Cloud Computing Platforms & Technologies

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each of which is a data center.

Cloud computing delivers computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. You typically pay only for cloud services you use, helping you lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure more efficiently, and scale as your business needs change.

Cloud computing applications develop by leveraging platforms and frameworks. Various services are provided from the bare metal infrastructure to customizable applications serving specific purposes.

In computing, a server is a piece of computer hardware or software that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called "clients". This architecture is called the client–server model.

Types of cloud computing

Not all clouds are the same and no single type of cloud computing is right for everyone. Several different models, types, and services have evolved to help offer the right solution for your needs.

First, you need to determine the type of cloud deployment, or cloud computing architecture, that your cloud services will be implemented on. There are three different ways to deploy cloud services: on a public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud

Public cloud: Public clouds are owned and operated by third-party cloud service providers, which deliver computing resources like servers and storage over the internet. With a public cloud, all hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed by the cloud provider. You access these services and manage your account using a web browser.

Private cloud: A private cloud refers to cloud computing resources used exclusively by a single business or organization. A private cloud can be physically located in the company’s onsite data center. Some companies also pay third-party service providers to host their private cloud. A private cloud is one in which the services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network.

Hybrid cloud: Hybrid clouds combine public and private clouds, bound together by technology that allows data and applications to be shared between them. By allowing data and applications to move between private and public clouds, a hybrid cloud gives your business greater flexibility and more deployment options and helps optimize your existing infrastructure, security, and compliance.?

Types of cloud services

Most cloud computing services fall into four broad categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), Serverless, and software as a service (SaaS). These are sometimes called the cloud computing "stack" because they build on top of one another. Knowing what they are and how they’re different makes it easier to accomplish your business goals.

IaaS: The most basic category of cloud computing services. With infrastructure as a service (IaaS), you rent IT infrastructure—servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systems—from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.

PaaS: Platform as a service (PaaS) refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications. PaaS is designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying about setting up or managing the underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network, and databases needed for development.

SaaS: Software as a service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the internet on-demand and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure, and handle any maintenance, like software upgrades and security patching. Users connect to the application over the internet, usually with a web browser on their phone, tablet, or PC.

Serverless computing: Overlapping with PaaS, serverless computing focuses on building app functionality without spending time continually managing the servers and infrastructure required to do so. The cloud provider handles the setup, capacity planning, and server management for you. Serverless architectures are highly scalable and event-driven, only using resources when a specific function or trigger occurs.

Advantages of Cloud Computing for Emerging Economies

1. Usage Simplicity?

It is much easier to install, maintain and update Cloud Computing systems as compared to traditional computing systems. This means that even emerging economic countries can avail the facilities of cloud computing at much lower costs for a larger base of customers. Also, this means that cloud computing can easily be used for mobile systems which are much more popular and widespread than personal computers or laptops.?

2. Scalability?

Cloud Computing systems are highly scalable and can be sized up if required. This means that companies with lesser economic capability can buy only the hardware that they need in the beginning and then scale up as their demand increases over time. Since cloud computing requires low investments upfront, it is also quite suitable for emerging economies and nations with large populations that can easily join the internet phenomenon in the world.?

3. Lowered Cost?

The Usage Simplicity and Scalability of Cloud Computing mean much-lowered costs in comparison to traditional computing models. Because of these lowered costs, small companies in weaker economic regions are embracing Cloud Computing while some companies in the West are hesitant to invest in new solutions because of the associated risks. The lowered costs also mean that many companies are on a level playing field with regard to their computing capabilities, which is only increasing the growth of developing nations.?

4. Enhanced Security?

Cloud Computing provides scalable security measures that can be accessible by everyone, thus reducing one of the major problems faced by many companies. It is also seen that most companies in the west are worried about risks even with top-notch security while security is one of the benefits of Cloud Computing that is important for companies in developing economic regions. However, Cloud Security is only trusted by companies until a certain point, after which they have their cyber-security measures.?

5. Extending Reach

?Cloud Computing means that people in even remote regions can have access to top technologies and work with companies in all parts of the world. This means that Cloud Computing has also created a globalized workforce which has made interaction and access across the world much simpler. So even emerging economic countries in the world can increase their productivity and raise their ability to the rest of the world, which will result in global development.?

What Industries Will Benefit From Cloud Computing?

Almost all industries will get a boost with cloud computing with their efficiency increasing by multiple margins. However, the most prominent industries that we will focus on here are?Banking, Retail, Manufacturing, Education, and Healthcare. According to a study conducted by?The Economist Intelligence Unit, the adoption of cloud computing in these five industries is going to increase by approximately 70%.?

Cloud computing has suddenly seen a spike in employment opportunities around the globe with tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft hiring people for their cloud infrastructure. Before the onset of cloud computing, companies and businesses had to set up their own data centers and allocate resources and other IT professionals thereby increasing the cost. The rapid development of the cloud has led to more flexibility, cost-cutting, and scalability.?

The Cloud Computing market it's an all-time high with the current market size at?USD 371.4 billion?and is expected to grow up to?USD 832.1 billion?by 2025! It’s quickly evolving and gradually realizing its business value along with attracting more and more researchers, scholars, computer scientists, and practitioners. Cloud computing is not a single topic but a composition of various techniques which together constitute the cloud.

Below are 10 of the most demanded research topics in the field of cloud computing:

1. Big Data

Big data refers to the large amounts of data produced by various programs in a very short duration of time. It is quite cumbersome to store such huge and voluminous amounts of data in company-run data centers. Also, gaining insights from this data becomes a tedious task and takes a lot of time to run and provide results, therefore cloud is the best option. All the data can be pushed onto the cloud without the need for physical storage devices that are to be managed and secured. Also, some popular public clouds provide comprehensive big data platforms to turn data into actionable insights.?

2. DevOps

DevOps is an amalgamation of two terms, Development and Operations. It has led to Continuous Delivery, Integration, and Deployment and therefore reducing boundaries between the development team and the operations team. Heavy applications and software need elaborate and complex tech stacks that demand extensive labor to develop and configure which can easily be eliminated by cloud computing. It offers a wide range of tools and technologies to build, test, and deploy applications with a few minutes and a single click. They can be customized as per the client requirements and can be discarded when not in use hence making the process seamless and cost-efficient for development teams.

3. Cloud Cryptography

Data in the cloud is needed to be protected and secured from foreign attacks and breaches. To accomplish this, cryptography in the cloud is a widely used technique to secure data present in the cloud. It allows users and clients to easily and reliably access the shared cloud services since all the data is secured using either encryption techniques or by using the concept of the private key. It can make the plain text unreadable and limits the view of the data being transferred. Best cloud cryptographic security techniques are the ones that do not compromise the speed of data transfer and provide security without delaying the exchange of sensitive data.?

4. Cloud Load Balancing

It refers to splitting and distributing the incoming load to the server from various sources. It permits companies and organizations to govern and supervise workload demands or application demands by redistributing, reallocating, and administering resources between different computers, networks, or servers. Cloud load balancing encompasses holding the circulation of traffic and demands that exist over the Internet. This reduces the problem of sudden outages, results in an improvement in overall performance, has rare chances of server crashes and also provides an advanced level of security. Cloud-based server farms can accomplish more precise scalability and accessibility using the server load balancing mechanism. Due to this, the workload demands can be easily distributed and controlled.

5. Mobile Cloud Computing

It is a mixture of cloud computing, mobile computing, and wireless network to provide services such as seamless and abundant computational resources to mobile users, network operators, and cloud computing professionals. The handheld device is the console and all the processing and data storage takes place outside the physical mobile device. Some advantages of using mobile cloud computing are that there is no need for costly hardware, battery life is longer, extended data storage capacity and processing power improved synchronization of data, and high availability due to “store in one place, accessible from anywhere”. The integration and security aspects are taken care of by the backend which enables support to an abundance of access methods.?

6. Green Cloud Computing

The major challenge in the cloud is the utilization of energy-efficient and hence developing economically friendly cloud computing solutions. Data centers that include servers, cables, air conditioners, networks, etc. in large numbers consume a lot of power and release enormous quantities of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Green Cloud Computing focuses on making virtual data centers and servers to be more environmentally friendly and energy-efficient. Cloud resources often consume so much power and energy leading to a shortage of energy and affecting the global climate. Green cloud computing provides solutions to make such resources more energy efficient and to reduce operational costs. This pivots on power management, virtualization of servers and data centers, recycling vast e-waste, and environmental sustainability.?

7. Edge Computing

It is the advancement and a much more efficient form of Cloud computing with the idea that the data is processed nearer to the source. Edge Computing states that all of the computation will be carried out at the edge of the network itself rather than on a centrally managed platform or data warehouse. Edge computing distributes various data processing techniques and mechanisms across different positions. This makes the data deliverable to the nearest node and the processing at the edge. This also increases the security of the data since it is closer to the source and eliminates late response time and latency without affecting productivity.

8. Containerization

Containerization in cloud computing is a procedure to obtain operating system virtualization. The user can work with a program and its dependencies utilizing remote resource procedures. The container in cloud computing is used to construct blocks, which aid in producing operational effectiveness, version control, developer productivity, and environmental stability. The infrastructure is upgraded since it provides additional control over the granular activities over the resources. The usage of containers in online services assists storage with cloud computing data security, elasticity, and availability. Containers provide certain advantages such as a steady runtime environment, the ability to run virtually anywhere, and low overhead compared to virtual machines.?

9. Cloud Deployment Model

There are four main cloud deployment models namely public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community cloud. Each deployment model is defined as per the location of the infrastructure. The public cloud allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public. The public cloud could also be less reliable since it is open to everyone e.g. Email. A private cloud allows systems and services to be accessible inside an organization with no access to outsiders. It offers better security due to its access restrictions. A hybrid cloud is a mixture of private and public clouds with critical activities being performed using the private cloud and non-critical activities being performed using the public cloud. Community cloud allows systems and services to be accessible by a group of an organization.

10. Cloud Security

Since the number of companies and organizations using cloud computing is increasing at a rapid rate, the security of the cloud is a major concern. Cloud computing security detects and addresses every physical and logical security issue that comes across all the varied service models of code, platform, and infrastructure. It collectively addresses these services, however, these services are delivered in units, that is, the public, private, or hybrid delivery model. Security in the cloud protects the data from any leakage or outflow, theft, calamity, and removal. With the help of tokenization, Virtual Private Networks, and firewalls data can be secured.?

What is Distributed Computing?

Distributed computing refers to solving a problem over distributed autonomous computers and they communicate between them over a network. It is a computing technique that allows multiple computers to communicate and work to solve a single problem. Distributed computing helps to achieve computational tasks faster than using a single computer as it takes a lot of time. Some characteristics of distributed computing are distributing a single task among computers to progress the work at the same time, Remote Procedure calls, and Remote Method Invocation for distributed computations.?

What is Cluster Computing?

Cluster computing refers to the process of sharing the computation task with multiple computers in the cluster. The number of computers are connected on a network and they perform a single task by forming a Cluster of computers where the process of computing is called cluster computing. Cluster Computing is a high-performance computing framework that helps in solving more complex operations more efficiently with a faster processing speed and better data integrity. Cluster Computing is a networking technology that performs its operations based on the principle of distributed systems.

What is Grid Computing?

Grid Computing is a Distributed computing architecture. In grid computing, resources are used in collaborative patterns, and also in grid computing, the users do not pay for use.?

What is Green Computing?

Green Computing, as the name suggests, is basically the study of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computing devices in a way that reduces their hazardous impact on the environment. It is mostly used to promote energy efficiency in different applications such as washers, dryers, laptops, and refrigerators.

What is Fog Computing?

Fog computing is a decentralized computing infrastructure or process in which computing resources are located between the data source and the cloud or any other data center. Fog computing is a paradigm that provides services to user requests at the edge networks. The devices at the fog layer usually perform operations related to networking such as routers, gateways, bridges, and hubs. Researchers envision these devices to be capable of performing both computational and networking operations, simultaneously. Although these devices are resource-constrained compared to the cloud servers, the geological spread and the decentralized nature help in offering reliable services with coverage over a wide area. Fog computing is the physical location of the devices, which are much closer to the users than the cloud servers.

Team FindErnest