What is cloud computing? The official definition of cloud computing is the method of utilizing a network of servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than using a local server or computer for these tasks. When you talk about a local computer, that may also be referred to as a computer being On-Premise or On-Prem. In this tutorial, we’ll review all of the concepts you need to know to be comfortable with Azure Cloud Computing.
On Premise
In the past, almost all computing was done On-Premise. The key points to understand about On-Prem computing are the following:
- You own the servers
- You hire the IT staff
- You pay rent for real estate
- You take all the risk associated with this
In the On-Premise approach, you have to manage the physical data center and all of its associated burdens.
Cloud-Based Computing
Cloud computing is the more modern approach to computing where there is no need to maintain your own office and data center. With cloud computing, you have the following points:
- Someone else owns all the servers
- Someone else manages the IT staff to support those servers
- Someone else pays any rent needed for the data center
- All you have to do is configure your cloud services and associated code!
The Evolution Of Cloud Computing
Computing has evolved massively over time. Let’s look at a few of the models we have seen in this evolution.
Dedicated Server
The dedicated server approach involves buying one physical machine that is dedicated to a single business. It may be used to run a single web application or website and is typically very expensive, very high maintenance, but with the added benefit of having very high security.
Virtual Private Server
Next up in the evolution of cloud computing is the virtual private server. A virtual private server is also just one physical machine dedicated to a single business the difference between a virtual private server and a dedicated server is that the virtual private server is virtualized into sub machines and can be used to host many web applications or many websites. VPS setups are still wildly popular since you can get what appears to be a dedicated machine to you the end user with very low costs. Digital Ocean and Linode are popular VPS providers.
Shared Hosting
In the shared deployment model, you have one physical machine that might be shared by hundreds of businesses. If any of those businesses put excessive strain on the server that could affect the other customers. This is why shared hosting is not common for important workloads although if you need it the benefit is that it is very inexpensive.
Cloud Hosting
Cloud computing and cloud hosting is now the most common approach for businesses today. In this paradigm, you have multiple physical machines that work in concert together as one large system. This system is abstracted into multiple cloud services that end-users are able to take advantage of. Modern cloud computing and cloud hosting are extremely flexible, scalable, secure, cost-effective, and highly configurable.
Public vs Private vs Hybrid
| Deployment model | Description |
| Public cloud | In the Public Cloud, services are offered over the public internet and available to anyone who wants to purchase them. Cloud resources, such as virtual machines and storage, are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, and delivered over the internet. |
| Private cloud | A private cloud consists of computing resources used exclusively by users from one business or organization when privacy and security are needed. A private cloud can be physically located at on-site (on-premises), or it can be hosted by a third-party service provider. |
| Hybrid cloud | A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that levrages both the public cloud and a private cloud by allowing data and applications to be shared between them. |
Learn More About Cloud Computing
- Overview What Is Cloud Computing (azure.microsoft.com)
- Everything You Need To Know About The Cloud (zdnet.com)
- Cloud_Computing (en.wikipedia.org)
- Definition Cloud Computing (searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com)
- Learn Cloud Computing (ibm.com)
- Best Practices Cloud Computing (salesforce.com)
- What Is Cloud Computing (pcmag.com)
- What Is Cloud Computing (oracle.com)