Cloud Computing (Unit 3)

❖ Layered Cloud Architecture Design

Cloud computing is made up of several layers for better operational efficiency. Architecturally, Cloud
computing can be divided into 4 layers.

Physical Layer ( Datacenter Layer ): The hardware layer is responsible for dealing with the
physical assets of the cloud, including routers, servers, switches, cooling systems and power ,
Contains physical servers, network etc

Infrastructure Layer: Virtualized servers, networking and storage resources. Infrastructure as a

Service is the hosted delivery of infrastructure services such as servers, networks and other hardware
to consumers. IaaS provides consumers access to on-demand, scalable storage and compute power.

Platform Layer: which contains components or services like Windows Azure, Google App Engine.
A platform for development, deployment. Platform as a Service offers a complete platform and the
tools to develop and deploy applications on the platform.

Application Layer: This is the layer end users interact with. This contains software which are
delivered as service like Gmail, Salesforce, dropbox etc. Software as a Service is the hosted delivery
of Software that consumers can access over the internet.

❖ NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been designated by Federal
Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra with technical leadership for US government
(USG) agency efforts related to the adoption and development of cloud computing standards.
 The goal is to accelerate the federal government‟s adoption of secure and effective cloud
computing to reduce costs and improve services. The NIST strategy is to build a USG Cloud
Computing Technology Roadmap which focuses on the highest priority USG cloud computing
security, interoperability and portability requirements, and to lead efforts to develop standards
and guidelines in close consultation and collaboration with standards bodies, the private
sector, and other stakeholders.

The NIST cloud computing reference architecture focuses on the requirements of “what”
cloud services provide, not a “how to” design solution and implementation. The reference
architecture is intended to facilitate the understanding of the operational intricacies in cloud
computing.

NIST Cloud Computing reference architecture defines five major actors:

✔ Cloud Provider

✔ Cloud Carrier

✔ Cloud Broker

✔ Cloud Auditor

✔ Cloud Consumer

NIST cloud computing reference architecture, which identifies the major actors, their activities
and functions in cloud computing. Each actor is an entity (a person or an organization) that
participates in a transaction or process and/or performs tasks in cloud computing.

❖ Cloud Consumer: A cloud consumer is the end-user who browses or utilizes the services
provided by Cloud Service Providers (CSP), sets up service contracts with the cloud provider.
A cloud consumer browses the service catalog from a cloud provider, requests the appropriate
service, sets up service contracts with the cloud provider, and uses the service. The cloud
consumer may be billed for the service provisioned, and needs to arrange payments accordingly.

Cloud consumers need SLAs to specify the technical performance requirements fulfilled by a
cloud provider. SLAs can cover terms regarding the quality of service, security, remedies for
performance failures.

A cloud provider may also list in the SLAs a set of promises explicitly not made to consumers,
i.e. limitations, and obligations that cloud consumers must accept. A cloud consumer can freely
choose a cloud provider with better pricing and more favorable terms.

❑ SaaS applications in the cloud and made accessible via a network to the SaaS consumers. The
consumers of SaaS can be organizations that provide their members with access to software
applications, end users who directly use software applications, or software application
administrators who configure applications for end users.

❑ Cloud consumers of PaaS can employ the tools and execution resources provided by cloud
providers to develop, test, deploy and manage the applications hosted in a cloud environment.
PaaS consumers can be billed according to, processing, database storage and network
resources consumed by the PaaS application, and the duration of the platform usage.

❑ Consumers of IaaS have access to virtual computers, network-accessible storage, network

infrastructure components, and other fundamental computing resources on which they can
deploy and run arbitrary software. The consumers of IaaS can be system developers, system
 administrators and IT managers who are interested in creating, installing, managing and
monitoring services for IT infrastructure operations. IaaS consumers are provisioned with the
capabilities to access these computing resources, and are billed according to the amount or
duration of the resources consumed, such as CPU hours used by virtual computers, volume
and duration of data stored, network bandwidth consumed, number of IP addresses used for
certain intervals.

❖ Cloud Provider :- A group or object that delivers cloud services to cloud consumers or end-
users. It offers various components of cloud computing. Cloud computing consumers
purchase a growing variety of cloud services from cloud service providers.
▪ IaaS Providers: In this model, the cloud service providers offer infrastructure components
that would exist in an on-premises data center. These components consist of servers,
networking, and storage as well as the virtualization layer.
▪ SaaS Providers: In Software as a Service (SaaS), vendors provide a wide sequence of
business technologies, such as Human resources management (HRM) software, customer
relationship management (CRM) software, all of which the SaaS vendor hosts and provides
services through the internet.
▪ PaaS Providers: In Platform as a Service (PaaS), vendors offer cloud infrastructure and
services that can access to perform many functions. In PaaS, services and products are mostly
utilized in software development. PaaS providers offer more services than IaaS providers.
PaaS providers provide operating system and middleware along with application stack, to the
underlying infrastructure.

A Cloud Provider‟s activities can be described in five major areas conducts its activities in the
areas of service deployment, service orchestration, cloud service management, security, and
privacy.

▪ Service Deployment :- As identified in the NIST cloud computing definition, a cloud

infrastructure may be operated in one of the following deployment models: public cloud,
private cloud, community cloud, or hybrid cloud. The differences are based on how exclusive
the computing resources are made to a Cloud Consumer.
▪ Service Orchestration :- Service Orchestration refers to the composition of system
components to support the Cloud Providers activities in arrangement, coordination and
management of computing resources in order to provide cloud services to Cloud Consumers.
▪ Cloud Service Management :- Cloud Service Management includes all of the service-related
functions that are necessary for the management and operation of those services required by
or proposed to cloud consumers. The cloud service management can be described from the
perspective of business support, provisioning and configuration, and from the perspective of
portability and interoperability requirements.
▪ Security :- Cloud-based systems still need to address security requirements such as
authentication, authorization, availability, confidentiality, identity management, integrity,
audit, security monitoring, incident response, and security policy management.
▪ Privacy :- Cloud providers should protect the assured, proper, and consistent collection,
processing, communication, use and disposition of personal information (PI) and personally
identifiable information (PII) in the cloud.

❖ Cloud Auditor : A cloud auditor is a party that can perform an independent examination of
cloud service controls with the intent to express an opinion thereon. Audits are performed to
verify conformance to standards through review of objective evidence. Cloud Auditor can
make an assessment of the security controls in the information system to determine the extent
to which the controls are implemented correctly, operating as planned and constructing the
desired outcome with respect to meeting the security necessities for the system. There are
three major roles of Cloud Auditor which are mentioned below:

✔ Security Audit.

✔ Privacy Impact Audit.

✔ Performance Audit.

❖ Cloud Broker : As cloud computing evolves, the integration of cloud services can be too
complex for cloud consumers to manage. A cloud consumer may request cloud services from
a cloud broker, instead of contacting a cloud provider directly. A cloud broker is an entity that
manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services and negotiates relationships
between cloud providers and cloud consumers. In general, a cloud broker can provide services
in three categories.

• Service Intermediation: A cloud broker enhances a given service by improving some specific
capability and providing value-added services to cloud consumers. The improvement can be
managing access to cloud services, identity management, performance reporting, enhanced
security, etc.

• Service Aggregation: A cloud broker combines and integrates multiple services into one or
more new services. The broker provides data integration and ensures the secure data
movement between the cloud consumer and multiple cloud providers.
• Service Arbitrage: Service arbitrage is similar to service aggregation except that the services
being aggregated are not fixed. Service arbitrage means a broker has the flexibility to choose
services from multiple agencies. The cloud broker, for example, can use a credit-scoring
service to measure and select an agency with the best score.
 ❖ Cloud Carrier :- A cloud carrier acts as an intermediary that provides connectivity and
transport of cloud services between cloud consumers and cloud providers. Cloud carriers
provide access to consumers through network, telecommunication and other access devices.

For example, cloud consumers can obtain cloud services through network access devices,
such as computers, laptops, mobile phones, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), etc. The
distribution of cloud services is normally provided by network and telecommunication
carriers or a transport agent , where a transport agent refers to a business organization that
provides physical transport of storage media such as high-capacity hard drives.

❖ Actors in Cloud Computing Definition

❖ Scope of Control between Provider and Consumer of NIST Cloud

Computing Reference Architecture

The Cloud Provider and Cloud Consumer share the control of resources in a cloud system. The
different service models affect an organization's control over the computational resources and thus
what can be done in a cloud system. These differences using a classic software stack notation
comprised of the application, middleware, and OS layers. This analysis of delineation of controls over
the application stack helps understand the responsibilities of parties involved in managing the cloud
application.
• The application layer includes software applications targeted at end users or programs. The
applications are used by SaaS consumers, or installed/managed/ maintained by PaaS
consumers, IaaS consumers, and SaaS providers.

• The middleware layer provides software building blocks (e.g., libraries, database, and Java
virtual machine) for developing application software in the cloud. The middleware is used by
PaaS consumers, installed/managed/maintained by IaaS consumers or PaaS providers, and
hidden from SaaS consumers.

• The OS layer includes operating system and drivers, and is hidden from SaaS consumers and
PaaS consumers. An IaaS cloud allows one or multiple guest OS‟s to run virtualized on a
single physical host. Generally, consumers have broad freedom to choose which OS to be
hosted among all the OS‟s that could be supported by the cloud provider. The IaaS consumers
should assume full responsibility for the guest OS‟s, while the IaaS provider controls the host
OS.

❖ Cloud Ecosystem

A cloud ecosystem is a complex system of interdependent components that all work

together to enable cloud services. In nature, an ecosystem is composed of living and
nonliving things that are connected and work together.

In cloud computing, the ecosystem consists of hardware and software as well as cloud
customers, cloud engineers, consultants, integrators and partners. Alone, each player in the
system can only do so much. But as a whole, they create a system that offers incredible
power and benefits.

Today, the cloud ecosystem has a lot of participants for its vast endeavors. It helps
companies avoid huge setup costs today, which used to cost too much earlier. Now they just
have to decide which services they want and pay as they use them.
❖ Players in a Cloud Ecosystem
 Cloud ecosystems are tied together by a single thread the public cloud provider that is the
backbone of all other services and applications. As a result, these networks can grow to be
very large, complex, and sometimes hard to keep track of. In general, the players involved in
most cloud ecosystems fall into one of four categories:

✔ Providers and brokers: companies likeAWS, Microsoft Azure, Liquid Web, etc.

✔ Consumers: the organizations that use the different cloud services provided.

✔ Developers: IT professionals that work for a particular organization within the ecosystem.

✔ End-Users: users of products that are built on cloud services.

❖ Cloud Design Objectives

The cloud computing community has reached some consensus on what has to be done to
make cloud computing universally acceptable. The following list highlights six design
objectives for cloud computing:

✔ Shifting computing from desktops to data centers: Computer processing, storage, and
software delivery is shifted away from desktops and local servers and toward data centers
over the Internet.

✔ Service provisioning and cloud economics: Providers supply cloud services by signing
SLAs with consumers and end users. The services must be efficient in terms of computing,
storage, and power consumption. Pricing is based on a pay-as-you-go policy.

✔ Scalability in performance: The cloud platforms and software and infrastructure services
must be able to scale in performance as the number of users increases.

✔ Data privacy protection: Can you trust data centers to handle your private data and records?
This concern must be addressed to make clouds successful as trusted services.
✔ High quality of cloud services: The QoS of cloud computing must be standardized to make
clouds interoperable among multiple providers.

✔ New standards and interfaces: This refers to solving the data lock-in problem associated
with data centers or cloud providers. Universally accepted APIs and access protocols are
needed to provide high portability and flexibility of virtualized applications.
❖ Public, Private, Hybrid and Community Clouds

❖ Public Clouds

Public Cloud provides a shared platform that is accessible to the general public through an
Internet connection. Public cloud operated on the pay-as-per-use model and administrated
by the third party, i.e., Cloud service provider. In the Public cloud, the same storage is being
used by multiple users at the same time. This is referred to as multi-tenancy. Public clouds
are generally managed at data centres that belong to service providers. This shared model of
a public cloud helps reduce costs significantly for customers.

❖ Advantages of Public Cloud

▪ Reduced cost: The public cloud has a flexible payment structure which gives you the benefit
of paying only for the services you have used. Most public cloud service providers give
 businesses the option to pay per hour or even pay per second. This helps companies budget
effectively and save the money they would otherwise have to spend on infrastructure.
▪ Low maintenance: When using a public cloud, the cloud service provider maintains all the
servers, hardware, and software in the cloud. They also manage aspects such as security and
compliance, which allows businesses to run their infrastructure with minimal IT staff.
▪ Agility: Public cloud simplifies business operations and ensures faster delivery and
collaboration, allowing companies to stay agile.
▪ Easy installation: A public cloud can be set up in a few hours. Easy to buy over the internet,
a public cloud can be set up by an IT team without expert help.

❖ Disadvantages of Public Clouds

▪ Lack of control: Public cloud gives users less control as configuration and cybersecurity are
managed by the public cloud service provider.
▪ Security issues: Entrusting their data and applications to a third-party cloud service provider
may be difficult for some companies as the chance of a security threat is high. The fact that
public cloud servers are visible from anywhere on the internet may also cause concern.
▪ Compliance: With more and more legal requirements being introduced around data
management, compliance may be the biggest challenge.

❖ Private Clouds

Private Cloud allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. The
Private Cloud is operated only within a single organization. However, it may be managed
internally by the organization itself or by third-party. Private cloud is also known as an
internal cloud or corporate cloud. Private cloud provides computing services to a private
internal network (within the organization) and selected users instead of the general public.
Private cloud provides a high level of security and privacy to data through firewalls and
internal hosting. It also ensures that operational and sensitive data are not accessible to
third-party providers. Private cloud networks require a large investment as well as much
higher IT department costs.
 ❖ Advantages of Private Clouds

✔ Robust security: Private cloud is known for enhanced security and control.
Since a private cloud can be operated in a completely isolated environment, it
offers an additional layer of security.
✔ Enhanced performance: A private cloud is only accessible to one organization.
This results in lesser competition for capacity, and therefore, improved
performance. Therefore, the workload performance for private cloud is never
affected by another organization running resource-intensive workloads on a
shared server.
✔ Complete control over resources: When using a private cloud, an organization
is free to build and configure cloud services in a way that’s most suitable to the
company’s needs. Not only can you use the applications of your choice, but you
may also allocate resources as per business needs.

❖ Disadvantages of Private Clouds

▪ Added cost: Private clouds are more expensive than public and hybrid clouds because they
require the organization to pay for private cloud server hardware as well as maintenance.
Buying the operating systems and licenses for software applications further increases the cost.
▪ More support requirements: Setting up a private cloud is a lot more expensive and time-
consuming than a hybrid or public cloud. It also needs continuous maintenance. A private
cloud service requires an in-house IT setup. Moreover, if your server crashes, your internal IT
department will have to spend more time and resources to fix the issue.
▪ Limited scalability: The private cloud is not as scalable as the public cloud. If the need
arises, an organization may not be able to handle higher workloads when using a private
cloud.
▪ Skilled people: In order to maintain cloud deployment, organization requires skilled
expertise. Skilled people are required to manage and operate cloud services.

❖ Hybrid Clouds

Hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds. The main aim to combine
these cloud (Public and Private) is to create a unified, automated, and well-managed
computing environment. In the Hybrid cloud, non-critical activities are performed by
the public cloud and critical activities are performed by the private cloud. Mainly, a
hybrid cloud is used in finance, healthcare, and Universities. A hybrid cloud aims to
make a single, flexible infrastructure that connects various workloads running in
different computational environments.
 ❖ Advantages of Hybrid Clouds

▪ Flexibility: Companies work with various types of data in disparate environments and adjust
their infrastructure. A hybrid cloud setup uses traditional systems as well as the latest cloud
technology, without a full commitment to a vendor. Organizations can migrate workloads to
and from their traditional infrastructure and a vendor's public cloud whenever necessary.
▪ Cost management: With a private cloud, organizations own and operate the data center
infrastructure, which requires significant capital expense and fixed costs. Alternatively, public
cloud resources and services are accounted as variable and operational expenses. Hybrid cloud
users can choose to run workloads in whichever environment is more cost-effective.
▪ Agility and scalability: Hybrid cloud offers more resource options via a public cloud
provider vs. an organization's physical data center. This makes it easier to provision, deploy
and scale resources to meet demand spikes. When demand exceeds capacity of the local data
center, an organization can burst the application to the public cloud to access extra scale and
capacity.
▪ Resiliency and interoperability: A business can run workloads redundantly in both private
and public environments. Components of one workload can also run in both environments and
interoperate.
▪ Compliance: Organizations in highly regulated industries must follow restrictions on where
data can reside, and this often means they cannot move certain workloads to the public cloud.
With hybrid cloud, organizations can keep data in a private environment while operating
workloads in the cloud, or they can operate workloads in a private data center and move data
to and from the public cloud as needed. This allows companies to meet regulatory
requirements and still benefit from the cloud's elasticity.
 ❖ Disadvantages of Hybrid Clouds

• New applications: Launching a new application with an untested workload carries with it a
level of mystery. Cloud-driven businesses have to take on a certain amount of risk any time
they try something new. Hybrid cloud mitigates that risk by reducing the need for a
substantial initial investment. The company can deploy the new app and only pay for
 resources it uses, rather than paying for everything upfront. If the app fails or gets shelved for
any reason, the business won't be out very much money.

• Regulatory compliance: Certain industries are regulated to protect private data. However, not
every piece of data may need to live in a private environment. Hybrid cloud allows businesses
to comply with regulations while still benefiting from expanded computing power. Since the
introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, many
organizations have divided their data among several solutions so they can comply with EU
regulations while operating under different regulations elsewhere.

• Networking issues : In the Hybrid Cloud, networking becomes complex because of the
private and the public cloud.

• Infrastructure Compatibility: Infrastructure compatibility is the major issue in a hybrid

cloud. With dual-levels of infrastructure, a private cloud controls the company, and a public
cloud does not, so there is a possibility that they are running in separate stacks.

• Workload anomalies: The future is unpredictable. An application might run efficiently in its
current environment today but require additional computational power tomorrow. Hybrid
cloud solutions adapt to workload needs, allowing service to continue smoothly even when
workload requirements spike. This is often referred to as "cloud bursting" because the
workload pours out of one environment into another. It's a lot like having overdraft protection
on your checking account. You want to have a failsafe in case the unexpected happens.

• Migration without refactoring: If applications are migrated from dissimilar environments,

then applications need time-consuming and costly refactoring during migration. The
consistent infrastructure allows fast, low-cost migration to the cloud and easy migration back
on-site if needs change.

• VM and container workloads: IT organizations increasingly must support containerized

cloud-native application architectures in addition to existing virtual machines. A hybrid cloud
management foundation should enable integrated management of both existing and new
applications.

• Making security and policies consistent: Many security policies are tied to the underlying
infrastructure. With hybrid cloud, it is important to be able to tie security and compliance
policies to the workload, so policies can be enforced consistently wherever workloads are
deployed.

• Siloed tools and processes: If different tools and processes are used to manage applications
and underlying infrastructure in various unique environments, then new functional silos and
specialized skills can keep organizations from achieving their cloud goals. A hybrid cloud
should extend existing IT tools and processes from the data center to cloud to optimize
operational efficiency and avoid having to train or hire new capabilities.

❖ Community Clouds
 Community Cloud allows system and services to be accessible by group of
organizations. It shares the infrastructure between several organizations from a specific
community. It may be managed internally by organizations or by the third-party. A
community cloud is a cloud infrastructure in which multiple organizations share
resources and services based on common operational and regulatory requirements.
Community clouds are more expensive than public clouds but also more secure. Each
member of the cloud is allocated a fixed amount of data storage and bandwidth, making
scalability somewhat more difficult than with private and public clouds. The
implementation of a community cloud is more complicated than other types of clouds.
This is because of the number of players involved.

Example: Our government organization within India may share computing

infrastructure in the cloud to manage data.

❖ Advantages of Community Clouds

✔ Security and privacy: Similar to a private cloud deployment model, with very
limited access to user information, community cloud models offer enhanced data
security and information privacy.
✔ Collaboration: With the availability of data sharing between organizations on
the community cloud, users can collaborate and undertake joint projects.
✔ Cost-effectiveness: As mentioned earlier, the cost-effectiveness of setting up a
community cloud vs. a private cloud is a compelling reason for organizations
such as educational institutions to consider this shift. A community cloud allows
users to connect to the same environment, with their sessions segmented
logically. This removes the need to have separate servers to fulfil the same
requirements across organizations.
 ✔ High availability: The lure of cloud solutions lies in the fact that most come
with high availability, meaning downtime is low or nonexistent. This holds true
for community clouds as well.
✔ Regulatory compliance: Privacy-related regulatory laws are new and
constantly evolving. They vary at a global, national, and regional level. For
example, California has already implemented the Consumer Privacy Act
(CCPA), while other states simply follow suit. By banding together under the
community cloud umbrella, the common interpretation and implementation of
these laws can be ensured.
✔ Industry-based security requirements: Regulations such as the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for healthcare and
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for the payment
industry require companies to store and transfer data in specific ways. The
expertise and technology to implement these security requirements cannot be
avoided. This is where community cloud members help each other by sharing
expertise.
✔ More control: Many enterprises opt for private clouds over public ones because
of the need for transparency and control. While public clouds make setup,
scalability, and maintenance much easier than on-premise solutions, they come
at the cost of control. Community clouds provide organizations with the best of
both cloud models.

❖ Disadvantages of Community Clouds

✔ Rarity: Community cloud deployment is still less common than other

deployment models because it is necessary to locate other organizations with
similar requirements.
✔ Relatively high cost: Compared to the public cloud model, community cloud
models have a high initial cost and can be somewhat costly to maintain,
depending on the number of partners involved.
✔ Limited bandwidth and storage: With multiple organizations sharing the same
resources, bandwidth, and storage capacity can be a concern.
✔ Data Is Accessible Between Organizations: Because data is housed in the
same location, any data stored there might be accessible by others. This can lead
to overall security concerns about the rules and regulations to compliance within
a community cloud. For example, the systems of one group may have to adhere
to the regulations of all the other organizations as well.
✔ Not a “One-Size-Fits-All”: As a relatively new and unique cloud deployment,
community clouds are not a great fit for many organizations and should be
looked at on a case-by-case basis. It’s unnecessary for small business, medium
businesses, and most large businesses.
 ❖ Difference between public, private and hybrid cloud

❖ Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing service that offers

essential compute, storage and networking resources on demand, other infrastructure
components via the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.

IaaS reduces the burden to manage and maintain the servers as the infrastructure
provides by the company. Every resource has a separate component and the customer
can rent that as per the requirement.

IaaS cloud computing platform cannot replace the traditional hosting method, but it
provides more than that, and each resource which are used are predictable as per the
usage.

IaaS cloud computing platform may not eliminate the need for an in-house IT
department. It will be needed to monitor or control the IaaS setup. IT salary expenditure
might not reduce significantly, but other IT expenses can be reduced.

❑ IaaS Key Features

✔ Highly scalable resources
✔ Enterprise-grade infrastructure

✔ Cost depends on consumption

✔ Multitenant architecture, i.e. a single piece of hardware serves many users

✔ The client gets complete control over the infrastructure

✔ When to Use IaaS

✔ If you are a small company or a startup that has no budget for creating your own
infrastructure.

✔ If you are a rapidly growing company and your demands are unstable and changeable.

✔ If you are a large company that wants to have effective control over infrastructure but pay
only for the resources you actually use.

❑ Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Services

Compute : Computing as a Service includes virtual central processing units and virtual main
memory for the Vms that is provisioned to the end- users.
Storage : IaaS provider provides back-end storage for storing files.

Network : Network as a Service (NaaS) provides networking components such as routers,

switches, and bridges for the Vms.
Load balancers : It provides load balancing capability at the infrastructure layer.
 ❖ Advantages of laaS

✔ Cost: Users can avoid the high up-front costs and significant overhead associated with
purchasing and maintaining their own physical data centres by using cloud computing
services. They can pay only for what they use each month, which means that costs will rise
and fall in tandem with usage.
✔ Scale: Users can avoid the high upfront costs and high overhead associated with buying and
maintaining physical datacentres. They can pay only for what they require each month,
allowing costs to fluctuate according to usage.
✔ Availability: As demand grows, IaaS allows users to scale easily and quickly, either
automatically or with a few management and resources.
✔ Disaster recovery: Users don’t have to worry about technical support, software updates, or
troubleshooting equipment issues when they use IaaS. Users can also expect an uptime
guarantee from IaaS providers, ensuring that their services are always available.
✔ Regulation: Some industries, such as healthcare and finance, have stringent regulations
regarding the storage and use of customer data, and may not allow data to be stored in public
clouds. Data protection and privacy laws in the place where their services are used must also
be considered by organizations.
✔ Security: All of the major cloud providers are regulated and have strict security requirements
in place, as well as entire security teams and other experts dedicated to data security. Despite
this, cloud services are vulnerable to security threats. While these situations are extremely
rare, it’s a good idea to learn how the cloud service provider secures data and how customers
can secure their data further.
✔ Data loss: While extremely rare, cloud services, like physical devices, can permanently lose
stored data due to physical disasters, bugs, user-generated errors, or other issues. Find out
what backup services an IaaS provider offers and if there is a fee for those services when
choosing an IaaS provider. You can also perform backups on your own.
✔ Data persistence: Data can be used by providers for a variety of purposes, including gaining
insight into how their product is used, selling or personalizing ads, and training machine
learning algorithms. Before giving a provider access, find out what policies they have for
using and deleting data.
✔ Vendor lock-in: Vendor lock-in may be a greater risk for users of proprietary cloud services.
It’s easier to move computing operations from one provider to another when you use open-
source cloud solutions.
✔ Loss of user control and visibility: It’s difficult for users to have full visibility and control
over their computing environments when they use third-party computing resources. Some
risks can be mitigated by implementing, monitoring, and analytics tools that provide users
with real-time information about infrastructure performance.

❖ Disadvantages of laaS

✔ Security Risks: It is easy for hackers to break into a cloud computing environment
because it is not as secure as a physical server. If the system is on a local network, then
it is far more secure.
✔ Unexpected Cost: IaaS is typically cheaper than buying the same services in a
packaged format. However, the cost of using IaaS services can increase unexpectedly,
which can make IaaS appear even more expensive than traditional services. For
example, IaaS providers typically use a formula to calculate how much bandwidth you
use each month. If your usage increases, your bill can increase even if you’ve never
used more services.
 ✔ Dependency on Third-Party Service Provider: IaaS is a great choice for many
organizations, but it comes with its own set of challenges. One of the biggest challenges
is how dependent you are on the provider.
✔ Technical Problems: The technical problems of IaaS are caused by the lack of a
standardization of the cloud environment. Cloud service providers have not yet
standardized on the following aspects of their cloud environments: networking, service
models, security, and network architectures.

❖ Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS in cloud computing is a framework for software creation delivered over the internet.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a runtime environment.

This is the offering of a platform with built-in software components and tools, using which
developers can create, customize, test and launch applications. PaaS vendors manage servers,
operating system updates, security patches and backups.

Clients focus on app development and data without worrying about infrastructure, middleware
and OS maintenance. It allows programmers to easily create, test, run, and deploy web
applications.

You can purchase these applications from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-per use basis
and access them using the Internet connection. In PaaS, back end scalability is managed by
the cloud service provider, so end- users do not need to worry about managing the
infrastructure.

❑ PaaS Key Features

✔ Allows for developing, testing and hosting apps in the same environment

✔ Resources can be scaled up and down depending on business needs

✔ Multiple users can access the same app in development

✔ The user doesn’t have complete control over the infrastructure

✔ Web services and databases are integrated

✔ Remote teams can collaborate easily

❑ When to Use PaaS

 ✔ Multiple developers work on one project

✔ Other vendors must be included

✔ You want to create your own customized apps

❑ Platform as a Service (PaaS) Services

 Programming languages: PaaS providers provide various programming languages for the
developers to develop the applications. Some popular programming languages provided by
PaaS providers are Java, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Go.

Application frameworks: PaaS providers provide application frameworks to easily

understand the application development. Some popular application frameworks provided by
PaaS providers are Node.js, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Spring, Play, and Zend.

Databases: PaaS providers provide various databases such as ClearDB, PostgreSQL,

MongoDB, and Redis to communicate with the applications.

Other tools: PaaS providers provide various other tools that are required to develop, test, and
deploy the applications.

❖ Advantages of PaaS

✔ Cut coding time: PaaS development tools can cut the time it takes to code new apps with
pre-coded application components built into the platform, such as workflow, directory
services, security features, search and so on.
✔ Add development capabilities without adding staff: Platform as a Service components can
give your development team new capabilities without your needing to add staff having the
required skills.
✔ Develop for multiple platforms including mobile more easily: Some service providers give
you development options for multiple platforms, such as computers, mobile devices, browsers
making cross-platform apps quicker and easier to develop.
✔ Use sophisticated tools affordably: A pay-as-you-go model makes it possible for individuals
 or organisations to use sophisticated development software and business intelligence and
analytics tools that they could not afford to purchase outright.
✔ Support geographically distributed development teams: Because the development
environment is accessed over the Internet, development teams can work together on projects
even when team members are in remote locations.
✔ Efficiently manage the application lifecycle: PaaS provides all of the capabilities that you
need to support the complete web application lifecycle: building, testing, deploying,
managing and updating within the same integrated environment.
✔ Simplified Development: Programmers can focus on development and innovation without
worrying about the infrastructure and cloud-computing tools minimize the time by taking less
effort and using smart work using less code as possible to build the apps.
✔ Affordability: PaaS brings affordability for individuals or organizations to use cloud software
of their choice without having to install extra software or shell out the extra cost in installing
and maintaining software.
✔ Efficiency: PaaS has been efficiently managing application development phases in the cloud
that includes testing, managing and updating apps at regular intervals within the same cloud
server and providing a quality and efficient infrastructure.

❖ Disadvantages of PaaS

✔ Provider lock-in: Each provider may have different architecture requirements. Different
providers may not support the same languages, libraries, tools, APIs, architecture, or
operating system used to build and run the application. To switch PaaS providers, developers
may need to either rebuild or heavily alter their application.

✔ Data Security: In a PaaS architecture, the platform provider will store all application’s data.
In some cases the provider may actually store the databases. We cannot trust easily on
platform providers.

✔ Dependent on provider: If the provider changes their pricing model, an application may
suddenly become more expensive to operate.

✔ Integration: There are chances that data mismatch can happen while integrating data because
data are stored both in local storage and cloud. So it is very difficult to differentiate them and
the users felt difficulty while accessing the data whenever they want.

❖ Software as a Service(SaaS)

Software-as–a-Service (SaaS) model allows to provide software application as a service to

the end users. SaaS is also known as "On-Demand Software".

It is a software distribution model in which services are hosted by a cloud service provider.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software licensing model in which access to the software
is provided on a subscription basis, with the software being located on external servers
 rather than on servers located in-house.

Software-as-a-Service is typically accessed through a web browser, with users logging into
the system using a username and password. Instead of each user having to install the
software on their computer, the user is able to access the program via the Internet.

❑ SaaS Key Features

✔ The subscription model of utilizing

✔ No need to download, install or upgrade software

✔ Resources can be scaled depending on requirements

✔ Apps are accessible from any connected device

✔ The provider is responsible for everything

❑ When to Use SaaS

✔ If your company needs to launch a ready-made software quickly

✔ For short-term projects that require collaboration

✔ If you use applications on a temporary basis

✔ For applications that need both web and mobile access

❑ Software as a Service(SaaS) Service

Business Services: SaaS Provider provides various business services to start-up the
business. The SaaS business services include ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM
(Customer Relationship Management), billing, and sales.
Document Management: SaaS document management is a software application offered
by a third party (SaaS providers) to create, manage, and track electronic documents.
Mail Services: To handle the unpredictable number of users and load on e-mail services,
many e-mail providers offering their services using SaaS.
Social Networks:As we all know, social networking sites are used by the general public,
so social networking service providers use SaaS for their convenience and handle the
general public's information.
 ❖ Advantages of Software as a Service(SaaS)

✔ Gain access to sophisticated applications: To provide SaaS apps to users, you

don’t need to purchase, install, update or maintain any hardware, middleware or software.
SaaS makes even sophisticated enterprise applications, such as ERP and CRM, affordable
for organisations that lack the resources to buy, deploy and manage the required
infrastructure and software themselves.
✔ Use free client software: Users can run most SaaS apps directly from their web
browser without needing to download and install any software, although some apps require
plugins. This means that you don’t need to purchase and install special software for your
users.
✔ Mobilise your workforce easily: SaaS makes it easy to “mobilise” your workforce
because users can access SaaS apps and data from any Internet-connected computer or
mobile device. You don’t need to worry about developing apps to run on different types of
computers and devices because the service provider has already done so.
✔ Effortless Scalability: Whenever your business grows and you feel the need of
adding new users, there is no need to buy additional software licenses or server space for
the new users. All you have to do is to upgrade your existing plan or subscription for the
SaaS application to accommodate the new users.
✔ Highly Resilient: Since the IT infrastructure and your data is installed and stored in
the cloud storage provided by the service provider in a remote location, any damage or
disaster of any form to your business premises can be quickly sorted out. The business can
be back up and running from any other location which has access to an internet connection
easily.
✔ Access app data from anywhere: With data stored in the cloud, users can access
their information from any Internet-connected computer or mobile device. And when app
data is stored in the cloud, no data is lost if a user’s computer or device fails.

❖ Disadvantages of Software as a Service(SaaS)

✔ Security: Actually, data is stored in the cloud, so security may be an issue for some users.
However, cloud computing is not more secure than in-house deployment.
✔ Latency issue: Since data and applications are stored in the cloud at a variable distance from
the end-user, there is a possibility that there may be greater latency when interacting with the
application compared to local deployment.
✔ Total Dependency on Internet: Without an internet connection, most SaaS applications are
not usable.
✔ Cumbersome Data Mobility: The software as service market is filled with startups, and
many of them do not have enough experience to survive in a highly competitive atmosphere.
In case of a failure or in an event where you want to change your service provider, it becomes
a cumbersome task to transfer your company's critical data from one service provider to
another.
✔ Difficulty with Regulations Compliance: When your business critical data is stored in the
service provider's data center, it is difficult to comply with the government's data protection
regulations. Your company will need to learn which rules apply to your business, ask the right
questions from your service provider, and address any kind of inconsistencies in the process.
✔ Switching between SaaS vendors is difficult: Switching SaaS vendors involves the difficult
and slow task of transferring the very large data files over the internet and then converting and
importing them into another SaaS also.
✔ Troublesome Software Integration: When working with an external SaaS service provider
to host multiple apps, there might be an integration problem with the existing in-house
software. The in-house APIs and data structures might not integrate properly with the external
software.

❖ Architectural Design Challenges

✔ Security: The topmost concern in investing in cloud services is security issues in

cloud computing. It is because your data gets stored and processed by a third-party
vendor and you cannot see it. Every day or the other, you get informed about broken
authentication, compromised credentials, account hacking, data breaches, etc. in a
particular organization.
✔ Interoperability: When an organization uses a specific cloud service provider and
wants to switch to another cloud-based solution, it often turns up to be a tedious
procedure since applications written for one cloud with the application stack are
required to be re-written for the other cloud.
✔ Flexibility: There is a lack of flexibility from switching from one cloud to another due
to the complexities involved. Handling data movement, setting up the security from
scratch and network also add up to the issues encountered when changing cloud
solutions, thereby reducing flexibility.
✔ High Dependence on Network: cloud computing deals with provisioning resources in
real-time, it deals with enormous amounts of data transfer to and from the servers. This
is only made possible due to the availability of the high-speed network. Although these
data and resources are exchanged over the network, this can prove to be highly
vulnerable in case of limited bandwidth or cases when there is a sudden outage.
✔ Performance Challenges: Performance is an important factor while considering
cloud-based solutions. If the performance of the cloud is not satisfactory, it can drive
away users and decrease profits. Even a little latency while loading an app or a web
page can result in a huge drop in the percentage of users.
✔ Multi-Cloud Environments: Due to an increase in the options available to the
companies, enterprises not only use a single cloud but depend on multiple cloud
service providers. Most of these companies use hybrid cloud tactics and close to 84%
are dependent on multiple clouds. This often ends up being hindered and difficult to
manage for the infrastructure team.
✔ Lack of Knowledge and Expertise: Due to the complex nature and the high demand
for research working with the cloud often ends up being a highly tedious task. It
 requires immense knowledge and wide expertise on the subject. Although there are a
lot of professionals in the field they need to constantly update themselves.
✔ Cost Management: Even as almost all cloud service providers have a “Pay As You
Go” model, which reduces the overall cost of the resources being used, there are times
when there are huge costs incurred to the enterprise using cloud computing. When
there is under optimization of the resources, let’s say that the servers are not being
used to their full potential, add up to the hidden costs. If you turn on the services or an
instance of cloud and forget to turn it off during the weekend or when there is no
current use of it, it will increase the cost without even using the resources.
✔ Password Security: As large numbers of people access your cloud account, it
becomes vulnerable. Anybody who knows your password or hacks into your cloud
will be able to access your confidential information.
✔ Interoperability: Another challenge of cloud computing is that applications need to
be easily migrated between cloud providers without being locked for a set period.
There is a lack of flexibility in moving from one cloud provider to another because of
the complexity involved.
✔ Compliance: Another major risk of cloud computing is maintaining compliance. By
compliance we mean, a set of rules about what data is allowed to be moved and what
should be kept in-house to maintain compliance. The organizations must follow and
respect the compliance rules set by various government bodies.
✔ Portability: The applications running on one cloud platform can be moved to new
cloud platform and it should operate correctly without making any changes in design,
coding. The portability is not possible, because each of the cloud providers uses
different standard languages for their platform.

❖ Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is a cloud computing model that stores data on the Internet through a
cloud computing provider who manages and operates data storage as a service. It’s
delivered on demand with just-in-time capacity and costs, and eliminates buying and
managing your own data storage infrastructure.

Cloud storage is purchased from a third party cloud vendor who owns and operates data
storage capacity and delivers it over the Internet in a pay-as-you-go model. These cloud
storage vendors manage capacity, security and durability to make data accessible to your
applications all around the world.

Cloud storage is a way for businesses and consumers to save data securely online so that
it can be accessed anytime from any location and easily shared with those who are
granted permission.
Cloud storage also offers a way to back up data to facilitate recovery off-site. Cloud
storage services provide elasticity, which means you can scale capacity as your data
volumes increase or dial down capacity if necessary.
 ❖ Types of Cloud Storage Models

Cloud storage models are models of cloud computing that stores data on the internet via
cloud computing providers. These providers manage and operate data storage as a
service.

❑ Object Storage - Cloud-native applications need space, for storing data that is shared
between different VMs. However, often there’s a need for spaces that can extend to
various data centers across multiple geographies which is catered by Object storage.
Applications developed in the cloud often take advantage of object storage's vast
scalablity and metadata characteristics. Object storage solutions like Amazon Simple
Storage Service (S3) are ideal for building modern applications from scratch that
require scale and flexibility, and can also be used to import existing data stores for
analytics, backup, or archive.
❑ File Storage (Network File Storage) - Filestore is the fully managed Google Cloud
service that provides network file storage. Network file storage is not a new cloud
concept and very much like block storage it also exists in your typical on-premises
data center. Some applications need to access shared files and require a file system.
This type of storage is often supported with a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server.
File storage solutions like Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) are ideal for use cases
like large content repositories, development environments, media stores, or user home
directories.
❑ Volume storage (Block Storage) - Volume storage is also known as block storage. It
supports operations like read/write and keeping the system files of running virtual
machines. Other enterprise applications like databases or ERP systems often require
dedicated, low latency storage for each host. This is analagous to direct-attached
storage (DAS) or a Storage Area Network (SAN). Block-based cloud storage solutions
like Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) are provisioned with each virtual server and
offer the ultra low latency required for high performance workloads.

❖ Types of Cloud Storage

Cloud services have made it possible for anyone to store digital data and access it from
anywhere. This means that cloud storage is essentially a virtual hard drive. From saving
important data such as word documents, and video files, to accessing the cloud to process
complex data and run applications cloud storage is a versatile system.
❑ Private cloud storage :- Private cloud storage is also known as enterprise or internal cloud
storage. Data is stored on the company or organization’s intranet in this case. This data is
protected by the company’s own firewall. Private cloud storage is a great option for
companies with expensive data centers and can manage data privacy in-house. A major
advantage of saving data on a private cloud is that it offers complete control to the user. On
the other hand, one of the major drawbacks of private cloud storage is the cost and effort of
maintenance and updates.

❑ Public cloud storage :- Public cloud storage requires few administrative controls and can be
accessed online by the user and anyone else who the user authorizes. With public cloud
storage, the user/company doesn’t need to maintain the system. Public cloud storage is hosted
by different solution providers, so there’s very little opportunity for customizing the security
fields, as they are common for all users.

❑ Hybrid cloud storage :- Hybrid cloud storage is a combination of private and public cloud
storage. As the name suggests, hybrid cloud storage offers the best of both worlds to the user
the security of a private cloud and the personalization of a public cloud. In a hybrid cloud,
data can be stored on the private cloud, and information processing tasks can be assigned to
the public cloud as well, with the help of cloud computing services. Hybrid cloud storage is
affordable and offers easy customization and greater user control.

❑ Community cloud storage :- Community cloud storage is a variation of the private cloud
storage model, which offers cloud solutions for specific businesses or communities. In this
model, cloud storage providers offer their cloud architecture, software and other development
tools to meet the community’s requirements. Any data is stored on the community-owned
private cloud storage to manage the community’s security and compliance needs. Community
 cloud storage is a great option for health, financial or legal companies with strict compliance
policies.

❖ Storage‐as‐a‐Service

Storage as a service (SaaS) is a business model in which a company leases or rents its
storage infrastructure to another company or individuals to store data. Storage as a
Service, also known by the acronym “STaaS,” is a managed service where a storage
provider supplies a customer with storage space.

STaaS customers access individual storage services through standard system interface
protocols or application program interfaces (APIs). Storage as a service was originally
seen as a cost-effective way for small and mid-size businesses that lacked the technical
personnel and capital budget to implement and maintain their own storage
infrastructure.

Cloud-based STaaS also offers customers a wide range of functionality and additional
services that can be performed without the expertise of a storage engineer.

These include disaster recovery, data backup, data storage, bulk data transferred, block
storage, and SSD storage to name a few.

❖ Advantages of Cloud Storage

✔ Off-site management: Your cloud provider assumes responsibility for maintaining and
protecting the stored data. This frees your staff from tasks associated with storage, such as
procurement, installation, administration, and maintenance. As such, your staff can focus on
other priorities.
✔ Quick implementation: Using a cloud service accelerates the process of setting up and
adding to your storage capabilities. With cloud storage, you can provision the service and start
using it within hours or days, depending on how much capacity is involved.
✔ Cost-effective: As mentioned, you pay for the capacity you use. This allows your
organization to treat cloud storage costs as an ongoing operating expense instead of a capital
expense with the associated upfront investments and tax implications.
✔ Scalability: Growth constraints are one of the most severe limitations of on-premise storage.
With cloud storage, you can scale up as much as you need. Capacity is virtually unlimited.
✔ Flexibility and ease of access: Cloud storage means that your data is not tied down to any
one location. Various stakeholders can access assets stored on the cloud from a location and
device of their choice without any download or installation hassles.
✔ Remote management support: Cloud storage also paves the way for remote management
 either by internal IT teams or by managed service providers (MSPs). They can troubleshoot
without being present on-site, speeding up issue resolution.
✔ Redundancy for backup: Data redundancy (i.e., replicating the same data in multiple
locations) is essential for an effective backup mechanism. The cloud ensures your data is kept
secure in a remote location in case of a natural disaster, accident, or cyber attack.
✔ Business continuity: Storing data offsite supports business continuity in the event that a
natural disaster or terrorist attack cuts access to your premises.

❖ Disadvantages of Cloud Storage

✔ Security: Security concerns are common with cloud-based services. Cloud storage providers
try to secure their infrastructure with up-to-date technologies and practices, but occasional
breaches have occurred, creating discomfort with users.
✔ Latency: Delays in data transmission to and from the cloud can occur as a result of traffic
congestion, especially when you use shared public internet connections. However, companies
can minimize latency by increasing connection bandwidth.
✔ Regulatory compliance: Certain industries, such as healthcare and finance, have to comply
with strict data privacy and archival regulations, which may prevent companies from using
cloud storage for certain types of files, such as medical and investment records. If you can,
choose a cloud storage provider that supports compliance with any industry regulations
impacting your business.
✔ Potential downtimes: Vendors may go through periods of downtime where the service is not
available, which can be trouble for mission-critical data.
✔ Limited customization: Since the cloud infrastructure is owned and managed by the service
provider, it is less customizable.
✔ Potential for vendor lock-in: It may be difficult to migrate from one service to another.

✔ Short-term budget overruns: Cloud cost worries are extremely common, where data storage
and storage processes occupy more space than estimated.

❖ Cloud Storage Providers

❑ Internxt :- Internxt is a fully encrypted, open-source cloud storage service designed to keep
your data safe and sound, well out of reach of hackers and data collectors. Super safe and
private, all files saved and shared to the cloud are end-to-end encrypted and scattered across
Internxt’s massive decentralized network.

✔ Features:

• Zero unauthorized access to your information and data.

• All uploaded, stored, and shared data is end-to-end encrypted via the AES-256 encryption
 protocol.

• All plans (including the free plan) have all features enabled and grant access to all Internxt
services: Drive, Photos, and Send.

• Generated sharing links allow the user to limit the number of times files are shared.

✔ OS Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and web.

❑ pCloud :- pCloud will allow you to store your files and get them accessible on all devices.
Sharing and collaboration on files will be easier with pCloud. Private files can also be
encrypted and kept confidential here.

✔ Features:

• For data security, it provides TLS/SSL encryption.

• With pCloud, file management can be done from the web, desktop, or mobile.

• It provides multiple file-sharing options.

• For a specific period of time, it saves versions of the files.

• You can back up your photos from social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Picasa.

✔ OS Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.

❑ IDrive :- Files stored with IDrive can be accessed from PCs or Mac. It has a mobile app for
iOS and Android devices. It takes a backup of the file in real-time by automatically
recognizing the changed part of the file. It allows you to back up the entire drive including the
OS and settings.

✔ Features:

• With a single account, you can backup from unlimited PCs, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android
devices.

• Across all the devices linked to IDrive, files and folders will be synced in real-time.

• Backup storage will not be impacted by Sync storage.

• It provides 256-bit AES encryption to your files.

• It will not delete the data automatically. You can delete the files manually or run Archive
Cleanup, Deleted files can be recovered within 30 days.

✔ OS Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.

❑ Amazon Cloud Drive :- Amazon Cloud Drive is a facility provided by Amazon to easily
backup and access the documents, spreadsheets, music, photos, and videos. It is a secure,
online cloud storage platform. It will help you to keep your important documents safe.
✔ Features:

• Amazon Cloud Drive provides the facility to preview the documents, spreadsheets, photos,
and presentations.
• It will allow you to play videos and music stored in the cloud drive.

• You can upload photos, videos, and files from your smartphone.

• You can create folders and organize files in the folders.

• Amazon Drive will allow you to share files as links and attachments by email, text message,
etc.

• It will allow you to create and edit text files.

✔ OS Platforms: You can upload the data from any computer.

❑ Dropbox :- Dropbox provides you with a modern workspace to keep your files together at
one central place. It is accessible from anywhere anytime. It can be synced across all your
devices. With Dropbox, files will be accessible from computers, phones, and tablets.

✔ Features:

• It allows you to share any file like PowerPoint and Photoshop.

• Dropbox Paper will allow you to create and share anything, from rough drafts, videos, images
to code and sound.

• It can be used by freelancers, solo workers, teams, and businesses of any size.

• It allows you to share a big or a small file with anyone.

• It allows you to secure access to the shared data.

✔ OS Platforms: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, iOS, and Windows phone.

❑ Google Drive :- Google Drive is popular because of its free storage capacity. You can store
photos, documents, stories, designs, recordings, videos etc. To store the files on Google Drive
you should have a Google account.

✔ Features:

• It will allow you to store any file. You can store photos, drawings, videos, recordings etc.

• Files can be uploaded from any device like a smartphone, tablet, or computer.

• You can easily share files and folders. Collaboration on any file is possible without an email
 attachment.

✔ OS Platforms: Apps are available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices.
❑ Microsoft OneDrive :- OneDrive provides free storage of up to 5GB to store your files and
photos. These files and photos can be accessed from any device. It allows you to store the
scanned documents directly on it. With OneDrive, any file is accessible on-demand from the
Windows PC.

✔ Features:

• It allows you to access the files in an offline mode.

• Files are accessible from any device.

• OneDrive provides SSL encryption.

• It is easy to share files and folders just by sending the link through text, email, Facebook, or
iMessage.

• You will get the latest Office applications.

✔ OS Platforms: The app is available for Windows, Android, iOS etc.

❑ iCloud :- iCloud is Apple’s service for providing cloud storage. You can store documents,
photos, and music files. These stored files can be downloaded to iOS, Mac OS, and Windows
devices.

✔ Features:

• It works with many apps like Mail, Calendar, Contact, Reminders, Safari etc.

• Even the smallest change will appear everywhere.

• It allows you to collaborate with Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Notes.

• It will let you pick up every conversation from where it is left. This feature will work even if
you change your phone.

✔ OS Platforms: Windows, iOS, and Mac OS.

❑ OpenDrive :- OpenDrive provides you the cloud storage with a lot of features like task
management, cloud content management, and notes for individuals and teams.

✔ Features:
• It provides cloud-based business tools for data management, project and workflow, user
management, and branding.

• It has a desktop application for Windows.

 • It is available for personal use with a lot of features like Online Storage, Online Backup, File
Syncing, Online file sharing, and file hotlinking, etc.

✔ OS Platforms: The desktop application is available for Windows. Files can be synced from
Windows, Mac, and Linux.

❑ Tresorit :- Tresorit provides encrypted cloud storage for you to store your confidential files. It
can be used by individuals as well as teams. For security and confidentiality of a file, it allows
you to manage access and permissions.

✔ Features:

• It provides end-to-end encryption to data.

• It allows you to keep the same folder structure as it is on your PC.

• Encrypted documents can be accessed from any device.

• It will allow you to invite members for collaboration and sharing of files.

✔ OS Platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, and iOS.

❖ S3(Amazon Simple Storage Service)

S3 is short for Amazon Simple Storage Service or Amazon S3. It is a cloud service
provided by AWS for secure, highly-available and redundant data storage. It is used by
customers of all sizes and industries.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an object storage service that offers
industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance.

Amazon S3 provides management features so that you can optimize, organize, and
configure access to your data to meet your specific business, organizational, and
compliance requirements.

This service allows the subscribers to access the same systems that Amazon uses to run
its own web sites. The subscriber has control over the accessibility of data, i.e.
privately/publicly accessible.

❖ S3 Terminology
 Bucket:- Data, in S3, is stored in containers called buckets.

✔ Each bucket will have its own set of policies and configuration. This enables users to have
more control over their data.
✔ Bucket Names must be unique.

✔ Can be thought of as a parent folder of data.

✔ There is a limit of 100 buckets per AWS accounts. But it can be increased if requested from
AWS support.

Bucket Owner:- The person or organization that owns a particular bucket is its bucket owner.

Import/Export Station:- A machine that uploads or downloads data to/from S3.

Key:- Key, in S3, is a unique identifier for an object in a bucket. For example in a bucket
‘ABC’ your GFG.java file is stored at javaPrograms/GFG.java then ‘javaPrograms/GFG.java’
is your object key for GFG.java.

It is important to note that ‘bucketName+key’ is unique for all objects.

This also means that there can be only one object for a key in a bucket. If you upload 2 files
with the same key. The file uploaded latest will overwrite the previously contained file.

Versioning:- Versioning means to always keep a record of previously uploaded files in S3.
Points to note:

✔ Versioning is not enabled by default. Once enabled, it is enabled for all objects in a bucket.

✔ Versioning keeps all the copies of your file, so, it adds cost for storing multiple copies of your
data. For example, 10 copies of a file of size 1GB will have you charged for using 10GBs for
S3 space.

✔ Versioning is helpful to prevent unintended overwrites and deletions.

✔ Note that objects with the same key can be stored in a bucket if versioning is enabled (since
they have a unique version ID).

null Object:- Version ID for objects in a bucket where versioning is suspended is null. Such
objects may be referred to as null objects.

For buckets with versioning enabled, each version of a file has a specific version ID.
Object:- Fundamental entity type stored in AWS S3.

Access Control Lists (ACL):- A document for verifying the access to S3 buckets from
outside your AWS account. Each bucket has its own ACL.

Bucket Policies:- A document for verifying the access to S3 buckets from within your AWS
account, this controls which services and users have what kind of access to your S3 bucket.
Each bucket has its own Bucket Policies.
 Lifecycle Rules:- This is a cost-saving practice that can move your files to AWS Glacier (The
AWS Data Archive Service) or to some other S3 storage class for cheaper storage of old data
or completely delete the data after the specified time.

❖ Features of S3

Durability:- AWS claims Amazon S3 to have a 99.999999999% of durability (11 9’s). This
means the possibility of losing your data stored on S3 is one in a billion.

Availability:- AWS ensures that the up-time of AWS S3 is 99.99% for standard access.

✔ Note that availability is related to being able to access data and durability is related to losing
data altogether.

Server-Side-Encryption (SSE):- AWS S3 supports three types of SSE models:

✔ SSE-S3: AWS S3 manages encryption keys.

✔ SSE-C: The customer manages encryption keys.

✔ SSE-KMS: The AWS Key Management Service (KMS) manages the encryption keys.

File Size support:- AWS S3 can hold files of size ranging from 0 bytes to 5 terabytes. A 5TB
limit on file size should not be a blocker for most of the applications in the world.

Infinite storage space:- Theoretically AWS S3 is supposed to have infinite storage space.
This makes S3 infinitely scalable for all kinds of use cases.

Pay as you use:- The users are charged according to the S3 storage they hold.

AWS-S3 is region-specific.

❖ S3 Storage Classes

AWS S3 provides multiple storage types that offer different performance and features and
different cost structure.

✔ Standard: Suitable for frequently accessed data, that needs to be highly available and
 durable.

✔ Standard Infrequent Access (Standard IA): This is a cheaper data-storage class and as the
name suggests, this class is best suited for storing infrequently accessed data like log files or
data archives. Note that there may be a per GB data retrieval fee associated with Standard IA
class.

✔ Intelligent Tiering: This service class classifies your files automatically into frequently
accessed and infrequently accessed and stores the infrequently accessed data in infrequent
access storage to save costs. This is useful for unpredictable data access to an S3 bucket.
✔ One Zone Infrequent Access (One Zone IA): All the files on your S3 have their copies
stored in a minimum of 3 Availability Zones. One Zone IA stores this data in a single
availability zone. It is only recommended to use this storage class for infrequently accessed,
non-essential data. There may be a per GB cost for data retrieval.

✔ Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS): All the other S3 classes ensure the durability of
99.999999999%. RRS only ensures a 99.99% durability. AWS no longer recommends RRS
due to its less durability. However, it can be used to store non-essential data.

❖ Charging Models of Cloud Service Provider

❖ The cloud computing provider’s goal is to maximize its revenue while a customer goal is to
get a good quality of service with an acceptable price. Therefore, satisfying both parties
requires an optimal pricing methodology. There are many pricing models used on cloud, and
they can be classified in two main types from the perspective of the changing period fixed and
dynamic.

❑ Fixed Pricing Models

● Fixed pricing models are also called Static pricing models, due to the stability of the price for
a long time. The most famous service providers on the cloud such as Google, Amazon Web
Services, Oracle, Azure and others use fixed pricing models. Fixed Pricing makes users aware
of the cost of doing business and consuming a resource.
● However, in the other hand this type of pricing is mostly unfair with the customers because
they can overpay or underpay for their needs. In addition, it is not affected with the demand.
There are many fixed pricing such as “pay-per-use”, subscription, price list.

✔ Pay-per-use Model : In this model, user only have to pay for what they use. Customer pays
in function of the time or quantity he consumes on a specific service. Amazon Web Services
(AWS).
✔ Subscription : In this model, users pay on a recurring basis to access software as an online
service to profit from a service. The customer subscribe to use a preselected combination of
service units for a fixed and a longer frame, usually monthly and yearly.
✔ Price List : In this model, the service provider lists all prices and their details in one table/list.
In addition, it can be downloaded as a document (PDF). This model is used by Oracle.

❑ Dynamic pricing

▪ Dynamic pricing models are also known as Real-time pricing, these models are very flexible,
and they can be considered as a result of a function that take as parameters the cost, time, and
other parameters like the location, user perceiving value and others.
▪ In Dynamic pricing, the price is calculated based on pricing mechanism whenever there is a
request. As compared to fixed prices, the dynamic pricing that reflects the real-time supply
demand relationship represents a more promising charge strategy that can better exploit user
payment potentials and thus larger profit gains at the cloud provider.
▪ As example Amazon changes there prices every 10 minutes.

❖ Cloud Storage Provider

A cloud storage provider, also known as a managed service provider (MSP), is a

company that offers organizations and individuals the ability to place and retain data in
an off-site storage system. Customers can lease cloud storage capacity per month or on
demand.
A cloud storage provider hosts a customer's data in its own data center, providing fee-
based computing, networking and storage infrastructure. Both individual and corporate
customers can get unlimited storage capacity on a provider's servers at a low per-
gigabyte price.

Rather than store data on local storage devices, such as a hard disk drive, flash storage
or tape, customers choose a cloud storage provider to host data on a system in a remote
data center. Users can then access those files using an internet connection.

A cloud storage provider also sells non-storage services for a fee. Enterprises purchase
compute, software, storage and related IT components as discrete cloud services with a
pay-as-you-go license. For example, customers can opt to lease infrastructure as a
service; platform as a service; or security, software and storage as a service.