Tech Talk On Cloud Computing With AWS

Tech talks are knowledge sharing sessions conducted bi-weekly at NovelVox. This week, we had a session on Cloud Computing with AWS featuring the basic and advanced level knowledge on AWS cloud computing models along with some practical sessions for better learning. The session was conducted by Bunty Chugh on May 13, 2020.

Introduction to Cloud Computing

According to Wikipedia,
“Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user”.

In simple language, we can assume Cloud Computing as a utility service giving you access to technology resources managed by experts and available on-demand. We can access these services over the internet with almost zero upfront cost as we pay only for the resources that we use.

Another simpler way of understanding this technology is to think of electricity service and how we access it. The below image explains how simply plugging in an electronic device to a power source generates energy. Here, power act as a utility service available on demand and we pay only for the power consumed.

Similarly, AWS services cost you only for what you use and not for the whole thing happening at the blackened to make the service available.

Attributes of Cloud Computing

Following are the attributes of using the Cloud Computing Service:

1. No Capital Expenditure
2. Pay only for what you use
3. Scale Up and Down capacity
4. Improves time to market
5. More focus on business than managing infrastructure resources

Understanding the True Elastic Capacity of Cloud Computing

Scaling up and down in cloud computing refers to increasing and decreasing the load handling capacity of the server depending upon the requirements.

In the case of On-cloud server deployment, the true elastic capacity of cloud servers regularly monitors the server load status. In case, the load increases, more server instances are added to the server to handle the increased load. This is also known as Scaling Up the load based on the requirement.

However, in the opposite case when the load on the server decreases, the load is balanced by removing additional server instances from the server which is known as Scaling Down.

This ability of cloud servers to increase and decrease load based on requirement is known as the true elastic capacity of Cloud Computing. This feature can not be expected from an on-premises server deployed in an organization.

Cloud Computing Models

There are two kinds of models in Cloud Computing:

1. Deployment Models

• Public Cloud: the deployment is done by third-party service providers over the internet, making the service available to the public.
• Private Cloud: the deployment is done by IT administrators over Private IT infrastructure for the dedicated use of a single organization.
• Hybrid Cloud: a mix of on-premises and on-cloud deployment making some data available to the public and some for the dedicated group of audience

2. Service Models

• Infrastructure as a Service: the client gets complete access to the on-cloud server’s OS including hardware, storage, network components, etc. Ex. EC2
• Platform as a Service: the access is given at the dashboard level for data uploading, rest is taken care of the Cloud provider. Ex. Elastic Beanstalk
• Software as a Service: software is provided to the customer without any access to the server or dashboard. Ex. Facebook

AWS Services Types

• Compute
• Storage
• Database
• Security
• Containers
• Management
• Customer Engagement
• App Integration

Note: AWS services are not limited to the above-mentioned services. Listing and explaining all AWS services was outside the scope of our Techtalk session, hence the presenter only focused on the above services with a detailed explanation of Compute and Containers AWS Services.

Practical Session

The presenter gave a detailed practical session on the following:

1. Launching an AWS Instance
2. Using Elastic Beanstalk and Lambda

This Techtalk has been one of the most loved sessions wherein NovelVoxians gained deep insights about Cloud Computing with AWS. The presenter Bunty Chugh gave an advanced level of Cloud Computing knowledge that will help NovelVoxians to try some hands-on for better learning.