We all have heard about Cloud. Every big company has turned to Cloud, and slowly even the small companies are switching to cloud. Why? Because Cloud Computing makes your life easier. Cloud Computing helps you grow, and Cloud Computing cuts down your cost! So lets see what is Cloud?
- Wiki says ‘Cloud computing is a phrase used to describe a variety of computing concepts that involve a large number of computers connected through a real-time communication network such as the Internet’. What if your mother or father or some average person asks you about cloud computing? You can’t tell this definition, because they won’t understand.
- The best way of remembering ‘What is cloud computing?’ is to think of it as real cloud! Where is Cloud? Everywhere. So the data you put on cloud can be accessible everywhere in the world. And so Cloud Computing needs a network such as Internet, to make the data available everywhere.
- As stated above, data on cloud is available everywhere, but what you need to remember is Cloud Computing is a on demand service, which is also available from everywhere. No matter which PC you’re using you can reach to the services you subscribed to at any time anywhere.
- What does the real cloud do? It gives us Rains, Thunderstorms, Sometimes saves us from the heat, In winter, allow sun rays to reach the surface of earth. In short it provides us with various Facilities and services. This is exactly what Cloud in our Computer world does. It gives us services and facilities, which we’ll discuss in brief later in this post..
So we can say, ‘The practice of using a network of remote servers, which are hosted on Internet to store, manage, and process data and provide on demand services to users is Cloud Computing.’
Why use Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing has many advantages. That is why it is so popular today!
The various characteristics and features of cloud computing are
- On-demand self-service.
It helps in Provisioning , Monitoring, and managing the controls of the services available on Cloud.
You will get services as per you wish. You decide, divide and use these services when you want. - Rapid elasticity
One of the most important advantage of Cloud Computing is its elasticity.
It is elastic. You can use or configure it the way you want. You can scale up or down as per your needs.
- Resource pooling.
You can share your data with others in the cloud. It is much more faster and easier than how we do in day-to-day use.
You can even withdraw or separate your data from others.
- Pay per use.
You pay for them as you per your usage. Just like in cyber cafes, you pay for the time you used their computers, In cloud you pay as per you use their services.
- Broad network access
It is accessible from anywhere on any platform or device. You can use it on your Laptop, Desktop, Mobile, Tab or any device that connects to the internet.
- Dynamic.
It grows its services as you grow your data. It stops when you stop. In short it in dynamic.
Categories of Services on Cloud:
- IAAS (Infrastructure As A Service)– Imagine you’re an entrepreneur and you need to start your own company. So you’ll go buy new computers, create servers, setup your network and then start working.-IAAS will help you in this. It will do everything on its own. All you have to do is work on it.- InIAAS, the infrastructure is provided to you. You decide how many computers, you need with what configurations, which servers you would be needing, in what topology should your network be in.- The company providing IAAS, will do all this. You’ll select the size of hard-disks, number of NIC’s in your servers and pay accordingly.- In short you’ll tell them what you want, and they will give you exactly what you asked for.
– Example : Amazon EC2, Windows Azure. - PAAS (Platform As A Service)– In Platform As A Service, a platform is provided for the developers and programmers to work for.- Suppose you’re a hardcore programmer, and you wrote codes in Python, C, C++ and JAVA. Now to check these codes, you need to install all the compilers and interpreters of these languages.- InPAAS, they offer you the Platforms. You can use Python platform and start coding there, or you can test your code.- In short all you need to do is code. The platform is provided by them.- Example : Google Apps Engine, Heroku, Force.com.
- SAAS (Software As A Service)– Suppose you manage a company that uses Microsoft’s Office once in a month.- But, according to Microsoft’s License, you will need to buy Office, although you’ll be only using it for a day.- This is complete waste of money, and this is whereSAAS helps you.- SAAS provides you with software’s that you’ll generally need to buy.- Use Microsoft Office for one day, and pay only for that day. It helps you cut the license cost.
– Example : Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps.
Type of Cloud Infrastructures:
- Public Cloud.
– The Cloud infrastructure owned and operated by third parties, for the use of companies, industries and clients, is Public Cloud Infrastructure.
– Public Cloud infrastructure are practical because, they cut the workload. A simple application like E-mail, can be configured or optimized so that it is suited for a large number of customers. - Private Cloud.
– The Cloud infrastructure owned and operated by an industry, for the use of their own employees, clients and customers is Private Cloud Infrastructure.
– If a School or college implements a cloud infrastructure for their Lab, it will be Private Cloud.
– Private cloud is highly controlled environment and provides better security than public cloud. - Hybrid Cloud.
– Combination Of public and private cloud infrastructure is Hybrid Cloud.
– If a company uses public services to send data to their private infrastructure, then they are implementing Hybrid Infrastructure.
Here are few companies that use Cloud.
Companies that use cloud!