Page 63 - DCAP609_CLOUD_COMPUTING

Cloud Computing

Notes Introduction

Cloud computing is beneficial for the entire community, home users to sports teams to school
organizations and so on. Any time any group of people in the community need to communicate
and collaborate, they need to switch to Web-based applications. Web based applications are the
ultimate way to take advantage of today’s technology to enhance your organizations productivity
and efficiency. Web based application gives you an opportunity to access your business
information from anywhere in the world at any time. It also facilitates you to save time and
money and improve the interactivity with your customers and partners.
Web-based applications are easy to use and can be implemented without interrupting your
existing work process. Whether you need a content managed solution or an e-commerce system,
we can develop a customized web application that fulfills your business requirements.

This unit, therefore, takes a look at a few typical community uses of cloud computing. After
examining the Web-based approach, it is hard to imagine going back to the old way of doing
things.

5.1 Communicating Across the Community

Most essential component of any community collaboration is communication. Let us now learn
how computing in the cloud encourages communications amongst community members.
The main objective of cloud computing is to enable easy access to emails in any part of the world
at any given time. Email has been around almost as long as computer networks and long predates
the arrival of the Internet. Communication might occur during office hours on work computer
or during any spare time a person gets. Thus using a traditional desktop email, such as Microsoft
Outlook or Windows Mail may not be a convenient option.

A better approach is to use a Web-based email service, such as Google’s Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or
Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail. Gmail is the Google approach to email and chat. Practically
unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages, and Gmail’s simple but
very smart interface lets you locate them conveniently. Windows Live Hotmail is yet another
free email service that gives you unlimited storage, fast search, good security.
Yahoo! Mail is your ever-present email program on the web. Its free-form labeling and smart
folders and a strong spam filter to catch junk effectively make Y! Mail a joy to use.

Some community activists in order to communicate with their community or group members
create a unique Web-based email account just for their community communications. This way
they do not confuse personal emails from those involving their community activities.

5.1.1 Layers of Abstraction

The cloud provides options for approach, sourcing, and control. It delivers a well-defined set of
services, which are perceived by the customers to have infinite capacity, continuous availability,
increased agility, and improved cost efficiency. Different levels of abstraction, aimed at different
market segments are the following.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service is a provision model in which an organization outsources the equipment
used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components.
The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and

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