Cloud computing definition : Cloud computing is the delivery of different services through the

Internet. These resources include tools and applications like data storage, servers, databases,
networking, and software.

cloud infrastructure: Cloud infrastructure refers to the hardware and software components --
such as servers, storage, a network and virtualization software -- that are needed to support
the computing requirements of a cloud computing model.

Virtualization refers to the creation of a virtual resource such as a server, desktop, operating
system, file, storage or network.
The main goal of virtualization is to manage workloads by radically transforming traditional
computing to make it more scalable.

Cloud Service Models Saas, IaaS, PaaS

Cloud models come in three types: SaaS (Software as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
and PaaS (Platform as a Service). Each of the cloud models has their own set of benefits that
could serve the needs of various businesses.

SaaS
SaaS or Software as a Service is a model that gives quick access to cloud-based web applications.
The vendor controls the entire computing stack, which you can access using a web browser.
These applications run on the cloud and you can use them by a paid licensed subscription or for
free with limited access.

SaaS does not require any installations or downloads in your existing computing infrastructure.
This eliminates the need for installing applications on each of your computers with the
maintenance and support taken over by the vendor. Some known example of SaaS includes
Google G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox etc.

SaaS
Benefits

 Affordable – SaaS is affordable as it eliminates the costs involved in the purchase,

installation, maintenance and upgrades of computing hardware.

 Anywhere Accessibility – With SaaS, you can access the services from anywhere using any
device such as smartphones, which eliminates the constraints set by on-premise software.

 Ready to Use – You can quickly set up SaaS services so that they become functional in no
time. All it takes is that you sign up for the service to get access to fast and powerful
computing resources.

IaaS

IaaS or Infrastructure as a Service is basically a virtual provision of computing resources over the
cloud. An IaaS cloud provider can give you the entire range of computing infrastructures such as
storage, servers, networking hardware alongside maintenance and support.

Businesses can opt for computing resources of their requirement without the need to install
hardware on their premises. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute
Engine are some of the leading IaaS cloud service providers.

Benefits

 Minimize Costs – Deploying an IaaS cloud model eliminates the need to deploy on-premise
hardware that reduces the costs.

 Enhanced Scalability – As the most flexible cloud computing model, IaaS allows you to
scale the computing resources up or down based on demand.

 Simple Deployment – IaaS lets you easily deploy the servers, processing, storage, and
networking to make it up and running in no time.
PaaS

Platform as a Service or PaaS is essentially a cloud base where you can develop, test and organize
the different applications for your business. Implementing PaaS simplifies the process of
enterprise software development. The virtual runtime environment provided by PaaS gives a
favorable space for developing and testing applications.

The entire resources offered in the form of servers, storage and networking are manageable either
by the company or a platform provider. Google App Engine and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are two
typical examples of PaaS. PaaS is also subscription based that gives you flexible pricing options
depending on your business requirements.

Benefits

 Minimal Development Time – PaaS reduces the development time since the vendor provides
all computing resources like server-side components, which simplifies the process and
improve the focus of the development team.

 Multiple Programming Language Support – PaaS offers support for multiple programming
languages, which a software development company can utilize to build applications for
different projects.

 Enhanced Collaboration – With PaaS, your business can benefit from having enhanced
collaboration, which will help integrate your team dispersed across various locations.
 Examples of SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS

Most businesses use a combination of SaaS and IaaS cloud computing service models, and many
engage developers to create applications using PaaS, too.

SaaS examples: BigCommerce, Google Apps, Salesforce, Dropbox, MailChimp, ZenDesk,

DocuSign, Slack, Hubspot.

PaaS examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Windows Azure (mostly used as PaaS),
Force.com, OpenShift, Apache Stratos, Magento Commerce Cloud.

IaaS examples: AWS EC2, Rackspace, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Digital Ocean, Magento
1 Enterprise Edition*.

Different Types Of Cloud Computing Deployment Models

Most cloud hubs have tens of thousands of servers and storage devices to enable fast loading. It
is often possible to choose a geographic area to put the data “closer” to users. Thus, deployment
models of cloud computing are categorized based on their location. To know which deployment
model would best fit the requirements of your organization, let us first learn about the types of
cloud deployment models.
Private Cloud
It is a cloud-based infrastructure used by stand-alone organizations. It offers greater control over
security. The data is backed up by a firewall and internally, and can be hosted internally or
externally. Private clouds are perfect for organizations that have high-security requirements, high
management demands, and availability requirements.
Public Cloud
This type of cloud services is provided on a network for public use. Customers have no control
over the location of the infrastructure. It is based on a shared cost model for all the users, or in
the form of a licensing policy such as pay per user. Public deployment models in the cloud are
perfect for organizations with growing and fluctuating demands. It is also popular among
businesses of all sizes for their web applications, webmail, and storage of non-sensitive data.
Community Cloud
It is a mutually shared model between organizations that belong to a particular community such
as banks, government organizations, or commercial enterprises. Community members generally
share similar issues of privacy, performance, and security. This type of deployment model of
cloud computing is managed and hosted internally or by a third-party vendor.
Hybrid Cloud
This model incorporates the best of both private and public clouds, but each can remain as
separate entities. Further, as part of this deployment of cloud computing model, the internal, or
external providers can provide resources. A hybrid cloud is ideal for scalability, flexibility, and
security. A perfect example of this scenario would be that of an organization who uses the
private cloud to secure their data and interacts with its customers using the public cloud.

Benefit of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is very popular because of its benefits. A company with more efficiency
and agile IT services gets a greater opportunity to innovate. The Cloud provides lower
initial investment so that companies can test Cloud Service before moving to full-scale
implementation.

Companies are adopting Cloud computing world-wide by selecting specific Cloud Service
that address to their specific need. Every cloud service can be useful, it’s’ important to
understand how a Cloud solution can serve you to achieve your company’s goal.

1. Cost saving and Cost avoidance

The beauty of the cloud computing is that companies don’t have to invest up-front huge
money in the business, no need to purchase equipment and build out and operate a data
center, they don’t have to spend significate money on hardware, facilities, utilities and other
aspects of operations.

With traditional computing, a company can spend millions before it gets any value from it’s
investment in the data center.

2. On-demand Self-Service

Cloud computing provides resources on demand, that means consumer can get the service
when he wants it.

This feature enables consume to select their own package and get it anytime. This is made
possible by self-service and automation. Self-service means that the consumer performs all
the actions needed to acquire the service himself, instead of going through an IT
department.

For example, if consume needs a Virtual machine. He simply needs to follow some pre-
definded set to instruction and he will get virtual machine of his required configuration in
few minutes. Here no human intervention is required on service provider’s side.

3. Pay-as-you-go service

Pay-as-you-go is one of the beautiful feature of cloud computing. Its not a new concept. We
have been using this service in our day to day life.

Basically it’s a billing method that billed the user only for what services he has used and for
how much time.

Pay-as-you-go allows user to scale, customize and provision computing resources, including
software, storage, and development platforms. The user is charged based on the resources he
has used, rather than entire infrastructure.

4. Scalability

Cloud infrastructure scales on demand to support fluctuating workloads. Scalability is one

of the most attractive prospects in cloud computing.

It’s difficult to predict the future through a crystal ball. Scalability provides a useful safety
net for when your needs and demands alter.

Cloud computing offers organizations of all size to scale their computing resources
whenever they consider it is necessary.

5. Flexibility

Cloud computing provides flexibility in terms of cost and usage. Cloud based services are
ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands.

If business needs increase, it’s easy to scale up your cloud capacity, drawing on the
service’s remote servers. Likewise, if you need to scale down again, the flexibility is baked
into the service.

6. Disaster recovery – Business continuity

Businesses of all sizes want a robust disaster recovery, but for smaller businesses that lack
the required cash and expertise, this is often more an ideal than the reality. Cloud is now
helping more organizations buck that trend.

According to survey, small businesses are twice as likely as larger companies to have
implemented cloud-based backup and recovery solutions that save time, avoid large up-front
investment and roll up third-party expertise as part of the deal.

7. Resource Pooling

Resource Pooling is one of the essential attributes of cloud computing. Data center
resources can be logically placed into three categories. They are Compute, Network, and
Storage. Resource pooling is the foundation upon which some cloud computing
methodologies are designed, developed, and solution formulated.

Compute
This is a collection of all CPU capabilities. Essentially all data center servers, either for
supporting or actually running a workload, are all part of this compute group. Compute pool
represents the total capacity for executing code and running instances.

Networks
The physical and logical artifacts putting in place to connect resources, segment, and isolate
resources from layer three and below, etc., are gathered in the network pool. Networking
enables resources becoming visible and hence possibly manageable.

Storage
This has long been a very specialized and sometimes mysterious part of IT. An enterprise
storage solution is frequently characterized as a high-cost item with a significant financial
and contractual commitment, specialized hardware, proprietary API and software, a
dependency on direct vendor support, etc.

In cloud computing, storage has become even more noticeable since the ability to grow and
shrink based on demands, i.e. elasticity, demands an enterprise-level, massive, reliable, and
resilient storage solution at a global scale.

8. Automatic software updates

The beauty of the cloud computing is that the servers are off-premise. Service providers take
care of them for you and roll out regular software updates including security updates and
patch update, so you don’t have to worry about wasting money and time in setting up a team
for maintaining the system yourself.

Cloud computing gives you free hand to focus on the things that matters, like growing you
business etc.

9. Increased collaboration

Cloud computing enables your team to access, edit, and share documents/code anytime,
from anywhere, which helps them to do more together, and do it better.
Cloud-based workflow and data sharing apps help them to make updates in real time and
gives them full visibility of their collaborations.

10. Reduce IT Infrastructure Total Cost of Ownership

Cloud computing cuts out the high cost of hardware. Companies don’t have to purchase
equipment and build out and operate a data center, they don’t have spend significant money
on hardware, facilities, utilities and other aspects of operations.

With traditional computing, a company can spend millions before it gets any value from its
investment in the data center.

Now cloud computing enables you to simply pay as you go and enjoy a subscription-based
model that’s kind to your cash flow.

11. Work from anywhere (Universal access)

Cloud computing enables you to work from anywhere, if you’ve got an Internet connection
you can be at work. It gives universal access to the services they offers.

Most of the serious cloud services offering mobile apps, you’re not restricted by which
device you’ve got to hand.

As a result, Businesses are offering more flexible working to employees so they can enjoy
the work-life balance that suits them, without productivity taking a hit.

12. Environmentally friendly

When your cloud needs fluctuate, your server capacity scales up and down to fit. So you
only use the energy you need and you don’t leave oversized carbon footprints.
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing
cloud computing is a tool that offers enormous benefits to its adopters. However, being a tool, it
also comes with its set of problems and inefficiencies. Let’s address the most significant ones.
1. Security and privacy in the Cloud
Security is the biggest concern when it comes to cloud computing. By leveraging a
remote cloud-based infrastructure, a company essentially gives away private data and
information, things that might be sensitive and confidential. It is then up to the cloud
service provider to manage, protect and retain them, thus the provider’s reliability is very
critical. A company’s existence might be put in jeopardy, so all possible alternatives
should be explored before a decision. On the same note, even end users might feel
uncomfortable surrendering their data to a third party.
Similarly, privacy in the cloud is another huge issue. Companies and users have to trust
their cloud service vendors that they will protect their data from unauthorized users. The
various stories of data loss and password leakage in the media does not help to reassure
some of the most concerned users.
2. Dependency and vendor lock-in
One of the major disadvantages of cloud computing is the implicit dependency on the
provider. This is what the industry calls “vendor lock-in” since it is difficult, and
sometimes impossible, to migrate from a provider once you have rolled with him. If a
user wishes to switch to some other provider, then it can be really painful and
cumbersome to transfer huge data from the old provider to the new one. This is another
reason why you should carefully and thoroughly contemplate all options when picking a
vendor.
3. Technical Difficulties and Downtime
Certainly, the smaller business will enjoy not having to deal with the daily technical
issues and will prefer handing those to an established IT company, however you should
keep in mind that all systems might face dysfunctions from time to time. Outage and
downtime is possible even to the best cloud service providers, as the past has shown.
Additionally, you should remember that the whole setup is dependent on internet access,
thus any network or connectivity problems will render the setup useless. As a minor
detail, also keep in mind that it might take several minutes for the cloud to detect a server
fault and launch a new instance from an image snapshot.
4. 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. Moreover, since remote software is being used, it usually lacks
the features of an application running locally.
5. Increased Vulnerability
Related to the security and privacy mentioned before, note that cloud-based solutions are
exposed on the public internet and are thus a more vulnerable target for malicious users
and hackers. Nothing on the Internet is completely secure and even the biggest players
suffer from serious attacks and security breaches. Due to the interdependency of the
system, If there is a compromise one one of the machines that data is stored, there might
be a leakage of personal information to the world.
Actors in Cloud Computing

SNO Actor Definition

1 Cloud A person or organization that maintains a business relationship with,

Consumer and uses service from, Cloud Providers.

2 Cloud A person, organization, or entity responsible for making a service

Provider available to interested parties.

3 Cloud A party that can conduct independent assessment of cloud services,

Auditor information system operations, performance and security of the cloud
implementation.

4 Cloud An entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud
Broker services, and negotiates relationships between Cloud Providers and
Cloud Consumers.

5 Cloud An intermediary that provides connectivity and transport of cloud

Carrier services from Cloud Providers to Cloud Consumers.