The Concept of Cloud Computing and Virtualization - Assignment Example

Cloud Computing and Virtualization Student’s Name Code & Course Professor’s name University City Date Introduction The emergence of cloud computing has led to a paradigm shift in how people are delivering and managing services over the internet. The rapid change has revolutionized the landscape of information technology and making the promise of utility computing to be a reality. The rapid change necessitates the understanding of this phenomenon and how it works as well as the technologies used. This paper analyzes the concept of cloud computing, the anatomy characteristics, definition and the core technology. Question 1 Part A: Technologies That Facilitate Cloud Computing Cloud computing is a computing platform that allows computer used to access information share resources and access computer power from a web browser. It is the development based on the internet and the use of computer technology. It can also be explained as the a form of computing where the scalable resource such as data, programs, files, data and hardware including third party services can be accessed over the internet (Yang, et al., 2015). This form of computing only requires the user to pay for the services or the resource used. The payment is made throng a customized Service level agreement (SLA). This technology has revolutionized computing from the local individualized devices to a virtual distribution and scalable resources. This enables the users to access greater resources, storage and many of the application that make up the cloud on demand (Nazir, et al., 2015). Part B For cloud computing to be a reality there are a number of technologies that work together. These technologies are often called the enabling technologies. They include the orchestration of services, virtualization technologies, system and programing, web services and SOA, web 2.0, and worldwide distributed storage systems. Apart from the enabling technology, there are other innovations that are necessary for the running of a cloud computing. These technological innovations are what constitutes the infrastructure behind cloud computing. These innovations are the resource, the platform and the application (Senarathna, et al., 2015). a. The resource is the layer that constitutes the physical and virtualized networking and storage resources. b. The platform layer is quite complex and is divided into other sub-layers such as the transaction, computing framework, the dispatching and task scheduling layers. The innovation in the storage layer enables it to provide unlimited caching capability and storage for the running of the other resources (Ross, and Blumenstein, 2015). c. The application layer provides the capability for the running of all the other services. It ensures that no particular resource fails to run and crash the whole system. If the resource is big enough, the application layer can enable the running of and distribution of large transactions and even the management of volumes of data (Ross, and Blumenstein, 2015). d. Virtualization technology is the resource that partitions the hardware to provide the scalable and flexible platform for running other applications. The machines that facilitate this operation involve VMware, Xen, and Virtual private network. While VMware and Xen provide the virtualized IT infrastructure, VPN offers customized network environments that can allow the access to the cloud resource (Ross, and Blumenstein, 2015). e. Orchestration of service flow and workflow allow the users to get services without any hitches. This technology orchestrates services to dynamic clients automatically without interfering with the other user on the grid. f. Web services and SOA. When computing on Cloud, the resources are managed and availed through a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Using this platform, it is possible to provide a series of services on distributed platforms. g. Web 2.0 includes the various innovations that facilitate the use of the internet. The services are geared toward enhancing creativity, collaboration and the sharing of the information on the web. h. A world-wide distributed system describes the network storage systems. In such a form system, storage is provided in the form of data centers. Such storage can be availed to the user for rent, managed, migrated, and merged to any user in the format that they want. Question 2 Part A: Cloud Delivery Models The delivery model is the prepackaged combination of IT resource that a user gets from a cloud provider. There are three models that a user can choose from. They are Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). IaaS represents various IT resources or simply an IT environment that a user can access and manage through a web interface. This environment may include operating systems, network, connectivity, hardware and other resources. On the other hand, PaaS represents an IT environment that is typically ready to use. In this case, the resources and the service are already configured to run a particular activity (Negi, 2015). Finally, SaaS is where software is provided as a shared resources or a product that should provide particular services to the client. Part B: The Solutions Offered By Delivery Models The three delivery models have varying uses and can solve different problems. Each organization might have varying needs, and these needs will determine the model that the company should choose. For instance, the IaaS is more appropriate for users that want to take control of the configuration and the utilization of the resources. IaaS resources often come when they are not configured, as such the user will decide on how they would like to configure the resource to meet their needs. The advantage of this is that it reduces the problem of hardware configuration as well as software configuration. Configured resource at times might not provide the necessary capability for the company, but when the company configures the resources then such problems can be avoided (Negi, 2015). Using PaaS also offers both software and hardware solution to the clients. First clients using this platform will not have the challenge of buying the hardware to run their services. The cost of buying hardware is often high especially for high-end usage. With the use of PaaS, the client can get access to quality and high functionality hardware without necessarily buying them. Apart from the hardware solution, the client is also shelved from the cost of managing the software. When the software malfunctions the cloud provider takes the responsibility of managing and running the repairs (Ranjan, 2015). Using SaaS also offer lots of advantage to the user both software and hardware. With SaaS, the user can quickly configure the systems and reduce the setup time. This allows the Organization to concentrate on service delivery rather than set up and management of the infrastructure. Another problem that can be solving by SaaS is the scalability and integration. The firm will not have to face the challenge of buying a new hardware in order to upgrade the system. They only need to enable a new SaaS offering. Lastly, SaaS reduces the cost incurred when one tries to upgrade the hardware and the software (Ranjan, 2015). Question 3 Part A: Beneficial Cloud Computing Technologies Cloud computing offers enormous power in respect to computer storage and also offer high elasticity and scalability. In addition, the services offered by cloud computing are cheaper and much more applicable when using IT services. The aspects that bring a distinction between cloud computing and other services include On-demand services, QoS guaranteed offer, Autonomous system, and scalability (Konstantinos, et al., 2015). When suing cloud computing the client can get resources and service on-demand. Personalization and customizations can be done later and this reduces the time for service delivery. The user can be sure that they can get QoS. This includes features such as hardware, CPU speed, memory and even bandwidth. In addition, clients are sure of getting an autonomous system. An organization can be assured of systems that are managed with transparency. All the services, software hardware can be configured and presented to the organization as a single image (Konstantinos, et al., 2015). As well could services can be scaled across many platforms depending on needs, geographical location, software configurations and hardware performance. Part B: The Most Important Characteristics To An Organization Important characteristics of cloud computing for an organization are scalability and on-demand services. Scalability means that the organization can tailor the cloud computing services to meet the needs of the organization, the geographical location as well as the diversity of the organization. With such scalability, the company can only take features that are applicable to the organization and leave out others that do not offer any use (Gutierrez, et al, 2015). This reduces the cost of buying systems that is not of use. As well on demand services ensures that the organization maximizes it resource to offer quality and timely services to the client. In this case, the organization’s concern is not in getting the hardware and software but rather the timely delivery of service. All the service they need can be availed instantly by the cloud provider. Part C: Advantages Of Cloud Computing To Non-Cloud Computing Cloud computing has a number of advantages to organizations as compared to the non-cloud application. First, cloud computing offers easy and efficient scalability as opposed to non-cloud computing. It also offers a cost effective platform where the organization can easily run high end programs and access high quality series that they could not afford to install. With cloud computing a firm can use faster processors, more space and even great speed that can be very costly to buy, install and maintain. As well cloud computing enables an organization to offer quality and services as they are able to use standards system that can facilitate such. Such quality cannot be offered on a non-cloud computing since the cost is too high. Lastly with cloud computing upgradability is fast and easy. A company will only need to upgrade to a higher cloud service rather than purchasing new equipment as it would be in a non-cloud computing model. It is clear that cloud computing offer more advantages to a firm than non-cloud computing (Bera, et al., 2015). Cloud computing has revolutionized the use of computer resource in organization. Today a company can choose to buy a model that offer greater functionality and reduce the cost of buying and maintaining firmware. The various cloud computing delivery models such as SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, gives clients the choice to tailor their cloud computing to match the company needs. There are also many advantages of using cloud computing such as easy upgradability, higher storage and also low cost. Cloud computing is becoming the ultimate solution for computing. Reference list Bera, S., Misra, S. and Rodrigues, J.J., 2015. Cloud computing applications for smart grid: A survey. Parallel and Distributed Systems, IEEE Transactions on, 26(5), pp.1477-1494. Gutierrez, A., Boukrami, E. and Lumsden, R., 2015. Technological, organisational and environmental factors influencing managers’ decision to adopt cloud computing in the UK. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 28(6), pp.788-807. Konstantinos, K., Persefoni, M., Evangelia, F., Christos, M. and Mara, N., 2015, October. Cloud computing and economic growth. In Proceedings of the 19th Panhellenic Conference on Informatics (pp. 209-214). ACM. Nazir, M., Bhardwaj, N., Chawda, R. K., & Mishra, R. G. 2015. Cloud Computing: Current Research Challenges. Book Chapter of Cloud Computing: Reviews, Surveys, Tools, Techniques and Applications-An Open-Access eBook published by HCTL Open. Negi, M.C., 2015. Importance of Due Diligence and Risk Assessment before Adoption of Cloud Delivery Model. Ranjan, R., Buyya, R., Nepal, S. and Georgakopulos, D., 2015. A note on resource orchestration for cloud computing. 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