Now we hear the term cloud computing quite often but do you know what it is. Then this article is for you. Consider an example while using a pen you don’t have to know how it’s made or how it works. You only want to know whether you can use it comfortably right.
As a technology professional, it would be nice to have these same benefits when developing and deploying applications. Storing data, streaming video, or even hosting a website all require managing hardware and software. This management is an unnecessary obstacle when delivering your application to your users. The solution is for this scenario is cloud computing.
Cloud computing is renting resources, like storage space or CPU cycles, on another company’s computers. You only pay for what you use. The company providing these services is referred to as a cloud provider. Some example providers are Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.
The cloud provider is responsible for the physical hardware required to execute your work, and for keeping it up-to-date. The computing services offered tend to vary by the cloud provider. However, typically they include:
- Compute power — such as Linux servers or web applications
- Storage — such as files and databases
- Networking — such as secure connections between the cloud provider and your company
- Analytics — such as visualizing telemetry and performance data
The goal of cloud computing is to make running a business easier and more efficient, whether it’s a small start-up or a large enterprise. Every business is unique and has different needs. To meet those needs, cloud computing providers offer a wide range of services.
In Compute Power we have three different choices
Virtual Machines - A VM is an emulation of a computer just like your desktop or laptop, you’re using now. Each VM includes an operating system and hardware that appears to the user like a physical computer running Windows or Linux. You can then install whatever software you need to do the tasks you want to run in the cloud.The difference is that you don’t have to buy any of the hardware or install the OS. The cloud provider runs your virtual machine on a physical server in one of their data centers often sharing that server with other VMs (isolated and secure). With the cloud, you can have a VM ready to go in minutes at less cost than a physical computer.
Containers - provide a consistent, isolated execution environment for applications. They’re similar to VMs except they don’t require a guest operating system. Instead, the application and all its dependencies are packaged into a “container” and then a standard runtime environment is used to execute the app. This allows the container to start up in just a few seconds because there’s no OS to boot and initialize. You only need the app to launch.
Serverless computing - lets you run application code without creating, configuring, or maintaining a server. The core idea is that your application is broken into separate functions that run when triggered by some action. This is ideal for automated tasks , for example, you can build a serverless process that automatically sends an email confirmation after a customer makes an online purchase.
Storage is an important service provided by cloud computing. The advantage of using cloud-based data storage is you can scale to meet your needs. If you find that you need more space to store your data, you can pay a little more and add it to your available space. In some cases, the storage can even expand and contract automatically so you pay for exactly what you need at any given point in time. This makes cloud computing flexible and cost-efficient.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
COST EFFECTIVE
Cloud computing provides a pay-as-you-go or consumption-based pricing model. Prices for individual resources and services are provided so you can predict how much you will spend in a given billing period based on your expected usage.
SCALABLE
You can increase or decrease the services used based on the need at a given time. The scaling can be done manually or automatically based on the resources that can be allocated and de-allocated or the number of requests and CPU utilization.
SECURE
Think about how you secure your data center. You have physical security and digital security. Cloud providers offer a broad set of policies, technologies, controls, and expert technical skills that can provide better security than most organizations can otherwise achieve. The result is strengthened security, which helps to protect data, apps, and infrastructure from potential threats.
The major benefits of cloud computing are listed above. Apart from these cloud computing is
Reliable — When you are working in the industry or running an industry you should be confident that your data is secure and will be stored accordingly. Cloud computing providers offer data backup, disaster recovery, and data replication services to make sure your data is always safe.
Elasticity — As your workload changes a cloud computing system can add or remove resources based on the increase or decrease in demand. Imagine that you own a startup and your product was featured in the media. So there will be a hike in persons visiting your website which results in increased traffic. Since the cloud is elastic, it automatically allocates more computing resources to handle the increased traffic.
The major cloud service providers are:
There are so many resources available online to get started with cloud computing. Qwiklabs is one such site with hands-on tutorials.
I hope this article will provide you with an overview of Cloud Computing. More blogs will be coming soon.
