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Unit 3: Developing Cloud Services

3.5 Maturity Level of Cloud Services Notes

As cloud computing matures, a growing number of organizations are interested in moving to
cloud environments to help lower IT costs, increase efficiencies, and realize greater flexibility.

To understand where the Web-based applications we call, cloud services stand in the evolution
of hosted computer software.
We shall now understand the position of Web-based applications also called cloud services in
the evolution of hosted computer software by understanding the four primary levels of cloud
services as given by professionals at Microsoft.
The first level of maturity defines the traditional Application Service Provider (ASP) model of
software delivery which dates back to the 1990. An Application Service Provider is a business
that offers software services to customers, using computer networks and the Internet as the
mechanism to deliver and manage the service. At this level, every user has his own personalized
version, the hosted application and runs his own instance of the application on the host server.
The goal of an ASP business is to reduce the cost of software distribution and maintenance.

The second level of maturity take place when the vendor hosts a different instance of the
application for each customer. At this level, all instances use the same implementation.

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Caution The code, as in level-one application is not tailored for each user. Instead, user
personalization is provided by detailed configuration option within the application itself.
The third level of maturity indicates a major change in how the application is hosted. At this
level, the vendor runs a single instance of the application that serves every user. A user gets a
unique experience via configurable metadata and various authorization and security policies to
the user ensures safety and confidentiality of the user data.
At the last level of maturity, the vendor hosts multiple users on a load balanced form of identical
instances. This type of system is scalable to a large number of users because the number of
servers (and instances) can be increased or decreased as per demand.
In addition, upgrades and patches can be moved to the entire user base as easily as to a single
user. It is to this level that cloud services aspire.

Self Assessment

Multiple Choice Questions:
6. SaaS stands for ..............................
(a) software as a service (b) sales as a service

7. ............................. is a series of cloud computing services that enables enterprises to distribute
their computing needs across a globally accessible resource grid.
(a) Blue Cloud (b) Google App Engine

8. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is a central part of Amazon.com’s cloud
computing platform, Amazon Web Services.
(a) Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (b) Amazon SimpleDB

(c) Amazon Simple Queue Service (d) Amazon Simple Storage Service

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