Google Cloud Computing Foundations - Important Topics - Part 1

1. What are some of the key features of Cloud Computing?

  1. Agility: Helps in quick and inexpensive re-provisioning of resources.
  2. Location Independence: This means that the resources can be accessed from everywhere.
  3. Multi-Tenancy: The resources are shared amongst a large group of users.
  4. Reliability: Resources and computation can be dependable for accessibility.
  5. Scalability: Dynamic provisioning of data helps in scaling.

2. What are the different versions of the cloud?

There are two primary deployment models of the cloud: Public and Private.

  • Public Cloud: Infrastructure and services owned and operated by a third party, available for use by others. These providers offer scalable data centers that abstract infrastructure details from the user, providing various computing, storage, and other services.

  • Private Cloud: Infrastructure and services owned and operated by an organization for its own employees, partners, or customers. It can be managed by a third party exclusively for one enterprise, sitting behind a firewall and not open for public consumption.

  • Hybrid Cloud: A combination of private computing resources and public services, used by many companies. This environment leverages both private and public cloud features.

  • Multi-Cloud: The use of various public cloud services by some companies to support different developer and business units, referred to as a multi-cloud environment.

3. What do you mean by cloud delivery models?

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Provides services like operating systems, storage, networking, and software utilities on-demand.

  • Platform as a Service (PaaS): Offers a combination of IaaS with middleware, development tools, and deployment services for consistent application creation and deployment in cloud or on-premises.

  • Software as a Service (SaaS): Business applications created and hosted by a provider, available in a multi-tenant model.

  • Function as a Service (FaaS): Allows building, managing, and running application functions with minimal infrastructure management, leading to a “serverless” architecture.

4. Consider that you are starting a new studio. You may need a lot of storage for videos, images etc., consume quite a bit of disk and you must need ample computational power, possibly running applications concurrently. You have discovered some very good tools to facilitate development in Windows, but the deployment will be more efficiently handled in the Linux environment. All the pointers say that you need to move to cloud. Which service do you recommend? Why?

  • Recommended Service: Hybrid Cloud

  • Reasons for Recommendation:

    • Flexible Storage and Computing: Offers ample storage for media and powerful computing for concurrent applications.
    • Tool Compatibility: Supports Windows development tools and efficient Linux deployment.
    • Cost-Effective: Balances costs, ideal for varying resource needs.
    • Scalability: Allows easy adjustment of resources as needed.
    • Security and Control: Ensures data security while providing public cloud access.
    • Optimized Performance: Balances load for improved efficiency.

The integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) with cloud technologies is indeed a catalyst that brings several benefits:

  1. Scalability and Flexibility: Cloud computing enhances IoT with the ability to handle large data volumes and adapt to varied workloads.

  2. Resource Availability: The integration offers IoT access to extensive cloud resources, improving performance and functionality, and making the cloud more adaptable to real-world scenarios.

  3. Rapid Collection and Analysis: Enables swift collection and analysis of data in IoT, useful in sectors like healthcare for remote monitoring and maintaining safety.

  4. Reliability and Intelligence: The combination results in a more reliable, intelligent, and powerful system, offering efficient and advanced solutions.

6. What is your opinion on the statement “containers offer the benefits of isolation, portability, agility, scalability, and control across the whole application lifecycle workflow.”

The benefits of containers are widely recognized and supported by various sources.

  • Isolation and Control: Containers ensure consistent application performance across environments by isolating development and operations.

  • Portability: Enable “write once, run anywhere” flexibility, allowing easy movement of applications across platforms and clouds.

  • Agility and Scalability: Enhance the entire application lifecycle, from development to deployment, with accelerated development and easy scaling.

  • Simplification of DevOps Workflows: Containers streamline DevOps and CI/CD pipelines, encapsulating code and dependencies in isolated environments for efficient development, testing, and deployment.

Therefore, indeed containers offer the benefits of isolation, portability, agility, scalability, and control across the whole application lifecycle workflow.

7. Comment on the statement “Cloud computing enables big data to control and distribute the stored data in a suitable way. It also provides security to big data. The main idea of big data is to accumulate, handle, visualize, and evaluate the huge amount of data, which is achieved by collaboration with cloud computing.”

  • Scalable Storage & Processing: Cloud computing offers scalable resources for storing and processing large volumes of data, essential for big data applications.
  • Distribution Efficiency: It enables efficient distribution of stored data, making it more accessible and manageable.
  • Security Enhancement: Cloud platforms provide advanced security measures to protect big data.
  • Data Analysis & Visualization: Collaboration with cloud computing allows for effective analysis and visualization of big data.
  • Handling Complex Data: Facilitates handling and evaluating the immense amount of complex data in big data projects.