Cloud Computing

cloud computing

replacing computing resources – either organization’s or individual’s hardware or software – with services provided over the Internet

• aws, microsoft azure, and google cloud are leaders

cloud computing IS a strategic technology

Gartner defines a strategic technology as one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next 3 years.

Factors that denote significant impact include

(1) high potential for disruption to IT or the business

(2) the need for a major $ investment

(3) the risk of being late to adopt

drivers of cloud computing

1. hedge against uncertainty

2. data deluge: law of mass digital storage

3. market leaders and the ecosystem

4. the feds

on-demand self-service; pay-as-you-go (1/5 attributes)

consumer can provision computing capabilities (server time, network storage) automatically without human interaction with each service’s provider

• get resources right neow!

ubiquitous network access; anywhere, any device (2/5 attributes)

capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin/thick platforms (mobile phones, laptops, PDAs)

resource-pooling; multi-tenancy (3/5 attributes)

computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers w a multi-tenant model

• diff physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned according to consumer demand

location independence - customer has no control over the location of the provided reources

efficient elasticity (4/5 attributes)

servers can be scaled out or in depending on usage and demand

• optimize the space you use and make it more cost-effective

• imagine empty servers being cut, or new servers being added to account for demand

measured/metered service (5/5 attribute)

resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported

• transparency between provider and consumer of service

• “pay-per-use” like an electricity bill

private cloud (1/3 deployment model)

cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization

may be managed by the organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise

ex) personal company’s software

public cloud (2/3 deployment model)

cloud infrastructure is available to public or large industry group

owned by an organization selling cloud services

ex) AWS, Google, Microsoft

hybrid cloud (3/3 deployment model)

cloud infrastructure is a composition of 2+ clouds

• private, community, public

• unique entities, bound together by standardized/proprietary tech that enables data and application portability

  • cloud bursting, load-balancing between clouds

challenges for deployment methods

1. security

2. availability/outages

3. privacy

4. governance

5. acceptance

6. exit strategy: provider lock-in/portability