Cloud Computing
historical transition from centralized hardware to modern, flexible cloud services. Here is a summary of that evolution:
The Evolution of Cloud Computing
1950s: Mainframe Computing The journey began with large central mainframes. Because the technology was expensive, "dumb terminals" were used to allow multiple users to share a single, sophisticated resource. This was the first model of economical shared access.
1970: The Birth of Virtualization The concept of Virtual Machines (VMs) was introduced, allowing multiple operating systems to run simultaneously in isolated environments on the same hardware. This served as a major catalyst for future information technology.
1990s: Virtualized Networking Telecommunications shifted from providing expensive, dedicated point-to-point connections to offering virtualized private networks. This allowed many users to share the same physical infrastructure securely.
Modern Day: Cloud Computing Today, cloud computing is defined as the on-demand delivery of applications, storage, and processing power. It operates over the internet using a pay-as-you-go financial model.
Core Concept
Virtualization creates a virtual machine (VM)—a software-based "computer" that acts like physical hardware with its own operating system. By adding a digital layer between the hardware and the user, a single physical server can be partitioned into multiple isolated environments.
Problems Solved
Underutilization: Traditionally, computing and processing power were not used efficiently. Virtualization allows a machine to run at full capacity by hosting multiple users or apps at once.
Legacy Issues: It allows companies to run older (legacy) apps on different operating system versions side-by-side on the same hardware.
Key Benefits
Cost Efficiency: Drastically reduces hardware costs and energy consumption (less electricity for fewer physical machines).
Speed: Enables much faster server provisioning and deployment compared to setting up physical hardware.
Disaster Recovery: VMs can be moved, copied, or isolated easily. If a disaster occurs, "failover" (switching to a backup) can be automated quickly.
Productivity: IT teams have fewer physical servers to manage and maintain, allowing them to focus on other tasks.
Why use the cloud?
1. Financial Efficiency
Variable vs. Capital Expense: Instead of massive upfront investments in data centers and physical servers, you pay only for what you consume.
Economies of Scale: Because cloud providers aggregate usage from millions of customers, they can offer lower variable costs than a single company could achieve on its own.
Pay-as-you-go: You only pay when you are actually using the resources, avoiding the cost of idle hardware.
2. Operational Agility
Rapid Access: You get instant access to a full suite of IT resources, including servers, storage, databases, and application services.
Eliminate Complexity: The cloud removes the burden of maintaining physical infrastructure, allowing businesses to focus on projects that differentiate them from competitors.
Zero Lead Time: There is no need to wait for hardware to be purchased or installed; resources are available immediately.
3. Scalability and Performance
Elasticity: You can "scale up or down" as your business needs change, preventing the common problem of buying too much infrastructure or not having enough.
Global Reach: You can deploy applications in multiple regions worldwide instantly. This reduces latency (delay) and provides a better experience for global customers.
4. Simplified Management
The "Giant Computer" Effect: The cloud abstracts away the millions of underlying physical computers, making the entire network behave like one seamless, powerful resource.
Types of Cloud Computing
Infrastructure - IaaS (Infrastructure as a service)
The lowest level is infrastructure-as-a-service.
This is where pre-configured hardware is provided via a virtualized interface.
Provides access to networking features, computers, and data storage space.
Platform - PaaS (Platform as a service)
The operating environment included the operating system and application services. Handles resource procurement, capacity planning, software maintenance, patching.
Software - AaaS (Software as a service)
SaaS refers to end-user applications. Focus on how to use software.
SaaS application is web-based email where you can send and receive email. Cloud-based applications are fully deployed in the cloud and all parts of the application run in the cloud.
Hybrid Deployment
Connect infrastructure and applications between cloud-based resources and existing resources that are not located in the cloud.
On-premises Deployment
Virtualization and resource management tools, is sometimes called the “private cloud. ”Provide dedicated resources the same as legacy IT infrastructure while using applications.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and how it leverages Google’s massive internal infrastructure to provide high-level services to developers.
Core Offering
GCP is a suite of cloud services (computing, storage, networking, and analytics) that allows external users to run applications on the same infrastructure Google uses for its own products.
Key Features and Services
Infrastructure on Demand: Users can provision virtual machines via Google Compute Engine and store files using Google Cloud Storage without long-term contracts.
Abstraction from Hardware: Instead of worrying about raw CPUs and RAM, developers use APIs to perform higher-level tasks like querying data or storing objects.
Advanced Technology Access: Provides access to world-class technologies that Google pioneered, such as Bigtable, Spanner, and the concepts behind MapReduce (which revolutionized Big Data).
Major Advantages
Scalability: Services are extremely flexible, allowing users to scale up or down instantly with no advance notice.
Economic Efficiency: Because Google operates at an immense global scale, it passes on economic advantages to customers, such as lower prices and high-performance physical infrastructure.
Pay-per-hour: A granular pricing model where you pay only for the resources used during a specific month.
Why not use the cloud?
Already own hardware, legacy systems with no development needed.
Some security or privacy concerns.
Storage
Complexities and advantages of modern cloud storage, networking, and the true cost of maintaining IT systems.
1. Advanced Storage & Performance
Cloud storage is not just about space; it involves strategic configuration based on specific needs:
Performance Optimization: Users must choose between optimizing for latency (the speed of data travel/delay) or throughput (the volume of data moved).
Edge Caching: Data can be stored closer to users geographically to speed up downloads.
Abstraction: The cloud hides the physical risks of hardware; to the user, it appears as though "a hard drive never fails" and data is never lost due to built-in durability and availability.
Scalability: Services like Cloud Datastore allow for massive, shared, and highly scalable data management.
2. Big Data & Networking
Analysis: As the volume of logged data grows, tools like Apache Spark and Hadoop help analyze this information to draw conclusions.
Connectivity: To prevent systems from becoming "isolated piles," the cloud provides fast network connections and advanced security (firewalling) to control how different parts of a system communicate.
3. Understanding Cost (TCO)
When comparing cloud to traditional hosting, you must look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), which includes more than just the price of hardware:
Human Labor: Salaries for admins, security guards, and on-call support.
Utilities: The cost of electricity and cooling for servers.
Redundancy: The expensive software and systems required to ensure data is never lost in a private data center.
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