1 - Cloud Concepts

MS Learn 25%-30%

Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet enabling faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

• It is easier to upgrade hardware, because you are no longer required to wait until the hardware you already have bought served it’s life sentence.
• You share certain costs with other tennents using the same cloud computing solution, which keeps the costs low(er).

Types of Cloud Solutions

• Private Cloud is a cloud solution used for a specific organisation.
  • No Capital Expenditures to scale up.
  • Applications can be quickly provisioned and deprovisioned.
  • Organisations only pay for what they use.
• Public Cloud is a cloud solution owned by a cloud services or hosting provider. Provices resources and services to multiple organizations and users. Accessed via secure network connection (usually the internet).
  • Hardware must be purchased for start-up and maintenance.
  • Organisions have complete control over resources and security.
  • Organisations are responsible for hardware mainenance and updates.
• Hybrid Cloud combines public and private cloud to allow applications to run in the most appropriate location.
  • Provides the most flexibility.
  • Organisations determine where to run their applications.
  • Organisations control security, compliance, and legal requirements.
• Multi Cloud a company makes use of two or more different cloud providers.

Types of Expenditures

• Capital Expenditure (CapEx)
  • The up-front spending of money on physical infrastructure
  • Costs from CapEx have a value that reduces over time.
• Operational Expenditure (OpEx)
  • Spend on products and services as needed, pay-as-you-go
  • Get billed immediatly

Consumption-based model

Cloud service providers operate on a consumption-based model, which means that end users only pay for the resources that they use. Whatever they use is what they pay for

• Better cost prediction
• Prices for individual resources and services are provided
• Billing is based on actual usage

Cloud Benefits

• High availability
• Scalability You can scale-out or scale-in based on need (horizonal scaling). Add or remove a virtual machine/resource/node with the same services (identical copy). You would always need a load-balance to reach these nodes.
• Predictability There aren’t any surprise costs.
• Governance Easier to institute access management and other policies
• Elasticity You can scale-up or scale-out based on need (vertical scaling). Upgrade or downgrade the computing powers of a machine. This will require a reboot of the machine!
• Reliability The abilty of a system to recover from failures and continue to function.
• Security
• Manageability A lot of options to automate ops.

Cloud Service Types

• IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service
  • Built pay-as-you-ho IT infrastructure by renting servers, virtual machines, storage, networks and operating systems form a cloud provider.
    • The most flexible cloud serice.
    • You configure and manage the hardware for your application
  • Cloud provider is responsible for the:
    • Physical building
    • Networking, firewalls/security
    • Servers and storage
• PaaS - Platform as a Service
  • Provides environment for building, testing, and developing software applications; without focusing on managing underlying infrastructure
    • Focus on application development.
    • Platform management is handled by the cloud provider.
  • Cloud provider is responsible for the:
    • Physical building
    • Networking, firewalls/security
    • Servers and storage
    • Operating system
    • Development tools, database management, business analytics
• SaaS - Software as a Service
  • Users connect to and use cloud-based apps over the internet: for example , Microsoft Office, E-mail and Calandars.
    • Pay-as-you-go pricing model.
    • Users pay for the software they use on a subscription model.
  • Cloud provider is responsible for the:
    • Physical building
    • Networking, firewalls/security
    • Servers and storage
    • Operating system
    • Development tools, database management, business analytics
    • Hosted applications/apps