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New to cloud computing?
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- What is cloud computing?
- What's the difference between a private and a public cloud? And what about hybrids?
- Is cloud computing the same as Software as a Service? Infrastructure as a Service? Platform as a Service?
- Where can I learn more about cloud computing?
- What types of applications can run in the cloud?
- Can applications move from one cloud to another?
- Does IBM have a cloud? What platforms are available for cloud computing currently?
- What products, technologies, and services can help me with cloud computing development and design?
- Are there any nuts and bolts articles on developing applications for the cloud?
This guide provides a rapid and thorough grounding in cloud computing with a focus on the basic concepts; terminology definitions; types of cloud platforms, services, and products; how to start developing applications for the cloud; and connections to resources that can further expand your knowledge of the cloud.
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is a category of computing solutions in which a technology and/or service lets users access computing resources on demand, as needed, whether the resources are physical or virtual, dedicated, or shared, and no matter how they are accessed (via a direct connection, LAN, WAN, or the Internet). The cloud is often characterized by self-service interfaces that let customers acquire resources when needed as long as needed. Cloud is also the concept behind an approach to building IT services that takes advantage of the growing power of servers and virtualization technologies.
Cloud computing's importance rests in the cloud's potential to save investment costs in infrastructure, to save time in application development and deployment, and to save resource allocation overhead.
What's the difference between a private and a public cloud? And what about hybrids?
In general, a public (external) cloud is an environment that exists outside a company's firewall. It can be a service offered by a third-party vendor. It could also be referred to as a shared or multi-tenanted, virtualized infrastructure managed by means of a self-service portal.
A private (internal) cloud reproduces the delivery models of a public cloud and does so behind a firewall for the exclusive benefit of an organization and its customers. The self-service management interface is still in place while the IT infrastructure resources being collected are internal.
In a hybrid cloud environment, external services are leveraged to extend or supplement an internal cloud.
Is cloud computing the same as Software as a Service? Infrastructure as a Service? Platform as a Service?
A growing number of people in the industry consider Software as a Service (SaaS) -- software applications delivered over the web to be a subset of cloud computing. And you could probably say the same thing about IaaS (remotely accessible server and storage capacity) and PaaS (lets developers build and deploy web applications on a hosted infrastructure).
- Introduction to Infrastructure as a Service
- Introduction to Platform as a Service
- Introduction to Software as a Service
- SaaS demo series
Where can I learn more about cloud computing?
Start with our cloud library for technical articles, tutorials, demos, and other resources. Then, discover the wealth of interactive knowledge we've amassed on cloud computing by networking with your peers in the developerWorks community:
- The IBM Developer Cloud group is the community designed to streamline and accelerate your development and test processes by leveraging the cloud technologies associated with the IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.
- Bookmarks lets you and others share cloud-related information from everywhere on the web; sort of like having a library of libraries of resources.
What types of applications can run in the cloud?
Anything can run in a cloud, but that doesn't mean anything should run in a cloud. Any software that benefits the user by being resident on a desktop or workstation (system analysis tools, defragmentation utilities, etc.) would be better off remaining local. Also, sensitive customer data maybe should not be on a public cloud.
A cloud is right on target for applications that deal with IT management, business and productivity, development and deployment, capacity (server and/or storage), and collaboration.
Can applications move from one cloud to another?
Yes they can but with a caveat: Cloud vendors need to adopt standards-based technologies to make interoperability and freedom of movement an easily achievable operation, not a strenuous task. Here are three resources so you can get involved in cloud computing standards:
- Discuss standards at Google Groups Cloud Computing Use Cases
- Discuss core principles at the Open Cloud Manifesto
- Review ongoing cloud standards efforts at CloudStandards.org
Does IBM have a cloud? What platforms are available for cloud computing currently?
IBM offers a full range of computing options designed to support rapid, cost-effective development and testing. For example:
- Learn more about the enterprise-ready IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.
- The Amazon
Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2; see the list of IBM technologies you can run
on EC2) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud, designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers by allowing you to use web service interfaces to launch application image instances with a variety of operating systems, load them with your custom application environment, manage your network's access permissions, and run your image using as many or few systems as you desire.
What products, technologies, and services can help me with cloud computing development and design?
IBM offers a range of products and technologies that you can use in cloud application development and system administration. Check this list of cloud-ready available products on the Products tab and download a few today.
Are there any nuts and bolts articles on developing applications for the cloud?
You bet! Here's a curriculum's worth to get you started:
- The Cloud computing for the enterprise series introduces the pitfalls and positives of cloud usage, products and techniques to help you deliver web applications on a remote-access, multi-tenant cloud and discover products and capabilities to help you bring the benefits of on-premise cloud systems to your production environment.
- Automating the construction of applications and application environments demonstrates tools and concepts to help you achieve process automation.
- Cloud computing with Linux and Automating Linux cloud installations shows you how the penguin fits into the cloud computing world.
- The Google App Engine for Java series shows you how to use Java™ in the cloud.
- The series on Cloud computing with Amazon Web Services and Cloud computing with PHP will open (source) your eyes to the full reach of cloud technologies.
- Connecting to the cloud: Leverage the cloud in applications helps you fashion your applications to use the power the cloud provides.
- Connecting Apple's iPhone to Google's cloud computing offerings gives you a taste of cloud on devices.
- And if you're into smarter business intelligence, Explore analytics in the cloud discusses technologies that allow you to add analytical capabilities to any application, cloud-based or local.