Highlighting the Young Nature of Technology: Cloud Computing and Windows Azure

There is lot of curiosity to learn about existing systems on the cloud platform since the latter’s inception. The cloud offers lots of advantages over the existing networked systems, including hardware and software virtualization and the ability to provide software, infrastructure and hardware platforms as a service to the users.

General Idea:

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Cloud computing is a computing model, where resources such as computing power, storage, network and  software are abstracted and provided as services on the internet in a remotely accessible fashion. The goal of cloud computing is to provide easy and scalable access to computing resources and IT services. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Why this concept is known as Cloud computing, this question will come up in mind???

The name ‘cloud computing’ was inspired by the cloud symbol that is often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams. An infrastructure setup using the cloud computing model is generally referred to as the -‘Cloud’.

Various ways of Cloud computing:-

A cloud can be private, public, and hybrid.  A public cloud provides services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a proprietary network that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. (Yahoo mail, Gmail, hotmail is providing private cloud.)When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a hybrid cloud.

Why now a day’s its boom in the market???

Cloud Computing enables us to access data, software application and computer processing power from a pool of online resources. This permits users to access data and applications using any device from anywhere. It helps any organization reduce IT budget by purchasing hardware and software as a utility service.  The cloud computing provides the various benefits such as scalability, simplicity, high computer performance and large storage space.

E.g. of cloud computing:- Yahoo mail, Gmail, or Hotmail etc. You don't need software or a server to use them. All a consumer would need is just an internet connection and you can start sending emails. The server and email management software is all on the cloud (internet) and is totally managed by the cloud service provider Yahoo, Google etc. The consumer gets to use the software alone and enjoy the benefits. The analogy is, 'If you need milk, would you buy a cow?' All the users or consumers need is to get the benefits of using the software or hardware of the computer like sending emails etc. Just to get this benefit (milk) why should a consumer buy a (cow) software /hardware?

Six awesome ways to put your data on cloud:è http://www.botskool.com/geeks/six-awesome-ways-share-large-files-internet

Windows Azure:-

Basically, Windows Azure is Microsoft's operating system for cloud computing. As with other technologies for cloud computing, Windows Azure is intended to simplify IT management and minimize up-front and ongoing expenses. To this end, Azure was designed to facilitate the management of scalable Web applications over the Internet. The Azure operating system is the central component of the company's Azure Services Platform, which also includes separate application, security, storage and virtualization service layers and a desktop development environment.  Windows Azure has three core components: Compute, Storage, and Fabric: As the names suggest, Compute provides a computation environment with Web Role. While Storage focuses on providing scalable. Relational Database functionality is offered through SQL Azure, which is a scalable version of SQL Server that runs on the Azure platform. Fabric (Windows Azure Fabric) makes up the physical foundation of the Windows Azure platform as the network of interconnected nodes consisting of servers, high-speed connections, and switches. Conceptually, the repetitive pattern of nodes and connections suggests fabric-like nature. Compute and Storage components are part of the Fabric.

Ø  Windows Azure provides the glue that gels together the cloud. It makes the zillions of connected servers work together as a cohesive unit and provides an environment that has automated service management, immense computing potential, practically unlimited storage and rich developer experience. It also provides you with 24/7 availability and the ability to scale up and down with very little overheads. This allows developers to focus on building the app than the infrastructure.

Ø  Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities.

Ø  Windows azure tools kits and SDK for various languages available here(To enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities)è http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/downloads/