Cloud Computing Features

Introduction to Cloud Computing Features

Yeah! You read the title right. I can bet that most of you might not even know what is cloud computing features. You may have heard a lot about cloud computing skills. But no! I am not talking about that. And yes, I am not confused. As a matter of fact, I am actually here to clear the confusion between these two. I am not here to distinguish between the two, but obviously, I would be showing you the top languages in which cloud computing features were developed and how they came into existence.

Cloud Computing Features and its Existence

A small introduction for the beginners:

“Cloud computing features is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources.”

Arrghh… This is the definition from Wikipedia. This is too bookish to actually understand what is the Cloud. To make it simple, let me put it this way, Cloud is everything you store on the Internet. Some stuff that you use in your day-to-day life, like Dropbox, or Google drive. But when I say everything you store on the Internet, it doesn’t mean Facebook pic and everything.

Though they can be counted as cloud storage, it would be a cloud computing skills database for Mark Zuckerburg, but not us. Cloud Computing storage is a very vast concept. But to get you going, just understand that everything that you save on the Internet cloud is a cloud database for someone, if not you.

How to get started?

Now that you basically understand what the cloud is, the question is how to get started?

Programmers have an ‘n’ range of platforms to select when developing cloud programming-based applications. However, AECC i.e. Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud and the GAE i.e. Google App Engine are the most famous ones.

Frankly speaking, there is a lot of variety to choose from but they didn’t get as much attention as AECC or GAE. But as for this blog, we will only be looking into some interesting websites with development resources to actually get you started.

The main targeted questions that come to mind when looking at a career in cloud development are: “What’s the difference between cloud programming and basic website development? What all should a programmer know and what all technologies should he/she be up-to-date with when learning cloud programming?

A few examples would be Software as a Service(SAAS), Platform as a Service(PAAS) or Infrastructure as a Service(IAAS). If you are employed in a company, which has a decent background in web development, but has decided to change its structure with the introduction of cloud programming, then what all skillset would you require?

Learning all of these things in one go would be a difficult task since the prerequisite of a SAAS developer would vary enormously from that of a person working in a virtual development cloud computing skills environment, though the cloud programming industry treats both of them as equal.

For the time being, I have whitelisted a few languages, which are some of the best to be worked under cloud programming development.

1. SQL DDL

Needless to say that SQL is the undisputed king of data languages. Nowadays, both relational and non-relational databases are based on SQL. Data Definition Language or DDL is a term introduced to define MySQL data structures in SQL 2016. You can, however, use them to create, alter, or edit data structures in SQL.

2. XML

XML type of data is actually a part of XML Schema. It defines specific parts for introducing datatypes which can be used in XML Schemas. This language, which is actually represented in XML provides a structured set that can be found in XML document type definitions or DTD whatever you want to call it, for allocating datatypes on not only attributes but also on elements.

3. The R Math

R Math is a language for computing stats and graphics. To be more specific, Its a GNU project. R Math actually is a combination of software tactics for the manipulation of data, calculating various stuff and displaying graphics.

It handles data effectively in a proper storage facility, with the help of operator suites for calculating arrays, matrices and has an enormous collection of apps for the analysis of graphical data to display it either on-screen or on hardcopy. It also has a matured, but simple and effective programming language at the same time, which includes loops, conditions, and recursive methods for input and output.

4. Haskell – functional programming

Haskell is an awesome language, which can do a lot of things. Besides, it’s also famous for Cloud programming. Haskell platform for cloud programming consists of a lot of libraries for sending non-dynamic closures to remotely connected nodes, a rich set of APIs, and also a set of Platform Libraries, similar to that of Erlang OTP i.e. Open Telecom Platform.

5. Erlang Programming

Erlang has a rich set of features such as supports to distribution, tolerance of faults that help to code, compile and debug apps easily in the cloud programming.

Besides, Erlang was mainly developed run in situations like concurrent parallel or distributed. These techniques make sure that they have no side effects. What this actually means is, if you run a piece of data inside a function to run against the function itself, it will not affect anything else in the system process.

In short, if you run a function n number of times all in one instance concurrently, none of the executions of these functions will have any effect on others. Surprised? Yeah, welcome to the world of Haskell then.

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6. Python Programming

Python!Python!Python! This programming language is just everywhere. From writing viruses to servers to building high-end apps. Python programming makes has made it possible to create and run cloud programming apps on the go.

You can code your apps in a web-based editor or just run a terminal session from any random browser. Cloud computing features with python on the go, everything is saved on the web, making it possible to start and stop your work from being anywhere in the world.

Besides the fact that Python has batteries included, it also runs smoothly on extremely powerful servers hosted by the Amazon ECC. Without paying anything, you can code and run any cloud programming python program with your creative mind.

7. Golang Programming

Golang is Google’s official programming language. It’s built on Google’s infrastructure and has a good amount of storage and cloud computing features services for the same. GAE compiles and runs Golang apps using a sandboxed environment, which is quite safe to say so. Your homemade app will receive requests from the web, it will perform its job, and send back responses while working in an interactive environment.

Golang receives full support for go-routines from GAE, except for parallel execution. Go-routines were built to run on single threads. However, in the case of multiple requests, say that if one request is waiting for a reply from an API call, another request could be executed by the same instance.

Google App Engine v/s Amazon EC2

The cloud-based services of cloud computing features are only as reliable as the web application lying under the table. If the web application even has a few issues, then moving the application into the cloud computing features might become a problem. Another obscure problem is of cloud programming security and its data as to how secure and reliable they are.

So, no matter how much you try, whatever you try, most people end up using the Google App engine or the Amazon EC2. As for me, I would prefer the Amazon EC2, but that’s just a personal consideration. So, now we know what’s what let’s consider the differences between the two:

Google App Engine

It’s been the time since Google App Engine has been released. It is more focused on testing than developing high-end cloud servers and applications. Google and Amazon offer similar stuff, but the pros of GAE is that Google package offers everything in one bundle, unlike Amazon where you have to pay separately for storage or ECC for cloud hosting.

In GAE, developers are limited to Python, though Google has future plans to add multiple cloud programming languages. Google’s BigTable is extremely fast which enables an equally distributed MultiD map, then just simple traditional rows and columns. Syntaxes in GAE are somewhat similar to that of SQL, so it must be easy for SQL developers to migrate to GAE.

Amazon ECC

Amazon ECC asks companies to lease their computers to run their own customized apps. Virtual machines are rented out here on the internet. These virtual machines can be started and stopped as required. It supports Xen virtualization which means it has sizes ranging from 2 GB to 8 GB of memory and up to 900 GB of storage. This thing might change in the future. You can, however, keep yourself up-to-date from the Amazon main web services website. It contains updated links, cloud programming tutorials, and white pages as well.

Conclusion

As of now, I cannot actually emphasize how much detail actually I can go into. There are a lot of things besides the above points that I have mentioned, but I cannot actually note down all of them. In the end, it’s up to you as to what suits you the best. Because no matter how good a language is, it’s actually a waste if the programmer isn’t good enough.

First image source: pixabay.com

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Cloud Computing Features. Here we have discussed the basic concept, how to get started, along with Features and its Existence. You may look at the following articles to learn more –

1. Cloud Computing Security
2. Cloud Computing Application
3. Cloud Computing Challenges
4. Cloud Computing Service Providers