(Solved Homework): What do you understand by cloud computing? What are the advantages and its…

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing allows companies to consume a compute resource, such as a virtual machine, storage space or an application, as a utility, rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in house. It is the delivery of on-demand computing resources—everything from applications to data centers—over the internet on a pay-for-use basis. Cloud computing allows users and enterprises with various computing capabilities to store and process data in different ways, like

1.privately-owned cloud in which cloud computing resources used exclusively by single business or organization, which can be physically located in company’s onsite data centre,

2.public/ on a third-party server located in a data center , which is operated by third party provider. 3.hybrid clouding which is the mix of on-premises, private and third party public services in different platforms and data and application to be shared between them..

Clod Computing Models

There are mainly four models of cloud computing. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Network as a Service (Naas).

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This is the most basic cloud-service model, which provides the user with virtual infrastructure, for example servers and data storage space. Virtualization plays a major role in this mode, by allowing IaaS-cloud providers to supply resources on-demand extracting them from their large pools installed in data centers.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): In this model, cloud providers deliver to the user development environment services where the user can develop and run in-house built applications. The services might include an operating system, a programming language execution environment, databases and web servers.

Software as a Service (SaaS): In this model, the cloud provides the user with access to already developer applications that are running in the cloud. The access is achieved by cloud clients and the cloud users do not manage the infrastructure where the application resides, eliminating with this the way the need to install and run the application on the cloud user’s own computers.

Network as a Service (Naas): The least common model, where the user is provided with network connectivity services, such as VPN and bandwidth on demand.

Advantages

Main advantages includes:

Cost Efficiency– which is the biggest advantage of cloud computing

Speed

Productivity

Backup and Recovery– backing up and recovering data is simplified since those now reside on the cloud          and not on a physical device

Scalability and Performance

Device Diversity and Location Independence – Different types of devices like pc, tablets smart phones can access

Quick deployment and ease of integration

Increased Storage Capacity– The cloud can accommodate and store much more data compared to a personal computer and in a way offers almost unlimited storage capacity.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages includes:

Security and privacy in the Cloud– Biggest concern about private data and information.

Dependency on provider/vendor – One of the major disadvantages of cloud computing is the implicit dependency on the provider,

Technical Difficulties

Limited control and flexibility – Since the applications and services run on remote, third party virtual environments, companies and users have limited control over the function and execution of the hardware and software.

Companies Attraction to Cloud

There are several attractive benefits for the companies by using the cloud computing which includes

pay per use :

Less operational issues: Utilizing standardized services can significantly reduce issues and defects.

Cost effectiveness /Less capital expense/ lower cost of ownership:

Easily upgraded:

High productivity from anywhere

Data storage – Offsite data storage, Increased Storage Capacity

Better collaboration and management

Improved scalability