Cloudcomputing

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is…

“A style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered to customers using Internet technologies.” -Gartner

TYPES OF CLOUDS

There are several kinds of Cloud Computing service offerings. Here are the most common ones.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Software-as-a-service products provide a complete, turnkey application—including complex programs such as those for CRM or enterprise-resource management—via the Internet. Example SaaS tools are Salesforce.com, Zoho.com, Quickbooks Online, Gmail, Flickr, etc. Further technical information on SaaS can he read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): Platform-as-a-service products offer a full or partial development environment that users can access and utilize online, even in collaboration with others. PaaS allows the developer to deliver their application without worrying about the underlying hardware infrastructure. Typical PaaS application tie into a greater ecosystem, like a social networking site, twitter, etc. A sample PaaS offering may be a social networking game like Farmville that is accessed through the Facebook system. Further technical information on PaaS can be read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_as_a_service

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas)*: Infrastructure-as-a-service products deliver a full computer infrastructure via the Internet. IaaS providers deploy and manager the compute, storage, and network components that others use to deliver their service on. Further reading on IaaS can be read here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_as_a_service#Infrastructure

                      *Virtacore offers Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Clouds are classified as Single-Tenancy (ST) or Multi-tenancy (MT). ST clouds are typically private deployments and not shared with other customers. MT clouds are typically shared among two or more customers, including the compute, storage, and network resources. There are pros and cons on each type of cloud, it really depends on the end-user requirements as it relates to security, performance, how paranoid the customer is and/or how critical their application is.