PH1- Cloud Concepts Overview

Prelim Handout 01

Refers to the on-demand delivery of computing resources over the internet using a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Cloud computing

What organizations obtain from a cloud service provider whenever they are needed, instead of purchasing and maintaining their own servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and software.

Computing resources

Who owns, operates, and maintains the underlying infrastructure while customers access the services through the internet.

The cloud service provider

The cloud computing resources listed in the handout.

Compute power, storage, databases, networking, applications, and other IT services

Where cloud computing resources are hosted.

Large data centers located around the world

Because the infrastructure already exists, what organizations can do within minutes instead of waiting weeks or months to purchase, install, and configure physical equipment.

Provision resources

What cloud resources function as, that can be combined to create solutions that satisfy different business and technological requirements.

Building blocks

What cloud computing allows organizations to pay only for, unlike traditional IT environments.

The resources they actually use

What this pricing model minimizes while providing the flexibility to increase or decrease computing resources as business demands change.

Unnecessary spending

How traditional IT infrastructure is commonly viewed.

Physical hardware that organizations purchase, install, maintain, and eventually replace

What cloud computing allows infrastructure to be managed as, rather than hardware.

Software

A benefit of thinking of infrastructure as software regarding when resources can be created.

Resources can be created whenever they are needed

A benefit of thinking of infrastructure as software regarding modification speed.

Infrastructure can be modified within minutes

A benefit of thinking of infrastructure as software regarding scaling.

Computing resources can automatically scale up or down according to demand

A benefit of thinking of infrastructure as software regarding unneeded resources.

Resources that are no longer required can be terminated immediately

What this software-driven approach enables organizations to focus more on, instead of spending time procuring, installing, maintaining, and upgrading physical equipment.

Developing applications and achieving business goals

Routine administrative tasks cloud computing eliminates, according to the handout.

Hardware procurement, capacity planning, and infrastructure maintenance

The infrastructure organizations relied primarily on before cloud computing became widely available.

On-premises infrastructure

Where hardware components are installed in the traditional on-premises model.

Company-owned or leased data centers

The responsibilities involved in operating an on-premises environment, according to the handout.

Purchasing hardware, allocating physical space, providing physical security, hiring technical personnel, planning future capacity requirements, performing maintenance and upgrades, and replacing aging equipment

What happens if demand is overestimated when purchasing on-premises hardware.

Expensive resources remain unused

What happens if demand exceeds available capacity in the on-premises model.

Additional hardware must be purchased and deployed, resulting in delays and increased costs

The example the handout gives of an organization launching a new website under the traditional model, which may take weeks or months.

Purchasing servers, installing them in a data center, configuring the necessary software, and continuously maintaining the infrastructure

What the cloud computing model treats IT infrastructure as, unlike the traditional computing model.

Software

Cloud resources given as examples that can be provisioned, configured, and terminated whenever they are needed.

Virtual servers, storage, databases, and networking services

One of the defining characteristics of the cloud computing model, its ability to provide resources this way.

On demand

Routine infrastructure management tasks handled by the cloud service provider under the cloud computing model.

Hardware procurement, equipment maintenance, and capacity planning

What cloud service models define, shared between the cloud service provider and the customer.

The level of responsibility

The three primary cloud service models AWS identifies.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS)

IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service

Provides the fundamental building blocks of cloud computing, including virtual servers, networking resources, and data storage.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

In this model, customers have the highest level of control over their computing resources because they are responsible for managing operating systems, applications, and data.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

What the cloud provider manages in the IaaS model, while customers manage operating systems, applications, and data.

The underlying physical infrastructure

PaaS

Platform as a Service

Provides a ready-to-use development platform where developers can build, test, deploy, and manage applications without maintaining the underlying infrastructure.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

What the cloud provider manages in the PaaS model, allowing developers to focus primarily on application development and deployment.

The hardware, operating systems, and supporting software

SaaS

Software as a Service

Delivers fully functional software applications over the internet.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

What the cloud service provider manages in the SaaS model, while users simply access the software through a web browser or client application.

The application, infrastructure, maintenance, and updates

The cloud service model that provides the simplest experience from the customer's perspective, since users do not need to install, maintain, or update the software themselves.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Common examples of SaaS applications given in the handout.

Web-based email services

What cloud deployment models describe, and how they are accessed.

Where computing resources are deployed

The three primary deployment models AWS identifies.

Cloud, Hybrid, and On-Premises (Private Cloud)

In this deployment model, applications and services are fully deployed in the cloud, running entirely within the cloud provider's infrastructure.

Cloud

Combines cloud resources with existing on-premises infrastructure, enabling organizations to extend their existing systems into the cloud while maintaining selected resources within their own facilities.

Hybrid

When hybrid deployments are commonly used, according to the handout.

When organizations need to gradually migrate systems or integrate cloud services with existing business applications

Keeps computing resources within the organization's own facilities while using virtualization and resource management technologies.

On-Premises (Private Cloud)

What this deployment model does not offer many of, despite providing greater control over infrastructure, closely resembling traditional IT environments.

On-Premises (Private Cloud) - flexibility and scalability benefits

IAM

Identity and Access Management

The AWS security capabilities comparable to administrators, firewalls, and access control lists used in traditional data centers.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), security groups, and network access control lists (Network ACLs)

The AWS compute service that functions similarly to physical servers.

Amazon EC2

EBS

Elastic Block Store

EFS

Elastic File System

The AWS storage and database services comparable to those used in on-premises environments.

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), and Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)

The number of key advantages of cloud computing AWS identifies.

Six

CapEx

Capital Expenditures

OpEx

Operational Expenses

The type of expense traditional IT environments require organizations to make by purchasing servers, networking equipment, storage devices, and other infrastructure before deploying applications.

Capital expenditures (CapEx)

The advantage of cloud computing that replaces large capital investments with variable operational expenses (OpEx).

Trade Capital Expense for Variable Expense

The advantage of cloud computing where providers such as AWS operate data centers serving millions of customers, allowing enormous-quantity hardware purchases that reduce cost.

Benefit from Massive Economies of Scale

How cost savings from massive economies of scale are passed on to customers.

Through lower service prices than most organizations could achieve if they managed their own infrastructure

A challenge of traditional infrastructure involving estimating future resource requirements before purchasing hardware.

Stop Guessing Capacity

The problem where organizations purchase more resources than necessary, leaving expensive equipment underutilized.

Overprovisioning

The problem where insufficient resources lead to reduced system performance, service interruptions, or additional purchases to meet increasing demand.

Underprovisioning

The advantage of cloud computing that allows organizations to adjust computing resources whenever demand changes, addressing over/underprovisioning.

Stop Guessing Capacity

The advantage of cloud computing that significantly shortens the deployment cycle, allowing servers, databases, storage, and networking services to be provisioned within minutes.

Increase Speed and Agility

What increase Speed and Agility enables organizations to respond faster to.

Customer needs, market opportunities, and technological changes

The advantage of cloud computing where cloud providers assume responsibility for maintaining the underlying infrastructure, reducing the time and financial resources devoted to operating data centers.

Stop Spending Money Running and Maintaining Data Centers

What operating a physical data center requires continuous investment in, according to the handout.

Facilities, utilities, and personnel

The advantage of cloud computing that enables organizations to deploy applications in multiple regions around the world using existing cloud provider infrastructure.

Go Global in Minutes

What global deployment improves, because applications can be distributed across multiple geographic regions.

Service availability

A piece of software that makes itself available over the internet or through a private network, enabling different applications to communicate.

A web service

API

Application Programming Interface

What a web service enables different applications to do by exchanging request and response messages through an API.

Communicate

XML

Extensible Markup Language

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation

The standardized formats web services use when sending and receiving information.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) or JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)

Because these formats are widely supported, what a web service is not limited to.

A specific operating system or programming language

What a web service is, through an interface definition file, that can be discovered by other applications that need to use its functions.

Self-describing

A secure cloud platform that provides a broad collection of global cloud-based products called services.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

What AWS services give customers on-demand access to, together with tools for managing them.

Compute, storage, networking, databases, and other IT resources

What AWS resources can be, and launched immediately, instead of waiting for physical equipment.

Provisioned

What AWS environments can also be, to support changing business requirements.

Reconfigured and scaled

What AWS services are designed to work together like, allowing customers to combine different services.

Building blocks

The common AWS service categories listed in the handout.

Compute, Storage, Database, Networking and Content Delivery, Security Identity and Compliance, Management and Governance, Analytics, Machine Learning, Developer Tools, Migration and Transfer, and Cost Management

What the availability of many AWS service categories enables customers to do.

Choose only the resources required for a particular solution

VPC

Virtual Private Cloud

The AWS service that provides the virtual network where the services operate, in the handout's simple solution example.

Amazon VPC

The AWS service that receives and processes customer data, in the handout's simple solution example.

Amazon EC2

The AWS service that stores an object for each customer, in the handout's simple solution example.

Amazon S3

The AWS service that creates an index for locating stored objects, in the handout's simple solution example.

Amazon DynamoDB

The type of database service Amazon DynamoDB is described as in the handout.

A nonrelational database service

The category to which Amazon VPC belongs.

Networking

The category to which Amazon EC2 belongs.

Compute

The category to which Amazon S3 belongs.

Storage

The category to which Amazon DynamoDB belongs.

Database

The AWS compute service example requirement described as 'complete control over AWS computing resources.'

Amazon EC2

The AWS compute service example requirement described as 'run code without managing or provisioning servers.'

AWS Lambda

The AWS compute service example requirement described as 'deploy, manage, and scale web applications.'

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

The AWS compute service example requirement described as 'use a lightweight cloud platform for a simple web application.'

Amazon Lightsail