On-Premise and On-demand Computing

Today ,we all need computing and our computing needs can be met by two different approaches.

On-premise Computing 

The first and traditional approach is called on-premise computing. In this approach individuals or institutions determine their computing needs, procure required hardware and software, install and run on the computers located on the premise- personal office or company building. Until very recently , up to 2005, the on-premises approach to deploying and using business software was the most common. 

 

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On-demand Computing

The second approach for meeting computing needs is called on-demand wherein user can access computing resources directly from remote location via Internet. In the early days, only software was available on-demand and was called hosted service.   Today this mode of availing resource is called cloud computing. In this cloud computing on-demand computing user can access all types of computing resources- hardware, software, tools and more directly the service providers.

Cloud Computing Deployment Models-1: Private Cloud

Cloud Computing or clouds can be used for different purposes by different organizations. Enterprise can host  and employ cloud  depending on its business model. The tendency is cloud deployment is to start from private cloud to provide internal solutions to manage local infrastructure and the amount of requests to ensure availability of highly requested data. This is due to the fact that data centers initiating cloud capabilities made use of these features for internal purposes before consider selling the capabilities publicly. Only recently the provides have gained confidence in publication and exposition of cloud features to outsiders. This movement from private via public to combined solutions is often considered a "natural" evolution of clouds. Here is the first kind of cloud deployment: Private Cloud

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Private clouds are typically owned by the respective enterprise and or leased. Functionalities are not directly exposed to the customer. However, often in some cases services within cloud enhanced features may be offered .   

Cloud Computing Role 5: Tool Providers

Cloud Tools providers don't actually provide cloud capabilities, instead provide supporting tools such as programming environments, virtual machine management and more. Vendors introduced cloud-related products and services in 2012 are aimed at helping organizations move to the cloud or designed to help them expand their cloud capabilities.

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Cloud Computing Roles 4: Consumers and Users

Cloud Computing consumers or users make direct use of the cloud capabilities - cloud services or systems- as opposed to cloud re-sellers and cloud adopters.  

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The purpose of users is not to improve the services and capabilities they offer, but to make use of services as they are. These service may include - execution of complex computations or to host a flexible data set. In general a cloud user consumes a service as it is without adding any value to it. However the future developments may enable the user to become provider and consumer at the same time- a phenomenon usually called "prosumer" 

Cloud Computing Roles-3: Cloud Adopters or Service/Software Vendors

Cloud Adopters or cloud service or cloud software vendors enhance  their own services and capabilities by exploiting cloud platforms from cloud providers  or cloud re-sellers . This enables them to provide dynamic services that can scale. This is particular for new business entries who can not estimate the uptake/demand of their services as yet. The cloud enhanced services thus effectively become Software as a Service ( SaaS) providers.

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Cloud Computing Roles-2: Aggregators or resllers

In cloud computing environment individual roles can identified similar to the typical role assignment inservice oriented architecture(SOA) or in particular in business oriented organization such as database management roles. The roles relate strongly to the individual business models and it is imperative to have a clear distinction of the typical roles involved in order to ensure common understanding.  Here is the Second Role

Cloud Aggregators or resellers

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Cloud Aggregators or resellers aggregate cloud platform from cloud providers  to either provide a larger resource infrastructure to their customers or to provide enhanced features. This often relates to community clouds in so far as the cloud aggregator may expose a single interface to a merged cloud infrastructure. They would compare the economic benefits of global cloud infrastructures with understanding of local customers needs by providing highly customized, enhanced offerings to local companies and world class applications to global customers. 

Cloud Computing Roles-1: Providers

In cloud computing environment individual roles can identified similar to the typical role assignment in service oriented architecture(SOA) or in particular in business oriented organization such as database management roles. The roles relate strongly to the individual business models and it is imperative to have a clear distinction of the typical roles involved in order to ensure common understanding.  Here is the first role.

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Cloud Providers: offer cloud to the customer. The clouds are offered either via dedicated APIs (PaaS), virtual machines and / or direct access to the computing resources ( IaaS). It may be noted that hosts of cloud enhanced services ( SaaS)  are typically considered as service providers, although some consider them as cloud providers.