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Definition of Cloud computing Cloud storage is a model of data storage where the digital data is stored in logical pools, the physical storage spans multiple servers (and often locations), and the physical environment is typically owned and managed by a hosting company.
How does cloud computing work? At its most basic level, a cloud storage system needs just one data server connected to the Internet. A client (e.g., a computer user subscribing to a cloud storage service) sends copies of files over the Internet to the data server, which then records the information. When the client wishes to retrieve the information, he or she accesses the data server through a Web-based interface. The server then either sends the files back to the client or allows the client to access and manipulate the files on the server itself.
Advantages to using the cloud Access information anywhere and anytime as long as you have an internet connection. Eliminates the limitation of saving space to computer s hard drive. Cloud computing allows more storage space. Set-up needed to establish cloud computing is a straight forward process of establishing an account with the vendor of choosing. Updating software would now be the responsibility of the service provider.
Disadvantages to using the cloud Increase in security risks. Greater security risk from hackers if the data were on the internet, because a hacker can obtain any and all information from the provider; whereas, a hacker would need to go after an individual company if the system was located in-house. If there are any issues with the provider and the system were to be unavailable, it would disable a company from conducting business until the site become available. The loss of control over software updates.
The Government and the Cloud If a company is doing fraudulent activity, the Government can seize the server that has that company s data on it. If your companies data is on that particular server, you are losing your data until the Government is done with the case, no matter how long it takes. One company, auto vendor marketing and inventory management vendor Liquid Motors, filed suit in a U.S. district court seeking a restraining order against the FBI that would force the return of the company's servers. A district court sided with the Government and supported its probable-cause argument for holding on to the servers. Although the Government was kind enough to copy the disk drives for Liquid Motors on drives that Liquid Motors had to provide.
Google purchases mid-range servers for its data centers. Should something break, it's relatively easy and inexpensive to get a replacement. Repair and maintenance can be huge costs for a data center -- each building may house thousands of machines To ensure services remain online, Google dedicates several servers to provide the same function. That way, should one server malfunction, another can take its place with a minimal interruption in services. It builds redundancy into the system. The Google cloud's foundation is the Google File System. This is a distributed computing system that handles information requests through basic file commands like open, read and write. The entire file system consists of networks called clusters. Ultimately, a master server takes the request and sends a message to the Google machine that houses the data -- Google calls these machines chunkservers. The chunkserver sends the data directly to the client -- the information never passes through the master server.
Amazon Elastic Cloud (EC2) Amazon EC2 presents a true virtual computing environment, allowing you to use web service interfaces to launch instances with a variety of operating systems, load them with your custom application environment, manage your network s access permissions, and run your image using as many or few systems as you desire. All servers share a 1G Ethernet network segment. There is no other connectivity between servers, which is one reason why live migration is not supported. One of the services that Amazon has is their Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS). The EBS allows you to create a file system on top of these volumes, run a database, or use them in any other way you would use a block device. Amazon EBS volumes are placed in a specific Availability Zone. Availability Zones are distinct locations that are engineered to be insulated from failures in other Availability Zones and provide inexpensive, low latency network connectivity to other Availability Zones in the same Region. Amazon Cloud Watch is another service that you can get from using the Amazon EC2. It provides your company with visibility into resource utilization, operational performance, and overall demand patterns.
Azure is the only major cloud platform for both infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-aservice (PaaS). This powerful combination of managed and unmanaged services lets you build, deploy, and manage applications any way you like for unmatched productivity. Azure supports any operating system, language, tool, and framework from Windows to Linux, SQL Server to Oracle, C# to Java. It puts the best of Windows and Linux ecosystems at your fingertips, so you can build great applications and services that work with every device. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) provides identity management and access control capabilities for your cloud applications. You can synchronize your on-premises identities and enable single sign-on to simplify user access to cloud applications. Azure SQL Database is a relational database service that enables you to rapidly create, extend, and scale relational applications into the cloud. Just as before these are only some of what Microsoft Azure has to offer when you sign up with them.
Virtual CPUs or cores RAM Cost per hour Amazon m1.medium 1 3.75GB 12 cents Amazon c3.large 2 3.75GB 15 cents Amazon m3.2xlarge 8 30.00GB 90 cents Google n1-standard1 1 3.75GB 10.4 cents Google n1-highcpu-2 2 1.80GB 13.1 cents Google n1-standard-8 8 30.00GB 82.9 cents Windows Azure Small VM Windows Azure Medium VM 1 1.75GB 6 cents 2 3.50GB 12 cents Windows Azure Extra Large VM 8 14.00GB 48 cents