Cloud Computing Architectures and Applications

This week’s journal articles and resources provide insight into the different cloud computing architectures and services currently available. These cloud computing architectures include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), a development and deployment platform for running application in the cloud known as platform-as-a-service (Pass), and access to applications through the Internet called software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Amazon Web Services provides a scalable platform for the development of flexible applications. In addition, Amazon also provides computing services through a service called EC2. Another service from Microsoft, called Microsoft Azure, includes computing, storage, and network services. Built on top of Microsoft’s datacenters, it provides developers with a collection of services for building applications with cloud technology. In addition to these services, there are open source solutions, including OpenStack, Apache CloudStack, and Hadoop for building public and private clouds.

These solutions provide a number of benefits, but they also include risks. As new types of architectures and applications emerge, CTOs and IT professionals must be able to effectively evaluate them to understand their potential benefits, as well as the risks they may pose.

For this Discussion, you will analyze the various types of Cloud Services. You will assess two competing cloud development platforms, and you will investigate open-source platforms and how they compare against the privately-held platforms.

Please answer the following questions:

In what ways do the readings provided in this week’s Learning Resources and those identified by you and your colleagues answer important “so what?” questions in the field of cloud and grid computing ?

How are these readings potentially valuable for research in the field?

Are there any important gaps (i.e., contradictions, arguments, disagreements, or areas of divergence) within this set of readings that point to potential topics for future research?

How would you follow up to extend or explore these gaps?

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Cloud Computing Architectures and Applications

The renowned private cloud computing platforms that offer cloud services to businesses and developers are Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure. Amazon EC2 is a scalable pay-as-you-go compute capacity in the cloud. According to Gandhi and Kumbharana (2018) Amazon EC2 offers a resizable compute capacity in the cloud, and the design make web-scale computing easier for developers. On the other hand, Microsoft Azure is an integrated cloud service and infrastructure system that supports web scenarios, mobile, analytical, database, and computing services (Gandhi & Kumbharana, 2018). Cloud computing is served by open-source resources such as OpenStack, Apache CloudStack, and Hadoop, which help build private and public clouds. The two competing open sources are OpenStack and Apache CloudStack. According to Odun-Ayo et al., (2018) OpenStack refers to an open-source platform that uses a pool of virtual resources that helps in building and managing private and public clouds. OpenStack…