Cloud computing is one of the most trending technologies in the world. This concept has made a huge boom in the computer field. It is just storing the data and computing via air so it is represented as cloud computing. Cloud computing has many features and applications. Here, in this blog, we are going to have an introduction about the cloud.
We have been using Cloud Computing for many years in different forms. You can assume that Cloud is a very very large server on which different services and data are stored and you access all of them. The software and data that you access for your work is not on your computer but on the Server. This concept of using services not stored on your system but stored somewhere in any region of the world is called Cloud Computing. The classic feature of Cloud is that you can access your data from any part of the world once you have stored it in the cloud. Cloud Computing is not a physical thing but it has the services and databases that can be accessed via the web or any other private network.
Major Cloud Computing providers are:
- IBM
- HP
- Google
- Microsoft
- Amazon Web Services
- NetSuite
Some Cloud Computing services are:
- Google Docs
- Office 365
- DropBox
- SkyDrive etc.
Cloud Computing types
Cloud Computing has three service models and four deployment methods.
They are:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
This layer offers storage and infrastructures that are needed to provide the Cloud services. It has only the infrastructure or physical resource. Or it is just a physical device which offers some space to store data.The IaaS Cloud Computing Companies are:
- Amazon (EC2)
- Rackspace
- Microsoft
- Google.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
This layer provides both infrastructure and application services. It provides both the space and the interface to maintain the provided storage. Thus, organisations using PaaS do not care for infrastructure or for any services. The PaaS Cloud Computing Companies are:
- Concur Technologies
- Ariba
- Unisys and Cisco.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
In this layer the service provider hosts the software among their servers. It can be made as a model or a prototype in which applications and softwares are hosted among their servers and made available to the usage of customers over a network.The SaaS Cloud Computing Companies are:
- CA Technologies
- Engine Yard
- Salesforce and Windows Azure.
Deployment Models
Cloud computing can be deployed or can be implemented in many ways. They are:
- Private Cloud
- Public Cloud
- Hybrid Cloud
- Community Cloud
Private Cloud
This cloud infrastructure is only for an organization or some private parties. Only authenticated users or private organizations can use this cloud. It can be managed by the Cloud storage provider or any other third party who has the authentication to it.
Public Cloud
This cloud infrastructure is for general public use or a large industry group which is owned by the Cloud providers. Anybody can access the data without any authentication. This is a large cloud infrastructure as many users use this service.
Hybrid Cloud
It is a combination of two or more cloud communities, it may be the combination of either private with community cloud or public with community cloud.
Community Cloud
This cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations with separate authentications for each of them.This is a collaboration of cloud services.