What is Cloud Computing? with Examples

By Sarah Taylor

What is Cloud Computing? with Examples

Did you know that cloud computing is being utilized by just about every person or organization on the internet now in some form? Most people use the cloud and never even think about it. In this book, you're going to learn how the cloud operates, how it can benefit you, and the various types of cloud computing. You're going to see them in action. Primarily, we'll cover infrastructure as a service and how it relates to virtualization, the difference between private cloud, hybrid cloud, and public cloud. 

We'll cover how to transfer to the cloud, how infrastructure-as-a-service, networking, security, and storage works. What platform-as-a-service is and how it relates to infrastructure-as-a-service and finally, how software-as-a-service makes your life so much easier. By the end of the book, you'll truly learn the various types of cloud computing, you'll see them in action, and you'll feel relaxed using cloud computing. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sarah Taylor
• Release date: May 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386118718

Sarah Taylor

Sarah Taylor has a BA in History and an MSLS. She enjoys reading and writing about history, playing piano, and going on park walks with her dog. You may find her at https://beautifuldreamerdotcom.wordpress.com and Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21550493.Sarah_Taylor.

Book preview

Introduction

So the first thing we need to answer is why cloud computing? Why do we need to learn about cloud computing? Who really cares, right? Well, let me tell you why. Let me tell you why this is so important to you, whether it's just you and your personal computer or whether it's you as an IT professional working in a large enterprise. First off, cloud computing is everywhere. It's in use around the world, in many different forms and by all different types of people and by all different types of companies. I mean, you can't look at a commercial, let's say, on your favorite TV show without hearing something about the cloud or without hearing about some kind of company that's utilizing the cloud. In fact, you can't even use your own personal cell phone today without in some way, shape or form, utilizing cloud computing. Cloud computing is also so powerful and that's one of the reasons that it's everywhere; I mean it can run just about any application, it can do it just about anywhere, anytime, and at any scale, whether it's just your own personal, let's say Gmail that you're connecting to, or whether it's a massive application like let's say Netflix, right? The cloud can be used for so many different things. It's so powerful and that's why it's in use by really everyone. Cloud computing also makes your life easier and frankly, that's one of the many reasons that people have flocked to cloud computing. It allows you to do more with less. It allows you to be more efficient, to save time and to save money. And again, that goes back to why it's everywhere. It's in use by just about everyone out there in some way, shape, or form; it's in use by just about every company out there. So right now you might be thinking cloud computing is just the best thing since sliced bread, right? I mean it sounds like cloud computing can do no wrong, but we're going to learn about the pros and the cons as well as the many forms and types of cloud computing in this book.

Prerequisites

Now one of the most common questions any time you go to learn anything new is what are the prerequisites? What do I need to know before I get started? Some people might be a little nervous; they don't want to get in over their head and that's okay. In this book I'll tell you like I told you at the start, this is a fundamentals course and part of the fundamentals course is fun, right? Fun-damentals, okay? But the point being is this is an introductory course and we want this to be fun, we want it to be easy, and so the prerequisites for this course, in case you're concerned are none, right? There are no prerequisites. You just need to be interested in cloud computing. Now if you have some knowledge about computers and networks and storage, awesome! That is great. This book is going to be really, really easy for you. If you have no knowledge about that stuff, that's okay. This course is introductory enough that you're going to learn a lot and you're still going to have fun and after this book.

Cloud Computing - The Basics

You may have seen a commercial on TV from the likes of Microsoft where a person has a problem sharing photos and someone says, take it to the cloud, and the cloud seems to solve all their problems. You might've seen another commercial from Microsoft where they say they're having trouble accessing their home computer and someone says, take it to the cloud, and the cloud seems to fix everything, right? So what the heck is the cloud? Well, in this module that's exactly what you'll learn, the basics of cloud computing. In this module we'll kick it off by answering the most basic of questions. What is it? What is cloud computing exactly? From there you'll learn the traits of a cloud. What is a cloud and isn't a cloud? What should you look for? After that I'll talk about the benefits of cloud computing. What's it good for? How does it help you? From there we'll also address what many people leave out, which are the risks of cloud computing. What risk are you taking when you move something to the cloud? From there we'll cover the many forms of cloud computing. There are many different ways to use the cloud. I'll talk about the history of cloud computing, it's not brand new, although you might think that it is, and then from there I'll show you a demo of cloud computing in action. We've got a lot to cover so let's get started.

What Is It?

What is cloud computing? Here's the big announcement. Cloud computing is on-demand computing resources delivered to you over the internet. Now think about that for a minute. You need access to some sort of computing. Maybe it's an application you need to run, maybe it's just a server that needs to be started for your company. No matter what it is, the cloud can provide those on-demand resources and they're delivered to you in most cases, I should caution in most cases, over the internet. Now another way to answer the