Basic Cloud Concepts

Cloud computing is where the resources on the network are not actually physical in nature.

• They are provided to the user virtually.
• This can lead to a very fluid and dynamic environment as required resources are normally only provisioned as needed and are decommissioned once their use is done.

Most often, these virtual resources are not owned by the company that uses them but are provided by a service provider

• While cloud computing is highly configurable and changeable, it does have some basic structures that are used in the classification of the type of cloud that is in use.

Public cloud

Systems can interact with services and devices within the public cloud and on public networks and possibly other public clouds.

Private cloud

Systems only communicate with services and devices within the specified private cloud

Hybrid Cloud

combines aspects of both the public and private clouds.

Community cloud

cloud services used by private individuals organizations or groups that have a common interest.

Types of cloud computing

• Because of the nature of cloud computing its very configurable to the needs and desires of the purchaser.
• Purchasers have many options beyond the type of cloud services( eg. public or private) that they want to provision. they must also determine what type of service they are going to require from the most basic to the highly complex (eg. SaaS or PaaS)

SaaS (Software as a service)

• The end-user purchases the rights to use an application(software) without the need to configure the virtual servers that will deliver the application
  It's usually delivered as a web application

PaaS (Platform as a service)

• The user is provided with a development platform for the creation of software packages without the need to configure the virtual servers and infrastructure that delivers it.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

• The end-user is provided with access to virtual servers and other virtual network resources.
• creates a highly configurable environment in which customers can create the resources and performance that they require. The end-user supplies the software that is going to be used on the IaaS network.

It's not uncommon for the type of cloud computing being utilized by an organization to be a mix. some departments may use IaaS while a development team utilized a PaaS only. part of the advantage of cloud computing is only initializing resources as they are needed.