Cloud computing

The cloud provides a secure, scalable, reliable, and cost-effective mechanism for providing central server functionalities, as listed in Chapters 2 and 3. We represent it using the following:

Figure 12.19 – Cloud computing

Cloud computing can be considered a realization of a central server, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 12.20 – Cloud computing can be considered as a realization of a “central server”

Another benefit provided by cloud computing is that routine infrastructure activities such as hardware provisioning, infrastructure management, and software patching/upgrades are taken care of by the cloud vendor. Also, the cloud provides Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity (DR/BC) features as cloud infrastructure is spread globally – if the infrastructure in one geographical region goes down, it results in (almost instantaneous) automatic failover to another region.

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