In recent years, the topic of cloud technology has become one of the most popular in the IT-sphere, many articles have been written about it, even more conferences have been held, and we cannot even count how many solutions already exist in the market (and are used by us in our daily lives, sometimes unconsciously).
However, as always, there is a “but” and most users still don’t know what this “know-how” of cloud technology is and why they need it at all. Well, we’ll correct the situation and we’ll start, as expected, with the theory.
Cloud computing – a technology of distributed data processing in which computer resources and capacities are available to the user as an Internet service. If to explain in layman’s terms – it is your, in a sense, the workplace on the Internet, or rather on a remote server.
Let’s look at an example to make sure that almost all of us, one way or another, have already encountered this solution.
Do you have e-mail (e-mail)? Of course you do. So, if you work with e-mail on some service site (like gmail) that allows you to use this e-mail, then this is nothing but a cloud service, which is part of such a thing as cloud technology. Or, for example, image processing.
If you downsize, flip your picture in Photoshop or another special program, then you have nothing to do with cloud technology – everything happens and is processed locally on your computer. But if you upload an image via Picasa, for example, and then process it on the other side, in your web browser, then it’s the very same cloud.
In fact, the only difference is in how the data is stored and processed. If all the operations take place on your computer (using its power), then it is not a “cloud”, and if the process takes place on a server on the network, then it is exactly the trendy thing, which is commonly referred to as “cloud technology”.
In other words, cloud technology, is a variety of hardware, software, methodologies and tools that are provided to the user, as Internet services, to realize their goals, tasks, projects.
As practice shows, the terms “cloud technology”/”cloud service”, with their common graphical representation, in the form of “clouds”, only confuses users, in fact their structure, can be easily understood if presented in the form of the following pyramid.
The base of the pyramid “infrastructure” is a set of physical devices (servers, hard disks, etc.), above it lays the “platform” – a set of services and the top – the software available on demand to users.
It may happen that all of us will go back to computers which are close to, so to say, the first ones, and in fact they will be just a screen with a microprocessor, and all calculations and power will be located and made remotely, i.e. in the servers which live somewhere, namely in the cloud which has been mentioned more than once.
Services provided by cloud systems
Everything about cloud computing (hereinafter referred to as CC) is commonly referred to as aaS. It stands for “as a Service”, that is, “as a service” or “as a service”.
Currently, cloud technology and, in fact, its concept, involves providing the following types of services to its users:
Storage-as-a-Service (“storage as a service”).
This is probably the simplest of the SS services, which is on-demand disk space. Every one of us has ever encountered a situation where the ominous warning appeared on the monitor: “The logical drive is full, to free up space, delete unnecessary programs or data”. The Storage-as-a-Service gives you the ability to save your data in an external storage facility, the “cloud.” To you, it will look like an additional logical drive or folder. The service is basic to the others because it is part of almost every one of them. An example would be Google Drive and other similar services.
Database-as-a-Service
This is more for admins, because it allows them to work with databases as if DBMS was installed on a local resource. Moreover, in this case it is much easier to “share” projects between different developers, not to mention how much money may be saved on hardware and licenses required for DBMS literate use in a large or even medium organization.
Information-as-a-Service
Enables all kinds of information to be used remotely, which can change on a minute or even a second basis.
Process-as-a-Service (“process management as a service”)
Represents a remote resource that can link multiple resources (such as services or data contained within one cloud or other available clouds) to create a single business process.
Application-as-a-Service
Also, maybe called Software-as-a-Service. It is positioned as “software-on-demand,” which is deployed on remote servers and each user can access it via the Internet, with all updates and licenses for this software being managed by the provider of this service. Payment, in this case, is made for the actual use of the latter. Examples are Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc. online programs.
Platform-as-a-Service
A computer platform with an operating system and some software installed is provided to the user.
Integration-as-a-Service
It is the ability to obtain a complete integration package from the cloud, including the software interfaces between the applications and their algorithm control. It includes well-known services and features of centralization, optimization and enterprise application integration (EAI) packages, but provided as a cloud service.
Security-as-a-Service
This type of service provides users with the ability to quickly deploy products that enable the secure use of web technologies, e-mail, local network, which allows users of this service to save on deployment and maintenance of their own security system.
Management/Governace-as-a-Service
You can manage and parameterize one or many cloud services. These are mainly parameters such as topology, resource utilization, virtualization.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
A user is provided with computing infrastructure, usually virtual platforms (computers) connected to a network that he customizes to his own purposes.
Testing-as-a-Service
Gives the ability to test local or cloud-based systems using test software from the “cloud” (and no hardware or software is required in the company).