Imagine, you are having a small business and you are dreamed of setting up I.T infrastructure for your company. For the same you are going to have a meeting with some experts. Without missing a beat, a professional will surely going to advice you with “why not set up the environment in the cloud.” But you are not sure about what is cloud and more than trying to understand what cloud is, we are curious about the benefits of cloud over having and server locally for your web development works. Same way, we will make you understand about “WHY CLOUD”?
Let’s understand about why cloud computing was needed and what was the problem that we had that cloud computing solved and since then it took over the Market. This will solve a lot of unanswered questions about cloud computing or services that you might have.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the ability to deliver on-demand computing service such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and more over the internet and that too on a pay-as-you-go basis. Now, you might think what does that mean.
Simply, rather than managing files on local storage devices, cloud computing makes it possible to save them over the internet and access them from the interne so that you can be a mobile person and if you are moving from place to place, you can still access the storage from the internet. If you want to give access to somebody else, again it’s easy for you to give access to them as long as they have internet connection available with them.
Why Cloud computing is useful for web developers, businesses and all?
- SCALABILITY: Cloud computing allows businesses to scale resources up or down based on demand, resulting in optimal performance and cost efficiency.
- FLEXIBILITY: The cloud lets users to access resources from anywhere with an internet connection, enabling remote work and collaboration.
- COST SAVINGS: Cloud computing reduces cost over traditional IT infrastructure because it minimizes the need for upfront hardware investments and lowers maintenance expenses.
- RELIABILITY: Cloud providers provide high levels of uptime and redundancy, ensuring continuous access to services while minimizing downtime.
Types of Cloud Computing
We can categorize the different types of cloud computing based on two wide categories:
- Development Model
- Service Model
Talking about the deployment model first, it is further categorized into three types:
- Public Cloud
- Private Cloud
- Hybrid Cloud
It will be easy for us to explain and also it’ll be easy for you to understand if we walk you through the example. Consider the different types of vehicles we use to commute from one place to another. If we want to travel we can pick a bus which is accessible to anyone. We can get in and pay for the seat that we occupy and we will pay for the time that we will be traveling in it. Cost is very less here.
What is Public Cloud?
A similar kind of thing happens in the public cloud. We will pay only for the resource that we use and for how long we are using it. If we use less, we will be paying less. If we use more, we will be paying more for that. Simple!
Public cloud is a cloud infrastructure that’s made available to the general public over the internet and it is owned by the cloud provider. Some of the major players as cloud providers are AWS, Microsoft azure, IBM’s blue cloud and Sun cloud.
What is Private Cloud?
On the other hand, Private cloud is like buying your own car and using it for commuting purpose. Here you pay a huge amount upfront and it is all owned only by you. You do not pay for it in an hourly fashion but completely and all up front. The cost here is very huge.
Private cloud infrastructure is exclusively operated by a single organization. It can be managed by organizations or third party and may exist on premises or off-premises. This is exclusively operated for a single organization and some companies that provide private cloud are AWS and VMware.
What is Hybrid Cloud?
Thirdly, if you want the best of both types, I can have it in a hybrid environment meaning, if i already have a DC and i can integrate it with the cloud and use both the DC’s and that would become an hybrid environment.
For example: the federal agencies, opt for private clouds for storing and developing personal data and they use public cloud to share the non-sensitive data with the general public or with other government departments.
Types of Cloud based on Service Models
If, we need to categorize them broadly we can do as:
- INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE/ IAAS
- PLATFORM AS A SERVICE/ PAAS
- SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE/ SAAS
Well, let us explain it all.
What is Infrastructure As A Service/ IAAS?
If you want is just in VM and you have all the expertise to install the software on top of it and make it work then go for IAAS. It gives basic computing infra. It is based on a pay-as-you-go basis. Some of the cloud providers who are big players are AWS, azure and Google and here the users generally will be ID admins.
What is Platform As A Service/ PAAS?
If you only want a platform or an interface to program or an interface to upload a program and make it run then pick PAAS.
In PAAS, the provider gives you a platform or a runtime environment for developing, testing and managing application. It is platform ready, you buy the platform you upload your code and you start working on it. It allows the software developers to deploy applications without running the underlying infrastructure and as you might have guessed by now the interesting candidates who would use PAAS is software developers.
What is Software As A Service/ SAAS?
If, all that you want is a finished product hosted in the cloud and be able to access it through the internet, then go for SAAS. Here, you get a username and password for an application and you can begin to customize the application based on your needs.
Here, everything is managed by the vendor, be it the hardware or the software. We pay for the service as subscription model and the end users here would be end customer itself.
All right, putting together everything in the same page and compare and contrast the different types
Let us compare the difference between the four models starting from on-premises to IAAS, PAAS and SAAS.
- It is self-explanatory that the resources managed by us are huge in “on-premises” and little less in IAAS and further less or reduced in PAAS and there is nothing to manage when it comes to SAAS.
- In “on-premises” all that you use is owned by you and nothing is managed by the provider.
- In IAAS, here the infra is managed by the provider and we get to use it and customize it the way we want it. Here, the cloud service is in shared responsibility. This is a lot simpler than the rest we discussed so far.
- With PAAS, we just have to get the platform in which you would run your code and upload your code and start running your application.
- You still have one more option left which requires no effort from us at all. It’s the same way with SAAS. We buy the finished product and pay for the finished application.
Who are the leading Cloud providers?
- Amazon Web Services AWS
This is a cloud computing service provided by amazon. It provides a mix of infrastructure as a service IAAS, platform as a service PAAS and package software as a service called SAAS offerings.
- Microsoft Azure
Formerly known as windows assure. It is a cloud computing service by Microsoft and it sort of specializes in using cloud for building, testing, deploying and managing the applications through the servers throughout the global network that Microsoft manages. It also provides software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service and it supports lots of different programming languages, tools and frameworks including both Microsoft and third-party software and systems.
- IBM Cloud
IBM cloud includes infrastructure as a service, software as a service and platform as a service. Now, the difference is here, it offers through public, private and hybrid cloud delivery models.
- Google Cloud
It is a suit of cloud computing services that run on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end user products such as the Google search and the You Tube you’re familiar with. Alongside, it also provides cloud services includes computing services, data storage services, data analytics and machine learning services.
Knowing basics of Cloud is very important for a web developer who want to grow in his career. It is because with time the complexities of projetcs you work changes, knowing cloud helps to project and calculate the resources, costs and requirements clearly. It also makes your code secure if utilized properly.
That is why, we intent to discuss basics of cloud computing to every student enrolled in our online web development course or learn it in our web development institute in Delhi