Cloud Architecture Layered

Cloud architecture is how individual technologies are integrated to create clouds IT

environments that abstract, pool, and share scalable resources across a network.
Cloud architecture is how all the components and capabilities necessary to build a
cloud are connected in order to deliver an online platform on which applications can
run.

Cloud architecture refers to how different technological components, systems and

capabilities interact with one another to create an online cloud platform. Cloud
architecture determines how users of a specific cloud share, save and distribute
various resources through the network. Some organizations use cloud service
systems designed by a cloud provider company. Other companies design their own
cloud architecture.

Important:

Improved collaboration within and outside your organization: Cloud computing

makes it simpler for employees, departments and third-party vendors to securely
share data with one another. Some cloud services may also allow professionals to
collaborate on files internally within the cloud, as opposed to downloading the files
first.

Reduced physical computing space: Onsite data servers can take up a significant
amount of physical room on your company

Cloud Architecture Layered

Cloud architecture is how individual technologies are integrated to create clouds IT
environments that abstract, pool, and share scalable resources across a network.
Cloud architecture is how all the components and capabilities necessary to build a
cloud are connected in order to deliver an online platform on which applications can
run.

Cloud architecture refers to how different technological components, systems and

capabilities interact with one another to create an online cloud platform. Cloud
architecture determines how users of a specific cloud share, save and distribute
various resources through the network. Some organizations use cloud service
systems designed by a cloud provider company. Other companies design their own
cloud architecture.

Important:

Improved collaboration within and outside your organization: Cloud computing

makes it simpler for employees, departments and third-party vendors to securely
share data with one another. Some cloud services may also allow professionals to
collaborate on files internally within the cloud, as opposed to downloading the files
first.

Reduced physical computing space: Onsite data servers can take up a significant
amount of physical room on your company premises. Cloud computing, however,
requires no or minimal physical space at your offices.

Easier remote access: Onsite data servers can present challenges for teleworking.
Cloud computing, however, makes it easy to grant employees access to specific or
all company files.

Infinite scalability: If your company needs more power or storage from your cloud,
you can purchase or create as much as you need without limit. By contrast,
businesses using onsite data servers that need more computing storage must also
determine how much physical space they have for additional servers.

Fewer human resources: Managing onsite data servers takes up more of your
employees’ time and efforts than handling your cloud architecture.

Minimized computing operating costs: Physical data servers are often costly to
maintain, repair or troubleshoot. Cloud computing typically can help businesses that
previously used data servers lower their operating costs.

Cloud Architecture Layered

Cloud architecture is how individual technologies are integrated to create clouds IT
environments that abstract, pool, and share scalable resources across a network.
Cloud architecture is how all the components and capabilities necessary to build a
cloud are connected in order to deliver an online platform on which applications can
run.

Cloud architecture refers to how different technological components, systems and

capabilities interact with one another to create an online cloud platform. Cloud
architecture determines how users of a specific cloud share, save and distribute
various resources through the network. Some organizations use cloud service
systems designed by a cloud provider company. Other companies design their own
cloud architecture.

Important:

Improved collaboration within and outside your organization: Cloud computing

makes it simpler for employees, departments and third-party vendors to securely
share data with one another. Some cloud services may also allow professionals to
collaborate on files internally within the cloud, as opposed to downloading the files
first.
Reduced physical computing space: Onsite data servers can take up a significant
amount of physical room on your company premises. Cloud computing, however,
requires no or minimal physical space at your offices.

Easier remote access: Onsite data servers can present challenges for teleworking.
Cloud computing, however, makes it easy to grant employees access to specific or
all company files.

Infinite scalability: If your company needs more power or storage from your cloud,
you can purchase or create as much as you need without limit. By contrast,
businesses using onsite data servers that need more computing storage must also
determine how much physical space they have for additional servers.

Fewer human resources: Managing onsite data servers takes up more of your
employees’ time and efforts than handling your cloud architecture.

Minimized computing operating costs: Physical data servers are often costly to
maintain, repair or troubleshoot. Cloud computing typically can help businesses that
previously used data servers lower their operating costs.

Reduced risk of onsite physical damage: If your company premises suffer

physical damage, such as from a natural disaster or robbery, this can cause damage
to your business’s onsite files. With cloud computing, your company’s data remains
safe even if your offices receive physical damage.

Front-end

In cloud computing, the front-end refers to all the elements that the user or client
interacts with, such as:

User interface: The user interface is the platform that the client interacts with to
open, access or save files to the cloud.

Client’s side applications: A client’s side applications are other programs that the
cloud user enables while using the cloud. For example, most cloud users need an
online browser to access their cloud services.

Network: The network is how users communicate with their cloud services. Cloud
users might interact with their cloud through a variety of devices, such as mobile
phones, tablets or desktop computers.

Back-end

The back-end of cloud architecture refers to the hardware and systems that store the
data. Cloud service providers typically provide, support and manage the back-end of
cloud architecture for their clients. However, some businesses may choose instead
to develop and maintain their own cloud, meaning they would be responsible for
some or all of the back-end.

The major components of a cloud architecture’s back-end include:

Storage: A cloud computing company keeps its clients’ data in its storage systems.
Cloud computing can offer businesses much greater storage capacity than onsite
data servers.

Application: The application is a software program or digital platform. The

application runs on the back-end but provides users with accessibility features on the
front-end.

Security: Most cloud computing services offer robust cybersecurity protections for
their clients. For example, many cloud services use firewalls to ensure the safe
transfer of data from their clients’ devices to their servers and back again.

NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

The NIST SP 500-292 breaks down into several sections that define and explain all
elements of cloud computing. These form a taxonomy with four distinct levels, each
representing a more nuanced, niche set of terms. The first two levels define the most
essential terms:

The Level 1 terms: A set of Roles that collectively comprise the cloud Reference
Model.

The Level 2 terms: A set of Activities that define the model’s Architectural
Components.

Cloud Provider

A group or object that delivers cloud services to cloud consumers or end-users. It

offers various components of cloud computing. Cloud computing consumers
purchase a growing variety of cloud services from cloud service providers. There are
various categories of cloud-based services mentioned below:

 IaaS Providers: In this model, the cloud service providers offer

infrastructure components that would exist in an on-premises data
center. These components consist of servers, networking, and
storage as well as the virtualization layer.
 SaaS Providers: In Software as a Service (SaaS), vendors provide a
wide sequence of business technologies, such as Human resources
management (HRM) software, customer relationship management
 (CRM) software, all of which the SaaS vendor hosts and provides
services through the internet.
 PaaS Providers: In Platform as a Service (PaaS), vendors offer
cloud infrastructure and services that can access to perform many
functions. In PaaS, services and products are mostly utilized in
software development. PaaS providers offer more services than IaaS
providers. PaaS providers provide operating system and middleware
along with application stack, to the underlying infrastructure.

Cloud Carrier:

NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

The NIST SP 500-292 breaks down into several sections that define and explain all
elements of cloud computing. These form a taxonomy with four distinct levels, each
representing a more nuanced, niche set of terms. The first two levels define the most
essential terms:

The Level 1 terms: A set of Roles that collectively comprise the cloud Reference
Model.

The Level 2 terms: A set of Activities that define the model’s Architectural
Components.

Cloud Provider

A group or object that delivers cloud services to cloud consumers or end-users. It

offers various components of cloud computing. Cloud computing consumers
purchase a growing variety of cloud services from cloud service providers. There are
various categories of cloud-based services mentioned below:

 IaaS Providers: In this model, the cloud service providers offer

infrastructure components that would exist in an on-premises data
center. These components consist of servers, networking, and
storage as well as the virtualization layer.
 SaaS Providers: In Software as a Service (SaaS), vendors provide a
wide sequence of business technologies, such as Human resources
management (HRM) software, customer relationship management
(CRM) software, all of which the SaaS vendor hosts and provides
services through the internet.
 PaaS Providers: In Platform as a Service (PaaS), vendors offer
cloud infrastructure and services that can access to perform many
functions. In PaaS, services and products are mostly utilized in
software development. PaaS providers offer more services than IaaS
 providers. PaaS providers provide operating system and middleware
along with application stack, to the underlying infrastructure.

Cloud Carrier:

The mediator who provides offers connectivity and transport of cloud services within
cloud service providers and cloud consumers. It allows access to the services of the
cloud through Internet networks, telecommunication, and other access devices.
Network and telecom carriers or a transport agent can provide distribution. A
consistent level of services is provided when cloud providers set up Service Level
Agreements (SLA) with a cloud carrier. In general, Carrier may be required to offer
dedicated and encrypted connections.

Cloud Broker:

An organization or a unit that manages the performance, use, and delivery of cloud
services by enhancing specific capability and offers value-added services to cloud
consumers. It combines and integrates various services into one or more new
services. They provide service arbitrage which allows flexibility and opportunistic
choices. There is major three services offered by a cloud broker:

 Service Aggregation
 Service Intermediation
 Service Arbitrage

Cloud Auditor:

NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

The NIST SP 500-292 breaks down into several sections that define and explain all
elements of cloud computing. These form a taxonomy with four distinct levels, each
representing a more nuanced, niche set of terms. The first two levels define the most
essential terms:

The Level 1 terms: A set of Roles that collectively comprise the cloud Reference
Model.

The Level 2 terms: A set of Activities that define the model’s Architectural
Components.

Cloud Provider

A group or object that delivers cloud services to cloud consumers or end-users. It

offers various components of cloud computing. Cloud computing consumers
purchase a growing variety of cloud services from cloud service providers. There are
various categories of cloud-based services mentioned below:
  IaaS Providers: In this model, the cloud service providers offer
infrastructure components that would exist in an on-premises data
center. These components consist of servers, networking, and
storage as well as the virtualization layer.
 SaaS Providers: In Software as a Service (SaaS), vendors provide a
wide sequence of business technologies, such as Human resources
management (HRM) software, customer relationship management
(CRM) software, all of which the SaaS vendor hosts and provides
services through the internet.
 PaaS Providers: In Platform as a Service (PaaS), vendors offer
cloud infrastructure and services that can access to perform many
functions. In PaaS, services and products are mostly utilized in
software development. PaaS providers offer more services than IaaS
providers. PaaS providers provide operating system and middleware
along with application stack, to the underlying infrastructure.

Cloud Carrier:

The mediator who provides offers connectivity and transport of cloud services within
cloud service providers and cloud consumers. It allows access to the services of the
cloud through Internet networks, telecommunication, and other access devices.
Network and telecom carriers or a transport agent can provide distribution. A
consistent level of services is provided when cloud providers set up Service Level
Agreements (SLA) with a cloud carrier. In general, Carrier may be required to offer
dedicated and encrypted connections.

Cloud Broker:

An organization or a unit that manages the performance, use, and delivery of cloud
services by enhancing specific capability and offers value-added services to cloud
consumers. It combines and integrates various services into one or more new
services. They provide service arbitrage which allows flexibility and opportunistic
choices. There is major three services offered by a cloud broker:

 Service Aggregation
 Service Intermediation
 Service Arbitrage

Cloud Auditor:

An entity that can conduct independent assessment of cloud services, security,

performance, and information system operations of the cloud implementations. The
services that are provided by Cloud Service Providers (CSP) can be evaluated by
service auditors in terms of privacy impact, security control, and performance, etc.
Cloud Auditor can make an assessment of the security controls in the information
system to determine the extent to which the controls are implemented correctly,
operating as planned and constructing the desired outcome with respect to meeting
the security necessities for the system. There are three major roles of Cloud Auditor
which are mentioned below:

 Privacy Impact Audit

 Security Audit
 Performance Audit

Cloud Consumer:

A cloud consumer is the end-user who browses or utilizes the services provided by
Cloud Service Providers (CSP), sets up service contracts with the cloud provider.
The cloud consumer pays peruse of the service provisioned. Measured services
utilized by the consumer. In this, a set of organizations having mutual regulatory
constraints performs a security and risk assessment for each use case of Cloud
migrations and deployments.

Cloud consumers use Service-Level Agreement (SLAs) to specify the technical

performance requirements to be fulfilled by a cloud provider. SLAs can cover terms
concerning the quality of service, security, and remedies for performance failures. A
cloud provider may also list in the SLAs a set of limitations or boundaries, and
obligations that cloud consumers must accept. In a mature market environment, a
cloud consumer can freely pick a cloud provider with better pricing and more
favourable terms. Typically, a cloud provider’s public pricing policy and SLAs are
non-negotiable, although a cloud consumer who assumes to have substantial usage
might be able to negotiate for better contracts.

Cloud Adoption Measured Services

Measured service is a term that IT professionals apply to cloud computing. This is a
reference to services where the cloud provider measures or monitors the provision of
services for various reasons, including billing, effective use of resources, or overall
predictive planning.

The idea of measured service is one of five components of a definition of cloud

computing supported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST.
These five principles support a higher-level definition of cloud services and describe
how they are typically designed. Other aspects of this definition include the terms
‘rapid elasticity’ and ‘Resource pooling,’ which cover different kinds of resource
allocation. There’s also ‘On-demand self-service,’ which refers to more automated
service changes, and ‘Broad network access,’ which refers to the overall footprint
and capabilities of cloud systems.

Measured Service Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use
by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the
type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts).
Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency
for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a

metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service
(e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage
can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the
provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Metered services (also called pay-per-use) is any type of payment structure in which
a customer has access to potentially unlimited resources but only pays for what they
actually use. With utility computing, for example, a company can purchase
computing resources to match fluctuating needs.

Furthermore, what are the four types of cloud computing services? Cloud computing
services fall into 4 categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a
service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and FaaS (functions as a service).

Measuring the effectiveness of cloud adoption:

 Effectiveness of cloud adoption is rarely assessed.

 No established industry-standard metrics for measuring cloud
effectiveness.
 Cloud adoption context significantly differs between organizations.
 Different stakeholders have different perceptions of cloud adoption.
 Most cloud metrics aim to measure cloud value in IT terms not in
business terms.
 Measurement data concerning cloud adoption often does not exist
within the organization.
 Objectives of cloud adoption change during the implementation path.
 Most employees belonging to an organization do not know about the
cloud initiative.

Measuring cloud metrics are necessary to:

 Switch away from a CapEx intensive model to a subscription model

 Adopt a utility model and on-demand consumption vs. a one-time
investment
 Free up resources from mundane technological activities to roles that
contribute more value to the business
 Reduce TCO
 Improve ability to seize new business opportunities
 Improve business agility

The cloud adoption success measurement should:

  Increase in revenue margin
 Improve ROI
 Improve quality of user experience
 Improve elastic scaling cost
 Improve level of automation
 Improve transaction latency and throughput
 Increase open source adoption

Technology & Services Models for cloud

computing: IaAs, PaAS, SaAS
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

IaaS (Infrastructure As A Service) is one of the fundamental service model of cloud

computing alongside PaaS( Platform as a Service). It provides access to computing resources
in a virtualized environment “the cloud” on internet.  It provides computing infrastructure
like virtual server space, network connections, bandwidth, load balancers and IP addresses.
The pool of hardware resource is extracted from multiple servers and networks usually
distributed across numerous data centers.  This provides redundancy and reliability to IaaS.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) is a complete package for computing. For small scale
businesses who are looking for cutting cost on IT infrastructure, IaaS is one of the solutions.
Annually a lot of money is spent in maintenance and buying new components like hard-
drives, network connections, external storage device etc. which a business owner could have
saved for other expenses by using IaaS.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Platform as a service, is referred as PaaS, it provides a platform and environment to allow

developers to build applications and services. This service is hosted in the cloud and accessed
by the users via internet.

To understand in a simple terms, let compare this with painting a picture, where you are
provided with paint colors, different paint brushes and paper by your school teacher and you
just have to draw a beautiful picture using those tools. 

PaaS services are constantly updated & new features added. Software developers, web
developers and business can benefit from PaaS. It provides platform to support application
development. It includes software support and management services, storage, networking,
deploying, testing, collaborating, hosting and maintaining applications.

Technology & Services Models for cloud

computing: IaAs, PaAS, SaAS
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

IaaS (Infrastructure As A Service) is one of the fundamental service model of cloud

computing alongside PaaS( Platform as a Service). It provides access to computing resources
in a virtualized environment “the cloud” on internet.  It provides computing infrastructure
like virtual server space, network connections, bandwidth, load balancers and IP addresses.
The pool of hardware resource is extracted from multiple servers and networks usually
distributed across numerous data centers.  This provides redundancy and reliability to IaaS.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) is a complete package for computing. For small scale
businesses who are looking for cutting cost on IT infrastructure, IaaS is one of the solutions.
Annually a lot of money is spent in maintenance and buying new components like hard-
drives, network connections, external storage device etc. which a business owner could have
saved for other expenses by using IaaS.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Platform as a service, is referred as PaaS, it provides a platform and environment to allow

developers to build applications and services. This service is hosted in the cloud and accessed
by the users via internet.

To understand in a simple terms, let compare this with painting a picture, where you are
provided with paint colors, different paint brushes and paper by your school teacher and you
just have to draw a beautiful picture using those tools. 

PaaS services are constantly updated & new features added. Software developers, web
developers and business can benefit from PaaS. It provides platform to support application
development. It includes software support and management services, storage, networking,
deploying, testing, collaborating, hosting and maintaining applications.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

SaaS or software as a service is a software distribution model in which applications are

hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network
(internet). SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying
technologies that supports Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) or Web
Services. Through internet this service is available to users anywhere in the world. 

Traditionaly, software application needed to be purchased upfront &then installed it onto

your computer. SaaS users on the other hand, instead of purchasing the software subscribes to
it, usually on monthly basisvia internet.

Anyone who needs an access to a particular piece of software can be subscribe as a user,
whether it is one or two people or every thousands of employees in a corporation. SaaS is
compatible with all internet enabled devices.

Many important tasks like accounting, sales, invoicing and planning all can be performed
using SaaS.
Architectural Design Challenges
Cloud computing is used for enabling global access to mutual pools of resources
such as services, apps, data, servers, and computer networks. It is done on either a
third-party server located in a data center or a privately owned cloud. This makes
data-accessing contrivances more reliable and efficient, with nominal administration
effort.

Because cloud technology depends on the allocation of resources to attain

consistency and economy of scale, similar to a utility, it is also fairly cost-effective,
making it the choice for many small businesses and firms.

Portability

This is another challenge to cloud computing those applications should easily be

migrated from one cloud provider to another. There must not be vendor lock-in.
However, it is not yet made possible because each of the cloud provider uses
different standard languages for their platforms.

Cost

Cloud computing itself is affordable, but tuning the platform according to the
company’s needs can be expensive. Furthermore, the expense of transferring the
data to public clouds can prove to be a problem for short-lived and small-scale
projects.

Companies can save some money on system maintenance, management, and

acquisitions. But they also have to invest in additional bandwidth, and the absence of
routine control in an infinitely scalable computing platform can increase costs.

Interoperability

It means the application on one platform should be able to incorporate services from
the other platforms. It is made possible via web services, but developing such web
services is very complex.

Performance Challenges

Architectural Design Challenges

Cloud computing is used for enabling global access to mutual pools of resources
such as services, apps, data, servers, and computer networks. It is done on either a
third-party server located in a data center or a privately owned cloud. This makes
data-accessing contrivances more reliable and efficient, with nominal administration
effort.
Because cloud technology depends on the allocation of resources to attain
consistency and economy of scale, similar to a utility, it is also fairly cost-effective,
making it the choice for many small businesses and firms.

Portability

This is another challenge to cloud computing those applications should easily be

migrated from one cloud provider to another. There must not be vendor lock-in.
However, it is not yet made possible because each of the cloud provider uses
different standard languages for their platforms.

Cost

Cloud computing itself is affordable, but tuning the platform according to the
company’s needs can be expensive. Furthermore, the expense of transferring the
data to public clouds can prove to be a problem for short-lived and small-scale
projects.

Companies can save some money on system maintenance, management, and

acquisitions. But they also have to invest in additional bandwidth, and the absence of
routine control in an infinitely scalable computing platform can increase costs.

Interoperability

It means the application on one platform should be able to incorporate services from
the other platforms. It is made possible via web services, but developing such web
services is very complex.

Performance Challenges

Performance is an important factor while considering cloud-based solutions. If the

performance of the cloud is not satisfactory, it can drive away users and decrease
profits. Even a little latency while loading an app or a web page can result in a huge
drop in the percentage of users. This latency can be a product of inefficient load
balancing, which means that the server cannot efficiently split the incoming traffic so
as to provide the best user experience. Challenges also arise in the case of fault
tolerance, which means the operations continue as required even when one or more
of the components fail.

Downtime

Downtime is a significant shortcoming of cloud technology. No seller can promise a

platform that is free of possible downtime. Cloud technology makes small companies
reliant on their connectivity, so companies with an untrustworthy internet connection
probably want to think twice before adopting cloud computing.
Multi-Cloud Environments

Due to an increase in the options available to the companies, enterprises not only
use a single cloud but depend on multiple cloud service providers. Most of these
companies use hybrid cloud tactics and close to 84% are dependent on multiple
clouds. This often ends up being hindered and difficult to manage for the
infrastructure team. The process most of the time ends up being highly complex for
the IT team due to the differences between multiple cloud providers.

High Dependence on Network

Since cloud computing deals with provisioning resources in real-time, it deals with
enormous amounts of data transfer to and from the servers. This is only made
possible due to the availability of the high-speed network. Although these data and
resources are exchanged over the network, this can prove to be highly vulnerable in
case of limited bandwidth or cases when there is a sudden outage. Even when the
enterprises can cut their hardware costs, they need to ensure that the internet
bandwidth is high as well there are zero network outages, or else it can result in a
potential business loss. It is therefore a major challenge for smaller enterprises that
have to maintain network bandwidth that comes with a high cost.