Cloud Computing and virtualization

Cloud computing and virtualization

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing  involves hosting services over the internet. The three types of services are:

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Now we will discuss the various services one by one:

Platform as a Service:

                            In  a PaaS model, the service provider provides both hardware and software that runs on top of the hardware. The User can use the software and manage the data associated with the software. Developers use these kind of services to to build applications on a platform. Here the user manages the software and the data, the rest are managed by the cloud vendor.

Software as a Service:

                            In this model, the software is  hosted on a web server and the user can access the software if the access is approved by the vendor. The user can use the software to his/her own will. Everything from the hardware to the software is managed by the vendor.

Infrastructure as a Service:

                            In this model, the cloud vendor provides the hardware to the user. the user can make use of the hardware in any way they prefer. Everything including the operating system can be managed by the user. The hardware will be managed by the cloud vendor.

most cloud vendors use virtual machines to allocate resources to users.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is the concept of simulating multiple environments in  the same physical hardware. a software called hypervisor helps the hardware to simulate environments known as virtual machines. A Virtual machine mimics the behaviour of a normal computer system but are not installed on the bare metal hardware. These virtual machines rely on the hypervisor to separate resources of the hardware.

Types of virtualization:

• Hardware Virtualization
• Operating System Virtualization
• Server Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization

Hardware Virtualization:

                    When the hypervisor is installed directly on the hardware, then it is called hardware virtualization because the hypervisor works directly on the hardware to facilitate virtualization.

 Operating System Virtualization:

                    When the hypervisor is installed on the operating system then its called as operating system virtualization because it works with the base operating system to facilitate virtualization.

Server Virtualization:

                       In this type of virtualization, the server is used to house multiple virtual servers by splitting its resources  among the virtual machines. In this way, the servers can operate in its own isolated manner.

Storage Virtualization:

                        Storage virtualization is the process  of grouping the physical storage from devices which are connected over a network  into one so it looks like a single storage device