Cloud Computing Tutorial

Welcome to the fourth lesson of ‘Cloud Computing’ of SMAC - Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud tutorial which is part of the ‘Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud course’ offered by Simplilearn. This lesson will focus on the ‘C’ of SMAC, which stands for Cloud Computing.

Let us start with the objectives of this lesson in the next section.

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Define Cloud Computing

• Define Cloud Deployment and Service Models

• Discuss the impact of Cloud Computing on business

• List the emerging trends in Cloud Computing

• Discuss the challenges and future of Cloud Computing

Let us proceed to the first topic of this lesson in the next section.

Cloud Computing Overview

Cloud Computing is the practice of using large groups of remote servers, hosted on Internet, to store and access applications and computer data, instead of saving them on the local server or personal computer.

Cloud Computing provides easy access to information technology resources. The cloud customer pays only for services that are delivered and used by them. There are models and services that make Cloud Computing accessible to users.

Let us learn more about these models in the following sections.

Cloud - Deployment Models

Cloud services are available through various deployment models. These models are:

• Public Cloud

• Private Cloud

• Hybrid Cloud

• Community Cloud

Public Cloud

Public Cloud infrastructure is owned by a third party cloud service provider or CSP who makes cloud services available to the general public. In Public Cloud, customers need to pay only for the resources they use. This gives them the flexibility to increase or decrease the resources to meet the market demand.

Examples of Public Cloud are email, social networking sites, and so on.

Private Cloud

Private Cloud infrastructure is dedicatedly operated for a particular organization, managed by the organization themselves or a third party. This cloud deployment model is popular among enterprises as customers have complete control over security aspects.

Community Cloud

A Community Cloud is maintained and used by a group of organizations with shared concerns that is they have similar security or compliance requirements.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid Cloud is the composition of two or more clouds, for example, a combination of private, public, or community clouds.

In the next section, we will understand the service models in Cloud Computing.

Cloud - Service Models

There are three service models on which Cloud Computing is based, they are:

• Infrastructure as a service that is IaaS

• Platform as a Service that is PaaS

• Software as a Service that is SaaS

Let us discuss the service models one by one.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

In IaaS, customers can control the environment as a service by installing their own operating systems, applications, and software. IaaS also delivers a virtual server platform where access to virtual machines or virtual resources is provided.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS provides computational resources through a platform on which applications and services are developed and hosted. Here, the customer is free to build applications and deliver it to other users through Internet and servers.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is a software, which is owned, managed, and delivered by one or more users and is offered in a pay-per-use manner. The service runs on Cloud and serves multiple end users.

In the next section, we will understand the impact of Cloud Computing on business.

Impact of Cloud Computing on Business

The concept of Cloud Computing came into existence in the 1950s with the implementation of mainframe computers. Since then, it has evolved and now it is gaining the attention of the enterprises for its benefits.

The impact of Cloud Computing in terms of benefits for businesses are:

• Cost effective: Moving to Cloud Computing reduces the cost of managing and maintaining IT systems. Since the infrastructure need not be purchased, the initial and recurring expenses are lower than traditional computing.

• Flexibility: Cloud Computing offers unlimited storage capacity, therefore storage needs can be scaled up or down according to the situation.

• Business continuity: Protecting data is important for business continuity. In case of crisis, Cloud Computing helps to quickly access data without loss of productivity.

• Efficient collaboration: Collaboration in Cloud gives the business ability to communicate and share information more quickly and easily than through traditional methods.

Let us discuss the emerging trends in Cloud Computing in the next section.

Emerging Trends in Cloud Computing

The emerging trends in Cloud Computing indicate that this technology is transforming rapidly. The upcoming years hold great potential for innovation in Cloud technology. Some of the emerging trends in Cloud Computing are:

• The rise of Hybrid Cloud: This will be an upcoming trend as it encourages many businesses to adopt cloud-based infrastructure so as to perform distinct functions within the same organization. It also provides an advantage of reduced infrastructure cost.

• Mobile Cloud: The Bring Your Own Device or BYOD policy is gaining popularity as organizations are understanding its benefits, reflected in increased employee productivity. As a result, organizations are shifting their IT assets to the Personal Cloud through mobile device management.

• New Cloud Services: There are new cloud services that are emerging with the development of Cloud Computing.

Some of the emerging services are:

• Monitoring as a Service that is MaaS

• Cloud Migration as a Service that is C-MaaS

• Communication as a Service that is CaaS

• Anything as a Service that is XaaS.

In the next section, we will discuss the challenges in Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing - Challenges

Despite the fact that Cloud Computing leads to innovation, there are some challenges related to it. These challenges are:

Data Security:

In the cloud, data management is provided by a third party and data is stored in remote locations that are not disclosed to the enterprise. This is of concern to the enterprise. 

Although Cloud Computing vendors provide accounts with secure passwords, any security breach that may be deliberate or accidental can lead to the loss of business and clients.

Performance and Bandwidth:

Cloud Computing requires high-end servers for providing high-speed Internet and constant connectivity to avoid peak time breakdowns.

Availability:

Availability is also a challenge of Cloud Computing. Cloud providers lack round-the-clock service. This result is frequent outages.

Regulatory Restrictions:

Governments in some countries do not allow the customer’s personal information to be physically located outside their counties. This is further complicated by the fact that some data transit can be regulated in these countries.

Let us look at the future of Cloud Computing in the next section.

Future of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing holds promise for new innovations. Over time, the workload of companies is expected to be processed in cloud data centers. Cloud Computing can be considered as an integral part of most businesses in the future.

Some predictions for the upcoming years are as follows:

• There will be more apps on the Cloud, while new software will be built on the Cloud to provide faster deployment of the applications. Till 2014, half of the enterprises spent ten percent of their annual budget on cloud services. This share is expected to increase in the future.

• Platform as a Service will be adopted by more companies because it lowers the IT costs and speeds up application development.

• Cloud-based graphics technologies will be in demand and with this technology, future users will be able to run graphically intense applications.

• Increased competition in the Cloud space is likely to result in better innovation and services.

In the next section, let us find out how Cloud Computing is used in the real-world situation with the help of a case study.

Case Study

In this case study, you will find out how cloud-based services helped an online travel company to decrease the latency time on their website and improve service to its customers.

The travel company was committed to innovation and technology to make a great traveling experience to its customers. However, an error page appearing on their website led to many users abandoning the site.

The travel company switched to a cloud service provided by a third party, with the goal of helping their global users find what they were looking for promptly and without errors.

As a result of using the cloud service, the company was able to improve its travel service to customers by Launching ‘Suggest Service’ within three months of adopting the cloud service.

Suggest Service used algorithms on the basis of customer location and displayed suggestions in a drop-down menu, whenever any alphabet or words were typed.

Reducing the network latency time from 700 milliseconds to less than 50 milliseconds.

In the next section, we will understand the job and salary trends in the Cloud Computing field.

Cloud Computing - Jobs and Salary

Cloud Computing is known to many people because it provides more benefits in a short time, and with less expenditure and training. It helps in globalizing the work with the help of the Internet.

Because of these benefits, Cloud Computing jobs are in demand across the globe.

An increase in the total cumulative jobs generated by cloud computing across the globe is given in the figure:

According to the survey on average salaries conducted by Dice, a career website, the average salary of a person associated with Cloud is approximately $ 90,000. In the graph shown above, you can compare the total cumulative jobs generated by Cloud Computing across the globe from 2012 till 2015.

Note that these figures are obtained for the years, 2012 to 2015. They are presented here to give an idea of how the number of jobs in the field of Cloud Computing will be generated in the future.

Let us now get familiar with the learning path in the Cloud Computing field.

Cloud Computing - Learning Path

This section shows the learning path in the field of Cloud Computing. At the beginner level, certifications such as ‘EXIN Cloud Computing’ and ‘CompTIA Cloud Essentials’ are recommended.

As you acquire on-the-job experience, you can get the advanced level certification to boost your career. The advanced level certification comprises the following courses:

• CompTIA Cloud Plus

• Advanced Cloud Computing with AWS

• Cloud Computing Security’.

To become an expert in the field of Cloud Computing, you can take up the ‘AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Level’ certification course.

Summary

Let us summarize what we have learned in this lesson.

• Cloud Computing uses large groups of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store and access applications and computer data.

• Public, Private, Community, and Hybrid comprise the Cloud Deployment Models.

• Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a service and software as a service are the three Cloud Service Models.

• In Cloud, the infrastructure is not purchased. Therefore, the initial and the recurring expenses are lower than in traditional computing.

• Monitoring as a Service, Cloud Migration as a Service, Communication as a Service, and Anything as a Service are some of the emerging cloud services

Conclusion

This concludes the lesson on Cloud Computing. With this, we have come to the end of this SMAC tutorial.