What is the cloud?

  • The cloud or more specific cloud computing refers to the delivery of un-demand computing services over the internet on a pay as you go basis. Compared to a traditional hosting platform you only have to worry about your own application (or at least in the extent you prefer) and all other things like maintenance of hardware, hosting platform and security (and more) is abstracted away.

Why use Cloud Computing?

Well there are a lot of pros with cloud development:

  • You don’t have to take risks with investing upfront
  • You don’t need to worry about storage and maintenance of hardware
  • The security aspect is outsourced by a (hopefully) trusted cloud provider with lots of experience.
  • In case of data loss most cloud providers provide backup systems
  • You have no problem with scalability, you don’t have to buy additional hardware to deploy your app to a larger customer base.

Models of Cloud Computing

  • Deployment Model:
    • Public Cloud: Accessed on the public internet and services are hosted on public cloud providers like: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform
    • Private Cloud: Services not hosted on the public internet but mostly within an organization.
    • Hybrid Cloud: Use of services both in the public cloud and in the private cloud.
  • Service Model:
    • IAAS (Infrastructure as a service) - the hardware and VMs are provided. Commonly used by IT-administrators.
    • PAAS (Platform as a service) - additional to whats provided by IAAS you also get an additional layer of softwares provided: OS, Middleware, Runtime. Good for software developer teams.
    • SAAS (Software as a service) - is a fully provided software over the internet and as the above has no physical connection to any one device.

service models

Cloud Service Providers

The three biggest cloud providers are as mentioned above Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), but what is the difference?

Cost of hosting of a virtual server in the cloud:

Provider per month per year
Microsoft Azure $ 1,130 $ 13,560
Amazon WS $ 394 $ 4,728
Google Cloud $ 122 $ 1,464

Sources

Nice short video about cloud computing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M988_fsOSWo&t=139

14 minute video comparing cloud service providers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrqmYvjHHJg