Nowadays, Cloud computing is adopted by every company, whether it is an MNC

or a startup many are still migrating towards it because of the cost-cutting, lesser
maintenance, and the increased capacity of the data with the help of servers
maintained by the cloud providers.
One more reason for this drastic change from the On-premises servers of the
companies to the Cloud providers is the ‘Pay as you go’ principle-based services
provided by them i.e., you only have to pay for the service, which you are using.
The disadvantage On-premises server holds is that if the server is not in use the
company still has to pay for it.
Table of Content
 What Is Cloud Computing?
 Understanding How Cloud Computing Works?
 Origins Of Cloud Computing
 What is Virtualization In Cloud Computing?
 Architecture Of Cloud Computing
 What Are The Types of Cloud Computing Services?
 What Are Cloud Deployment Models?
 What Is Cloud Hosting?
 Characteristics Of Cloud Computing
 Top Reasons to Switch from On-premise to Cloud Computing
 Top leading Cloud Computing companies
 Advantages of Cloud Computing
 Disadvantages Of Cloud Computing
 Cloud Sustainability
 Cloud Security
 Use Cases Of Cloud Computing
 Cloud Computing – FAQs
What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud Computing means storing and accessing the data and programs on remote
servers that are hosted on the internet instead of the computer’s hard drive or
local server. Cloud computing is also referred to as Internet-based computing, it
is a technology where the resource is provided as a service through the Internet
to the user. The data that is stored can be files, images, documents, or any other
storable document.
The following are some of the Operations that can be performed with Cloud
Computing
 Storage, backup, and recovery of data

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 Delivery of software on demand
 Development of new applications and services
 Streaming videos and audio
Understanding How Cloud Computing Works?
Cloud computing helps users in easily accessing computing resources like
storage, and processing over internet rather than local hardwares. Here we
discussing how it works in nutshell:
 Infrastructure: Cloud computing depends on remote network servers hosted
on internet for store, manage, and process the data.
 On-Demand Acess: Users can access cloud services and resources based on-
demand they can scale up or down the without having to invest for physical
hardware.
 Types of Services: Cloud computing offers various benefits such as cost
saving, scalability, reliability and acessibility it reduces capital expenditures,
improves efficiency.
Origins Of Cloud Computing
Mainframe computing in the 1950s and the internet explosion in the 1990s cam
e together to give rise to cloud computing. Since businesses like Amazon, Google,
and Salesforce started providing web-based services in the early 2000s. The term
“cloud computing” has gained popularity. Scalability, adaptability, and cost-
effectiveness are to be facilitated by the concept’s on-demand internet-based
access to computational resources.
These days, cloud computing is pervasive, driving a wide range of services across
markets and transforming the processing, storage, and retrieval of data
What is Virtualization In Cloud Computing?
Virtualization is the software technology that helps in providing the logical
isolation of physical resources. Creating logical isolation of physical resources
such as RAM, CPU, and Storage.. over the cloud is known as Virtualization in Cloud
Computing. In simple we can say creating types of Virtual Instances of computing
resources over the cloud. It provides better management and utilization of
hardware resources with logical isolation making the applications independent of
others. It facilitates streamlining the resource allocation and enhancing scalability
for multiple virtual computers within a single physical source offering cost-
effectiveness and better optimization of resources.
To know about this refer this Article – Virtualization in Cloud Computing and
Types

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Architecture Of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing architecture refers to the components and sub-components
required for cloud computing. These components typically refer to:
1. Front end ( Fat client, Thin client)
2. Back-end platforms ( Servers, Storage )
3. Cloud-based delivery and a network ( Internet, Intranet, Intercloud )

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1. Front End ( User Interaction Enhancement )
The User Interface of Cloud Computing consists of 2 sections of clients. The Thin
clients are the ones that use web browsers facilitating portable and lightweight
accessibilities and others are known as Fat Clients that use many functionalities
for offering a strong user experience.
2. Back-end Platforms ( Cloud Computing Engine )
The core of cloud computing is made at back-end platforms with several servers
for storage and processing computing. Management of Applications logic is
managed through servers and effective data handling is provided by storage. The
combination of these platforms at the backend offers the processing power, and
capacity to manage and store data behind the cloud.
3. Cloud-Based Delivery and Network
On-demand access to the computer and resources are provided over the Internet,
Intranet, and Intercloud. The Internet comes with global accessibility,
the Intranet helps in internal communications of the services within the
organization and the Intercloud enables interoperability across various cloud
services. This dynamic network connectivity ensures an essential component of
cloud computing architecture on guaranteeing easy access and data transfer.

What Are The Types of Cloud Computing Services?

The following are the types of Cloud Computing:
1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
3. Software as a Service (SaaS)
4. Function as as Service (FaaS)

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1. Infrastructure as a Service ( IaaS )
 Flexibility and Control: IaaS comes up with providing virtualized computing
resources such as VMs, Storage, and networks facilitating users with control
over the Operating system and applications.
 Reducing Expenses of Hardware: IaaS provides business cost savings with the
elimination of physical infrastructure investments making it cost-effective.
 Scalability of Resources: The cloud provides in scaling of hardware resources
up or down as per demand facilitating optimal performance with cost
efficiency.

2. Platform as a Service ( PaaS )

 Simplifying the Development: Platform as a Service offers application
development by keeping the underlying Infrastructure as an Abstraction. It
helps the developers to completely focus on application logic ( Code ) and
background operations are completely managed by the AWS platform.
 Enhancing Efficiency and Productivity: PaaS lowers the Management of
Infrastructure complexity, speeding up the Execution time and bringing the
updates quickly to market by streamlining the development process.
 Automation of Scaling: Management of resource scaling, PaaS ensure
guaranteeing the program’s workload efficiency.

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3. SaaS (software as a service)
 Collaboration And Accessibility: Software as a Service (SaaS) helps users to
easily access applications without having the requirement of local
installations. It is fully managed by the AWS Software working as a service
over the internet encouraging effortless cooperation and ease of access.
 Automation of Updates: SaaS providers manage the handling of software
maintenance with automatic latest updates ensuring users gain experience
with the latest features and security patches.
 Cost Efficiency: SaaS acts as a cost-effective solution by reducing the
overhead of IT support by eliminating the need for individual software
licenses.

4. Function as a Service (FaaS)

 Event-Driven Execution: FaaS helps in the maintenance of servers and
infrastructure making users worry about it. FaaS facilitates the developers to
run code as a response to the events.
 Cost Efficiency: FaaS facilitates cost efficiency by coming up with the
principle “Pay as per you Run” for the computing resources used.
 Scalability and Agility: Server less Architectures scale effortlessly in handing
the workloads promoting agility in development and deployment.

What Are Cloud Deployment Models?

The following are the Cloud Deployment Models:
1. Private Deployment Model
 It provides an enhancement in protection and customization by cloud
resource utilization as per particular specified requirements. It is perfect for
companies which looking for security and compliance needs.

2. Public Deployment Model

 It comes with offering a pay-as-you-go principle for scalability and
accessibility of cloud resources for numerous users. it ensures cost-
effectiveness by providing enterprise-needed services.

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3. Hybrid Deployment Model
It comes up with a combination of elements of both private and public clouds
providing seamless data and application processing in between environments. It
offers flexibility in optimizing resources such as sensitive data in private clouds
and important scalable applications in the public cloud.

What Is Cloud Hosting?

The Infrastructure is where the people start and begin to build from the scratch.
This is the layer where the cloud hosting lives. Let’s say you have a company and
a website and the website has many communications that are exchanged
between members. You start with a few members talking with each other and
then gradually the number of members increases. As time passes, as the number
of members increases, there would be more traffic on the network and your
server will get slow down. This would cause a problem.
A few years ago, the websites are put on the server somewhere, in the way you
have to run around or buy and set the number of servers. It costs a lot of money
and takes a lot of time. You pay for these servers when you are using them and as
well as when you are not using them. This is called hosting. This problem is
overcome by cloud hosting. With Cloud Computing, you have access to computing
power when you needed. Now, your website is put in the cloud server as you put
it on a dedicated server. People start visiting your website and if you suddenly
need more computing power, you would scale up according to the need.

Characteristics Of Cloud Computing

The following are the characteristics of Cloud Computing:
1. Scalability: With Cloud hosting, it is easy to grow and shrink the number and
size of servers based on the need. This is done by either increasing or
decreasing the resources in the cloud. This ability to alter plans due to
fluctuations in business size and needs is a superb benefit of cloud
computing, especially when experiencing a sudden growth in demand.

2. Save Money: An advantage of cloud computing is the reduction in hardware

costs. Instead of purchasing in-house equipment, hardware needs are left to
the vendor. For companies that are growing rapidly, new hardware can be
large, expensive, and inconvenient. Cloud computing alleviates these issues
because resources can be acquired quickly and easily. Even better, the cost of

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 repairing or replacing equipment is passed to the vendors. Along with
purchase costs, off-site hardware cuts internal power costs and saves space.
Large data centers can take up precious office space and produce a large
amount of heat. Moving to cloud applications or storage can help maximize
space and significantly cut energy expenditures.

3. Reliability: Rather than being hosted on one single instance of a physical

server, hosting is delivered on a virtual partition that draws its resource, such
as disk space, from an extensive network of underlying physical servers. If
one server goes offline it will have no effect on availability, as the virtual
servers will continue to pull resources from the remaining network of servers.

4. Physical Security: The underlying physical servers are still housed within data
centers and so benefit from the security measures that those facilities
implement to prevent people from accessing or disrupting them on-site.

5. Outsource Management: When you are managing the business, someone

else manages your computing infrastructure. You do not need to worry about
management as well as degradation.

Top Reasons to Switch from On-premise to Cloud Computing

The following are the Top reasons to switch from on-premise to cloud
computing:

1. Reduces cost: The cost-cutting ability of businesses that utilize cloud

computing over time is one of the main advantages of this technology. On
average 15% of the total cost can be saved by companies if they migrate to
the cloud. By the use of cloud servers businesses will save and reduce costs
with no need to employ a staff of technical support personnel to address
server issues. There are many great business modules regarding the cost-
cutting benefits of cloud servers such as the Coca-Cola and Pinterest case
studies.
2. More storage: For software and applications to execute as quickly and
efficiently as possible, it provides more servers, storage space, and
computing power. Many tools are available for cloud storage such as
Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, etc.

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3. Employees Better Work Life Balance: Direct connections between cloud
computing benefits, and the work and personal lives of an enterprise’s
workers can both improve because of cloud computing. Even on holidays, the
employees have to work with the server for its security, maintenance, and
proper functionality. But with cloud storage the thing is not the same,
employees get ample of time for their personal life and the workload is even
less comparatively.

Top leading Cloud Computing companies

1. Amazon Web Services(AWS)

One of the most successful cloud-based businesses is Amazon Web
Services(AWS), which is an Infrastructure as a Service(Iaas) offering that pays
rent for virtual computers on Amazon’s infrastructure.

2. Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform

Microsoft is creating the Azure platform, which enables the .NET Framework
Application to run over the internet as an alternative platform for Microsoft
developers. This is the classic Platform as a Service(PaaS).

3. Google Cloud Platform ( GCP )

 Google has built a worldwide network of data centers to service its search
engine. From this service, Google has captured the world’s advertising
revenue. By using that revenue, Google offers free software to users based
on infrastructure. This is called Software as a Service(SaaS).

Advantages of Cloud Computing

The following are main advantages of Cloud Computing:
1. Cost Efficiency: Cloud Computing provides flexible pricing to the users with
the principal pay-as-you-go model. It helps in lessening capital expenditures
of Infrastructure, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses
companies.
2. Flexibility and Scalability: Cloud services facilitate the scaling of resources
based on demand. It ensures the efficiency of businesses in handling various
workloads without the need for large amounts of investments in hardware
during the periods of low demand.

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3. Collaboration and Accessibility: Cloud computing provides easy access to
data and applications from anywhere over the internet. This encourages
collaborative team participation from different locations through shared
documents and projects in real-time resulting in quality and productive
outputs.
4. Automatic Maintenance and Updates: AWS Cloud takes care of the
infrastructure management and keeping with the latest software
automatically making updates they is new versions. Through this, AWS
guarantee the companies always having access to the newest technologies to
focus completely on business operations and innovations.

Disadvantages Of Cloud Computing

The following are the main disadvantages of Cloud Computing:

1. Security Concerns: Storing of sensitive data on external servers raised more
security concerns, which is one of the main drawbacks of cloud, computing.

2. Downtime and Reliability: Even though cloud services are usually

dependable, they may also have unexpected interruptions and downtimes.
These might be raised because of server problems, Network issues or
maintenance disruptions in Cloud providers, which negative effect on
business operations, creating issues for users accessing their apps.

3. Dependency on Internet Connectivity: Cloud computing services heavily rely

on Internet connectivity. For accessing the cloud resources, the users should
have a stable and high-speed internet connection for accessing and using
cloud resources. In regions with limited internet connectivity, users may face
challenges in accessing their data and applications.

4. Cost Management Complexity: The main benefit of cloud services is their

pricing model that coming with Pay as you go but it also leads to cost
management complexities. On without proper careful monitoring and
utilization of resources optimization, Organizations may end up with
unexpected costs as per their use scale. Understanding and Controlled usage
of cloud services requires ongoing attention.

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Cloud Sustainability
The following are the some of the key points of Cloud sustainability:

 Enery Efficiency: Cloud Providers supports the optimization of data center

operations for minimizing energy consumption and improve efficiency.
 Renewable Energy: On increasing the adoption of renewable energy sources
like solar and wind power to data centers and reduce carbon emissions.
 Virtualization: Server virtualization facilitates better utilization of hardware
resources, reducing the need for physical servers and lowering the energy
consumptions.

Cloud Security
Cloud security recommended to measures and practices designed to protect
data, applications, and infrastructure in cloud computing environments. The
following are some of the best practices of cloud security:

 Data Encryption: Encryption is essential for securing data stored in the cloud.
It ensures that data remains unreadable to unauthorized users even if it is
intercepted.
 Access Control: Implementing strict access controls and authentication
mechanisms helps ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive
data and resources in the cloud.
 Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): MFA adds an extra layer of security by
requiring users to provide multiple forms of verification, such as passwords,
biometrics, or security tokens, before gaining access to cloud services.

Use Cases Of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing provides many use cases across industries and various
applications:

1. Scalable Infrastructure: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) enables

organizations to scale computing resources based on demand without
investing in physical hardware.
2. Efficient Application Development: Platform as a Service (PaaS) simplifies
application development, offering tools and environments for building,
deploying, and managing applications.

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3. Streamlined Software Access: Software as a Service (SaaS) provides
subscription-based access to software applications over the internet,
reducing the need for local installation and maintenance.
4. Data Analytics: Cloud-based platforms facilitate big data analytics, allowing
organizations to process and derive insights from large datasets efficiently.
5. Disaster Recovery: Cloud-based disaster recovery solutions offer cost-
effective data replication and backup, ensuring quick recovery in case of
system failures or disasters.

Cloud Computing – FAQs

What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud Computing is a technology that facilitates the users in accessing and
utilizing the computing resources over the internet offering scalability and
flexibility.
How does Cloud Security work?
It involves encryption, maintenance of data confidentiality guarding from
unauthorized, unwanted access with features Authentication and authorization.
What are the benefits of Cloud Deployment?
Cloud Deployment offers accessibility, scalability, and cost savings features
facilitating the organizations to focus on Innovation rather than managing the
physical infrastructure.
What is the difference between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS?
IaaS provides virtualized resources, PaaS comes up with features for the
deployment of applications, and finally, SaaS facilitates fully managed functional
software as a service over the Internet.
How can organizations ensure data compliance in the cloud?
Organizations choose cloud providers with strong security features and measures
for ensuring data compliance. Organizations use cloud providers for
implementing encryption, maintaining security measures, and supporting
industry-specific regulations.

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