The main feature that makes the cloud-based internet of things (IoT) different from the conventional internet of things is that it can develop, deploy, run and manage applications online via the cloud. This makes cloud-based solutions necessary in IoT projects. In this article, we will discuss topics such as cloud computing deployment models, various service types, and cloud platforms for the IoT. Since the amount of material for this article is really vast, we will discuss it in two separate parts.
Cloud technology, also known as cloud computing, is an internet-based (online) data storage service that allows data sharing between all devices such as computers, phones, tablets, and servers without time and space restrictions. This technology enables information processing services such as server, storage, database, network, software, analysis, and machine intelligence to share resources between users with an internet-based cloud computing network. One of the great benefits of cloud computing is that it provides users with unique accessibility. Cloud-based tools can be accessed from anywhere, anytime, and on any device. The only requirement is that the device is connected to the Internet. Cloud computing has made services much more flexible to meet the demands of today’s organizations. Cloud-based solutions can be adjusted at any time depending on your company’s current needs and business processes.
Figure – Cloud Deployment Models
The cloud deployment model is defined based on where the distribution infrastructure is located and who has control over it. Cloud computing is deployed using different models and consists of four main models such as:
- Public Cloud: It comes with many features that cloud providers offer such as applications, data stores, and many different computing services to users over the public internet. Customers are asked to pay per usage only for the CPU cycles, storage, or bandwidth they consume. The network, storage, and virtual machines that your application uses are provided by a cloud provider and shared among all consumers of the public cloud. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud are examples of public clouds.
- Private Cloud: It is defined as computing services offered over the Internet or a private internal network and offered solely to select users rather than to the general public. Since only authorized users can access the organization’s system, this cloud model offers more security than other cloud models. Private cloud computing also called internal or enterprise cloud, provides businesses with many of the benefits of public cloud, including self-service, scalability, and flexibility, with added control and customization from private sources over a self-hosted computing infrastructure.
- Community Cloud: A multi-tenant cloud service model is one that is shared among several organizations and is jointly managed and secured by all participating organizations or a third-party managed service provider. Community clouds are a hybrid form of private clouds that are built and run specifically for a targeted group. These communities have similar cloud requirements and their ultimate goal is to work together to achieve their business goals.
- Hybrid Cloud: It is defined as a cloud infrastructure consisting of two or more cloud infrastructures (private, public, and community clouds) interconnected by technologies and approaches for the portability of data and applications. In computing and processing when demand shifts, hybrid cloud computing provides businesses with the ability to seamlessly scale their on-premises infrastructure to the public cloud to handle any flooding, without giving third-party datacenters access to all of their data. Virtual Networks, Hybrid Connections, and Service Bus in Microsoft Azure are just a few examples of hybrid cloud.
In this article, we emphasized the importance of using cloud technology in IoT and discussed deployment models in cloud technology. In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at topics such as cloud computing service types and cloud platforms. Stay tuned!
