Cloud computing is a distributed technology which delivers hosted services over the internet to provide easy access to IT services. These services are very flexible. A user can obtain a little or a big part of the service which is managed by the service provider.
There are two types of clouds available: Public cloud and Private cloud. A public cloud can be accessed by anyone on the internet but the private cloud is accessible only for the limited number of users. When creating the private cloud using public cloud resources, it is called virtual private cloud.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
This type of service allows thousands of users to access a single application through the browser or some kind of front end portal using multi-tenant architecture where a single instance of software runs on a server, serving thousands of customers. It’s a profitable system for customers, where there’s no need for investing in servers and software licenses. In the service providers’ point of view, its just one application to maintain, so maintenance costs are very low. SaaS is commonly used on HR applications. But, it can be anything from web based email services to inventory control systems.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
This is a variation of a SaaS. It provides a development environment for developers to create applications on the platform over the internet using development tools hosted on the service provider’s platform. Usage of this service is not totally convenient to developers, as the development tools are limited to vendor’s architecture. But they can achieve predictability and pre-integration.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
This type of services provides virtual server instances with a unique IP address and storage. Users can access the server using the service provider’s API to start, stop and configure the server. In the enterprise, cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, yet purchase more capacity whenever required.
Web Services In The Cloud
Rather than delivering the whole application, this system offer web services APIs to developers to develop services over the internet. They’re available as discrete business services to the total APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP Payroll Process, the US Postal Service and Bloomberg.
Managed Service Providers (MSP)
A managed service is an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users. These service providers provide infrastructure management services such as network-based services, applications and equipment to enterprises on subscription basis. In addition to these services, the MSP can manage and integrate a range of enterprise networks associated activities including Web hosting, Virtual Private Network (VPN), unified messaging, video networking etc.
Commerce Services Platform
Commerce Services Platform enables service providers and software companies to become solution providers, as this is a hybrid of SaaS and MSP. They’re most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems, that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service delivery and pricing within the specification set by the user.
Internet Integration
The integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving as SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration.
Future Of Cloud Computing
In future, for the security purposes, the large enterprises can be building their own private clouds and the cloud computing service providers will support information security as well. The enterprises will become part time cloud-computing vendors and you need only the browser as a development tool. Game Servers will be the most interesting cloud computing in future.
References
- (n.d). Retrieved on 2010, January from infoworld.com: http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031?page=0,0
- (n.d). Retrieved on 2010, January from techtarget.com: http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid201_gci1287881,00.html
- (n.d). Retrieved on 2010, January from zenmediastudios.com: http://www.zenmediastudios.com/_uploads/2009/09/cloud-computing.jpg