Introduction

Hi Everyone, I am preparing to take the Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) and the Azure Developer Associate (AZ-204) certifications. I want to share my learnings in simple terms as per my understanding.

As Cloud and Azure are a big topic, I will create multiple posts as I keep learning. In this post, let's talk about Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Evolution of Cloud Computing

The term was first introduced in 1950s to describe the internet related services, and it eveloved from distributed computing to the modern term Cloud Computing.

1. Dedicated server
   

   • Dedicated or single server refers to a physical machine used and maintained by a single person or an organization.
     
   • While they offer performance and security, the user or organization has to bear the expense of maintaining them, which could be costly.
   • Can host only one web app in a server.
   • As they have fixed hardware capabilities like CPU RAM and storage, they could be under utilized.

2. Virtual Private Server
   

   • The physical machine is virtualized to sub machines.
   • Think of it as an extension to Dedicated Servers, but with the capability of hosting multiple web apps, resulting in effective use of storage and hardware capacity.

3. Shared Hosting
   

   • A single physical machine is used by hundreds of users or organizations to host different web apps.
   • Users pay only for the resources they use, reducing the expense of underused resources.
   • Maintainence costs are shared among the users using the server.

4. Cloud Hosting
   

   • Multiple physical machines act as one system.
   • The system is abstracted into multiple cloud-services.
   • Users only have to pay for the resources they use.
   • Provided by Cloud Service Provider (CSP). Examples of CSPs: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
   • The server setup, maintainence, security and updates are taken care by the CSP.

Types of Cloud Computing

1. SaaS (Software as a Service)
   

   • These are services used by customers or users across the globe.
   • Examples: SalesForce, Gmail, Office 365

2. PaaS (Product as a Service)
   

   • This computing is used by developers.
   • Helps developers focus on deployment and management of applications.

3. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
   

   • Used by Admins.
   • These are the basic building blocks of Information Technology.
   • Provides access to network features, computers and data storage space.
   • CSPs are IaaS.

Common Cloud Services

Cloud Service Providers that offer IaaS will always have the following 4 core cloud service offerings:

1. Computing
2. Storage
3. Database
4. Networking

Benefits of Cloud Computing

1. Cost-effective
   • Thousand's of customers share the cost of resources.
   • PAYG (Pay As You Go) : Pay a monthly cost for resources used.
   • No upfront cost.
   • Pay for only what you use.
2. Global
   • You can launch workloads anywhere in the world, making your application available to users across the globe.
3. Secure
   • Cloud services are secure by default as it is taken care of by the CSP.
   • Physical security and security updates are also taken care by the CSP.
4. Reliable CSPs are reliable as they provide the following functionalities:
   • Data backup
   • Disaster recovery
   • Fault tolerance
5. Scalable
   • You can increase or decrease the services and resources used based on demand.
6. Elastic
   • Automate scaling during peak spikes and drop on demand.
7. Current
   • Sotwares are patched, upgraded and replaced by the CSPs without interruptions to customers.

That's it for this post. We will talk in detail about every individual service in the upcoming posts. I hope this post was helpful to the readers in learning new terminologies.

Thanks for reading.