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Summary

13.1 Hybrid Multicloud Solutions and Cloud Mashups

  • Hybrid cloud solutions provide a way for businesses to transform their infrastructure without putting all their resources and data into the cloud by allowing the coexistence and management between on-premises systems and cloud services. This solution provides a way for the business to keep some infrastructure and data on premise and enjoy the scalability that cloud computing provides.
  • Multicloud solutions allow businesses to connect and explore with multiple cloud vendors at once. This solution provides flexibility for the business to select the best service on every cloud provider and only use the most cost-effective component in their infrastructure.
  • Cloud mashup web-based application architecture allows a business to use different components coming from the multiple cloud providers in their application.
  • Future cloud applications aim to deploy and manage applications at the mobile and network edge to maximize performance and reduce latency. This advancement will be a big stepping stone to enhancing user experience for IoT and other real-time data-collecting services.

13.2 Big Cloud IaaS Mainstream Capabilities

  • Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provides a pay-as-you-go pricing model and allows users to take advantage of cloud servers by virtually managing data and servers for their applications.
  • Storage service provides elastic storage services that allow users and applications to read, write, and access as needed. Common components that may require storage access are analytical data, logging information, application data, images, and videos. Three common types of storage services that all cloud providers provide include file, object, and block storage.
  • Compute services provide users with access to a private computing environment to develop or run tasks that they cannot run in their local environment. Common compute services include virtual compute service, spot/not urgent compute service, and virtual functional and serverless compute service.
  • Content delivery network (CDN) is the network of servers and networking infrastructure across the globe that allows fast access from any place in the world into the network. Two common web and mobile cloud components are secret and configuration management and logging and monitoring management.
  • Container technology encapsulates an application with any operating system library required for it to operate. With containers, developers are not concerned about environmental mismatches between the environment where the application was developed and the environment where the application runs.
  • Kubernetes (K8S) service is the most popular container orchestration system. The K8S environment is one of the key systems for running a hybrid cloud environment, where users can run applications from both their local and cloud environments.
  • Data management systems are the heart of applications. However, managing a database is usually difficult with oversized and complex data. To address this, most cloud providers provide several managed database services.

13.3 Big Cloud PaaS Mainstream Capabilities

  • Platform as a service (PaaS) is an option for organizations that need the features in IaaS plus a platform to develop, test, and launch applications.
  • IoT network traffic falls broadly into two categories—telemetry and telecommand. Telemetry aggregates data generated by sensors and devices and sends them to a server. Telecommand sends commands across a network to control devices or sensors. To serve the purpose of IoT, several application-layer protocols have been developed, such as MQTT, AMQP, CoAP, XMPP, and STOMP. This was necessary because application layer protocols, such as HTTP, are not suitable for IoT telemetry and telecommand applications.
  • IoT services provided by big cloud vendors include both shallow machine learning, which has few layers of neurons, as well as deep machine learning, which has many neuron layers. Big data analytics is important to help organizations with decision-making processes. Big data analytics requires shallow machine learning services. Tools for big data analytics include Hadoop or Spark stacks, which are machine learning libraries with algorithms and functions to develop machine learning models and machine learning tools.
  • For deep learning, cloud vendors provide services in the form of programming frameworks that help implement deep learning applications using differentiable programming.
  • Blockchains use a distributed ledger system to store data and transactions in an open-source database. With blockchain 2.0, developers have a mechanism that allows programmable transactions, which are modified by a condition or set of conditions. Blockchain uses open-source frameworks that enable you to build applications that allow multiple parties to securely and transparently run transactions and share data without using a trusted central authority.
  • Virtual reality (VR) enables a computer-generated, interactive, 3-D environment in which a user is immersed. Augmented reality (AR) supplements the real world with virtual (computer-generated) objects that appear to coexist in the same space as the real world. The key distinction between VR and AR is that VR is meant to immerse the user in a virtual environment, while AR introduces virtual elements into the real world.
  • Microsoft Azure offers various PaaS services relating the extended reality applications, including Azure storage services that may be used to store 3-D models, Azure Remote Rendering (ARR), Azure Object Anchors (AOA), Azure Spatial Anchors (ASA), Azure (cognitive) Speech Service, and Azure (cognitive) Vision Service. Google and other vendors, such as Amazon, also offer such services.
  • 3-D printing, formally known as additive manufacturing, is used to design static objects in three dimensions through additive processes in which successive layers of material are laid down under computer control. Various cloud vendors are making 3-D printing technology available on the cloud today. 4-D printing adds the capability of programming the fundamental materials used in 3-D printing. It creates objects with dynamics and performance capabilities that can change their form or function after fabrication. These objects can be assembled, disassembled, and then reassembled to form macroscale objects of desired shape and multifunctionality.
  • Various application development support capabilities are provided as PaaS services on the big clouds. These services may improve the management and operation of cloud applications. Services provided include integration management, identity and security management, application life cycle management, monitoring, and management and governance.

13.4 Towards Intelligent Autonomous Networked Super Systems

  • Intelligent autonomous networked supersystems (IANS) of highly connected AIs are becoming the next major development for chained computing, where intelligent chains of autonomous machines work together as a system to make decisions and take actions.
  • The metaverse is persistent, with its collective network of 3-D-rendered virtual elements and spaces available throughout the world, and it is shared, giving a vast number of users simultaneous access.
  • With unlimited possible applications to promote social good, 3-D Mixed reality technology includes technology such as one that alerts people who are blind when rapidly moving objects are headed in their direction.
  • Usability, accessibility, and inclusion, along with human-computer interaction (HCI) are important issues as standards and guidelines are updated to support the metaverse.
  • Supersociety applications replace humans in certain mechanical activities and allow them to focus on activities that machines are not able to perform on their behalf.
  • Neuroinformatics strives to build a computer that can mimic brain functions, handling ambiguity as well as uncertainty.
  • Cognitive robotics aims to replace humans in dangerous environments and manufacturing processes or resemble humans in cognition, enabling robots to do jobs that are hazardous to people.
  • A quantum computer can perform calculations by following quantum mechanics laws.
  • Intelligent autonomous networked systems (IANS) are positioned to leverage supersociety capabilities such as nanotechnology, robotics, and supercomputing, but limitations on artificial generalized intelligence have made practical applications difficult.
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