The future is in the clouds

1.1. Introduction

Speaking about the development of IT in the past few years, it is impossible not to mention the share of cloud solutions, among others. Let's see what cloud solutions, technologies, etc. are.
Cloud computing (or cloud services) is a special set of tools and methods for logistics, storing and processing data on remote computing resources, which include servers, data storage systems (DSS), data transfer systems (PDS).

In the manufacture of an IT product, be it a website, an online store, a high-loaded portal, or a database system (DB), there are at least two options for placing your product.

On the territory of the customer (English - on-premise) or in the cloud (English - cloud) . At the same time, it is impossible to say exactly what is more profitable for money in general.
')
If you are using a server where you have a small database that does not require fault tolerance and a simple website without any special load - yes, ground placement is your option. But as soon as your loads and needs increase, you should think about moving to the cloud.

1.2. Clouds among us

Before discussing exactly how clouds are provided, it is important to understand that the story about clouds is not about the big IT giants and their internal services. We also use cloud computing every day.

Today, in 2019, it is difficult to find a person who would not use instagram, e-mail, maps and traffic jams in the phone. And all this is stored and processed where? Right!
Even if you, being an IT specialist in a company with at least a small branch network (for clarity), put it into the storage infrastructure, how would you not give access to the resource, be it a web interface, ftp or samba - for your users? the store will be a cloud that is ... somewhere there. What can we say about these familiar things that we use at the tips of our fingers every day several dozen times.

2.1. Cloud Capacity Deployment Types

Okay, cloud. But not everything is so simple. We, too, coming to work all - salespeople, IT specialists, managers. But this is a broad concept, each has a purpose and a certain classification. Same here. In general, the cloud service can be divided into 4 types.

1. The public cloud is a platform that is publicly open to all users for free or by paid subscription. Most often located in the management of a specific individual or legal. An example is the portal-aggregator of articles of scientific knowledge.

2. Private cloud - the exact opposite of point 1. This platform, closed to the public, is often intended for one company (or companies and partner organizations). Access is granted only by the system administrator for users. These can be internal services, such as intranet, system SD (service desk), CRM, etc. Usually, the owners of a cloud or segment take the issue of information security and business protection very seriously, as private clouds store information about sales, customers, strategic plans of companies, etc.

3. Public cloud - (community cloud) it can be said that it is a private cloud distributed among several firms that have similar tasks or interests. It is often used if it is necessary to give rights to use a resource \ application to several people \ divisions from different companies.

4. Hybrid cloud - (hybrid cloud) is a type of infrastructure that combines at least two types of deployment. The most frequent example is the scaling of the client data center at the expense of the cloud. This is done in order to save money, if it is impossible to move to the cloud at 100% or on issues of security and compliance with the law.

2.2. Types of service

Super, deployment types are so different, but what should be their unifying? Yes, these are service types, they are identical for all types of clouds. Consider the 3 most frequent.

IaaS (infrastructure as a service) - infrastructure, as a service. With this option, you are provided with servers in the form of virtual machines (VMs), disks, network equipment, on which you can deploy the OS you need, the environment, raise services, etc. In spite of that, now I am actively developing in the cloud from Yandex, I started my acquaintance with the GCP (Google Cloud Platform), so I’ll give examples against it, but I’ll tell you about the providers a little later. So here is an example of the IaaS solution in GCP that is the element of the Compute Engine. Those. This is a simple usual BM for which you choose the operating system, you are engaged in setting up the software and application deployment. Consider an example. You are a python programmer and you want to make a website with a backend on the cloud, considering only the IaaS version. You need to take one VM on which the site will be spinning, for this you need to install (select the OS in the gcp creation stage), update the packer manager (why not), install the necessary version of python, nginx, etc ... On three VMs create a fail-safe database cluster (also with hands). Provide logging, etc. It is cheap and long, but if you want maximum flexibility, this is your choice.

The next closer to simplicity and high cost is PaaS (platform as a service) . Here you also get a VM, of course, but without the ability to change the configuration so flexibly, you don’t select the OS, software suite, etc., you get a ready environment for your product. Let's return to the same example. You buy two App Engine instances in GCP, one of them will be in the role of the database, the second in the role of the web server. You do not need to customize the service programs, you can start the production environment right out of the box. It costs more, you see, the work must be paid for, and for you a whole Script worked. But you get a ready-made platform for work.

The third of the main options, standing above the rest - SaaS (Software as a Service). You do not make fine VM settings, you do not configure them at all. You do not need to be an IT specialist, you do not need to write code, you do not need to do backend. Is everything ready. These are ready-made, deployed solutions, such as GSuite (formerly Google Apps), DropBox, Office 365.

3.1. What is under the hood?

Put it in your head? Okay, let's go further. We bought the VM, worked with it, destroyed it and bought another 10. We do not purchase iron, but we know that it should be somewhere. When you implemented storage in the infrastructure of your enterprise, you probably put it in a rack in the server room. So, cloud technology providers give you a part of their server room, only of enormous size. The so-called data center (data center). These are large complexes located almost all over the planet. Buildings are usually made near those places that at least part of the year can be a source of natural cooling, but some representatives can also form in the Nevada desert. Apart from the fact that the provider places several hundred racks in the colossal dimensions of the hangar, he also worries about heat transfer (do they know that computers cannot be frozen and overheated?), For the safety of your data first of all on the physical level, so getting into the data center is illegally hardly Does it work out. At the same time, data storage methods in a data center differ from different providers, someone makes distributed entries between different data centers, someone stores them securely in one.

3.2. Clouds now and in retrospect. Providers

Generally, if we dig into history, the first prerequisites for the creation of today's cloud platforms were in the middle of the 70s of the last century, during the development and implementation of the ARPANET internet prototype. Then it was a question that when people could receive all possible services through the network. As time went on, the channels became stable and less wide and in 1999 the first commercial CRM system appeared, which is provided exclusively by subscription and is the first SaaS, copies of which are stored in a single data center. Later, the company identifies several divisions that provide PaaS by subscription, including the special case of BDaaS (data base as a service). In 2002, Amazon released a service that allows it to store and process information, and in 2008 it presents a service, where the user can create their own virtual machines, this is how the era of big cloud technologies begins.

Now they are talking about the big three (although I see the big four in half a year): Amazon web services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform ... Yandex Cloud. For the latter, it is especially nice, because when compatriots rush into the world arena, special pride runs through the goosebumps.

There are also a lot of companies, such as Oracle or Alibaba, which have their own clouds, but due to certain circumstances they are not so popular among users. And of course guys-hosters, who are also providers, providing PaaS or SaaS solutions.

3.3. Pricing and grants

I will not dwell on the pricing policy of providers, as otherwise it will be open advertising. I want to note the fact that all large companies provide grants from $ 200 to $ 700 per year or less, so that you as users can experience the power of their decisions and understand what you need.

Also, all the companies from the big three ... or the fours are about to ... provide an opportunity to join the ranks of partners, conduct seminars and trainings, give certification and concessions for their products.