DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOUD COMPUTING AND CLOUD SERVICES – THE TOP 5 CLOUD PLATFORMS

Cloud technology has spread its roots far and wide. Several new-age technologies, like data analytics, IoT, and AI, directly rely on cloud computing. Anybody using cloud technology can enjoy uninterrupted and scalable computing power at a plug and play basis. It is cheap and reliable and lets an enterprise build its own infrastructure.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS

Not all clouds are the same. There are different models based on the type of deployment method. Here are the three types of cloud computing:

1. Public Cloud

Owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, public cloud is the type of computing that delivers computing resources, such as servers and storage, through the Internet. All the hardware, software, and supporting infrastructure are owned by the service provider. The user accesses the cloud services with a web browser. Public cloud facilitates scalability and resource-sharing, which would be otherwise impossible to achieve for a single organization. For instance, Microsoft Azure is a public cloud. 

2.  Private Cloud

Private cloud, or corporate cloud, refers to cloud computing resources for a single organization, unlike a public cloud that delivers services to multiple organizations. A private cloud can be supplied by a third-party service provider or constructed at the organization’s data center. The computing services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network. It tends to be more secure than a public cloud as the resources are used by specific users only. One of the largest players in the private cloud market is Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

 3.  Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud allows the extension of a private cloud into a public cloud when the situation demands. Thus, the primary advantage of a hybrid cloud is agility. Data and other applications can be freely shared between the public and private clouds. An organization can use a scalable public cloud to manage its workload, at the same time leaving the sensitive and more important workload on a private cloud. This gives a business more flexibility and deployment options, optimizing the existing infrastructure and security. The AWS is the example of a hybrid cloud and more important workload on a private cloud. This gives a business more flexibility and deployment options, optimizing the existing infrastructure and security. The AWS is the example of a hybrid cloud.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOUD SERVICE MODELS?

Cloud computing services fall into four broad categories – Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Serverless, and Software as a Service (SaaS). Let us understand what they are and how are they different from one another.

1. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as a Service means cloud computing services that enable the clients to develop, manage, run, and deploy software applications. It aids in the easy development of web or mobile apps without the need to worry about building and managing the underlying infrastructure, such as databases, servers, storage, and network. This is the biggest advantage of PaaS because in this way PaaS saves a whole lot of money and time, not to mention the faster development and deployment of services. This property of PaaS also lets the user test the use of new language, operating systems, and databases.

2. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the basics type of cloud computing system that lets you rent virtualized computing devices or IT infrastructure, including storage, servers, virtual machines, operating systems, etc, the fundamental entities that are needed to run an application and work in clouds. Unlike traditional infrastructure, IaaS uses the principle of pay-as-you-go, meaning there are no upfront expenditures. Users need to pay for only what they use.

3. Serverless Computing

With Serverless computing, developers can purchase backend services on a pay-per-go basis. It lets the user develop and deploy codes and app functionalities without having to manage the server and infrastructure. However, the name ‘serverless’ is misleading, as there are physical servers that provide the backend services, although these servers are managed by the vendors providing the service. As the user does not have to pay for idle CPU time or unused space, serverless computing is cost-effective. Also, the users need not worry about the scalability of the product, as the entire scaling-up process is the vendor’s responsibility.

4. Software as a Service (SaaS)

As the name suggests, Software as a Service or SaaS is the delivery of software services over the internet in an on-demand or subscription basis. SaaS also goes by the names of web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Instead of buying, installing, and maintaining any hardware or software, users can access SaaS applications through a web browser on a mobile device or a PC. The software services, including any upgrade or security patching, are host and managed by the cloud providers.

WHICH ARE THE BEST CLOUD PLATFORMS? 

Several companies offer cloud platform for development, deployment, and management of applications. Here are the top 5 cloud platforms that can be used to manage one’s IT needs.

Amazon.com provides on-demand cloud computing services, such as storage, data analysis, etc., through Amazon Web Services (AWS). Launched in 2006, AWS was created to take care of internal infrastructure and handle online retail operations, although it ended up being a whopping 35% market shareholder in the cloud computing market. AWS provides services to individuals, institutions as well as Government; its users enjoy an internet-enabled, anytime access to a virtual cluster of computers. AWS is considered to be the most powerful and flexible cloud computing service because its virtual cloud platform comes with actual computing components, including hardware, an operating system, and pre-loaded apps, such as web servers, databases, CRM, etc.

Google’s own cloud computing solution goes with the name of Google Cloud Platform and covers all major cloud services, including compute, storage, network, machine learning, and internet of things. It also helps in the development, management, and security of cloud services. It has a highly dynamic storage platform supporting SQL (Cloud SQL) and NoSQL (Cloud Datastore). Its IaaS helps in workload hosting with virtual machine instances, and its PaaS offers access to Google’s on-demand hosting along with a software development kit to develop applications for app eng

Microsoft Azure, commonly called Azure, is the cloud computing service from Microsoft that helps in the development, test, deployment, and management of applications and services. Its web development service offers PHP, ASP.net, and Node.js.

Microsoft Azure’s security features, such as authentication, security, etc., are supported by the Azure App Fabric, which connects the applications on one’s LAN with the Azure cloud. Thus, besides the usual services expected of a cloud computing platform, it comes with the security of applications as well.

IBM’s cloud computing platform, IBM Bluemix, offers Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IBM Bluemix PaaS is based on an open-source cloud platform called Cloud Foundry. It can be used to create, run, manage, and deploy scalable, omni-channel applications, such as big data, web, mobile, and other smart appliances for both public and private environments. Bluemix IaaS helps users access computing power, storage, and networking through the internet.

Currently, over 50 services are available on Bluemix, supporting programming languages such as Java, Node.js, PHP, and Python – although the solutions can be extended to support other languages too.

Alibaba Cloud came into the market in 2009 – just three years after AWS – and is considered one of the toughest competitors of AWS. With its headquarters in Hangzhou, China, it is the cloud initiative of the Chinese e-Commerce mammoth – Alibaba Group, which has roots across the world. It has 2,800+ CDN nodes across the world, with 63 availability zones in 21 global data center regions. 

Although Alibaba Cloud began as a private cloud to support the internal infrastructure of the Alibaba Group only, it soon transitioned into a public cloud and went global. This cloud computing service covers all the important cloud services, such as hosting, object storage, elastic computing, SQL, NoSQL database, big data analytics (using Hadoop), Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning.

CONCLUSION

Per million cloud computing jobs increased by 55% between October 2015 and 2020, as per a report in Indeed.co. To land a lucrative job in the Cloud Technology domain, you not only need expertise over the subject but also industry-relevant skills. Only a handful of Indian Universities offer industry immersion along with mastery over the domain. Here are a few Universities and the programs they offer.