Cloud Computing and Software-as-a-Service

Cloud computing, at its core, offers a large set of resources that  enable a concept known as elasticity. Elasticity is a part of the core feature set that comprise cloud computing. The concept behind elasticity is so integral to cloud computing that Amazon Web services decided to categorize the major offering in their cloud as Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute).

The definition of elasticity can be described, or sometimes known as, dynamic scaling. The ability to dynamically scale and change resource requirements or consumption needs in direct response to runtime requirements makes this paradigm of cloud computing an integral part of the model. Most applications require a standard level of resources operating under normal, ready state environmental conditions, but also require additional computing resources during peak usage situations.

Before the advent of the cloud model, companies were required to pre-build, pre-purchase and configure sufficient capacities to not just operate properly under standard load requirements, but also handle extensive peak load situations while offering sufficient performance. When looking into the past and present of the self-hosted model, this means companies having to over provision and purchase additional hardware and software for their given application requirements and further requires engineers to try to accurately predict customer or end user usage in peak load scenarios.

When looking into managed hosting, it is possible to start with a small subset of computing resources and hardware and continue to grow the resource as the applications requirements grow. But in the model of managed hosting, provisioning for new hardware and software dedicated to the application’s needs can take weeks, or even larger companies, months.

With cloud computing having hundreds and thousands of virtualized computing resources which can be leveraged, provisioned, and released in conjunction to the application and peak load requirements on demand make the elastic cloud model the most powerful and convenient paradigm available to business. When businesses incorporate automation via dynamic scaling, also known as elasticity, the service-level offerings to end-users increase substantially.

Our next blog will focus on virtualization in cloud computing. Please check back often, or subscribe to our blog to stay up-to-date on the latest posts and perspectives and news about cloud computing. For more information about Nubifer Cloud Computing visit www.NUBIFER.com