Cloud Computing makes computer infrastructure and services available "on-need" basis.

The computing infrastructure could

include hard disk, development platform, database, computing power or complete software applications. To access these
resources from the cloud vendors, organizations do not need to make any large scale capital expenditures. Organization
need to "pay per use" i.e. organization need to pay only as much for the computing infrastructure as they use. The billing
model of cloud computing is similar to the electricity payment that we do on the basis of usage. In the description below
vendor is used for cloud computing service provide and organization is used for user of cloud computing services.
Cloud Computing has the following characteristics:

A. Availability of large computing infrastructure on need basis: Cloud vendors provide appearance of infinite computing
infrastructure availability. This is available to organizations on need basis. This ensures that organizations do not
need to set up servers for their peak requirements. As an example consider the official Wimbledon site. The site gets
extremely high traffic in the two weeks when the championship happens. For this two weeks period this site will have
high server usage. For rest of the year the site will need to only pay for the reduced usage. In general organizations
do not need to bear the cost of computing infrastructure for their peak loads. The usage of computing resources can
be increased or reduced on need basis, is called elastic computing.
B. Cloud computing uses a "pay-per-use" billing model. Cloud billing model are very different when compared to
traditional IT billing techniques. Typical billing models include per user billing, per GB billing or per-use billing (i.e. an
organization is billed on each usage of the computing service).
C. Cloud computing typically does not involve long-term commitment to use the computing infrastructure. The vendor
does not enforce long-term usage of services.
D. Cloud computing does not involve any significant capital expenditure for the organization. Unlike traditional IT
infrastructure, in cloud computing organizations just use the computing services without procuring it. In some sense
cloud computing involves renting the computing resources instead of buying them. As the figure below displays,
unlike traditional computing model, Cloud computing requires no capital expenditure to acquire initial computing
resources. The figure below is from

E. Since the cloud computing vendor provides services over the web, these are available from any location.
F. Cloud computing can be ordered online without detailed formal contracts.
Cloud computing provides a level-playing field for smaller organizations. It allows smaller organization access to computing
infrastructure without making any significant initial investment.
Many experts believe that cloud computing will lead to increased commoditization of computing resources.

Origin of term
Cloud traditionally depicts the internet. Since cloud computing is built using internet, hence the name.

Examples of Cloud Computing applications

Hotmail.com was launched in 1996, It is widely considered as the first cloud computing application. The data is stored at the
vendor servers, and users could pay incrementally to increase disk space usage. Many other services have emerged in the
last decade that allows users to store information (or perform processing) without paying any upfront charges. These are
typically consumer oriented services. Twitter, myspace, Wikipedia, youtube, facebook, linkedin, Google docs and blogger all
have the characteristics explained above and are examples of cloud computing.
Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, was the first successful example of providing software as a service in the business to
business domain. Salesforce is a CRM tool for sales executives providing features like managing customer details, running
promotions etc
Types of cloud computing
Cloud computing is typically classified in two ways:

1. Location of the cloud computing

2. Type of services offered

Location of the cloud

Cloud computing is typically classified in the following three ways:

1. Public cloud: In Public cloud the computing infrastructure is hosted by the cloud vendor at the vendor’s
premises. The customer has no visibility and control over where the computing infrastructure is hosted.
The computing infrastructure is shared between any organizations.

2. Private cloud: The computing infrastructure is dedicated to a particular organization and not shared
with other organizations. Some experts consider that private clouds are not real examples of cloud
computing. Private clouds are more expensive and more secure when compared to public clouds.

Private clouds are of two types: On-premise private clouds and externally hosted private clouds.
Externally hosted private clouds are also exclusively used by one organization, but are hosted by a third
party specializing in cloud infrastructure. Externally hosted private clouds are cheaper than On-premise
private clouds.

3. Hybrid cloud Organizations may host critical applications on private clouds and applications with
relatively less security concerns on the public cloud. The usage of both private and public clouds
together is called hybrid cloud. A related term is Cloud Bursting. In Cloud bursting organization use their
own computing infrastructure for normal usage, but access the cloud for high/peak load requirements.
This ensures that a sudden increase in computing requirement is handled gracefully.

4. Community cloud involves sharing of computing infrastructure in between organizations of the same
community. For example all Government organizations within the state of California may share
computing infrastructure on the cloud to manage data related to citizens residing in California.

Classification based upon service provided

Based upon the services offered, clouds are classified in the following ways:

1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) involves offering hardware related services using the principles of
cloud computing. These could include some kind of storage services (database or disk storage) or
virtual servers. Leading vendors that provide Infrastructure as a service are Amazon EC2, Amazon
S3,Rackspace Cloud Servers and Flexiscale.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) involves offering a development platform on the cloud. Platforms provided
by different vendors are typically not compatible. Typical players in PaaS are Google’s Application
Engine, Microsofts Azure, Salesforce.com’s force.com .

3. Software as a service (SaaS) includes a complete software offering on the cloud. Users can access a
software application hosted by the cloud vendor on pay-per-use basis. This is a well-established sector.
The pioneer in this field has been Salesforce.coms offering in the online Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) space. Other examples are online email providers like Googles gmail and
 Microsofts hotmail, Google docs and Microsofts online version of office called BPOS (Business
Productivity Online Standard Suite).

The above classification is well accepted in the industry. David Linthicum describes a more granular classification
on the basis of service provided. These are listed below:

1. Storage-as-a-service
2. Database-as-a-service
3. Information-as-a-service
4. Process-as-a-service
5. Application-as-a-service
6. Platform-as-a-service
7. Integration-as-a-service
8. Security-as-a-service
9. Management/Governance-as-a-service
10. Testing-as-a-service
11. Infrastructure-as-a-service

Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud
computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any
computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory,
processing and bandwidth.

A simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo email or Gmail etc. You dont need a software or a server to use them. All a
consumer would need is just an internet connection and you can start sending emails. The server and email management
software is all on the cloud ( internet) and is totally managed by the cloud service provider Yahoo , Google etc. The consumer
gets to use the software alone and enjoy the benefits. The analogy is , 'If you only need milk , would you buy a cow ?' All
the users or consumers need is to get the benefits of using the software or hardware of the computer like sending emails etc.
Just to get this benefit (milk) why should a consumer buy a (cow) software /hardware ?

Cloud computing is broken down into three segments: "applications," "platforms," and "infrastructure." Each segment serves
a different purpose and offers different products for businesses and individuals around the world. In June 2009, a study
conducted by VersionOne found that 41% of senior IT professionals actually don't know what cloud computing is and two-
thirds of senior finance professionals are confused by the concept,[1] highlighting the young nature of the technology. In Sept
2009, an Aberdeen Group study found that disciplined companies achieved on average an 18% reduction in their IT budget
from cloud computing and a 16% reduction in data center power costs.[2]

Cloud Computing Segments

Applications: It's all On Demand
So far the applications segment of cloud computing is the only segment that has proven useful as a business model.The
Cloud Wars: $100 Billion at Stake, Published by Merrill Lynch, May 7, 2008</ref> By running business applications over the
internet from centralized servers rather than from on-site servers, companys can cut some serious costs. Furthermore, while
avoiding maintenance costs, licensing costs and the costs of the hardware required to run servers on-site, companies are
able to run applications much more efficiently from a computing standpoint.

On Demand software services come in a few different varieties which vary in their pricing scheme and how the software is
delivered to the end users. In the past, the end-user would generally purchase a servers and is accessed by the end user
over the internet. While this is the most common platform for On Demand software services, there are also some slightly
different offerings which can be described as a hybrid of these two platforms. For instance, a program through which the end
user pays a license fee, but then accesses the software over the internet from centralized servers is considered a hybrid
service.
 • Who is Offering On Demand Software? - The companies below are already established in the On-Demand
software or SaaS business. These companies charge their customers a subscription fee and in return host software
on central servers that are accessed by the end user via the internet.
• Salesforce.com (CRM)
• Google (GOOG)
• NetSuite (N)
• Taleo (TLEO)
• Concur Technologies (CNQR)
• Info Technologies (IT)
• canadasoftware.net (nexgen)
• Who is Offering Traditional Software? - The following companies have established themselves as traditional
software providers. These companies sell licenses to their users, who then run the software from on premise
servers.
• SAP AG (SAP)
• Oracle (ORCL)
• Blackbaud (BLKB)
• Lawson Software (LWSN)
• Blackboard (BBBB)

Platforms:
Many of the companies that started out providing On Demand application services have developed platform services as well.
The platform segment of cloud computing refers to products that are used to deploy internet. NetSuite, Amazon, Google, and
Microsoft have also developed platforms that allow users to access applications from centralized servers.

In July 2008, HP, Yahoo! (YHOO), and Intel (INTC) announced a joint cloud computing research project called the Cloud
Computing Test Bed. The companies are jointly designing and producing the internet based testing utilizing HP hardware and
Intel processors.[3]

• Active platforms - The following companies are some that have developed platforms that allow end users to
access applications from centralized servers using the internet. Next to each company is the name of their platform.
• Google (GOOG) - Apps Engine
• Amazon.com (AMZN) - EC2
• Microsoft (MSFT) - Windows Live
• Terremark Worldwide (TMRK) - The Enterprise Cloud
• Salesforce.com (CRM) - Force.com
• NetSuite (N) - Suiteflex
• Rackspace Cloud - cloudservers, cloudsites, cloudfiles
• Metrisoft - Metrisoft SaaS Platform
• [1] - SUN Oracle direct link
What is a public cloud?

A public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which a service provider makes
resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet. Public cloud
services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model.
The main benefits of using a public cloud service are:
• Easy and inexpensive set-up because hardware, application and bandwidth costs are covered by the
provider.
• Scalability to meet needs.
• No wasted resources because you pay for what you use.
The term "public cloud" arose to differentiate between the standard model and the private cloud, which is a
proprietary network or data center that uses cloud computing technologies, such as virtualization. A private cloud
is managed by the organization it serves. A third model, the hybrid cloud, is maintained by both internal and
external providers.
Examples of public clouds include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM's Blue Cloud, Sun Cloud, Google
AppEngine and Windows AzureServices Platform.

What is a private cloud?

Private cloud (also called internal cloud or corporate cloud) is a marketing term for a proprietary computing
architecture that provides hosted services to a limited number of people behind a firewall.
Advances in virtualization and distributed computing have allowed corporate network and datacenter
administrators to effectively become service providers that meet the needs of their "customers" within the
corporation.
Marketing media that uses the words "private cloud" is designed to appeal to an organization that needs or
wants more control over their data than they can get by using a third-party hosted service such as Amazon's
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) or Simple Storage Service (S3).
- What is a hybrid cloud?

A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment in which an organization provides and manages some
resources in-house and has others provided externally. For example, an organization might use a public cloud
service, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for archived data but continue to maintain in-
house storage for operational customer data. Ideally, the hybrid approach allows a business to take advantage of
the scalability and cost-effectiveness that a public cloud computing environment offers without exposing mission-
critical applications and data to third-party vulnerabilities.
The cloud computing overview involves understanding of the cloud and the cloud computing
architecture. Cloud computing is defined as the storage, management, processing, and accessing
information and other data stored in a specific server. The “cloud” pertains to all these necessary
information, whether these are account details of customers, sales documentations, or simply records of
any kind of business; the cloud is of utmost interest in making use of the cloud computing technology.

The cloud computing architecture is comprised of two significant parts: the front end and the
back end. The front end is the side at which the user of the computer or the client himself is able to
access. This involves the client’s network or his computer and the program or programs that he uses to
access the database or the servers that contain all the data. The back end of the cloud computing
architecture is the cloud itself, which is the collection of all related information saved in the servers that
the client wishes to have access to. These two ends of the cloud computing architecture are connected
through a network, usually the Internet, because it provides remote access to all the users of the cloud.

The cloud computing technology requires specific software and hardware for it to function the
way its users want it to be. For large-scale businesses, the cloud computing technology eliminates the
need to buy an additional number of hardware for all employees, since all data needed would be easily
accessible through the individual computers. Installing software in every computer would no longer be
necessary: because the cloud computing platform would be able to do the job. The cloud computing
platform contains all the necessary functions and software for easy access and computing of the cloud.
The cloud computing overview might have projected two primary concerns with the use of the
cloud computing platform: security and privacy. For the cloud computing technology to be
beneficial to all its users, it is essential that the cloud computing platform does not neglect the need for
a secure and private means of transacting business over the Internet, and at the same time provides ease
of use for the client. In the cloud computing overview, it is seen that the cloud computing architecture
has provided remote access for users, but this does not mean that security and privacy cannot be kept
within the system.
Cloud computing will be beneficial to all companies, but it should be kept in mind that one has to chose
a cloud computing technology that will be able to provide his needs, and at the same will not sacrifice
the integrity of one’s business.
Till the year 2009 Cloud Computing was a hype. But now it has definitely lived up to the hype
& moved beyond it. Gartner’s Strategic Planning Hypothesis predicts that, by 2012, about
80% of Fortune 1,000 companies would use Cloud Computing Service in some fashion.

Let us check what constitutes cloud computing. Cloud Computing can be broadly classified into
3*aaS i.e. 3 layers of Cloud Stack:

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Let us oversimplify it to represent it in a Stacked Venn diagram as follows:

In general terms, Internet & Cloud may basically mean the same. For the sake of simplicity they
are shown here as two layers as Internet is quite broader than the cloud.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
This is the base layer of the cloud stack. It serves as a foundation for the other two layers, for their
execution. The keyword behind this stack is Virtualization. Let us try to understand this using
Amazon EC2. In Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) your application will be executed on a virtual
computer (instance). You have the choice of virtual computer, where you can select a
configuration of CPU, memory & storage that is optimal for your application. The whole cloud
infrastructure viz. servers, routers, hardware based load-balancing, firewalls, storage & other
network equipments are provided by the IaaS provider. The customer buy these resources as a
service on a need basis. A few of you may claim that this sounds somewhat similar to what the
customers were doing even 10 years back in a traditional hosting. So what you can do now with an
IaaS that you could not before? How is it different from the traditional hosting services?

Why companies should opt for IaaS ?

• The billing is on hourly or monthly basis. You pay only for your actual resource
consumption. Unlike the traditional services where you’ve to pay a fixed amount even if you
don’t use the resources or have no enough clients to consume the preconfigured
resources.In cloud computing i.e. IaaS, you pay less if you have a lower customer base &
vice-versa. Sounds quite rational!

• Cloud is elastic in nature, i.e. you can control the number of resources you use at any given
point in time. Compare this with your traditional hosting where you use to rent fixed
number of resources for fixed amount of time. Using IaaS you can easily configure your
 resources for unexpected spike in traffic. Based on your computing requirement &
configuration yourIaaS provider can respond quickly to scale up or down. Amazon EC2 calls
it Auto Scaling.This is suitable for applications that undergo quite unpredictable spike in
traffic on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. i.e. On-Demand!

• One more feature I liked about Amazon EC2 & perhaps provided by other IaaS providers as
well is Elastic Load Balancing. It auto-distributes application incoming traffic across multiple
Amazon EC2 instances (virtual computers).

• The Amazon EC2 SLA (Service Level Agreement) guarantees 99.95% availability of the
service within a region over a trailing 365 day period. GoGrid has the most
generous SLAwith a guarantee of 100% Uptime & 24/7 Support.

• How quickly can you scale up or scale down your capacity? An Amazon EC2 customer can
increase or decrease capacity within minutes. You can commission one, hundreds or even
thousands of server instances simultaneously. Its true for other IaaS providers as well. A
Rackspace client says he can spin up new servers in seconds!

Platform as a Service

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a delivery of a computing platform over the web. PaaS
enables you to create web applications quickly, without the cost and complexity of buying and
managing the underlying software/hardware.
PaaS provides all the facilities required to support the complete life cycle of building and delivering web

applications entirely on the web.

A few weeks back I covered a post on Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS: Cloud Computing. To
summarize that post, IaaS is the base layer of Cloud Computing, the foundation of cloud based
applications. The whole cloud infrastructure viz. servers, routers, hardware based load-balancing,
firewalls, storage & other network equipments are provided by the IaaS provider. In brief IaaS is
delivery of computer & web infrastructure through virtualization. But all this infrastructure is of no
use without a platform. This post is in continuation of that post. Here we’ll discuss about themiddle
layer of Could Stack i.e. PaaS (Platform as a Service).

Traditional way of software development

Assume your company has got an web application development project. How they will proceed
with the development if they want to develop it in say ASP.Net with a SQL Server database?

They will

• Procure VS.Net developers license

• Procure SQL Server licenses.
• Procure 3rd party tools (Reporting etc) licenses.
• Develop & then deploy on a production server on a fixed budget.
Based on this, it can be safely derived that this layer of cloud is consumed mainly by developers or
tech savvy individuals.

Cloud based PaaS

Now you don’t need to invest millions of $$$ to get that development foundation ready for your
developers. The PaaS provider will deliver the platform on the web, and in most of the cases you
can consume the platform using your browser, i.e. no need to download any software. It has
definitely empowered small & mid-size companies or even an individual developer to launch their
own SaaS leveraging the power of these platform providers, without any initial investment.

PaaS Layers
• Cloud OS
• Cloud Middleware

Google App Engine and Windows Azure are examples of Cloud OS. OrangesScape & Wolf PaaS are
cloud middleware.

Examples: Best PaaS Providers

• Microsoft Windows Azure
• Google App Engine
• Force.com (SalesForce)
• OrangeScape
• Wolf PaaS

Microsoft Windows Azure & Google App Engine are for developers. Existing .Net developers can
easily move up to the Azure platform & create their own scalable SaaS. Java & Python developers
can use Google Apps Engine to deliver cloud apps.

OrangeScape & Wolf PaaS are on-Demand browser based platforms for rapidly designing &
delivering multi-tenant Cloud SaaS apps. They can be considered as 5 GL platform which
automates many standard software development tasks to simplify application development. The
USP of these platforms: they can be used by business analysts (non developers) as well cause they
have a rich design environment, i.e. you don’t need to write any piece of code. With a little
patience anyone with a smart analytical ability & domain knowledge can get started with her/his
1st SaaS on these platforms.
 Advantages
Lower computer costs:
You do not need a high-powered and high-priced computer to run cloud computing's web-
based applications.
Since applications run in the cloud, not on the desktop PC, your desktop PC does not need the
processing power or hard disk space demanded by traditional desktop software.
When you are using web-based applications, your PC can be less expensive, with a smaller
hard disk, less memory, more efficient processor...
In fact, your PC in this scenario does not even need a CD or DVD drive, as no software
programs have to be loaded and no document files need to be saved.

Improved performance:
With few large programs hogging your computer's memory, you will see better performance
from your PC.
Computers in a cloud computing system boot and run faster because they have fewer
programs and processes loaded into memory…
Reduced software costs:
Instead of purchasing expensive software applications, you can get most of what you need
for free-ish!
That is right - most cloud computing applications today, such as the Google Docs suite, are
totally free.
That is a lot better than paying $200+ for similar Microsoft Office software - which alone
may be justification for switching to cloud applications.

Instant software updates:

Another advantage to cloud computing is that you are no longer faced with choosing
between obsolete software and high upgrade costs.
When the application is web-based, updates happen automatically - available the next time
you log into the cloud.
When you access a web-based application, you get the latest version - without needing to
pay for or download an upgrade.
Improved document format compatibility.
You do not have to worry about the documents you create on your machine being compatible
with other users' applications or operating systems.
Where Word 2007 documents cannot be opened on a computer running Word 2003, all
documents can be read!
There are potentially no format incompatibilities when everyone is sharing documents and
applications in the cloud.

Unlimited storage capacity:

Cloud computing offers virtually limitless storage.
Your computer's current 200 Gbyte hard drive is small compared to the hundreds of Pbytes
available in the cloud.
Whatever you need to store, you can.
Increased data reliability:
Unlike desktop computing, in which if a hard disk crashes and destroy all your valuable data,
a computer crashing in the cloud should not affect the storage of your data.
That also means that if your personal computer crashes, all your data is still out there in the
cloud, still accessible.
In a world where few individual desktop PC users back up their data on a regular basis, cloud
computing is a data-safe computing platform!

Universal document access:

That is not a problem with cloud computing, because you do not take your documents with
you.
Instead, they stay in the cloud, and you can access them whenever you have a computer and
an Internet connection.
All your documents are instantly available from wherever you are.
Latest version availability:
Another document-related advantage of cloud computing is that when you edit a document at
home, that edited version is what you see when you access the document at work.
The cloud always hosts the latest version of your documents; as long as you are connected,
you are not in danger of having an outdated version.
Easier group collaboration:
Sharing documents leads directly to better collaboration.
Many users do this as it is an important advantages of cloud computing - multiple users can
collaborate easily on documents and projects.
Because the documents are hosted in the cloud, not on individual computers, all you need is
an Internet connection, and you are collaborating.
Device independence.
You are no longer tethered to a single computer or network.
Changes to computers, applications and documents follow you through the cloud.
Move to a portable device, and your applications and documents are still available.

Disadvantage

Requires a constant Internet connection:

Cloud computing is impossible if you cannot connect to the Internet.
Since you use the Internet to connect to both your applications and
documents, if you do not have an Internet connection you cannot
access anything, even your own documents.
A dead Internet connection means no work and in areas where Internet
connections are few or inherently unreliable, this could be a deal-
breaker.
When you are offline, cloud computing simply does not work.
Does not work well with low-speed connections:
Similarly, a low-speed Internet connection, such as that found with dial-up
services, makes cloud computing painful at best and often impossible.
Web-based applications require a lot of bandwidth to download, as do large
documents.
If you are labouring with a low-speed dial-up connection, it might take
seemingly forever just to change from page to page in a document, let
alone to launch a feature-rich cloud service.
In other words, cloud computing is not for the broadband- impaired!
Can be slow:
Even with a fast connection, web-based applications can sometimes be slower
than accessing a similar software program on your desktop PC.
Everything about the program, from the interface to the current document,
has to be sent back and forth from your computer to the computers in
the cloud.
 If the cloud servers happen to be backed up at that moment, or if the Internet is
having a slow day, you would not get the instantaneous access you
might expect from desktop applications.
Features might be limited:
This situation is bound to change, but today many web-based applications simply
are not as full-featured as their desktop- based applications.
For example, you can do a lot more with Microsoft PowerPoint than with Google
Presentation's web-based offering.
The basics are similar, but the cloud application lacks many of PowerPoint's
advanced features.
If you are a power user, you might not want to leap into cloud computing just
yet.
Stored data might not be secure:
With cloud computing, all your data is stored on the cloud.
The questions is How secure is the cloud?
Can unauthorised users gain access to your confidential data?
Cloud computing companies say that data is secure, but it is too early to be
completely sure of that.
Only time will tell if your data is secure in the cloud.
Stored data can be lost:
Theoretically, data stored in the cloud is safe, replicated across multiple
machines.
But on the off chance that your data goes missing, you have no physical or local
backup.
Put simply, relying on the cloud puts you at risk if the cloud lets you down.
HPC Systems:
Not clear that you can run compute-intensive HPC applications that use
MPI/OpenMP!
Scheduling is important with this type of application – as you want all the VM to
be co-located to minimise communication latency!
General Concerns:
Each cloud systems uses different protocols and different APIs… so it may not
be possible to run applications between cloud based systems.
Amazon has created its own DB system (not SQL 92), and workflow system
(many popular workflow systems out there) – so your normal
applications will have to be adapted to execute on these platforms.