UNIT-4

Infrastructure as a Service | IaaS

Iaas is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is one of the
layers of the cloud computing platform. It allows customers to
outsource their IT infrastructures, such as servers, networking,
processing, storage, virtual machines, and other resources. Customers
access these resources on the Internet using a pay-as-per-use model.

In traditional hosting services, IT infrastructure was rented out for a

specific period of time, with pre-determined hardware configuration.
The client paid for the configuration and time, regardless of the actual
use. With the help of the IaaS cloud computing platform layer, clients
can dynamically scale the configuration to meet changing
requirements and are billed only for the services actually used.

The IaaS cloud computing platform layer eliminates the need for
every organization to maintain its IT infrastructure.

IaaS is offered in three models: public, private, and hybrid cloud. The
private cloud implies that the infrastructure resides at the customer's
premise. In the case of the public cloud, it is located at the cloud
computing platform vendor's data center, and the hybrid cloud is a
combination of the two in which the customer selects the best of both
public cloud and private cloud.
Some of the Primary Characteristics of IaaS are:

o Scalability: IaaS enables users to adjust computing capacity

according to their demands without requiring long lead times or
up-front hardware purchases.
o Virtualization: IaaS uses virtualization technology to generate
virtualized instances that can be managed and delivered on-
demand by abstracting physical computer resources.
o Resource Pooling: This feature enables users to share computer
resources, such as networking and storage, among a number of
users, maximizing resource utilization and cutting costs.
o Elasticity: IaaS allows users to dynamically modify their
computing resources in response to shifting demand, ensuring
optimum performance and financial viability.
o Self-Service: IaaS offers consumers "self-service" portals that
let them independently deploy, administer, and monitor their
computing resources without the assistance of IT employees.
o Availability: To ensure the high availability and reliability of
services, IaaS providers often run redundant and geographically
dispersed data centers.
o Security: To safeguard their infrastructure and client data, IaaS
companies adopt security measures, including data encryption,
firewalls, access controls, and threat detection.
o Customization: IaaS enables users to alter the operating
systems, application stacks, and security settings of their
virtualized instances to suit their unique requirements.

Load balancing in Cloud Computing

Load balancing is an essential technique used in cloud computing to

optimize resource utilization and ensure that no single resource is
overburdened with traffic. It is a process of distributing workloads
across multiple computing resources, such as servers, virtual
machines, or containers, to achieve better performance, availability,
and scalability.
1. In cloud computing, load balancing can be implemented at various
levels, including the network layer, application layer, and
database layer. The most common load balancing techniques used
in cloud computing are:
2. Network Load Balancing: This technique is used to balance the
network traffic across multiple servers or instances. It is
implemented at the network layer and ensures that the incoming
traffic is distributed evenly across the available servers.
3. Application Load Balancing: This technique is used to balance
the workload across multiple instances of an application. It is
implemented at the application layer and ensures that each
instance receives an equal share of the incoming requests.
4. Database Load Balancing: This technique is used to balance the
workload across multiple database servers. It is implemented at
the database layer and ensures that the incoming queries are
distributed evenly across the available database servers.
Load balancing helps to improve the overall performance and
reliability of cloud-based applications by ensuring that resources are
used efficiently and that there is no single point of failure. It also
helps to scale applications on demand and provides high availability
and fault tolerance to handle spikes in traffic or server failures.
Sure, here are some advantages and disadvantages of load balancing
in cloud computing:

Advantages:

1. Improved Performance: Load balancing helps to distribute the

workload across multiple resources, which reduces the load on
each resource and improves the overall performance of the
system.
2. High Availability: Load balancing ensures that there is no single
point of failure in the system, which provides high availability and
fault tolerance to handle server failures.
3. Scalability: Load balancing makes it easier to scale resources up
or down as needed, which helps to handle spikes in traffic or
changes in demand.
4. Efficient Resource Utilization: Load balancing ensures that
resources are used efficiently, which reduces wastage and helps to
optimize costs.

Disadvantages:

1. Complexity: Implementing load balancing in cloud computing

can be complex, especially when dealing with large-scale systems.
It requires careful planning and configuration to ensure that it
works effectively.
2. Cost: Implementing load balancing can add to the overall cost of
cloud computing, especially when using specialized hardware or
software.
3. Single Point of Failure: While load balancing helps to reduce the
risk of a single point of failure, it can also become a single point
of failure if not implemented correctly.
4. Security: Load balancing can introduce security risks if not
implemented correctly, such as allowing unauthorized access or
exposing sensitive data.
need a reliable network system. It is more economical than the file
servers and more versatile than the external disks.

NAS (Network Attached Storage)

Network-attached Storage (Commonly known as NAS) is a file

storage device which is connected to the network and enables
multiple users to access data form the centralized disk capacity. The
users on a LAN access the shared storage by the Ethernet connection.

This storage is fast, low-cost and offers all the advantages of a public
cloud on the site. It uses file access protocols such as NFS, SMB,
NCP, or AFP.

NFS is a file-based protocol which is popular on Unix systems. SMB

stands for Server Message Block, which is used with the Microsoft
Windows systems. AFP is also a file access protocol that is used with
the Apple computers.
It is basically designed for those network systems, which may be
processing millions of operations per minute. It supports the storage
device for the organization, which need a reliable network system. It
is more economical than the file servers and more versatile than the
external disks.

Advantages of NAS
Following are the advantages or benefits of a Network Attached
Storage (NAS):

o The architecture of NAS is easy to install and configure.

o Every user or client in the network can easily access to Network
Attached Storage.
o A main advantage of NAS is that it is more reliable than the
simple hard disks.
o Another big advantage of NAS is that it offers the consolidated
storage space within the own network of an organization.
o The performance is good in serving the files.
o The devices of NAS are scalable and can be easily accessed
remotely.
o NAS is managed easily. It takes less time for storing and
recovering the data from any computer over the LAN.
o It also offers security.
o It offers an affordable option for both small businesses and
homes for private cloud storage.
Disadvantages of NAS
Following are the disadvantages or limitations of a Network Attached
Storage (NAS):

o The speed of transferring the data is not as fast as DAS.

o Users also require basic knowledge of computer networks to use
the NAS efficiently.
o Those users or clients who want to back up their data, then they
cannot proceed directly. They can do it by using the installed
operating system only.
Server Types Within an IaaS Solution
Within an IaaS environment, customers can acquire one or more
servers.
 Physical server: actual hardware allocated for the customer’s
dedicated use
 Dedicated virtual server: virtual server allocated to the customer,
running on a physical server which may, or may not, have other
virtual servers
 Shared virtual server: customer access to a virtual server on a
device that may be shared with other customers

Types of Backup
There are various data backup types, each designed to address
different risks, vulnerabilities and storage needs. Effectively backing
up the files, networks, servers and other assets begin with addressing
a network's capabilities and selecting the proper type of backup for
the circumstances.

A backup is a copy of the data that store in the cloud. Backing-up is

an important process that everyone should do to have a fail-safe for
when the inevitable happens. The principle is to make copies of
particular data to use those copies for restoring the information if a
failure occurs. A data loss event occurs due to deletion, corruption,
theft, viruses, etc.

Protecting data against loss, corruption, disasters (human-caused or

natural), and other problems is one of the IT organizations' top
priorities. To avoid this loss, implementing an efficient and effective
set of backup operations can be difficult.

The term backup has become synonymous with data protection over
the past several decades and maybe accomplished via several
methods. Backup software applications reduce the complexity of
performing backup and recovery operations. Backing up data is only
one part of a disaster protection plan and may not provide the level of
data and disaster recovery capabilities desired without careful design
and testing.
You can manually perform the backup by copying the data to a
different location or automatically using a backup program. Each
backup program has its approach in executing the backup.

There are four most common backup types implemented and

generally used in most of these programs, such as:

1. Full backup
2. Incremental backup
3. Differential backup
4. Mirror backup

A type of backup defines how data is copied from source to

destination and lays the data repository model's grounds or how the
back-up is stored and structured.

There are some types of backup that are better in certain locations. If
we perform cloud backup, then incremental backups are generally a
better backup type because they consume fewer resources. We might
start with a full backup in the cloud and then shift to incremental
backups. Mirror backup, though, is typically more of an on-premises
approach and often involves disks.

Full backups
The most basic and complete type of backup operation is a full
backup. As the name implies, this backup type makes a copy of all
data to a storage device, such as a disk or tape. The primary advantage
of performing a full backup during every operation is that a complete
copy of all data is available with a single media set.

It takes the shortest time to restore data, a metric known as a recovery

time objective. However, the disadvantages are that it takes longer to
perform a full backup than other types, requiring more storage space.

Thus, full backups are typically run only periodically. Data centers
with a small amount of data may choose to run a full backup daily or
even more often in some cases. Typically, backup operations employ
a full backup in combination with either incremental or differential
backups.
Incremental backups
An incremental backup operation will result in copying only the data
that has changed since the last backup operation of any type. An
organization typically uses the modified timestamp on files and
compares them to the last backup timestamp.

Backup applications track and record the date and time that backup
operations occur to track files modified since these operations.
Because an incremental backup will only copy data since the last
backup of any type, an organization may run it as often as desired,
with only the most recent changes stored.

The benefit of an incremental backup is that it copies a smaller

amount of data than a full. Thus, these operations will have a faster
backup speed and require fewer media to store the backup.

Differential backups
A differential backup operation is similar to an incremental the first
time it is performed, in that it will copy all data changed from the
previous backup. However, each time it is run afterward, it will
continue to copy all data changed since the previous full backup.
Therefore, it will store more backed up data than an incremental on
subsequent operations, although typically far less than a full backup.

Differential backups require more space and time to complete than

incremental backups, although less than full backups. From these
three primary types of backup, it is possible to develop an approach
for comprehensive data protection. An organization often uses one of
the following backup settings:

o Full daily
o Full weekly + differential daily
o Full weekly + incremental daily

Full backup daily requires the most amount of space and will also
take the most amount of time. However, more total copies of data are
available, and fewer media pieces are required to perform a restore
operation. As a result, implementing this backup policy has a higher
tolerance to disasters and provides the least time to restore since any
data required will be located on at most one backup set.