Fundamentals of Cloud Computing

Fundamentals of Cloud Computing represents the History, Characteristics, Cloud Computing Models and Implementation of Cloud Computing in separate paragraphs. With the highest number of to do tutorials on Cloud Computing, guides on Cloud Computing published in English language by a non commercial website on Cloud Computing, our basic work is to keep our few thousands of email subscribers, few thousands of social network followers to keep updated and knowledgeable about Cloud Computing and virtualization with fully neutral view and with no affiliate links to misdirect and make the innocent users to force and buy promoted products. Honestly, its impossible to use Adwords for us on Google search – the CPC is so high (nearly $20 per click) that it is practically impossible to fight with giants like Microsoft or Amazon. Still, thankfully Google Web Search is still somewhat neutral. Fundamentals of Cloud Computing, again an academic article on Cloud Computing.

Fundamentals of Cloud Computing : Introduction

In this article on Fundamentals of Cloud Computing, we have used these abbreviations, in this chart abbreviations are on the left hand side and full terminology with link to authoritative explanatory article on that topic :

API  : Application Programming Interface

CPU : Central processing unit

GB : Gigabyte

IaaS : Infrastructure as a Service

MS : Microsoft

NIST : National Institute of Standards and Technology

PaaS : Platform as a Service

RAM : Random Access Memory

SaaS : Software as a Service

SAN : Storage Area Network

SLA : Service Level Agreement

Fundamentals of Cloud Computing : History

Some emerging Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon first used the term cloud computing significantly. Apart from this paragraph, one can read a separate article on History of Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing was prepared as one of the good internet based business to invest. Just at that time, the available bandwidth for high speed and universal standards for software compatibility started to appear.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

1. On-demand self-service : The cloud services can be used automatically as needed and without human interaction from service provider.
2. Broad network access : The access to the remote systems via a network such as the Internet or intranet.
3. Pooling of Resource : The resources of the cloud provider’s bundled is designed to meet the need of Cloud users their and is provided dynamically. The cloud provider is independent of location. The user does not have any control nor the knowledge where from the services offered (geographically).
4. Rapid elasticity :  The necessary resources are fast and flexible (in some cases automatic) and available on demand to the cloud user.
5. Measured service : The cloud systems has built-in control and measurement of resource consumption function depending on the type of cloud service. Thus both parties, the cloud provider and the cloud user ensures appropriate transparency in relation to the services utilized. It is API based and manipulation is not possible.

Models and Service Models of Cloud Computing

Previously discussed in details in the article Cloud Computing Service Models.

Implementation of Cloud Computing

To implement a cloud solution various factors on the growth of the area, the rapid provisioning, and billing of resources are provided in their own data center.
 

Infrastructure : The infrastructure should be technical excellence to provide 24 hours a day and 365 days a year support. Expansion plans should also be implemented in the data center. Energy efficiency, customized consolidation, intelligent monitoring and physical security concepts are essential for low deficits of the hardware components. Redundant power supplies and climate are taken into account as well. The air flow should be implemented through floors or cold enclosures to to cool only the necessary components and to not waste resources. The power supply should be implemented with two or three-phase power supplies. To still keep power in case of power failure to the major hardware components in operation, it is advisable to purchase UPS solutions, spanning the start of one or better two redundant diesel generators.

Hardware Requirements : To achieve high availability and storage hardware should also have a redundancy. The mirrored SAN can consist of different media (eg iSCSI, HDD or SSD). A server then gets assigned to only the memory that it really is (thin provisioning).

Virtualization : Cloud is provided through virtualization technology. Meanwhile, there are a variety of virtualization platforms, which one can use as a basis for deploying virtual machines (such as Hyper-V from Microsoft, VMware ESXi or XenServer from Citrix). One should focus on one vendor to provide standardized IT can.

Application requirements Automation of applications : Fully automated installation of VMs, tools for process management and documentation, Management of all virtual servers, Monitoring systems, Management system for the distribution of additional software on the system, Management of applications and services as well as providing a self-service portal for cloud users are the minimum needed applications.