Cloud Computing File
Cloud Computing File
Technology Models....................................................................................................... 06
Service Models............................................................................................................. 07
Examples - Use cases, Reasons for Migration and Popular Cloud Technology Providers..................09
The Customer.............................................................................................................. 14
The Situation............................................................................................................... 15
Key Results.................................................................................................................. 16
What to Expect?.................................................................................................................... 16
About RapidValue................................................................................................................... 18
© RapidValue Solutions 02
Executive Summary
If we go back in time, people were dependent on the physical computer storage or servers in order to
run their programs. Now, with the introduction of cloud computing, people, organizations and
enterprises are able to access their programs through the Internet. Cloud computing is gaining
prominence, rapidly, and the popularity is growing, each day. Cloud computing is big business, today.
According to PC Magazine, it was, already, generating around $100 billion a year in 2012. It is
forecasted to increase up to $270 billion by the year 2020.
As you read further, the paper presents a case study of a leading telecom industry, which draws upon
RapidValue’s experience, with helping enterprises, succeed in the complex and evolving technology
ecosystem.
© RapidValue Solutions 03
Why Cloud? - K
We, often, wonder why enterprises are going ‘the cloud’ way. There are several reasons behind this
transition. The cloud technology helps organizations to redesign their IT infrastructure.
In addition, to lowering the cost for enterprises, there are manifold benefits of cloud technology. The
effective features of the cloud solutions are agility, scalability and sustainability. Cloud technology is
characteristic of reliability and faster time to market. It develops prototypes with increased efficiency.
Other important aspects of the cloud technology are storage and disaster recovery.
The cloud services are considered to bring in a kind of reverberation in the IT landscape. The rate of
adoption of the cloud technology services is increasing at an alarming rate. This section, explains in
detail, some of the primary benefits offered by the cloud technology.
1. Cost Saving - If you are opting for the cloud you are, actually, helping your business to save
money in many ways. It eliminates the need to invest in storage hardware and other physical
infrastructure, like the servers. You do not have to employ a technical team to maintain the
infrastructure. Depending on the plan, that you opt for, you pay for the cloud service, for a
specific duration of time.
The graph illustrates the speed of reduction, in cost reduction, by adopting cloud solution.
Adoption of OPEX
based services
Adoption of rapid
Dev/Test/Deploy
Total Cost of Ownership
Lifecycle
Faster
rate of
cost
reduction
Faster time to
cost reduction
Time
Moving to Cloud can reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of Infrastructure by 50 to 75% over
time.
© RapidValue Solutions 04
2. On-Demand Scalability - Cloud computing provides infinite computing resources to the users.
In cloud computing, the resources claim to show rapid elasticity. Resources can be provisioned or
released according to the demand. Cloud services are able to handle the traffic demand, as the
resources can be expanded, elastically. When the demand tends to get subsided, the resources,
which are not needed, are, then, released, automatically.
3. Resilient - Resiliency is important for any enterprise, since organizations depend on digital data
to run their day-to-day operations. Cloud technology platforms have proved to be more resilient
than the traditional storage solutions. This means, if a part(s) of the cloud platform fail(s), then
the rest of the platform resources are able to function, until the problem/issue is solved.
4. Superior Performance - One of the most popular feature of cloud computing is that all your
applications are updated, automatically. Cloud computing allows the employees to operate from
any location as long as they have a good Internet connection. The employees can synchronize
their documents in high speed and it appears as if they are working from an office room.
5. High Security - In the current scenario, organizations agree that cloud technology enforces the
best security policies. These policies ensure that the unauthorized parties do not get access to
your data and are not able to modify them. You, no more, have to fear about losing your data.
Cloud technology ensures proper protection of data and information. It, also, ensures that cloud
networks and connections are secure. Evaluating security controls on physical infrastructure and
facilities is a high priority task for Cloud computing. It enforces privacy policies and manages
security terms in the cloud SLA. With the adoption of cloud technology services, you can be pretty
assured that your data remains safe, regardless of what happens to your infrastructure.
6. Anytime, Anywhere Network Access - The network access is ubiquitous. Cloud computing
facilities can be accessed from anywhere over the network – personal computers, laptops, tablets,
phones etc.
7. Development and Testing - During development and testing processes, cloud computing works
in the most effective manner. Cloud computing secures a budget. It is said to set up your
environment, through physical assets, with significant manpower and in a much shorter span of
time.
8. File Storage - Cloud computing offers you the possibility of storing, accessing and retrieving your
files from any web-enabled interface. These web services’ interfaces are very simple. High
availability, speed, scalability and security for your environment can be obtained at any time and
from any place.
9. Disaster Recovery - Disaster Recovery is yet another benefit which is derived from using cloud
services. The cost effectiveness of a disaster recovery (DR) solution, which is provided by cloud
computing, gives you a faster recovery. This is much advanced than the traditional DR site, which
has rigid procedures and a much higher cost.
© RapidValue Solutions 05
10. Backup - The Backing up of data has always been a tedious, complex and time-consuming task.
With cloud, this operation is, also, taken care, in a much efficient manner. Cloud computing
ensures that whenever a backup is performed, it is not prone to problems like running out of
backup.
11. Customer Centric - Cloud services are very much customer-centric and help in the
transformation of the business. The various features of cloud computing, which are flexibility,
secured, affordability, economical, scalability, and convenience, have made it immensely popular
among enterprises and assist in redesigning the IT infrastructure.
12. Focusing on the Core Business - Cloud computing is convenient since your systems and
applications will run over the Internet. You do not have to be concerned about the technical
problems and other issues, for instance, problems with regards to physical storage spaces. There
is, absolutely, no need for you to be concerned about the backup issues, which is a great relief.
Enterprises can run their business operations, in a better way and much more effective manner.
Technology Models
The three most popular cloud computing models are:
01. Public Cloud - Computing resources, provided by a cloud, have been adopted by various
organizations and enterprises, through the public Internet. Cloud providers ensure that there is a
kind of separation for the resources that are used by different enterprises and organizations.
It is based on the standard cloud computing model. The service provider builds resources - the
applications and storage. These resources are available to the public through the Internet. Public
cloud services can be obtained, either, free or bought on a ‘pay-per-usage’ model.
02. Private Cloud - Cloud infrastructure is, entirely, owned by the enterprise and maintained, either,
by the enterprise or a third party. It can be located either on-site or off-site. Private cloud is a
cloud computing platform, which is implemented within the corporate firewall. It is under the
control of the IT department. A private cloud is designed in such a way that it offers the same
features and benefits of the public cloud systems. But, private cloud removes a number of
objections to the cloud computing model. This includes control over the enterprise and customer
data, issues about security, and concerns connected to regulatory compliance.
03. Hybrid Cloud - Hybrid cloud is considered to be the combination of any type of cloud model
mentioned above, connected by a standardized technology. It is a combination of, on and off
premises. Hybrid cloud offers best of both the worlds. And performs distinct functions, within the
same organization.
© RapidValue Solutions 06
Hybrid Cloud is the most preferred strategy
58%
Public Private
30% Public 05%
Cloud Only Cloud Only
and Private
88% 63%
Public Private
Adopting a hybrid cloud approach is said to support the testing application workloads. This
provides the comfort of an environment, without the initial investment, that might have been
rendered useless, should the workload testing fail.
Another use of the hybrid cloud is the ability to expand during periods of limited peak usage.
Moreover, there is one more deployment model which is still gaining popularity; especially in the
healthcare industry, is the community cloud.
04. Community Cloud - As for Community cloud, the cloud infrastructure is said to be owned and
shared by multiple organizations, with a shared concern.
Service Models
On the services side, there are three key service models in cloud computing:
02. Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Providers deliver not only infrastructure but also middleware
(databases, messaging engines etc.) and solution stacks for the application, build and
development and deploy.
Organizations are willing to get PaaS for the same reasons. Enterprises desire for speed. They
want the server’s speed to increase, in order to deploy the applications.
© RapidValue Solutions 07
03. Software as a Service (SaaS) - Applications, which are hosted by a provider on a cloud
infrastructure. These applications are accessed over the network or they are accessed over a
program interface, for instance, web services.
According to Gartner, the worldwide SaaS market would grow at an astounding yearly growth rate
of 20.2%. This, clearly, means that the market will be expanding from a number of $18.2 billion in
the year 2012 to $45.6 billion in 2017.
140
$127.5
120
$24.6
100
80 $56.6 $127.5
60 $56.6 IN IN
$82.7
SaaS 2014 2018
40
20
$20.3
PaaS
0
2014 2018
Platform as a Software as a Infrastructure as a SaaS will become the most highly deployed global cloud
Service Service Service service by 2018
Mobile Backend as a service (MBaaS), Storage as a service (STaaS) and Communications as a service
(CaaS) are three variants which emanates from the above service models.
For more details on MBaaS, please read the whitepaper, ‘How MBaaS is changing Enterprise Mobility
Landscape’
Cloud technology has changed the way we use the Internet. It offers the right
solution for developers to build, test, secure and deploy applications,
cost-effectively and supports quick go-to-market strategy. Even, our customers are
moving towards the cloud approach. Mainly because of two reasons - It allows
their employees, fast access to data from any location from any device and also
supports seamless scalability. Enterprises, planning to enable millions of app users,
in phases, must seriously consider migrating their IT infrastructure, systems and
applications to the cloud.
© RapidValue Solutions 08
Examples - Use cases, Reasons for Migration and
Popular Cloud Technology Providers
CIOs are trying to craft out well-planned strategies that include cloud technology services. Hence, more
and more companies have started to adopt cloud services. The increased competition in the cloud space
will pave the way for better products, efficient services and greater innovation. It is expected that, as
cloud services gain more popularity and continue to get adopted by the organizations, a large number of
application developers will be seen as developing for the cloud.
This section illustrates some of the ways ‘the cloud’ is being implemented by enterprises and the global
cloud technology providers.
Service
Popular Platform/
Deployment Use Cases Reasons for Migration
Service Providers
Model
© RapidValue Solutions 09
Technology Deployment Model Popular Technology Providers
Note: Most players have offering in all three – Private, Public and Hybrid.
1 Definition Comprises large collection of Enables enterprises to move Enables developers to build,
remote computing services faster, save cost and test and deploy applications
and products integrate on premises apps on Google’s highly-scalable
and data and reliable infrastructure.
Comprises computing,
storage and application
services for your web,
mobile and backend
solutions
3 User Segment Large Enterprises, SMEs, Large Enterprises, SMEs Large Enterprises, SMEs
Start-ups
Management Portals
© RapidValue Solutions 10
Amazon Web Services
Sno. Parameter Microsoft Azure Google Cloud
(AWS)
Features
5a Compute Resizable compute capacity - Provision Windows and Provision Windows and
auto scaling to manage Linux Virtual machines Linux Virtual machines
automatic resources and applications and applications
computing Create highly available and Create highly available
infinitely scalable apps and and infinitely scalable
APIs apps and APIs
Deploy windows client Deploy windows client
apps to run on any device apps to run on any
device
5b Container Provides automatic cluster Information not Available Provision and maintain
Service management the underlying virtual
machine cluster
Scaling your application
Operational logistics
like logging,
monitoring, and health
management
5c Networking Supports creation of virtual Provision virtual and private Reliable, resilient,
network, customization of network, to optionally low-latency DNS,
network configuration and connect to data centers serving from Google’s
multiple layers of security, worldwide network of
including security groups Anycast DNS servers
and network access control Connect your network
lists to Google’s directly or
via your carrier or VPN
Network connects the
company’s data
centers, resulting in
high performance
(queries responded in
milliseconds)
Allows Google to offer
3D maps and
translation APIs
5d Load Automatic distribution of Traffic manager balances the Balances load between
Balancing incoming application traffic incoming traffic for high compute engine instances,
performance and availability using either HTTP or
Network (TCP/UDP)
© RapidValue Solutions 11
Amazon Web Services
Sno. Parameter Microsoft Azure Google Cloud
(AWS)
5f Content Easy way to distribute Delivers content through App engine acts as a
Delivery content to end users global network of data dynamic content
High data transfer centers delivery network
speeds, and no Supports media files - Faster response time,
commitments encode, store, stream with quick image
Caches copies of your video and audio at scale loading
static content close to
viewers, with low latency
5g Analytics Processes and analyzes any Machine learning for Analyze Big Data in the
volume of data, for predictive analysis cloud with BigQuery
managing Hadoop clusters,
Real-time stream Large scale data
real-time streaming data,
processing processing scenarios
data warehousing, or
Provision Hadoop clusters such as Extract,
orchestration
management Transform, Load (ETL),
analytics
Orchestrate and manage
data transformation Real-time computation,
and process
orchestration
© RapidValue Solutions 12
Amazon Web Services
Sno. Parameter Microsoft Azure Google Cloud
(AWS)
© RapidValue Solutions 13
Amazon Web Services
Sno. Parameter Microsoft Azure Google Cloud
(AWS)
You Manage
Application Application Application Application
Managed by Vendor
Middleware Middleware Middleware Middleware
You Manage
Managed by Vendor
O/S O/S O/S O/S
Managed by Vendor
© RapidValue Solutions 14
The Situation
The customer had a web presence and wanted to build a mobile presence. They wanted to enhance
multiple self-service functionality for their mobile & application subscribers. The customer wanted a high
performance architecture set-up for faster data access from the CMS, hosted on the cloud.
iPhone, iPad
Android Phone,
Customer’s CMS Tablets
APIs
Customer’s Employee Hosted on
Windows Phone,
add/update/remove Windows Azure Tablets
content, navigation, FAQs,
listings from the CMS
Blackberry Phone,
Tablets
© RapidValue Solutions 15
Key Results
Increased consumer-base by providing app on multiple device platforms
Improved end-user experience, with rich UI, easy access to their account balance information and
better app performance
Enhanced the performance, data accessibility and security by integrating and hosting the CMS APIs
on Microsoft Azure
There will be more application availability on the Cloud. With the new software, being built for cloud, it is
predicted that, by 2016, over a quarter of all applications, which is around 48 million, will be available on
the Cloud. There will be an increased growth in the market for Cloud. According to Gartner, the Cloud is
accelerating, globally. Based on Gartner’s forecast for 2011-2017, 50% of enterprises will have hybrid
clouds by 2017 and SaaS market will be $45.6 billion in 2017
Enterprises, worldwide, are increasingly relying on Cloud for developing, marketing and selling their
products. Other essential tasks like managing the supply chains, and much more, are also streamlined in
a better way, with the help of cloud.
What to Expect?
We can expect to experience much more, with regard to moving workloads to the cloud. We can, also,
expect to witness more utilities, running against data, to be managed in the cloud. This includes antivirus,
enterprise search, file auditing. The Enterprise architects will need to contemplate on how to enable this
transition and, that too, in a secure, reliable, and cost-efficient manner.
It is reported, by industry experts, that one of the biggest challenges, this year, has been the proliferation
of development platforms in the cloud. Enterprises are, no more, looking for only servers, storage or
computing. Organizations are looking for the specific cloud services that they will be able to incorporate
into their applications. This will lead to some additional complexity, with regard to the application. This
makes performance testing much critical, not only for the application, but for the APIs, too. It needs to
be ensured that they are robust enough to manage the load, that is placed on them, by the multiple
applications.
The business challenges for the organizations, that lie ahead, are perceived as unpredictable. Therefore,
it is the right time for the enterprises to consider cloud computing as their savior.
© RapidValue Solutions 16
This whitepaper is written by RapidValue’s Marketing team (Nairita Goswami and Kavyanidhi Narayan).
If you’d like more information on cloud technology, you can please contact Shahjahan Tapadar, Cloud
Expert/ Technical Architect at [email protected] or Kavyanidhi Narayan,
Sr. Manager – Marketing at [email protected]
RapidValue has a team of domain experts and consultants to help you build innovative and comprehen-
sive cloud solutions for your enterprise. If you need guidance on building your first cloud application,
please write to [email protected], we’ll be happy to hear from you.
© RapidValue Solutions 17
RapidValue is a leading provider of end-end mobility, Omni-channel, IoT and cloud solutions to
enterprise worldwide. Armed with a large team of experts in consulting, UX design, application
development, testing along with experience delivering global projects, we offer a range of services
across various industry verticals. RapidValue delivers its services to the world’s top brands and
Fortune 1000 companies and has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom and India.