Cloud Computing is a general term used to define an Internet
Based Computing environment, which include provisioning of shared software,
hardware and network resource, mainly for organization’s end users. Typically, CloudComputing providers host the general computing resources and they are
accessed via internet as a service. For example, a user can access and utilize
an application by using a normal web browser just like it’s installed on that particular
system, while the application resides at remotes server and all the
computations required running that application is done at that server.
Cloud Computing technology is a mixture or hybrid of few
earlier computing paradigms, like;
- Mainframe Computing: where powerful super computers (Mainframes) were used by large organization for critical applications.
- Grid Computing: It is a form of computing in which cluster of computers combine their computing resources (idle resources), to form a super computer, performing large chunks of tasks.
- Client-Server Computing: In this model servers responds to the needs of the clients as a service.
The underlying concept of Cloud Computing is in
early nineties when the Telecommunication providers offered Virtual
Private Networks to connect the remote offices of an organization
together at a reduce cost with the same efficiency as of leased lines. Cloud
was used to distinguish the physical premises of the VPN provider with that of
the client. Cloud Computing further increased the service portfolio by
providing many more services.
Amazon was the first provider to initiate Cloud
Computing with its product Amazon Web Services, which was a collection
of web services that all together form reliable, inexpensive and manageable
computing resources over the internet. Since than Cloud Computing is the
hottest buzz word among all the leading technology firms from Google, HP, and
Microsoft.
Categories of Cloud Computing
There are many categories of Cloud Computing offering
these days by many service providers such as storage, middleware and database
but the most popular and common are Software as a Service (SasS), Platform as a
Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Desktop
as a Service (DaaS).
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service or Cloud Application services, delivers
complex mission critical turnkey application such as CRM or ERP
over the internet to end user. It is the most common and popular application of
Cloud
Computing, where it simplifies management and support by removing the
need to install and run the application on the customer’s computer.
It also eliminates the need of maintenance as the up
gradation and installing patches is shifted at the providers end; the customer
will always get the updated version of the software or application which is
managed centrally by the service provider.
Platform as a Service
Platform as a Service delivers hardware, software, hosting or a
computing platform as a service to facilitate the building and delivering web
based application or services completely from the internet.
Platform as a Service differs from Software as a Service in
this fashion that SaaS provided pre-built software with none or little
customization available, whereas PaaS enables you to develop humongous
web applications eliminating the need for specialized platform requirements to
build those applications.
Infrastructure as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides operations oriented
computing resources including
storage, hardware, servers and networking components as a service over the
internet. These services eliminate the need for an in-house data centre and the
network equipment to access it. Sometimes it is also referred to as Hardwareas a Service (HaaS)
IaaS services are generally charged on utility computing
billing model where only the amount of services used is billed. Infrastructure
as a Service gives greater flexibility and elasticity to organization
is scaling their computing requirements whenever they need it, thus giving an
impression of unlimited infrastructure resources available.
Desktop as a Service
Desktop as a Service
provides Virtual Desktop services through the use of Virtual Desktop Interface
over the internet. It is based on Multi-tenancy architecture whereby, multiple
desktops can be hosted on a single server and/or of different users. Virtual
Desktop Services and Hosted Desktop Services are also classified as DaaS.
In this model an image of the user’s desktop image is saved
on every Log On/ Log Off session onto the remote virtual machine and that can
be accessed from anywhere in the world until you have internet connection. Service
provider manages all the back-end so you need to worry about security and
updates.
How Business can benefit from Cloud Computing?
There is no question in determining that business can reap a
lot of benefits form Cloud Computing. When we review
advantages of Cloud Computing, both, Provider and Customers, are winners. The
most significant benefits are;
Cost – There is always cost associated with developing an in
house Infrastructure especially for large organization with many users. Cloud
Computing removes all the barriers by giving a substantially low cost
entry and the best part is that you pay for what you use and disengage whenever
you like without considering about capital invested.
Reliability- Cloud Computing gives reliability of
the services as managing virtual servers is easier than physical servers. If
the server or any hardware device is failed, the transition can easily be
deployed to any available server as the service offers you greater flexibility.
Manageability - Cloud Computing gives you enhanced
monitoring capabilities by centralizing all the resources keeping everything
under your nose. Maintenance is eliminated because the end user is using simple
user interface to access the service without installing it. Back-end
engineering and constraints are always resolved and maintained by the provider
hence freeing the customer for updating and maintaining the application.
Strategic Edge and Goal Orientation – The ever increasing and
limitless computing resources gives a competitive edge over competitors where
procurement time is virtually zero. So if you want to deploy a mission critical
application that will give you significant recognition, up frontal cost or the
access cost and the provisioning time to Technology is not a problem anymore.
Thus the organizations can gain a strategic edge as well focus on their Goals
and important business activities making businesses more productive.
Why Cloud Computing?
Today many organizations have taken advantage of the Cloud
Computing in their data centre to avail the best it has to offer scalability,
agility, automation, and resource sharing. Leading analysts like Gartner and
IDC agrees that this new computing model has a lot of advantages for startups,
SMB and large organizations. Cloud Computing enables the IT
department focus on innovative application that can be beneficial to the
business in many ways and at the same time reduce the Capital & Operational
cost and automating complex technologies. Tech Giants like Microsoft, HP, and
Dell etc are investing billions in Cloud Computing research and
products. Microsoft alone set $20 Billion for Windows Azure, a cloud platform
offering by MS which will enable to run almost any kind of language in it.
The on demand technology service model will suit any organization
especially large, to accommodate any kind of computing requirements when and
how much is required. Just consider this example that a Virtual server can
replace up to 5 typical servers, which can save Capital and Operational
expenses substantially and most of all, its Eco-Friendly. Thus considering
this, Cloud Computing can have significant benefits and its here to
stay!