On-premise versus the cloud.
The digital landscape is evolving rapidly
and businesses are increasingly leveraging technology
to enhance their operations.
Among the most significant advancements
is the shift from traditional on-premise infrastructure
to cloud-based solutions
and more recently, hybrid models.
In this lesson,
we're going to discuss these concepts,
highlighting the responsibility matrix,
hybrid considerations,
third party vendors
and key considerations
such as availability, resiliency,
cost, responsiveness, scalability,
ease of deployment,
risk transference, patch availability,
inability to patch,
power and compute.
First up, cloud computing.
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services
over the internet
including servers, storage, databases, networking,
software analytics, and intelligence.
This technology offers faster innovation,
flexible resources and economies of scale.
For example, Netflix leverages cloud computing
to stream content to millions of users worldwide.
Now, within cloud computing,
there are a few concepts that you should be familiar with.
It includes the responsibility matrix,
third party vendors,
and hybrid solutions.
Responsibility matrix.
In cloud computing, the responsibility matrix
outlines the division of responsibilities
between the cloud service provider and the customer.
For instance, in an infrastructure as a service model,
the provider is responsible for managing the infrastructure
while the customer handles everything else
including the operating system, middleware,
runtime, data and applications.
This always changes according to the model used
and the contractual agreements
between the service provider and the customer,
but it's always an integral part of the agreement.
Next up, third party vendors.
Third party vendors play a crucial role in cloud computing.
They provide specialized services
that enhance the functionality, security,
and efficiency of cloud solutions.
These services range from cloud management tools,
security solutions to data analytic tools.
For example, Cloud Health by VMware
provides cost management, governance, automation,
and security for multi-cloud environments.
The third concept they should be familiar with
is hybrid solutions.
Hybrid solutions combine on-premise infrastructure,
private cloud services,
and public cloud services.
They allow businesses to move workloads
between environments depending on their needs.
When considering a hybrid solution,
businesses must consider data security, compliance,
interoperability and cost.
They must ensure that sensitive data is protected,
regulatory requirements are met,
systems can communicate with each other,
and the solution is cost-effective.
For example, a healthcare organization might
use a hybrid solution to manage its IT needs.
The organization could host sensitive patient data
on its on-premise servers
to maintain high levels of control and security.
This is crucial due to stringent regulations like HIPAA,
or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,
that mandate the protection of patient information.
For less sensitive high volume tasks
like email hosting or data analysis,
organization could leverage cloud solutions.
This allows them to scale the resources up or down
based on demand and safe costs,
infrastructure and maintenance.
Next up, on-premise solutions.
On-premise solutions refer to the computing infrastructure
that is physically located on site at a business.
The business is responsible for maintaining the hardware,
software, and other resources.
For instance, a small law firm might choose
to keep all of its data and applications on premise due
to the sensitive nature of the legal documents
and client information it handles.
The firm has a server room where all of the data
is stored and managed.
All software updates,
security measures and system upgrades
are handled in-house by the firm's IT department.
This setup allows the firm to have complete control
over its data,
ensuring that sensitive information is not exposed
to third party vendors,
or potential breaches associated with cloud solution.
It also allows for immediate access
and control over their data,
which can be crucial in a fast-paced legal environment.
Now, there are a few key considerations
that you should be aware of in the cloud computing world.
These are availability, resilience, cost, responsiveness,
scalability, ease of deployment, risk transference,
ease of recovery, patch availability, inability to patch,
power and compute.
Availability refers to the system's ability
to be accessed when needed.
Cloud services often offer high availability
due to the distributed nature,
which means that they can continue to operate even
if one data center experienced an outage.
For example, Amazon Web Services or AWS
offers service level agreements promising
an annual uptime percentage of at least 99.99%
for their Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 services.
This high level of availability ensures
that businesses using these services can access their data
and applications almost anytime.
Next, resilience.
Resilience is the system's ability to recover
from failures and continue to function.
Cloud services are inherently resilient
due to their distributed and redundant infrastructure.
For instance, Google's cloud platform, or GCP,
cloud storage is designed to provide robust data resilience.
Even in the event
of a simultaneous failure of two data centers,
data stored in the GCP's cloud storage
is still accessible and safe.
Next up, cost.
While cloud services can reduce upfront costs,
ongoing costs can add up.
It's essential to consider both the immediate
and the long-term costs of cloud adoption.
For example, a startup might choose AWS's
pay as you go model
to avoid high upfront costs.
However, as their usage grows, so do their costs.
They might need to consider reserved instances
or saving plans to reduce long-term costs.
Next, responsiveness.
Responsiveness refers to the speed
at which the system can adapt to changes in demand.
Cloud services are highly responsive
allowing businesses to quickly scale resources up
or down as needed.
For instance, e-commerce site might use Microsoft
Azure's auto-scaling feature to handle increased
traffic during a sale.
This ensures their site remains responsive,
providing a smooth customer experience.
Scalability.
Scalability is the system's ability
to handle increased workloads.
Cloud services offer virtually unlimited scalability,
allowing businesses to grow
without worrying about the infrastructure limitations.
Going back to the Netflix example from earlier,
Netflix uses AWS to scale its streaming services
to accommodate its growing user base,
handling peak viewing times
and expanding into new regions
without investing physical infrastructure.
Next, ease of deployment.
Cloud services are generally easier to deploy
than on-premise solutions.
They don't require physical installation
and can be set up in a matter of minutes or hours.
For instance, a small business
might use Shopify's cloud-based
e-commerce platform to quickly set up an online store
without needing technical expertise or physical servers.
Next, risk transference.
With cloud services,
some risks are transferred to the provider.
However, the customer is still responsible
for securing their data and applications.
To give an example,
a company using Salesforce transfers the risk
of CRM software maintenance
and infrastructure security to Salesforce.
However, the company is still responsible
for user access, security, and data protection.
Next, ease of recovery.
Cloud services often offer easy data recovery
and backup solutions,
protecting businesses from data loss.
A company using Dropbox
for cloud storage can easily recover
files deleted accidentally,
protecting them from potential data loss.
Next, patch availability.
Cloud service providers regularly release patches
to fix vulnerabilities.
Customers do not have to worry
about finding and applying these patches themselves.
Microsoft regularly releases patches
for its Office 365 suite.
Customers receive these updates automatically,
ensuring their software is always up to date and secure.
Next, inability to patch.
Sometimes businesses might not be able to apply patches
due to compatibility issues
or lack of control over the cloud environment.
For example, a business using a legacy application
in the cloud might not be able to apply a patch
if it's not compatible
with the older version of the software they're using.
Next, power.
For customers, one of the advantages of cloud computing is
that they don't have to worry about power consumption.
The cloud service provider takes care
of all the infrastructure,
including the power supply.
This not only reduces costs for the customer,
it also eliminates the need to manage power supply issues.
And finally, compute.
Compute and cloud computing refers to the amount
of computational resources that a customer can use.
This includes the number of CPUs,
the amount of memory,
and the type and size of storage.
Cloud service providers offer a range
of compute options to suit different needs.
For instance, Amazon Web Services or AWS
offers high variety
of compute instances, from small, low-cost instances
for simple tasks
to high performance instances
for compute intensive workloads.
So remember, cloud computing offers flexibility,
scalability, and cost effectiveness,
but businesses must consider the division
of responsibilities,
third party vendors,
and ongoing costs.
On-premise solutions offer high levels
of control and security,
but they can be expensive
and challenging to maintain and scale.
Hybrid solutions offer flexibility and control,
but businesses must consider data security,
compliance, interoperability, and cost.
Key considerations when choosing a solution
include availability, resilience,
cost, responsiveness, scalability,
ease of deployment, risk transference, patch availability,
inability to patch, power and compute.