Cloud Computing: Introduction, History, Architecture, Delivery Models, Deployment Strategies, and Top Players

Running head: CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing
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CLOUD COMPUTING 2
Cloud computing introduction and history
Cloud computing is a concept that has been adopted into the world with ease. There is a
high need for data storage space due to the excess production of data every day. This has resulted
in the need for more storage space and the best idea that has been so far established to solve the
problem is cloud computing. Cloud computing deals with the storage of data in a remote server
called a cloud and the data can be accessed and managed from the cloud using good internet
connections (Nurm et al., 2009). Most researchers are optimistic that cloud computing might
change the nature of computing with more storage space at hand. Various organizations have
been set up that provide the cloud computing services to other organizations and individuals. The
technology is spreading so fast that most of the organizations are being forced to get into terms
with this kind of technology as well as incorporate them in their businesses.
The technology can be dated back to the 1960s and has developed in phases through the
years. It has come through various stages and has recently become a major invention in the
market and has become the way of storing data in the firms. The production of more and more
data has led to the huge need of the cloud computing services and has become a major party of
the computing norm. The technology was however not utilized until the late 2002 when amazon
launched their first cloud computing service which was called the amazon web service. Since
then, many organizations have come into place and have become major players and have
developed various cloud computing technologies including the infrastructure as a service,
platform as a service and software as a service all of which have had great impact on the current
technologies in the information management fields.
With time the idea of cloud computing has evolved changing the way data is stored in the
cloud spaces and the types of service that can be offered in a cloud. The major entrance by

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organizations such as oracle, Microsoft and others like Google has caused a great impact on
information management actions. Now the data is being handled different and people can even
do more than just store data in the cloud computers. They can develop applications and host them
in the cloud services while other provide resources and the users can manage the resources. More
is anticipated with the soon expected rise of the internet of things that will wholly depend on
cloud computing to operate. Most of the devices will be connected to the cloud and hey will store
process and retrieve data from the cloud during their operations.
The idea was introduced to help most organizations to focus on their core business
process rather than focus on their data storage and they could get the storage services from other
vendors. It is this idea that has resulted to the growth of the industry since it allows most
organizations to focus on their primary goal of operation while the secondary services such as
data storage are dealt with by other organizations (Carlin, & Curran, 2013). The idea has become
popular to help with the economies of scale. The idea has helped most of the companies to save
on the cost of expanding their IT infrastructure which may be expensive with the expanding size
of data that is being used as well as produced in the day to day operations of the organization.
With the specialization that cloud computing brings to data handling and data man agent,
there is the rapid growth of cloud computing technology since most of the organizations can
focus their attention on the development of better cloud services that will attract other
organizations. With many data servers at a single location, the cost of maintenance is greatly
reduced and hence the method becomes cheaper compared to the previous methods that had been
used. It is the rapid growth of data that has resulted in the fast expansion of the cloud computing
technology. It is being driven by the more need for data storage and yet most of the organizations
don't want to spend much of their resources on the infrastructure.

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Service Oriented Architecture/ Thin Clients
The most common architecture model that is being used by most of the cloud service
providers is that they offer cloud services as a service. The major reason is that the cloud service
does not use the user-end machines but rather use the hardware in the data centers which act as
the cloud computers (Dikaiakos et al., 2013). The cloud computers can only access the hardware
which is on the data center easily rather than the computer that is being used by the client. This is
why most of the organizations have decided to use the service platform to serve their customers.
The customers are considered as thin clients because they are a major reason they are customers
is not that of the cloud services but as the customers of the other service that is provided by the
specific organization.
When a client is accessing their mail account using the web-browser, they don’t have to
store anything in their local servers and do not need mail servers locally but use all the resources
of the service provider (Buyya, Yeo, & Venugopal, 2008). This is because the service provider
provides both the service and the infrastructure that is needed for storage and hence in the
process offers cloud computing services. Their clients are thin cloud clients but majorly the