Cloud computing is a buzzword on the internet, with a Google search revealing 103 million occurrences of the term. Cloud computing involves providing on-demand computing services, originally storage and, more recently, processing and application power, over the Internet, with businesses that use it. to the letter. The "cloud" in cloud computing has its origin in network patterns that draw the Internet in the form of a voluminous cloud.
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History of cloud computing
Despite the modern popularity of cloud computing, the notion of computing on a network dates back to 1961. An MIT professor, John McCarthy, hailed the "founding father" of artificial intelligence in a prescient speech: "L & # Computer science may one day be organized as a utility, just as the telephone system is a utility Each subscriber must pay only for the capacity it actually uses, but has access to all the programming languages characteristic of a very large system ...Some subscribers may offer services to other subscribers...Computer utility could become the foundation of an important and new sector."
The earliest use of the term "cloud computing" is more modern, dating to August 9, 2006 during the Search Engine Strategies conference. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said: "What's interesting is that a new model is emerging... Data services and architecture are supposed to be up and running." servers. We call it cloud computing: they should be somewhere in a "cloud." And if you have the right kind of browser or the right kind of access, it doesn't matter if you have a PC, Mac, mobile phone or BlackBerry, or if there are new devices left. to develop, you can access the cloud. "
Over a decade ago, those words were pretty visionary, except for the BlackBerry game, but it's no surprise that Google's Android mobile platform debuts a year later, which certainly contributed to the popularity of cloud computing.
Cloud Computing and Business
Cloud computing makes things easier for businesses. The burden of owning your own data center and your own business infrastructure is gone. The company can rent the applications, processing power, and storage they need from their cloud service provider. Start-up costs are reduced and the business only pays for what is actually needed and used, with the ability to grow as needed, on demand. In addition, maintenance and updates are performed by the cloud service provider, reducing internal IT service tasks.
The first half of cloud computing is the cloud. Although the cloud is not local compared to the computer, its location varies. For example, there is the term public cloud for which the company is not responsible for the maintenance of the server.
Its counterpoint is the private cloud, where the company provides maintenance and is physically on site, called a local cloud or more remote in a data center. The private cloud is often used for more data-sensitive applications to maintain control of data for a higher level of security.
Today, a popular solution combines the aspects of a private cloud with a public cloud, allowing you to distribute workloads for optimal performance. This solution is called a hybrid cloud solution. There is also the variant of a community cloud where multiple organizations create and maintain their own cloud solution in a collaborative effort.
Software as a service
The other half of the cloud is the computer part, and today almost all applications that do not need to be close to the physical hardware of a computer are compatible with cloud computing.
These cloud computing applications fall into several categories. SaaS, known as Software-as-a-Service, is popular. Other variants of cloud computing applications include PaaS (platform as a service) and IaaS (infrastructure as a service).
The Microsoft Office 365 suite is a popular example of SaaS. Instead of running the program locally, Office 365 is sold as a subscription. For the price of € 9.99 / month, all Microsoft Office applications are included. Among the benefits, it is noted that the software, hosted on your server, is constantly updated and documents are saved in the cloud for reliable and easy-to-share storage.
Other popular SaaS examples include Adobe Creative Cloud, Slack, DocuSign, and Salesforce.com.
Platform as a service
PaaS is the second type of cloud computing platform, with an operating system, a programming language environment, and a database. data.
Microsoft Azure is a popular example of PaaS, used by leading companies such as Toyota, UPS, and Coca-Cola. In fact, Microsoft says that 90% of Fortune 500 companies use it. Hosting is across 54 Azure Data Center regions available in 140 countries.
People use Microsoft Azure for a variety of projects, including managing relational SQL databases, Microsoft or Linux cloud-based virtual machines, and cloud-based web applications through Microsoft Azure web applications. Other examples of PaaS include IBM SmartCloud, the open source RedHat OpenShift, Google App Engine, and Java-based CloudBees.
Infrastructure as a service
The third main category of cloud computing is infrastructure as a service (IaaS). In this variant, the goal is to provide virtualized computing resources over the Internet, the cloud provider that hosts a full range of infrastructure services, including servers, storage, and networking, as well as a virtualization layer. . data center on site.
IaaS provides essential services such as security, registry access, monitoring services, and storage resiliency to provide a stronger offering than if it were hosted locally, with a turnkey solution.
There are many examples of IaaS, including Amazon Web Services, Open Cloud Rackspace, Google Compute Engine, and Apache CloudStack. In fact, Amazon Web Services is so popular that last year, all of the operating income for all companies came from its cloud offering.
With the power of shared resources in the cloud, whether for software, as a platform, or for a complete infrastructure, it is no wonder that cloud computing is so popular.
By all indications, this really seems like when it comes to the future of cloud computing, the sky's the limit.