Cloud Computing – Everything You Need To Know

Today in this post, we are going to discuss this topic – ‘Cloud Computing – Everything You Need To Know’. Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the internet. Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. This service is mainly a delivery system of different services through the Internet. These resources include tools and applications like data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software.

A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the internet. A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data center that provides hosted services to a limited number of people with certain access and permission settings.

• The cloud symbol was used to represent networks of computing equipment in the original ARPANET by as early as 1977, and the CSNET by 1981—both predecessors to the Internet itself.

• The word cloud was used as a metaphor for the Internet and a standardized cloud-like shape was used to denote a network on telephony schematics the name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams.

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Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale, typically using a “pay-as-you-go” model which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to unexpected operating expenses for unaware users. Today we are going to discuss about this cloud computing service, how it works, benefits, uses and examples and so on.

How Does Cloud Computing Work?

Cloud computing is an application-based software infrastructure that stores data on remote serves, which can be accessed through the internet. To understand how cloud computing works, it can be divided into front-end and backend. They are connected to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side of the computer user or client. The back end is ‘the cloud’ section of the system.

The front end enables a user to access data stored in the cloud using an internet browser or a cloud computing software. However, the primary component of cloud computing – responsible for securely storing data and information – is the backend. It comprises servers, computers, databases, and central servers.

Every cloud application has a host, and the hosting company is responsible for maintaining the massive data centers that provide the security, storage capacity and computing power needed to maintain all of the information users send to the cloud. These hosting companies can sell the rights to use their clouds and store data on their networks, while also offering the end user an ecosystem that can communicate between devices and programs.

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.

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. You can even build your own social, mobile and real-time employee apps and run them in the cloud. The latest innovations in cloud computing are making business applications even more mobile and collaborative.

Cloud Computing Service Models

Cloud computing is mainly offered in three different service models which each satisfy a unique set of business requirements. These three models are known as Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). They are sometimes referred to as cloud service models or cloud computing service models.

1. Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as “on-demand software” and Web-based/Web-hosted software. It is a software in which the applications are hosted by a cloud service provider. Users can access these applications with the help of internet connection and web browser.

SaaS Examples: BigCommerce, Dropbox, DocuSign, Google Apps, ZenDesk, Salesforce, MailChimp, Slack, Hubspot etc.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a category of cloud computing services that allows customers to provision, instantiate, run, and manage a modular bundle comprising a computing platform and one or more applications, without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching the applications. PaaS cloud computing platform is created for the programmer to develop, test, run, and manage the applications.

PaaS Examples: Windows Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, Force.com,   OpenShift etc.

3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) are online services that provide high-level APIs used to dereference various low-level details of underlying network infrastructure like physical computing resources, location, data partitioning, scaling, security, backup etc. IaaS is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). The main advantage of using IaaS is that it helps users to avoid the cost and complexity of purchasing and managing the physical servers. It is a computing infrastructure managed over the internet.

Iaas Example: Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Linode, Rackspace etc.

There are also two more different types of services available:

Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS)

Mobile backend as a service (MBaaS), also known as “backend as a service”, is a model for providing web app and mobile app developers with a way to link their applications to backend cloud storage and APIs exposed by back end applications while also providing features such as user management, push notifications, and integration with social networking services.

Serverless Computing or Function-as-a-Service (FaaS)

Serverless computing is a cloud computing code execution model in which the cloud provider fully manages starting and stopping virtual machines as necessary to serve requests, and requests are billed by an abstract measure of the resources required to satisfy the request, rather than per virtual machine, per hour.

FaaS, or Function-as-a-Service, is often confused with serverless computing when, in fact, it’s a subset of serverless. FaaS allows developers to execute portions of application code (called functions) in response to specific events.

Uses and Benefits of Cloud Service

Today most of the organizations and industries are using the cloud services for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, email, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, big data analytics, and customer-facing web applications, software development and testing etc.

• The main reason why cloud storage is appealing is that files can be accessed and edited with ease. All you need is an internet connection and you can access your files from any device, anywhere.
• The primary benefit of cloud computing is that it comes with a pay-as-you-go pricing strategy. This means that you will not have to pay for unused time – saving your business a significant amount of money. You only access resources and pay for them when you need them.

• Cloud computing is great for quickly spinning up development, testing, acceptance, and production (DTAP) environments. You can create and configure cloud resources quickly using IaC.

• The cloud offers plenty of solutions For Big Data Analytics. You can store and process your structured or unstructured data, with various tools for data warehousing, data lakes, as well as extract, transform, and load (ETL).

• Cloud computing allows people to access cloud-based communication tools such as calendars and emails. Also, messaging and calling apps such as WhatsApp and Skype are all built on cloud infrastructure.

• The cloud is great for many things. You can quickly spin up additional resources and complete environments using IaaS, PaaS, and IaC. You pay only for what you use, which may be cheaper than your on-premises environments.

Best Cloud Service Providers

Whether it’s infrastructure, software, applications, services, products, or even an operating system, everything is making its way to the cloud. As a result, billions of dollars are being invested in cloud migration. Here are some best cloud service providers lists:

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)     

The Amazon Web Services, Inc. is a subsidiary of Amazon providing on-demand cloud computing platforms and APIs to individuals, companies, and governments, on a metered pay-as-you-go basis.

AWS is an Amazon company that was launched in the year 2002. AWS is the most popular cloud service provider in the world.  In 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated revenues of 45.37 billion U.S. dollars with its cloud services.

Website: aws.amazon.com

2. Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure, is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers.

 It is one of the fastest-growing clouds among them all. Azure was launched years after the release of AWS and Google Cloud but is still knocking on the door to become the top cloud services provider. Microsoft Azure recently won a $10 billion US government contract. Commercial cloud revenue in the fourth quarter was $19.5 billion, up 36% from a year ago.

Website: azure.microsoft.com

3. Google Cloud Platform 

Google Cloud Platform, offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Drive, and YouTube.

Similar to AWS and Azure, Google Cloud also offers similar services in various categories, including compute, security, storage, database, identity, AI and machine learning, virtualization, DevOps and more. Google Cloud is on track for an $18.5 billion annualized revenue run rate, up from $16.2 billion in the first quarter and $12.03 billion in last year’s second quarter.

Website: cloud.google.com

4. IBM Cloud Computing Service

IBM cloud computing is a set of cloud computing services for business offered by the information technology company IBM. Similar to other cloud service providers, the IBM cloud includes IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS services via public, private, and hybrid cloud models.

IBM offers three hardware platforms for cloud computing. These platforms offer built-in support for virtualization. For virtualization, IBM offers IBM Websphere application infrastructure that supports programming models and open standards for virtualization. IBM achieved a net income of 5.59 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, a reduction from the 9.43 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2019.

Website: www.ibm.com

5. Oracle Cloud Service

Oracle Cloud is a cloud computing service offered by Oracle Corporation providing servers, storage, network, applications and services through a global network of Oracle Corporation managed data centers. The company allows these services to be provisioned on demand over the Internet.

Oracle Cloud provides Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Data as a Service (DaaS). These services are used to build, deploy, integrate, and extend applications in the cloud. Over the past decade, Oracle Corporation’s annual revenue has grown from around 22 billion U.S. dollars to over 40 billion, with fiscal year 2021 marking one of the company’s highest revenue figures to date.

Website: www.oracle.com

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FunFacts!!

• AWS was first to market with a modern cloud infrastructure service when it launched Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud in August, 2006.

• The global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD 371.4 billion in 2020 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.5% during the forecast period.