Introduction to Cloud Computing

Learner’s Guide
Introduction to Cloud Computing
Learner’s Guide

© 2013 Aptech Limited

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Edition 1 - 2013
Dear Learner,

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 Aptech New Products Design Model

Key Aspects

Evaluation of
Scanning the user
Instructional
system and needs
Processes and
assessment
Material

2 6
Need Analysis
Assessment of
and design of
learning
curriculum

3 Design and
5
Strategies for
development of
delivery of
instructional
instructions
material 4
“ Knowing is not enough,
we must apply; “
Willing is not enough,
we must do
 Preface
The book, Introduction to Cloud Computing, introduces cloud computing, which is an emerging
technology trend in today’s computing world. It involves the delivery of software, platforms, and
infrastructure as services through the Internet or networks.

This book is the result of a concentrated effort of the Design Team, which is continuously striving to bring
you the best and the latest in Information Technology. The process of design has been a part of the ISO
9001 certification for Aptech-IT Division, Education Support Services. As part of Aptech’s quality drive,
this team does intensive research and curriculum enrichment to keep it in line with industry trends.

We will be glad to receive your suggestions.

Design Team
“ Knowing is not enough,
we must apply; “
Willing is not enough,
we must do
 Table of Contents

Module
1. Introduction to Cloud Computing 1
 Session - 1
Introduction to Cloud Computing
Welcome to the session, Introduction to Cloud Computing. Cloud computing
is an emerging technology trend in today’s computing world. It involves the
delivery of software, platforms, and infrastructure as services through the
Internet or networks.

The session covers the various aspects of cloud computing, such as advantages
and characteristics, cloud delivery models, and types of clouds. Software as a
Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
are explored briefly.

In this Session, you will learn to:

 Describe the evolution of cloud computing.

 Explain the advantages of cloud computing.

 State the characteristics of cloud computing.

 Describe the cloud delivery models.

 Define and describe SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.

 Describe the cloud deployment models.

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Session Introduction to Cloud Computing

1.1 Evolution of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is an approach enabling convenient and on-demand access through the Internet to
resources such as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services.
Figure 1.1 depicts this concept.

Figure 1.1: Cloud Computing

Cloud computing evolved from a concept called virtualization. Virtualization is the process of creating a
virtual version of an Operating System (OS), a server, or network resources. Using virtualization, you can
host multiple OSes at the same time on a single machine.
A traditional application server may have just 5-10% utilization, whereas virtualized servers can reach 50-
80% utilization. By hosting more virtualized instances on fewer physical servers, you can lower costs for
hardware acquisition, maintenance, energy, and cooling system usage.
Although virtualization offers many benefits, it was not enough because companies began to have many
new needs such as on-demand scalability, zero capital expenditure, usage of software as a service, and
so forth. Moreover, managing large numbers of virtual machines posed problems. Added to this were the
issues of disaster management and data recovery.
This is when cloud computing began to emerge.
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Figure 1.2 shows this.

Figure 1.2: Evolution of Cloud Computing

Today, there are several cloud applications available for consumers such as GMail and others. Figure 1.3
depicts an example.

Figure 1.3: Example of Cloud Computing In Real World

1.2 Cloud Desktop OS

Concepts

A cloud Operating System or cloud OS, is an Internet based OS that can be accessed anytime from any
desktop. With a cloud based OS, you don’t have to worry about hard disk space on your machine as
the data will be stored on the cloud. Google Chrome and EyeOS are examples of such Internet based
operating systems.

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1.3 Advantages
Companies often cannot predict whether their customer base is going to grow or shrink. If they map
their infrastructure to a large potential customer base but the growth does not reach that level, then
the huge infrastructure is a waste. On the other hand, if companies underestimate their growth and plan
for a small infrastructure, they could lose potential customers. What is required in such scenarios is the
capability to scale the infrastructure up or down depending on the demand of the hour. This capability is
called elasticity and is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing.
Another key advantage of cloud computing is that of failover capabilities. Failover is a mechanism in
which tasks from a primary system are automatically offloaded to a secondary standby system during
system failure or pre-planned downtime.
Figure 1.4 depics an example of failover.

Figure 1.4: FailOver

There are several other advantages. With cloud computing, enterprises may use minimal infrastructure
locally, thus saving on power and hardware costs.
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Backup becomes easier with cloud computing. Figure 1.5 shows an example.

Figure 1.5: Backup

Also, as the carbon footprints left behind on the planet is reduced because of less number of individual
machines at the local end, environmental damage is also reduced. Local software licenses would not be
required as cloud services are Web-based, thus reducing costs.

1.4 Characteristics
Some fundamental characteristics commonly offered by cloud computing systems are as follows:

 User Centric: When a user is connected to a cloud, the data, application, and services offered by
the cloud are available to the user. The user can not only use but also share them with others and
collaborate on shared applications.

 Task Centric: Instead of just focusing on the application and its capabilities, the focus has shifted
to what a user needs and how it can be done by the application.

 Powerful: Multiple resources together create a vast pool of computing power.

Concepts

 Programmable: Computing power and data are now distributed across the cloud. Hence, even if
one computer hosting a module becomes nonfunctional, its task can be automatically moved to
another computer in the cloud.
Amazon, SalesForce, Microsoft, and Google are the foremost vendors of cloud computing solutions
today.

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Amazon offers many cloud computing products as part of Amazon Web Services.
The Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, also known as EC2, enables you to create virtual computers or
instances in the Amazon Cloud. Figure 1.6 depicts the EC2 feature.

Figure 1.6: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

1.5 Cloud Delivery Models

There are three delivery models (also called layers in a cloud stack) that deliver software, application
platforms, and infrastructure respectively:

 SaaS: End users or consumers can make use of applications that are available as services on
demand. The consumer does not have any control over the hardware, software, or operating
system being used.

 PaaS: In PaaS, a hosting environment or platform is provided to the consumer using which
applications can be deployed to the cloud. The consumer can control the platform to an extent
but does not have any control over the hardware, software, or operating system being used.

 IaaS: Using IaaS, the consumer can rent computing power, storage, networks, and other computing
resources. The consumer can control the hardware, software, or operating system being used.
In all the three models, the pricing structure is on a pay-as-you-use basis.

1.6 SaaS
Concepts

SaaS is a delivery model that provides access to software and its functionality as a Web service through
the Internet on demand.
Traditionally, organizations follow a standard approach to work with documents, data, or to develop
business applications. They acquire licensed software, purchase the necessary operating system,

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hardware and other resources, and then install the software. From time to time, the licensed software
(and hardware) may require maintenance and upgradation. All these activities consume time, money,
and effort in the long run.
This led to the emergence of SaaS, a software delivery model in which applications hosted by a vendor
are available to end users through the Internet.
The fees for SaaS applications or services are subscription based monthly fees, a pay-as-you-use model,
which costs much lesser than actual licenses.
Google Docs and Gmail are some of the most well-known examples of SaaS.

1.7 PaaS
PaaS is a delivery model that provides a platform as a service through the Internet or a network, enabling
developers to deploy their applications on the cloud.
A PaaS vendor provides a platform as a service through the Internet or a network. PaaS enables customer-
created applications to be deployed on the cloud. It offers on-demand elasticity, scaling the platform or
runtime environment up or down as required.
PaaS is also called as cloudware because it moves resources from desktop PCs to the Internet cloud.

1.8 IaaS
IaaS is a delivery model that provides processing capabilities, storage, and networking components
through the Internet.
An IaaS vendor provides you the infrastructure you need for developing your applications, such as network,
processing capabilities, and data storage. This infrastructure is elastic and available on-demand.
With the IaaS model, a customer could be anyone who needs a development environment, hardware
and network resources for creating software.

1.9 Cloud Deployment Models

The cloud deployment model determines how the cloud computing environment will be deployed.
There are two cloud deployment models:

 Private Cloud:
In this deployment model, the cloud infrastructure is private to an organization. A private cloud
Concepts

may be hosted and managed by an organization inside an organization’s firewall or may even be off
the premises.
In a private cloud, data and processes are managed at data centers within the organization without
the restrictions of network bandwidth and security exposures. This improves security and reliability
because the access to the infrastructure is restricted.

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 Public Cloud:
In this deployment model, the cloud services are available on a pay-and-use basis to all Internet
users or to a large organization. These services are provided by third party service providers or
vendors through the Internet.
Public clouds provide a flexible and cost effective way to deploy solutions. The cost of infrastruc-
ture and deployment of applications is distributed among all users, providing each user the benefit
of “pay-as-you-go” model. Each user pays only for his/her usage of computing resources that are
provided by the vendor.

Knowledge Check 1
1. Which of the following statements about SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS are true?

SaaS is also called as cloudware because it moves resources from desktop PCs to the
(A)
Internet cloud.
Cloud computing is the convergence of three major trends: Virtualization, Utility
(B)
Computing, and SaaS.
(C) Amazon EC2 is an example of IaaS.

(D) An IaaS vendor provides only a platform as a service through the Internet or a network.

2. Which of the following statements are true about cloud deployment models, delivery models, and
Amazon EC2?

(A) Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) offers temporary storage for Amazon EC2 instances.

(B) Instances can be placed in multiple locations with the help of Amazon EC2.
In a PaaS model, the consumer can control the platform to an extent but does not have
(C)
any control over the hardware, software or operating system being used.
In a private cloud, data is managed in the organization without the restrictions of network
(D)
bandwidth and security exposures.
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Knowledge Check 1 Answers

1. (B), (C)
2. (B), (C)

Concepts

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Summary
 Cloud Computing enables on-demand access through Internet or a network to computing
capabilities and resources.
 SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS are three models to deliver cloud services, application platforms, or
infrastructure.
 There are two cloud deployment models namely private and public.
Concepts

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