Cloud computing, a quick tour or article for a boss
In my work, I very often come across the fact that I have to do brief reviews of IT technologies for a boss, colleagues, etc. This information is usually written into an article and answers the following questions:
- why "this" is better than "that" (specially written impersonal, since such a question is asked very often and on various topics related to IT and not only);
- what are the advantages and disadvantages in the transition to “that” or “this”;
- how best to do that ... and others.
The problem is that writing a short article on “this” or “that” is inevitable, although it is much faster to explain than to type the text, but the text is necessary and nothing can be done about it, and so sorry is the time that is priceless and runs off every second. I think that I’m not the only one who is faced with such a problem, so I propose to start a section called “To the head of help” in which we will publish articles of this kind (especially since they will be written by you anyway), thereby saving time and helping each other. At one point, they will contact you with such a question, and it is possible that someone has already written the answer to this question and it will be easier to write an article or simply throw off a link to an already written one, saving valuable time.
So let's get started. The question with which I was addressed was as follows. “Why is cloud computing better than the classic network infrastructure design, what is the main reason many organizations are“ moving to the clouds ”?” Further, my thoughts on this matter.
')
In order to understand the “clouds”, I decided to start with the history of this issue and to understand whether this is really something from the category of new ideas or is it a long-standing idea that could not be implemented previously.
The first idea of ​​what we call cloud computing today was voiced by JCR Licklider in 1970. During these years he was responsible for creating the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). His idea was that every person on earth would be connected to the network, from which he would receive not only data on and programs. Another scientist, John McCarthy, expressed the idea that computing power would be provided to users as a service (service). On this development of cloud technologies was suspended until the 90s, after which a number of factors contributed to its development.
1. The expansion of the Internet bandwidth in the 90s did not allow for a significant jump in the development of cloud technology, since almost no company technology at that time was ready for it. However, the very fact of speeding up the Internet gave impetus to the speedy development of cloud computing.
2. One of the most significant events in this area was the emergence of Salesforce.com in 1999. This company was the first company to provide access to its application through the site, in fact, this company was the first company to provide its software on the principle - software as a service (SaaS).
3. The next step was the development of a cloud web service by Amazon in 2002. This service allows you to store information and make calculations.
4. In 2006, Amazon launched a service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2), as a web service that allowed its users to launch their own applications. Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 services are the first available cloud computing services.
5. Another milestone in the development of cloud computing occurred after Google created the Google Apps platform for web applications in the business sector.
6. A significant role in the development of cloud technologies was played by virtualization technologies, in particular, software allowing the creation of a virtual infrastructure.
7. The development of hardware has contributed not so much to the rapid growth of cloud technologies, as the availability of this technology for small businesses and individuals. With regard to technical progress, the creation of multi-core processors and an increase in the capacity of information storage devices played a significant role in this.
Wikipedia gives the following definition of cloud computing. Cloud computing (eng. Cloud computing) is a distributed data processing technology in which computer resources and capacities are provided to the user as an Internet service. Providing the user with services like the Internet service is key. However, under the Internet service it is not necessary to understand access to the service only through the Internet, it can also be carried out through a normal local area network using web technologies.
From the definition and history it is clear that the basis for the creation and rapid development of cloud computing systems were large Internet services such as Google, Amazon, etc., as well as technological progress, which essentially means that the appearance of cloud computing was just a matter of time . Let us consider in what way the development of the above areas allowed cloud systems to become more accessible.
1. The development of multi-core processors has led to:
- increase in productivity, with the same equipment size;
- reducing the cost of equipment, as a result of operating costs;
- reduction of power consumption of the cloud system, for most data centers this is really a problem when increasing the capacity of the data center.
2. The increase in storage capacity of the media, reducing the cost of storing 1 MB of information allowed:
- infinitely (at least as most of the "clouds" position themselves) to increase the volume of stored information;
- reduce the cost of maintaining storage of information, significantly increasing the amount of stored data.
3. The development of multi-threaded programming technology has led to:
- efficient use of computing resources of multiprocessor systems;
- flexible distribution of cloud computing power.
4. The development of virtualization technologies has led to:
- the creation of software that allows you to create a virtual infrastructure, regardless of the amount of hardware resources provided;
- ease of scaling, building systems;
- reducing the cost of administering cloud systems;
- availability of virtual infrastructure via the Internet.
5. Increased bandwidth led to:
- increase the speed of work with cloud systems, in particular, a virtual graphical interface and work with virtual information carriers;
- reducing the cost of Internet traffic to work with large volumes of information;
- penetration of cloud computing to the masses.
All of the above factors have led to increased competitiveness of cloud computing in the IT sector.
accessibility - clouds are available to everyone, from anywhere where there is Internet, from any computer where there is a browser. This allows users (enterprises) to save on the purchase of high-performance, expensive computers. Also, employees of companies are becoming more mobile as they can access their workplace from anywhere in the world using a laptop, netbook, tablet or smartphone. There is no need to purchase licensed software, its settings and updates, you just go to the service and use its services paying for actual use.
low cost - the main factors that reduce the cost of using the clouds are the following:
- reducing the cost of servicing the virtual infrastructure caused by the development of virtualization technologies, due to which less staff is required to service the entire IT infrastructure of the enterprise;
- payment of the actual use of resources, the user of the cloud pays for the actual use of the computing power of the cloud, which allows him to effectively distribute his money. This allows users (enterprises) to save on the purchase of licenses to software;
- the use of a cloud on a leasehold basis allows users to reduce the cost of purchasing expensive equipment, and to focus on investing money in setting up the business processes of the enterprise, which in turn makes it easy to start a business;
- the development of the hardware of computing systems, and therefore the reduction in the cost of equipment.
flexibility - unlimited computing resources (memory, processor, disks), through the use of virtualization systems, the process of scaling and administering the "clouds" becomes quite an easy task, because the "cloud" alone can provide you with the resources you need, and you only pay for their actual use.
reliability - the reliability of “clouds”, especially located in specially equipped data centers, is very high, as such data centers have backup power sources, security, professional workers, regular data backup, high bandwidth of the Internet channel, high resistance to DDOS attacks.
Security - “cloud” services have sufficiently high security with proper security, however, with a negligent attitude, the effect may be completely opposite.
Large computational power - you as a user of a “cloud” system can use all of its computational capabilities, paying only for the actual time of use. Businesses can use this feature to analyze large amounts of data.
Permanent connection to the network - to access the cloud service, you need a permanent connection to the Internet. However, nowadays this is not such a big disadvantage, especially with the advent of 3G and 4G cellular technologies.
software and its customization - there are restrictions on software that can be deployed on the "clouds" and provide it to the user. The software user has limitations in the software being used and sometimes does not have the ability to customize it for his own purposes.
confidentiality - the confidentiality of data stored in public “clouds” is currently a lot of controversy, but in most cases, experts agree that it is not recommended to store the most valuable documents for a company in a public “cloud”, as there is currently no technology that would guarantee 100% confidentiality of stored data.
reliability - with regard to the reliability of stored information, we can say with confidence that if you have lost information stored in the “cloud”, then you have lost it forever.
Security - the “cloud” is in itself a fairly reliable system, but when it penetrates, the attacker gains access to a huge data warehouse. Another disadvantage is the use of virtualization systems in which standard operating systems such as Linux, Windows, etc. are used as the hypervisor, which allows the use of viruses.
high cost of equipment - to build a company’s own cloud, it is necessary to allocate significant material resources, which is not beneficial for newly created and small companies.
As for the services provided, at present, the concept of cloud computing involves the provision of the following types of services to its users:
- everything as a service (Everything as a Service);
With this type of service, the user will be provided with everything from software and hardware to business process management, including interaction between users, the user is only required to have access to the Internet. In my opinion, this type of service is a more general concept in relation to the following services, which are more special cases.
- infrastructure as a service (Infrastructure as a service);
The user is provided with a computer infrastructure, usually virtual platforms (computers) connected to the network. Which he independently adjusts to his own goals.
- platform as a service (Platform as a service);
The user is provided with a computer platform, with the installed operating system, possibly with a software one.
- software as a service (Software as a service);
This type of service is usually positioned as “software on demand”, this software is deployed on remote servers and the user can access it via the Internet, and all issues of updating and licenses for this software are regulated by the provider of this service. Payment in this case is made for the actual use of the software.
- hardware as a service (Hardware as a Service);
In this case, the user of the service is provided with equipment, on loan that he can use for his own purposes. This option allows you to save on the maintenance of this equipment, although in essence it is not much different from the type of the Infrastructure as a Service service, except that you have bare equipment on the basis of which you deploy your own infrastructure using the most suitable software.
- workplace as a service (Workplace as a Service);
In this case, the company uses cloud computing to organize the workplaces of its employees by setting up and installing all the necessary software necessary for the work of the staff.
- data as a service (Data as a Service);
The main idea of ​​this type of service is that the user is provided with disk space, which he can use to store large amounts of information.
- security as a service (Security as a Service).
This type of service provides users with the ability to quickly deploy products to ensure the safe use of web technologies, the security of electronic correspondence, and the security of the local system, which allows users of this service to save on deploying and maintaining their own security system.
Currently, there are three categories of "clouds":
1. Public;
2. Private;
3. Hybrid.
A public cloud is an IT infrastructure used simultaneously by many companies and services. Users of cloud data do not have the ability to manage and maintain this cloud, all responsibility for these issues lies with the owner of the cloud. Any company and individual user can become a subscriber of the offered services. They offer an easy and affordable way to deploy web sites or business systems, with great scalability, which other solutions would not have. Examples: online services Amazon EC2 and Simple Storage Service (S3), Google Apps / Docs, Salesforce.com, Microsoft Office Web.
A private cloud is a secure IT infrastructure that is monitored and operated for the benefit of a single organization. An organization can manage a private cloud on its own or outsource this task to an external contractor. The infrastructure can be located either in the customer’s premises, or with an external operator, or partly with the customer and partly with the operator. The ideal private cloud is a cloud deployed on the territory of the organization, serviced and controlled by its employees.
Hybrid cloud is an IT infrastructure that uses the best qualities of a public and private cloud when solving an assigned task. Often, this type of clouds is used when an organization has seasonal periods of activity; in other words, as soon as the internal IT infrastructure fails to cope with current tasks, a part of the capacity is transferred to the public cloud (for example, large amounts of statistical information that in their raw form do not represent value for the enterprise ), as well as to provide users with access to enterprise resources (to the private cloud) through a public cloud.
According to experts, the potential of cloud computing is very high. And accordingly, it will be possible to get into this stream and snip off its part by working in the following directions:
1. The provision of cloud computing services - this opportunity is not available to many companies, so significant investments are needed in the construction and development of the data center.
2. Development of software for building a virtual infrastructure, we should not forget about those who will implement and customize this software, that is, they will need specialists in this field.
3. Outsourcing, administration of clouds - you will need specialists in administration and consulting in the field of cloud computing.
4. Hardware - companies engaged in the development and design of hardware for creating "clouds".
5. Design - this area covers almost all of the above areas, from the design of the data center to the design of software.
In my opinion in the future, cloud computing will become more accessible to users and companies. This will be caused by a number of factors:
- hardware virtualization - improving cloud computing performance;
- reduced power consumption of hardware; - reduced power consumption;
- increase in speeds - the throughput of network equipment is constantly increasing, which increases productivity and reduces the amount of equipment with the same channel.
With this, I finish my story. I hope that it will help you and your colleagues and bosses in mastering cloud computing. If there are comments and suggestions on the idea expressed above and on the text, write an answer.
- why "this" is better than "that" (specially written impersonal, since such a question is asked very often and on various topics related to IT and not only);
- what are the advantages and disadvantages in the transition to “that” or “this”;
- how best to do that ... and others.
The problem is that writing a short article on “this” or “that” is inevitable, although it is much faster to explain than to type the text, but the text is necessary and nothing can be done about it, and so sorry is the time that is priceless and runs off every second. I think that I’m not the only one who is faced with such a problem, so I propose to start a section called “To the head of help” in which we will publish articles of this kind (especially since they will be written by you anyway), thereby saving time and helping each other. At one point, they will contact you with such a question, and it is possible that someone has already written the answer to this question and it will be easier to write an article or simply throw off a link to an already written one, saving valuable time.
So let's get started. The question with which I was addressed was as follows. “Why is cloud computing better than the classic network infrastructure design, what is the main reason many organizations are“ moving to the clouds ”?” Further, my thoughts on this matter.
')
Why cloud computing?
In order to understand the “clouds”, I decided to start with the history of this issue and to understand whether this is really something from the category of new ideas or is it a long-standing idea that could not be implemented previously.
History and key development factors
The first idea of ​​what we call cloud computing today was voiced by JCR Licklider in 1970. During these years he was responsible for creating the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). His idea was that every person on earth would be connected to the network, from which he would receive not only data on and programs. Another scientist, John McCarthy, expressed the idea that computing power would be provided to users as a service (service). On this development of cloud technologies was suspended until the 90s, after which a number of factors contributed to its development.
1. The expansion of the Internet bandwidth in the 90s did not allow for a significant jump in the development of cloud technology, since almost no company technology at that time was ready for it. However, the very fact of speeding up the Internet gave impetus to the speedy development of cloud computing.
2. One of the most significant events in this area was the emergence of Salesforce.com in 1999. This company was the first company to provide access to its application through the site, in fact, this company was the first company to provide its software on the principle - software as a service (SaaS).
3. The next step was the development of a cloud web service by Amazon in 2002. This service allows you to store information and make calculations.
4. In 2006, Amazon launched a service called Elastic Compute cloud (EC2), as a web service that allowed its users to launch their own applications. Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3 services are the first available cloud computing services.
5. Another milestone in the development of cloud computing occurred after Google created the Google Apps platform for web applications in the business sector.
6. A significant role in the development of cloud technologies was played by virtualization technologies, in particular, software allowing the creation of a virtual infrastructure.
7. The development of hardware has contributed not so much to the rapid growth of cloud technologies, as the availability of this technology for small businesses and individuals. With regard to technical progress, the creation of multi-core processors and an increase in the capacity of information storage devices played a significant role in this.
Cloudy calculations for now.
Wikipedia gives the following definition of cloud computing. Cloud computing (eng. Cloud computing) is a distributed data processing technology in which computer resources and capacities are provided to the user as an Internet service. Providing the user with services like the Internet service is key. However, under the Internet service it is not necessary to understand access to the service only through the Internet, it can also be carried out through a normal local area network using web technologies.
From the definition and history it is clear that the basis for the creation and rapid development of cloud computing systems were large Internet services such as Google, Amazon, etc., as well as technological progress, which essentially means that the appearance of cloud computing was just a matter of time . Let us consider in what way the development of the above areas allowed cloud systems to become more accessible.
1. The development of multi-core processors has led to:
- increase in productivity, with the same equipment size;
- reducing the cost of equipment, as a result of operating costs;
- reduction of power consumption of the cloud system, for most data centers this is really a problem when increasing the capacity of the data center.
2. The increase in storage capacity of the media, reducing the cost of storing 1 MB of information allowed:
- infinitely (at least as most of the "clouds" position themselves) to increase the volume of stored information;
- reduce the cost of maintaining storage of information, significantly increasing the amount of stored data.
3. The development of multi-threaded programming technology has led to:
- efficient use of computing resources of multiprocessor systems;
- flexible distribution of cloud computing power.
4. The development of virtualization technologies has led to:
- the creation of software that allows you to create a virtual infrastructure, regardless of the amount of hardware resources provided;
- ease of scaling, building systems;
- reducing the cost of administering cloud systems;
- availability of virtual infrastructure via the Internet.
5. Increased bandwidth led to:
- increase the speed of work with cloud systems, in particular, a virtual graphical interface and work with virtual information carriers;
- reducing the cost of Internet traffic to work with large volumes of information;
- penetration of cloud computing to the masses.
All of the above factors have led to increased competitiveness of cloud computing in the IT sector.
The merits of cloud computing
accessibility - clouds are available to everyone, from anywhere where there is Internet, from any computer where there is a browser. This allows users (enterprises) to save on the purchase of high-performance, expensive computers. Also, employees of companies are becoming more mobile as they can access their workplace from anywhere in the world using a laptop, netbook, tablet or smartphone. There is no need to purchase licensed software, its settings and updates, you just go to the service and use its services paying for actual use.
low cost - the main factors that reduce the cost of using the clouds are the following:
- reducing the cost of servicing the virtual infrastructure caused by the development of virtualization technologies, due to which less staff is required to service the entire IT infrastructure of the enterprise;
- payment of the actual use of resources, the user of the cloud pays for the actual use of the computing power of the cloud, which allows him to effectively distribute his money. This allows users (enterprises) to save on the purchase of licenses to software;
- the use of a cloud on a leasehold basis allows users to reduce the cost of purchasing expensive equipment, and to focus on investing money in setting up the business processes of the enterprise, which in turn makes it easy to start a business;
- the development of the hardware of computing systems, and therefore the reduction in the cost of equipment.
flexibility - unlimited computing resources (memory, processor, disks), through the use of virtualization systems, the process of scaling and administering the "clouds" becomes quite an easy task, because the "cloud" alone can provide you with the resources you need, and you only pay for their actual use.
reliability - the reliability of “clouds”, especially located in specially equipped data centers, is very high, as such data centers have backup power sources, security, professional workers, regular data backup, high bandwidth of the Internet channel, high resistance to DDOS attacks.
Security - “cloud” services have sufficiently high security with proper security, however, with a negligent attitude, the effect may be completely opposite.
Large computational power - you as a user of a “cloud” system can use all of its computational capabilities, paying only for the actual time of use. Businesses can use this feature to analyze large amounts of data.
disadvantages
Permanent connection to the network - to access the cloud service, you need a permanent connection to the Internet. However, nowadays this is not such a big disadvantage, especially with the advent of 3G and 4G cellular technologies.
software and its customization - there are restrictions on software that can be deployed on the "clouds" and provide it to the user. The software user has limitations in the software being used and sometimes does not have the ability to customize it for his own purposes.
confidentiality - the confidentiality of data stored in public “clouds” is currently a lot of controversy, but in most cases, experts agree that it is not recommended to store the most valuable documents for a company in a public “cloud”, as there is currently no technology that would guarantee 100% confidentiality of stored data.
reliability - with regard to the reliability of stored information, we can say with confidence that if you have lost information stored in the “cloud”, then you have lost it forever.
Security - the “cloud” is in itself a fairly reliable system, but when it penetrates, the attacker gains access to a huge data warehouse. Another disadvantage is the use of virtualization systems in which standard operating systems such as Linux, Windows, etc. are used as the hypervisor, which allows the use of viruses.
high cost of equipment - to build a company’s own cloud, it is necessary to allocate significant material resources, which is not beneficial for newly created and small companies.
Types of services provided by cloud systems
As for the services provided, at present, the concept of cloud computing involves the provision of the following types of services to its users:
- everything as a service (Everything as a Service);
With this type of service, the user will be provided with everything from software and hardware to business process management, including interaction between users, the user is only required to have access to the Internet. In my opinion, this type of service is a more general concept in relation to the following services, which are more special cases.
- infrastructure as a service (Infrastructure as a service);
The user is provided with a computer infrastructure, usually virtual platforms (computers) connected to the network. Which he independently adjusts to his own goals.
- platform as a service (Platform as a service);
The user is provided with a computer platform, with the installed operating system, possibly with a software one.
- software as a service (Software as a service);
This type of service is usually positioned as “software on demand”, this software is deployed on remote servers and the user can access it via the Internet, and all issues of updating and licenses for this software are regulated by the provider of this service. Payment in this case is made for the actual use of the software.
- hardware as a service (Hardware as a Service);
In this case, the user of the service is provided with equipment, on loan that he can use for his own purposes. This option allows you to save on the maintenance of this equipment, although in essence it is not much different from the type of the Infrastructure as a Service service, except that you have bare equipment on the basis of which you deploy your own infrastructure using the most suitable software.
- workplace as a service (Workplace as a Service);
In this case, the company uses cloud computing to organize the workplaces of its employees by setting up and installing all the necessary software necessary for the work of the staff.
- data as a service (Data as a Service);
The main idea of ​​this type of service is that the user is provided with disk space, which he can use to store large amounts of information.
- security as a service (Security as a Service).
This type of service provides users with the ability to quickly deploy products to ensure the safe use of web technologies, the security of electronic correspondence, and the security of the local system, which allows users of this service to save on deploying and maintaining their own security system.
Cloud service classification.
Currently, there are three categories of "clouds":
1. Public;
2. Private;
3. Hybrid.
A public cloud is an IT infrastructure used simultaneously by many companies and services. Users of cloud data do not have the ability to manage and maintain this cloud, all responsibility for these issues lies with the owner of the cloud. Any company and individual user can become a subscriber of the offered services. They offer an easy and affordable way to deploy web sites or business systems, with great scalability, which other solutions would not have. Examples: online services Amazon EC2 and Simple Storage Service (S3), Google Apps / Docs, Salesforce.com, Microsoft Office Web.
A private cloud is a secure IT infrastructure that is monitored and operated for the benefit of a single organization. An organization can manage a private cloud on its own or outsource this task to an external contractor. The infrastructure can be located either in the customer’s premises, or with an external operator, or partly with the customer and partly with the operator. The ideal private cloud is a cloud deployed on the territory of the organization, serviced and controlled by its employees.
Hybrid cloud is an IT infrastructure that uses the best qualities of a public and private cloud when solving an assigned task. Often, this type of clouds is used when an organization has seasonal periods of activity; in other words, as soon as the internal IT infrastructure fails to cope with current tasks, a part of the capacity is transferred to the public cloud (for example, large amounts of statistical information that in their raw form do not represent value for the enterprise ), as well as to provide users with access to enterprise resources (to the private cloud) through a public cloud.
Where to develop or on what you can earn money?
According to experts, the potential of cloud computing is very high. And accordingly, it will be possible to get into this stream and snip off its part by working in the following directions:
1. The provision of cloud computing services - this opportunity is not available to many companies, so significant investments are needed in the construction and development of the data center.
2. Development of software for building a virtual infrastructure, we should not forget about those who will implement and customize this software, that is, they will need specialists in this field.
3. Outsourcing, administration of clouds - you will need specialists in administration and consulting in the field of cloud computing.
4. Hardware - companies engaged in the development and design of hardware for creating "clouds".
5. Design - this area covers almost all of the above areas, from the design of the data center to the design of software.
Future ...
In my opinion in the future, cloud computing will become more accessible to users and companies. This will be caused by a number of factors:
- hardware virtualization - improving cloud computing performance;
- reduced power consumption of hardware; - reduced power consumption;
- increase in speeds - the throughput of network equipment is constantly increasing, which increases productivity and reduces the amount of equipment with the same channel.
With this, I finish my story. I hope that it will help you and your colleagues and bosses in mastering cloud computing. If there are comments and suggestions on the idea expressed above and on the text, write an answer.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/111274/
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