[CO] Cloud Computing (English ver.)

What's Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a virtual server that use internet and central remote server to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing can make anyone access their personal data in any computer with internet access. This is a efficient technology because their make centralizing data storage, processing, and bandwith.

For example cloud computing is like Yahoo email, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. You just using internet access and you can sending emails. The server and email management are all in the cloud storage and totally managed by the cloud provider like Yahoo, Google, etc.

Cloud computing is divided into three segments: application, storage, and connectivity.

1. Software as a Service (SaaS): this is how the software is delivered to the end users.
   This is type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to a lot of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one application to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Such as Google Apps and Zoho Office. SaaS is very effective in lowering the costs of business as it provides the business an access to applications at a cost normally far cheaper than a licensed application fee which is possible due to its monthly fees based revenue model. With SaaS user need not worry about installation or upgrades.
   
   
2. Platform as Service (PaaS): this is segment of cloud computing refers to products that are used to deploy internet. Such as Net Suite, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.
   PaaS provides services to develop, test, deploy, host and maintain applications in the same integrated development environment. You build your own applications that run on the provider's infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider's servers. It also provides some level of support for the creation of applications. Thus PaaS offers a faster more cost effective model for application development and delivery. The PaaS provider manages upgrades, patches and other routine system maintenance. PaaS is based on a metering or subscription model so users only pay for what they use.
   There are basically four types of PaaS and their each example:
   
   1. Social application platforms
      Facebook is a type of social application platform wherein third parties can write new applications that are made available to end users.
      
   2. Raw compute platforms
      Developers can upload and execute their applications on Amazon’s infrastructure.
      
   3. Web application platforms
      Google provides APIs to developers to build web applications.
      
   4. Business application platform
      The CRM solutions provided by the companies.
      
      
3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): this is a backbone of entire concept. The vendor such as Google gears allow users to build their own applications. This is like a cloud storage.
   Delivery of the computing infrastructure as a fully outsourced service. Some of the companies that provide infrastructure services are Google, IBM, Amazon.com etc. Managed hosting and development environments are the services included in IaaS. The user can buy the infrastructure according to the requirements at any particular point of time instead of buying the infrastructure that might not be used for months. IaaS operates on a “Pay as you go” model ensuring that the users pay for only what they are using. IaaS is also sometimes referred to as Hardware as a Service (HaaS).
   
   
   
   
   

How is Cloud Computing architecture?

Cloud Computing divide into two sections: the front end and the back end. They connect to each other through a network. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system.

A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other. Most of the time, servers don't run at full capacity. That means there's unused processing power going to waste. It's possible to fool a physical server into thinking it's actually multiple servers, each running with its own independent operating system. The technique is called server virtualization. By maximizing the output of individual servers, server virtualization reduces the need for more physical machines.

If a cloud computing company has a lot of clients, there's likely to be a high demand for a lot of storage space. Some companies require hundreds of digital storage devices. Cloud computing systems need at least twice the number of storage devices it requires to keep all its clients' information stored. That's because these devices, like all computers, occasionally break down. A cloud computing system must make a copy of all its clients' information and store it on other devices. The copies enable the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. Making copies of data as a backup is called redudancy.

Source:
http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2010/05/cloud-computing-demystifying-saas-paas-and-iaas/
http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031?page=0,0
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing1.htm
http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Cloud_Computing
http://www.articlesbase.com/communication-articles/what-is-cloud-computing-and-segments-of-cloud-computing-3554835.html


Author:
Vania Wahyu (12.02.0054)
Faculty of Computer Science, Program Game Technology, Soegijapranata Catholic University.
Computer Organization assignment for first semester.


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