UNIT - II
Cloud Computing Fundamentals: Motivation for Cloud Computing, The Need for Cloud
Computing, Defining Cloud Computing, Definition of Cloud computing, Cloud Computing Isa
Service, Cloud Computing Isa Platform, Principles of Cloud computing, Five Essential
Characteristics, Four Cloud Deployment Models
. Motivation for Cloud Computing:
The main motivation behind cloud computing is to enable businesses to get access to data centers and
manage tasks froma remote location.
Cloud computing is very economical and savesa lot of money. A blind benefit of this computing is that
even if we lose our laptop or due to some crisis our personal computer—and thedesktop system—gets
damaged, still our data and files will stay safe and secured as these are not in our local machine.
Scalability
Becausea desktop cloud is located ina central data center,I can easily scale its capacity and performance
by only adding new hardware.
Agility
Deployment ofnew desktops isa matter of seconds, because they arevirtually created in the data-center's
infrastructure. If companies tend to grow through acquisitions and frequently requirea high number of
new users to be equipped with the standard desktop platform, agility can be a valuable advantage over
traditional PC rollout.
Availability
The desktop cloud infrastructure is based on server hardware and usually runs ina data center, leveraging
fault-tolerant components and systems management. Thin clients used as end-user devices are without
configuration and without locally stored data; ifthey fail, they can be exchanged quickly and easily.
Accessibility
A central desktop ina desktop cloud can be accessed from almost any device and from almost anywhere
in the world. The only requirement isa capable network connection. But not only the desktop can be
accessed from anywhere, also the user's personal and corporate data.
14
Performance
As mentioned earlier, virtual desktops run on server hardware. Under normal mode of operation,a
number of users sharea certain server hardware. Depending on the ratio of concurrent users to server
hardware, performance can be controlled, and adapted as required. Access to data is also usually much
faster, because desktop and data are both located in the data center, connected through a high-
performance data-center network.
Data safety and security
Data can easily be backed up, compared tothenumber oflocal hard drives in traditional PCs. Regarding
data security, by keeping the data on storage devices in the data center, the data is protected by the data-
center security mechanism. The user, regardless of which country that user might sit, can only view and
edit the data, but not copy thedata.
2. The Need forCloud Computing
The main reasons for the need and use of cloud computing areconvenience and reliability. The cloud also
makes it much easier to sharea file with friends, making it possible to collaborate over the web. While
using the cloud, losing our data/file is much less.
• One of the major reason why huge number ofsmall scale and large scale business sectors from all
over the world areusing cloud today, is because of tremendous effect on cost saving. Yes, Cloud
computing has made drastic change in the reduction of hardware and software cost and other
server resources as well
• We can run all our workload data of applications and processes online over the internet remotely
instead of using physical hardware and software
• Day to day issues related to server maintenance or installation of software/ hardware or whether it
is renewal of license, all those factors are undertaken via cloud computing service providers
• With thehelp of cloud we can access any data, applications whenever and wherever we want to,
over the internet. 100 of pre-configured applications can be install and updated
• Cloud not only handles data storage remotely but it also protects and recovers all crashed or loss
data, so we don't have toworry about crashed or loss of data, it gives you high security
3. Defining Cloud Computing
Cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet froma remote location
or computer instead of our computer's hard drive. This so called remote location has several properties
such as scalability, elasticity etc., which is significantly different froma simple remote machine.
4. Definition of Cloud computing
Cloud computing isa model forenabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access toa shared
pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that
can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
15
5. Cloud Computing isa Service
The simplest thing that any computer does is allow us to store and retrieve information. We can store our
family photographs, our favorite songs, or even save movies on it, which is also the most basic service
offered by cloud computing.
Let us look atthe example ofa popular application called Flickr
While Flickr started with an emphasis on sharing photos and images, it has emerged asa great place to
store those images. In many ways, it is superior to storing the images on your computer
1. First, Flickr allows us to easily access our images no matter where we areorwhat type of
device we are using. While we might upload the photos of our vacation from our home
computer, later, we can easily access them from ourlaptop at the office.
2. Second, Flickr lets us share the images. There is no need to bum them toa CD or save
them ona flash drive. We can just send someone ourFlickr address to share these photos
or images.
3. Third, Flickr provides data security. By uploading the images to Flickr, we are providing
ourselves with data security by creatinga backup on theweb. And, while it is always best
to keepa local copy— either on a computer,a CD, ora flash drive—the truth is that we
are far more likely to lose
6. Cloud Computing Isa Platform
The World Wide Web (WWW) canbeconsidered as the operating system for all our Internet-based
applications. However, one has to understand that we will always needa local operating system in our
computer toaccess web based applications.
The basic meaning of theterm platform is that it is the support on which applications run or give results
to the users. For example, Microsoft Windows isa platform. But,a platform does not have to be an
operating system. Java isa platform even though it is not an operating system.
Through cloud computing, the web is becominga platform. With trends (applications) such as Office 2.0,
more and more applications that were originally available on desktop computers are now being converted
into weWloud applications. Word processors like Buzzword and office suites like Google Docs arenow
available in the cloud as their desktop counterparts. All these kinds of trends in providing applications via
the cloud areturning cloud computing intoa platform or to actasa platform.
16
7. Principles of Cloud computing
Characteristics:
Cloud computing has five essential characteristics
1. On-demand self-service: A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server
time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each
service's provider.
2. Broad network access: Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard
mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones,
laptops, and personal digital assistants [PDAs]).
3. Elastic resource pooling: The provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers
usinga multitenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and
reassigned according to consumer demand. There isa sense of location independence inthat the customer
generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able
to specify the location ata higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or data center). Examples of
resources include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.
4. Rapid elasticity: Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically,
to quickly scale out and rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilities available
for provisioning often appear tobe unlimited and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.
5. Measured service: Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraginga
metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,
processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and
reported providing transparency for both theprovider and consumer oftheutilized service
Four Cloud Deployment Models:
Deployment models describe the ways with which thecloud services can be deployed or made available
to its customers, depending on the organizational structure and the provisioning location. One can
understand it in this manner too: cloud (Internet)-based computing resources—that is, the locations where
data and services are acquired and provisioned to its customers— can take various forms. Four
deployment models are usually distinguished, namely, public, private, community, and hybrid cloud
service usage
1. Private cloud: The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use bya single organization
comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by
the organization,a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises.
2. Public cloud: The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by thegeneral public. It may
be owned, managed, and operated bya business, academic, or government organization, or some
combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider.
3. Community cloud: The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supportsa
specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and
17
compliance considerations). It may be managed by theorganizations ora third party and may
exist on premise or offpremise.
4. Hybrid cloud: The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud
infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together
by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud
bursting for load balancing between clouds)
Three Service Offering Models
There arethefollowing three types of cloud service models -
1. Infrastructure asa Service (IaaS)
2. Platform asa Service (PaaS)
3. Software asa Service (SaaS)
Infrastructure asa Service (IaaS)
IaaS is also known asHardware asa Service (HaaS). It isa computing infrastructure managed over the
internet. The main advantage of using IaaS is that it helps users to avoid the cost and complexity of
purchasing and managing thephysical servers.
Characteristics of IaaS
There arethefollowing characteristics of IaaS -
o Resources areavailable asa service
o Services are highly scalable
o Dynamic and flexible
o GUI and API-based access
o Automated administrative tasks
Example: DigitalOcean, Linode, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Compute
Engine (GCE), Rackspace, and Cisco Metacloud.
18
Platform asa Service (PaaS)
PaaS cloud computing platform is created for the programmer to develop, test, run, and manage the
applications.
Characteristics of PaaS
There arethefollowing characteristics of PaaS -
o Accessible to various users via the same development application.
o Integrates with web services and databases.
o Builds on virtualization technology, so resources can easily be scaled up or down asperthe
organization's need.
o Support multiple languages and frameworks.
o Provides an ability to "Auto-scale".
Example: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku, [Link], Google App Engine, Apache
Stratos, Magento Commerce Cloud, and OpenShift.
Software asa Service (SaaS)
SaaS is also known as"on-demand software". It isa software in which theapplications are hosted bya
cloud service provider. Users can access these applications with the help of internet connection and web
browser.
Characteristics of SaaS
There arethefollowing characteristics of SaaS -
o Managed froma central location
o Hosted ona remote server
o Accessible over the internet
o Users arenot responsible for hardware and software updates. Updates areapplied automatically.
o The services are purchased on thepay-as-per-use basis
Example: BigCommerce, Google Apps, Salesforce, Dropbox, ZenDesk, Cisco WebEx, ZenDesk, Slack,
and GoToMeeting.
19
Difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
IaaS Paas SaaS
It providesa virtual data center to It provides virtual platforms and It provides web software and
store information and create tools to create, test, and deploy apps to complete business
platforms for app development, apps. tasks.
testing, and deployment.
It provides access to resources It provides runtime environments It provides software as a
such as virtual machines, virtual and deployment tools for service to the end-users.
storage, etc. applications.
It is used by network architects. It is used by developers. It is used by end users.
IaaS provides only Infrastructure. PaaS provides SaaS provides
Infrastructure+Platform. Infrastructure+Platform
+Software.
20