11 Computing Platforms

Welcome students ! Introduction to Unit 2 

In Unit 2, we look at platform architectures that have evolved over time from the days of  earlier main frame architecture into today's cloud service platform architecture.

Today we have cloud computing platform which use and provide

• cloud technologies 
• ( Parallel Computing, Distributed Computing, Service Oriented     Computing, Virtualization, Web 2.0 (soap, rest, ajax, mashup),  Utility Computing )

• cloud delivery services reference model 
• ( IaaS,PaaS, SaaS )

• cloud deployment types 
• ( Public, Private, Hybrid, Community )

In Unit 1 we already introduced ourselves to cloud technologies such as Parallel Computing, Distributed Computing, Service Oriented Computing and Virtualization. 

Just like evolution theory says a monkey became man over many phases, this blog summarizes the Computing Platform architecture for enterprises that has evolved over time in four phases 

(computing platform: enterprise --> internet --> saas --> cloud)

 Computing Platforms

 1. Enterprise Computing platform

The earlier platforms was based on enterprise computing platform architectures that used architectures such as main frame architecture, client server architecture, three tier architecture. 

The concepts such as fault-tolerant systems and hypervisors that are used in cloud today were used as early as in main frame architectures as well.

To know more about enterprise computing platform refer to presentation / video 1 & video 2 on 2 ENTERPRISE COMPUTING PLATFORM - PART 1 - SEM 3 - MSC 2

2. Internet as  a computing platform

When internet was available, architectures matured into extending over the internet via the infamous application protocol "http" . Internet as computing platform was thus born.
 

Client server architecture was implemented in the Internet computing platform as an http request/response stateless, connectionless interaction between a browser and a web server.
 

The web based architecture implemented using internet as a computing platform introduced advanced web architectures that involved Application server , Web Farms, Load Balancing to solve problems such as to manage the increasing number of users that were beginning to use the internet. 

Doing business on the internet (aka e-Commerce) was on the boom. There were many startups, venture captitalists that started and invested in internet driven applications, softwares which became huge.  example Google, e-Bay, Hotmail, Yahoo, Amazon (sold books then) etc. 

To know more about internet as a computing platform refer to presentation / video  on 2 INTERNET COMPUTING PLATFORM - PART 2 - SEM 3 - MSC 2
 

3. SaaS Computing Platform

New advanced web based technologies such as Web 2.0 gave birth to SaaS computing platforms that implemented SoA architecture such as SoA orchestration and SoA choreography. 

As the e-commerce web applications over internet matured and advanced over time, it evolved into utilizing Web 2.0 technologies namely

• SOAP web services
• Rest services
• AJAX
• MASHUP

We have already covered the details of first two Web 2.0 technologies (SOAP and REST) in Semester 1.We will revisit them in Unit 3 as well.

With the advancement via Web 2.0 technologies, SaaS based software solutions that were multi-tenant (multi-user) and customizable(configurable) by users became prominent as it reached many people via minimum investments. We will revisit multi-tenancy in Unit 3.

We see examples of these SaaS platforms such as Google Mail, Google Worksheets, Office 365, SalesForce etc.

SaaS  not only helped scale the economy using multi-tenant model but also let each user personalize (configure) the front end. 

A sales person would have customized his front end screen to see the report on how his sales are progressing in each week whereas a CEO would have customized his screen to see the profit dashboard every week or month using the same SaaS computing platform based application. 

4. Cloud Computing Platform

All the years of experience of creating big computing platforms for enterprises have come together over the years to be utilized into what we have today: Cloud computing for everyone and not just for the enterprises.

Today all these advancement and technologies are provided using cloud delivery service reference model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) by major cloud computing platform providers such as AWS, Google, Microsoft Azure.

To know more about SaaS and Cloud computing platform refer to presentation / video  on "2 SAAS & CLOUD - COMPUTING PLATFORMS - PART 3 - SEM 3 - MSC 2"

Note: In your exam, be careful, look out for keywords to know what is the question on exactly cloud services (also referred as service model, delivery model, reference model), cloud types, cloud technologies, computing platforms (covers all types) or specifically cloud computing platform.

Thank you.