Identify the Benefits of Cloud Computing AZ-900 PDF

Identify the Benefits of Cloud Computing - AZ-900 Certification Course What is Cloud Computing? Cloud computing is not a physical entity; it's essentially using someone else's computer resources. Benefits of Cloud Computing: Capacity Increased Capacity: Cloud services provide scalable capaci...

Identify the Benefits of Cloud Computing - AZ-900 Certification Course What is Cloud Computing? Cloud computing is not a physical entity; it's essentially using someone else's computer resources. Benefits of Cloud Computing: Capacity Increased Capacity: Cloud services provide scalable capacity, enabling the running of various services as needed. On-premises limitations: On-premises solutions are limited by physical location and available resources. Cloud Capacity Components Servers: CPU cores and memory contribute significantly to overall capacity. Storage: Storage Area Networks (SANs) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices provide varying storage capacity and performance. Networking: Network connectivity and bandwidth influence overall capacity and performance. Data Center Considerations for Cloud Services Resiliency: Multiple data centers provide redundancy and protection against outages. Disaster Recovery: Geographic distribution of data centers ensures business continuity in case of regional disasters. Performance: Data centers located closer to customers improve application performance and reduce latency. On-Premises Service Architecture Layering of Services: On-premises services are typically built on virtual machines (VMs) and/or containers. Applications (custom or database) are then installed on top of these  layers. Management and User Experience: A management layer provides tools for configuration and operation. Depending on the setup, a user experience layer may exist, potentially offering self-service capabilities for business users. Cloud Data Center Infrastructure Fundamental Component: Cloud computing fundamentally relies on capacity, housed within physical data centers. Data Center Structure: Data centers are composed of multiple buildings containing: Clusters of Servers: Groups of servers working together. Racks: Physical structures holding multiple servers. Nodes: Individual computing units running specific workloads. Geographic Distribution: Data centers are geographically dispersed for redundancy, disaster recovery, and improved performance for users in different regions. Azure Global Infrastructure Azure Regions: Azure services are available in numerous regions worldwide, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America. This global reach ensures high availability and low latency for users across different geographical locations. Data Center Distribution within Regions: Each Azure region comprises multiple data centers located in close proximity. This clustering enhances redundancy and resilience, minimizing the impact of potential outages. Cloud Service Diversity Cloud services encompass a wide range of offerings beyond VMs and containers. Examples include databases, AI services, and complete application services. This broad functionality provides extensive capabilities for various applications. Cloud Pricing Model Pay-as-you-go: Users pay only for the resources consumed, not for upfront purchases. Granular Billing: Billing is often per-second or per-unit of resource usage (e.g., storage). This model offers flexibility and cost-effectiveness. Cloud Multi-Tenancy Cloud environments are inherently multi-tenant. Multiple customers share the same infrastructure resources. This shared model contributes to the efficiency and scalability of cloud services. Cloud Security and Data Isolation Multi-tenancy and Data Segregation: Cloud environments are inherently multi-tenant, meaning multiple customers share the same infrastructure. Robust security measures are crucial to ensure data isolation and prevent unauthorized access. Security Mechanisms: Software-defined networking, encryption, and hypervisor-level security features are employed to protect customer data and prevent cross-tenant interference. Accessing Cloud Services Internet Access: Cloud services are typically accessed via the internet using publicly accessible endpoints. Publicly Accessible Endpoints: These endpoints provide a way for users and applications to connect to and interact with cloud resources. Alternative Cloud Access Methods Private Connectivity: Large organizations often utilize private connections to access cloud services instead of relying solely on the public internet. This approach enhances security and performance. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs): VPNs are a common method for establishing private connections to cloud environments. They create secure, encrypted tunnels between on- premises networks and cloud resources. Site-to-Site VPNs: Site-to-site VPNs directly connect an organization's on-premises network to a virtual network in the cloud (e.g., Azure Virtual Network), enabling seamless communication and data transfer. Cloud Connectivity Options Default Access: Cloud services are typically accessed via the internet using publicly accessible endpoints.  Private Connectivity: Large organizations often use private connections for enhanced security and performance. ExpressRoute: A dedicated private connection to Azure. Cloud Service Updates and Innovation Frequent Updates: Cloud providers constantly release new features and updates. Managed Offering: Cloud services are managed, eliminating the need for frequent on- premises server upgrades. Faster Innovation: New features are available quickly, unlike on-premises solutions. Cloud Service Variety and Scalability Extensive Service Options: Cloud providers offer a vast array of services, even for basic offerings like virtual machines. These can include VMs with specialized hardware like GPUs, local NVMe storage, RDMA network adapters, and varying levels of CPU, memory, IOPS, and storage throughput. Customization and Choice: Users can select the specific configurations that best meet their needs. Reasons for Using Cloud Computing Massive Scalability: Cloud vendors operate at an immense scale, providing access to vast computing resources that are difficult to match on-premises. Global Reach: Cloud services are available across numerous regions, ensuring accessibility and performance for users worldwide. Cloud Computing Benefits: Scalability and Agility On-Demand Resource Provisioning: Cloud resources are available on demand, eliminating the need for pre-provisioning. Resources can be created and deployed instantly. Agility: Cloud computing offers significant agility compared to on-premises solutions. On- premises infrastructure requires extensive planning and lead time for procurement and deployment, limiting flexibility. Cloud resources can be scaled up or down quickly to meet changing needs. Cloud Computing Benefits: Agility and Flexibility Increased Agility: Cloud computing offers significantly greater agility than on-premises solutions. On-premises infrastructure requires extensive planning and lead time for  procurement and deployment, limiting flexibility. Cloud resources can be scaled up or down quickly to meet changing needs. On-Demand Resource Provisioning: Resources are provisioned on demand, eliminating the need for pre-provisioning and long-term commitments. Easy Resource Modification and Deletion: Resources can be easily modified or deleted as needed, allowing for quick adaptation to changing requirements. This contrasts with the inflexibility of on-premises hardware. Architectural Flexibility: The cloud allows for easy transitions between different architectures (e.g., from virtual machines to containers) without significant upfront investment or lengthy migration processes. Cloud Computing Benefits: Agility and Flexibility (Continued) Effortless Service Migration: Easily switch between services (e.g., migrating from VMs to App Services or managed databases) with minimal effort. Changes can be implemented quickly and efficiently. Adaptability to Changing Needs: Quickly adapt to evolving architectural requirements and changing business needs. Modify or replace services on demand. Global Scalability: Leverage numerous regions to accommodate expanding customer bases or geographic shifts. Deploy resources in new regions as needed. High Availability and Redundancy in Cloud Deployments Distribution of Instances: To ensure high availability, cloud services distribute instances across multiple racks, buildings, and data centers. This redundancy minimizes the impact of individual component failures. Availability Zones: Availability zones represent distinct physical locations within a region, each with independent power, networking, and cooling. Distributing instances across availability zones further enhances resilience. Availability Sets and Fault Domains: Availability sets and fault domains are logical groupings of resources designed to prevent correlated failures. They help ensure that applications remain operational even if a physical component (like a rack or power supply) fails. High Availability and Disaster Recovery Strategies Availability Zones: Distinct physical locations within a region, each with independent power, networking, and cooling. Distributing instances across availability zones enhances resilience.  Availability Sets and Fault Domains: Logical groupings of resources to prevent correlated failures. They ensure application uptime even if a physical component fails. Availability sets span multiple fault domains (racks within a building). Data Sovereignty and Geopolitical Considerations: Multiple regions exist within the same geopolitical boundary, allowing for data replication within a country to meet regulatory requirements. This is crucial for organizations with data sovereignty restrictions. Regions are hundreds of miles apart for disaster recovery purposes. Disaster Recovery and Replication Asynchronous Replication: Data is replicated to a secondary region without impacting application performance. This ensures business continuity in case of regional outages. Azure Site Recovery: A service enabling replication of virtual machines between regions, including the possibility of active-active deployments. Active-Active Deployments: Running instances in multiple regions simultaneously for high availability and low latency. Scalability in Cloud Computing Consumption-Based Scaling: Cloud resources scale automatically based on demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-effectiveness. Key Tenant of Cloud: Scalability is a fundamental characteristic of cloud computing, allowing for easy adjustments to resource allocation. Cloud Computing Benefits: Scalability and Cost Optimization Consumption-Based Pricing Pay only for resources used, typically billed per second. Optimizes costs by aligning spending with actual resource consumption. On-Demand Scalability Scale resources up or down instantly to meet fluctuating demands. Enables handling peak workloads without resource limitations. Provides a "near infinite" scaling capacity. Avoiding Resource Constraints  Eliminates the limitations of on-premises infrastructure where disk space and memory are often constrained. Allows for handling significantly larger workloads without resource exhaustion. Workload Variability and Cloud Scalability Understanding Variable Workloads Real-world workloads are rarely consistent; they experience periods of high, low, and average demand. These fluctuations can be hourly, daily, weekly, or seasonal. Understanding workload patterns is crucial for efficient resource allocation. Near-Infinite Scalability and its Advantages Cloud computing offers near-infinite scalability, allowing resources to adapt to fluctuating demands. This eliminates the resource constraints (disk space, memory) common in on-premises environments. The ability to scale resources up or down instantly optimizes costs and performance. Workload Variability Examples Fluctuating Demand: Real-world applications experience varying workloads. Examples include: Pizza restaurant (high demand on Friday nights, low demand during off-peak hours) Tax software (high demand during tax season, low demand during the rest of the year) Olympic Games hosting (high demand every four years) Election systems (high demand during election periods) Scaling Strategies Agile Scaling: The ability to quickly adjust resources based on changing demands. Auto Scaling: Automated scaling of resources based on predefined metrics (e.g., CPU utilization, request rate). Horizontal Scaling: Adding more instances of an application to handle increased load. Scaling Strategies: Auto Scaling and Horizontal Scaling Auto Scaling: Automatically adjusts the number of instances based on real-time demand. This ensures optimal resource utilization and cost-effectiveness. Horizontal Scaling: Increases or decreases the number of instances running an application to handle fluctuating workloads. Scaling out adds instances; scaling in removes them. Dynamic Instance Adjustment: The number of instances is dynamically changed (scaled up or down) based on the current workload. This allows for efficient resource allocation during periods of high and low demand. For example, four instances might be needed during peak times, while only two are necessary during quieter periods.