The cloud computing technology has changed the way most business companies handle their information technology systems and resources over the past two decades. In the past, a business that wanted to improve IT capabilities had to set up its own on-site IT infrastructure. This included leasing a data center, bearing the initial capital expenditures of new computer equipment and building in-house software development and maintenance capabilities. The vast technological and financial requirements for the development and maintenance of IT infrastructure have been cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized organizations.
The ability for organizations to access the data storage and computing resources they need has been provided by cloud computing, on a required basis and at a dramatically reduced up-front expense. A business can pay to lease cloud infrastructure and related capabilities and components from a third-party cloud service provider such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure instead of setting up its own on-site IT infrastructure.
The cloud infrastructure consists of all components of hardware and software that are necessary to facilitate the customer's delivery of cloud services. Networking devices, servers and data storage are the principal physical elements of the cloud infrastructure. A hardware abstraction layer that allows resource virtualization and helps drive down costs through economies of scale is also included in the cloud infrastructure.
Cloud Infrastructure in Three Cloud Architectures
The cloud infrastructure is not the sole property of public cloud service providers of third parties. In fact, to provide computing services, all three of the most commonly adopted cloud architecture models use the same basic components of the cloud infrastructure.
The cloud infrastructure is accessed by only a single entity in the private cloud architecture model. On-site IT workers may build and manage the private cloud architecture or it may be provided by an external service provider.
The public cloud consists of providers of third-party cloud services that provide paying customers over the internet with cloud resources. To maximize economies of scale and reduce the cost of computing capacity and data storage for their users, public cloud providers use a multi-tenant environment model. The multi-tenant atmosphere is effective in minimizing the total cost of computing services, but for businesses dealing with sensitive data, it can also raise privacy issues.
In a different, but linked system, hybrid cloud computing environments are characterized as private and public cloud systems communicating with each other. Sensitive data companies may opt to preserve data privacy by storing certain sensitive data on on-site servers while hosting less sensitive software and other public cloud services where the cost could be lower. Hybrid cloud entities retain their own private cloud environments, but can utilize public cloud resources on a flexible basis for additional capacity or computing tasks.
Secure Your Cloud Infrastructure with XcellHost
For organizations and companies that rely on cloud infrastructure to provide the underlying tools that support key business services, cloud protection is a growing area of concern. The cloud protection framework of XcellHost uses organizational, business and security analytics in real time with regard to your cloud infrastructure.