Introduction to Cloud Computing

3 min readJan 2, 2020

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is the on-demand delivery of compute power, database storage, applications and other IT resources through a cloud services platform via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. ( https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-cloud-computing/)

Examples:-

Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Microsoft Azure
Google Cloud platform

Benefits of Cloud Computing:-

■ No need to invest heavily in big data centers.

■ Scalability.

■ Stop guessing capacity.

■ Increase speed and agility.

■ Stop spending money on running and maintaining data centers.

■ Go global in minutes.

Deployment Models:-

Public Cloud

When services are provide by third-party providers over a network open for public use, meaning that you share same resources like software, hardware and network devices with other clients of the same provider.

Since you are only renting space on the cloud by a service provider, you don’t have any responsibility over the management of the cloud. You only use it to store your data and pay for what you have used.

https://www.cloudworldwideservices.com/en/cloud-deployment-models-differences/

Private Cloud

Refers to a cloud deployment model which operate exclusively for a single organization. In private cloud, resources are not shared with other organizations. Therefore, company which use private cloud is responsible of maintenance and management of the cloud. Compare to public cloud, private cloud is expensive due to this above mentioned reason.

Hybrid Cloud

It is a combination of public and private cloud. Therefore, companies which uses this deployment model can benefit the advantages of both models.

For example, company can use private cloud to store sensitive data since private cloud has more security where else public cloud can be used to store non sensitive data.

Types of Cloud Computing:-

1) IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

Provides access to networking features, computers, and data storage. Gives the highest level of flexibility and management control over your IT resources.

Examples:

AWS
Microsoft Azure
Google Compute Engine
Cisco Metapod

2) PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Remove the need for you to manage the underline infrastructure and allows you to focus on the deployment and management of your application. This way you don’t need to worry about resource procurement, capacity planning, software maintenance, patching or any other involved in your running application.

Examples:

AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Heroku
OpenShift
Google App Engine
Windows Azure

3) SaaS (Software as a Service)

Provides you a complete product that is run and managed by the service provider. This way you don’t have to think about how the service is managed or maintain or underlying infrastructure managed.

Examples: