-: Cloud Computing. 2 2
The last piece of virtualization technology 3 3
that we want to cover is cloud computing. 4 4
Now that's because most cloud 5 5
is just a mixture of a bunch of virtualization technologies. 6 6
So in this lesson, we're going to talk about how that works. 7 7
When you're dealing with cloud computing, 8 8
there really are four major ways that it's going to be done. 9 9
There's a private cloud, a public cloud, 10 10
a hybrid cloud, and a community cloud. 11 11
Now, when you're dealing with a private cloud, 12 12
this is where your systems and your users 13 13
only have access to other devices 14 14
within the same private cloud or system. 15 15
And this is going to add to the security of that cloud. 16 16
When you're dealing with a public cloud, 17 17
the systems and the users can interact with devices 18 18
on public networks, 19 19
such as the internet and other cloud providers. 20 20
Now, when you deal with the hybrid cloud, 21 21
this is going to be a combination of both public 22 22
and private clouds. 23 23
Now, what would this look like? 24 24
Well, let's take the example of a private cloud. 25 25
Something like the GovCloud, 26 26
which is made by the US government. 27 27
This is hosted on Amazon and AWS servers, 28 28
as well as Microsoft servers, 29 29
but only government agencies can touch it. 30 30
And only government data is going to be stored within it. 31 31
This is considered a private cloud. 32 32
Now on the other hand, there's a public cloud 33 33
and this might be something like Google Drive, 34 34
because anybody can sign up for Google Drive and use it. 35 35
My data is in Google Drive, 36 36
your data's on Google Drive. 37 37
And we can even commingle our data inside of Google drive. 38 38
This is what makes it a public cloud. 39 39
Now in a hybrid solution, 40 40
we can mix a little bit of both. 41 41
For example, we might have parts of it 42 42
that are going to be private 43 43
and parts of it that are going to be public. 44 44
Maybe our accounting data is very special 45 45
and we want to make sure it's in a private cloud, 46 46
but our human resource data might be in a public cloud. 47 47
And we can mix those two things together 48 48
by connecting them. 49 49
It really depends on how you want to implement this 50 50
inside your organization. 51 51
But when you're dealing with a hybrid cloud, 52 52
you have the ability to have both parts of public 53 53
and parts of private working together. 54 54
For example, in the US government, 55 55
they have a private government cloud 56 56
that we already talked about called the GovCloud, 57 57
but they've also used some public cloud services 58 58
like Microsoft Teams as part of their CVR environment, 59 59
which was used during their COVID-19 pandemic response 60 60
back in 2020. 61 61
Now, CVR is just an acronym 62 62
that stood for commercial virtual remote environment. 63 63
And basically it was just a rebranded version 64 64
of Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams 65 65
that was issued to government and military employees to use 66 66
during the pandemic. 67 67
The fourth type of cloud is known as a community cloud. 68 68
Now a community cloud inside of cloud computing 69 69
is a collaborative effort in which infrastructure is shared 70 70
between several organizations from a specific community 71 71
with common concerns. 72 72
And these can be managed internally 73 73
or by third parties, 74 74
and then they can be hosted internally or externally. 75 75
For example, there could be a cloud service 76 76
that's created specifically for banks 77 77
by a group of banks. 78 78
Each of these banks may provide either funding, 79 79
expertise or personnel to create this cloud. 80 80
And then all the members could benefit from its use. 81 81
To make this work effectively, 82 82
the community cloud solution is usually going to be designed 83 83
as a multi-tenant platform. 84 84
This way it can be accessed 85 85
by each of the contributing members, 86 86
but they each have their own portion of it 87 87
and their own data. 88 88
This is why we call it a community cloud, 89 89
because it's built 90 90
and used by a specific community of users. 91 91
Now, in addition to these four types of clouds, 92 92
there's also going to be five models of cloud computing. 93 93
The five models of cloud computing are NaaS, 94 94
IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and DaaS. 95 95
This stands for Network as a Service, 96 96
Infrastructure as a Service, 97 97
Software as a Service, 98 98
Platform as a Service, 99 99
and Desktop as a Service. 100 100
Let's take a look at each one of these. 101 101
First, we have Network as a Service or NaaS. 102 102
This is going to allow for the outsourcing of your network 103 103
to a service provider. 104 104
This is where all those virtual routers 105 105
and switches and firewalls are going to come into play. 106 106
All of this can be hosted offsite 107 107
at the provider's location, 108 108
and they put it into their data center. 109 109
And you as the customer are going to be charged for usage 110 110
based on the number of hours 111 111
or the amount of bandwidth that's being used. 112 112
Essentially your network capabilities are going to be provided 113 113
as a common utility. 114 114
A great example of this is going to be Route 53 115 115
or Amazon's VPC, Virtual Private Cloud offerings. 116 116
Both of these are Network as a Service options. 117 117
Now, in addition to Network as a Service, 118 118
there's Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS. 119 119
Now Infrastructure as a Service 120 120
is going to allow outsourcing of the infrastructure 121 121
of your servers and desktops to the service provider, 122 122
in addition to outsourcing that network. 123 123
Now, if I wanted to host virtual servers hosted by Amazon, 124 124
I can use AWS, or if I want to use Microsoft, 125 125
I'm going to use Azure. 126 126
All of that would be Infrastructure as a Service. 127 127
All of this virtualized equipment 128 128
is being hosted offsite at that service provider's location. 129 129
And again, I'm going to be charged for usage 130 130
based on the hours used, 131 131
processing power used, 132 132
bandwidth, the amount of memory, 133 133
and any other factors like that, that they want to use. 134 134
Essentially, it's being charged like a utility 135 135
where you get a monthly bill every month 136 136
for the amount you've used. 137 137
For example, my website, diontraining.com, 138 138
we use Infrastructure as a Service to host it 139 139
because we've outsourced the servers 140 140
and that hosting to this third party cloud company. 141 141
And they charge us 142 142
based on the amount of bandwidth that we use 143 143
and the number of requests we get each month from students. 144 144
Next, we have Software as a Service or SaaS. 145 145
This is where the user 146 146
is going to interact with a web-based application. 147 147
And the details of how that application work 148 148
is actually going to be hidden from the user, 149 149
because honestly, our users don't really care 150 150
about the details anyway, 151 151
they just want the end product 152 152
and the end result. 153 153
Some great examples of this are things like Office 365 154 154
or Google Docs or Google Sheets. 155 155
All of these provide the end user with an application 156 156
that is web-based and we're paying for it as a utility. 157 157
Now, again, as an end-user, 158 158
all I care about is, 159 159
can I do what I need to do with the software? 160 160
For example, if I need to make a spreadsheet, 161 161
I can fire up my web browser, 162 162
go to sheets.google.com 163 163
and then start creating that spreadsheet. 164 164
If I can do this, then the SaaS product is doing its job, 165 165
and I am a satisfied customer. 166 166
Now I don't have to install any software 167 167
or configure it. 168 168
All I have to do is log into the website 169 169
and use that to create spreadsheets. 170 170
So it meets my needs. 171 171
Now, another great thing about SaaS products 172 172
is they are really easy, really fast, 173 173
and as an administrator, 174 174
I don't have to worry 175 175
about all the backend configuration and details. 176 176
Instead, my company just pays an annual service fee 177 177
or a monthly service fee, 178 178
and we get access to that piece of software in the cloud. 179 179
These days, more and more software 180 180
sold under the Software as a Service model. 181 181
In my company, 182 182
we use things like Google Sheets and Google Docs, 183 183
but we also use QuickBooks Online. 184 184
And we also use Adobe. 185 185
These days more and more software sold 186 186
under the Software as a Service model. 187 187
In fact, if using Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Premiere, 188 188
those are still considered Software as a Service 189 189
because there's a monthly fee associated with it 190 190
that you have to keep paying 191 191
in order to use that software. 192 192
Now, this software is still going to be installed 193 193
locally on your machine, 194 194
and it's not truly web-based, 195 195
but that's only because of the processing needs 196 196
of these tools because you're dealing with video editing 197 197
and photo editing. 198 198
These tools had to be installed locally 199 199
to take advantage of your computer, 200 200
and its more intensive processing power. 201 201
But every time you log into that software, 202 202
it's going to reach out to Adobe 203 203
and check to see if your software license 204 204
is still up to date, 205 205
because you have to pay that monthly fee 206 206
because it's Software as a Service. 207 207
Now, one of the key features of Software as a Service 208 208
is that they are constantly being updated 209 209
and upgraded on your behalf. 210 210
In the old days, when you bought Adobe, 211 211
it was a traditional software. 212 212
You bought the license for one version of that software, 213 213
and that was it. 214 214
But with Software as a Service, 215 215
you're paying this monthly fee time and time again, 216 216
and in trade for that, 217 217
you're getting a constantly updated piece of software 218 218
with the latest and greatest version, 219 219
all the security bugs are being worked out, 220 220
and you're getting new features all the time. 221 221
Next, we have Platform as a Service or PaaS. 222 222
Now Platform as a Service 223 223
is going to give you a development platform 224 224
if you're a company that's going to be developing applications 225 225
and you don't want to maintain your own infrastructure. 226 226
When I build my courses in my lab environments, 227 227
I use Platform as a Service, 228 228
because I don't want to have to worry 229 229
about building all the virtual labs myself 230 230
and all the underlying code to host them. 231 231
Instead, I want to build the virtual machine 232 232
and give the experience of troubleshooting 233 233
and maintaining that particular equipment 234 234
within a particular lab. 235 235
This way I don't have to deal with all the hosting needs 236 236
and the networking needs 237 237
and all the other stuff that goes into providing these labs. 238 238
Instead, I can get what I need right out of it 239 239
by using Platform as a Service. 240 240
This is why I outsource 241 241
under this Platform as a Service model. 242 242
It makes my life much easier. 243 243
Now, some great examples of Platform as a Service 244 244
are things like Pivotal, OpenShift, and Apprenda, 245 245
as well as many other solutions out there. 246 246
If you work as a coder or a web programmer, 247 247
or you work in a software development firm, 248 248
there's going to be a lot of Platforms as a Service 249 249
that's are going to be available to you 250 250
and are things you're going to have to be familiar with. 251 251
Finally, we have Desktop as a Service or DaaS. 252 252
Now Desktop as a Service 253 253
is going to provide you with a desktop environment 254 254
that is accessible from the internet 255 255
in the form of a cloud desktop, 256 256
or a Virtual Desktop environment. 257 257
A Virtual Desktop is often provided under the term VDI 258 258
or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. 259 259
Now, when you purchase a Desktop as a Service product, 260 260
you're going to receive a working desktop environment 261 261
and any applications that you may need to use 262 262
within that desktop. 263 263
For example, Amazon has a VDI product 264 264
known as Amazon Workspaces. 265 265
With Amazon Workspaces, 266 266
your organization can purchase a fully managed, 267 267
persistent desktop virtualization service 268 268
that allows your users to access their data, 269 269
applications and resources from anywhere, 270 270
anytime from any supported device. 271 271
These desktops can be their Windows or Linux-based desktops, 272 272
and they can be deployed to thousands of users 273 273
in just a couple of minutes. 274 274
In my company, 275 275
we actually use a specialized Desktop as a Service platform 276 276
known as Shadow PC. 277 277
Now, unlike most virtual desktop services 278 278
that focus on providing low power desktops 279 279
for Office workers, 280 280
Shadow PC focuses on providing users 281 281
with a very powerful gaming PC, 282 282
so they can access it from anywhere in the world, 283 283
even from something like a Chromebook 284 284
or an Android device. 285 285
Now, why do I use a Shadow PC? 286 286
Are the folks on my team big gamers? 287 287
Well, they may be, 288 288
but that really isn't our use case for it. 289 289
Instead, we do a lot of video editing 290 290
to bring courses like this one to you. 291 291
And instead of having to constantly supply my team 292 292
with new hardware and software 293 293
to do their job as video editors 294 294
and shipping those PCs all over the world, 295 295
I instead opt to provide a Shadow PC. 296 296
This allows them to log in with any laptop, 297 297
desktop, Chromebook, tablet or mobile phone, 298 298
and they can access a very powerful computer 299 299
that has all the Adobe software they need 300 300
to do their editing as well as doing all their other jobs. 301 301
Because this gaming PC by design 302 302
has a very powerful graphics card 303 303
that can support rendering our videos 304 304
in a short amount of time. 305 305
For one monthly fee, I can give my team 306 306
a constantly updated piece of superior hardware 307 307
without the large upfront cost 308 308
of buying all those high-end PCs 309 309
and shipping them all over the world. 310 310
Remember, all of these different cloud models 311 311
have their own benefits, 312 312
and it's important to realize what each one does. 313 313
These can be NaaS, IaaS, 314 314
SaaS, PaaS and DaaS, 315 315
and each of those five could be provided as a public, 316 316
private, hybrid or community cloud solution. 317 317
It just depends on your use case. 318 318
Now, one of the previous organizations I work for 319 319
operate a very large private cloud variant 320 320
of Desktop as a Service for their model. 321 321
They had over 25,000 plus users, 322 322
and they did this because it had a higher security ability 323 323
'cause they could quickly patch 324 324
and update all of these VDI-based solutions 325 325
whenever they needed to. 326 326
So it's really important for you 327 327
to consider all of your options based on these things, 328 328
as you're picking out a cloud solution to implement 329 329
within your organization, 330 330
based on your specific needs.