What is Cloud Computing and How it Works

Back to original blog topic after a bit of refresher from previous post for How to Set Goals. The post received overwhelming response from all around.

I was having a discussion with a group of IT Department where we were undergoing implementation of our Finance Software. The company had about 1000 workstations and as far as I can remember, they had about 25 Servers, heterogeneous network.

We were having discussion regarding the more number of workstations get added, the more the company has to spent on Software’s to be purchased, servers to be added or increase their capacity and overall infrastructure to be upgraded. They were looking for a solution that can help reduce the managing of network and a way thru which people can remotely access any application without heavily investing in infrastructure by the company itself.

Enter here, solution was “Cloud Computing”.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing in simple terms, could be instead of installing a bunch of software’s on one computer, you just have to install a single application. When you click that application, it shall get you connected to a web-based service which hosts all your programs you would need for your job. Servers owned by other companies or providers, shall run all the Software’s required for the company right from e-mail to Enterprise Software’s to complex data analysis programs. This is Cloud Computing.

Think of it this way, Cloud computing is like having a metered cab at your disposal whenever you want it, you only pay for what distance you travel, you don’t pay no maintenance costs or any other costs associated with cab. You pay based on where you want to go that day and it’s so economical you can vary the length of your trips and not worry about the costs. You can even change the looks of the cab as you do not share it with anyone else.

The first step, in any cloud is to adapt applications to run as virtualization.

            In the traditional model of computing

           

Both data and software are fully contained on the user's computer

 

            In cloud computing

 

The user's computer may contain almost no software or data 
(perhaps a minimal operating system and web browser only
and a application to connect to remote machine), serving
as little more than a display terminal for processes occurring
on a network of computers far away.

How it Works

 

Step 1

A Cloud User requires a laptop, desktop, Smartphone or other computing device to get connected to one of the Cloud Service Providers over the Internet.

Step 2

The cloud provides access to applications, Software’s, operation Systems, Servers all that is required is by the user. The cloud provides server-based applications and all data services to the user, with output displayed on the client device.

Step 3

For example, if a user intends to create a word document, the cloud provider offers suitable application for the same, user opens the application on cloud, does his work and saves the same on the cloud providers Servers

Step 4

At the end, you disconnect from your Cloud Service provider

 

What do you pay for?

You pay by the resource used which is called utility computing.

Resources are:

Ø  Servers

Ø  Operating Systems

Ø  Applications

Ø  Software’s etc.

 

Some Cloud Providers also have their Unit of Measure setup which includes charges for space, hydro, equipment usage, Operating System Usage, etc.... They may have fixed charges For example, 1 Unit of Measure= 0.05 cents.

Cloud Computing is a service that is based on “pay as you go” else other words pay for what you use resources. Imagine, you do not spend any amount of money on Servers or Software purchases or platforms. You just have to subscribe any of the cloud service providers like Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc…

I shall be listing one more post for Benefits of Cloud Computing.

Till then hope it hasn't got much cloudier....

 

What Files Should I Back Up?

Before getting answer to this question, we should know where data actually is stored or the location of data.

Let me share with you as I had came across an interesting situation with one of my clients.

Almost all the Software’s, when we install we are being asked for “program installation Directory” and thereafter where you want to save your data, as by default can be “Drive letter:\program location directory\data “, you can change this folder where you can save your data or you can also change data path externally by going thru respective file settings like .ini or .cfg. In this scenario, there was a IT person who was leaving the company and a new Techie had taken over. The previous guy had made a change where the data shall get stored to a different folder other than the default one, for our finance Software he did not pass the information to the new techie. The backup process was already in place and they continued the same way. After about a month or so, they were in a situation where they had to restore old data, when they pulled up their backup resources they could not find backup for their finance software. We were been contacted to get the data, one of our specialists went to the site and found out the data storage path was changed and those folders are not backed up. Then came the uphill task for us, to fix their data as there were some errors in data, nevertheless we worked hard and were able to retrieve their data except for last 3-4 hrs of data was lost.

It tells a lesson always verify where your data is and to confirm if there is any change in data path, whether you are doing Online Backup or transferring data to Cloud or using any other media to do backup.

I have listed out a few data / files which can be important. You can keep this as your checklist. You should backup any data which you cannot afford to loose may be your accounting records, inventory records, emails, business contacts etc.

For Businesses

Any data that is critical for your business you should back up. Remember, do not delete the original data after you backup, otherwise you are back with one copy of data. You should have at least two copies of your data and out of which one copy of your data should be off-site.

      Financial data
  §  Backup financial Software data, ERP Software data

§  Backup SQL, Oracle, or any other database used

§  Special database - or financial-software packages may store files in their

   program directories, so be sure to make copies of these, too.

§  Backup Invoices, Billings, Receipts, Payments data

§  Backup Taxation data

§  Backup payroll Software data

§  Backup  inventory Reports, Outstanding Statements of Accounts Receivables

   and Payables

§  Backup Policies, procedure Documents of Company

      MS Office Documents

§  Backup Word / Excel Spreadsheets / Power point presentation documents.

§  While most Windows users store data in their documents folder, there is also a

   tendency to keep files and folders on the Desktop.

§  Backup Desktop, My Documents folders.

§  You can also backup your entire Users folders, which is in C:\Users\Username

   in Windows 7 or Vista, C:\Documents and Settings\Username for Windows XP.

§  Backup PDF files

§  Backup legal contracts, agreements, business plans

      Business contacts and emails

§  Backup Email Dats For example Exchange Server

§  Check with your email service provider - which may offer backup services - on

   its backup and restore policies.

§  Backup Outlook, Outlook Express etc.

§  In Microsoft Outlook, mail data files are commonly located in:

            “C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application

             Data\Microsoft\Outlook\*.pst“

§  Backup your business contacts, employees information

      External Programs   

§  Backup those programs running on CEO’s / CFO’s or Executives Laptops or

   any other device that they use.

§  They may have installed some software’s and never backed up those. For

   example,I had one of our clients whose Finance Head use to a 3^rd party

   Software for storing all his important notes, and he had never done backup for

   the same. Most system administrators do not look at their important

   documents nor they are being informed that those need to be backed up.

      Bookmarks or Favourites 

  §  Backup all your bookmarks, favourites in your Browser or users browser. 

  §  If you are a Firefox user, did you know that Firefox backs up your bookmarks

         all along?

For Individuals Users

Pretty much anything on your computer you feel is important you should backup. Here’s a partial list:

      MS Office Documents

§  Backup Word / Excel Spreadsheets / Power point presentation documents.

§  Backup data that is on “Desktop” as many files shall be on desktop and

   unfortunately, if  one fine day the computer does not boot up and you have to

   reinstall Operating System, desktop files shall be deleted.

§  Backup any other program file types that you use

      Music

§  Backup all music

§  Make sure not to forget, especially if you have paid for MP3’s you downloaded

      Pictures and Videos

§  Make sure you backup your pictures and videos.

§  Any time your hard drive crashes you may loose all your pictures and videos,

   you might not have paid anything for that but you shall loose all your memories

   which shall be worth much more than you paid for music downloads.

      Bookmarks or Favourites

§  Backup all your Bookmarks in your Browser

§  Backup your My Documents folder

Do Not Backup

§  Do not backup any programs, the installation files shall have to be run again.  

§  Do not backup Windows Directory folder, as you shall have to install the

   Operating System again, in case of crash.

System Image

System image is in essence a snapshot of an entire drive(s). It includes all user and system files, configuration data and applications that are present on the drive, plus information regarding disk layout and boot entries. The image can be used to recover a working Windows if your hard disk ever fails, or if you simply want to re-image your OS to an earlier point in time. You can create a System Image once everything is installed and then you can use to restore more easily everything rather than reinstalling everything manually, in case of disk failure. This is called System Image Backup. The only problem in creating such kind of backup is it occupies lot of drive space.

Hope the above helps, see you till next post.