The term cloud is usually used to represent the internet but it is not just restricted to the Internet. It is virtual storage where the data is stored in third-party data centers. Storing, managing, and accessing data present in the cloud is typically referred to as cloud computing. It is a model for distributing information technology in order to gain access to resources from the internet without depending on a direct connection with the server. It uses various web-based tools, and applications to easily receive resources.
Accessing resources over the internet makes these resources available anytime and anywhere thereby allowing the user to work remotely. In general, cloud computing is nothing but the use of computing resources such as hardware and software that are distributed as services across the network. It centralizes the data storage, processing, and bandwidth which in turn provides efficient computing to the user. The services are made available by a cloud vendor based on pay-per-use.
In order to serve large computing resources for solving a single problem, the concept of computing escalated from grid computing to cloud computing. This computing makes use of potential ideas of computing power in the form of utility. The main differences between grid and cloud are that the former substantiates the use of multiple computers concurrently for solving a specific application. On the other hand, cloud computing substantiates the use of multiple resources which includes computing resources in order to serve unified service to the end-user.
Typically, cloud computing holds IT and business resources including servers storage, network, applications, and processes. It provides the user needs and workload dynamically. Apart from supporting the grid, the cloud also supports a non-grid environment including three-tier web architecture.
Basic Principle of Cloud Computing:
- Federation: A cloud computing environment must be capable of providing federated service providers which means that, these providers, must be capable of collaborating and resource sharing at any point irrespective of their type. This is usually needed when an organization extends its computing paradigm from the private to the public cloud. Moreover, This federation must be kept transparent so that the virtual application can be used on all the sites. This makes the application be handled remotely and allows it to migrate from one site to another. Apart from this, the federation must be carried out in a secure and independent way.
- Independence: The user of cloud computing services must be independent of the provider’s specific tool and the type of service. According to this principle, a user must be allowed the required virtual resource irrespective of the type of provider. Moreover, it is the responsibility of service providers to handle infrastructure while hiding confidential information.
- Isolation: According to this principle, a service provider must ensure the user with respect to the isolation of their data from others. Even the data in the same cloud must be separated from different users and therefore should not be accessed.
- Elasticity: The user of cloud computing must be provided with ease of accessing and releasing the resources as required. This is typically referred to as elasticity. The rules associated with elasticity must be included within the contract made between consumers and services providers.
- Business Orientation: To develop a more efficient computing environment, an efficient platform must be developed before the applications are included in the cloud. This typically ensures the quality of services and assist SLA (Service-Level-Agreement).
- Trust: To build a successful cloud computing environment, one of the major factors is trust between consumers and service providers. Therefore, effective mechanisms must be included to develop a trustworthy computing environment.