Table of Contents
What exactly is cloud infrastructure?
Cloud infrastructure refers to the hardware and software components that support the computational requirements of a cloud computing model, such as servers, storage, networking, virtualization software, services, and management tools.
An abstraction layer is also included in cloud infrastructure, which virtualizes and logically displays resources and services to users via application programming interfaces and API-enabled command-line or graphical interfaces.
What role does cloud infrastructure play in cloud computing?
The tasks and characteristics of such hardware and software components are disaggregated in cloud infrastructure, which enables cloud computing. The virtualized resources are then hosted by a cloud service provider – or, in the case of private cloud, an information technology (IT) department – and delivered to users through the internet or a network. Virtual machines (VMs) and components such as servers, memory, network switches, firewalls, load balancers, and storage are examples of these resources. These resources frequently support extensive and task-specific services, such as AI and machine learning.
What components make up a cloud infrastructure?
Cloud infrastructure in a cloud computing architecture refers to the back-end technology aspects found in most enterprise data centers — servers, persistent storage, and networking equipment — but on a much larger scale. Some large cloud providers, including hyperscale cloud companies like Facebook and LinkedIn, form partnerships with vendors to create custom infrastructure components that are optimized for specific needs like power efficiency or workloads that include big data analytics.
Servers
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform are examples of major public cloud providers that deliver services based on shared, multi-tenant servers. To handle unpredictable fluctuations in user demand and to properly balance demand across fewer servers, this strategy necessitates huge computing capacity. As a result, cloud infrastructure is often composed of high-density systems with shared power; these are frequently multi-socket and multicore servers.
Storage
Furthermore, unlike most traditional data center infrastructures, cloud infrastructure typically employs locally attached storage – both SSDs and HDDs – rather than shared disc arrays on a storage area network. These persistent storage systems are combined by utilizing a distributed file system (DFS) tailored to a certain storage scenario, such as an object, large data, or block storage. Scaling is made easier by decoupling storage control and management from the physical infrastructure using a distributed file system. It also assists cloud providers in matching capacity to user workloads by slowly adding compute nodes with the required number and kind of local discs, rather than in bulk via a huge storage chassis.
Networking
Because cloud computing requires high-bandwidth access to transport data, cloud infrastructure comprises standard local area networks equipment such as switches and routers, as well as virtual networking support and load balancing to spread network traffic.
Architectures of public, private, and hybrid clouds
Each of the three basic cloud computing deployment methods, private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud, includes cloud infrastructure.
The private cloud
A private cloud is one in which an organization constructs and owns the cloud infrastructure components and houses them in its data center. This is a single-tenant environment, which means that the organization is the sole user of the dedicated infrastructure and services.
The public cloud
A third-party public cloud provider owns the cloud infrastructure components in a public cloud architecture, and these resources are shared among clients in multi-tenant situations. Customers pay for services and capabilities based on essential infrastructure resources like CPU cycles, storage, bandwidth, and so on, as well as higher-level services, but they do not control or manage those underlying resources. Cloud providers often sell these services on a per-minute or hour basis, with long-term contracts.
Cloud hybrid
A hybrid cloud combines both concepts to create a single logical cloud for the user. A company can use a private cloud to run specific workloads or sensitive applications, as well as host private sensitive data while running other apps and data in a public cloud. To give flexibility for private cloud use, public cloud resources can also be used to accommodate bursts or spikes in demand. A multi-cloud model is similar in that a company uses numerous cloud providers. This could include running services concurrently for resiliency or migrating apps between providers.
A hybrid cloud combines both concepts to create a single logical cloud for the user. A company can use a private cloud to run specific workloads or sensitive applications, as well as host private sensitive data while running other apps and data in a public cloud. To give flexibility for private cloud use, public cloud resources can also be used to accommodate bursts or spikes in demand.
A multi-cloud model is similar in that a company uses numerous cloud providers. This could include running services concurrently for resiliency or migrating apps between providers.
Cloud design vs. cloud infrastructure
Cloud architecture is the blueprint for a massively scalable cloud ecosystem of components and services from which a provider can offer a wide range of cloud services. These are delivered through isolated locations known as availability zones, each with multiple physically connected data centers.
Cloud infrastructure is the physical manifestation of those plans: hardware, operating systems, and virtual resources that supply computation, storage, networking, and middleware services. The abstracted capabilities of these physical resources are provided as services that can readily scale to fit individual customers’ workloads in public clouds.
