Terms and Technologies of Cloud Computing

In some previous posts, we told you about some basics of Cloud Computing and some interesting facts about Cloud Computing. Well that is just not enough, to go on with this new technology. Cloud Computing seems to be simple like getting your personal storage space, storing data there and sharing it with others easily.

Cloud computing is only a different way to deliver computer resources, rather than a new technology, it has sparked a revolution in the way organizations provide information and service. The flexibility of Cloud Computing is a function of the allocation of resources on demand. This facilitates the use of the system’s cumulative resources, negating the need to assign specific hardware to a task. With the advent of Cloud computing, the resources are used as an aggregated Virtual Computer rather than websites and server-based applications executed on specific systems.

See Also: 36 Fascinating Facts about Cloud Computing

Although Cloud Computing is similar to primitive IT mainframes, but it is different from it in many ways and every new technology has its own new language. While working with any new technology it is very important to have a good knowledge of its terms and terminologies.

Let’s have a look at some of the important terms and terminologies of it:

1. Software as a Service –

Software as Service is a software distribution model in which a third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to customers over the internet. It is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted.

2. Platform as a Service –

Platform as a Service is a cloud computing model that delivers applications over the Internet. This delivery model represents a pre-defined “ready-to-use” environment typically comprised of already deployed and configured IT resources. A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure. PaaS relies on the usage of a ready-made environment that establishes a set of pre-packages products and tools used to support the entire delivery lifecycle of custom applications.

3. Infrastructure as a Service –

Infrastructure as a Service is a form of cloud computing that provides virtualized computing resources over the Internet. In an IaaS model, a third-party provider hosts hardware, software, servers, storage and other infrastructure components on behalf of its users. IasS providers also host users’ applications and handle tasks including system maintenance, backup and resiliency planning.

4. Public Cloud –

A public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which a service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the internet. A public cloud is what is thought of as the cloud in the usual sense; that is resources dynamically provisioned over the internet using web applications from an off-site third-party provider that supplies shared resources and bills on a utility computing basis.

See Also:Best Offline Data Cleaning Tools

5. Private Cloud –

Private Cloud exist within your company’s firewall and are managed by your organization. They are cloud services you create and control within your enterprise. Private cloud enable an organization to use cloud computing technology as a means of centralizing access to IT resources by different parts , locations, or departments of the organization. Private Clouds provide a dedicated instance of these services for your exclusive use and, as a result, can be secured and accessed privately.

6. Hybrid Cloud –

Hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment which uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third party, public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms. Management responsibilities are divided between the public cloud provider and the business itself. Using a hybrid cloud, organizations can determine the objectives and requirements of the services to be created and obtain them based on the most suitable alternative.

7. Community Cloud –

A community cloud is similar to a public cloud except that its access is limited to a specific community of cloud consumers. The community cloud may be jointly owned by the community members or a third party cloud provider that provisions a public cloud with limited access. The member cloud consumers of the community typically share the responsibility for defining and evolving the community cloud.

8. Personal Cloud Storage –

Personal Cloud storage is an online web service that provides server space for individuals to store data, photos, videos and other files. Many service providers offer a limited amount of personal cloud storage space for free, hoping that once the customer feels comfortable with the service, he will purchase additional space to back up or archive files.

9. External Cloud –

An external cloud is a cloud solution that exists outside of an organization’s physical boundaries. It can be private, public or community-based, as long as it is not located on an organization’s property. An external cloud is similar to a public cloud, but they differ in implementation.

An external cloud involves sourcing any available cloud solution to be used in connection with internal cloud or IT infrastructure resources for virtually any business need. An external cloud can have various forms of delivery. In terms of a proprietary external cloud, an organization might install and host its physical servers at a cloud vendor co-location facility.

10. Vertical Cloud –

A vertical cloud, or vertical cloud computing, is the phrase used to describe the optimization of cloud computing and cloud services for a particular vertical (e.g., a specific industry) or specific application use. The cloud provider will offer specialized functions and options that best meet industry-use and specifications. Today the health care cloud is one of the more well-established vertical clouds. Vertical clouds enable organizations to provision or build applications that are designed having functionality, resources and other application-specific requirements ideally suited for their needs.

11. Virtual Private Cloud –

A virtual private cloud is an on-demand configurable pool of shared computing resources allocated within a public cloud environment, providing a certain level of isolation between the different organizations using the resources.

Just as a virtual private network (VPN) provides secure data transfer over the public Internet, a Virtual Private Cloud provides secure data transfer between a private enterprise and a public cloud provider. It ensures that each customer’s data remains isolated from every other customer’s data both in transit and inside the cloud provider’s network.

12. Cloud Burst –

Cloud bursting is a technique used by hybrid clouds to provide additional resources to private clouds on an as-needed basis. If the private cloud has the processing power to handle its workloads, the hybrid cloud is not used. It is what happens when your cloud has an outage or security breach and your data is unavailable. The term cloudburst is being used in two meanings, negative and positive:

1. Cloudburst (negative): The failure of a cloud computing environment due to inability to handle a spike in demand.
2. Cloudburst (positive): The dynamic deployment of a software application that runs on internal organizational compute resources to a public cloud to address a spike in demand.

I have listed some very basic terms of Cloud Computing in this blog. Cloud computing can provide organizations with the means and methods needed to ensure financial stability and high quality service. And for that it is very important to know this new language. I would soon write about some more technical terms of Cloud Computing in the subsequent blog.