Cloud Computing 101: Understanding the Basics and key Concepts

Brief History of the Cloud

The idea of cloud computing dates to the computer networking days. That’s somewhere in the 1960s when computer geeks and researchers were dabbing with the idea of time-sharing, which is nothing but how multiple users could access a single computer system. This somehow evolved into a concept named distributed computing in the 1970s and 1980s; here, through a virtual network, many computers could be connected. Cloud computing had to wait until the 1990s and early 2000 to see its evolution. It took shape due to the rise of the Internet and virtualization. AWS happened in 2006, and other service providers like Microsoft and Google followed suit.

Definition of the cloud

So, what is cloud computing? Cloud computing is an operating model of enabling on-demand access to computing resources such as servers, storage, databases, and applications by sharing them over the internet. Cloud-based services are a revolutionary way of empowering businesses to access computing resources as a utility service instead of investing in expensive hardware and infrastructure. It gives businesses the flexibility to scale and be cost efficient by making the best possible use of cloud resources. Cloud has become a driving force for businesses and how people interact, from online shopping to social media, or national security; this technology continues to play a pivotal role in transforming the future of how the world views computing.

How does cloud computing work?

Overview of cloud computing process

In cloud computing, by leveraging a pay-per-use model, companies can enjoy the power of cloud by leveraging computing resources over the internet. These services are usually provided by third party vendors who own and maintain this cloud infrastructure and sell it to companies based on their needs and demand. Look at three fundamental cloud computing services – IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Infrastructure-as-a-service offers virtualized computing resources such as servers, storage, and networking. If you are looking for a comprehensive environment to develop, test and deploy cloud software applications, Platform-as-a-service is your environment. Software-as-a-Service is about offering a software application through the cloud so that clients do have to invest in any infrastructure.

Key components of cloud computing

Here are the critical components of cloud computing:

• Cloud infrastructure: it involves a range of hardware and software such as servers, storage & networking devices, virtualization software & management tools housed in data centers that can be accessed through the internet. A client accessing cloud infrastructure can scale their computing needs as it designed to be elastic and automatically adjust based on business demands. It is highly available with multiple backup and failure mitigation mechanisms to ensure business continuity.

Cloud Deployment Models: There are four main cloud deployment models, Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and Multi-Cloud. You can pick an ideal cloud service model from either of these.

• Public Cloud: Here clients can rent computing resources from third-party providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform. These vendors will maintain the infrastructure and hardware, and clients can access the resources over internet. This model is scalable and cost-effective as they need to pay only for what is used.
• Private Cloud: This is a dedicated cloud infrastructure that is solely meant for the organization. The private cloud might be on-premises or in a data center. In this model, clients experience greater control over computing resources and data. They can also ensure stringent security and compliance standards.
• Hybrid Cloud: This is a combination of public cloud and private cloud infrastructure. It is a good synergy between the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud and the control of sensitive data and applications offered by the private cloud. A hybrid cloud is ideal for varying workloads and data management needs.
• Multi-Cloud: In this model, multiple cloud providers can be used to meet computing needs. The strengths and capabilities of different cloud vendors can be leveraged, reducing the risk of any vendor lock-in. This is the best model for companies needing the flexibility to switch between cloud providers based on their business needs.

Cloud Security: Due to the expanded attack surface, cloud data must be protected. There are many safety measures. These are a must to mitigate risks of malware, phishing attacks, and DDoS attacks. It will help companies to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability of applications. Security can be enabled in a cloud application server or cloud computing softwares through Identity and Access Management, network security, application security, and compliance standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI DSS.

Cloud Management: There is a whole suite of tools, technologies, and practices to optimize cloud environments. It ensures the efficient use of cloud resources to drive high performance and availability at reduced costs. Here are a few key areas of cloud management:

• Resource provisioning: it’s about allocating and managing resources in cloud which can be virtual machines, storage, or network infrastructure. This also involves scaling resources and monitoring based on user demands.
• Monitoring and Performance Management: Here, performance metrics are analyzed to check for issues which are then fixed to optimize the performance of cloud resources. This can be monitoring network traffic, application performance, resource utilization, collecting data, and checking for bottlenecks.
• Cost Management: The monitoring and optimization of cloud spending to effectively use resources can be termed cost management. Here the usage patterns and cloud saving opportunities, such as idle resources and reserved instances, are identified and analyzed to optimize costs.
• Security and Compliance Management: This is a must to ensure your cloud resources are secure and compliant with relevant regulations and standards. This includes implementing security controls, conducting regular audits and assessments, and meeting compliance requirements.
• Automation and Orchestration: This amalgamation of tools and technologies to automate tasks and processes, such as resource provisioning and deployment, to improve efficiency and reduce errors. Automation can help IT staff to focus on more strategic tasks.

Cloud Computing Models

Let’s look at the types of cloud computing models, also known as cloud service models or cloud computing service models.

Public cloud: The cloud service provider manages and maintains the infrastructure. You, the customer, is responsible for managing and securing their applications and data. It’s a good choice for small and medium businesses as it enables them to have enterprise-scale infrastructure at affordable costs. However, it has issues around security, compliance, and privacy. Service providers offer good security, but organizations must take of data security and compliance needs. This is a must, and companies must go for a trusted service provider as computing resources are shared with other organizations.

Private cloud: If companies want better control and customization of cloud resources, they should opt for a private cloud. They can tailor their needs, such as stricter security protocols, compliance measures, or integration with existing infrastructure. There is higher reliability and performance, as resources are not shared with other organizations. Private cloud operators offer dedicated technical support to their customers for faster resolution of issues. However, the private cloud is expensive as companies need to invest in their cloud infrastructure and IT staff to maintain the infrastructure.

Hybrid cloud: This is the best option as it gives the benefits of public and private cloud while addressing their challenges. It is the combination of both connected to share data and applications between the two. Companies can experience more security of their sensitive data and scalability and cost-effectiveness of public cloud for less critical workloads. There is more flexibility as workloads can be shifted between the two environments when needed; this helps companies to ensure business continuity even if one environment fails. The challenge is that security must be even in both; this requires effective management and monitoring of private and public environments to ensure policies and compliance regulations are implemented evenly.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Why Cloud Computing is Important?

Cloud computing is becoming indispensable for every business as it is an essential enabler for digital transformation. The range of benefits it offers far supersedes that of traditional on-premises infrastructure. Businesses can scale their infrastructure and drastically reduce their capital expenditures, offering flexibility and agility to changing market needs.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

The benefits are aplenty; here are they.

Scalability: Companies can scale their infrastructure up or down at a meager cost based on their business need.

Cost-Effectiveness: There is no need for huge CAPEX. Companies need to pay only for the resources they use.

Flexibility: Companies can experience excellent flexibility, enabling them to deploy new applications and services rapidly.

Accessibility: Faster access to applications and data from anywhere can increase productivity and collaboration.

Business Applications of Cloud Computing

Data Analytics: it involves the analysis and interpretation of large data volumes to detect patterns, trends, and insights to make informed decisions. This is done through tools and techniques such as statistical analysis, data mining, and AI-ML to extract meaning from data. It can be applied to marketing, operations, and finance functions to make data-driven decisions for efficiency and productivity.

Collaboration: Businesses can collaborate on projects and share documents, projects, or applications from different locations, using a cloud-based platform in real-time. Data is also more secure due to rights and restrictions in access.

Disaster Recovery: it is the backup and restoration of company data in case of a cyberattack or a natural disaster. The entire image in storage which can be the OS, applications, patches, and data, is captured into a virtual server. This server is deployed in case of a disaster and synced with the main server to ensure a steady state ensuring faster restoration.

Customer Relationship Management: Typically accessed through a browser, cloud-based CRM solutions help companies manage customer relationships from any device. It offers a central repository for customer data, enabling businesses to get a consolidated view of their customer data. This results in better customer service, improved sales efficiency, enhanced marketing campaigns, and better collaboration.

Application Development: Businesses can quickly develop and deploy new applications and services, reducing time-to-market and increasing agility. It involves building, testing and deploying software applications using cloud infrastructure and services. Due to its scale and flexibility, developers will find it more amicable. It empowers developers to create and deploy them without costly infrastructure quickly. A cloud environment offers many services and tools to build highly functional and efficient applications, such as cloud storage, databases, and machine learning services. Developers can seamlessly collaborate with one another in a highly secure space, protected from unauthorized access and threats.

Future of cloud computing technology

Cloud has already transformed businesses and will be a key driver of innovation and growth. There will be increased adoption of multi-cloud environments for better flexibility, resilience and performance than single-cloud environments. Edge computing is another growing area due to the increase in the number of devices and IoT applications and the need for real-time data processing closer to the edge of the network rather than in a data center. Cloud based applications driven by AI-ML will be more in use, and there will be more emphasis on security and compliance to secure data and meet global regulatory standards.

Still, clouded with questions? Check out these FAQs

1. What is compute cloud?
   This is usually a term used to illustrate a cloud computing service that provides processing power to run an application or drive data analysis. Some of the common services include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, Google Compute Engine, and IBM Cloud Virtual Servers.
2. What is a cloud?
   Cloud is a metaphor that describes a network of remote servers that can be accessed to leverage computing resources on demand.
3. What is clouding technology?
   Though this is not a standard technology term, it can be referred to as cloud computing technology, which provides easy access to cloud software and servers through devices connected to the internet.
4. What are cloud compute services?
   Infrastructure-as-a-Services is popularly known as compute services. Platforms such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines, Google Compute Engine, and IBM Cloud Virtual Servers offer virtual server instances, storage or APIs to migrate workload to virtual machines.
5. What is a cloud service?
   This is a term used to indicate the broad range of services offered through cloud. These services ensure companies can have faster, easier access to cloud applications and resources without needing to set up a physical infrastructure.
6. What is cloud hosting?
   Cloud hosting is different from traditional hosting. Here cloud resources are used to make applications and websites more accessible through a network of virtual and physical cloud services.
7. What are cloud services?
   It can be infrastructure, platform, or software hosted by third-party vendors and given to users over the internet. The most common services are IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
8. How does cloud work?
   Cloud works by leveraging a huge network of remote servers that are owned by vendors such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
9. What is cloud technology?
   Cloud technology can help users give quick access to cloud storage, software, or servers through the internet.
10. What is public cloud?
    A common form of cloud deployment where third-party providers on demand provide the cloud resources.
11. What is a cloud in technology?
    In technology, cloud can be considered a network of remote services that can be leveraged for storage, data processing, or application development. It’s a unique way of delivering computing services to users over the internet.
12. What is the cloud and how does it work?
    It’s nothing but software or any computing services accessed through a browser in a device by using the internet. Cloud has a front end and a back end. The front end is the user, and the back end is the virtual server or resource.
13. Name the software in cloud computing?
    There is a few software used to build cloud computing environments. This includes Ubuntu, VMware, Xenserver, and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V.
14. How does cloud computing works?
    Cloud computing services are provided by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. They own and operate these services and provides computing resources to users over the internet.
15. What is a cloud platform?
    A cloud platform can be visualized as a data center on the internet having the OS and hardware of a server. People can run applications and services without needing to buy any physical equipment.
16. What is cloud infrastructure?
    Cloud infrastructure is the physical and virtual resources used to support computing services. It is the foundation needed to deliver cloud services.
17. Why cloud computing is important?
    Cloud computing is important as it helps businesses access computing power and resources to run their application and services with lesser investment in hardware infrastructure.
18. What is a cloud application?
    A cloud-based application is a program operating in the cloud and hosted on a remote server. Users access it through web browser or through an application interface.
19. Is cloud engineering difficult?
    Cloud engineering requires knowledge of cloud infrastructure and programming skills in python and java. You must have good grasp of concepts required to design, build, and manage cloud systems, along with an understanding of virtualization, containers, software defined networking and security.
20. What are cloud computing services?
    Third-party providers offer cloud computing services on a pay-as-you-use basis where users can pay only for those resources they use.
21. What are the applications of cloud computing?
    There are a variety of applications such as customer relationship management, ERP systems for businesses, online classrooms for education, storage of electronic health records for the healthcare industry, accounting software for finance, citizen service portal for the general population, and high-end gaming servers for the gaming industry.