FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES & COMMERCE

UNIVERSITY OF JAFFNA
Business of Business Administration - First Year – First Semester

Course Title : Information Technology

Cloud Computing

What is Cloud?
"The cloud" refers to servers that are accessed over the Internet, and the software and databases
that run on those servers. Cloud servers are in data centres all over the world. By using cloud
computing, users and companies do not have to manage physical servers themselves or run
software applications on their own machines.

In other words, we can say that Cloud is something, which is present at remote location.
Cloud can provide services over network, i.e., on public networks or on private networks,
i.e., WAN, LAN or VPN.
Applications such as e-mail, web conferencing, customer relationship management (CRM), all
run in cloud.

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The cloud enables users to access the same files and applications from almost any device, because
the computing and storage takes place on servers in a data centre, instead of locally on the user
device. Therefore, a user can log into their Instagram account on a new phone after their old phone
breaks and still find their old account in place, with all their photos, videos, and conversation
history. It works the same way with cloud email providers like Gmail or Microsoft Office 365, and
with cloud storage providers like Dropbox or Google Drive.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing refers to manipulating, configuring, and accessing the applications online. It
offers online data storage, infrastructure and application. The term “Cloud Computing” refers to
services provided by the cloud that is responsible for delivering of computing services such as
servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence, and more, over the Cloud
(Internet). Cloud computing applies a virtualized platform with elastic resources on demand by
provisioning hardware, software, and data sets dynamically.

Basic Concepts
There are certain services and models working behind the scene making the cloud computing
feasible and accessible to end users. Following are the working models for cloud computing:

Deployment Models

Service Models

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Deployment Models

Deployment models define the type of access to the cloud, i.e., how the cloud is located? Cloud
can have any of the four types of access: Public, Private, Hybrid and Community.

Public Cloud

The Public Cloud allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public.
Public cloud may be less secure because of its openness, e.g., e-mail.

Private Cloud

The Private Cloud allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. It
offers increased security because of its private nature.

Community Cloud

The Community Cloud allows systems and services to be accessible by group of organizations.

Hybrid Cloud

The Hybrid Cloud is mixture of public and private cloud. However, the critical activities are
performed using private cloud while the non-critical activities are performed using public cloud.

Service Models

Service Models are the reference models on which the Cloud Computing is based. These can be
categorized into three basic service models as listed below:

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1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

3. Software as a Service (SaaS)

There are many other service models all of which can take the form like XaaS, i.e., Anything as a
Service. This can be Network as a Service, Business as a Service, Identity as a Service, Database
as a Service or Strategy as a Service.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IAAS)

The Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the most basic level of service. Each of the service models
make use of the underlying service model, i.e., each inherits the security and management
mechanism from the underlying model. IaaS provides access to fundamental resources such as
physical machines, virtual machines, virtual storage, etc. Offering virtualized resources
(computation, storage, and communication) on demand is known as Infrastructure as a Service
(IaaS).

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PLATFORM AS A SERVIC E (PAAS)

PaaS provides the runtime environment for applications, development & deployment tools, etc. A
cloud platform offers an environment on which developers create and deploy applications and do
not necessarily need to know how many processors or how much memory that applications will
be using. In addition, multiple programming models and specialized services (e.g., data access,
authentication, and payments) are offered as building blocks to new applications.
Google AppEngine, an example of Platform as a Service, offers a scalable environment for
developing and hosting Web applications, which should be written in specific programming
languages such as Python or Java, and use the services’ own structured object data store.

SOFTWARE AS A SERVIC E (SAAS)

SaaS model allows to use software applications as a service to end users. Traditional desktop
applications such as word processing and spreadsheet can now be accessed as a service in the Web.
This model of delivering applications, known as Software as a Service (SaaS), relieves the burden
of software maintenance for customers and simplifies development and testing for providers.
Salesforce.com, which relies on the SaaS model, offers business productivity applications (CRM)
that reside completely on their servers, allowing customers to customize and access applications
on demand.

History

The concept of Cloud Computing came into existence in 1950 with implementation of
mainframe computers, accessible via thin/static clients. Since then, cloud computing has been
evolved from static clients to dynamic ones from software to services. The following diagram
explains the evolution of cloud computing:

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Advantages of cloud computing:

1) Cost: It reduces the huge capital costs of buying hardware and software.
2) Speed: Resources can be accessed in minutes, typically within a few clicks.
3) Scalability: We can increase or decrease the requirement of resources according to the
business requirements.
4) Productivity: While using cloud computing, we put less operational effort. We do not need
to apply patching, as well as no need to maintain hardware and software. So, in this way,
the IT team can be more productive and focus on achieving business goals.
5) Reliability: Backup and recovery of data are less expensive and extremely fast for business
continuity.
6) Security: Many cloud vendors offer a broad set of policies, technologies, and controls that
strengthen our data security.