Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing

1. What is cloud computing?

   • The practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
   • Diagram to explain.

2. Disadvantages

   • Availability - Will your cloud service go down unexpectedly, leaving you without important information for hours or more?
   • Data mobility and ownership - Once you decide to stop the cloud service, can you get all your data back? How can you be certain that the service provider will destroy your data once you’ve canceled the service?
   • Privacy - How much data are cloud companies collecting and how might that information be used?

3. Cloud Storage

   • Cloud storage is a model of networked enterprise storage where data is stored in virtualized pools of storage which are generally hosted by third parties. Hosting companies operate large data centers, and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them.

4. Example of websites

   • Googlemail, microsoft, yahoo, google

5. Benefits

   • Achieve economies of scale – increase volume output or productivity with fewer people. Your cost per unit, project or product plummets.
   • Reduce spending on technology infrastructure. Maintain easy access to your information with minimal upfront spending. Pay as you go (weekly, quarterly or yearly), based on demand.
   • Improve accessibility. You have access anytime, anywhere, making your life so much easier
   • Reduce capital costs. There’s no need to spend big money on hardware, software or licensing fees.

6. Different types

   • Web-based cloud services. These services let you exploit certain web service functionality, rather than using fully developed applications.
   • Software as a Service. This is the idea of providing a given application to multiple tenants, typically using the browser. SaaS solutions are common in sales, HR, and ERP.
   • Platform as a Service. This is a variant of SaaS. You run your own applications but you do it on the cloud provider’s infrastructure.
   • Service commerce. These types of cloud solutions are a mix of SaaS and managed services. They provide a hub of services which the end-user interacts with. Common implmentations include expense tracking, travel ordering, or even virtual assistant services.
   • Managed services. This is perhaps the oldest iteration of cloud solutions. In this scenario, a cloud provider utilizes an application rather than end-users. So, for example, this might include anti-spam services, or even application monitoring services.
   • Utility cloud services. These are virtual storage and server options that organizations can access on demand, even allowing the creation of a virtual data center.

Images and files in the map