Cloud Computing has become the buzzing topic of today's technology, driving mainly by
marketing and services offered by prominent corporate organizations like Google, IBM
& Amazon. Cloud computing is the next stage to evolve the Internet. Though for some
people, "Cloud Computing" is a big deal, it is not. In reality, cloud computing is
something that we have been using for a long time; it is the internet facility, along with
the associated standards that provide a set of web-services to users. When users draw
the term 'Internet' as a "cloud", they represent the essential characteristics of cloud
computing.
Defining Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is the latest generation technology with an extensive IT infrastructure
that provides us a means by which we can use and utilize the applications as utilities via
the Internet. Cloud computing makes IT infrastructure along with its services available
"on-need" basis. The cloud technology includes - a development platform, hard disk,
computing power, software application, and database. This technology doesn't require
large-scale capital expenditure to access cloud vendors. Instead, the cloud facilitates
'pay-per-use,' i.e., the organizations' users have to pay only that limited amount to use
the cloud infrastructure. In other words, cloud computing refers to applications and
services that run on a distributed network using virtualized resources and uses the
standard internet protocols for accessing.
Affect of Cloud on Human Lives
The application became cheaper, easier to find, and use.
The new application becomes more comfortable to develop & create based on a
standard modular part.
Cloud will provide new social services by connecting through social networks.
Lessen the usage of proprietary operating systems in our daily computing.
Connection to the cloud can be made whenever we want.
Prerequisites to Cloud
Before learning about Cloud technology, readers must know about Networking,
computers, database, etc. Terms such as operating system, applications, programs,
and their meanings must be known before starting this.
Why This Cloud Technology
The small and extensive IT companies follow the old traditions of managing IT
infrastructure, i.e., server room, to keep all the details and maintain that server. In a
word, it is a server room consists of database servers, mail server, firewalls, routers,
switches, QPS (Query per second) & Load handler, and other networking devices along
with server engineers. To provide such IT infrastructure, a huge amount of money has
to spend. So, to reduce the IT infrastructure cost, Cloud Computing technology came
into play.
Advantages of Cloud
Low Cost: To run cloud technology, users don't require high power computers
and technology because the application will run on the cloud and not on users'
PC.
Storage capacity: The Cloud storage capacity is unlimited & generally offers a
vast storage capacity of 2000-3000 GBs or more based on the requirement.
Low cost of IT infrastructure: As discussed earlier, the investment will be less if
an organization uses Cloud technology; even the IT staffs and server engineers
are also not required.
Increase computing power: Cloud servers have a very high-capacity for running
and processing tasks and the processing of applications.
Reduce Software Costs: Cloud minimizes the software costs as users don't need
to purchase software for organizations or every computer.
Updating: Instant software update is possible & users don't have to face the
choice problem between obsolete & high-upgrade software.
Disadvantages of Cloud
Internet speed: Cloud technology requires a high-speed internet connection as
web-based applications often require a large bandwidth amount.
Constant Internet Connection: It's impossible to use cloud infrastructure without
the Internet. To access any application or cloud storage, a constant internet
connection is required.
Security: Data storage might not be secure. With cloud computing, all the data
gets stored in the cloud & hence the unauthorized user may gain access to the
user's data in the cloud.
Cloud Model Types
If we analyze the Cloud technology intelligently, we will see that most people separate
the cloud computing model into two distinct sets:
Deployment Model: refers to the management of the cloud's infrastructure. The
cloud hosting deployment model designates the cloud environment's exact
category, its size, and the accessing mechanism. It also tells the nature and
purpose of the cloud.
Service model: Cloud computing is a broad term that holds a more extensive
range of services. It is composed of a particular type of service; a cloud
computing platform allows its users to access
A distributed system contains multiple nodes that are physically separate but
linked together using the network. All the nodes in this system communicate
with each other and handle processes in tandem. Each of these nodes contains
a small part of the distributed operating system software.
A diagram to better explain the distributed system is −
Types of Distributed Systems
The nodes in the distributed systems can be arranged in the form of
client/server systems or peer to peer systems. Details about these are as follows
−
Client/Server Systems
In client server systems, the client requests a resource and the server
provides that resource. A server may serve multiple clients at the same time
while a client is in contact with only one server. Both the client and server
usually communicate via a computer network and so they are a part of
distributed systems.
Peer to Peer Systems
The peer to peer systems contains nodes that are equal participants in data
sharing. All the tasks are equally divided between all the nodes. The nodes
interact with each other as required as share resources. This is done with the
help of a network.
Advantages of Distributed Systems
Some advantages of Distributed Systems are as follows −
All the nodes in the distributed system are connected to each other. So
nodes can easily share data with other nodes.
More nodes can easily be added to the distributed system i.e. it can be
scaled as required.
Failure of one node does not lead to the failure of the entire distributed
system. Other nodes can still communicate with each other.
Resources like printers can be shared with multiple nodes rather than
being restricted to just one.
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Disadvantages of Distributed Systems
Some disadvantages of Distributed Systems are as follows −
It is difficult to provide adequate security in distributed systems because
the nodes as well as the connections need to be secured.
Some messages and data can be lost in the network while moving from
one node to another.
The database connected to the distributed systems is quite complicated
and difficult to handle as compared to a single user system.
Overloading may occur in the network if all the nodes of the distributed
system try to send data at once.
