CLOUD COMPUTING

 Introduction:
What is Distributed Computing?
Distributed Computing can be defined as the use of a
distributed system to solve a single large problem by breaking it down into several tasks where
each task is computed in the individual computers of the distributed system.

A Distributed Systems contains more than one

computer which communicates with others through an interconnected network. All the
computers that are interconnected via the network, work towards achieving the common goal
using all their own resources.

What is Cloud Computing?

Here “Cloud” represents the Internet. Cloud
Computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet. In the
simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs
over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive. Cloud Computing is a new
name for old concept: the delivery of computing services from a remote location.
Cloud computing services are delivered through a network, usually the Internet.

Following figure shows an overview of cloud computing System: -

 Principles of Cloud Computing
Three key principles of cloud computing are:-

i) Abstraction
ii) Automation
iii) Elasticity

Abstraction:- IT providers have tried to standardize their operations so they can

concentrate on optimizing their IT. Cloud computing has found a way to break out of
this as cloud gives a few basic but well-defined services.

Automation:- Automation in the cloud means that the developers or users have complete
automatic control over their resources. There is no human interaction, even from a developer or
user perspective.

Elasticity:- In the early nineties, people bought large, expensive, scalable servers and waited
for long time to use the full capacity of their server. This is highly inefficient as most of the time
the server was underutilized. In the dot-com era, people started scaling horizontally, which
allowed them to add capacity according to their needs.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

On-demand self-service:- Users are able to provision, monitor and
manage computing resources as needed without the help of human
administrators.

Broad network access: - Computing services are delivered over standard

networks and heterogeneous devices.

Rapid Elasticity: - IT resources are able to scale out and is quickly and os
as needed basis. Whenever the users require services it is provided to him
and it is scale out as soon as its requirement gets over.

Resource pooling: - IT resources are shared across multiple applications

and tenants in a non-dedicated manner. Multiple clients are provided service
from a same physical resource.
Measured Service: - IT resource utilization is tracked for each application
and tenant, typically for public cloud billing or private cloud chargeback.

IaaS, PaaS & SaaS:-

IaaS: - Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing model
that allocates virtualized computing resources to the user through the internet. IaaS is
one of the main components of cloud computing along with software as a service
(SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). IaaS is completely provisioned and
managed over the internet.
The IaaS technology helps the users to avoid the
cost and complexity of purchasing and managing their own physical servers. Every
resource of IaaS is offered as an individual service component and the users only
have to use the particular one they need. The cloud service provider manages the
IaaS infrastructure while the users can concentrate on installing, configuring and
managing their software.

PaaS: - Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a complete development and

deployment environment that is based in the cloud infrastructure. The services
provided by PaaS enable the users to create and deliver everything ranging
from simple cloud-based applications to cloud-enabled business enterprise
applications.
 A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on
his own infrastructure. As a result of this, there is no need for the users to invest
in installing in house hardware and software for developing or running new
applications. PaaS is the perfect platform for the developers for building
applications and services on the internet. All the PaaS services are hosted in
the cloud and all the users and developers can access them simply through a
web browser.

SaaS: - SaaS can be defined as software that is owned and managed by one or
more providers. A SaaS provider delivers the software on the basis of a set of
common code and data definitions. In simple words, SaaS is software that is leased
and maintained by its creator on the basis of the metrics. SaaS is a key component of
the cloud computing technology. Cloud service provider takes the responsibility of
installing, operating and maintaining the respective type of software application on the
company’s behalf.
 Service-oriented computing
Service orientation is the core reference model for cloud computing
systems. Service oriented computing and cloud computing have
reciprocal relationship --- one provides computing of services and
other provides services of computing.Service-oriented computing
(SOC) supports the development of rapid, low-cost, flexible,
interoperable, and evolvable applications and systems.
A service is an abstraction representing a self-describing and
platform-independent component that can perform any function-- from
a simple function to a complex business process. A service is
supposed to be loosely coupled, reusable, programming language
independent, and location transparent.
 Loose coupling allows services to serve different scenarios more
easily and makes them reusable.
 Independence from a specific platform increases services
accessibility.
Thus, a wider range of clients, which
can look up services in global registries and consume them in a
location-transparent manner, can be served.
Service-oriented computing introduces and diffuses two important
concepts, which are also fundamental to cloud computing: quality of
service (QoS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
 Quality of service (QoS) identifies a set of functional and non-
functional attributes that can be used to evaluate the behavior of
a service from different perspectives. These could be
performance metrics such as response time, or security
attributes, reliability, scalability, and availability.
 The concept of Software-as-a-Service introduces a new delivery
model for applications. The term has been inherited from the
 world of application service providers (ASPs), which deliver
software services-based solutions across the wide area network
from a central datacenter and make them available on a
subscription or rental basis.

Cloud Environment
Cloud Computing environment is a new great approach of providing IT
related services. In simple words Cloud Computing environment is all
about IT and what IT needs: different kinds of software and
hardware, pay-per-use or subscription based services offered both
through the Internet and in real time.
Cloud computing environment Development of cloud computing application
happens by leveraging platforms & frameworks that provide different types
of services, from the bare metal infrastructure to customizable applications
servicing specific purposes. Various such platforms or technologies (PaaS)
that are available for the users to build and host an application are:
Amazon Web Services: AWS offers virtual compute, storage, networking &
complete computing stacks. It is known for its on-demand services namely
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3).
Google AppEngine: Launched in 2008, it provides an alternative to fixed
applications (SaaS) and raw hardware (IaaS). App Engine managed
infrastructure, provides a development platform to create apps, leveraging
Google's infrastructure as a hosting platform. Microsoft Azure: It is also a
scalable runtime environment for web & distributed applications. However,
it provides additional services such as support for storage (relational data &
blobs), networking, caching, content delivery & others