Cloud compting

Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and
applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation
and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much
more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth.

A simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo email or Gmail etc. You don’t need a software or a server
to use them. All a consumer would need is just an internet connection and you can start sending emails.
The server and email management software is all on the cloud (internet) and is totally managed by the
cloud service provider Yahoo, Google etc. The consumer gets to use the software alone and enjoy the
benefits. The analogy is, 'If you only need milk, would you buy a cow?' All the users or consumers
need is to get the benefits of using the software or hardware of the computer like sending emails etc. Just
to get this benefit (milk) why should a consumer buy a (cow) software /hardware?

Cloud computing is broken down into three segments: "applications," "platforms," and "infrastructure."
Each segment serves a different purpose and offers different products for businesses and individuals
around the world. In June 2009, a study conducted by Version One found that 41% of senior IT
professionals actually don't know what cloud computing is and two-thirds of senior finance professionals
are confused by the concept, highlighting the young nature of the technology. In Sept 2009, an Aberdeen
Group study found that disciplined companies achieved on average an 18% reduction in their IT budget
from cloud computing and a 16% reduction in data center power costs.

ADVANTAGES:
Workload diversity: Because you will have many different sorts of users making use
of the cloud resources – different applications, different feature set preferences
and different usage volumes – this will improve hardware utilization and therefore
make better use of power that you’re using any way to keep a server up and
running.
Economies of economies of scale: There are certain fixed costs associated with
setting up any physical data center. According to koomey , implementing technical
and organization changes is cheaper per computation for larger organizations than
for IT small shops. And because you will have more people using the infrastructure,
again, you can spread those costs more efficiently.
Power-management flexibility: Koomey postulates that it’s easier to manage
virtual servers than physical servers from a power perspective. If hardware fails, the
load can automatically be deployed elsewhere. Likewise, in theory, you could move
all virtual loads to certain servers when loads are light and power-down or idle
those that aren’t being used.

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You can pick the most efficient site possible: So, for example, if you are a business
based in a state that uses primarily coal-powered electricity, do you really want to
site your data center there? “If you have a data center in a place that is all coal-
powered, this is a big business risk,” Koomey says. In a future where there might
actually be a tax on the carbon your company produces, that would certainly be a
risk indeed

A ppli cati o n C lo ud (a.k .a S o ft war e C lo ud) - S o ft war e as a S er v ice (S aaS )

“Software as a Service is the hosted delivery of Software that consumers can
access over the internet.” This definition is rather simplistic. By this definition
web based email services such as Gmail, Hotmail etc are SaaS applications.
Two features of a SaaS application are scalability and configurability. SaaS
applications should be able to quickly scale with demand. In mature SaaS
applications, the customer should be able to customize their instance of the
software using meta-data. Depending on who you talk to multi-tenancy is yet
another feature of SaaS applications. Multiple customers share a single
instance of the software and the provider can optimize the resources to suit
individual demands.
Examples: Google Apps - a SaaS version of desktop applications where the
software is hosted on google’s servers. Sales force - SaaS CRM products.

Platform Cloud – Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as a Service offers a complete platform and the tools to develop and
deploy applications on the platform. Typically the PaaS vendors also provide
tools and other services that enable rapid application development. Applications
developed on the platform are tied to the platform. Each platform has its own
development model (can be more aptly called quirks) and developers need to
be aware of these.
Examples: App Engine is a PaaS offering from Google. Applications are
developed and deployed on Google’s infrastructure. Google App Engine uses
big table to store data. This is an example of platform specific development, a
change that traditional developers will have to face when they move to App
Engine. It does not support relational databases.
Force.com is a PaaS offering from Salesforce. Developers can create
applications that run on the force.com platform. It includes database, workflow
and UI tools. Applications can be built using their proprietary Apex programming
language or using Visual Force (a tag based markup language).
Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s platform as a service offering. It includes an OS

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with .NET runtime, a database (SQL Azure) and other services that make it
easier to couple on-premise and off-premise applications.

Infrastructure Cloud – Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service is the hosted delivery of infrastructure services such as servers,

networks and other hardware to consumers. IaaS provides consumers access to on-
demand,scalable storage and compute power.
Example: Amazon EC2 is an example of IaaS which provides scalable compute capacity in the
cloud. Basically, consumers get a machine that they customize and use. This is an example of
hardware as a service.
Amazon Simple DB – Service provides core database functions in the cloud.
Another way to think about the cloud layers is to think in terms of control that the customer
has

With SaaS you use the application with little customization.

 With PaaS you create applications that run on the platform. You are limited by the

platform as to what applications you can create.

 With IaaS you build applications without any tie in to the platform.

 Automation - e.g. provisioning, troubleshooting and configuration
 Virtualization - IT infrastructure becomes virtualized, improving utilization levels
 Self-service - users select, configure and modify resources and services themselves
 Pay-as-you-go - pay only for what you use, no upfront or minimum fees
 Federation and interoperability of clouds - in the future it will be possible to seamlessly

Characterstics:

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