Introduction to Cloud Computing - A Step-by-Step Guide

Cloud Computing Definition:

Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing services- servers, storage, database, networking, tools, and software over the internet.
It enables companies to utilize a compute resource, it can be servers, storage or an application for the only purpose of not having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in-house.

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Why Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has gained prominence in the recent past with many Business firms feeling more confident when it comes to security.
With the increase in the generation of large amount of data day by day by people, machine, cloud comes into the picture to handle these huge data in the most effective and efficient manner.
Cloud computing promises new Career opportunities for IT professionals. This can be done by transferring your current core skills to cloud technologies directly or Develop new set of skills to meet the emerging demand for cloud job roles.

Components of Cloud Model

In this introduction to Cloud Computing tutorial, Cloud model is composed of mainly 3 parts

• Essential Characteristics which is of five part in Cloud model’s Cloud Computing tutorial.
• Three Service Models in Cloud model’s Cloud Computing tutorial.
• Four deployment models in Cloud model’s Cloud Computing tutorial.

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Essential Characteristics:

The 5 essential Characteristics are defined in this cloud model in Cloud Computing tutorial.

• Broad Network Access
• Rapid Elasticity
• Measured Service
• On- Demand Self- Service
• Resource Pooling

Service Models Includes:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Deployment Models includes

• Public
• Private
• Hybrid
• Community

In this Introduction to Cloud Computing tutorial, you’ll learn the Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing.

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Advantages of Cloud Computing:

• Flexibility: Cloud services gives you the flexibility to access it anywhere.
• Availability: At the same time, it is available 24×7.
• Scalability: You can provide additional instance and terminate it as and when it is required.
• Cost of Ownership: There is no Cost of Ownership. There is no need for investment as you are not owning any server.
• Metered Services: It gives you a metered reading as to how much you need to pay and how much you are utilizing.

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Disadvantages of Cloud Computing:

• Downtime: It Impacts the entire services if there is a downtime.
• Vulnerability to attack: Anything that is accessible through the internet is vulnerable to attack. This can be rectified by patching and ensure that it is accessible to only for those who require it.It should also be Updated regularly

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Overview of Microsoft Azure

Azure Presently called as Microsoft Azure was formerly known as Windows Azure. It is a Cloud Computing Platform which is designed by Microsoft in the 2006 for internal use. Later it was made Public in February 2010. It was Renamed to Microsoft Azure in March 2014.
This networking platform of Data centers has spread across the world.

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What is Azure?

Azure can be simply described as the managed Data centers that are used to build, deploy, manage applications, and provide services globally.
Azure Data Centers are located around the world based on certain Strategic places that best meet the customers’ demands
These data centers placed in a region is known as Azure Regions and they are placed at a distance in such a way that in case of any natural disaster which would affect more than one region at a time. These Data centers are divided in clusters.

Cloud Computing Services provided by Microsoft Azure

All cloud services that are provided by Azure are explained in this Cloud Computing tutorial one by one in detail.

Azure as PaaS

This is a platform provides by Azure to the clients to develop and deploy software. This helps the clients to develop their application rather than worrying about hardware and Infrastructure. Azure as PaaS also takes care of operating systems, serves and networking issues. PaaS is one of the cloud computing services which is provided by Azure to its clients.

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Advantages

• The total cost is low as the resources are allocated based on the demand and the servers are automatically updated.
• As services are automatically updated it becomes less vulnerable to security threats.
• The Azure team constantly keeps testing new versions of development tools, this helps the users to move to new tools. At the same time, it helps the developers to meet the customer’s demand quickly by adapting to new versions.

Disadvantages

• When using PaaS, the Portability issue comes into the picture. Different Azure environments are present which makes the applications to get adapted to it accordingly.

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Azure as IaaS

Azure as IAAS gives complete control of the operating system and the application platform to the application developers. The user gets to access, manage and monitor the data centers themselves. IaaS is one of the other cloud computing services which is provided by Azure to its Clients.

Advantages

• This is the most ideal platform where complete control is required.
• Application can be migrated to Windows Azure without any kind of rework. Applications such as database can also be migrated to Azure.
• It helps in quick transition of services to clouds, this helps the vendors to offer services to their clients easily

If you have any doubts or queries related to Azure, do post on Azure Community.

Disadvantages

• The users are tempted to stick to a particular version since they are given complete control. This gets harder for the users to transfer the application to future versions.
• There could be many reasons which may increase the cost of its It could be higher server maintenance for upgrading software’s.
• Unpatched versions have a lot of security issues.
• Unlike PaaS, there is no provision for automatic server Patching in IaaS. This become very Vulnerable affecting the entire Business.

It is very important to understand the various advantages and disadvantages of both the services in order to choose the appropriate platform according to your requirement. It can be concluded that PaaS has an overall advantage for operations over IaaS for commodity applications. Iaas Gives complete control of operating System and application platform while PaaS breaks the operations cost in the business model. Building Application Infrastructure on Azure

Learn about the architecture of Cloud Computing in our detailed blog on Cloud Computing Architecture.