CHAPTER 1 - CLOUD COMPUTING

What is cloud computing?

Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of
computing services- including servers, storage,
databases, networking ,software, analytics, and
intelligence – over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer
faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of
scale.
You typically pay only for cloud services you use,
helping lower your operating costs, run your
infrastructure more efficiently and scale as your
business needs change.

Top benefits od cloud computing

Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way
businesses think about IT resources. Here are seven
common reasons organizations are turning to cloud
computing services:
Cost: Cloud computing eliminates the capital expense
of buying hardware and software and setting up and
running on-site datacentres-the racks of servers, the
round-the-clock electricity for power and cooling, the
IT experts for managing the infrastructure. It adds up
fast.
Speed: Most cloud computing services are provided
self service and on demand, so even vast amounts of
computing resources can be provisioned in minutes,
typically with just a few mouse clicks, giving businesses
a lot of flexibility and taking pressure off capacity
planning.
Global scale: The benefits of cloud computing services
include the ability of scale elastically. In cloud speak,
that means delivering the right amount of IT resource –
for example, more or less computing power, storage,
bandwidth – right when it is needed and from the right
geographic location.
Productivity: On-site datacenters typically require a lot
of “racking and stacking” – hardware setup, software
patching, and other time-consuming IT management
chores. Cloud computing removes the need for many
of these tasks, so IT teams can spend time on achieving
more important business goals.
Performance: The biggest cloud computing services
run on a worldwide network of secure datacentres,
which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation
of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers
several benefits over a single corporate datacenter,
including reduced network latency for applications and
greater economies of scale.
Reliability: Cloud computing makes data backup,
disaster recovery and business continuity easier and
less expensive because data can be mirrored at
multiple redundant sites on the cloud provider’s
network.
Security: Many cloud providers offer a broad set of
policies, technologies and controls that strengthen your
security posture overall, helping protect your data,
apps and infrastructure from potential threats.

Not all clouds are the same and not one type of cloud
computing is right for everyone. Several different
models, types and services have evolved to help offer
the right solution for your needs.
First, you need to determine the types of cloud
development or cloud computing architecture, that
your cloud services will be implemented on. There are
three different ways to deploy cloud services ; private
cloud or hybrid cloud , public cloud.

Public cloud: Public clouds are owned and operated by

a third-party cloud service providers, which deliver
their computing resource like servers and storage over
the Internet. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public
cloud. With a public cloud, all hardware, software and
other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed
by the cloud provider. You access these services and
manage your account using a web browser.
Private cloud: A private cloud refers to cloud
computing resources used exclusively by a single
business or organization. A private cloud can be
physically located on the company’s on-site datacenter.
Some companies also pay third-party service providers
to host their private cloud. A private cloud is one in
which the service and infrastructure are maintained on
a private network.
Hybrid cloud: Hybrid clouds combine public and
private clouds, bound together by technology that
allows data and applications to be shared between
them. By allowing data and applications to move
between private and public clouds, a hybrid cloud gives
your business greater flexibility, more deployment
options and helps optimize your existing infrastructure,
security and compliance.
Types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, serverless and SaaS
Most cloud computing services fall into four broad
categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform
as a service (PaaS), serverless and software as a service
(SaaS). These are sometimes called the cloud
computing stack because they build on top of one
another. Knowing what they are and how they are
different makes it easier to accomplish your business
goals.
Infrastructure as a service (Iaas)
The most basic category of cloud computing services.
With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructure – severs and
virtual machine (VMs), storage, networks, operating
systems – from a cloud provider on a pay - as – you –
go basis.
Most cloud computing services fall into four broad
categories: infrastructure as a service (Iaas), platform
as a service (Paas), serverless and software as a service
(SaaS). These are sometimes called the cloud
computing stack because they build on top of one
another. Knowing what they are and how they are
different makes it easier to accomplish your business
goals.
Platform as a service (PaaS):
Platform as a service refers to cloud computing services
that supply as on-demand environment for developing,
testing, delivering and managing software applications.
PaaS is designed to make t easier for developers to
quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying
about setting up or managing the underlying
infrastructure of servers, storage, network and
databases needed for development.
Serverless computing:
Overlapping with PaaS, serverless computing focuses
on building app functionality without spending time
continuously managing the servers and infrastructure
required to do so. The cloud provider handles the
setup, capacity planning and server management for
you. Serverless architecture are highly scalable and
event-driven, only using resource when a specific
function or trigger occurs.
Software as a service (SaaS):
Software as a service is a method for delivering
software applications over the Internet, on demand
and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud
providers host and manage the software application
and underlying infrastructure and handle any
maintenance, like software upgrades and security
patching. Users connect to the application over the
Internet, usually with a web browser on their phone,
tablet or PC.
You are probably using cloud computing right now,
even if you don’t realise it. If you use an online service
to send email, edit documents, watch movies or TV,
listen to music, play games or store picture and other
files, it is likely that cloud computing is making it all
possible behind the scenes. The first cloud computing
services are barely a decade old, but already a variety
of organization – from tiny startups to global
corporations, government agencies to non-profits – are
embracing the technology for all sorts of reasons.
Here are a few examples of what is possible today with
cloud services from a cloud provider:
Create cloud-native applications:
Quickly build, deploy and scale applications-web,
mobile and API. Take advantage of cloud-native
technologies and approaches, such as containers,
Kubernetes, microservices architecture, API- driven
communication and DevOps.
Store, back up and recover data
Protect your data more cost-efficiently-and at massive
scale-by transferring your data over the Internet to an
offsite cloud storage system that is accessible from any
location and any device.
Analyse data
Unify your data across teams, divisions and locations in
the cloud. Then use cloud services, such aa machine
learning and artificial intelligence, to uncover insights
for more informed decisions.
Streams audio and video
Connect with your audience anywhere, anytime, on
any device with high—definition video and audio with
global distribution.
Deliver software on demand
Also known as software as a service (SaaS), on-demand
software lets you offer the latest software versions and
updates around to customers -anytime they need,
anywhere they are.
Test and build applications
Reduce application development cost and time by
using cloud infrastructure that can easily be scaled up
or down.
Embed intelligence
Use intelligent models to help engage customers and
provide valuable insights from the data captured.
Microsoft and cloud computing
Microsoft is a leading global provider of cloud
computing services for businesses of all size To learn
more about the Microsoft cloud platform, our
Kubernetes on Azure offering, our serverless
application platform and how Microsoft Azure
compares to other cloud providers, see What is Azure?
And Azure vs. AWS.