Cloud Computing - Eyes on the sky

This article will give you an overview of the basics of cloud computing with some real facts. This article may not be helpful for the user who is an expert in cloud computing but this will give a clear picture to the readers who want to know the basic in and out about CLOUD COMPUTING.

Introduction

Cloud computing is a revolution for the computer next generation. SO many thoughts and definitions are there on internet. I have a very simple understanding definition for cloud computing i.e.

"A pool of abstracted, highly scalable, and managed compute infrastructure capable of hosting end-customer applications and billed by consumption"

The "Cloud" = 10X Improvements

• Ease of Use
  
  It is just a mouse click away to deploy your application on the cloud environment. You can do it remotely from anywhere and anytime. No cabling or screw driver is required to deploy your application on the cloud environment.  
  
• Scalability
  
  You can control your infrastructure from your own application. The thing that you only need is to have an internet connection at your home or office. You do not require anything to purchase apart from the licence of the cloud provider.
   
• Risk
  
  You can cancel immediately your sevice on the cloud environment. You have not bought any server or network. Automatically your risk is reduced.
   
• Reliability
  
  Cloud envirment is designed very well to handle failure such as to switch from one to others. So the application will not hamper in terms of performance or in terms of usage.
   
• Cost
   
  This is very important point when we are talking about cost for cloud environment. You only need to pay what you have used. You can turn off your application if it is not in use. You do not need to buy any thing in advance. Whatever storage your application will consume, you only need to pay for that. "Pay For Only What You Use."

Comparision of Cloud Computing with traditional computing environment

Colocation - 1st step to outsourcing

Managed Hosting - dedicated servers managed by 3rd party take some pain away

Cloud Hosting - Lower cost, easier, lower risk, more reliable

Problems with Traditional Hosting Costs Continue to Grow in terms of :

1. High CapEx
2. Low facility asset utilization (55%) 
3. High Depreciation (42-50%) 
4. Power/Cooling costs > Server Costs 
5. Not "Green" 
6. 30% hardware obsolescence
   

...Source: Forbes.com, Kenneth Brill, "Servers: Why Thrifty Isn't Nifty"





Cloud Environment is divided in three segment

1. SAAS - Software delivery Model
    
   • Increasingly popular with SMEs
   • No hardware or software to manage
   • Service delivered through a browser
   
   Examples of SAAS
   
   • CRM
   • Financial Planning
   • Human Resources
   • Word processing
   
   SAAS Architechture
   
    
2. PAAS - Platform Delivery Model
    
   • Platforms are built upon Infrastructure, which is expensive
   • Estimating demand is not a science!
   • Platform management is not fun!
   
   Advantages of Paas
    
   • Pay per use
   • Instant Scalability
   • Security
   • Reliability
   • APIs
   
   Example of PAAS
    
   • Google App Engine
   • Mosso
   • AWS: S3
   
   PAAS Architechture
   
   
    
3. IAAS - Infrastructure as a service
    
   • Access to infrastructure stack:
   • Full OS access
   • Firewalls
   • Routers
   • Load balancing

Advantages

• Pay per use
• Instant Scalability 
• Security 
• Reliability 
• APIs
  

Conclusion

I would like to conclude this article with the final definitions that contains each part that I tried to covered so far.

Cloud computing is a virtualized computing power and storage delivered via platform-agnostic infrastructures of abstracted hardware and software accessed over the Internet. These shared, on-demand IT resources, are created and disposed of efficiently, are dynamically scalable through a variety of programmatic interfaces and are billed variably based on measurable usage.