What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is defined as storing and accessing of data and computing services over the
internet. It doesn’t store any data on your personal computer. It is the on-demand availability of
computer services like servers, data storage, networking, databases, etc. The main purpose of
cloud computing is to give access to data centers to many users. Users can also access data
from a remote server.
Examples of Cloud Computing Services: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

Let’s learn Cloud Computing basics with an example –

Whenever you travel through a bus or train, you take a ticket for your destination and hold back
to your seat till you reach your destination. Likewise other passengers also takes ticket and
travel in the same bus with you and it hardly bothers you where they go. When your stop comes
you get off the bus thanking the driver. Cloud computing is just like that bus, carrying data and
information for different users and allows to use its service with minimal cost.

Why the Name Cloud?

The term “Cloud” came from a network design that was used by network engineers to represent
the location of various network devices and there inter-connection. The shape of this network
design was like a cloud.

Why Cloud Computing?

With increase in computer and Mobile user’s, data storage has become a priority in all fields.
Large and small scale businesses today thrive on their data & they spent a huge amount of
money to maintain this data. It requires a strong IT support and a storage hub. Not all
businesses can afford high cost of in-house IT infrastructure and back up support services. For
them Cloud Computing is a cheaper solution. Perhaps its efficiency in storing data, computation
and less maintenance cost has succeeded to attract even bigger businesses as well.

Cloud computing decreases the hardware and software demand from the user’s side. The only
thing that user must be able to run is the cloud computing systems interface software, which
can be as simple as Web browser, and the Cloud network takes care of the rest. We all have
experienced cloud computing at some instant of time, some of the popular cloud services we
have used or we are still using are mail services like gmail, hotmail or yahoo etc.

While accessing e-mail service our data is stored on cloud server and not on our computer. The
technology and infrastructure behind the cloud is invisible. It is less important whether cloud
services are based on HTTP, XML, Ruby, PHP or other specific technologies as far as it is user
friendly and functional. An individual user can connect to cloud system from his/her own devices
like desktop, laptop or mobile.

Cloud computing harnesses small business effectively having limited resources, it gives small
businesses access to the technologies that previously were out of their reach. Cloud computing
helps small businesses to convert their maintenance cost into profit. Let’s see how?

In an in-house IT server, you have to pay a lot of attention and ensure that there are no flaws
into the system so that it runs smoothly. And in case of any technical glitch you are completely
responsible; it will seek a lot of attention, time and money for repair. Whereas, in cloud
computing, the service provider takes the complete responsibility of the complication and the
technical faults.

Types of Clouds
There are four different cloud models that you can subscribe according to business needs.
Following are the different Types of Clouds:

Types of Clouds

1. Private Cloud: Here, computing resources are deployed for one particular organization.
This method is more used for intra-business interactions. Where the computing
resources can be governed, owned and operated by the same organization.
2. Community Cloud: Here, computing resources are provided for a community and
organizations.
3. Public Cloud: This type of cloud is used usually for B2C (Business to Consumer) type
interactions. Here the computing resource is owned, governed and operated by
government, an academic or business organization.
4. Hybrid Cloud: This type of cloud can be used for both type of interactions – B2B
(Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer). This deployment method is
called hybrid cloud as the computing resources are bound together by different clouds.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

The potential for cost saving is the major reason of cloud services adoption by many
organizations. Cloud computing gives the freedom to use services as per the requirement and
pay only for what you use. Due to cloud computing it has become possible to run IT operations
as a outsourced unit without much in-house resources.

1. Lower IT infrastructure and computer costs for users

2. Improved performance
3. Fewer Maintenance issues
4. Instant software updates
5. Improved compatibility between Operating systems
6. Backup and recovery
7. Performance and Scalability
8. Increased storage capacity
9. Increase data safety

Examples of Cloud Computing

Here are some examples of Cloud computing applications:

Health Care:

Medical professionals can do diagnostics, host information, and analyze patients remotely with
the help of cloud computing. Cloud computing allows doctors to share information quickly from
anywhere. It also saves costs by allowing large data file transfers instantly. This certainly
increases efficiency.

Ultimately, cloud technology helps the medical team ensure patients receive the best possible
care without unnecessary delay. The condition of patients can also be updated in seconds with
the help of remote conferencing.

Education:

Cloud computing is also useful in educational institutions for distance learning. It offers various
services for universities, colleges, professors, and teachers to reach thousands of students all
around the world. Companies like Google and Microsoft offer various services free of charge to
faculties, teachers, professors, and students from various learning institutions. Various
educational institutions across the world use these services to improve their efficiency and
productivity.

Government:

The U.S. military and government were early adopters of cloud computing. Their Cloud
incorporates social, mobile, and analytics technologies. Although, they must adhere to strict
compliance and security measures (FIPS, FISMA, and FedRAMP). This protects against cyber
threats both domestically and abroad.

Big data Analytics:

Cloud computing helps data scientists analyze various data patterns, insights for better
predictions and decision making. There are many open-source big data development and
analytics tools available like Cassandra, Hadoop, etc., for this purpose.

Communication:

Cloud computing provides network-based access to communication tools like emails and social
media. WhatsApp also uses a cloud-based infrastructure to facilitate user communications. All
the information is stored in the service provider’s hardware.

Business Process:

Nowadays, many business processes like emails, ERP, CRM, and document management
have become cloud-based services. SaaS has become the most vital method for enterprises.
Some examples of SaaS include Salesforce, HubSpot.
Facebook, Dropbox, and Gmail:

Cloud computing can be used for the storage of files. It helps you automatically synchronize the
files from different devices like desktop, tablet, mobile, etc. Dropbox allows users to store and
access files up to 2 GB for free. It also provides an easy backup feature.

Social Networking platforms like Facebook demand powerful hosting to manage and store data
in real-time. Cloud-based communication provides click-to-call facilities from social networking
sites and access to the instant messaging system.

Citizen Services:

The cloud technology can be used for handling citizen services too. It is widely used for storing,
managing, updating citizen details, acknowledging forms, and even verifying the current status
of applications can be performed with the help of cloud computing.

Cloud Computing Services

The three major Cloud Computing Offerings are

 Software as a Service (SaaS)

 Platform as a Service (PaaS)
 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Different business use some or all of these components according to their requirement.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

SaaS or software as a service is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted
by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network (internet).
SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies that
supports Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) or Web Services. Through internet this
service is available to users anywhere in the world.

Traditionally, software application needed to be purchased upfront &then installed it onto your
computer. SaaS users on the other hand, instead of purchasing the software subscribes to it,
usually on monthly basisvia internet. Anyone who needs an access to a particular piece of
software can be subscribe as a user, whether it is one or two people or every thousands of
employees in a corporation. SaaS is compatible with all internet enabled devices. Many
important tasks like accounting, sales, invoicing and planning all can be performed using SaaS.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Platform as a service, is referred as PaaS, it provides a platform and environment to allow
developers to build applications and services. This service is hosted in the cloud and accessed
by the users via internet. To understand in a simple terms, let compare this with painting a
picture, where you are provided with paint colours, different paint brushes and paper by your
school teacher and you just have to draw a beautiful picture using those tools.

PaaS services are constantly updated & new features added. Software developers, web
developers and business can benefit from PaaS. It provides platform to support application
development. It includes software support and management services, storage, networking,
deploying, testing, collaborating, hosting and maintaining applications.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

IaaS (Infrastructure As A Service) is one of the fundamental service model of cloud computing
alongside PaaS( Platform as a Service). It provides access to computing resources in a
virtualized environment “the cloud” on internet. It provides computing infrastructure like virtual
server space, network connections, bandwidth, load balancers and IP addresses. The pool of
hardware resource is extracted from multiple servers and networks usually distributed across
numerous data centers. This provides redundancy and reliability to IaaS.

IaaS(Infrastructure as a service) is a complete package for computing. For small scale

businesses who are looking for cutting cost on IT infrastructure, IaaS is one of the solutions.
Annually a lot of money is spent in maintenance and buying new components like hard-drives,
network connections and external storage device etc. which a business owner could have
saved for other expenses by using IaaS.

Grid Computing Vs Cloud Computing

When we switch on the fan or any electric device, we are less concern about the power supply
from where it comes and how it is generated. The power supply or electricity that we receives at
our home travels through a chain of network, which includes power stations, transformers,
power lines and transmission stations. These components together make a ‘Power Grid’.
Likewise, ‘Grid Computing’ is an infrastructure that links computing resources such as PCs,
servers, workstations and storage elements and provides the mechanism required to access
them.

Grid Computing is a middle ware to co-ordinate disparate IT resources across a network,

allowing them to function as whole. It is more often used in scientific research and in universities
for educational purpose. For example, a group of architect students working on a different
project requires a specific designing tool and a software for designing purpose but only couple
of them got access to this designing tool, the problem is how they can make this tool available
to rest of the students. To make available for other students they will put this designing tool on
campus network, now the grid will connect all these computers in campus network and allow
student to use designing tool required for their project from anywhere.

Cloud computing and Grid computing is often confused, though there functions are almost
similar there approach for their functionality is different. Let see how they operate-

Cloud Computing Grid Computing

 Cloud computing works more as a  Grid computing uses the available resource
service provider for utilizing computer and interconnected computer systems to
resource accomplish a common goal

 Grid computing is a decentralized model,

 Cloud computing is a centralized model where the computation could occur over
many administrative model

 A grid is a collection of computers which is

owned by a multiple parties in multiple
 Cloud is a collection of computers
locations and connected together so that
usually owned by a single party.
users can share the combined power of
resources

 Cloud offers more services all most all

the services like web hosting, DB (Data  Grid provides limited services
Base) support and much more

 Cloud computing is typically provided

 Grid computing federates the resources
within a single organization (eg :
located within different organization.
Amazon)
Utility Computing Vs Cloud Computing
In our previous conversation in “Grid Computing” we have seen how electricity is supplied to our
house, also we do know that to keep electricity supply we have to pay the bill. Utility Computing
is just like that, we use electricity at home as per our requirement and pay the bill accordingly
likewise you will use the services for the computing and pay as per the use this is known as
‘Utility computing’. Utility computing is a good source for small scale usage, it can be done in
any server environment and requires Cloud Computing.

Utility computing is the process of providing service through an on-demand, pay per use billing
method. The customer or client has access to a virtually unlimited supply of computing solutions
over a virtual private network or over the internet, which can be sourced and used whenever it’s
required. Based on the concept of utility computing , grid computing, cloud computing and
managed IT services are based.

Through utility computing small businesses with limited budget can easily use software like
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) without investing heavily on infrastructure to
maintain their clientele base.

Utility Computing Cloud Computing

 Cloud Computing also works like utility
 Utility computing refers to the ability to computing, you pay only for what you use
charge the offered services, and charge but Cloud Computing might be cheaper,
customers for exact usage as such, Cloud based app can be up and
running in days or weeks.

 Utility computing users want to be in  In cloud computing, provider is in

control of the geographical location of the complete control of cloud computing
infrastructure services and infrastructure

 Utility computing is more favorable when  Cloud computing is great and easy to use
performance and selection infrastructure is when the selection infrastructure and
critical performance is not critical

 Utility computing is a good choice for less  Cloud computing is a good choice for high
resource demanding resource demanding

 Utility computing refers to a business  Cloud computing refers to the underlying

model IT architecture

Security concerns for Cloud Computing

While using cloud computing, the major issue that concerns the users is about its security.

One concern is that cloud providers themselves may have access to customer’s unencrypted
data- whether it’s on disk, in memory or transmitted over the network.
Some countries government may decide to search through data without necessarily notifying
the data owner, depending on where the data resides, which is not appreciated and is
considered as a privacy breach (Example Prism Program by USA).

To provide security for systems, networks and data cloud computing service providers have
joined hands with TCG ( Trusted Computing Group) which is non-profit organization which
regularly releases a set of specifications to secure hardware, create self-encrypting drives and
improve network security. It protects the data from root kits and malware.

As computing has expanded to different devices like hard disk drives and mobile phones, TCG
has extended the security measures to include these devices. It provides ability to create a
unified data protection policy across all clouds.

Some of the trusted cloud services are Amazon, Box.net, Gmail and many others.

Privacy Concern & Cloud Computing

Privacy present a strong barrier for users to adapt into Cloud Computing systems

There are certain measures which can improve privacy in cloud computing.

1. The administrative staff of the cloud computing service could theoretically monitor the
data moving in memory before it is stored in disk. To keep the confidentiality of a data,
administrative and legal controls should prevent this from happening.
2. The other way for increasing the privacy is to keep the data encrypted at the cloud
storage site, preventing unauthorized access through the internet; even cloud vendor
can’t access the data either.

Case-Study of Cloud Computing- Royal Mail

 Subject of Case-Study:Using Cloud Computing for effective communication among

staff.
 Reason for using Cloud Computing:Reducing the cost made after communication for
28,000 employees and to provide advance features and interface of e-mail services to
their employees.

Royal mail group, a postal service in U.K, is the only government organization in U.K that
serves over 24 million customers through its 12000 post offices and 3000 separate processing
sites. Its logistics systems and parcel-force worldwide handles around 404 million parcel a year.
And to do this they need an effective communicative medium. They have recognized the
advantage of Cloud Computing and implemented it to their system. It has shown an outstanding
performance in inter-communication.

Before moving on to Cloud system, the organization was struggling with the out-of-date
software, and due to which the operational efficiency was getting compromised. As soon as the
organization switched on to Cloud System, 28000 employees were supplied with their new
collaboration suite, giving them access to tools such as instant messaging and presence
awareness. The employees got more storage place than on local server. The employees
became much more productive.

Looking to the success of Cloud Computing in e-mail services and communication .The second
strategic move of Royal Mail Group, was to migrating from physical servers to virtual servers,
upto 400 servers to create a private cloud based on Microsoft hyper V. This would give a fresh
look and additional space to their employees desktop and also provides latest modern
exchange environment.
The hyper V project by RMG’s (Royal Mail Group) is estimated to save around 1.8 million pound
for them in future and will increase the efficiency of the organization’s internal IT system.

The above Cloud Computing Tutorial covers all the basic Cloud Computing notes and Cloud
Computing Examples which helps you to understand all the Cloud Computing basics.

Summary

 Cloud Computing is defined as storing and accessing data and computing services over
the Internet.
 The term “Cloud” came from a network design used by network engineers to represent
the location of various network devices and their interconnection.
 Today many large and small-scale businesses thrive on their data & they spend a huge
amount of money to maintain this data.
 Cloud computing architecture helps organizations to lower their IT infrastructure and
computer costs per user.
 Four Types of Cloud are 1) Private, 2) Community, 3) Public, and 4) Hybrid.
 Important Cloud Computing Services are 1) Software as a Service (SaaS), 2) Platform as
a Service (PaaS), and 3) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
 Grid Computing is a middleware to coordinate disparate IT resources across a network,
allowing them to function as a whole.
 Utility computing is the process of providing service through an on-demand, pay-per-use
billing method. Privacy is a strong barrier for users to adapt Cloud Computing systems.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

Here, we will learn what are the benefits of Cloud Computing in your organization:

Cloud Computing Overview

Cost Savings
Cost saving is one of the biggest Cloud Computing benefits. It helps you to save substantial
capital cost as it does not need any physical hardware investments. Also, you do not need
trained personnel to maintain the hardware. The buying and managing of equipment is done by
the cloud service provider.

Strategic edge
Cloud computing offers a competitive edge over your competitors. It is one of the best
advantages of Cloud services that helps you to access the latest applications any time without
spending your time and money on installations.

How to write a TEST CASE Software Testing Tutorial

High Speed
Cloud computing allows you to deploy your service quickly in fewer clicks. This faster
deployment allows you to get the resources required for your system within fewer minutes.
Back-up and restore data
Once the data is stored in a Cloud, it is easier to get the back-up and recovery of that, which is
otherwise very time taking process on-premise.

Automatic Software Integration

In the cloud, software integration is something that occurs automatically. Therefore, you don’t
need to take additional efforts to customize and integrate your applications as per your
preferences.

Reliability
Reliability is one of the biggest benefits of Cloud hosting. You can always get instantly updated
about the changes.

Mobility
Employees who are working on the premises or at the remote locations can easily access all
the could services. All they need is an Internet connectivity.

Unlimited storage capacity

The cloud offers almost limitless storage capacity. At any time you can quickly expand your
storage capacity with very nominal monthly fees.

Collaboration
The cloud computing platform helps employees who are located in different geographies to
collaborate in a highly convenient and secure manner.

Quick Deployment
Last but not least, cloud computing gives you the advantage of rapid deployment. So, when you
decide to use the cloud, your entire system can be fully functional in very few minutes.
Although, the amount of time taken depends on what kind of technologies are used in your
business.

Other Important Benefits of Cloud Computing

Apart from the above, some other Cloud Computing advantages are:

 On-Demand Self-service
 Multi-tenancy
 Offers Resilient Computing
 Fast and effective virtualization
 Provide you low-cost software
 Offers advanced online security
 Location and Device Independence
 Always available, and scales automatically to adjust to the increase in demand
 Allows pay-per-use
 Web-based control & interfaces
 API Access available.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

Here, are significant challenges of using Cloud Computing:
Performance Can Vary
When you are working in a cloud environment, your application is running on the server which
simultaneously provides resources to other businesses. Any greedy behavior or DDOS
attack on your tenant could affect the performance of your shared resource.

Technical Issues
Cloud technology is always prone to an outage and other technical issues. Even, the best cloud
service provider companies may face this type of trouble despite maintaining high standards of
maintenance.

Security Threat in the Cloud

Another drawback while working with cloud computing services is security risk. Before adopting
cloud technology, you should be well aware of the fact that you will be sharing all your
company’s sensitive information to a third-party cloud computing service provider. Hackers
might access this information.

Downtime
Downtime should also be considered while working with cloud computing. That’s because your
cloud provider may face power loss, low internet connectivity, service maintenance, etc.

Internet Connectivity
Good Internet connectivity is a must in cloud computing. You can’t access cloud without an
internet connection. Moreover, you don’t have any other way to gather data from the cloud.

Lower Bandwidth
Many cloud storage service providers limit bandwidth usage of their users. So, in case if your
organization surpasses the given allowance, the additional charges could be significantly costly

Lacks of Support
Cloud Computing companies fail to provide proper support to the customers. Moreover, they
want their user to depend on FAQs or online help, which can be a tedious job for non-technical
persons.

Conclusion:
Despite all the Cloud Computing advantages and disadvantages, we can’t deny the fact that
Cloud Computing is the fastest growing part of network-based computing. It offers a great
advantage to customers of all sizes: simple users, developers, enterprises and all types of
organizations. So, this technology here to stay for a long time.