Cloud Fundamentals: A Beginner's Guide to Cloud Computing

Karishma Kochar

Karishma Kochar

Senior AWS Corporate Trainer

As businesses evolve, managing IT infrastructure has shifted from traditional on-premise systems to the flexible, scalable model of cloud computing. Cloud services provide on-demand access to resources, minimizing costs and boosting efficiency. In this guide, we’ll explore the comparison between traditional architecture and cloud computing, the reasons driving cloud adoption, the cloud service models that offer various levels of control, and the cloud deployment models tailored to different business needs. Understanding these concepts is key to leveraging cloud technology effectively.

Traditional Architecture vs Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses and individuals manage data and applications. "Cloud Fundamentals" refer to the basic principles that every beginner should understand. The ability to access resources on-demand is a key component of Cloud Fundamentals, allowing users to scale up or down as needed. As more companies embrace this technology, understanding Cloud Fundamentals becomes essential for navigating the digital landscape. Whether it's for storage, computation, or networking, Cloud Fundamentals form the backbone of today's cloud strategies.

What is Traditional Architecture?

Traditional IT infrastructure comprises physical hardware and software components, including data centers, servers, networking hardware, and enterprise applications. Maintaining such an infrastructure involves significant costs and challenges.

Cloud Fundamentals | A Beginner's Guide to Cloud Computing | NovelVista Learning Solutions

Problems With Traditional Architecture

  • Pay the rent for the data center.
  • Pay for power supply, cooling, and maintenance
  • Adding and replacing hardware takes time
  • Scaling is limited
  • Hire a team to monitor the infrastructure
  • How do you deal with disasters? (earthquake, power shutdown, fire)

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet, allowing users to access and use resources like servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics without needing to own and manage physical hardware.

Cloud Computing

How Does It Overcome the Problems of Traditional Architecture?

  • Lower IT costs: The cloud helps you to offload some or most of the costs and effort of purchasing, installing, configuring, and managing your own on-premises infrastructure.
  • Improve agility and time-to-value: With the help of the cloud, your organization can start using enterprise applications within a minute, instead of waiting weeks or months for IT to respond to a request, purchase and configure supporting hardware, and install the software. It also lets you empower certain users, specifically developers and data scientists, to help themselves with software and support the infrastructure.
  • Scale more easily & cost-effectively: As the cloud provides elasticity, instead of purchasing the excess capacity that sits vacant when it is no longer required, you can scale capacity up or down in response to spikes and dips in traffic.

Cloud Computing Glossary

Cloud Computing Overview

Cloud Fundamentals: Why Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing Benefits: Cloud Fundamentals

Cloud computing offers organizations cost savings, scalability, flexibility, and enhanced security. It allows for on-demand access to resources, enabling businesses to quickly deploy applications and adapt to changing demands without significant upfront investments. With remote access, improved collaboration, and built-in disaster recovery, cloud computing empowers companies to focus on core activities and drive innovation while benefiting from advanced technologies and reduced IT burdens.

Why Cloud Computing

Characteristics Of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Characteristics

Cloud Essentials Checklist

Cloud Essentials Concepts Guide

Cloud Service Model

There are three types of service models. Each type of cloud computing provides different levels of control, flexibility, and management, so you’ll select the proper set of services for your needs. The three service models are as follows:

Cloud Service Models Overview

Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)

  • It is the most flexible type of service which lets you rent the hardware and contains the basic building blocks for cloud and IT.
  • It gives you complete control over the hardware that runs the application (servers, VMs, storage, networks & operating systems).
  • IaaS gives you the very best level of flexibility and management control over your IT resources.
  • Examples of IaaS: VM or EC2 (from AWS), storage, or networking.
IaaS

Platform As A Service (PaaS)

  • PaaS is a service model that provides a ready-to-use development environment where developers can specialize in writing and executing high-quality code to make customized applications.
  • PaaS will help you create an application quickly without managing the underlying infrastructure. For example, when deploying a web application using PaaS, you don’t have to install the OS, web server, or even system patching. However, you can scale the resources and add new features to your services.
  • Examples of PaaS: Elastic Beanstalk or Lambda from AWS, WebApps, Functions or Azure SQL DB from Azure, Cloud SQL DB from Google Cloud, or Oracle Database Cloud Service from Oracle Cloud.
PaaS

Software As A Service (SaaS)

  • SaaS provides you with a complete product that is run and fully managed by the service provider.
  • The software is hosted online and made available to customers on a subscription basis or for purchase in this cloud service model.
  • With a SaaS offering, you don’t need to worry about how the service is maintained or how the underlying infrastructure is maintained. It would help if you believed in how you’d use that specific software.
  • Examples of SaaS: Microsoft Office 365, Oracle ERP/HCM Cloud, SalesForce, Gmail, or Dropbox.
SaaS

Cloud Deployment Model

Public Cloud

This is accessible to the general public, offering services over the internet on a pay-per-use basis. These services are managed by third-party providers, which handle the infrastructure, maintenance, and security.

Private Cloud

This is dedicated to a single organization, offering greater control over data, security, and compliance. It can be hosted on-premises or by a third-party provider.

Community Cloud

This serves a group of organizations with shared concerns (e.g., security, compliance, jurisdiction). It combines some benefits of both private and public clouds.

Hybrid Cloud

Cloud Fundamentals: How To Choose Between Them?

Selecting the right deployment model depends on several factors:

  • Scalability: If rapid scalability is required, consider public or hybrid clouds.
  • Security and Privacy: For highly sensitive data, private or community clouds are preferable.
  • Cost: Public clouds are generally more cost-effective for non-sensitive data and dynamic workloads.
  • Compliance: Industries with strict regulatory requirements might lean towards private or community clouds.
  • Flexibility: Hybrid clouds offer a balance, allowing organizations to utilize both private and public cloud advantages.

By understanding these deployment models, organizations can better align their IT strategies with their business goals, ensuring optimal performance, security, and cost efficiency.

For those new to cloud computing, it's important to grasp the core concepts of Cloud Fundamentals. These include understanding how cloud services are categorized, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Cloud Fundamentals also involve learning how security, cost management, and performance optimization are handled in the cloud environment. As you begin your cloud journey, mastering Cloud Fundamentals will help you leverage the full potential of this technology.