19-202-0806 CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud Computing - Introduction

Cloud computing has been defined differently by many users and designers. For example, IBM, a
major player in cloud computing, has defined it as follows: “A cloud is a pool of virtualized computer
resources. A cloud can host a variety of different workloads, including batch-style backend jobs and
interactive and user-facing applications.” Based on this definition, a cloud allows workloads to be
deployed and scaled out quickly through rapid provisioning of virtual or physical machines. The
cloud supports redundant, self-recovering, highly scalable programming models that allow
workloads to recover from many unavoidable hardware/software failures. Finally, the cloud system
should be able to monitor resource use in real time to enable rebalancing of allocations when needed.
Internet Clouds- Cloud computing applies a virtualized platform with elastic resources on demand
by provisioning hardware, software, and data sets dynamically as in the Figure. The idea is to move
desktop computing to a service-oriented platform using server clusters and huge databases at data
centers. Cloud computing leverages its low cost and simplicity to benefit both users and providers.
Machine virtualization has enabled such cost-effectiveness. Cloud computing intends to satisfy many
user applications simultaneously. The cloud ecosystem must be designed to be secure, trustworthy,
and dependable. Some computer users think of the cloud as a centralized resource pool. Others
consider the cloud to be a server cluster which practices distributed computing over all the servers
used.
 What is Cloud Computing
The term cloud refers to a network or the internet. It is a technology that uses remote servers on the
internet to store, manage, and access data online rather than local drives. The data can be anything
such as files, images, documents, audio, video, and more.
Cloud computing 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.

The following operations can done using cloud computing:

o Developing new applications and services
o Storage, back up, and recovery of data
o Hosting blogs and websites
o Delivery of software on demand
o Analysis of data
o Streaming videos and audios

History of Cloud Computing

Before emerging the cloud computing, there was Client/Server computing which is basically a centralized storage
in which all the software applications, all the data and all the controls are resided on the server side.

If a single user wants to access specific data or run a program, he/she need to connect to the server and then gain
appropriate access, and then he/she can do his/her business.

Then after, distributed computing came into picture, where all the computers are networked together and share their
resources when needed.On the basis of above computing, there was emerged of cloud computing concepts that
later implemented.

At around in 1961, John MacCharty suggested in a speech at MIT that computing can be sold like a utility, just like
a water or electricity. It was a brilliant idea, but like all brilliant ideas, it was ahead if its time, as for the next few
decades, despite interest in the model, the technology simply was not ready for it.

In 1999, Salesforce.com started delivering of applications to users using a simple website. The applications were
delivered to enterprises over the Internet, and this way the dream of computing sold as utility were true.

In 2002, Amazon started Amazon Web Services, providing services like storage, computation and even human
intelligence. However, only starting with the launch of the Elastic Compute Cloud in 2006 a truly commercial
service open to everybody existed.

In 2009, Google Apps also started to provide cloud computing enterprise applications.
All the big players are present in the cloud computing evolution, some were earlier, some were later. In
2009, Microsoft launched Windows Azure, and companies like Oracle and HP have all joined the game. This proves
that today, cloud computing has become mainstream.

Small as well as large IT companies, follow the traditional methods to provide the IT infrastructure. That means for
any IT company, we need a Server Room that is the basic need of IT companies.

In that server room, there should be a database server, mail server, networking, firewalls, routers, modem, switches,
QPS (Query Per Second means how much queries or load will be handled by the server), 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.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

The characteristics of cloud computing are given below:

1) Agility

The cloud works in a distributed computing environment. It shares resources among users and works very fast.

2) High availability and reliability

The availability of servers is high and more reliable because the chances of infrastructure failure are minimum.

3) High Scalability

Cloud offers "on-demand" provisioning of resources on a large scale, without having engineers for peak loads.

4) Multi-Sharing

With the help of cloud computing, multiple users and applications can work more efficiently with cost reductions
by sharing common infrastructure.

5) 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.

6) 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.
7) 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.

8) Services in the pay-per-use mode

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are provided to the users so that they can access services on the
cloud by using these APIs and pay the charges as per the usage of services.

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 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.

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) 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.

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. However, we have no any other way to access data from the cloud.

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, 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.

Cloud Computing Architecture

As we know, cloud computing technology is used by both small and large organizations to store the information in
cloud and access it from anywhere at anytime using the internet connection.

Cloud computing architecture is a combination of service-oriented architecture and event-driven architecture.

Cloud computing architecture is divided into the following two parts -

o Front End
o Back End

The below diagram shows the architecture of cloud computing -

The below diagram shows the architecture of cloud computing -

Front End

The front end is used by the client. It contains client-side interfaces and applications that are required to access the
cloud computing platforms. The front end includes web servers (including Chrome, Firefox, internet explorer, etc.),
thin & fat clients, tablets, and mobile devices.
Back End

The back end is used by the service provider. It manages all the resources that are required to provide cloud
computing services. It includes a huge amount of data storage, security mechanism, virtual machines, deploying
models, servers, traffic control mechanisms, etc.

Components of Cloud Computing Architecture

These are the following components of cloud computing architecture -

1. Client Infrastructure

Client Infrastructure is a Front end component. It provides GUI (Graphical User Interface) to interact with the cloud.

2. Application

The application may be any software or platform that a client wants to access.

3. Service

A Cloud Services manages that which type of service you access according to the client’s requirement.

Cloud computing offers the following three type of services:

i. Software as a Service (SaaS) – It is also known as cloud application services. Mostly, SaaS applications run
directly through the web browser means we do not require to download and install these applications. Some
important example of SaaS is given below –

Example: Google Apps, Salesforce Dropbox, Slack, Hubspot, Cisco WebEx.

ii. Platform as a Service (PaaS) – It is also known as cloud platform services. It is quite similar to SaaS, but the
difference is that PaaS provides a platform for software creation, but using SaaS, we can access software over the
internet without the need of any platform.

Example: Windows Azure, Force.com, Magento Commerce Cloud, OpenShift.

iii. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It is also known as cloud infrastructure services. It is responsible for
managing applications data, middleware, and runtime environments.

Example: Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Cisco Metapod.

4. Runtime Cloud

Runtime Cloud provides the execution and runtime environment to the virtual machines.

5. Storage

Storage is one of the most important components of cloud computing. It provides a huge amount of storage capacity
in the cloud to store and manage data.
6. Infrastructure

It provides services on the host level, application level, and network level. Cloud infrastructure includes hardware
and software components such as servers, storage, network devices, virtualization software, and other storage
resources that are needed to support the cloud computing model.

7. Management

Management is used to manage components such as application, service, runtime cloud, storage, infrastructure, and
other security issues in the backend and establish coordination between them.

8. Security

Security is an in-built back end component of cloud computing. It implements a security mechanism in the back
end.

9. Internet

The Internet is medium through which front end and back end can interact and communicate with each other.

How does cloud computing work

Assume that you are an executive at a very big corporation. Your particular responsibilities include to make sure
that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. To buy computers for
everyone is not enough. You also have to purchase software as well as software licenses and then provide these
softwares to your employees as they require. Whenever you hire a new employee, you need to buy more software
or make sure your current software license allows another user. It is so stressful that you have to spend lots of money.

But, there may be an alternative for executives like you. So, instead of installing a suite of software for each
computer, you just need to load one application. That application will allow the employees to log-in into a Web-
based service which hosts all the programs for the user that is required for his/her job. Remote servers owned by
another company and that will run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs.
It is called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.
In a cloud computing system, there is a significant workload shift. Local computers have no longer to do all the
heavy lifting when it comes to run applications. But cloud computing can handle that much heavy load easily and
automatically. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer
requires to be able to run is the cloud computing interface software of the system, which can be as simple as a Web
browser and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.

Cloud Computing Applications

Cloud service providers provide various applications in the field of art, business, data storage and backup services,
education, entertainment, management, social networking, etc.

The most widely used cloud computing applications are given below -
1. Art Applications

Cloud computing offers various art applications for quickly and easily design attractive cards,
booklets, and images. Some most commonly used cloud art applications are given below:

i . Moo

Moo is one of the best cloud art applications. It is used for designing and printing business cards, postcards, and
mini cards.

ii. Vistaprint

Vistaprint allows us to easily design various printed marketing products such as business cards, Postcards, Booklets,
and wedding invitations cards.

iii. Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe creative cloud is made for designers, artists, filmmakers, and other creative professionals. It is a suite of apps
which includes PhotoShop image editing programming, Illustrator, InDesign, TypeKit, Dreamweaver, XD, and
Audition.

2. Business Applications
Business applications are based on cloud service providers. Today, every organization requires the cloud business
application to grow their business. It also ensures that business applications are 24*7 available to users.

There are the following business applications of cloud computing -

i. MailChimp

MailChimp is an email publishing platform which provides various options to design, send, and save templates
for emails.

iii. Salesforce

Salesforce platform provides tools for sales, service, marketing, e-commerce, and more. It also provides a cloud
development platform.

iv. Chatter

Chatter helps us to share important information about the organization in real time.

v. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a collaboration platform which provides communication, management, and social collaboration tools.

vi. Paypal

Paypal offers the simplest and easiest online payment mode using a secure internet account. Paypal accepts the
payment through debit cards, credit cards, and also from Paypal account holders.

vii. Slack

Slack stands for Searchable Log of all Conversation and Knowledge. It provides a user-friendly interface that
helps us to create public and private channels for communication.

viii. Quickbooks

Quickbooks works on the terminology "Run Enterprise anytime, anywhere, on any device." It provides online
accounting solutions for the business. It allows more than 20 users to work simultaneously on the same system.

3. Data Storage and Backup Applications

Cloud computing allows us to store information (data, files, images, audios, and videos) on the cloud and access
this information using an internet connection. As the cloud provider is responsible for providing security, so they
offer various backup recovery application for retrieving the lost data.

A list of data storage and backup applications in the cloud are given below -

i. Box.com

Box provides an online environment for secure content management, workflow, and collaboration. It allows us
to store different files such as Excel, Word, PDF, and images on the cloud. The main advantage of using box is that
it provides drag & drop service for files and easily integrates with Office 365, G Suite, Salesforce, and more than
1400 tools.

ii. Mozy

Mozy provides powerful online backup solutions for our personal and business data. It schedules automatically
back up for each day at a specific time.

iii. Joukuu

Joukuu provides the simplest way to share and track cloud-based backup files. Many users use joukuu to search
files, folders, and collaborate on documents.

iv. Google G Suite

Google G Suite is one of the best cloud storage and backup application. It includes Google Calendar, Docs, Forms,
Google+, Hangouts, as well as cloud storage and tools for managing cloud apps. The most popular app in the Google
G Suite is Gmail. Gmail offers free email services to users.

4. Education Applications

Cloud computing in the education sector becomes very popular. It offers various online distance learning
platforms and student information portals to the students. The advantage of using cloud in the field of education
is that it offers strong virtual classroom environments, Ease of accessibility, secure data storage, scalability, greater
reach for the students, and minimal hardware requirements for the applications.

There are the following education applications offered by the cloud -

i. Google Apps for Education

Google Apps for Education is the most widely used platform for free web-based email, calendar, documents, and
collaborative study.

ii. Chromebooks for Education

Chromebook for Education is one of the most important Google's projects. It is designed for the purpose that it
enhances education innovation.

iii. Tablets with Google Play for Education

It allows educators to quickly implement the latest technology solutions into the classroom and make it available to
their students.

iv. AWS in Education

AWS cloud provides an education-friendly environment to universities, community colleges, and schools.

5. Entertainment Applications

Entertainment industries use a multi-cloud strategy to interact with the target audience. Cloud computing offers
various entertainment applications such as online games and video conferencing.

i. Online games

Today, cloud gaming becomes one of the most important entertainment media. It offers various online games that
run remotely from the cloud. The best cloud gaming services are Shaow, GeForce Now, Vortex, Project xCloud,
and PlayStation Now.

ii. Video Conferencing Apps

Video conferencing apps provides a simple and instant connected experience. It allows us to communicate with our
business partners, friends, and relatives using a cloud-based video conferencing. The benefits of using video
conferencing are that it reduces cost, increases efficiency, and removes interoperability.

6. Management Applications

Cloud computing offers various cloud management tools which help admins to manage all types of cloud activities,
such as resource deployment, data integration, and disaster recovery. These management tools also provide
administrative control over the platforms, applications, and infrastructure.

Some important management applications are -

i. Toggl

Toggl helps users to track allocated time period for a particular project.

ii. Evernote

Evernote allows you to sync and save your recorded notes, typed notes, and other notes in one convenient place. It
is available for both free as well as a paid version.

It uses platforms like Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Browser, and Unix.

iii. Outright

Outright is used by management users for the purpose of accounts. It helps to track income, expenses, profits, and
losses in real-time environment.

iv. GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting provides Video Conferencing and online meeting apps, which allows you to start a meeting with
your business partners from anytime, anywhere using mobile phones or tablets. Using GoToMeeting app, you can
perform the tasks related to the management such as join meetings in seconds, view presentations on the shared
screen, get alerts for upcoming meetings, etc.

7. Social Applications

Social cloud applications allow a large number of users to connect with each other using social networking
applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedln, etc.

There are the following cloud based social applications -

i. Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website which allows active users to share files, photos, videos, status, more to
their friends, relatives, and business partners using the cloud storage system. On Facebook, we will always get
notifications when our friends like and comment on the posts.

ii. Twitter

Twitter is a social networking site. It is a microblogging system. It allows users to follow high profile celebrities,
friends, relatives, and receive news. It sends and receives short posts called tweets.

iii. Yammer

Yammer is the best team collaboration tool that allows a team of employees to chat, share images, documents, and
videos.

iv. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network for students, freshers, and professionals.

What are the Security Risks of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing provides various advantages, such as improved collaboration, excellent accessibility, Mobility, Storage capacity, etc.
But there are also security risks in cloud computing.

Some most common Security Risks of Cloud Computing are given below-

Data Loss

Data loss is the most common cloud security risks of cloud computing. It is also known as data leakage. Data loss
is the process in which data is being deleted, corrupted, and unreadable by a user, software, or application. In a cloud
computing environment, data loss occurs when our sensitive data is somebody else's hands, one or more data
elements can not be utilized by the data owner, hard disk is not working properly, and software is not updated.

Hacked Interfaces and Insecure APIs

As we all know, cloud computing is completely depends on Internet, so it is compulsory to protect interfaces and
APIs that are used by external users. APIs are the easiest way to communicate with most of the cloud services. In
cloud computing, few services are available in the public domain. These services can be accessed by third parties,
so there may be a chance that these services easily harmed and hacked by hackers.
Data Breach

Data Breach is the process in which the confidential data is viewed, accessed, or stolen by the third party without
any authorization, so organization's data is hacked by the hackers.

Vendor lock-in

Vendor lock-in is the of the biggest security risks in 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 one cloud to another.

Increased complexity strains IT staff

Migrating, integrating, and operating the cloud services is complex for the IT staff. IT staff must require the extra
capability and skills to manage, integrate, and maintain the data to the cloud.

Spectre & Meltdown

Spectre & Meltdown allows programs to view and steal data which is currently processed on computer. It can run
on personal computers, mobile devices, and in the cloud. It can store the password, your personal information such
as images, emails, and business documents in the memory of other running programs.

Denial of Service (DoS) attacks

Denial of service (DoS) attacks occur when the system receives too much traffic to buffer the server. Mostly, DoS
attackers target web servers of large organizations such as banking sectors, media companies, and government
organizations. To recover the lost data, DoS attackers charge a great deal of time and money to handle the data.

Account hijacking

Account hijacking is a serious security risk in cloud computing. It is the process in which individual user's or
organization's cloud account (bank account, e-mail account, and social media account) is stolen by hackers. The
hackers use the stolen account to perform unauthorized activities.

Types of Cloud
There are the following 4 types of cloud that you can deploy according to the organization's needs-
o Public Cloud
o Private Cloud
o Hybrid Cloud
o Community Cloud

Public Cloud
o Public Cloud provides a shared platform that is accessible to the general public through an Internet
connection.
o Public cloud operated on the pay-as-per-use model and administrated by the third party, i.e., Cloud service
provider.
o In the Public cloud, the same storage is being used by multiple users at the same time.
o Public cloud is owned, managed, and operated by businesses, universities, government organizations, or a
combination of them.
o Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Microsoft Azure, IBM's Blue Cloud, Sun Cloud, and Google Cloud
are examples of the public cloud.
Advantages of Public Cloud

There are the following advantages of public cloud -

1) Low Cost

Public cloud has a lower cost than private, or hybrid cloud, as it shares the same resources with a large number of
consumers.

2) Location Independent

Public cloud is location independent because its services are offered through the internet.

3) Save Time

In Public cloud, the cloud service provider is responsible for the manage and maintain data centers in which data is
stored, so the cloud user can save their time to establish connectivity, deploying new products, release product
updates, configure, and assemble servers.

4) Quickly and easily set up

Organizations can easily buy public cloud on the internet and deployed and configured it remotely through the cloud
service provider within a few hours.

5) Business Agility

Public cloud provides an ability to elastically re-size computer resources based on the organization's requirements.

6) Scalability and reliability

Public cloud offers scalable (easy to add and remove) and reliable (24*7 available) services to the users at an
affordable cost.
Disadvantages of Public Cloud

1) Low Security

Public Cloud is less secure because resources are shared publicly.

2) Performance

In the public cloud, performance depends upon the speed of internet connectivity.

3) Less customizable

Public cloud is less customizable than the private cloud.

Private Cloud
o Private cloud is also known as an internal cloud or corporate cloud.
o Private cloud provides computing services to a private internal network (within the
organization) and selected users instead of the general public.
o Private cloud provides a high level of security and privacy to data through firewalls and internal hosting. It
also ensures that operational and sensitive data are not accessible to third-party providers.
o HP Data Centers, Microsoft, Elastra-private cloud, and Ubuntu are the example of a private cloud.

Advantages of Private cloud

There are the following advantages of Private Cloud -

1) More Control

Private clouds have more control over their resources and hardware than public clouds because it is only accessed
by selected users.

2) Security & privacy

Security & privacy are one of the big advantages of cloud computing. Private cloud improved the security level as
compared to the public cloud.

3) Improved performance

Private cloud offers better performance with improved speed and space capacity.

Disadvantages of Private Cloud

1) High cost

The cost is higher than a public cloud because set up and maintain hardware resources are costly.

2) Restricted area of operations

As we know, private cloud is accessible within the organization, so the area of operations is limited.

3) Limited scalability

Private clouds are scaled only within the capacity of internal hosted resources.

4) Skilled people

Skilled people are required to manage and operate cloud services.

Hybrid Cloud
o Hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds.
Hybrid cloud = public cloud + private cloud
o The main aim to combine these cloud (Public and Private) is to create a unified, automated, and well-
managed computing environment.
o In the Hybrid cloud, non-critical activities are performed by the public cloud and critical activities are
performed by the private cloud.
o Mainly, a hybrid cloud is used in finance, healthcare, and Universities.
o The best hybrid cloud provider companies are Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and NetApp.
Advantages of Hybrid Cloud

There are the following advantages of Hybrid Cloud -

1) Flexible and secure

It provides flexible resources because of the public cloud and secure resources because of the private cloud.

2) Cost effective

Hybrid cloud costs less than the private cloud. It helps organizations to save costs for both infrastructure and
application support.

3) Cost effective

It offers the features of both the public as well as the private cloud. A hybrid cloud is capable of adapting to the
demands that each company needs for space, memory, and system.

4) Security

Hybrid cloud is secure because critical activities are performed by the private cloud.

5) Risk Management

Hybrid cloud provides an excellent way for companies to manage the risk.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud

1) Networking issues

In the Hybrid Cloud, networking becomes complex because of the private and the public cloud.
2) Infrastructure Compatibility

Infrastructure compatibility is the major issue in a hybrid cloud. With dual-levels of infrastructure, a private cloud
controls the company, and a public cloud does not, so there is a possibility that they are running in separate stacks.

3) Reliability

The reliability of the services depends on cloud service providers.

Community Cloud
Community cloud is a cloud infrastructure that allows systems and services to be accessible by a group of several
organizations to share the information. It is owned, managed, and operated by one or more organizations in the
community, a third party, or a combination of them.

Example: Our government organization within India may share computing infrastructure in the cloud to manage
data.

Advantages of Community Cloud

There are the following advantages of Community Cloud -

Cost effective

Community cloud is cost effective because the whole cloud is shared between several organizations or a community.

Flexible and Scalable

The community cloud is flexible and scalable because it is compatible with every user. It allows the users to modify
the documents as per their needs and requirement.
Security

Community cloud is more secure than the public cloud but less secure than the private cloud.

Sharing infrastructure

Community cloud allows us to share cloud resources, infrastructure, and other capabilities among various
organizations.

Disadvantages of Community Cloud

There are the following disadvantages of Community Cloud -

o Community cloud is not a good choice for every organization.

o Slow adoption to data
o The fixed amount of data storage and bandwidth is shared among all community members.
o Community Cloud is costly than the public cloud.
o Sharing responsibilities among organizations is difficult.

Difference between public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud -
The below table shows the difference between public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud.

Parameter Public Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud Community Cloud

Cloud

Host Service Enterprise (Third Enterprise (Third Community (Third

provider party) party) party)

Users General public Selected users Selected users Community members

Access Internet Internet, VPN Internet, VPN Internet, VPN

Owner Service Enterprise Enterprise Community

provider
Cloud Service Models
There are the following three types of cloud service models -

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
3. Software as a Service (SaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service | IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) This model puts together infrastructures demanded by users—namely
servers, storage, networks, and the data center fabric. The user can deploy and run on multiple VMs running
guest OSes on specific applications. The user does not manage or control the underlying cloud
infrastructure, but can specify when to request and release the needed resources.

Iaas is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is one of the layers of the cloud computing platform. It
allows customers to outsource their IT infrastructures such as servers, networking, processing, storage, virtual
machines, and other resources. Customers access these resources on the Internet using a pay-as-per use model.

In traditional hosting services, IT infrastructure was rented out for a specific period of time, with pre-determined
hardware configuration. The client paid for the configuration and time, regardless of the actual use. With the help
of the IaaS cloud computing platform layer, clients can dynamically scale the configuration to meet changing
requirements and are billed only for the services actually used.
IaaS cloud computing platform layer eliminates the need for every organization to maintain the IT infrastructure.

IaaS is offered in three models: public, private, and hybrid cloud. The private cloud implies that the infrastructure
resides at the customer-premise. In the case of public cloud, it is located at the cloud computing platform vendor's
data center, and the hybrid cloud is a combination of the two in which the customer selects the best of both public
cloud or private cloud.

IaaS provider provides the following services -

1. Compute: Computing as a Service includes virtual central processing units and virtual main memory for the
Vms that is provisioned to the end- users.
2. Storage: IaaS provider provides back-end storage for storing files.
3. Network: Network as a Service (NaaS) provides networking components such as routers, switches, and
bridges for the Vms.
4. Load balancers: It provides load balancing capability at the infrastructure layer.

Advantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

There are the following advantages of IaaS computing layer -

1. Shared infrastructure

IaaS allows multiple users to share the same physical infrastructure.

2. Web access to the resources

Iaas allows IT users to access resources over the internet.

3. Pay-as-per-use model
IaaS providers provide services based on the pay-as-per-use basis. The users are required to pay for what they have
used.

4. Focus on the core business

IaaS providers focus on the organization's core business rather than on IT infrastructure.

5. On-demand scalability

On-demand scalability is one of the biggest advantages of IaaS. Using IaaS, users do not worry about to upgrade
software and troubleshoot the issues related to hardware components.

Disadvantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

1. Security

Security is one of the biggest issues in IaaS. Most of the IaaS providers are not able to provide 100% security.

2. Maintenance & Upgrade

Although IaaS service providers maintain the software, but they do not upgrade the software for some organizations.

3. Interoperability issues

It is difficult to migrate VM from one IaaS provider to the other, so the customers might face problem related to
vendor lock-in.

Some important point about IaaS cloud computing layer

IaaS cloud computing platform cannot replace the traditional hosting method, but it provides more than that, and
each resource which are used are predictable as per the usage.

IaaS cloud computing platform may not eliminate the need for an in-house IT department. It will be needed to
monitor or control the IaaS setup. IT salary expenditure might not reduce significantly, but other IT expenses can
be reduced.

Breakdowns at the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's can bring your business to the halt stage. Assess the
IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's stability and finances. Make sure that SLAs (i.e., Service Level Agreement)
provide backups for data, hardware, network, and application failures. Image portability and third-party support is
a plus point.

The IaaS cloud computing platform vendor can get access to your sensitive data. So, engage with credible companies
or organizations. Study their security policies and precautions.

Top Iaas Providers who are providing IaaS cloud computing platform
IaaS Vendor Iaas Solution Details

Amazon Web Elastic, Elastic Compute The cloud computing platform pioneer,
Services Cloud (EC2) Amazon offers auto scaling, cloud
MapReduce, Route 53, monitoring, and load balancing features as
Virtual Private Cloud, part of its portfolio.
etc.

Netmagic Netmagic IaaS Cloud Netmagic runs from data centers in

Solutions Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore, and a
virtual data center in the United States.
Plans are underway to extend services to
West Asia.

Rackspace Cloud servers, cloud The cloud computing platform vendor

files, cloud sites, etc. focuses primarily on enterprise-level
hosting services.

Reliance Reliance Internet Data RIDC supports both traditional hosting

Communications Center and cloud services, with data centers in
Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and
Chennai. The cloud services offered by
RIDC include IaaS and SaaS.

Sify Technologies Sify IaaS Sify's cloud computing platform is

powered by HP's converged infrastructure.
The vendor offers all three types of cloud
 services: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

Tata InstaCompute InstaCompute is Tata Communications'

Communications IaaS offering. InstaCompute data centers
are located in Hyderabad and Singapore,
with operations in both countries.

Platform as a Service | PaaS

Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a runtime environment. It allows programmers to easily create, test, run, and
deploy web applications. You can purchase these applications from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-per use
basis and access them using the Internet connection. In PaaS, back end scalability is managed by the cloud service
provider, so end- users do not need to worry about managing the infrastructure.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): This model enables the user to deploy user-built applications onto a
virtualized cloud platform. PaaS includes middleware, databases, development tools, and some runtime
support such as Web 2.0 and Java. The platform includes both hardware and software integrated with
specific programming interfaces. The provider supplies the API and software tools (e.g., Java, Python,
Web 2.0, .NET). The user is freed from managing the cloud infrastructure.

PaaS includes infrastructure (servers, storage, and networking) and platform (middleware, development tools,
database management systems, business intelligence, and more) to support the web application life cycle.

Example: Google App Engine, Force.com, Joyent, Azure.

PaaS providers provide the Programming languages, Application frameworks, Databases, and Other tools:
1. Programming languages

PaaS providers provide various programming languages for the developers to develop the applications. Some
popular programming languages provided by PaaS providers are Java, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Go.

2. Application frameworks

PaaS providers provide application frameworks to easily understand the application development. Some popular
application frameworks provided by PaaS providers are Node.js, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Spring, Play, Rack,
and Zend.

3. Databases

PaaS providers provide various databases such as ClearDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and Redis to communicate
with the applications.

4. Other tools

PaaS providers provide various other tools that are required to develop, test, and deploy the applications.

Advantages of PaaS

There are the following advantages of PaaS -

1) Simplified Development

PaaS allows developers to focus on development and innovation without worrying about infrastructure management.

2) Lower risk

No need for up-front investment in hardware and software. Developers only need a PC and an internet connection
to start building applications.

3) Prebuilt business functionality

Some PaaS vendors also provide already defined business functionality so that users can avoid building everything
from very scratch and hence can directly start the projects only.

4) Instant community

PaaS vendors frequently provide online communities where the developer can get the ideas to share experiences and
seek advice from others.

5) Scalability

Applications deployed can scale from one to thousands of users without any changes to the applications.

Disadvantages of PaaS cloud computing layer

1) Vendor lock-in

One has to write the applications according to the platform provided by the PaaS vendor, so the migration of an
application to another PaaS vendor would be a problem.

2) Data Privacy

Corporate data, whether it can be critical or not, will be private, so if it is not located within the walls of the company,
there can be a risk in terms of privacy of data.

3) Integration with the rest of the systems applications

It may happen that some applications are local, and some are in the cloud. So there will be chances of increased
complexity when we want to use data which in the cloud with the local data.

Popular PaaS Providers

The below table shows some popular PaaS providers and services that are provided by them -

Providers Services

Google App Engine App Identity, URL Fetch, Cloud storage client library,
(GAE) Logservice

Salesforce.com Faster implementation, Rapid scalability, CRM Services, Sales

cloud, Mobile connectivity, Chatter.

Windows Azure Compute, security, IoT, Data Storage.

 AppFog Justcloud.com, SkyDrive, GoogleDocs

Openshift RedHat, Microsoft Azure.

Cloud Foundry from Data, Messaging, and other services.

VMware

Software as a Service | SaaS

SaaS is also known as "On-Demand Software". It is a software distribution model in which services are hosted by
a cloud service provider. These services are available to end-users over the internet so, the end-users do not need to
install any software on their devices to access these services.

Software as a Service (SaaS) This refers to browser-initiated application software over thousands of paid
cloud customers. The SaaS model applies to business processes, industry applications, consumer
relationship management (CRM), enterprise resources planning (ERP), human resources (HR), and
collaborative applications. On the customer side, there is no upfront investment in servers or software
licensing. On the provider side, costs are rather low, compared with conventional hosting of user
applications.

There are the following services provided by SaaS providers -

Business Services - SaaS Provider provides various business services to start-up the business. The SaaS business
services include ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), billing,
and sales.

Document Management - SaaS document management is a software application offered by a third party (SaaS
providers) to create, manage, and track electronic documents.

Example: Slack, Samepage, Box, and Zoho Forms.

Social Networks - As we all know, social networking sites are used by the general public, so social networking
service providers use SaaS for their convenience and handle the general public's information.

Mail Services - To handle the unpredictable number of users and load on e-mail services, many e-mail providers
offering their services using SaaS.
Advantages of SaaS cloud computing layer
1) SaaS is easy to buy

SaaS pricing is based on a monthly fee or annual fee subscription, so it allows organizations to access business
functionality at a low cost, which is less than licensed applications.

Unlike traditional software, which is sold as a licensed based with an up-front cost (and often an optional ongoing
support fee), SaaS providers are generally pricing the applications using a subscription fee, most commonly a
monthly or annually fee.

2. One to Many

SaaS services are offered as a one-to-many model means a single instance of the application is shared by multiple
users.

3. Less hardware required for SaaS

The software is hosted remotely, so organizations do not need to invest in additional hardware.

4. Low maintenance required for SaaS

Software as a service removes the need for installation, set-up, and daily maintenance for the organizations. The
initial set-up cost for SaaS is typically less than the enterprise software. SaaS vendors are pricing their applications
based on some usage parameters, such as a number of users using the application. So SaaS does easy to monitor and
automatic updates.

5. No special software or hardware versions required

All users will have the same version of the software and typically access it through the web browser. SaaS reduces
IT support costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the IaaS provider.
6. Multidevice support

SaaS services can be accessed from any device such as desktops, laptops, tablets, phones, and thin clients.

7. API Integration

SaaS services easily integrate with other software or services through standard APIs.

8. No client-side installation

SaaS services are accessed directly from the service provider using the internet connection, so do not need to require
any software installation.

Disadvantages of SaaS cloud computing layer

1) Security

Actually, data is stored in the cloud, so security may be an issue for some users. However, cloud computing is not
more secure than in-house deployment.

2) Latency issue

Since data and applications are stored in the cloud at a variable distance from the end-user, there is a possibility that
there may be greater latency when interacting with the application compared to local deployment. Therefore, the
SaaS model is not suitable for applications whose demand response time is in milliseconds.

3) Total Dependency on Internet

Without an internet connection, most SaaS applications are not usable.

4) Switching between SaaS vendors is difficult

Switching SaaS vendors involves the difficult and slow task of transferring the very large data files over the internet
and then converting and importing them into another SaaS also.

Popular SaaS Providers

The below table shows some popular SaaS providers and services that are provided by them -

Provider Services

Salseforce.com On-demand CRM solutions

Microsoft Office Online office suite

365

Google Apps Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, and sites

NetSuite ERP, accounting, order management, CRM, Professionals Services

Automation (PSA), and e-commerce applications.

GoToMeeting Online meeting and video-conferencing software

Constant Contact E-mail marketing, online survey, and event marketing

Oracle CRM CRM applications

Workday, Inc Human capital management, payroll, and financial management.

Difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

The below table shows the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS -

IaaS Paas SaaS

It provides a virtual data It provides virtual platforms It provides web software and
center to store information and tools to create, test, and apps to complete business
 and create platforms for deploy apps. tasks.
app development, testing,
and deployment.

It provides access to It provides runtime It provides software as a

resources such as virtual environments and deployment service to the end-users.
machines, virtual storage, tools for applications.
etc.

It is used by network It is used by developers. It is used by end users.

architects.

IaaS provides only PaaS provides SaaS provides

Infrastructure. Infrastructure+Platform. Infrastructure+Platform
+Software.

Figure below depicts the cloud landscape and major cloud players, based on three cloud service
models.

Business Agility and Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing plays an essential role in achieving Business Agility by providing:
Scalability On-Demand
Almost all cloud service providers offer scale up and scale down based on business demands and can be automated
based on certain factors like a load of users at a particular time. The ability to scale up and down on demand ensures
that the organization is only paying for their actual usage and needs. This is extremely valuable as it saves
organizations money as well as allows them to be more responsive to the needs of their customers.

• Data availability

With the cloud now employees can easily work remotely, providing staff with increased flexibility and productivity.

• Less Infrastructure Maintenance

With an increase in popularity of PAS (Platform As Services) services provided by the cloud, organizations can now
focus on maintaining their applications rather than Infrastructures and hence has helped them reduce cost.

• Reduces Business Complexity

Cloud works to reduce the complexity of an organization by simplifying internal operations, improving the delivery
of internal resources, introducing new ways for employees to collaborate and work, the faster and less complex
rollout of new technologies or business initiatives, and improved ability to share, analyse and act on data.

• Automation

One of the key factors of the cloud is shortening your time to market with its ease of doing automation. From the
process of writing code, testing it, deploying, monitoring everything can be automated with ease. This helps
developer’s to focus on developing the application rather than spending time in unnecessary things.

• Increased Up-Time

With the introduction of concepts like PAS (Platform As Service), Kubernetes, and Docker the up-time which
organizations can now commit is very high almost 99.99% which was not possible earlier.