What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a rapidly growing field that involves the delivery of computing resources as a service. It is important to understand what is cloud computing and how it works. Cloud services are provided by cloud providers such as GCP, AWS, and Azure, who manage and provide the necessary resources for the end user. These resources can be anything from web-based software programs to third-party data storage units. For those interested in learning more, there are many cloud computing courses available to help develop the necessary skills and knowledge.
History of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing has become an integral part of modern technology, but it's important to remember that it wasn't always around. The concept of cloud computing can be traced back to the 1960s when John McCarthy, a computer scientist, spoke about computing as a utility. However, it was in the 1990s that cloud computing as we know it today began to take shape.
One of the first companies to offer cloud computing services was Salesforce in 1999. They developed a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application to help businesses manage customer data. Around the same time, Amazon started developing its own cloud services, creating Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2002. They initially developed this service to improve their own IT infrastructure, but it soon became a major source of revenue for the company.
The term cloud computing wasn't coined until 2006, when Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, used it at a conference to describe the new paradigm of computing. From that point on, cloud computing rapidly gained popularity and became an essential part of many businesses.
In 2008, Microsoft announced their own cloud service, Azure, which provided cloud computing services and infrastructure to businesses. Other companies followed, and soon cloud computing became a highly competitive industry. Today, cloud computing has become an essential part of modern technology, with companies offering a wide range of cloud-based services, including infrastructure, platforms, and software.
Overall, the history of cloud computing has been one of innovation and progress, driven by the need for more flexible and scalable computing solutions. As businesses continue to rely more heavily on technology, cloud computing will likely play an even greater role in shaping the future of computing.
Audience
This Cloud Computing tutorial is a comprehensive guide that caters to both beginners and professionals looking to enhance their skillset in this field. The tutorial covers a wide range of topics starting from the basics of What is Cloud Computing to advanced concepts. It is an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn about Cloud Computing or is interested in taking cloud computing courses.
Prerequisite
This tutorial on cloud computing courses does not require any major prerequisites. However, it is recommended to have basic knowledge of computers and how the internet works. With a keen mind to learn what is cloud computing and how it works, you can easily follow and complete this tutorial successfully.
Why Cloud Computing?
The following are some of the reasons why cloud computing is becoming more and more important:
- Flexibility and Security
- Increased Collaboration
- Cost Savings
- Quality control and Increased Collaboration
- Disaster Recovery without any data loss
- Competitiveness
- Sustainability
Characteristics of Cloud Computing
The following are some characteristics of Cloud Computing.
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Pay as you go: Users of cloud computing services can deploy, monitor, and manage computing resources as necessary without human administrators. Most of the time, heterogeneous devices and common networks deliver computing services.
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On-demand self-service: On-demand computing capabilities go hand in hand with the self-service provisioning feature of cloud computing. Developers can choose the resources and tools they require, generally through a self-service portal provided by a cloud provider, and start building right away. Employees are free to create, test, and deploy apps as they see fit under the constraints specified by an admin, which restricts what IT and development teams may accomplish.
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High Scalability and Elasticity: IT resources for cloud computing services can expand and contract swiftly and according to demand. When a user requests a service, it is delivered to him, and after that service's demand is met, it is released. Rapid elasticity is a short-term trait, while scalability typically describes longer-term cloud infrastructure plans. Applications and services in the cloud that have been properly configured will immediately and automatically add resources to manage demand spikes. Services return to their former resource levels when demand declines.
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Statistics generation: Cloud computing helps in the effective management of resources by providing statistics on the resource usage by the user. It also helps the cloud service provider keep an account of its resources. Any unforeseen long bills can be avoided using timely statistics.
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Resiliency and availability: Cloud service providers employ a number of strategies to prevent downtime, such as reducing geographic dependencies to prevent single points of failure. Users can also spread out their workloads over multiple availability zones, connecting various data centres reasonably close to one another via redundant networks. It is important to acknowledge that these systems aren't perfect, and businesses need to have backup plans in case of outages. Spreading workloads across far areas or even separate platforms can be a solution though an expensive and complex one.
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Resource pooling: The available IT resources, such as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services, are shared among numerous applications and occupied in an ad hoc fashion. From the same physical resource, services are given to numerous clients.
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Security: The security concerns that prevented many businesses from moving workloads have mostly diminished due to the advantages of cloud computing. Cloud providers are generally more prepared to manage threats than most internal IT teams because they work with some of the greatest security specialists in the world. In reality, the cloud is a security asset, according to some of the greatest financial institutions in the world.
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Broad network access: Cloud computing is everywhere now. With the advent of the internet, it is possible to retrieve and upload data remotely from any location. Users can work from anywhere. The cloud is an appealing choice for most businesses that use various operating systems, platforms, and devices. Cloud providers guarantee a number of metrics representing how users access cloud services and data, such as latency, access time, data throughput, etc., to maintain that wide network access. Service-level agreements and requirements consider these for quality of service.
Advantages of Cloud Computing
The following are the advantages of cloud computing:
- Allows working from any computer anywhere: It is fast and easier to retrieve saved information from anywhere at any time.
- Cost Cutting: It is very expensive to buy and set up all hardware and software-related things to perform a small operation. Thankfully cloud computing comes to the rescue and helps in a lot of cost-cutting.
- Backup: It is easier to obtain a backup when using cloud computing.
- Database Security: Database Security is one of the major benefits associated with using cloud computing.
There are some disadvantages of cloud computing as well as follows:
- Security: Cloud resources may have more security flaws than traditional on-premise data centers due to the usage of APIs, cloud-based credentials, and on-demand services that make it simpler for attackers to gain unauthorized access.
- Costs: Cloud services can become costly as usage increases. It is important to check billing information before signing up for a cloud service to understand metering and set caps or receive notifications when usage exceeds preferred limits. Investigate how billing information is conveyed as billing practices may not always be clear.
- Data persistence: Users of the cloud occasionally want to make sure that the personal data they have provided to cloud service providers is deleted. However, erasing data from cloud resources and verifying such erasure can be laborious, challenging, or even impossible tasks.
Applications of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing has various applications and use cases. Some of the domains in which cloud computing can be utilized are as follows:
- Data Storage and Backup Applications: Cloud computing provides a reliable and cost-effective way to store and backup data. It eliminates the need for physical storage devices and enables users to access their data from anywhere.
- Business Applications: Cloud computing is widely used in businesses for tasks such as resource planning, accounting, customer relationship management, and supply chain management.
- Education Applications: Cloud computing is used in education for delivering online courses, hosting virtual classrooms, and providing access to educational resources.
- Entertainment Applications: Cloud computing is used in entertainment for streaming music and videos, gaming, and delivering on-demand content.
- Management Applications: Cloud computing is used in management for tasks such as project management, human resource management, and inventory management.
- Social Media: Social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter use cloud computing to store and process large amounts of user data and provide their services to millions of users.
About this Cloud Computing Tutorial
This tutorial provides comprehensive coverage of Cloud Computing. It includes an introduction to Cloud Computing, types of Cloud Computing platforms based on service and proprietorship, and Cloud Platform Technologies like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, and GCP. Additionally, it covers Cloud Migration, Elasticity, Adoption, Load Balancing, and Scalability, along with their advantages, challenges, and typical use cases. The tutorial also discusses the impact of Cloud on IT service management and the security aspects of Cloud adoption. Overall, this tutorial provides a detailed overview of Cloud Computing, its technologies, and its applications.
Take-Away Skills from This Cloud Computing Tutorial
By following this tutorial, you will learn about the following:
- An in-depth view of Cloud Computing, how it works, why it is important, and why companies are moving to the cloud.
- You will learn about the presence of different types of clouds like public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, etc. You will be able to identify which type of cloud is required based on your business requirements. You will also learn about different cloud platforms like PaaS, SaaS, and IaaS. Understanding the importance of each will help you pick the correct model for your use case.
- In this tutorial, we will also get a high-level overview of various cloud platforms technologies like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, and GCP. The cloud platforms industry is the latest upcoming industry. As cloud technology is booming, it becomes essential to learn about the concept of cloud migration. You will learn about the different cloud migration types, strategies, and trends. We will evaluate the pros and cons of cloud migration.
- Once your application is on the cloud, it is very important to manage the traffic on your application. This can be achieved with the help of cloud load balancing. You will learn about cloud load balancing, the types of load balancing solutions, different load balancing algorithms, and major examples of load balancers.
