What does “Gmail”, Dropbox, and other social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn share in common? They all use the “Cloud” to store data. Cloud computing – Another hot topic in IT is outsourcing all applications related to email, storage, networking, and networking to cloud providers. Hosting your own server and building your own infrastructure is time-consuming and expensive. Cloud computing offers organizations the opportunity to save money. In this post, we will discuss some of the key characteristics of cloud computing as well as the various deployment models and security concerns that cloud computing presents.
Cloud Computing Characteristics
According to NIST, the following are the key characteristics of cloud computing:
Elasticity: The cloud can be scaled to meet a company’s needs. To access the cloud resources, users can be added or removed.
Measured Service: This is the amount of resources used by an organization based on the number of users and the types of processing. This is determined by the cloud provider. The cloud provider then charges organizations for the services they use on the cloud.
Resource pooling: Another characteristic of the cloud is “Resource pooling”. This means that different clients receive the same resource according to their needs. This is called resource pooling by cloud providers.
Broad network access: This refers to the ability to access files, emails, and other shared resources via multiple modes (laptops and smart phones) and from different locations by different employees within an organization. This allows employees to keep up with projects in a networked world.
On-demand Self Service : You can change the access to resources and add or remove services at any time. Payment will be adjusted accordingly. This is called “on-demand service”
(The NIST Definition Of Cloud Computing)
After having reviewed the characteristics of cloud computing, let’s now look at the different deployment models.
Cloud computing deployment models:
Cloud computing can be divided into three types: private cloud, public cloud or hybrid cloud.
Public cloud: This type of cloud makes the cloud resources available to the general public. The cloud service is managed by a business or academic organization. AWS, or the ‘Amazon Web Services’ is an example of a public cloud.
Private cloud: This type is for one company and its customers. Private cloud can be managed by the organization or any third-party unit.
Community cloud: Community clouds are designed to meet the needs of organizations that share similar interests. They can be maintained by one or more organizations, or by a third-party unit.
Hybrid clouds: Hybrid cloud combine the services from public, private, and community clouds.
After having reviewed the characteristics and deployment models for cloud computing, we can now move on to the most important concern when data is stored in a cloud: “security”. Cloud data can be subject to network security, physical security, and virtualization security.
Another topic that will be the subject of another blog post is cloud computing and security. (OpenSource)
BibliographyOpenSource. (n.d.). The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing. (n.d.). Retrieved from csrc.nist.gov: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf
