Summary

  • 2 minutes

Here is a brief summary of the important concepts introduced in this module:

  • Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service over a network, whereby distributed resources are provided to the end user as a utility.
  • The idea of utility computing originated in the 1950s and 1960s, but the enabling technologies evolved decades later and have finally matured to a state in which cloud computing is a viable option for organizations to invest in.
  • The enabling technologies of cloud computing are networks, virtualization and resource management, utility computing, programming models, parallel distributed computing, and storage technologies.
  • The three primary cloud service models are Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
  • In the IaaS model, providers rent out compute resources in the form of virtual-machine instances, which are available in a variety of CPU, memory, disk, and network bandwidth configurations.
  • PaaS provides a platform for running applications that you install and maintain, but prevents you from having to install and maintain the underlying hardware and software.
  • SaaS enables the delivery of software over the Internet (typically through a Web browser).
  • There are three well-known types of clouds: public, private, and hybrid.
  • Popular cloud providers include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Each provider typically offers a stack consisting of compute, storage, and networking services as well as PaaS and SaaS services.
  • Some of the most popular use cases for the cloud include: web and mobile applications, big data analytics, on-demand high performance computing, online storage and archival, rapid application development and testing, and machine learning and artificial intelligence.
  • Cloud computing offers many benefits, including a pay-as-you-go economic model, simplified IT management for users, scalability, flexibility, improved utilization, and a decreased carbon footprint.
  • Cloud computing also has many risks and challenges, including vendor lock-in, security risks, privacy-related concerns, developer training and reengineering, evolving tools, and movement of data.
  • Cloud computing offers a compelling economic model for businesses through the pay-as-you-go model and can significantly lower management and overall costs of IT.
  • Cloud service providers leverage economies of scale to provide services at low costs. They require large data centers and many clients in order to amortize the costs over the entire user base.
  • Service-level objectives (SLOs) allow an organization to formally state its service requirements to a service provider
  • A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and a client that defines the level of service expected from the service provider.
  • Auditing evaluates whether the cloud services comply with the SLA. Cloud service providers hire external auditors to evaluate their services, and the auditors issue SOC reports summarizing compliance and performance.