Cloud computing means Internet based computing mechanism where Software, Hardware and other resources which are available in shared mode and can be utilized as and when required. These are virtual resources which offer dynamic scalability over the web – this is the essence of the Cloud computing.
There are many cloud services that can be envisioned, but the main ones are IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service), and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service).
Consider this scenario:
You have an E-Commerce application which sales grocery products. You have deployed it on a dedicated server which has high CPU speed, high memory and necessary disk space. You noticed that you have major traffic on your website every evening at around 6 to 8 PM and on weekends. During this period you receive 70% of your orders. Still there are many customers who would not order on your website due to over-traffic and connectivity issues. Either you need to add a new server or need to leave that chunk of business.
Here, Cloud Computing gives you the flexibility where in you can select extra resources for your peak business hours (which are 6 to 8 PM and the weekends in this case), there by avoiding the need of extra full-time servers for managing extra traffic. This way you will be able to save dollars on your hardware and infrastructure cost and keep your clients happy by giving them needed speed and better user experience.
Cloud computing offers great value in such situations.
Cloud at its best:
We are close to that virtual world where-in we will have very light-weight PCs and all the useful local machine data will be stored in some kind of a cloud, thereby giving access to the data 24×7, 365 days from any location. Web is going to be significantly different and more effective.
Cloud and SaaS:
If you are using a SaaS model application, you don’t need to buy that application. Instead, you only need to pay a subscription fee. You need not to worry about the maintenance of that application or server where it is hosted. All you need to do is to pay your subscription fee and start using that application. SaaS application providers host it on a set of servers and sell its subscriptions to the various customers. Tomorrow, if you come and ask the SaaS provider that you need to have an account for your additional few hundreds of employees for the same SaaS application you’re using, they will change it from SaaS model to the Cloud Computing. This is how Google works.
Cloud development tools:
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 has cloud development tools which allows the developers to write their cloud centric web applications and services. Developing scalable web applications and services have become easier now and can be tested on Windows Azure simulation environment.
Microsoft SQL Azure is a cloud based relational database service built on SQL Server technology. It provides highly scalable database service.
Interesting thing is that, any existing ASP.Net application can be converted to cloud application in few steps, with the help of above tools. See here
Summary:
Cloud computing is a fantastic approach to manage your business applications. It’s really helpful to small, medium and big sized organizations to manage their data and infrastructure securely, easily and in cost effective fashion. HP, IBM, VMware, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are extensively using cloud computing. In fact they are cloud service providers as well.
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Thanks. for sharing such a nice article,
before this i have tried to read many articles but i didnt get what is exact meaning of Cloud computing.
but after reading this i got exact meaning.
Hiren,
Thanks for your comments. I will try to come up with more details on CC soon. Stay tuned.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Nice Article regarding Cloud computing,
Very Useful information with short & very effective.
Hoping that few more articles regarding Windows Azure will come soon from your side. That will be very interesting to read.
Regards
Ramani Sandeep
Ramani Sandeep´s last blog ..Securing ASP.Net Web Services with Forms Authentication
Ramani Sandeep,
Thank you for your comment. Will try to come with Windows Azure Articles soon.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Pranav,
Very useful insights on the new, game changing technology.
It appears that Cloud consumers need not to worry about increasing resources to serve their customers as it will be just a click away. This paradigm shift would enable more time to focus on business – which is the most fascinating part of it.
Best,
Utpal
Utpal Vaishnav´s last blog ..Today Why Not? 7
Utpal,
Thank you for your comment.
It’s correct, adding up resources is not a difficult part if you are running your application on a cloud. Business Applications could be more effective if executed on cloud. Much more can be done with clould, I will try to come up with more articles soon.
you know, Google Docs operate on cloud.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Society for RIA-RUI, Sunil A.Nair. Sunil A.Nair said: RT @pranavgupta1: Cloud Computing – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS – The Game Changers! http://bit.ly/bTcdtJ [...]
Nice Article sir, By providing good documentation its easy to read and understanding the Cloud Computing, I want another article related to CC in more details from you sir.
Regards,
Viral Patel
Thanks Viral,
Will try to come with more details soon.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Agreed That cloud seems to be the Buzzword. But Security and privacy remains the hottest topic of discussion for the enterprise switching to cloud
Read this
http://news.cnet.com/google-docs-suffers-privacy-glitch/
Alternatively companies are switching to private clouds that surely can be a game changer
Vikas,
There are questions on security of cloud and you rightly mentioned the link which talks about security of Google Docs. I think that depends upon application as well. If granular level of access rights are defined in the application then these kind of mishaps never take place. This kind of security is usually applied in SaaS modeled application. But Yes this topic is under discussion and not very clear yet as cloud is new.
Here are quick security benefits to have application on Cloud:
>> Data leakage – Centralized data ensures reduced data leakage.
>> Easy to control and monitor – due to centralized data.
Thanks for bring this to notice of all readers.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Nope Granularity is no way reverenced when we talk on security and threat to data stealing. WE are talking about clouds and when you are on cloud your application is small element or part of a bigger picture.
A topic of debate is always there for to be or not to be on cloud.
Hi Vikas,
You are right in saying so that to move on to cloud is topic of debate. Micrsoft research team has come up with a kind of guideline which can help IT professionals to ensure data security on cloud. They have named it as cryptographic cloud storage. It talks about 3 components: that processes data before it is sent to the cloud; a data veri er (DV), that checks whether the data in the cloud has been tampered with; and a token generator (TG), that generates tokens that enable the cloud storage provider to retrieve segments of customer data; and a credential generator that implements an access control policy by issuing credentials to the various parties in the system (these credentials will enable the parties to decrypt encrypted les according to the policy).
See: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=112576
This could be a guideline to IT professionals who are working with Cloud Computing.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Nice & very useful article on Clould Computing in Monsoon Season…
Thanks for sharing your knowledge…
Regards,
Chandrakant Rathod
Hi Chandrakant,
Thanks for your comment. Yes monsoons are about to ON and we are discussing cloud.. Gives pleasure indeed.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Very informative article Pranav!
Looking forward to some more on this…
Sarbjeet,
Thank you for your comment. Will try to get new articles soon.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
The usage of an actual scenario was very helpful. I saw a similar 10 min video on this topic with David Chappell where he covers others issues such as:
- IaaS vs PaaS
- Private vs Public Cloud
- Applications that are not a great fit for the Cloud and those which are.
- The threat of Public Cloud to IT departments
see: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/David+Gristwood/Conversations-with-David-Chappell-about-Windows-Azure-and-Cloud-Computing/
thoughts?
hope that helps,
-cn
Great article. Summarizes CC in real layman language.
Looking for some more insights.
-Nitin
Nitin,
Thanks for your comment. Will try to come with more details soon.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Some more pointer for cloud by security experts
Organizations must be sure that their proprietary data is adequately Protected as it, is Transferred between the end
user and the cloud data center.
Protection of data in transit.
securing data at rest.
Maintaining compliance.
Data Privacy
So it is just a start of new game and theories .
I think cryptographic cloud storage concept might help here.. I found one more interesting link on data security.
See: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/secpal/
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Excellent article. Cloud computing is gaining momentum in recent years due to the multiple benefits it offers. More and more companies are jumping into the bandwagon of cloud providers.
George´s last blog ..Growing Cloud Market And Its Benefits
George,
Thanks for your comments. Yes its gaining momentum due to its unmatched features.
Regards,
Pranav Gupta
Pranav Gupta´s last blog ..Is Cloud secure