Cloud Computing How do I Look

It’s been long I was thinking to write something about cloud computing, when people around me started talking about cloud computing. “Oh my God here is another buzzword in IT, let’s explore it” this was my first thought. For me it’s a new computing paradigm or IT infrastructure model.

If you see the advancement in the technologies took place over the last few decades is really astonishing. Starting from having computers of the size of big room till a hand held device i.e. Mobile phones, PDAs, iPod and so on are the evidences of advancements in the technical field. Parallel to this enchantment and development also took place in the area of computer programming.  I thought over sharing my understanding of cloud computing thus exploring more on this.

My sole intention of writing this is to encourage beginners in cloud computing, who are new to this and want to learn while working and not getting time to go through hundreds of pages to get the essence of the cloud computing.

There are majorly six areas play a vital or I would say pivotal role in any IT systems

• Application
• Database
• Storage
• Network
• Operating system
• Virtualization

Lets starts computing paradigms,

1. Mainframe computers,

Those act as most powerful server, where all the components i.e. operating system, applications, databases were located at a centralized location and users were able to leverage the capabilities a dump terminal with only display unit and a keyboard. However it was not difficult to own by small organizations due to cost of ownership, development cost and maintenance cost.

2. Stand Alone Server

At this time one powerful computer termed as server with more processing power [CPU], more RAM capacity and more storage [HDD].

With this desktop invention computer were able to communicate each other using TCP/IP protocol. There used to have servers holding application, database and operating system, and the client desktop machines were able to store and fetch using applications. This had revolutionized all industries, banks, financials institutes to take the advantage. This computing model gained enough popularity and adapted by many. I would say the real growth of IT started from here. This model did have limitations and issues related to single point of failure [SPOF] for the entire all the components. DR sites, database replication were the options to address the issue or drawback; however those options come with cost of hardware, licenses and maintenance. Also the size of Data Centers were increased due more number of racks, servers, network switches, electricity power setups and backup power.

3. Clustered computing

This model was extension to the standalone server where the power of two or more than two servers was consolidated to improve the performance. In this another component work on top of the operating system to manage multiple servers called the clusterware. With this it was possible to achieve horizontal and vertical scalability; however this model also involved the cost of licenses, skilled people to manage and the maintenance costs as an overhead.

4. Engineered system [Still on]

At this time a step further was taken to consolidate and combine all the infrastructure components i.e. [Hardware, Network and Storage] together into one box. Each components are engineered, integrated and optimized in such a way that all will work in collaboration for the purpose they are designed for. These components are special one with extreme performance and lighting fast responses. The Engineered system are ideal platform for traditional data centers and cloud as well. Oracle is clear leader in the area of engineered system. Oracle Exadata DB Machine, Super-cluster, Exalogic, Oracle Database Appliance are some of the examples. Check https://www.oracle.com/in/engineered-systems/index.html for more information. The Engineered Systems are also called next generation computing platform which are used to data-center consolidation.

5. Cloud Computing

Now finally we reach to discuss the current and demand of the time the computing model known as cloud computing. Cloud Computing can be defined as a new computing paradigm in which the IT resources i.e. Servers, Networking, Storage, Database and Applications can be delivered as a Service via a web browser using an internet connection. I also call it as a delivery model where in each IT resources can be delivered as a Service.

• Infrastructure as a Service [IaaS]
• Platform as a Service [PaaS]
• Software as s Service [SaaS]
• DataBase as a Service [DBaaS]

The figure above is explains the fact that the ownership of infrastructure is changing in cloud space. The customer has freedom to choose any cloud delivery model depending on need.

As you can see and analyze that the technology advancement has changed the face of IT services. There are many cloud service providers available in the market today i.e. Amazon, Google, Azure and Oracle and others. Each one have a list of several services in their cloud service catalog to cater the need of the small, medium and large enterprises.

In my previous post I talked about change in DBA role [but never said DBA role is going to end], rather I would say there are more opportunities for DBAs to become Cloud Ready. Since DBAs always closely work with OS Admins, Network Admins and Storage admins, this way they [The DBAs ] understand the infra better than anyone else. There is a lot scope for Core DBAs, Apps DBAs, especially migration from On-Prem to Cloud infrastructure. Let’s think about whatever tasks you were performing on a day to day to basis, how those can be done on cloud. Try out with Oracle Coud  https://cloud.oracle.com/home  with a simple tasks like

1. Connecting to Oracle Cloud from your desktop and Laptop
2. Creating database using DBCS [ DataBase Cloud Service ]
3. Migrate the database from On-Prem to Oracle Cloud [ Using Import/Export and RMAN]

To do this one need to have Oracle Cloud trail account, you can follow the official site to know more, I am just sharing the link https://cloud.oracle.com/home

There is a lot more things we can explore in Oracle Cloud. In my subsequent posts I will share more on this this space. Thanks for your time in reading my post. Do share your comments and thoughts.

Thank you for giving your valuable time to read the above information.

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