Technology Guide 3: Cloud Computing

Different Types of Cloud

* Public * Private * Hybrid * Vertical

Servers

a computer that supports networks, thus enabling users to share files, software, and other network devices.

Stages of Modern IT Infrastructure (6)

* Stand-alone mainframes - organizations initially used mainframe computers in their engineering and accounting departments. The mainframe was typically housed in a secure area and only MIS personnel had access to it * Mainframe and dumb terminals - firms began placing dumb terminals - essentially electronic typewriters with little processing power - in user departments to save time and be more efficient. This arrangement enabled users to input computer programs into the mainframe from their departments, a process called 'remote job entry' * Stand-alone personal computers - the first personal computers appeared in the late 1970s. Initially not supported by the firm's MIS department, users began bringing personal computers to the workplace to improve their productivity. As the numbers increased dramatically, organizations decided to support PCs and established policies as to which PC and software they would support * Local area networks - individual productivity is substantially increased when PCs are networked. As such, organizations began to connect PCs into LANs and then connect these LANs to the mainframe, a type of processing known as client/server computing. * Enterprise computing - In the early 1990s, organizations began to use networking standards to integrate different kinds of networks throughout the firm, thereby creating enterprise computing. As the Internet became widespread after 1995, organizations began using the TCP/IP networking protocol to integrate different types of networks. All types of hardware were networked, from mainframes to personal computers to smartphones. Software applications and data could now flow seamlessly throughout the enterprise and between and among organizations * Cloud computing and mobile computing - provides access to a shared pool of computing resources, including computers, storage, applications, and services, over a network, typically the Internet.

Cloud Computing

* a type of computing that delivers convenient, on-demand, pay-as-you-go access for multiple customers to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., servers, networks, storage, applications, and services) that can rapidly and easily accessed over the Internet * allows customers to acquire resources at any time and then delete them the instant they are no longer needed

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

* cloud computing providers offer remotely accessible servers, networks and storage capacity. they supply these resources on demand from their large pool of such resources which are located in their data centers * IaaS customers are often technology companies with IT expertise. they want access to computing power but they do not want to be responsible for installing or maintaining it. Companies use the infrastructure to run software or simply to store data * cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis - that is, the cost reflects the amount of resources the user consumes * Amazon is a well-known IaaS provider. Simple Storage Service (S3) for storing customers' data and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service for operating their customers' applications. Customers pay only for the amount of storage and computing they use.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

* cloud computing vendors provide software that is specific to their customers' requirements. SaaS is the most widely utilized service model, and it provides a broad range of software applications. * SaaS typically charge their customers a monthly or yearly subscription fee. * SaaS applications reside in the cloud instead of on a user's hard drive or in a data center * what differentiates SaaS applications from other applications is its ability to scale. As a result, applications can run on as many servers as is necessary to meet changing demand. This process is transparent to the user. * to reduce the risk of an infrastructure outage, SaaS providers regularly back up all of their customers' data. In addition, customers can back up their data on their storage hardware

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

* customers rent servers, operating systems, storage, a database, software development technologies such as Java and .NET, and network capacity over the Internet * allows the customer to both run existing applications and to develop and test new applications * offer several advantages: - application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers - underlying computing and storage resources automatically scale to match application demand - operating system features can be upgraded frequently - geographically distributed development teams can work together on software development projects - PaaS services can be provided by diverse sources located throughout the world - initial and ongoing costs can be reduced by the use of infrastructure services from a single vendor rather than maintaining multiple hardware facilities that often perform duplicate functions or suffer from incompatibility problems

Similar characteristics of the Cloud Computing Service Models

* customers rent them instead of buy them, this arrangement shifts IT from capital expense to operating expense * vendors are responsible for maintenance, administrations, capacity planning, troubleshooting and backups * obtaining additional computing resources is usually fast and easy

Benefits of server virtualization

* each server no longer has to be dedicated to a particular task. Instead, multiple applications can run on a single physical server, with each application running within its own software environment. as a result, virtualization enables companies to increase server utilization. * 2 areas where companies realize cost savings: 1. they do not have to buy additional servers to meet peak demand 2. they reduce their utility costs because they using less energy

3 Cloud Computing Services Model

* infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) - run software and store data * platform-as-a-service (PaaS) - platforms to develop applications * software-as-a-service (SaaS) -software applications to run data

Server farms

* massive data centers that houses thousands of networked servers * require massive amounts of electrical power, air-conditioning, backup generators and security. * they also need to be located fairly closely to fiber-optic communication links

Cloud Computing characteristics (6)

* provides on-demand self-service * encompasses the characteristics of grid computing * encompasses the characteristics of utility compting * utilized broad network access * pools computing resources * often occurs on virtualized servers

Advantage of Cloud Computing

* setting up and maintaining IT infrastructure need no longer be a challenge for an organization. businesses do not have to scramble to meet the evolving needs of developing applications * reduces up-front capital expenses and operational costs, it enables businesses to better utilize their infrastructure and to share it from one project to the next * eases the difficult tasks of procuring, configuring and maintaining hardware and software environments * allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with easier manageability and less maintenance * enables IT to adjust IT resources (such as servers, storage and networking) more rapidly to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand

5 Concerns and Risks with Cloud Computing

1. Legacy IT Systems 2. Reliability 3. Privacy 4. Security 5. Regulatory and Legal Environment

7 Benefits of Cloud Computing

1: Making individuals more productive - * can enable companies to provide their employees with access to all the information they need no matter where they are, what device they are using, or whom they are working with * provides a mechanism for organizations to "hide" some of the complexity of their operations from end users, which can help attract a broad range of consumers 2. Facilitating collaboration 3. Mining insights from data 4. Reduce costs - * enabling them to shift from capital expenses to operational expenses or from fixed to variable * eliminate the need to purchase hardware, build and install software, and pay software licensing fees 5. Expand the scope of business operations 6. Respond quickly to market changes 7. Customize Products and Services

HTML5

A page-description language that makes it possible to embed images, audio and video directly into a document without add-onts. Also makes it easier for Web pages to function across different display devices, including mobile devices as well as desktops. Supports the storage of data offline

Private Cloud (also known as internal clouds or corporate clouds)

IT infrastructures that can be accessed only by a single entity or by an exclusive group of related entities that share the same purpose and requirements, such as all of the business units within a single organization. provide IT activities and applications as a service over an intranet within an enterprise. Enterprises adopt private clouds to ensure system and data security. For this reason these systems are implemented behind the corporate firewall.

Extensible markup language (XML)

a computer language that makes it easier to exchange data among a variety of applications and to validate and interpret these data

On-demand Self-Services

a customer can access needed computing resources automatically

Hypertext markup language (HTML)

a page-description language for specifying how text, graphics, video and sound are placed on a Web page document

Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) - also known as a cloud desktop or desktop in the cloud

a subset of SaaS, in this model, a SaaS provider hosts a software environment for a desktop personal compluter, including productivity and collaboration software - spreadsheets, word processing programs, and so on - such as Google Apps, Mictosoft 365 and other products. Th DaaS model can be financially advantageous for the consumer because they do not have to necessarily buy a fully-configured personal computer, or fat client. In addition, it makes the PC environment simpler to deploy and administer.

Utility Computing

a technology where a service provider makes computing resources and infrastructure management available to as customer as needed. the provider then charges the customer for its specific usage rather than a flat rate. enables companies to efficiently meet fluctuating demands for computing power by lowering the costs of owning the hardware infrastructure

legacy spaghetti

accumulated systems of hardware, operating systems and applications bundled together

service-oriented architecture

an IT architecture that makes it possible to construct business applications using Web services

web services

applications delivered over the Internet that IT developers can select and combine through almost any device, from personal computers to mobile phones.

Vertical Clouds

cloud infrastructure and applications for different businesses - the construction, finance or insurance businesses for example

Hybrid Clouds

composed of public and private clouds that remain unique entities but are nevertheless bound together, thereby offering users the benefits of multiple deployment models. Hybrid clouds deliver services based on security requirements, the mission-critical nature of applications, and other company-established policies. For example, customers may need to keep some of their data in a private cloud for security and privacy reasons while storing other, less-sensitive data in a public cloud because it is less expensive.

Grid Computing

pools various hardware and software components to create a single IT environment with shared resources. Shares the processing resources of many geographically dispersed computers across a network to form a virtual supercomputer. - enables organizations to utilize their computing resources more efficiently - provides fault tolerance and redundancy, meaning there is no single point of failure, so that the failure of one computer will not stop an application from executing - makes it easy to scale us - that is, to access increased computing resources - to meet the processing demands of complex applications - makes it easy to scale down (remove computers) if extensive processing is not needed

Public Clouds

shared, easily accessible, multicustomer IT infrastructures that are available nonexclusively to any entity in the general public.public cloud vendors provide applications, storage and other computing resources as services over the Internet. these services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model.

Broad Network Access

the cloud provider's computing resources are available over a network, accessed with a Web browser, and they are configured so they can be used with any computing device

Pools Computing Resources

the provider's computing resources are available to serve multiple customers. these resources are dynamically assigned and reassigned according to customer demand

Server virtualization

uses software-based partitions to create multiple virtual servers - called virtual machines - on a single physical server.