Introduction to Cloud Computing..
Tags: cloud, aws, azure, googlecloud
Published: 2023-02-17 16:39:42

**What is Cloud Computing?**

For a long time, the phrase _"cloud computing"_ has gained popularity in the IT sector. It provides businesses technical advantages and benefits. Many businesses view cloud computing as a crucial strategy as it is growing quickly. Large-scale commercial operations have undergone significant changes as a result. According to the studies and surveys , around **94%** of US enterprises use cloud services and **92%** of businesses have multi-cloud strategy in place or in the works.

To fully understand Cloud Computing let us check what technology upon which it is built.

When anything is referred to be _"virtual,"_ it is a depiction of something that is physically present somewhere else.

Similar to this, the technique of _“Virtualization”_ in cloud computing enables us to build up virtual resources like _servers, networks, and storage_ in the cloud. We will obtain the software to provision and manage these virtual resources. All of these resources are allotted from an actual machine that is operating somewhere in the world. Cloud service providers manage the operation of these actual servers as well as maintenance and hardware requirements.

**How do you define cloud computing?**

According to _Amazon Web Services (AWS)_, Cloud Computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.

**Some of the major benefits of Cloud Computing are:**
1.	Anywhere, Anytime Accessibility Using Any Device
2.	Better Security
3.	Cost Efficient
4.	Global reach
5.	High Availability
6.	Scalability
7.	Reliability

**Cloud Service Models**

1.	_Software as a Service (SaaS)_
A product run and managed by the service providers. In a SaaS environment, the application is designed to be self-sufficient and does not require you to be technical. You use it just like you would using any other application on your computer. It is centrally hosted in the cloud, and there is no need to install any software on your local device to use it.
Example of SaaS: Salesforce, Gmail, Office 365 etc.

2.	_Platform as a Service (PaaS)_
Platform as a Service focuses on deployment and management of your applications. Third party provider hosts application development platforms and tools on its own infrastructure and makes them available to the customers over the internet. 
Example of PaaS: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine etc.

3.	_Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)_
With IaaS, a provider supplies the basic compute, storage and networking infrastructure along with the hypervisor -- the virtualization layer. Users must then create virtual instances such as VMs and containers, install OSes, support applications and data, and handle all of the configuration and management associated with those tasks.
Examples of IaaS: AWS, Azure, GCP, IBM etc.

**Other Cloud service models to consider include:**
•	Storage as a service (STaaS)
•	Network as a service (NaaS)
•	Communications as a service (CaaS)
•	Backup as a service (BaaS)
•	Database as a service (DBaaS)
•	Function as a service (FaaS)

**Cloud Deployment Models**

**Public Cloud:** A public cloud is an IT model where public cloud service providers make computing services—including compute and storage, develop-and-deploy environments, and applications—available on-demand to organizations and individuals over the public internet. Public cloud is a shared infrastructure. The consumers need not worry about the physical location where their data is stored and managed. Maintenance of the physical servers used virtually by the consumers is looked by the third-party and it is not visible to the users.
Types of Public Cloud: AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM.

**Private Cloud:** The major difference between Public Cloud and private cloud is that the infrastructure of the private cloud is privately hosted and managed by the company itself. The company can have their own data centre. Organization/Company is responsible for managing the maintenance, upgrades, OS patches, middleware, and application software management. 
Types of Private Cloud: AWS, Azure, HPE, and Dell are examples of some popular Private Cloud providers.

**Hybrid Cloud:** A hybrid cloud combines private and public cloud. As a result, you can construct your services such as storage, computing using the most effective model while combining the benefits of the public and private models. Using a combination of public clouds, on-premises computing, and private clouds in your data center, you can have a hybrid cloud infrastructure. 

**Cross Cloud:** Cross cloud allows us to integrate services at one time from any two cloud providers i.e. Services from AWS and Azure can be integrated together.

**Various Cloud Providers**

- Amazon Web Services(AWS) 
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform(GCP) 
- IBM