DEV Community: Luis

Introduction to Cloud Computing [Part 3]

Luis — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 03:02:14 +0000

Hello, young padawan, we meet again after some time, I hope you have read part 1 and part 2, so let's continue with new interesting concepts.

SLA Cloud

[SOURCE: https://k21academy.com/1z0-1085/service-level-agreement-sla-in-oracle-cloud-oci/]

According to k21academy Cloud Service-Level Agreement is an agreement between a cloud service provider and a customer that guarantees a minimum level of service is maintained.

**So, what's the meaning of this? **Basically, an SLA sets the expectations between the customer (in this case us) and a cloud provider (AWS, Azure, and many more), this agreement describes the products or services to be delivery, a single point of contact for end-user problems, and the metrics of the process monitored and approved.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

[SOURCE: https://toolsense.io/glossary/total-cost-of-ownership/]

According to techtarget it is an estimation of the expenses associated with purchasing, deploying, using, and retiring a product or piece of equipment.

**So, what's the meaning of this? **Basically, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the amount of money you spend (purchases, support and others) for your specific product across its entire lifecycle.
For example, in a data center on-premise, it includes the initial acquisition of the hardware we need (CPU, RAM, SD, and many others), the repairs, the maintenance costs, upgrades, support contract, network, security, license in software we will use (Office, Windows Server, and many more), training of our staff, electronic bill and other cost it needs your data center to work.

Shared Responsibility Model

[SOURCE: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/]

According crowdstrike, the Shared Responsibility Model is a security and compliance framework that outlines the responsibilities of cloud service providers (CSPs) and customers for securing every aspect of the cloud environment, including hardware, infrastructure, endpoints, data, configurations, settings, operating system (OS), network controls and access rights.

**So, what's the meaning of this? **Basically, Shared Responsibility Model explains what the cloud provider (such as AWS, Azure, GCP and many others) must monitor and protect from security threats related to cloud itself and its infrastructure such as hardware should be always working or the internet network is always guaranteed. On the other hand, end users (individuals and companies), are responsible for protecting data and other assets they store in any cloud environment such as firewall rules, user access and permissions.

If you want to read more about Shared Responsibility Model in real cases for big company, I recommend you to read these links:

This is the last post of basic terminology, the following post will be about AWS Services, my goal is to help you to learn about cloud and be able to achieve the first AWS Certification AWS Cloud Practitioner.

Follow me for more.

Introduction to Cloud Computing [Part 2]

Luis — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:42:30 +0000

Hello, we meet again, I hope you have read my previous article, so let's continue with new interesting concepts.

Cloud Providers

[SOURCE: https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/top-10-cloud-service-providers/]

According to Red Hat, a cloud provider is a company that installs public networks, manages private networks, and offers services in cloud computing.
**So, what's the meaning of this? **Basically, a Cloud Provider is a company that rents you services you want to use (Servers, Databases, Machine Learning, and many more) and charges you by the time you use them.
As you can see in the previous image, there are a lot of companies for you to choose from, after we complete the basics of cloud computing we will move on to explain AWS services to help you achieve the first AWS Certification AWS Cloud Practitioner.

Public Cloud

[SOURCE: https://www.milesweb.com/hosting/cloud-hosting/what-is-public-cloud]

According to Red Hat, it is a group of virtual resources built inside a hardware system that belongs to an external company and also this company is the one that gives them support.
So, what's the meaning of this? Basically, a public cloud is a group of resources managed by a cloud provider, the provider virtualize resources (like when we use WM Workstation Player or VirtualBox to use another operating system) to allow you to use a specific service (create a Database, launch a server with Ubuntu or Windows Server and many more depending on the provider).

Private Cloud

[SOURCE: https://www.javatpoint.com/private-cloud]

According to Red Hat, it is a group of cloud environments dedicated to the end user, usually within the user’s firewall.
So, what's the meaning of this? Basically, a private cloud is a cloud where all the devices (PC, laptop, mobile devices and so on) can communicate with each other and to the internet using a router but internet can't access to them because it uses a firewall

Hybrid Cloud

[SOURCE: https://www.javatpoint.com/hybrid-cloud]

According to Google Cloud Console is one in which applications are running in a combination of different environments. Hybrid cloud computing approaches are widespread because almost no one today relies entirely on the public cloud.

So, what's the meaning of this? Basically, a hybrid cloud is a mix between public and private cloud, many providers allow you to create a private cloud inside the public cloud you rent, and you are the one in charge to configure everything you need (firewall, security rules, and so on).

And now we are going to learn some acronyms:

IaaS

[SOURCE: https://geekflare.com/es/cloud-service-models/]

According to Google Cloud Console Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is the on-demand availability of highly scalable computing resources as services over the Internet. This eliminates the need to provision, configure, or manage resources, and you only pay for the use of these resources.

So, what's the meaning of this? Basically, IaaS is a platform that offers several cloud services you can use like Ubuntu, Windows Servers, Databases, or others, you don't have to worry about the hardware or memory.

Some examples:

Amazon Web Services
Google Cloud Console
Any cloud provider

PaaS

[SOURCE: https://www.teamnet.com.mx/blog/paas-en-la-metodolog%C3%ADa-devops]

According to Google Cloud Console Platform as a Service (PaaS) it's a comprehensive cloud environment that includes everything developers need to build, run, and manage applications—from servers and operating systems to networking, storage, middleware, tools, and more.

So, what's the meaning of this? Basically, PaaS is a platform where developers don't worry about the infrastructure, they only code.

Some examples:

Heroku
Jelastic
And many more

SaaS

[SOURCE: https://blog.mercadoe.com/es/english-what-you-must-take-into-account-before-hiring-a-saas-platform/]

According to Salesforce, Software as a Service (SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management.

So, what's the meaning of this? Basically, SaaS is any type of service we use from the internet without installing any software.

Some examples:

Gmail
Google Drive
Dropbox
And many more

So young Daniel-san keeps practicing these new concepts, but don't forget the ones from the first post.

[SOURCE: https://es.rollingstone.com/se-confirma-nueva-pelicula-de-karate-kid/]

See you in the next post.

Introduction to Cloud Computing [Part 1]

Luis — Sun, 25 Sep 2022 03:21:22 +0000

My intention

Hello, this is my first post here, my name is Luis Valdivia, and I'm a backend developer with 12 years of experience, 6 of them working with cloud computing mostly with AWS and GCP.
I always wanted to write about cloud computing because there is a misconception about who can learn about the cloud. I have heard from many people (some of them were people I worked with) that you have to be a programmer to learn about it.
So I want to use this series of posts to prove them wrong because you can learn about the cloud without being a programmer.
In this first post, we will start by teaching you some basic terminology and will continue until you will be able to know about the services of a cloud provider (AWS) and be ready to continue your journey until you get certified.

Wax off wax on

[SOURCE: https://edcrocks.com/2021/02/07/wax-on-wax-off-karate-kids-lesson-about-drilling/]

First, we are starting with some basics concepts:

On-Premise Data Center

[SOURCE: https://blog.dataprius.com/index.php/2016/06/17/on-premise-servidores-problemas-solucion-cloud/]

According hpe.com, On-premises refers to private data centers that companies own in their facilities and area maintained by themselves.
So, what's the meaning of this? Data centers refer to computers where software and applications are running and companies need to hire specialists to give them support like:

Operating system upgrading
Firewall configuration
Technology upgrade (change the motherboard, hard drive, memory slot, and others)
And some other things that these computers need to run the applications or software needed.

All the things mentioned before require money, but we also need others like an internet connection, a physical location where they are placed, electrical services and other ones to keep them running like the ones we use at our houses.

Cloud Computing

[SOURCE: https://www.ealde.es/cloud-computing-caracteristicas-funcionamiento/]

According to AWS, cloud computing is an on-demand delivery of IT services over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.

So, what's the meaning of this? Cloud computing doesn't require buying or maintaining any physical hardware, instead, we rent a service for the amount of time we need, and we only are charged by that time. We only need to use our credit card and hire the service of a Cloud Provider.

If you want to know more about it, you can watch this video

On-premise vs Cloud Computing

Let's talk about differences:

Cost

In On-premise, you require an initial payment because you need to buy the hardware from a specific manufacturer, then you have to wait until it arrives and after that, you have to hire a specialist to install and deploy what you need and hire some extra services to keep them running.

In Cloud computing, there is no initial payment because the provider rents you the hardware or service, as we mentioned before you only pay for what you use (1 hour, 1 month, 1 year, and so on), and you don't have to worry about upgrading the hardware, internet connection and security (you have to read the SLA's of each provider, we will discuss this in another post).

Human Resources

On-premise, you need to hire a specialist to make the initial configuration for your new hardware, and then they will the one in charge of giving support to it.

In Cloud computing, the initial configuration is made by the provider, you only need some basic knowledge to keep them working (this is a topic for another post, don't worry, these are your first steps).

Flexibility

As we know, technology changes every day, some time ago we didn't have computers in our houses, but now we do, so how do these changes apply to On-premises and Cloud?
As we were talking in On-premises, we require buying specific hardware to run our applications or software. After some time, our hardware becomes old, and we need to replace some parts, if we are lucky the provider still exists but if we aren't, we need to buy a new one which will be more expensive.
In Cloud computing, the provider is responsible for the hardware, if we rent a service we don't need to worry about hardware upgrading.

Security

This is an interesting topic because all companies and people worry about security because the information is the key asset for their operation.
Many cloud computing providers have security certifications and allow companies to have redundancy, this means that you can have several services running and syncing your data.
If you want redundancy in On-premise, you need more money because you have to buy double everything (hard drive, CPU, GPU, and so on).

Deployment

In cloud computing, you only rent the service for the time you need, and you can deploy the solution you want, for example, MySQL Database, Oracle Database, Machine Learning algorithm, Window Server instance, and many other services, you only need to learn about the service and start testing.
In On-premise, you need to make some additional configurations if you want to test different services and in some cases buy new hardware.

As you can see, there are a lot of advantages to using the cloud (I invite you to comment about others I didn't mention), in this post my intention is not to attack on-premise infrastructure because I worked with them and still do in some scenarios. The main point of this post is for you to understand these words.

Follow me for part 2.