Cloud Computing:
In simple language Cloud computing (CC) is the delivery of computing service which includes servers, storage, databases. networking, software, analytics and intelligence over the internet. This is a broad concept which covers the different domain of technologies on both hardware and software. So It can also be technological advancement focusing on design of commuting systems, development of different applications and leverage existing services for building software. I am going to describe Core features of cloud computing.
Core Features of Cloud Computing
No up-front commitments:
Cloud computing doesn’t require up-front commitment from the user. Users can just use infrastructure, platform and software as per requirement. They don’t have to worry what’s happening behind the scene.
On-demand access:
Cloud computing services can be used according to the user demand. For example, any user data analytics company uses amazon EMR or EC2 cluster for Hadoop data processing. Then user turn on the cluster when he/she need them, and he/she pay the money for the time period he/she have used and when his/her work is done, he/she terminate the cluster.
Nice pricing:
Cloud computing services are cheap with nice prices in case of some services and infrastructure we use. We can realize this even more when we talk about big data. For example, Company needs to process 100 Terabytes of data then their cost to build infrastructure and maintenance will be higher in comparison to using cloud computing services.
Simplified application acceleration:
Cloud computing services have different applications which can be accelerated in an easy manner without complex procedures.
scalability and elasticity:
This is one of the most important features of cloud computing services. If we are using azure services and we are sort of memory and processor then we can scale them as per demand without affecting current services which is really hard to do in our own system.
Efficient resource allocation:
Efficient resource allocation is also an important feature that helps to allocate resources efficiently. For example, we are using multiple instances of cluster for the data processing then resources will be allocated efficiently so that none processor and memory remain idle for a longer time.
Energy efficiency:
Cloud computing services and infrastructure are energy efficient in the sense that use of energy is less if everyone wants to keep those servers 24 hrs. up.
Seamless creation and use of third-party services:
Cloud computing helps in seamless creation and use of third-party services. For example, AWS provides EMR Hadoop clusters easily, so we don’t have to put much effort on creation. Similar for the Apache Spark engine in Microsoft azure.
References: Mastering Cloud computing book
