App Engine, RHO, EC2, Force.com, Engine Yard Cloud, Azure,
Blue Cloud, and Cloud Sites.
There are the following characteristics of PaaS :
o Accessible to various users via the same development application.
o Integrates with web services and databases.
o Builds on virtualization technology, so resources can easily be scaled up or down as per
the organization's need.
o Support multiple languages and frameworks.
o Provides ability to "Auto-scale".
(iii) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): SaaS is a service model that allows the owner or
third party to host its application on the cloud and make available these applications for
all clients through the internet. This service model is also called Application-as-a-
services (AaaS) and depends on factors like cost, availability, quality, and security of
services. SaaS applications are widely accepted by individuals as well as enterprises for
their use, such as e-mail, CRM, Sales Management, Human Resource Management
(HRM), Financial Management (FM), and billing. Some Popular SaaS services are
Salseforse.com, Box, Microsoft Office 365, DocuSign, Google Apps, Dropbox, Amazon
Web Services, Zendesk, Slack, and Concur.
There are the following characteristics of SaaS:
o Managed from a central location
o Hosted on a remote server
o Accessible over the internet
o Users are not responsible for hardware and software updates. Updates are applied
automatically.
o The services are purchased on the pay-as-per-use basis
Advantage of Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is trending technology.
Almost every company switched their services on the cloud to raise the company growth.
Here, we are going to discuss some important advantages of Cloud Computing
(1) 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.
(2) Improved collaboration: Cloud applications improve collaboration by allowing groups
of people to quickly and easily share information in the cloud via shared storage.
(3) Excellent accessibility: Cloud allows us quickly and easily access of store information
from anywhere and 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.
(4) Low maintenance cost: Cloud computing reduces both hardware and software
maintenance costs for organizations.
(5) Mobility: Cloud computing allows us to easily access all cloud data via mobile.
(6) I-Services 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.
(7) 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.
(8) 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.
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing: A list of the disadvantage of cloud
computing is given below:
(1) 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.
(2) 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.
(3) 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.
(4) 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. So
there may be a chance that your organization's information is hacked by Hackers.
