Unit II

Cloud computing services

Introduction:

There are the following three types of cloud service models -

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
3. Software as a Service (SaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is a 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
the physical servers.

Characteristics of IaaS
There are the following characteristics of IaaS -

o Resources are available as a 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.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS cloud computing platform is created for the programmer to develop, test,
run, and manage the applications.

Characteristics of PaaS

There are the following 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 as per the organization's need.
o Support multiple languages and frameworks.
o Provides an ability to "Auto-scale".

Example: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com,

Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, Magento Commerce Cloud, and
OpenShift.

To know more about PaaS, click here.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is also known as "on-demand software". It is a software in which the

applications are hosted by a cloud service provider. Users can access these
applications with the help of internet connection and web browser.
Characteristics of SaaS

There are the following characteristics of SaaS -

o Managed from a central location

o Hosted on a remote server
o Accessible over the internet
o Users are not responsible for hardware and software updates. Updates are
applied automatically.
o The services are purchased on the pay-as-per-use basis

Example: BigCommerce, Google Apps, Salesforce, Dropbox, ZenDesk, Cisco

WebEx, ZenDesk, Slack, and GoToMeeting.

Difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

The below table shows the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS -

IaaS Paas SaaS

It provides a virtual data It provides virtual platforms It provides web software and
center to store and tools to create, test, and apps to complete business
information and create deploy apps. tasks.
platforms for app
development, testing,
and deployment.

It provides access to It provides runtime It provides software as a

resources such as virtual environments and deployment service to the end-users.
machines, virtual tools for applications.
storage, etc.

It is used by network It is used by developers. It is used by end users.

architects.

IaaS provides only PaaS provides SaaS provides

Infrastructure. Infrastructure+Platform. Infrastructure+Platform
+Software.
Infrastructure as a Service | IaaS:
Iaas is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is one of the layers of
the cloud computing platform. It allows customers to outsource their IT
infrastructures such as servers, networking, processing, storage, virtual
machines, and other resources. Customers access these resources on the Internet
using a pay-as-per use model.

In traditional hosting services, IT infrastructure was rented out for a specific

period of time, with pre-determined hardware configuration. The client paid for
the configuration and time, regardless of the actual use. With the help of the
IaaS cloud computing platform layer, clients can dynamically scale the
configuration to meet changing requirements and are billed only for the services
actually used.

IaaS cloud computing platform layer eliminates the need for every organization
to maintain the IT infrastructure.

IaaS is offered in three models: public, private, and hybrid cloud. The private
cloud implies that the infrastructure resides at the customer-premise. In the case
of public cloud, it is located at the cloud computing platform vendor's data
center, and the hybrid cloud is a combination of the two in which the customer
selects the best of both public cloud or private cloud.

IaaS provider provides the following services -

1. Compute: Computing as a Service includes virtual central processing

units and virtual main memory for the Vms that is provisioned to the end-
users.
2. Storage: IaaS provider provides back-end storage for storing files.
3. Network: Network as a Service (NaaS) provides networking components
such as routers, switches, and bridges for the Vms.
4. Load balancers: It provides load balancing capability at the
infrastructure layer.
Advantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

There are the following advantages of IaaS computing layer -

1. Shared infrastructure

IaaS allows multiple users to share the same physical infrastructure.

2. Web access to the resources

Iaas allows IT users to access resources over the internet.

3. Pay-as-per-use model

IaaS providers provide services based on the pay-as-per-use basis. The users are
required to pay for what they have used.

4. Focus on the core business

IaaS providers focus on the organization's core business rather than on IT

infrastructure.

5. On-demand scalability

On-demand scalability is one of the biggest advantages of IaaS. Using IaaS,

users do not worry about to upgrade software and troubleshoot the issues related
to hardware components.
Disadvantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

1. Security

Security is one of the biggest issues in IaaS. Most of the IaaS providers are not
able to provide 100% security.

2. Maintenance & Upgrade

Although IaaS service providers maintain the software, but they do not upgrade
the software for some organizations.

3. Interoperability issues

It is difficult to migrate VM from one IaaS provider to the other, so the

customers might face problem related to vendor lock-in.

Some important point about IaaS cloud computing layer

IaaS cloud computing platform cannot replace the traditional hosting method,
but it provides more than that, and each resource which are used are predictable
as per the usage.

IaaS cloud computing platform may not eliminate the need for an in-house IT
department. It will be needed to monitor or control the IaaS setup. IT salary
expenditure might not reduce significantly, but other IT expenses can be
reduced.

Breakdowns at the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's can bring your
business to the halt stage. Assess the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's
stability and finances. Make sure that SLAs (i.e., Service Level Agreement)
provide backups for data, hardware, network, and application failures. Image
portability and third-party support is a plus point.

The IaaS cloud computing platform vendor can get access to your sensitive
data. So, engage with credible companies or organizations. Study their security
policies and precautions.

Top Iaas Providers who are providing IaaS cloud computing platform
IaaS Vendor Iaas Solution Details

Amazon Web Elastic, Elastic Compute The cloud computing platform pioneer,
Services Cloud (EC2) Amazon offers auto scaling, cloud
MapReduce, Route 53, monitoring, and load balancing features
Virtual Private Cloud, as part of its portfolio.
etc.

Netmagic Solutions Netmagic IaaS Cloud Netmagic runs from data centers in
Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore, and a
virtual data center in the United States.
Plans are underway to extend services to
West Asia.

Rackspace Cloud servers, cloud The cloud computing platform vendor

files, cloud sites, etc. focuses primarily on enterprise-level
hosting services.

Reliance Reliance Internet Data RIDC supports both traditional hosting

Communications Center and cloud services, with data centers in
Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and
Chennai. The cloud services offered by
RIDC include IaaS and SaaS.

Sify Technologies Sify IaaS Sify's cloud computing platform is

 powered by HP's converged
infrastructure. The vendor offers all
three types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS,
and SaaS.

Tata InstaCompute InstaCompute is Tata Communications'

Communications IaaS offering. InstaCompute data centers
are located in Hyderabad and Singapore,
with operations in both countries.

Platform as a Service | PaaS

Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a runtime environment. It allows
programmers to easily create, test, run, and deploy web applications. You can
purchase these applications from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-per use
basis and access them using the Internet connection. In PaaS, back end
scalability is managed by the cloud service provider, so end- users do not need
to worry about managing the infrastructure.

PaaS includes infrastructure (servers, storage, and networking) and platform

(middleware, development tools, database management systems, business
intelligence, and more) to support the web application life cycle.

Example: Google App Engine, Force.com, Joyent, Azure.

1. Programming languages

PaaS providers provide various programming languages for the developers to

develop the applications. Some popular programming languages provided by
PaaS providers are Java, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Go.

2. Application frameworks

PaaS providers provide application frameworks to easily understand the

application development. Some popular application frameworks provided by
PaaS providers are Node.js, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Spring, Play, Rack,
and Zend.

3. Databases

PaaS providers provide various databases such as ClearDB, PostgreSQL,

MongoDB, and Redis to communicate with the applications.

4. Other tools

PaaS providers provide various other tools that are required to develop, test, and
deploy the applications.

Advantages of PaaS

There are the following advantages of PaaS -

1) Simplified Development

PaaS allows developers to focus on development and innovation without

worrying about infrastructure management.

2) Lower risk

No need for up-front investment in hardware and software. Developers only

need a PC and an internet connection to start building applications.

3) Prebuilt business functionality

Some PaaS vendors also provide already defined business functionality so that
users can avoid building everything from very scratch and hence can directly
start the projects only.
4) Instant community

PaaS vendors frequently provide online communities where the developer can
get the ideas to share experiences and seek advice from others.

AD

5) Scalability

Applications deployed can scale from one to thousands of users without any
changes to the applications.

Disadvantages of PaaS cloud computing layer

1) Vendor lock-in

One has to write the applications according to the platform provided by the
PaaS vendor, so the migration of an application to another PaaS vendor would
be a problem.

2) Data Privacy

Corporate data, whether it can be critical or not, will be private, so if it is not

located within the walls of the company, there can be a risk in terms of privacy
of data.

3) Integration with the rest of the systems applications

It may happen that some applications are local, and some are in the cloud. So
there will be chances of increased complexity when we want to use data which
in the cloud with the local data.

The below table shows some popular PaaS providers and services that are
provided by them -

Providers Services

Google App Engine App Identity, URL Fetch, Cloud storage client library,
(GAE) Logservice

Salesforce.com Faster implementation, Rapid scalability, CRM Services, Sales

cloud, Mobile connectivity, Chatter.

Windows Azure Compute, security, IoT, Data Storage.

 AppFog Justcloud.com, SkyDrive, GoogleDocs

Openshift RedHat, Microsoft Azure.

Cloud Foundry from Data, Messaging, and other services.

VMware

Popular PaaS Providers

Software as a Service | SaaS:

SaaS is also known as "On-Demand Software". It is a software distribution
model in which services are hosted by a cloud service provider. These services
are available to end-users over the internet so, the end-users do not need to
install any software on their devices to access these services.

There are the following services provided by SaaS providers -

Business Services - SaaS Provider provides various business services to start-

up the business. The SaaS business services include ERP (Enterprise Resource
Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), billing, and sales.
Document Management - SaaS document management is a software
application offered by a third party (SaaS providers) to create, manage, and
track electronic documents.

Social Networks - As we all know, social networking sites are used by the
general public, so social networking service providers use SaaS for their
convenience and handle the general public's information.

Mail Services - To handle the unpredictable number of users and load on e-mail
services, many e-mail providers offering their services using SaaS.

Advantages of SaaS cloud computing layer

1) SaaS is easy to buy

SaaS pricing is based on a monthly fee or annual fee subscription, so it allows

organizations to access business functionality at a low cost, which is less than
licensed applications.

Unlike traditional software, which is sold as a licensed based with an up-front

cost (and often an optional ongoing support fee), SaaS providers are generally
pricing the applications using a subscription fee, most commonly a monthly or
annually fee.

2. One to Many

SaaS services are offered as a one-to-many model means a single instance of the
application is shared by multiple users.
3. Less hardware required for SaaS

The software is hosted remotely, so organizations do not need to invest in

additional hardware.

4. Low maintenance required for SaaS

Software as a service removes the need for installation, set-up, and daily
maintenance for the organizations. The initial set-up cost for SaaS is typically
less than the enterprise software. SaaS vendors are pricing their applications
based on some usage parameters, such as a number of users using the
application. So SaaS does easy to monitor and automatic updates.

5. No special software or hardware versions required

All users will have the same version of the software and typically access it
through the web browser. SaaS reduces IT support costs by outsourcing
hardware and software maintenance and support to the IaaS provider.

6. Multidevice support

SaaS services can be accessed from any device such as desktops, laptops,
tablets, phones, and thin clients.

7. API Integration

SaaS services easily integrate with other software or services through standard
APIs.

8. No client-side installation

SaaS services are accessed directly from the service provider using the internet
connection, so do not need to require any software installation.

Disadvantages of SaaS cloud computing layer

1) Security

Actually, data is stored in the cloud, so security may be an issue for some users.
However, cloud computing is not more secure than in-house deployment.

2) Latency issue

Since data and applications are stored in the cloud at a variable distance from
the end-user, there is a possibility that there may be greater latency when
interacting with the application compared to local deployment. Therefore, the
SaaS model is not suitable for applications whose demand response time is in
milliseconds.

3) Total Dependency on Internet

Without an internet connection, most SaaS applications are not usable.

4) Switching between SaaS vendors is difficult

Switching SaaS vendors involves the difficult and slow task of transferring the
very large data files over the internet and then converting and importing them
into another SaaS also.

Popular SaaS Providers

The below table shows some popular SaaS providers and services that are
provided by them -
 Provider Services

Salseforce.com On-demand CRM solutions

Microsoft Office Online office suite

365

Google Apps Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, and sites

NetSuite ERP, accounting, order management, CRM, Professionals Services

Automation (PSA), and e-commerce applications.

GoToMeeting Online meeting and video-conferencing software

Constant Contact E-mail marketing, online survey, and event marketing

Oracle CRM CRM applications

Workday, Inc Human capital management, payroll, and financial management.

Monitoring As a Service:
Cloud monitoring is a method of reviewing, observing, and managing the
operational workflow in a cloud-based IT infrastructure. Manual or automated
management techniques confirm the availability and performance of websites,
servers, applications, and other cloud infrastructure. This continuous evaluation
of resource levels, server response times, and speed predicts possible
vulnerability to future issues before they arise.
Types of cloud monitoring
The cloud has numerous moving components, and for top performance, it’s
critical to safeguard that everything comes together seamlessly. This need has
led to a variety of monitoring techniques to fit the type of outcome that a user
wants. The main types of cloud monitoring are:
1. Database monitoring
Because most cloud applications rely on databases, this technique reviews
processes, queries, availability, and consumption of cloud database resources.
This technique can also track queries and data integrity, monitoring connections
to show real-time usage data. For security purposes, access requests can be
tracked as well. For example, an uptime detector can alert if there’s database
instability and can help improve resolution response time from the precise
moment that a database goes down.
2. Website monitoring
A website is a set of files that is stored locally, which, in turn, sends those files
to other computers over a network. This monitoring technique tracks processes,
traffic, availability, and resource utilization of cloud-hosted sites.
3. Virtual network monitoring
This monitoring type creates software versions of network technology such as
firewalls, routers, and load balancers. Because they’re designed with software,
these integrated tools can give you a wealth of data about their operation. If one
virtual router is endlessly overcome with traffic, for example, the network
adjusts to compensate. Therefore, instead of swapping hardware, virtualization
infrastructure quickly adjusts to optimize the flow of data.
4. Cloud storage monitoring
This technique tracks multiple analytics simultaneously, monitoring storage
resources and processes that are provisioned to virtual machines, services,
databases, and applications. This technique is often used to host infrastructure-
as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. For these
applications, you can configure monitoring to track performance metrics,
processes, users, databases, and available storage. It provides data to help you
focus on useful features or to fix bugs that disrupt functionality.
5. Virtual machine monitoring
This technique is a simulation of a computer within a computer; that is,
virtualization infrastructure and virtual machines. It’s usually scaled out in IaaS
as a virtual server that hosts several virtual desktops. A monitoring application
can track the users, traffic, and status of each machine. You get the benefits of
traditional IT infrastructure monitoring with the added benefit of cloud
monitoring solutions.
Benefits of cloud monitoring
Monitoring is a skill, not a full-time job. In today’s world of cloud-based
architectures that are implemented through DevOps projects, developers, site
reliability engineers (SREs), and operations staff must collectively define an
effective cloud monitoring strategy. Such a strategy should focus on identifying
when service-level objectives (SLOs) are not being met, likely negatively
affecting the user experience. So, then what are the benefits of leveraging cloud
monitoring tools? With cloud monitoring:
 Scaling for increased activity is seamless and works in organizations
of any size
 Dedicated tools (and hardware) are maintained by the host
 Tools are used across several types of devices, including desktop
computers, tablets, and phones, so your organization can monitor
apps from any location
 Installation is simple because infrastructure and configurations are
already in place
 Your system doesn’t suffer interruptions when local problems
emerge, because resources aren’t part of your organization’s servers
and workstations
 Subscription-based solutions can keep your costs low
Monitoring in public, private, and hybrid clouds
A private cloud gives you extensive control and visibility. Because systems and
the software stack are fully accessible, cloud monitoring is relaxed when it’s
operated in a private cloud. Monitoring in public or hybrid clouds, however, can
be tough. Let’s review the focal points:
 Because the data exists between private and public clouds, a hybrid
cloud environment presents curious challenges. Limited security and
compliance create problems for data access. Your administrator can
solve these issues by deciding which data to store in various clouds
and which data to asynchronously update.
 A private cloud gives you more control, but to promote optimal
performance, it’s still wise to monitor workloads. Without a clear
picture of workload and network performance, it’s nearly impossible
to justify configuration or architectural changes or to quantify
quality-of-service implementations.
Cloud monitoring best practices:
When your organization decides to make cloud monitoring a priority, your plan
must include questions with quantifiable answers that accomplish your goals for
implementation. As a general guideline, follow these best practices:
 Observe your cloud service usage and fees. Increased costs can be
triggered when scaling kicks in to meet demand. Strong monitoring
solutions should track how much activity is on the cloud and its
associated cost
 Identify metrics and events that affect your bottom line. Not
everything that can be measured needs to be reported
 Use a single platform to report all data. You need solutions that can
report data from different sources to a single platform. This
consolidated information enables you to calculate uniform metrics
and results in a complete performance view
 Trigger rules with data. If activity surpasses or drops below certain
levels, the right solution should be to add or subtract servers to
maintain efficiency and performance
 Separate your centralized data. Your organization must store your
monitoring data separately from your proprietary apps, but the
information should still be centralized for easy access
 Monitor the user experience. To get the full picture of performance,
review metrics such as response times and frequency of use
 Try failure. Test tools to see what happens when an outage or a data
breach occurs. This evaluation can create new standards for the alert
system
Cloud monitoring is primarily part of cloud security and management processes.
It is normally implemented through automated monitoring software that
provides central access and control over cloud infrastructure. Your cloud
administrator can review the operational status and health of any cloud-based
device or component.

In this article, we are going to explore some of the standard ‘Monitoring as a

Service’ tools with their detailed specifications. So, let’s get started:
1. Amazon CloudWatch

Amazon CloudWatch allows us to completely monitor the tech stack of our

application and infrastructure. It notifies us with alarms, logs, etc, and helps us
to take necessary actions which thereby reduces the Mean Time to Resolution
(MTTR). It also monitors the EC2 instances, Dynamo tables, etc. It is best
suited for applications hosted in AWS. The logs, alerts, and troubleshooting of
these applications can be done easily using Amazon CloudWatch. Amazon
CloudWatch does not charge for the first 50 metrics for a single dashboard. If
the metrics limit is exceeded, the user is charged with some amount. Amazon
CloudWatch can be accessed using Command Line Interface, APIs, AWS
Console.

2. Azure Monitor

It collects, monitors, and takes necessary actions on the data of the devices and
instances in the Azure and on-premises environment. It is very efficient and
identifies and resolves problems in seconds. It simply collects the data from
various sources and stores it as logs. This data can later be used for logs,
analysis, security checks, notifications, etc. The main advantage of it is that it
not only reports the issue to the user but also provides the solution to solve the
issue.

3. AppDynamics

AppDynamics is another cloud monitoring tool that is used for monitoring

every aspect of the application. It can monitor the business transactions,
transaction snapshots, tires, and nodes, etc. It also monitors the full technology
stack of the application from the database to the server. The architecture of
AppDynamics is simpler and is controlled by a central management server
known as the controller. AppDynamics was founded in 2008 by a person in
WIly Technology. Now, it is acquired by Cisco company. AppDynamics holds
a rank of 9 in Cloud 100 list which is ranked by Forbes.

4. CA Unified Infrastructure Management

It is founded and released by CA technologies It is previously called a CA

Nimsoft monitor and in the later release, it is released with enhanced, alerting
and monitoring capabilities. It provides 360-degree visibility into the
application by monitoring every aspect of the infrastructure. It helps us to
manage both the modern cloud and hybrid IT infrastructure efficiently. It
allows rapid setup and configuration. It provides a wide range of possibilities
in a single tool.

5. Solarwinds

The software was founded by Donald Yonce and David Yonce in Tulsa in
1999. It is customizable and intelligent to use. However, it is not that attractive
as other tools but it gets the job done without any problems. It can support up
to 1200 applications and systems. It allows us to monitor the components
through PowerShell, REST API, etc. It also has configurations for windows
and Linux which leads to faster performance.
6. ManageEngine
ManageEngine is founded by Zoho Corporation. It is also an infrastructure
monitoring tool with real-time monitoring of networks It has customizable
dashboards for users. It has more than 70 metrics for VMWare and more than
40 metrics for Hyper V. It also has inbuilt fault monitoring and alerting. But
the problem with this is, it has no hosted version. It manages the computers in
various domains and allows checks the bandwidth too. It is both available as
free edition and premium edition. The free edition starts from 495 dollars and
the cloud version starts from 645 dollars.

7. Zabbix

Zabbix is founded by Alexei Vladishev. It is one of the most popular open-

source infrastructure monitoring tools in the market. It is available on multiple
platforms like Windows, Unix, Linux, etc. It can send notifications on various
streams like SMS, email, script alerts, webhooks, etc. The main advantage is it
is open source and has a strong community for support. Zabbix allows APIs,
access controls/permissions, activity dashboard, audit trails, data visualization,
CPU monitoring, and a lot more features.

8. Nagios

Nagios is founded by Ethan Galstad. Nagios is yet another famous monitoring

tool. It periodically runs security checks on all the important aspects of the
system. It is available as both an open-source and paid enterprise solution. It is
Linux-based. The architecture of Nagios can be extended through plugins. It is
open-source and gives us full access to source code. It is more popular and is
used by companies like Uber, Twitch, Dropbox, Fiverr, 9GAG, Zalando, etc.

9. Site 24×7
It is also a monitoring tool that inspects the servers, network containers, and
visualization platforms. It runs on both Windows and Linux servers. It easily
monitors more than 60 metrics for servers. It also provides plugin integrations
for MySQL and Apache. It also provides website services like HTTP, DNS
servers, etc. Site 24×7 monitoring allows us to use APIs, Baseline managers,
Email monitoring, email alerts, event logs, mail server monitoring, reporting &
statistics, SLA, and much more.

10. Datadog

Datadog infrastructure monitoring is founded by Olivier Pompel and Alexis

Le-Quoc. It also monitors both cloud and on-premise infrastructures. It
provides visibility into the state of the components we are using. It allows us
to use consolidated dashboards giving us visibility into the infrastructure. It
has a customizable Datadog API. It has more than 400 vendor-backed
integration thereby it can give us deep insight into our IT stack. It has a
broader use case, it is used by more than 800 companies and 2000 developers.
With the help of Datadog infrastructure monitoring, we can monitor the
performance and well-being of the entire IT infrastructure.

Communication as a Service (CaaS):

Communication as a Service (CaaS) is a trending service provided to the
customers by CaaS vendors that is implemented over cloud computing
technology. Nowadays communication has become the most crucial aspect of
businesses. A complete communication solution can help the business grow
fast. In this content, we will discuss CaaS, its features, how does it work, the
risk involved and it’s advantages.

What is Communication as a Service (CaaS)?

Communication as a service (CaaS) is a cloud-based solution provided by

cloud vendors. CaaS is a specialized variation of Software as a Service
(SaaS) which is among three basic services delivered by the cloud computing
technology. When we talk about communication, recall, in how many ways we
can communicate with others. Well, we can communicate via text message,
voice call and video call.
CaaS providers manage the hardware and software that are important for
delivering Voice over IP (VoIP) for voice communication service, and other
services like Instant Messaging (IM) to provide text communication service and
video conferencing to provide video communication service.

CaaS model provides economical services as the service users do not have to
bear the expenditure of buying and managing the communication equipment.
CaaS is favourable for small IT companies that on the verge of expansion. Let
us discuss the features of CaaS.

Features of CaaS

1. Integrated and Unified Communication

The advanced unified communication features include Chat, Multimedia

conferencing, Microsoft Outlook integration, Real-time presence, “Soft” phones
(software-based telephones), Video calls, Unified messaging and mobility.
Nowadays, CaaS vendor introduces new features to their CaaS services much
faster than ever before. It has become economical for providers to introduce a
new feature to their CaaS application faster because the end-users are
benefitting from the provider’s scalable platform infrastructure and ultimately
the many end-users using the provider’s service shares this cost of
enhancement.

2. No Investment Required
As we have learnt above it is the sole responsibility of CaaS vendor to manage
hardware and software deployed to provide the communication service to their
customers. The customer only has to pay for the service he is getting from the
CaaS vendor, not for communication features deployed to provide
communication services.

3. Flexibility & Scalability

The customer can outsource the communication services form CaaS vendors.
The customers pay for what they have demanded. The customer can extend
their service requirement according to their need. This brings flexibility and
scalability in communication services and even make the service economical.

4. No Risk of Obsolescence
The CaaS vendors keep on updating their hardware and software that provide
communication services to meet the changing demands of the market. So the
customer using the services does not have to be worried about the service
obsolescence.

5. No Maintenance Cost Incurred

The customer outsourcing the CaaS service does not have to bear the cost of
maintaining the equipment deployed for providing communication services.

6. Ensure Business Continuity

If due to any calamity your business’s geographical region is affected then how
long can you continue your business? That’s why nowadays companies
distribute their data to the geographically dispersed data centre which maintain
the redundancy & help them in recovering soon after any catastrophic event.

The same feature is adopted and implemented by the CaaS providers in order to
provide voice continuity or communication continuity even if any catastrophic
event strikes.

How Communication as a Service (CaaS) Works?

Business users opting for CaaS can selectively deploy communication features
(hardware and software) throughout there office on a pay-as-you-go basis.
CaaS vendor designs comprehensive, flexible and easy to understand service
plans for their users.

The quality of communication service is assured by the CaaS vendors under

the service level agreement. CaaS is a fully hosted solutions that are practised
on the cloud-based technology which can be implemented over multiple types
of operating system such as windows, Linus, Android & iOS. Because of this,
the CaaS can be accessed through multiple types of connected devices such as
mobiles, handsets, tablets, TV sets, laptop, PC etc.

CaaS has brought the revolutionary change in method of communication

from person to person, person to machine and machine to machine.

CaaS abstracts the networks capability to handle peak load for their customer
which make it flexible. The network capabilities can be extended to raise the
network capacity, devices and area coverage based on the demands of the CaaS
customers. However, the network capabilities can be extended dynamically
according to customers demand so that the resources are not wasted.

Risk Involved in CaaS?

As we have mentioned earlier that the CaaS vendors are solely responsible for
the quality of the service they provide. So from the customer’s perspective,
there is no risk involved in taking the services from the CaaS vendor.

The customers need not worry about the service being getting obsolete as the
CaaS providers perform periodic updates and they also manage the replacement
of hardware and software involved to keep the platform technically up to date.

Advantages of Communication as a Service (CaaS)

 CaaS provides an economical way to deliver communication service to its

customer by preventing them from investing in hardware and software
required for delivering communication services.
 CaaS vendor provides 24/7 service to its customers.
 Customer receiving services from CaaS vendor do not have to indulge
and invest in managing the components of CaaS.
 CaaS vendor offers flexible service as they charge according to pay as
you go basis.
 CaaS provide scalable services as they provide service based on
customers demand.
 CaaS provides the hosted and managed solution which offers complete
communication solutions managed by a single vendor only.
  From the customers perspective, there is no risk of service becoming
obsolete as the vendors are responsible for upgrading the carrier platform.

Building cloud network:

How to Build a Cloud Computing Infrastructure?

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For building a dedicated cloud infrastructure, there are several key requirements
that are needed to achieve it. Also, it is important to go for the best hosting
providers for this since we have to invest a good amount of resources in it. In
this blog, we will discuss how you can build your cloud computing
infrastructure. While doing so, we will also uncover how the cloud can
transform your business. Let’s go.

Why cloud is the future? –

Cloud computing infrastructure gives you instant access to impeccable

resources. It allows businesses to react to new market developments way
quicker than legacy infrastructure. Amazon Cloud Support service can
streamline your DevOps process. Cloud computing resources can enhance your
software development and deployment processes to achieve continuous
integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD). The cloud is a significant
enabling technology for digital transformation. In response to the wide adoption
of 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and latency-sensitive applications, the
need for cloud infrastructure is also rising. While physical data centers are
designed to house a lot of information in one place, half of the world’s
population still resides in rural locations. The cloud enables systems to be more
distributed and brings processing and data closer to users. With this method,
latency reduces, bandwidth expenses decrease, and connection performance
improves. As a result, cloud adoption is increasing at a fast rate.
NetApp reports that global spending on public cloud computing is growing at an
annual rate of 20.4% and is likely to reach $600 billion in 2023. Everyone wants
a piece of the cloud pie, with dedicated cloud infrastructure being the cherry on
top.

Benefits of possessing cloud infrastructure

Cloud essentially allows you to set up a virtual office that gives you the
flexibility to connect with your business and resources anywhere, at any time.
With the growing number of web-enabled devices used in today’s business
environment, cloud technology improves access to your data. That’s not it,
though. Let’s find out the 3 major benefits of investing in cloud infrastructure:

Reduced IT costs
Rather than having to purchase expensive systems and equipment, you can
reduce your business costs by using the resources of your cloud server
infrastructure provider. You can reduce your operating costs as the following:

 The cost of physical system upgrades, including new hardware and

software
 No longer need to hire expert staff on your company’s payroll
 Energy consumption costs would be reduced significantly
Superior scalability and flexibility
Your company can easily scale its operations and storage requirements up or
down to fit its demands. It offers your company the flexibility to evolve as it
wishes. Your cloud computing service provider can take care of all the upgrades
and tweaks on your behalf. No more need to buy and install expensive upgrades
yourself. The cloud is here to help.

Seamless remote collaboration

Your company can collaborate more effectively in a cloud environment and use
more efficient channels to communicate and share information. Cloud
computing allows your employees, contractors, and third parties to have access
to the same files in real time. This is particularly helpful when you are working
on a project with developers operating from vivid locations, thus eliminating
productivity restraints.
Defining your requirements
To define your cloud infrastructure requirements, you must first determine your
business use cases. Depending on the service or product you develop, you can
choose between private, public, hybrid, or multi-cloud. Let’s find out the
differences.

Private cloud
A private cloud environment is completely dedicated to one end user or group,
typically running behind that user’s or group’s firewall. AWS is one of the
pioneers in today’s dedicated web hosting industry. There are two sub-types of
a private cloud:
 Dedicated cloud infrastructure: Here the underlying IT infrastructure is
devoted to a single client with totally segregated access.
 Managed private clouds: Here, a third-party provider deploys,
configures, and manages a private cloud on behalf of its customers.
Enterprises with understaffed or underqualified IT teams can improve the
quality of their private cloud services and infrastructure by hiring
companies reputable for managing cloud infrastructure.
Public cloud
Public clouds are cloud environments that are typically created from IT
infrastructure not originally owned by the end user. All clouds become public
clouds when the environments are partitioned and redistributed to multiple
tenants. Public clouds in the past have always operated off-site, but today’s
public cloud providers have begun to provide cloud services on clients’ on-site
data centers. Amazon Web Services, again, is one of the largest public cloud
providers in the world.

Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud is an IT environment made up of several environments that are
connected by LANs (Local Area Networks), WANs (Wide Area Networks),
VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), and/or APIs (Application programming
interface) to form a single, unified environment.

Multi-cloud
A multi-cloud architecture consists of multiple cloud services from various
public or private cloud vendors. All hybrid cloud environments are multi-
clouds. However, not all multi-cloud environments are hybrid clouds.

Designing A Cloud Computing Strategy

The necessary steps are given below:–

#1: First, you should decide which technology will be the basis for your on-
demand application infrastructure

The decision related to which virtualization technology will be the

organizational standard is already made. But decide before you start if it has not
made. There are cons and pros to both a homogeneous and heterogeneous
virtualization infrastructure, and the decision will impact the ability to monitor
and manage infrastructure later. So make this decision first.

#2: Determine what delivery infrastructure you will be used to abstract the
application infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure’s the on-demand capabilities are first designed to do two

things: make efficient use of resources and ensure scalability. Some method of
load balancing/application delivery will be necessary to accomplish the former.
To abstract the applications, this layer of the architecture will helpful and will
provide a consistent means of access to users, shielding them from the high rate
of change which occurs in the infrastructure.

The delivery infrastructure or load balancer will need to be included in the

provisioning process and to provide visibility into application capacity,
performance as well as resource management.

Many solutions are there to match your choice, but select one solution in which
you will integrate the system into the architecture. Also, you need to verify the
solution that whether it is capable of providing the visibility you will need into
performance metrics or not. So, decide what metrics and thresholds you’ll use to
trigger provisioning processes and ensure that the infrastructure can support it.

#3:Prepare the network infrastructure

Prepare the network to deal with an on-demand application infrastructure.
Application delivery: must be configured correctly for the application being
deployed, Hardware: network, storage. The network must be configured to deal
with such change without requiring human intervention, and must be able to
handle applications which migrate from hardware to hardware. For this, the
network will require constant optimization to adapt to changing traffic patterns.
#4: Provide visibility and automation of management tasks
Remember, visibility is a key to an on-demand infrastructure. An associated
management systems and the infrastructure must know what is running, when
and where to evaluate available resources. Find how you will collect the data
and from where. Decide which system is authoritative for each metric and
verify to feed that information in real-time to the automation system.

#5: Integrate all the moving parts, such that the infrastructure and realizes
the benefits of automation, abstraction and resource sharing
The last one is the most difficult part and requires the previous steps to be
completed. The integration, automation of all the pieces of the infrastructure
like storage, network, and application enable the infrastructure to act on-
demand. The realization of cost-reduction benefits will be marginalized without
automation. The integration step automates workflow. Automation requires
constant monitoring across the application infrastructure from the network layer
to the applications executing in the environment. In many cases, this integration
may require a custom solution. If you are an early adopter, it may be necessary
to build a management system and an automation framework yourself.