Cloud Computing for Enterprise Architectures: Concepts, Principles and Approaches

Abstract

Cloud Computing is the latest paradigm that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet, based on a pay-as-you-go approach. It allows for provision of a variety of business and customer services. Consumers, especially the business organizations, can extend their existing computing provision and easily scale up Information Technology (IT) facilities by consuming services available in the Cloud. There are generally three varieties of services, namely, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and four types of deployment approaches, viz., Private Clouds, Public Clouds, Community Clouds and Hybrid Clouds. Enterprises, who have implemented appropriate Enterprise Architectures (EA), can scale up their ‘technical architectures’ by integrating the existing infrastructure with the PaaS and IaaS provisions. Similarly, they can extend ‘information and application architectures’ by utilizing the PaaS and SaaS offerings. Thus, Cloud Computing can provide a useful extension to existing EAs, on demand and without the additional capital investment. This chapter discusses the Cloud and EA concepts, principles, technologies, deployment approaches and associated frameworks. It provides a basic overview and sets the background for the rest of the chapters in this book.Cloud Computing is the latest paradigm that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet, based on a pay-as-you-go approach. It allows for provision of a variety of business and customer services. Consumers, especially the business organizations, can extend their existing computing provision and easily scale up Information Technology (IT) facilities by consuming services available in the Cloud. There are generally three varieties of services, namely, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and four types of deployment approaches, viz., Private Clouds, Public Clouds, Community Clouds and Hybrid Clouds. Enterprises, who have implemented appropriate Enterprise Architectures (EA), can scale up their ‘technical architectures’ by integrating the existing infrastructure with the PaaS and IaaS provisions. Similarly, they can extend ‘information and application architectures’ by utilizing the PaaS and SaaS offerings. Thus, Cloud Computing can provide a useful extension to existing EAs, on demand and without the additional capital investment. This chapter discusses the Cloud and EA concepts, principles, technologies, deployment approaches and associated frameworks. It provides a basic overview and sets the background for the rest of the chapters in this book.