CHAPTER-4

Accessing the cloud: Platforms

Web application framework

Web hosting service

Web APIs

Web browsers

Migrating to the cloud: Broad approach to migrating into the cloud

The seven step model of migration into a cloud

Cloud Platforms

3.1 What Is A Cloud Platform?

Cloud Platform assumes the responsibility of “Data Centers on the Fly”. The reason for this
comment is manifested in the elasticity of resources that can be provisioned near-real-time.
Literally, you can spin up or down instances in a matter of minutes. Matter of fact you can copy
and erect an entire Architecture Stack in hours from one region to another using Cloud
Formation without any formal procurement process. However, projecting, predicting and
approval of costing from appropriate departments may be necessary.

A GENERAL MODEL FOR APPLICATION PLATFORMS

Our experience with application platforms today comes mostly from on-premises platforms. A
useful way to think about cloud platforms is to see how the services an application developer
relies on in the on premises environment translate to the cloud. To help do this, Figure 2 shows a
general model that can be applied to both worlds.
Figure: A modern application platform can be viewed as having three parts.

Whether it’s on-premises or in the cloud, an application platform can be thought of as comprising
three parts:

● A foundation: Nearly every application uses some platform software on the machine it
runs on. This typically includes various support functions, such as standard libraries and
storage, and a base operating system.
● A group of infrastructure services: In a modern distributed environment, applications
frequently use basic services provided on other computers. It’s common to provide
remote storage, for example, integration services, an identity service, and more.
● A set of application services: As more and more applications become service-oriented,
the functions they offer become accessible to new applications. Even though these
applications exist primarily to provide services to end users, this also makes them part of
the application platform. (It might seem odd to think of other applications as part of the
platform, but in a service-oriented world, they certainly are.)

And while they’re not shown in Figure, development tools are another important part of this
story. Modern tools can help developers build applications using all three parts of an application
platform.
 Top 5 Cloud Platforms and Solutions to Choose From

● Amazon Web Services: Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon (a leading
company in ecommerce).
● Google Cloud Platform: Google offers its public cloud computing solutions with the name of
Google Cloud Platform.
● Microsoft Azure.
● IBM Bluemix.
● Alibaba:

Cloud management platform and its capabilities:

● General services: Provides user self-service capabilities, as well as reporting and

analytics features to gain insight into cloud service consumption patterns in the
enterprise;
● Service management: Enables an IT team to monitor cloud-based services to help with
capacity planning, workload deployment and ensuring all availability and performance
requirements are met;
● Resource management: Provides tools to manage cloud computing resources, such as
virtual machines, storage and networks, with capabilities such as resource discovery,
tagging, provisioning, automation and orchestration. In addition, the cloud management
platform might include capabilities to migrate resources between environments, such as
private and public clouds.
● Financial management: Offers capabilities to automatically track and allocate cloud
computing spend to specific users or business departments. In general, these financial
management features also include the ability to generate chargeback reports and forecast
future cloud costs.
● Governance and security: Enables an administrator to enforce policy-based control of
cloud resources, and offers security features, such as encryption and identity and access
management.
Cloud Taxonomy

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud
platform, offering over 165 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of
customers —including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government
agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs.

Features:
● Most functionality
● Largest community of customers and partners
 ● Most Secure
● Fastest pace of innovation
● Most proven operational expertise
Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform is a suite of public cloud computing services offered by Google. The
platform includes a range of hosted services for compute, storage and application development
that run on Google hardware. Google Cloud Platform services can be accessed by software
developers, cloud administrators and other enterprise IT professionals over the public internet
or through a dedicated network connection.

Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure was previously known as “Windows Azure”. It is a so-called “cloud”
computing service, which was created by Microsoft company for being used in the testing,
building, managing and deploying the different applications as well as services through a global
network of Microsoft-managed data centres. Microsoft Azure provides infrastructure as a
service, software as a service and platform as a service, supporting many different languages,
which are all used in programming. It also supports the frameworks and tools, including both
third-party software and systems and Microsoft-specific ones.

Illustration of Windows Azure possibilities and features,

 ● describing Windows Azure Architecture,

● drawing Azure Architecture Diagrams,

● depicting Azure Cloud System Architecture,

● describing Azure management, Azure storage,

● documenting Azure services.

IBM Bluemix
IBM Bluemix has been renamed to IBM Cloud. However, you might see some references to IBM
Bluemix in this course.

IBM® Cloud® is an open-standard, cloud platform that provides both Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) capabilities for building, running, and managing
applications. With IBM Cloud, developers can focus on building excellent user experiences with
flexible compute options, choice of DevOps tooling, and a powerful set of IBM and third-party
APIs and services.

Advantages of IBM Bluemix

● Simplicity & Speed
 ● Agility
● Tools
● Source Control
● Services Marketplac

Defining Alibaba
Alibaba is China’s — and by some measures, the world’s — biggest online commerce company.
Its three main sites — Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com — have hundreds of millions of users,
and host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other
e-commerce company.

E-COMMERCE

Alibaba is the most popular destination for online shopping, in the world's fastest growing
e-commerce market. Transactions on its online sites totaled $248 billion last year, more than
those of eBay and Amazon.com combined.

China's E-Commerce Market

$74 billion$295 billion$713 billionEstimated201020132017Source: iResearch

80% of China's online shopping market is dominated by Alibaba.

Web application framework

Web Application Framework or simply “web framework” is a software framework that is

designed to support the development of web applications including web services, web resources
and web APIs. Frameworks are, in short, libraries that help you develop your application faster
and smarter!

Web Application Architecture Diagram

The Web Application Architecture diagram depicts how the framework works:
There are three, well-known Web Application Architecture types available in the modern tech
landscape.

These types of Web Application Architectures are:

● Single Page Applications (SPA): Modern, efficient applications are designed to only
request the most necessary elements of content and information to generate an intuitive
and interactive user experience. Single page web applications interact with the user in a
more dynamic fashion by providing updated content within the current page, rather than
loading entirely new pages from the server with each action from the user. This helps
prevent interruptions in the user experience, transforming the behavior of the application
such that it resembles a traditional desktop application. The most heavyweight player is
AJAX, short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which is the foundation for page
communications making SPAs possible.  

● Microservices: Microservices are small, lightweight services that execute a specific,

single functionality. The Microservices Architecture framework offers a comprehensive
set of advantages that help developers be more productive and speed up the deployment
process of bespoke software applications. Since the components in the application are not
directly dependent on each other they do not need to be developed in the same coding
language; developers have free range to work with the technology stack of their choice
that works best for the needs of the service and in the desired timeframe.

● Serverless Architectures: This approach leverages third-party cloud infrastructure

services to outsource server and infrastructure management allowing applications to
execute required or custom logic without concerning themselves with the infrastructure
related tasks While it is somewhat similar to Microservices, the development entity does
 not own or manage the backend servers, which makes it simpler when the development
company does not want to manage or support the servers and the hardware they run in.

Modern application architecture works better on multiple platforms and multiple devices. This is
a result of a well-developed architecture that is the foundation of a successful operability.

In essence, a healthy Web Application Architecture must be easy to use, solve problems, offer a
fast response time, use the latest and most secure standards, avoid failures with self-healing
capabilities, allow growth, and ultimately, provide an effortless user experience.

WAF: Basics

● A web framework (WF) or web application framework (WAF) is a software

framework that is designed to support the development of web
applications including web services, web resources, and web APIs.
● Need (of WAF): A standard way to build and deploy web applications (on www)
● Frameworks are, in short, libraries that help you develop your application faster and
smarter

WAF
• What WAF provides:
– Libraries for database access
– Templating frameworks
– Session management
– <promotes code reuse>
• Components: Three components
– A web browser (client);
– A web application server; and
– A Database server

WAF: Components
• A web browser (client)
• A web application server; and
• A database server

Top 10 Frameworks for Web Applications

Nowadays, the number of Web Frameworks has increased greatly. To help you pick up the most
suitable one for your Web Application, we have compiled a list of 10 best frameworks available
online, in your preferred language.

1. Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is an extremely productive web application framework written by David

Heinemeier Hansson. One can develop an application at least ten times faster with Rails than a
typical Java framework. Moreover, Rails includes everything needed to create a database-driven
web application, using the Model-View-Controller pattern.

2. Django

Django is another framework that helps in building quality web applications. It was invented to
meet fast-moving newsroom deadlines, while satisfying the tough requirements of experienced
Web developers. Django developers say the applications are its ridiculously fast, secure, scalable
and versatile.

3. Angular (previously Angular JS)

Angular is a framework by Google (originally developed by Misko Hevery and Adam Abrons)
which helps us in building powerful Web Apps. It is a framework to build large scale and high
performance web application while keeping them as easy-to-maintain. There are a huge number
of web apps that are built with Angular and can be found
here https://www.madewithangular.com

4. ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a framework developed by Microsoft, which helps us to build robust web

applications for PC, as well as mobile devices. It is a high performance and lightweight
framework for building Web Applications using .NET.  All in all, a framework with Power,
Productivity and Speed.

5. METEOR

Meteor or MeteorJS is another framework which gives one a radically simpler way to build
realtime mobile and web apps. It allows for rapid prototyping and produces cross-platform (Web,
Android, iOS) code. Its cloud platform, Galaxy, greatly simplifies deployment, scaling, and
monitoring.
6. Laravel

Laravel is a framework created by Taylor Otwell in 2011 and like all other modern frameworks,
it also follows the MVC architectural pattern. Laravel values Elegance, Simplicity, and
Readability. One can rightaway start learning and developing Laravel with Laracasts which has
hundreds of tutorials in it.

7. Express

Express or Expressjs is a minimal and flexible framework that provides a robust set of features
for web and mobile applications. It is relatively minimal meaning many features are available as
plugins. Express facilitates rapid development of Node.js based Web applications. Express is also
one major component of the MEAN software bundle.

8. Spring

Spring, developed by Pivotal Software, is the most popular application development framework
for enterprise Java. Myriads of developers around the globe use spring to create high
performance and robust Web apps. Spring helps in creating simple, portable, fast and flexible
JVM-based systems and applications.

9. PLAY

Play is one of the modern web application frameworks written in Java and Scala. It follows the
MVC architecture and aims to optimize developer productivity by using convention over
configuration, hot code reloading and display of errors in the browser. Play quotes itself as “The
High Velocity Web Framework”

10. CodeIgniter

 CodeIgniter, developed by EllisLab, is a famous web application framework to build dynamic

websites. It is loosely based on MVC architecture since Controller classes are necessary but
models and views are optional. CodeIgnitor promises with exceptional performance nearly zero
configuration and no large-scale monolithic libraries.
Language: PHP
Types of web application frameworks
We now have two groups of web application frameworks: one helps to set up app logic on the
server, the other – on the client. To create a powerful web app, you can use both of them
simultaneously.

Server-side web application framework

Although front end has evolved, it’s first and foremost job is to display an interface, and without
app logic any UI/UX is irrelevant. That’s why server-side frameworks are important.

Among the most popular MVC-based server-side web frameworks are:

● Symfony (PHP)
● Django (Python)
● Express (Node.js/JavaScript)
● Ruby on Rails (Ruby)
● ASP.NET (C#)

By using either of these server-side web application frameworks, you let it handle HTTP
requests, database control and management, as well as URL mapping. You can also render view
data with a server, like in the Web 1.0 era, but consider using client-side frameworks instead to
introduce more user-engaging features and responsiveness.

Client-side web application framework

In the previous article on web app architecture, we discussed the Single-Page Web App concept,
where one of the main components of the architecture is a JavaScript client layer. To properly set
it up, you need client-side frameworks, such as:

● Bootstrap
● React.js
● Angular.js
● Backbone
● Semantic-UI.

While with server-side frameworks your choice mainly depends on the language you feel
comfortable to develop in, here you should mind specific capabilities of different client-side
frameworks. Since they vary in the scope of functionality supported, look for the one that fits the
needs of your future web app.
 AJAX Framework is a cross browser framework that allows developers to quickly develop
web pages that can call web services, web pages and other types of content through JavaScript
without having to submit the current page. The AJAX Framework is: Easy to use. Works well
with other existing frameworks.

Django is a free and open source web application framework written in Python. A framework is
nothing more than a collection of modules that make development easier. They are grouped
together, and allow you to create applications or websites from an existing source, instead of
from scratch.

Summary
If you want to develop a web app, a web application framework isn’t a must. Yet, it can
significantly speed up and simplify your work, as well as help you create a responsive and more
engaging web app. Since many web frameworks are now based on the MVC principle, you can
enjoy the perks of this architecture pattern and have double the advantage. Carefully assess your
skills, revise the goals of your project, and choose you server-side and/or client-side frameworks
wisely.
Web hosting service
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and
organizations to make their website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are
companies that provide space on a server owned or leased for use by clients, as well as
providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data
center space and connectivity to the Internet for other servers located in their data center,
called colocation.

• Web hosting is a service that allows organizations and individuals to post a website or a
webpage on to the internet

• A web host, or web hosting service provider is a business that provides technologies and
servers needed for the website or webpage to be viewed in the internet. Websites are
hosted, or stored on ‘servers’
Web hosting: Purpose
Web hosting is a service mainly for the purpose of:

• Registering a domain name

• Building a website

• Using email addresses with a customer’s own domain name

Domain Name and Web hosting

Domain Name – the Address

Hosting: the Land

Website: the house

You get a domain name, then you get hosting, then you build a website /create email addresses

Components
• Web space:

– Website files, HTML codes, images and everything else is stored in this space.
The heavier your website, the more is the space you require to store its content

• Bandwidth:
 – bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transferred to and from a
server or a website. It is the allotted internet bandwidth that makes a website
accessible to everyone online.

Types of Hosting
• Shared Hosting:

– multiple accounts are hosted on the same server and the resources are also shared
among them.

– It is best for small businesses, whose websites have low to moderate traffic

• Dedicated Server:

– the owner has the complete server and all the resources exclusively. Very
expensive

• VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting:

– virtualization technology is used to partition a computer virtually into multiple

servers.

– because of virtual or software partition, each user is given much more privacy and
security as compared to the shared hosting

• Reseller web hosting:

– Clients to become hosts on their own

So hosting commences…
• Registering a Domain Name

– A domain name is a humanly memorable name that people use to identify and
access websites

– domain name - an Internet Protocol (IP) address

• Domain Name: Registration

– Domain names are administered by domain name registrars, who sell this service
online to the public
 – Domain name registration sites are accredited and overseen by the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

• ICANN also oversees a registration database that lists all registrars for all registered
domain names.

Registering a Domain Name

• One important component of a domain name or IP address is the top-level domain (TLD).

• The TLD is the highest level of the domain name system (DNS) on the Internet.

• TLDs are the same thing as Internet address suffixes like .com, .net, or .org.

• When you register a domain name, you have the option to register email accounts
associated with that domain name

• godaddy.com is useful for both domain name registration and web hosting

Purchasing Website Hosting

• You can think of purchasing web hosting as purchasing both space and function on the
World Wide Web.

• Web hosting companies - they function somewhat like an agent: they provide a
location—a space—on the web where your website exists.

• The size and complexity of a website is a central factor - in hosting that site.

• When you purchase web hosting, email is a service that the ISP will provide as part of the
hosting package.

• When a user accesses your website, the Service Provider downloads your site from its
server to the user’s browser.

• Once you purchase web hosting, you need to set up your web hosting account.

• Essentially, this means creating a username and password for you to use as the
administrator of the website
• Once you set up your administration account, you’ll have an account management page
that you can use to manage all areas and functions of your website.

Uploading a layout to the web

• Uploading is a process by which files are copied from your computer to the network of
computers the Service Provider is using to host your website.

• This is accomplished through a file transfer protocol (FTP) software utility.

• FTP software literally moves files between computers.

• In the process of exporting a file, you will be given the option to name the exported files.

• As a standard procedure for exporting layouts for the web, name the export file index

• Thus, exporting create an index file

• An HTML file is only a text file; it’s code.

• If a web page has images, the HTML file contains code that references each image on the
page by its filename.

• This code tells the browser where to go to look for those images

• When you use files exported to create a website, the browser once again accesses the
HTML file, but the HTML file then references the indexed file for all page layout
information

• When you use the built-in FTP utility, you can’t simply upload an entire folder.

• You must create the index_Resources folder yourself then upload the sound and video
files to that folder

• In addition to placed images, the exported file contains all other functionality you have
programmed for the site, including:

• Animation

• Hyperlinks

• Buttons

Site Control
 • Customers manage products and billing

Through hosting control panel

• Products included in customer’s web hosting

Plan can be activated and optional add-ons

Can be purchased through ‘hosting control panel’

• Majority of changes can be performed

In control panel rather than calling Billing or

Technical Support

Classification

Smaller hosting services

The most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File
Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or
with minimal processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to
subscribers. Individuals and organizations may also obtain Web page hosting from alternative
service providers.

Free web hosting service is offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes
supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient for personal web pages. Personal web site hosting is
typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or inexpensive. Business web site hosting often has a
higher expense depending upon the size and type of the site.

Larger hosting services

Many large companies that are not Internet service providers need to be permanently connected
to the web to send email, files, etc. to other sites. The company may use the computer as a
website host to provide details of their goods and services and facilities for online orders.

A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and
application development platforms (e.g. ASP.NET, ColdFusion, Java
EE, Perl/Plack, PHP or Ruby on Rails). These facilities allow customers to write or install scripts
for applications like forums and content management. Also, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is
typically used for websites that wish to keep the data transmitted more secure.

Web APIs
A Web API is an application programming interface for either a web server or a web browser. It
is a web development concept, usually limited to a web application's client-side (including
any web frameworks being used), and thus usually does not include web server or browser
implementation details such as SAPIs or APIs unless publicly accessible by a remote web
application.

In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of subroutine

definitions, protocols, and tools for building software and applications.

To put it in simple terms, API is some kind of interface which has a set of functions that allow
programmers to access specific features or data of an application, operating system or other
services.

Web API as the name suggests, is an API over the web which can be accessed using HTTP
protocol. It is a concept and not a technology. We can build Web API using different
technologies such as Java, .NET etc. For example, Twitter's REST APIsprovide programmatic
access to read and write data using which we can integrate twitter's capabilities into our own
application.

ASP.NET Web API

The ASP.NET Web API is an extensible framework for building HTTP based services that can
be accessed in different applications on different platforms such as web, windows, mobile etc. It
works more or less the same way as ASP.NET MVC web application except that it sends data as
a response instead of html view. It is like a webservice or WCF service but the exception is that it
only supports HTTP protocol.
Web API

ASP.NET Web API Characteristics

1. ASP.NET Web API is an ideal platform for building RESTful services.
2. ASP.NET Web API is built on top of ASP.NET and supports ASP.NET request/response
pipeline
3. ASP.NET Web API maps HTTP verbs to method names.
4. ASP.NET Web API supports different formats of response data. Built-in support for
JSON, XML, BSON format.
5. ASP.NET Web API can be hosted in IIS, Self-hosted or other web server that supports
.NET 4.0+.
6. ASP.NET Web API framework includes new HttpClient to communicate with Web API
server. HttpClient can be used in ASP.MVC server side, Windows Form application,
Console application or other apps.

Why Web APIs is used?

• An ASP.NET web API is basically defined as a framework that enables development of
HTTP services to reach out to client entities like browsers, devices or tablets.

• ASP.NET Web API can be used with MVC for any type of application. Hence, .NET web
APIs is very important for ASP.NET web application development.
 Where Web APIs is used?
• The ASP.NET Web API is an extensible framework for building HTTP based services
that can be accessed in different applications on different platforms such as web,
windows, mobile etc.
• It works more or less the same way as ASP.NET MVC web application except that it
sends data as a response instead of html view.

How Web APIs works?

• In the most basic sense, a web API works when a client (like a Web browser) makes an
HTTP request of some kind to a Web server.

• The server examines that request to figure out what the user wants, and then returns data
in some format (like a page) that the client then examines to get what it wants.

Web APIs applications

• WEB API is a better choice for simpler, light weight services. 
• WEB API can use any text format including XML and is faster than WCF (Windows
Communication Foundation) 
• WEB API can be used to create full-blown REST Services 
• WEB API doesn't require any data contracts and doesn't require configurations to the
level of WCF

API Creator
API Creator. is a low-code solution to creating APIs and micro services. You can create APIs and
services that are secure, cost efficient, and easy to maintain through iterative development. You
can use to integrate data across disparate cloud-based or on-premise data sources.

API Creator provides declarative definition of the following services:

● API: Create the default API by connecting to your database. Access tables using GET,
POST, PUT, and DELETE. Access views and stored procedures using GET and POST.
You can create nested document RESTful resources, or endpoints.

● Data integration: You can combine data from multiple sources (SQL, Mongo, and
RESTful), including updates between them, by defining resources.
 ● Security: Enforces endpoint access and row/column security.

● Logic: Enforces database integrity on updates, with a combination of spreadsheet-like

rules and server-side JavaScript. Rules automate multi-table chaining and SQL handling.
They are 40 times more concise than conventional code.

 Overview of Creating APIs

API creation is more than providing a simple interface. The API Creator interface is only
the tip of the iceberg. The following image illustrates how API Creator provides a fully
functional application backend:

SOAP & REST

• As opposed to SOAP, REST is not a protocol but an architectural style.

• It allows different messaging formats, such as HTML, JSON, XML, and plain text,
while SOAP only allows XML. 

• REST is also a more lightweight architecture, so RESTful web services have a better

performance

Difference between SOAP and REST

 REST API has no has no official standard at all because it is an architectural
style. SOAP API, on the other hand, has an official standard because it is a
protocol. REST APIs uses multiple standards like HTTP, JSON, URL, and XML
while SOAP APIs  is largely based on HTTP and XML.

RESTful API
• A RESTful API is an application program interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to
GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data.  

• REST technology is generally preferred to the more robust Simple Object Access

Protocol (SOAP) technology because REST leverages less bandwidth, making it more
suitable for internet usage.

Conceptual Overview - Representational State Transfer (REST)

• Representational State Transfer (REST)

• A style of software architecture for distributed hypermedia systems such as the

World Wide Web.

• REST is basically client/server architectural style

• Requests and responses are built around the transfer of "representations" of

"resources".

• Architectural style means

• Set of architectural constraints.

• Not a concrete architecture

• Architecture may adopt REST constraints.

• HTTP is the main and the best example of a REST style implementation

• But it should not be confused with REST

• Information is organized in the form of resources

• Sources of specific information,

• Referenced with a global identifier (e.g., a URI in HTTP).

• Components of the network (user agents and origin servers) communicate via a
standardized interface (e.g., HTTP)

• Exchange representations of these resources (the actual documents conveying the

information).

• Any number of connectors (e.g., clients, servers, caches, tunnels, etc.) can
mediate the request, but each does so without being concern about anything but its
own request

• an application can interact with a resource by knowing two things: the identifier
of the resource and the action required

• no need to know whether there are caches, proxies, gateways, firewalls, tunnels,
or anything else between it and resource

• The application needs to understand the format of the information (representation)

returned.
REST Architectural Constrains
• Client-server

– Separation of concerns

• Clients are separated from servers by a uniform interface.

– Networking

• Clients are not concerned with data storage, which remains internal to
each server, so that the portability of client code is improved. Servers are
not concerned with the user interface or user state, so that servers can be
simpler and more scalable.

– Independent evolution

• Servers and clients may also be replaced and developed independently, as

long as the interface is not altered.

• Stateless communication

– Scalability, reliability

• No client context being stored on the server between requests. Each

request from any client contains all of the information necessary to service
the request.

– Resources are conversationally stateless

• Any conversational state is held in the client.

• Uniform Interface

– Simplicity (vs. efficiency)

– Large-grained hypermedia data transfer

– Example: Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete

• Caching

– Efficiency, scalability

• Well-managed caching partially or completely eliminates some

client-server interactions, further improving scalability and performance.
 – Consistency issues

As on the World Wide Web, clients are able to cache responses. Responses must therefore,
implicitly or explicitly, define themselves as cacheable or not, to prevent clients reusing stale or
inappropriate data in response to further requests.

• Code-on-demand

– Extending client functionality

• Servers are able to temporarily extend or customize the functionality of a

client by transferring to it logic that it can execute. Examples of this may
include compiled components such as Java applets and client-side scripts
such as JavaScript

Summary
• A RESTful Web service is:

– A set of Web resources.

– Interlinked.

– Data-centric, not functionality-centric.

– Machine-oriented.

• Like Web applications, but for machines.

• Like WS-*, but with more Web resources.

N.B: WS-* stands for a variety of specifications related to SOAP-based Web Services

• A SOAP service (WS-★) has a single endpoint that handles all the operations – therefore
it has to have an application-specific interface.

• A RESTful service has a number of resources (the collection, each entry), so the
operations can be distributed onto the resources and mapped to a small uniform set of
operations.

WS-★ vs REST: A quick comparison

What is a Web Browser?
A browser, short for web browser, is the software application (a program) that you're using right
now to search for, reach and explore websites. Whereas Excel® is a program for spreadsheets
and Word® a program for writing documents, a browser is a program for Internet exploring
(which is where that name came from).

Browsers don't get talked about much. A lot of people simply click on the "icon" on our
computers that take us to the Internet—and that's as far as it goes. And in a way, that's enough.
Most of us simply get in a car and turn the key...we don't know what kind of engine we have or
what features it has...it takes us where we want to go. That's why when it comes to computers:

● There are some computer users that can't name more than one or two browsers
● Many of them don't know they can switch to another browser for free
● There are some who go to Google's webpage to "google" a topic and think that Google is
their browser.

Let's play word association, just like when a psychologist asks you what comes to mind when
you hear certain words: What do you think when you hear the words "Opera. Safari. Chrome.
Firefox."

If you think of the Broadway play version of "The Lion King," maybe it is time to see a
psychologist. However, if you said, "Internet browsers," you're spot on. That's because the
leading Internet Browsers are:

● Google Chrome
● Mozilla Firefox
● Apple Safari
● Microsoft Internet Explorer
 ● Microsoft Edge
● Opera
● Maxthon

And that order pretty much lines up with how they're ranked in terms of market share and
popularity...today. Browsers come and go. Ten years ago Netscape Navigator was a well-known
browser: Netscape is long gone today. Another, called Mosaic is considered the first modern
browser—it was discontinued in 1997.

A web browser (commonly referred to as a browser) is a software application for accessing

information on the World Wide Web. When a user opens a particular website, the web browser
retrieves the necessary content from a web server then displays the resulting web page on the
user's device.

Browsers translate web pages and websites delivered using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
into human-readable content. They also have the ability to display other protocols and prefixes,
such as secure HTTP (HTTPS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), email handling (mailto:), and files
(file:).

A web browser is not the same thing as a search engine, though the two are often confused. For a
user, a search engine is just a website, such as Google Search, Bing, or DuckDuckGo, that stores
searchable data about other websites. However, to connect to a website's server and display its
web pages, a user must have a web browser installed

HTTP is Hypertext transfer protocol. Simply put - Rules to sending and receiving text-based
messages. As we all know, computers work in a language of 1's and 0's i.e. Binary language.
Therefore, potentially every set of 1's and 0's construct something, it could be a word.

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over
which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the
end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the
website are encrypted. HTTPS is often used to protect highly confidential online transactions like
online banking and online shopping order forms.

Migrating to the cloud

Cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications or other business elements to a cloud
computing environment.

There are various types of cloud migrations an enterprise can perform. One common model is the
transfer of data and applications from a local, on-premises data center to the public cloud.
However, a cloud migration could also entail moving data and applications from one cloud
platform or provider to another -- a model known as cloud-to-cloud migration. A third type of
migration is to uncloud -- also known as a reverse cloud migration or declouding -- where data or
applications are moved off of the cloud and back to a local data center.

Benefits of cloud migration

The general goal or benefit of any cloud migration is to host applications and data in the most
effective IT environment possible, based on factors such as cost, performance and security.

For example, many organizations perform the migration of on-premises applications and data
from their local data center to public cloud infrastructure to take advantage of benefits, such as
greater elasticity, self-service provisioning, redundancy and a flexible, pay-per-use model.

Cloud migration tools and services

There are various tools and services available to help an enterprise plan and execute a cloud
migration.
For example, public cloud providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure
and Google, offer cloud migration services to support private/dedicated networks for data
transfers, as well offline migrations.

Public cloud providers also offer tools to help an enterprise plan and track the progress of a
migration. These tools, for example, might collect information about an enterprise's on-premises
environment, such as system dependencies, to help the company make a more informed
migration plan.

Examples of migration services from public cloud providers include:

● AWS Migration Hub
● Azure Migrate
● Google Cloud Data Transfer Service
● AWS Snowball
● Azure Import/Export
● Google Transfer Appliance

Cloud Migration – Seven Step Model

Cloud migration is a process by which any organization or company shifts its resources, data,
and applications to the cloud platform.

It is best to first iterate through the Seven-Step model process for optimizing and migration is
both comprehensive and robust. The seven stages of migration are outlined below.
 ● Assess

Assessment is the first step of a seven-step model of cloud migration and also it is the most
important of all the other steps. It includes assessment of issues and reasons related to migration
and understanding the need to shift your technology and software on the cloud platform. This
migration can be of application, design, code and architecture level.

This is the most important and as migration starts with an assessment of the issues and strategies
related to the migration. The assessment can be of tools being used, test cases as well as
functionalities and configurations. The assessment can also be about the cost of migration and
ROI (Return on Investment) that can be achieved in the case of the production version.

● Isolate

In the second step of migration into the cloud environment, there is the isolation of all
environmental and systematic dependencies of an enterprise application within the captive data
center.  The dependencies include the library, application and architectural.

This step helps in better understanding of the complexity of the cloud migration. This step helps
in isolation of run-time environment, applications dependencies, libraries dependencies and
much more. Isolation of all the components is necessary to make the system more reliable and
atomic.

● Mapping

After complete isolation, the third step is to generate the mapping constructs between what data
shall remain in the local captive data centers and what shall be shifted to the cloud. It is very
important to first understand what exactly you need to shift on the cloud platform as there is no
sense of shifting all the data and applications on the cloud environment.

● Re-architect

This is the fourth step in cloud migration which includes understanding which part of the
application is generally needed to be sifted and what not.

Moreover, a substantial part of enterprise application is generally needed to be shifted as it is to

be rearchitected, reimplemented and redesigned on the cloud. There are also chances that in this
step of cloud migration process, some of the useful functionalities can be lost initially but later
all of them can be regained.

● Augment
Augmentation of cloud computing application is done in this application. In this, we leverage the
intrinsic features of services of a cloud to augment our enterprise application in its own ways.

● Test

After augmentation is complete, the applications needed to be tested and validated. This is done
using a test suite for the applications on the cloud. The test results can be both positive and
negative. In this step of cloud migration, new test cases due to augmentation and
proofs-of-concept are also tested.

● Optimize and Iterate

In this last step of cloud migration, we iterate and optimize as appropriate. After several other
optimizing iterations, the migration process is successful. It is best to first iterate the seven-step
model process for optimizing and ensuring that cloud migration is both robust and
comprehensive.

This seven-step model of cloud migration is used by small business for migrating their resources
and applications to the cloud platform.