Cloud Computing
In many ways, cloud computing is simply a metaphor for the internet, the increasing movement of computer and data resources onto the web. But there’s a difference: cloud computing represents a new tipping point for the value of network computing. It delivers higher efficiency, massive scalability, and faster, easier software development. It’s about new programming models, new IT infrastructure, and the enabling of new business models.
>Cloud Computing Defined
‘’It’s one of the foundations of the next generation of computing….It’s a world where the network is the platform for all computing, where every thing we think of as a computer to day is just a device that connects to the big computer we’re building. Cloud computing is a great way to think about how we’ll deliver computer services in the future.’’
-(Tim O’Reilly, CEO, O’Reilly Media)
-The rise of the cloud is more than just another platform shift that gets geeks excited. It will undoubtedly transform the IT industry, but it will also profoundly change the way people work and companies operate.
>Why Cloud Computing ?
– Faster , more flexible programming .
– Business Agility – Maximize return .
– IT Efficiency – Minimize costs .
>How Did Cloud Computing Start ?
Cloud computing began as large-scale internet service providers such as Google, Amazon, and others built out their infrastructure. An architecture emerged: massively scaled, horizontally distributed system resources, abstracted as virtual IT services and managed as continuously configured, pooled resources. This architectural model was immortalized by George Gilder in his October 2006 Wired magazine article titled ‘’The Information Factories.’’ The server farms Gilder wrote about were technical computing applications, this new cloud model was being applied to internet services.
>The Architectural Services Layers of Cloud Computing :
While the first revolution of the internet saw the three-tier (or n-tier) model emerges as a general architecture, the use of virtualization in clouds has created a new set of layers: applications, services, and infrastructure. These layers don’t just encapsulate on-demand resources, they also define a new application development model. And within each layer of abstraction there are myriad business opportunities for defining services that can be offered on a pay-per-use basis.
>Virtualization
Virtualization is a cornerstone design technique for all cloud architectures. In cloud computing it refers primarily to platform virtualization, or the abstraction of physical IT resources from the people and applications using them. Virtualization allows servers, storage devices, and other hardware to be treated as a pool of resources rather than discrete systems, so that these resources can be allocated on demand. In cloud computing, we’re interested in techniques such as paravirtualization, which allows a single server to be treated as multiple virtual servers, and clustering, which allows multiple servers to be treated as a single server.
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