UNIT-2

What is Cloud Computing?

The term cloud refers to a network or the internet. It is a technology that uses remote servers
on the internet to store, manage, and access data online rather than local drives. The data can
be anything such as files, images, documents, audio, video, and more.

There are the following operations that we can do using cloud computing:
o Developing new applications and services
o Storage, back up, and recovery of data
o Hosting blogs and websites
o Delivery of software on demand
o Analysis of data
o Streaming videos and audios
Evolution of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is all about renting computing services. This idea first came in the 1950s. In
making cloud computing what it is today, five technologies played a vital role. These are
distributed systems and its peripherals, virtualization, web 2.0, service orientation, and utility
computing.

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Distributed Systems:

It is a composition of multiple independent systems but all of them are depicted as a single
entity to the users. The purpose of distributed systems is to share resources and also use them
effectively and efficiently. Distributed systems possess characteristics such as scalability,
concurrency, continuous availability, heterogeneity, and independence in failures. But the
main problem with this system was that all the systems were required to be present at the
same geographical location. Thus to solve this problem, distributed computing led to three
more types of computing and they were-Mainframe computing, cluster computing, and grid
computing.
Mainframe computing:
Mainframes which first came into existence in 1951 are highly powerful and reliable
computing machines. These are responsible for handling large data such as massive input-
output operations. Even today these are used for bulk processing tasks such as online
transactions etc. These systems have almost no downtime with high fault tolerance. After
distributed computing, these increased the processing capabilities of the system. But these
were very expensive. To reduce this cost, cluster computing came as an alternative to
mainframe technology.

Cluster computing:
In 1980s, cluster computing came as an alternative to mainframe computing. Each machine in
the cluster was connected to each other by a network with high bandwidth. These were way
cheaper than those mainframe systems. These were equally capable of high computations.
Also, new nodes could easily be added to the cluster if it was required. Thus, the problem of
the cost was solved to some extent but the problem related to geographical restrictions still
pertained. To solve this, the concept of grid computing was introduced.

Grid computing:
In 1990s, the concept of grid computing was introduced. It means that different systems were
placed at entirely different geographical locations and these all were connected via the
internet. These systems belonged to different organizations and thus the grid consisted of
heterogeneous nodes. Although it solved some problems but new problems emerged as the
distance between the nodes increased. The main problem which was encountered was the low
availability of high bandwidth connectivity and with it other network associated issues. Thus.
cloud computing is often referred to as “Successor of grid computing”.

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Virtualization:
It was introduced nearly 40 years back. It refers to the process of creating a virtual layer over
the hardware which allows the user to run multiple instances simultaneously on the hardware.
It is a key technology used in cloud computing. It is the base on which major cloud
computing services such as Amazon EC2, VMware vCloud, etc work on. Hardware
virtualization is still one of the most common types of virtualization.

Web 2.0:
It is the interface through which the cloud computing services interact with the clients. It is
because of Web 2.0 that we have interactive and dynamic web pages. It also increases
flexibility among web pages. Popular examples of web 2.0 include Google Maps, Facebook,
Twitter, etc. Needless to say, social media is possible because of this technology only. In
gained major popularity in 2004.

Service orientation:
It acts as a reference model for cloud computing. It supports low-cost, flexible, and evolvable
applications. Two important concepts were introduced in this computing model. These were
Quality of Service (QoS) which also includes the SLA (Service Level Agreement) and
Software as a Service (SaaS).

Utility computing:
It is a computing model that defines service provisioning techniques for services such as
compute services along with other major services such as storage, infrastructure, etc which
are provisioned on a pay-per-use basis.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

The characteristics of cloud computing are given below:
1) Agility:
The cloud works in a distributed computing environment. It shares resources among users
and works very fast.
2) High availability and reliability:

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The availability of servers is high and more reliable because the chances of infrastructure
failure are minimum.
3) High Scalability:
Cloud offers "on-demand" provisioning of resources on a large scale, without having
engineers for peak loads.
4) Multi-Sharing:
With the help of cloud computing, multiple users and applications can work more
efficiently with cost reductions by sharing common infrastructure.
5) Device and Location Independence:
Cloud computing enables the users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their
location or what device they use e.g. PC, mobile phone, etc. As infrastructure is off-
site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet, users can connect
from anywhere.
6) Maintenance:
Maintenance of cloud computing applications is easier, since they do not need to be
installed on each user's computer and can be accessed from different places. So, it
reduces the cost also.
7) Low Cost:
By using cloud computing, the cost will be reduced because to take the services of cloud
computing, IT company need not to set its own infrastructure and pay-as-per usage of
resources.
8) Services in the pay-per-use mode:
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are provided to the users so that they can
access services on the cloud by using these APIs and pay the charges as per the usage of
services.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

1) Back-up and restore data

Once the data is stored in the cloud, it is easier to get back-up and restore that data using the
cloud.
2) Improved collaboration
Cloud applications improve collaboration by allowing groups of people to quickly and easily
share information in the cloud via shared storage.

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3) Excellent accessibility
Cloud allows us to quickly and easily access store information anywhere, anytime in the
whole world, using an internet connection. An internet cloud infrastructure increases
organization productivity and efficiency by ensuring that our data is always accessible.
4) Low maintenance cost
Cloud computing reduces both hardware and software maintenance costs for organizations.
5) Mobility
Cloud computing allows us to easily access all cloud data via mobile.
6) pay-per-use model
Cloud computing offers Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the users for access
services on the cloud and pays the charges as per the usage of service.
7) Unlimited storage capacity
Cloud offers us a huge amount of storing capacity for storing our important data such as
documents, images, audio, video, etc. in one place.
8) Data security
Data security is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing. Cloud offers many
advanced features related to security and ensures that data is securely stored and handled.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

A list of the disadvantage of cloud computing is given below -
1) Internet Connectivity
As you know, in cloud computing, every data (image, audio, video, etc.) is stored on the
cloud, and we access these data through the cloud by using the internet connection. If you do
not have good internet connectivity, you cannot access these data. However, we have no any
other way to access data from the cloud.
2) Vendor lock-in
Vendor lock-in is the biggest disadvantage of cloud computing. Organizations may face
problems when transferring their services from one vendor to another. As different vendors
provide different platforms, that can cause difficulty moving from one cloud to another.
3) Limited Control
As we know, cloud infrastructure is completely owned, managed, and monitored by the
service provider, so the cloud users have less control over the function and execution of
services within a cloud infrastructure.

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4) Security
Although cloud service providers implement the best security standards to store important
information. But, before adopting cloud technology, you should be aware that you will be
sending all your organization's sensitive information to a third party, i.e., a cloud computing
service provider. While sending the data on the cloud, there may be a chance that your
organization's information is hacked by Hackers.

Cloud On-demand Provisioning

Cloud provisioning means allocating a cloud service provider’s resources to a

customer. It is a key feature of cloud computing. It refers to how a client gets cloud services
and resources from a provider. The cloud services that customers can subscribe to include
infrastructure-as- a-service (IaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and platform-as-a-service
(PaaS) in public or private environments.

Cloud Provisioning Types

Advanced Cloud Provisioning

Also known as “post-sales cloud provisioning,” customers get the resources upon contract or
service signup. They sign formal contracts with the cloud service provider. The provider then
prepares and delivers the agreed-upon resources or services. The customers are charged a flat
fee or billed every month.

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 Dynamic Cloud Provisioning
Also referred to as “on-demand cloud provisioning,” customers are provided with resources
on runtime. In this delivery model, cloud resources are deployed to match customers’
fluctuating demands. Deployments can scale up to accommodate spikes in usage and down
when demands decrease. Customers are billed on a pay-per-use basis. When this model is
used to create a hybrid cloud environment, it is sometimes called “cloud bursting.”
User Cloud Provisioning
In this delivery model, customers add a cloud device themselves. Also known as “cloud self-
service,” clients buy resources from the cloud service provider through a web interface or
portal. The model usually involves creating a user account and paying for resources with a
credit card. The resources are quickly spun up and made available for use within hours, if not
minutes. An example of this includes an employee purchasing cloud-based productivity
applications via Microsoft 365 or G Suite.
Cloud Provisioning Benefits
Cloud provisioning has several benefits that are not available with traditional provisioning
approaches, such as:
● Scalability: The traditional information technology (IT) provisioning model requires
organizations to make large investments in their on-premises infrastructure. That needs
extensive preparation and forecasting of infrastructure needs since on-premises
infrastructures are often set up to last for many years. The cloud provisioning model,
meanwhile, lets companies simply scale up and down their cloud resources depending on
their short-term usage requirements.
● Speed: Organizations’ developers can quickly spin up several workloads on-demand, so the
companies no longer require IT administrators to provide and manage computing resources.
Cost savings: While traditional on-premises technology requires large upfront investments,
many cloud service providers let their customers pay for only what they consume. But the
attractive economics of cloud services presents challenges, too, which may require
organizations to develop a cloud management strategy.

Cloud Computing Architecture

As we know, cloud computing technology is used by both small and large organizations
to store the information in cloud and access it from anywhere at anytime using the internet
connection.

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 Cloud computing architecture is a combination of service-oriented architecture and event-
driven architecture.
Cloud computing architecture is divided into the following two parts -
o Front End
o Back End
The below diagram shows the architecture of cloud computing -

Front End
The front end is used by the client. It contains client-side interfaces and applications that are
required to access the cloud computing platforms. The front end includes web servers
(including Chrome, Firefox, internet explorer, etc.), thin & fat clients, tablets, and mobile
devices.
Back End
The back end is used by the service provider. It manages all the resources that are required to
provide cloud computing services. It includes a huge amount of data storage, security
mechanism, virtual machines, deploying models, servers, traffic control mechanisms, etc

Components of Cloud Computing Architecture

There are the following components of cloud computing architecture -
1. Client Infrastructure

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Client Infrastructure is a Front end component. It provides GUI (Graphical User Interface) to
interact with the cloud.
2. Application
The application may be any software or platform that a client wants to access.
3. Service
A Cloud Services manages that which type of service you access according to the client’s
requirement.

Cloud computing offers the following three type of services:

i. Software as a Service (SaaS) – It is also known as cloud application services. Mostly,

SaaS applications run directly through the web browser means we do not require to download
and install these applications.
Example: Google Apps, Salesforce Dropbox, Slack, Hubspot, Cisco WebEx.

ii. Platform as a Service (PaaS) – It is also known as cloud platform services. It is quite
similar to SaaS, but the difference is that PaaS provides a platform for software creation, but
using SaaS, we can access software over the internet without the need of any platform.
Example: Windows Azure, Force.com, Magento Commerce Cloud, OpenShift.

iii. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It is also known as cloud infrastructure services.

It is responsible for managing applications data, middleware, and runtime environments.
Example: Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Cisco
Metapod.

4. Runtime Cloud
Runtime Cloud provides the execution and runtime environment to the virtual machines.
5. Storage
Storage is one of the most important components of cloud computing. It provides a huge
amount of storage capacity in the cloud to store and manage data.
6. Infrastructure
It provides services on the host level, application level, and network level. Cloud
infrastructure includes hardware and software components such as servers, storage, network

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devices, virtualization software, and other storage resources that are needed to support the
cloud computing model.
7. Management
Management is used to manage components such as application, service, runtime cloud,
storage, infrastructure, and other security issues in the backend and establish coordination
between them.
8. Security
Security is an in-built back end component of cloud computing. It implements a security
mechanism in the back end.
9. Internet
The Internet is medium through which front end and back end can interact and communicate
with each other.

NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

NIST Reference Cloud Architecture

There are five major actors in NIST cloud computing reference architecture as shown in
above figure.
These actors are listed below

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● Cloud Consumer.
● Cloud Provider.
● Cloud Carrier.
● Cloud Auditor.
● Cloud Broker.
Each actor is an entity may be a person or an organization that participates in a transaction or
process and/or performs tasks in cloud computing.
Activities and roles performed by each actor are discussed here one by one.

1. Cloud Consumer
● Cloud consumers are the main participants of the cloud computing environment.
● A cloud consumer is a person or organization that uses cloud services such as SaaS, PaaS
and IaaS.
● A cloud consumer browses the service catalog provided by a cloud provider, cloud consumer
requests the appropriate service.
● Cloud provider sets up a cloud environment for the service and makes a contract with the
cloud consumer for the use of the service.
● Cloud consumers need cloud Service Level Agreement(SLA).
SLA acts as an agreement for technical performance requirements provided by a cloud
provider.
Some terms and conditions regarding the quality of service, security, and remedies for
performance failures are mentioned in the SLA.
Software as a service applications in the cloud are made accessible via a network to the SaaS
consumers.
The consumers of SaaS may be organizations that give their employees access to software
applications, end users who directly use software applications, or it may be software
application administrators who are responsible for configuring applications on the software
for the customers.
Platform as a service can also employ by the consumer the tools to develop, test, deploy and
manage the applications hosted in a cloud environment.
PaaS consumers can be application developers who design and implement application
software in software companies.
PaaS consumer may be application testers who run and test applications in cloud-based
environments, application deployers who publish applications into the cloud,

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 PaaS may be application administrators who configure and monitor application performance
on a platform.
Cloud Consumers of Infrastructure as a service have access to different hardware resources
like virtual computers, network devices such as routers, storage media and other fundamental
computing resources.
The consumers of Infrastructure as a service may be system developers, system
administrators and IT managers who create, install, manage and monitor the services for IT
infrastructure operations.

2. Cloud Provider
● A cloud provider is responsible for making a service available to the cloud consumer. Cloud
provider may be a person , team or an organization.
● A Cloud Provider maintains and manages the different cloud computing services for the
consumer and makes arrangements to deliver the cloud services to the Cloud Consumers
using network access or internet.
Software as a Service Cloud provider is responsible for deploying, configuring, maintaining
and updating the operation of the software applications on a cloud infrastructure so that the
services are provisioned as per the required levels by the cloud consumers.
The major responsibilities of cloud providers in context to software as a service are to manage
, control the applications and overall infrastructure.
In context to Platform as a Service, the Cloud Provider manages the computing
infrastructure for the platform and runs the cloud software that provides the components of
the platform. These components may be software execution stack, databases and some other
components that act as middleware.
The PaaS Cloud Provider generally supports the development, deployment and management
process of the Platform as a Service.
Some integrated tools like IDE, SDK, development version of cloud software, deployment
and management are also part of Platform as a Service.
Physical computing resources such as servers, networks, storage and hosting infrastructure
are also maintained and managed by the cloud provider for the consumer of Infrastructure
as a Service.
The Cloud Provider implements the cloud software so that computing resources become
available to the Cloud Consumer who use the infrastructure as service through a set of service
interfaces and virtual network interfaces that helps in resource abstraction.

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 3. Cloud Auditor
A cloud auditor is a dedicated team of technically skilled persons that can perform an
independent examination or review of cloud service controls with the intent to express
strength and weakness of the process and some suggestion or improvement.
Audits are performed to verify the standards of services after checking the evidence.
Major role of a cloud auditor is to evaluate the services provided by a cloud provider against
the parameters such as security controls, privacy impact and performance etc.
To perform the audit of security a cloud auditor does the assessment of the security controls
in the information system to determine the extent to which the controls are implemented
accurately and operating as per expectation and producing the desired outcome with respect
to the security requirements for the system.
Also Read – Smart Home Technology in India

4. Cloud Broker
Sometimes services integrations become more complex due to which it becomes difficult for
the cloud consumer to manage the cloud service.
In such situations cloud consumers request cloud services from cloud brokers. Cloud Broker
acts as mediator between consumer and provider.
● A cloud broker manages the delivery of cloud services , their performance and use.
● A cloud broker negotiates relationships between cloud providers and cloud
consumers. In general, a cloud broker involves in three types of activities which are as
follow Service Intermediation
A cloud broker may enhance a given service by improving some specific capability and
providing value-added services to cloud consumers.
The improvement may be related to managing the access to cloud services, identity
management, performance reporting, enhanced security, etc.
Service Aggregation
Services aggregation can be seen as combining and integrating multiple services into one or
some more new services.
The broker ensures the data movement between the cloud consumer and multiple cloud
providers in a secure manner.
A cloud broker also provides the data integration.
Service Arbitrage

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 Service arbitrage is very similar to service aggregation but there is a little bit of a difference
also.
In service arbitrage the services to be aggregated are not fixed in advance.
In Service arbitrage a broker has the flexibility to select the services from multiple agencies.
The cloud broker, for example, can use a credit-scoring service to measure and select an
agency with the best score.
5. Cloud Carrier
Cloud Carrier is another important actor in NIST cloud computing reference architecture.
● Role of a cloud carrier is to provide the connectivity and transport of cloud services between
cloud consumers and cloud providers.
● Cloud carriers provide access to consumers through network, telecommunication and other
access devices.
For example- cloud consumers can obtain cloud services through network access devices,
such as computers, laptops, mobile phones, mobile Internet devices.

Architectural Design Challenges

Cloud computing is used for enabling global access to mutual pools of resources such as
services, apps, data, servers, and computer networks. It is done on either a third-party server
located in a data center or a privately owned cloud. This makes data-accessing contrivances
more reliable and efficient, with nominal administration effort.
Because cloud technology depends on the allocation of resources to attain consistency and
economy of scale, similar to a utility, it is also fairly cost-effective, making it the choice for
many small businesses and firms.
But there are also many challenges involved in cloud computing, and if you’re not prepared
to deal with them, you won’t realize the benefits. Here are six common challenges you must
consider before implementing cloud computing technology.
1. Cost
Cloud computing itself is affordable, but tuning the platform according to the company’s
needs can be expensive. Furthermore, the expense of transferring the data to public clouds
can prove to be a problem for short-lived and small-scale projects.

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Companies can save some money on system maintenance, management, and acquisitions. But
they also have to invest in additional bandwidth, and the absence of routine control in an
infinitely scalable computing platform can increase costs.
2. Service Provider Reliability
The capacity and capability of a technical service provider are as important as price. The
service provider must be available when you need them. The main concern should be the
service provider’s sustainability and reputation. Make sure you comprehend the techniques
via which a provider observes its services and defends dependability claims.
3. Downtime
Downtime is a significant shortcoming of cloud technology. No seller can promise a platform
that is free of possible downtime. Cloud technology makes small companies reliant on their
connectivity, so companies with an untrustworthy internet connection probably want to think
twice before adopting cloud computing.
4. Password Security
Industrious password supervision plays a vital role in cloud security. However, the more
people you have accessing your cloud account, the less secure it is. Anybody aware of your
passwords will be able to access the information you store there.
Businesses should employ multi-factor authentication and make sure that passwords are
protected and altered regularly, particularly when staff members leave. Access rights related
to passwords and usernames should only be allocated to those who require them.
5. Data privacy
Sensitive and personal information that is kept in the cloud should be defined as being for
internal use only, not to be shared with third parties. Businesses must have a plan to securely
and efficiently manage the data they gather.
6. Vendor lock-in
Entering a cloud computing agreement is easier than leaving it. “Vendor lock-in” happens
when altering providers is either excessively expensive or just not possible. It could be that
the service is nonstandard or that there is no viable vendor substitute.
It comes down to buyer carefulness. Guarantee the services you involve are typical and
transportable to other providers, and above all, understand the requirements.
Cloud computing is a good solution for many businesses, but it’s important to know what
you’re getting into. Having plans to address these six prominent challenges first will help
ensure a successful experience.

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 Cloud Deployment Models

Public Cloud
Public cloud is open to all to store and access information via the Internet using the pay-per-
usage method.
In public cloud, computing resources are managed and operated by the Cloud Service
Provider (CSP).
Example: Amazon elastic compute cloud (EC2), IBM SmartCloud Enterprise, Microsoft,
Google App Engine, Windows Azure Services Platform.

Advantages of Public Cloud

There are the following advantages of Public Cloud -
o Public cloud is owned at a lower cost than the private and hybrid cloud.
o Public cloud is maintained by the cloud service provider, so do not need to worry about the maintenance.
o Public cloud is easier to integrate. Hence it offers a better flexibility approach to consumers.
o Public cloud is location independent because its services are delivered through the internet.
o Public cloud is highly scalable as per the requirement of computing resources.
o It is accessible by the general public, so there is no limit to the number of users.
Disadvantages of Public Cloud
o Public Cloud is less secure because resources are shared publicly.

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o Performance depends upon the high-speed internet network link to the cloud provider.
o The Client has no control of data.

Private Cloud

o Private cloud is also known as an internal cloud or corporate cloud.

o Private cloud provides computing services to a private internal network (within the
organization) and selected users instead of the general public.
o Private cloud provides a high level of security and privacy to data through firewalls and internal
hosting. It also ensures that operational and sensitive data are not accessible to third-party providers.
o HP Data Centers, Microsoft, Elastra-private cloud, and Ubuntu are the example of a private cloud.

Advantages of Private cloud

There are the following advantages of Private Cloud -
1) More Control
Private clouds have more control over their resources and hardware than public clouds
because it is only accessed by selected users.
2) Security & privacy
Security & privacy are one of the big advantages of cloud computing. Private cloud improved
the security level as compared to the public cloud.
3) Improved performance
Private cloud offers better performance with improved speed and space capacity.

Disadvantages of Private Cloud

1) High cost
The cost is higher than a public cloud because set up and maintain hardware resources are
costly.

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 2) Restricted area of operations
As we know, private cloud is accessible within the organization, so the area of operations is
limited.
3) Limited scalability
Private clouds are scaled only within the capacity of internal hosted resources.
4) Skilled people
Skilled people are required to manage and operate cloud services.

Hybrid Cloud

o Hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds.

Hybrid cloud = public cloud + private cloud
o The main aim to combine these cloud (Public and Private) is to create a unified, automated, and well-
managed computing environment.
o In the Hybrid cloud, non-critical activities are performed by the public cloud and critical activities
are performed by the private cloud.
o Mainly, a hybrid cloud is used in finance, healthcare, and Universities.
o The best hybrid cloud provider companies are Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and NetApp.

Advantages of Hybrid Cloud

There are the following advantages of Hybrid Cloud -
1) Flexible and secure
It provides flexible resources because of the public cloud and secure resources because of the
private cloud.
2) Cost effective
Hybrid cloud costs less than the private cloud. It helps organizations to save costs for both
infrastructure and application support.

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3) Cost effective
It offers the features of both the public as well as the private cloud. A hybrid cloud is capable
of adapting to the demands that each company needs for space, memory, and system.
4) Security
Hybrid cloud is secure because critical activities are performed by the private cloud.
5) Risk Management
Hybrid cloud provides an excellent way for companies to manage the risk.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud

1) Networking issues
In the Hybrid Cloud, networking becomes complex because of the private and the public cloud.
2) Infrastructure Compatibility
Infrastructure compatibility is the major issue in a hybrid cloud. With dual-levels of
infrastructure, a private cloud controls the company, and a public cloud does not, so there is a
possibility that they are running in separate stacks.
3) Reliability
The reliability of the services depends on cloud service providers.
Community Cloud
Community cloud is a cloud infrastructure that allows systems and services to be accessible
by a group of several organizations to share the information. It is owned, managed, and
operated by one or more organizations in the community, a third party, or a combination of
them.

Example: Our government organization within India may share computing infrastructure in
the cloud to manage data.

Advantages of Community Cloud

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 There are the following advantages of Community Cloud -
Cost effective
Community cloud is cost effective because the whole cloud is shared between several
organizations or a community.
Flexible and Scalable
The community cloud is flexible and scalable because it is compatible with every user. It
allows the users to modify the documents as per their needs and requirement.
Security
Community cloud is more secure than the public cloud but less secure than the private cloud.
Sharing infrastructure
Community cloud allows us to share cloud resources, infrastructure, and other capabilities
among various organizations.

Disadvantages of Community Cloud

There are the following disadvantages of Community Cloud -
o Community cloud is not a good choice for every organization.
o Slow adoption to data
o The fixed amount of data storage and bandwidth is shared among all community members.
o Community Cloud is costly than the public cloud.
o Sharing responsibilities among organizations is difficult.

Cloud Service Models

There are the following three types of cloud service models -
1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
3. Software as a Service (SaaS)

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 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.
IaaS cloud computing platform layer eliminates the need for every organization to maintain
the IT infrastructure.
IaaS is offered in three models: public, private, and hybrid cloud. The private cloud implies
that the infrastructure resides at the customer-premise. In the case of 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 or private
cloud.
IaaS provider provides the following services -
1. Compute: Computing as a Service includes virtual central processing units and virtual main memory
for the Vms that is provisioned to the end- users.
2. Storage: IaaS provider provides back-end storage for storing files.
3. Network: Network as a Service (NaaS) provides networking components such as routers, switches,
and bridges for the Vms.
4. Load balancers: It provides load balancing capability at the infrastructure layer.

Advantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

There are the following advantages of IaaS computing layer -
1. Shared infrastructure
IaaS allows multiple users to share the same physical infrastructure.
2. Web access to the resources
Iaas allows IT users to access resources over the internet.
3. Pay-as-per-use model
IaaS providers provide services based on the pay-as-per-use basis. The users are required to
pay for what they have used.
4. Focus on the core business

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IaaS providers focus on the organization's core business rather than on IT infrastructure.
5. On-demand scalability
On-demand scalability is one of the biggest advantages of IaaS. Using IaaS, users do not
worry about to upgrade software and troubleshoot the issues related to hardware components.

Disadvantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

1. Security
Security is one of the biggest issues in IaaS. Most of the IaaS providers are not able to provide
100% security.
2. Maintenance & Upgrade
Although IaaS service providers maintain the software, but they do not upgrade the software
for some organizations.
3. Interoperability issues
It is difficult to migrate VM from one IaaS provider to the other, so the customers might face
problem related to vendor lock-in.

IaaS Vendor Iaas Solution Details

Amazon Web Elastic, Elastic Compute The cloud computing platform pioneer, Amazon offers
Services Cloud (EC2) MapReduce, auto scaling, cloud monitoring, and load balancing
Route 53, Virtual Private features as part of its portfolio.
Cloud, etc.

Netmagic Solutions Netmagic IaaS Cloud Netmagic runs from data centers in Mumbai, Chennai,
and Bangalore, and a virtual data center in the United
States. Plans are underway to extend services to West
Asia.

Rackspace Cloud servers, cloud files, The cloud computing platform vendor focuses
cloud sites, etc. primarily on enterprise-level hosting services.

Reliance Reliance Internet Data Center RIDC supports both traditional hosting and cloud
Communications services, with data centers in Mumbai, Bangalore,

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 Hyderabad, and Chennai. The cloud services offered by
RIDC include IaaS and SaaS.

Sify Technologies Sify IaaS Sify's cloud computing platform is powered by HP's
converged infrastructure. The vendor offers all three
types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

Tata InstaCompute InstaCompute is Tata Communications' IaaS offering.

Communications InstaCompute data centers are located in Hyderabad
and Singapore, with operations in both countries.

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Platform as a Service | PaaS
Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a runtime environment. It allows programmers to
easily create, test, run, and deploy web applications. You can purchase these applications
from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-per use basis and access them using the Internet
connection. In PaaS, back end scalability is managed by the cloud service provider, so end-
users do not need to worry about managing the infrastructure.
PaaS includes infrastructure (servers, storage, and networking) and platform (middleware,
development tools, database management systems, business intelligence, and more) to
support the web application life cycle.
Example: Google App Engine, Force.com, Joyent, Azure.
PaaS providers provide the Programming languages, Application frameworks, Databases, and
Other tools:

1. Programming languages
PaaS providers provide various programming languages for the developers to develop the
applications. Some popular programming languages provided by PaaS providers are Java,
PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Go.
2. Application frameworks
PaaS providers provide application frameworks to easily understand the application
development. Some popular application frameworks provided by PaaS providers are Node.js,
Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Spring, Play, Rack, and Zend.

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3. Databases
PaaS providers provide various databases such as ClearDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and
Redis to communicate with the applications.
4. Other tools
PaaS providers provide various other tools that are required to develop, test, and deploy the
applications.
Advantages of PaaS
There are the following advantages of PaaS -
1) Simplified Development
PaaS allows developers to focus on development and innovation without worrying about
infrastructure management.
2) Lower risk
No need for up-front investment in hardware and software. Developers only need a PC and an
internet connection to start building applications.
3) Prebuilt business functionality
Some PaaS vendors also provide already defined business functionality so that users can
avoid building everything from very scratch and hence can directly start the projects only.

4) Instant community
PaaS vendors frequently provide online communities where the developer can get the ideas to
share experiences and seek advice from others.
5) Scalability
Applications deployed can scale from one to thousands of users without any changes to the
applications.
Disadvantages of PaaS cloud computing layer
1) Vendor lock-in
One has to write the applications according to the platform provided by the PaaS vendor, so
the migration of an application to another PaaS vendor would be a problem.
2) Data Privacy
Corporate data, whether it can be critical or not, will be private, so if it is not located within
the walls of the company, there can be a risk in terms of privacy of data.
3) Integration with the rest of the systems applications

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It may happen that some applications are local, and some are in the cloud. So there will be
chances of increased complexity when we want to use data which in the cloud with the local
data.

Popular PaaS Providers

The below table shows some popular PaaS providers and services that are provided by them -

Providers Services

Google App Engine App Identity, URL Fetch, Cloud storage client library, Logservice
(GAE)

Salesforce.com Faster implementation, Rapid scalability, CRM Services, Sales

cloud, Mobile connectivity, Chatter.

Windows Azure Compute, security, IoT, Data Storage.

AppFog Justcloud.com, SkyDrive, GoogleDocs

Openshift RedHat, Microsoft Azure.

Cloud Foundry from Data, Messaging, and other services.

VMware

Difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

The below table shows the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS -

IaaS Paas SaaS

It provides a virtual data It provides virtual It provides web software and

center to store information and platforms and tools to apps to complete business
create platforms for app create, test, and deploy tasks.
apps.

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development, testing, and
deployment.

It provides access to resources It provides runtime It provides software as a

such as virtual machines, environments and deployment service to the end-users.
virtual storage, etc. tools for applications.

It is used by network It is used by developers. It is used by end users.

architects.

IaaS provides only PaaS provides SaaS provides

Infrastructure. Infrastructure+Platform. Infrastructure+Platform
+Software.

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