What is IaaS in Cloud Computing

In this article we will understand what is Infrastructure as a Service also called IaaS. In addition to Infrastructure as a Service, we also have Platform as a Service (also called PaaS) and Software as a Service (also called SaaS). Up until recently, these are the 3 main cloud services offered by most cloud service providers. 

With cloud technologies advancing and maturing so fast, in addition to these 3 cloud offerings, we also have 

• Containers as a Service (CaaS)
• Functions as a Services (FaaS or Serverless Computing)

In this article, let's understand, what is Infrastructure as a Service. Who use this service and the benefits it provide.

On premise data center

If we are not using cloud, we manage everything on-premise. Basically our organisation is responsible for managing pretty much everything.

• Procuring physical servers, storage and related hardware
• Install and set up the network
• Setting up the server room or data center
• Make sure there is main power supply, back-up power supply, cooling system etc are in place
• Install and configure virtualization software, operating system, any middleware or runtime components that your software developement or other teams need.
• Install, configure, and manage your custom or packaged apps and data.

So the point is, with on-premise data center, our organisation is reponsible for managing pretty much everything.

What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

As the name implies, with Infrastructure as a Service, you rent or lease IT infrastructure from a cloud service provider like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services or some other cloud provider. To understand this better, take a look at the following diagram.

As the name implies, with Infrastructure as a Service, the cloud service provider provides the infrastructure over an internet connection or through a virtual private network. We will discuss what a virtual private network is in our upcoming articles. For now, you can think of it as a dedicated and secure private tunnel between you (i.e your organization) and the cloud service provider. 

So the important point to keep in mind here is, there is no need for your organization to procure and manage the infrastructure. It is the cloud service provider that is responsible for

• Procuring physical servers, storage and related hardware
• Install and set up the network
• Make sure there is proper power supply, back-up power supply, cooling system etc are in place
• Pretty much the cloud service provider is responsible for setting up, securing and managing the cloud data center.

So in simple terms, this is how it works. The cloud service provider hosts the infrastructure at their data center. You as a customer, provision this infrastructure on-demand over the internet or through a virtual private connection. For the duration that you use the infrastructure, you pay a fee. You are only charged based on the number of machines and resources that are actually being used.

As you can see from the image, all the yellow boxes, i.e networking, storage, servers and virtualization are managed by the cloud service provider. The rest (i.e OS, Middleware, Runtime, Data and Application) are still managed by you. 

This means you have better control and you can install any operating system of your choice, windows or linux for example. So the point is, you can use this infrastructure for anything you want. Computational or storage needs. May be, you have a web application which, you can host and run for example. You can also use it for your storage needs. For example, install SQL Server, Oracle or some other relational database and store your relational data. I mean, a diverse set of use cases are supported. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is also known as hardware as a service (HaaS).

Who uses Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

In most organisations, it is the Infrastructure team that procures servers, and computers. Install software and provide systems to employees. Set up and manage networks. So in most cases, it is usually your infrastructure team that uses Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Sometimes, even software developments teams use this service if they want to have enhanced control over the underlying hardware and network.

Benefits of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Reduced financial risk

There is a reduced financial risk for organisations. Let's say, for example, you want to try something new (may be you are launching a new business or product line or experimenting something entirely new) and for that you need a software application. To host and run this application you need a server, all the related infrastructure and workforce to setup and maintain. What if your new product launch or experiment fails. You have already spent a fortune to purchase the server and related infrastructure.

With the Infrastructure as a Service, you pay a fee, for as long as you use the cloud infrastructure. Host your app and run it from there. If your new product launch or experiment succeeds, well and good. If it doesn't shut things down and you pay no longer. Straight away, you can see how organisations can benefit from the reduced financial risk. This encourages businesses to try new things, experiment and innovate more.

Deployment Speed

Just imagine the time it takes to procure physical servers, storage and the related infrastructure. You need to purchase. Get them shipped over. Create a server room or data center. Secure it. Install power supply and cooling systems. Setup and configure network. The list goes on. You also need to hire skilled people to do all these. It takes a considerable amount of time to have all these in place. Probably days, sometimes even months in worst case scenarios.

On the other hand, if you are using, Infrastructure as a Service, you point your browser to the cloud service provider web portal, and with a few clicks in just a few minutes you have one or many virtual machines procured. So you can see the speed with which we can procure and start using cloud infrastructure. So you really get time to focus on what matters to your business.

Provision resources from geographically closer locations

Cloud service providers, for example, Amazon, Microsoft and Google, have data centers all over the world. This means, with the Infrastructure as a Service, you have the option of provisioning the servers from geographic locations close to your customers.

Unlimited scalability

You almost will never run out of resources in a public cloud. It provides near unlimited scalability. You can set threshold limits to automatically scale up and down depending on the demand.

Private vs Public vs Hybrid cloud

There are different types of clouds. 

1. Private cloud
2. Public cloud
3. Hybrid cloud

We discussed what these 3 clouds are, benefits, limitations and use cases in our previous 3 articles. In this article, we will compare and contrast them side by side.

	Private Cloud	Public Cloud	Hybrid Cloud
Cloud Hardware	The entire cloud infrastructure (i.e the physical servers, storage, networking etc) must be procured by the organisation that owns the private cloud	The public cloud service provider like Amazon or Microsoft provides the infrastructure	For the private cloud, your organisation must provide the infrastructure where as the public cloud service provider provides the infrastructure for the public cloud
Tenancy	Single-tenancy. A private cloud is usually used by a single organisation.	Multi-tenancy: A public cloud is used by multiple organizations.	The private part of the hybrid cloud is used by a single organisation. The public part of the hybrid cloud is used by multiple organisations.
Data Center Location	Inside the organization’s corporate network.	Anywhere on the Internet. Public cloud (like AWS and Azure) data centers for example, are typically located in many countries across the entire world.	The private cloud data center is typically inside the organisation's corporate network and the public cloud data center could be anywhere on the internet.
Scalability	Private cloud scalability is limited by the amount of infrastructure. Beyond certain point it is impossible to scale up, unless the organisation procures additional hardware and set it up.	We never run out of resources in a public cloud. It provides near-unlimited scalability.	The scalability of the private cloud services and resources is limited by the underlying available infrastructure, where as with the public cloud services we do not have such a limitation.
Cloud Maintenance	The organization itself is responsible for setting up and maintaining the private cloud.	The cloud service provider is responsible for setting up and maintaining the public cloud. Organizations and even general public can use the public cloud services by paying a monthly fee.	The private cloud is managed by the organization that owns it where as the public cloud is managed by the cloud service provider.
Costs	Invloves huge initial capital expenditure as the organization must purchase all the cloud hardware, set it up and maintain there on. To maintain the private cloud, the organization needs to hire work force. So there is monthly operating expenditure as well.	With the public cloud there is no initial capital expenditure, but you pay a monthly fee for the public cloud services you use. The more you use the services, the more you have to pay. The overall price tag may be higher than what you anticipated, especially if you use lot of public cloud services for a long time.	With the private cloud, the organization is faced with both, the intital capital expenditure as well as monthly operating expenses to maintain it. With the public cloud you pay a monthly fee for the services and resources you use.
Accessibility	Only the organization that owns the private cloud can access private cloud resources and services.	A public cloud is exposed to the public. So, anyone can access it's resources and services.	Private cloud services can be accessed only by the organization that owns it where as public cloud services can be accessed by anyone.

 

What is a hybrid cloud. Benefits, limitations and use cases

As the name implies, a hybrid cloud is hybrid i.e, it's a combination of both the private cloud and the public cloud. It is not a different cloud altogether. It's just that, both, the private and public clouds work together to meet our organization requirements. I mean, it offers the best of both the worlds.

For example, we can use the private cloud for security sensitive, business-critical operations like financial reporting, and, the public cloud for high-volume, lower-security needs such as web-based email.

In a hybrid cloud, we have a concept called cloud bursting. This sounds like a fancy technical term, but all it means is the following. You have an application or a service. To start with, it's hosted and running in your private cloud. The application continues to run in your private cloud until there is a spike in the demand. When there is a spike in demand, "burst through" to the public cloud to tap into the additional computing resources provided by the public cloud. When the spike in demand subsides, you scale down just to your private cloud and no longer use the public cloud resources.

If you are wondering, why will there be a sudden spike in demand. Well, there are number of reasons. May be you are launching a new business or product line. Seasonal events like online christmas shopping or tax filing for example, may aslo increase the traffic to your application or service.

With private cloud you only have so much physical infrastructure. How much you can scale up, depends on that physical infrastructure. Beyond certain point, if you want to scale up, you have to buy additional hardware, which is not only expensive but also time consuming to procure and setup. When the spike in demand subsides, we are no longer using this additional infrastructure. 

Benefits of hybrid cloud

• Best of both the worlds - The obvious benefit is, a hybrid cloud provides, best of both the worlds ie. private and public clouds. 
• Better Control  - With the hybrid cloud, you have better control on what runs where. For example, you can use the private cloud for security sensitive apps and the public cloud for thos apps that have high-volumes of traffic, but not that security sensitive.
• Cost-effective – With the hybrid cloud, you only use public cloud resources when you need them i.e when there is a spike in demand, you burst through to the public cloud to use that additional computing power provided by the public cloud. When the demand subsides you scale down just to your private cloud.

Limitations of hybrid cloud

• Low visibility and control - Just like a public cloud, even in a hybrid cloud, you don't have much visibility and control over infrastructure that is owned by the public cloud service provider.
• Additional complexity - Integrating private cloud with public cloud introduces additional infrastructure complexity. Also, it invloves, considerable effort, time and complexity to maintain and evolve these 2 different types of clouds as the organization needs change.
• Compliance and legal risks - Since you don't have much visibility and control over public cloud infrastructure, you are relying on the cloud service provider to protect data and adhere to local and international regulations. Your company may still be liable, if the cloud service provider, fails to live up to the task and if there is a data breach.
• Cost concerns - If you use the public cloud resources for a along time, the overall price tag may be higher than what you anticipated.

When to use hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud provides, best of both the worlds - i.e private and public clouds. For example, you are an IT company and provide services to 2 different sets of clients. For, one set of clients, security is not a massive concern. They just want to scale up and down at will. For these clients you can use the public cloud resources. For the other set of clients, security is the most important thing and they want to have complete and rigorous control over the cloud infrastructure. For these clients, you can use the private cloud resources. So the point that I am trying to make is, a hybrid cloud allows you to switch between different delivery models depending on your clients security and scalability requirements

 

What is a private cloud. Benefits, limitations and use cases

In this article we will understand, what is a private cloud, benefits, limitations and use cases. In our next articles we will learn about Hybrid cloud.

What is a private cloud

As the name implies, a private cloud is private to one organisation. In other words, a private cloud resources and services are used exclusively by one business or organisation. Unlike public cloud, a private cloud resources are not shared by multiple organisations. All the hardware infrastructure and software are solely dedicated to one organisation.

The private cloud is physically located on-premise i.e at your organisation’s on-site data centre, or it can also be hosted by a third-party service provider. The important point to keep in mind is, a private cloud is private, i.e all the hardware infrastructure and software are solely dedicated to one and only one organisation.

In a private cloud, it's very easy to customise the hardware and software to meet your oragnisation's specific IT requirements. This is because your organisation, owns everything i.e the hardware, software and network. So you have complete control and can change anything in any way you want to meet your organisation requirements.

In general, private clouds are often used by government agencies, financial institutions and any other medium to large-sized organisations with business-critical operations seeking enhanced control over their environment.

Benefits of private cloud

• Better security - Resources are not shared with other organisations, so there is better security with private cloud.
• Better control - A private cloud belongs to a specific organisation, so you can customise it to meet your specific business needs.
• Predictable costs - With private cloud you own all the cloud infrastructure and you are not paying any third party cloud service provider. So your monthly cooling, energy and maintenance costs  are usually predictable.
• Legal compliance - When you deal with regulated data, for example, financial, health care or credit card data, there are strict rules around where the data is stored, who can handle and process it and how it is protected. With the private cloud you know where you data center is located. So you know where the data is stored and how it is protected.

Limitations of private cloud

• Limited scalability - The extent to which you can scale up in a private cloud is limited by the amount of infrastructure you have. Beyond certain point, you cannot scale up. So, the infrastructure is a limiting factor and you may not be able to scale up at will like in the public cloud, to meet unpredictable demands.
• Huge initial capital expenditure - With the private cloud you have to procure all the cloud infrastructure. Hire the workforce to set up and maintain the cloud. So a private cloud, is an expensive solution compared to public cloud alternatives especially for short-term projects.
• Limited access - A private cloud is usually more secure. We use it for security sensitive applications. Because of these high security measures in place, mobile users may have limited access to the private cloud outside of the corporate network.

When to use a private cloud

• Private cloud is best suited for highly regulated businesses like financial and healthcare institutions.
• Tech companies that require robust security and complete control over the cloud infrastructure also benefit from the private cloud.
• Large organisations that require advanced and custom data centre solutions also benefit from private cloud.

 

What is a public cloud. Benefits, limitations and use cases

There are different types of clouds. 

1. Public cloud
2. Private cloud
3. Hybrid cloud

In this article we will understand, what is a public cloud, benefits, limitations and use cases. In our next articles we will learn about Private and Hybrid cloud.

What is a public cloud

As the name implies, a public cloud is public and is the most common type of cloud. It is easy for anyone i.e an individual or an organisation to start using public cloud resources and services. There is no upfront huge capital expenditure. You don't have to buy the expensive hardware or worry about set up and maintaining the cloud. This is because, with the public cloud, all the infrastructure (i.e the physical servers, storage, networking etc) are procured and owned by the cloud service provider. It is this cloud service provider, that sets up the cloud and maintains it there on. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are examples of a public cloud. 

We access public cloud resources and services over the internet. So to use a public cloud, we need an internet connection and manage the cloud services and resources through a web portal provided by the cloud service provider. For the cloud services and resources we use, we pay a monthly fee to the public cloud service provider. This monthly fee is like your utility bills, water or electricity for example. It's pay as you go model, meaning you pay for what you use.

Anyone can use the public cloud. In a public cloud, your organisation share the same hardware, storage and network devices with other organisations. In cloud computing terms, this is called multi-tenancy. Your organisation data may be stored along with other organisations data on the same storage device.

Benefits of public cloud

1. You don't have to buy expensive hardware or set up your own datacenter i.e no upfront capital expenditure.
2. It supports pay as you go model. You only pay for what you use, just like your water, or electricity monthly bills.
3. No maintenance headaches. You as a consumer, don't have to worry about maintaining the public cloud i.e replacing the failed hardware, installing the security patches, updates etc. Your service provider is responsible for maintaining the public cloud. You only pay a small monthly fee, based on the cloud services you use.
4. Highly scalable. You will almost never run out of resources in a public cloud. Based on your business needs you can scale resources up and down. You can even automate this by setting threshold limits.
5. Highly reliable. A public clous is a vast network of servers. So data, is always backed up. This means hardware failure, power failure, natural disaster or other crisis do not result in data loss. So, bottom line, public cloud is highly reliable.

Limitations of public cloud

1. Low visibility and control - Public cloud infrastructure is owned by the cloud service provider. You don't have much visibility and control over it.
2. Compliance and legal risks - Since you don't have much visibility and control over public cloud infrastructure, you are relying on the cloud service provider to protect data and adhere to local and international regulations. Your company may still be liable, if the cloud service provider, fails to live up to the task and if there is a data breach. So a public cloud, may not be the most viable solution for security sensitive or mission-critical applications.
3. Cost concerns - Cloud in general, reduces upfront infrastructure costs and it's pay-as-you-go model provides more flexibility. Depending on the traffic, the amount of cloud resources you consume, the plan you have chosen, the way you scale resources up and down, determines the overall price you pay. Sometimes this overall price tag may be higher than what you anticipated.

When to use public cloud

1. We never run out of resources in a public cloud. It provides near-unlimited scalability. So, if you want to dynamically scale up and down at will, then public cloud is your solution.
2. Businesses with varying peak demands greatly benefit from the public cloud. When there is high demand you scale up and when the demand subsides, you scale down and pay only for what you use.
3. Fast growing businesses also greatly benefit from the public cloud. They can use the public cloud and quickly scale up operations rather than having to build your own private cloud which not only has huge upfront capital expenditure but also time consuming.
4. Businesses can also benefit from the public cloud by using it for backup and disaster recovery solutions.

 

Risks of cloud computing

In most cases, moving to the cloud is a great step forward. In our previous video, we discussed the benefits of cloud computing. In this video, we will discuss the risks of cloud computing.

Loss of cloud data and services

Data in the cloud and services are typically accessed over the internet. So this obviously means, the speed at which you can access cloud services and data are limited by the speed of your internet connection. If your connection to the internet is lost, your access to cloud data and services is also lost.

The servers or network at the cloud service provider end can also go down for a number of reasons. Again, when this happens you lose access to cloud data and services. However, the good news is, cloud service providers have SLAs i.e Service Level Agreements. Most of the cloud providers guarantee 99.9% uptime. If they fail to meet this SLA, you will be compenstated.

Data security

When you store your business, employees and customer data in the cloud, you are placing your complete trust on the cloud service provider to secure and safeguard your data. Cloud service providers like Microsft Azure and Amazon Web Services invest lots of resources and money to implement and improve cloud security. But still, by placing your data in the cloud as opposed to in-house, you are opening up security risks.

Also, everyone, including hackers know, if they can manage to hack into cloud service providers, they will have access to huge amounts of data. So as we speak, there are hundereds of thousands of cyber attacks going on around the world. If you take a look at the following bitdefender web page, you can see the realtime cyberthreat map. 

Real-time security threat map

Every second, in fact, every few milli-seconds, there is an attempted cyber attack. You can see the Time, Attack type, Attack country and the Target Country. So, the point that I am trying to make is, by placing your data in the cloud, you are relying on the cloud provider to protect your data, and the fact is your data is only as secure as your cloud service provider.

However, best practices like encryption, two-factor authentication, auditing, reviewing and rotating access keys and credentials can reduce the security risk to some extent.

Compliance and legal risks

Compliance is another important risk that must be considered when moving to cloud. If it's your own personal data like emails or photos for example, you don't have to worry about compliance and legal risks. However, if it's an organisation and if it deals with financial data, healthcare data, credit card data, or any regulated data for that matter, by law, the organisation is responsible for protecting that data. It also needs to know, where the data is stored, who is allowed to access it and the measures that are put in place to protect it. There are many local and international regulations like GDPR, HIPAA etc.

By moving to the cloud, you are relying on the cloud service provider to protect data and adhere to these local and international regulations. Your company may still be liable, if the cloud service provider, fails to live up to the task and if there is a data breach.

Cost concerns

Cloud in general, reduces upfront infrastructure costs and it's pay-as-you-go model provides more flexibility. Depending on the traffic, the amount of cloud resources you consume, the plan you have chosen, the way you scale resources up and down, determines the overall price you pay. Sometimes this overall price tage may be higher than what you anticipated. 

Most cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform prvoide cost calculators. It's a good idea to use these calculators to get an idea of what you will be paying. You may also experiment different options and plans until you find what works best for you.

There are several things that you can do to reduce your cloud costs. For example, try not to over provision cloud resources. If you think performance will be an issue, you can always auto scale up resources based on certain pre-configured threshold limits. Don't forget to auto scale down as well, otherwise you will end up paying for resources that are not being used. Along the samelines, automate the process to start or stop your server instances. This ensures you are not paying when you are are not using them. You can also create alerts that notify cloud spending.

It's always good to keep these risks in mind before moving to the cloud. The good news is, there are different types of clouds, best practices and proven techniques that can mitigate some of these risks. 

 

Benefits of cloud computing

These days cloud is everywhere. So in this video, we will understand why cloud? What are the benefits or advantages it offers.

Reduced IT costs

One of the main benefits of moving to cloud is reduced IT costs.

If I have a business application and want to make it available online for users. Prior to cloud computing came into existence, oraganisations had to procure a physical server and all the related infrastructure to host the application. Servers are expensive, and there you go, organisations are faced with a large initial capex (i.e capital expdenditure). 

It does not stop there. We need a server room and that needs to be secured. Setup and configure the server. Connect it to UPS and network. Make sure proper cooling system is in place. Install the server operating system, anti virus software, Database server, and, any other dependencies your business application might have like .NET framework, a web server like IIS for example. All this is the initial setup.

It does not stop here either. We need to keep these servers up and running i.e maintain them in good health. If there is an update or a security patch available, that needs to downloaded and installed. If there is a hardware failure, power failure, natural disaster or some other crisis, again we are responsible for replacing that failed hardware. What about database backups, disaster recovery, failover systems, the list, goes on. We need specialised IT workforce both for the initial setup and ongoing maintenance there on. So, the point that I am trying to make is organisations are faced with a huge opex i.e operating expenses which are every month usually.

Moving to cloud reduces both capex and opex. Organisations no longer have to spend huge amounts of money on physical servers, related IT infrastructure, specialised IT workforce, and server rooms or data center. We instead use the cloud infrastructure and pay a monthly fee for the resources and services we use. 

Pay as you go

With cloud, it's pay-as-you-go, meaning, you only pay for what you use. It's like your utility bills, electricity or water bill. If there is lot of demand for your application and you use lot of cloud resources like storage, computing power etc, you pay more. You use them less, you pay less. So, the bottom line is, cloud resources are metered and you only pay for what you use.

Scalability

Cloud provides lot of scalability and flexibility options. May be you are launching a new business or product line and you need more cloud resources. You can scale up cloud resources like memory, processing power, storage etc, with just a click of a button. You can even automate this by setting threshold limits. For example, if 90% of the existing storage capacity is reached, add another 100 GB to the storage. You can do the opposite as well. If you are not using the resources, you can scale them down. Again, even for scaling down, you can set threshold limits and automate. With cloud, we will never run out of resources. When you need more power, scale up and when you don't, scale down. You no longer, have the burden of purchasing and installing that expensive upgrades yourself. Your cloud service provider like Azure or Amazon web services, handles this for you.

Accessibility

Cloud-based applications, services and data can be accessed from virtually anywhere and anytime. Home, office, while on holiday or in commute. All you really need is an internet-connected device.

Business Continuity

If you have your data stored on your own on-premise server, and, if there's a hardware failure, power failure or other crisis, your data is gone. Without data it is extremely difficult to run the business. The fact is, no data no business. On the other hand if you have data stored in the cloud, hardware failure, power failure, natural disaster or other crisis do not result in data loss because of networked backups.

Automatic Updates

If you have your services and applications on-premise, you are responsible for downloading, and installing software updates and security patches which is not only tedious but also time consuming. On the other hand, if you are using cloud, security patches and updates are installed automatically, off-sight by the service provider. You just to have to pay a small monthly fee. You don't have to worry about rolling out those updates and patches. Instead you can use that time to focus on what matters to the business.

Increased collaboration

With cloud it's very easy for teams and team members to access, edit and share files anytime and from anywhere. There is no longer the need to send documents and spreadsheets in email. It's all in the cloud and everyone who want to have access has access. So teams are able to better collaborate and work together.