Cloud Computing Architecture

Cloud architecture uses simple APIs to provide easily accessible services to the user through the internet medium.

It provides scale on demand feature to increase the industrial strength.

It provides the transparency between the machines so that users don’t have to worry about their data. Users can just perform the functionality without even knowing the complex logics implemented in cloud architecture.

It provides highest optimization and utilization in the cloud platform

Cloud architecture is a software application that uses on demand services and access pool of resources from the cloud. Cloud architecture act as a platform on which the applications are built. It provides the complete computing infrastructure and provides the resources only when it is required. It is used to elastically scale up or down the resources according to the job that is being performed.

The three differences that make cloud architecture in demand are:

1. Cloud architecture provides the hardware requirement according to the demand. It can run the processes when there is a requirement for it.

2. Cloud architecture is capable of scaling the resources on demand. As, the demand rises it can provide infrastructure and the services to the users.

3. Cloud architecture can manage and handle dynamic workloads without failure. It can recover a machine from failure and always keep the load to a particular machine to minimum.

Cloud architecture provide large pool of dynamic resources that can be accessed any time whenever there is a requirement, which is not being given by the traditional architecture. In traditional architecture it is not possible to dynamically associate a machine with the rising demand of infrastructure and the services. Cloud architecture provides scalable properties to meet the high demand of infrastructure and provide on-demand access to the user.

There are lots of tools that are being used by the cloud architecture to provide the performance transparency and automation. The tools allow the user to monitor report and manage the cloud architecture. It also allows them to share the applications using the cloud architecture. Automation is the key component of cloud architecture as it provides the services to increase the degree of the quality. It brings the capacity on demand and allows the requirements of the user to be met.

Vertical scale up provides more resources to a single computational unit, whereas horizontal scale out provides additional computational unit and run them in parallel.

Vertical scale up provides a provision to move a workload to other system that doesn’t have workload, whereas horizontal scale out split the workload among various computational units.

Vertical scale up doesn’t have a database partitioning concept, whereas horizontal scale out provides the database partitioning.

Cloud architecture mainly focuses on quality of service. It is a layer that manages and secures the transmission of the resources that is being acquired by on-demand access. Quality of service is being maintained such that it increases the performance, automated management, and support services. Cloud architecture provides easy to use methods and proper ways to ensure the quality of service. It is represented by a common cloud management platform that delivers many cloud services based on the same foundation.

The benefits involved in cloud architecture is:

► Zero infrastructure investment

► Just in time infrastructure

► More efficient resource utilization

Development as a service is web based, community shared development tools. This is the equivalent to locally installed development tools in the traditional (non-cloud computing) delivery of development tools.

Cloud computing architecture refers to the components and sub components required for cloud computing. These components typically consist of a front end platform (fat client, thin client, mobile device), back end platforms (servers, storage), a cloud based delivery, and a network (Internet, Intranet, Inter-cloud). Combined, these components make up cloud computing architecture.

Platform as a service is cloud computing service which provides the users with application platforms and databases as a service. This is equivalent to middle-ware in the traditional (non-cloud computing) delivery of application platforms and databases.

Infrastructure as a service is taking the physical hardware and going completely virtual (e.g. all servers, networks, storage, and system management all existing in the cloud). This is the equivalent to infrastructure and hardware in the traditional (non-cloud computing) method running in the cloud. In other words, businesses pay a fee (monthly or annually) to run virtual servers, networks, storage from the cloud. This will mitigate the need for a data center, heating, cooling, and maintaining hardware at the local level

To provide the performance transparency and automation there are many tools used by cloud architecture. It allows to manage the cloud architecture and monitor reports. It also allows them to share the application using the cloud architecture. Automation is the key component of cloud architecture which helps to improve the degree of quality.

► Reference architecture

► Technical architecture

► Deployment operation architecture

There are four phases that basically gets involved in the cloud architecture:

1. Launch phase: it launches the basic services and makes the system ready for communication and for application building

2. Monitor phase: it monitors the services that is being launched and then manages them so that on demand the user will be able to get what he wants.

3. Shutdown phase: it shutdown the services that are not required first and after all the services gets shutdown, and then it closes the system services.

4. Cleanup phase: it clean up the left out processes and services that is being either broken or didn’t get shutdown correctly.

The zero or ultra-thin client initializes the network to gather required configuration files that then tell it where its OS binaries are stored. The entire zero client device runs via the network. This creates a single point of failure, in that, if the network goes down, the device is rendered useless.

► Cloud Ingress

► Processor Speed

► Cloud storage services

► Cloud provided services

► Intra-cloud communications

it provides the users the ability to run its application on the cloud infrastructure and can access it from any client device using any interface like web browser.