The opening blogger bluetata’s point of view: PaaS services will definitely be the trend with the highest weight in cloud computing in the next 10 years (05/02/2023 15:32)
Article directory
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- I. Introduction
- 2. Understand cloud computing
- 3. Advantages of Cloud Computing
- 4. Future Development and Challenges of Cloud Computing
- V. Summary
- 6. References
I. Introduction
In the information age, enterprises need to constantly update their technical means to meet the ever-growing business needs. With the acceleration of digital transformation, more and more enterprises have begun to choose cloud computing as the infrastructure for information technology applications to solve the problems of large investment in hardware equipment and difficult management in the past. Cloud computing can not only realize resource sharing and reduce costs, but also improve system availability, elasticity and security. At the same time, cloud computing can also support a variety of applications and services, such as storage, computing, database, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, etc., to help enterprises launch new products, services and business models faster, and realize digital transformation and innovation.
This article will introduce the basic concepts and service models of cloud computing, focus on the advantages and industry application cases of enterprises adopting cloud computing, and discuss the future development trend of cloud computing and its impact on enterprises.
Note: This article was last updated at 3:16 on April 26, 2023, and was finally published on CSDN. Due to the continuous update of information technology and bloggers' understanding of technology in different time periods may be different, this article may be updated at any time. Note the last update time.
2. Understand cloud computing
2.1 What is cloud computing
I have read too many articles about Balabala's introduction, and I have read too many articles and copied them, but if you ask him what cloud computing is, you may not understand it after talking for 3 minutes.
You may see various cloud computing explanations in online articles or ordinary books. Here are two common definitions:
2.1.1 Definition of Cloud Computing on Wikipedia
Cloud computing (English: cloud computing), also translated as network computing, is a computing method based on the Internet. In this way, shared hardware and software resources and information can be provided to various terminals and other devices on demand. Use the computer infrastructure provided by the service provider for computing and resources. (From Wikipedia, click here for the original text )
2.1.2 NIST Standard Cloud Computing Definition
In 2011, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced its definition of cloud computing, which believes that cloud computing is a model that can be ubiquitous, convenient, and on-demand. Networked access to configurable computing resources (such as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that enable rapid deployment and release with minimal administrative cost or service provider intervention. The cloud computing model has five basic features: on-demand self-service, broadband network access, resource concentration, rapid scalability, and measurable services; software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) 3 service modes; 4 deployment modes of private cloud, community cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud.
At present, many articles, newspapers or books use NIST's definition of cloud computing as a standard definition.
Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.
See the references at the end of the article for the PDF document of the NIST cloud computing standard definition
2.1.3 How to explain cloud computing if interviewed
If you need to explain the concept of cloud computing in an interview or to a friend, you should not simply quote the text or provide a link to cloud computing. Instead, you should add your own understanding to better communicate the concept. The following is a passage explained in detail by the blogger, and at the end it also provides a simple conclusion, which is suitable for use in interviews or when communicating with friends:
Cloud computing is a way to provide IT resources through the Internet. It can provide different resources such as computing power, storage space, and network bandwidth according to user needs and usage, and adopts a pay-as-you-go pricing model. In other words, users only need to purchase cloud services according to their own needs, so that computing resources can be flexibly used, and at the same time avoiding the cost of purchasing expensive hardware equipment and maintaining equipment. Therefore, cloud computing has become the mainstream choice for today's enterprise IT infrastructure construction.
What exactly is cloud computing, the blogger here explains in one sentence, cloud computing is: providing IT resources on demand through the Internet and adopting a pay-as-you-go pricing model.
2.2 The development history of cloud computing
According to some relevant information, the blogger has compiled a timeline of some major events in the development process of cloud computing. If you find any problems with the timeline, please private message the blogger or leave a message.
On this timeline, note that in 2002 Amazon launched the Amazon Web Services (AWS) service, also known as AWS. It is also worth noting that in 2003, the Chinese company Yanhuang Yingdong released AWS 2.0, which has the same name as Amazon. The two companies conducted a series of lawsuits over the right to use "AWS". In the end, China Yanhuang Yingdong won the lawsuit, and Amazon could not Rights to Use AWS Trademarks in China. Please find relevant reports by yourself.
In addition, for domestic cloud vendors, I originally wanted to make a detailed timeline, but a lot of data is incomplete, or the official website does not have an accurate time for major events, so it can only be put on hold temporarily. Understood, we can communicate and discuss together.
Timelines of some other mainstream cloud vendors in China (there is a high probability that they are not accurate enough, or accurate, and are for reference only):
- UCloud cloud computing: In 2012, UCloud officially launched cloud computing services.
- China Mobile Cloud: In 2014, China Mobile launched the "Hefeixin Cloud" service, which is the starting point of China Mobile Cloud.
- 2015: JD launched the cloud computing service JD Cloud (JD Cloud), providing IaaS and PaaS services.
- 2016: NetEase launched the cloud computing service NetEase Cloud (NetEase Cloud), providing IaaS and PaaS services.
- 2018: China Telecom launched the cloud computing service Tianyi Cloud (CT Cloud), providing IaaS and PaaS services.
- 2019: China Unicom launched the cloud computing service Woyun (Woyun), providing IaaS and PaaS services.
2.3 Introduction to Cloud Service Model Division
Cloud service models are generally divided into three types: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Usually you can see a diagram of service model division like this:
2.3.1 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
The cloud service of this model is to rent processing, storage, network and other basic computing resources, on which consumers can deploy and run arbitrary software, including operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud computing infrastructure, but has control over the operating system, storage, deployed applications, and possibly select network components (eg, host firewalls).
NIST SP 800-145, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing The original text is as follows:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).
The IaaS model can use kitchen cooking as an example:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): In this model, you want to cook, and you have prepared ingredients (business or application) and various tableware and kitchen utensils (middleware and operating system, etc.), but you need a kitchen, The kitchen needs water, electricity and gas (infrastructure, that is, network, storage and servers, etc.).
In the IaaS service model, users can deploy and run any software, including operating systems and application software, on the infrastructure provided by cloud service providers. Simply put, users use IaaS and have the right to manage all functions on the operating system.
Examples of common IaaS services on cloud platforms :
Our common IaaS services include virtual machines, virtual networks, and Storage storage services. The following are some examples of common IaaS services on cloud platforms, which are convenient for subsequent study or examination identification:
| cloud platform | virtual machine | storage | network | load balancing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | EC2 | S3、EBS | VPC | ELB |
| Azure | VM | Storage Accounts | VNet | Azure Load Balancer |
| Huawei Cloud | ECS/HECS | OBS | VPC | ELB |
| Ali Cloud | ECS | OSS、Alibaba Cloud Disk | VPC | SLB |
2.3.2 Platform as a Service (PaaS)
The cloud service of this model is to deploy the application program created or obtained by the consumer on the cloud infrastructure using the programming language and tools specified by the resource provider. Consumers do not directly manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including networks, servers, operating systems, storage, or even the functionality of individual applications, but can control deployed applications and possibly configure the hosting environment for applications.
NIST SP 800-145, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing The original text is as follows:
Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider.3 The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.
In the PaaS mode, if the kitchen is used for cooking:
In this mode, if you want to cook, you have prepared the ingredients (business or application) and come to the kitchen, you find everything is available, all kinds of tableware and kitchen utensils (middleware and operating system, etc.) Water, electricity and gas (infrastructure, that is, network, storage, servers, etc.) are all ready, you just need to start the pot.
Examples of common PaaS services on cloud platforms :
| cloud platform | database service | message queue service | Serverless service | API management service | other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS | RDS、DynamoDB | SQS、SNS | AWS Lambda | Amazon API Gateway | AWS Elastic Beanstalk |
| Azure | Azure SQL Database | Azure Service Bus | Azure Functions | Azure API Management | Azure App Service |
| Huawei Cloud | GaussDB、RDS | Cloud message KooMessage | FunctionGraph | API Gateway (APIG) | Distributed cache service |
| Ali Cloud | Yaochi database series | MNS | Function Compute | API Gateway (API Gateway) | Container Service |
Note that the above is just a list of more commonly used cloud services, because there are many services that cannot be listed one by one, only representative examples or a few are listed.
2.3.3 Software as a Service (SaaS)
The cloud service of this model is an application program provided by the provider that runs on the cloud infrastructure. These applications can be accessed by various client devices through a thin client interface such as a Web browser (eg, Web-based email). Consumers do not directly manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, including networking, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application functionality, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
NIST SP 800-145, The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing The original text is as follows:
Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure2. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
If the SaaS model uses kitchen cooking as an example:
In this mode, if you want to eat, you don’t need to prepare ingredients (business or application), you don’t need to go to the kitchen, or prepare various tableware and kitchen utensils (middleware and operating system, etc.), and you don’t need to care about the water, electricity and gas in the kitchen (Infrastructure, that is, network, storage and server, etc.), the meal you want will be provided to you, similar to if you order a takeaway, your lunch will be delivered to you.
Examples of common SaaS services:
Enterprise email services on various platforms, Microsoft Dynamics 365, video conferencing software such as Tencent Conference, Zoom, online storage services such as Baidu Netdisk or Dropbox, etc.
A better distinguishing rule is that SaaS services are generally used by subscription
Finally, use a picture (Tw: @jeffbarr) to help you distinguish between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.
2.3.4 Other service models
With the development of cloud technology services, some other services have been slowly derived in recent years, and their granularity is more fine-grained, but these are not standard definitions in the generalized cloud service model. Let's introduce them below.
Gartner divides PaaS into two categories, one is the application deployment and operation platform aPaaS(Application Platform As a Service), and the other is the integration platform iPaaS(Integration Platform As a Service), which will be introduced below.
2.3.4.1 Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS)
aPaaS refers to Application Platform as a Service (Application Platform as a Service), which refers to a cloud service platform based on cloud computing technology that provides a full life cycle of application development, testing, deployment, operation, and maintenance. aPaaS can help developers quickly build applications , eliminating a lot of tedious infrastructure configuration and management work, allowing developers to focus more on the business logic and function implementation of applications. At the same time, aPaaS also provides many basic services and tools, such as database, security management, API management, DevOps tools, etc., allowing developers to complete application development and maintenance more efficiently.
aPaaS is often used to develop and deploy enterprise and mobile applications. Common aPaaS platforms include Heroku, Google App Engine, Salesforce App Cloud, etc. Kaitian aPaaS platform of Huawei Cloud in China, Kingdee UFIDA, etc.
For a detailed introduction to Huawei Cloud Kaitian aPaaS, a separate article will be introduced later.
In fact, the blogger has already published it in the Huawei Cloud community. If you are interested, you can check it out, or wait for the follow-up station C to update it.
2.3.4.2 Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
iPaaS provides the ability to develop, execute and manage integration processes, can connect various local and cloud-based processes, services, applications and data, can be used within a single organization or across multiple organizations, and is used for integration and collaboration PaaS platform. Gartner defines iPaaS as "a set of cloud services that facilitate the development, execution, and management of integration flows with any on-premises (on-premises) and cloud-based processes, services, applications, and in progress". The iPaaS architecture model contains multiple components, which can be divided into three main layers: external (ecological partners), integration (equipment, data), and internal business applications.
Common iPaaS platforms include WeChat Pay, Baidu Maps, Tencent Cloud, and Huawei Cloud's ROMA Connect.
2.3.4.3 Other subdivision service models
According to the service object of PaaS, it can be divided into two categories: 2Dand 2B. 2D refers to To Developer, which serves the enterprise itself and third-party software developers or software developers (ISVs), and 2B refers to serving the IT department or business department of the enterprise.
Here, according to the network information, we summarize the various new terms that appear on the market at this stage, and Gartner’s related specifications to summarize a quadrant diagram ( CSDN original, please indicate the source for reprinting, please correct me if there are any mistakes or questions )
The PaaS of big data vendors is actually iPaaS, while the PaaS of container vendors and IaaS vendors is roughly aPaaS.
2.4 Introduction to Deployment Modes of Cloud Computing
This is not the focus of this article. I will write a separate article to explain it later. Interested students can pay attention to the follow-up articles of this blog.
There are four deployment modes of cloud computing, namely: 1. Private cloud; 2. Community cloud; 3. Public cloud; 4. Hybrid cloud. This is based on the origin of consumers of cloud computing services. Private cloud is built for a specific user/organization, public cloud is built for the public, community cloud is a form between public and private, and hybrid cloud is any of public cloud, private cloud, and community cloud. mix.
2.5 Cloud Computing and Cloud Native
In fact, I am still hesitating whether to write the section 2.5 here, because some friends in the group and some fans often ask me about cloud computing and cloud native, so here is a brief explanation for easy understanding and learning.
2.5.1 Comparison between cloud computing and cloud native
Cloud computing is the on-demand provision of resources, infrastructure and tools by cloud providers . Cloud native, on the other hand, is an approach to building and running software programs using the cloud computing model .
From the above summary, you can see that one is to provide resources, while the other is actually a set of methodologies.
2.5.2 Is Cloud Native Cloud Computing?
Some students may have doubts here. The cloud native I do, such as docker, K8S, etc. are used every day, so I am already using cloud computing. The blogger personally feels that it is definitely not cloud computing in a narrow sense, because I have clarified the concept in 2.5.1, but in a broad sense, if you do cloud native, you are an important link in the middle of participating in cloud computing. Now each cloud vendor has its own cloud native applications such as containerized services , when you use it, you must be participating in the cloud computing process. Also see the picture below.
3. Advantages of Cloud Computing
Why did we choose cloud computing? Compared with traditional local deployment, cloud computing has the following eight main advantages, which can help us reduce the pressure on IT and focus on business development.
Just imagine, if you are the owner of a restaurant, because the business is good, you want to build a brand chain store, so you need to build a brand website. If it is a traditional deployment, then you need to buy a computer server and pull a network cable. Find a development company to help develop the website, and then you will manage and control your own brand website, and you may even need to hire an additional person to operate and maintain the hardware. Obviously, these are not what you want to pay attention to as a boss. So the advantages of cloud computing are reflected here.
To sum up the key points of the advantages of cloud computing:
- high availability
- agility
- scalability
- elasticity
- Full rest coverage
- low latency
- fault tolerance
- predictable cost
4. Future Development and Challenges of Cloud Computing
影响未来社会二十年发展，核心技术趋势由ABCD四个字母组成，
分别是AI（人工智能）、BlockChain（区块链）、Cloud（云）、和 Data（大数据）。
Presumably you have heard the above passage more or less, ABCD will be the trend of future technological development. The popularity of ChatGPT at this point in time has led AIGC to continue to make technological leaps. What will be the future development trend of cloud computing?
Before starting to describe the development trend of cloud computing in the future at the current point in time, let’s take a look at the development trend of cloud computing predicted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences more than ten years ago (in 2011). Click here for the original text link, and click here for the web page archive :
It can be seen from the article that more than ten years ago, the author of this article has already encountered the development trend of cloud computing 10 years later, and from the several cloud computing trends expressed by the author, we have already seen some of them. It has already been realized, and even started to transition to the next stage. For example, IaaS has the strongest standardization demand, followed by PaaS. It can be seen that IaaS has basically tended to standardization at this stage, and cloud platforms and infrastructure vendors have highly cooperated to improve IaaS. It has blossomed.
4.1 Multi-cloud Trend
In fact, in section 2.5 of the article, bloggers have already written about cloud native and cloud computing. One of the big reasons why cloud native is getting more and more attention at this stage is that enterprises do not want to be kidnapped by big cloud platforms. I have the right to choose independently, or in other words, enterprises can choose A cloud platform today, and I can choose B cloud platform or even a multi-cloud platform when I need it tomorrow. With cloud native, this problem is greatly solved.
The blogger believes that the multi-cloud architecture will be a trend , or that the multi-cloud architecture will develop to a perfect point. With the growth of the cloud computing market, enterprises will be more and more inclined to adopt multi-cloud strategies, so that enterprises can maximize resource utilization. and flexibility.
4.2 Large and small factories and industry trends
Just a few days ago, on April 25, 2023, Mobile Cloud held a mobile cloud conference with thousands of people participating in the "Cloud Drives the Future, Wisdom and Trust the World". After the conference, I watched the replay several times.
It is foreseeable that large domestic manufacturers will inevitably have their own cloud computing platforms, and finally sprint to seize the future cloud market. For small and medium-sized enterprises , they will inevitably be attached to these large cloud manufacturers, no matter in technology or industry. In the end, we will build PaaS services in line with market development with large cloud vendors, and finally achieve win-win cooperation.
4.3 Future Development Trend of PaaS Service
In the 2022 Alibaba financial report, Alibaba Group's expenditures in the business form supported by PaaS accounted for 43% of the total cloud cost.
Another point is that this article focuses on PaaS services. Bloggers and other bigwigs generally believe that PaaS will be the focus of inevitable development in the future . PaaS services will be more granular and virtualizable services will be more advanced. This conjecture can be seen from Gartner's data. There are now many market segments for PaaS services, and the market is growing rapidly.
| Market segments | The main function | market share |
|---|---|---|
| aPaaS | Application platform as a service, providing development SDK and application operating environment. At present, most PaaS platforms in China are aPaaS platforms | 35% |
| iPaaS | Integration platform as a service can combine local and cloud-based processes, services, applications and data within a single or multiple companies, and can develop, execute and manage the integration flow between these combinations. | 14% |
| almPaaS | Provides a lightweight MVC Java programming framework, various metadata modeling and engine services to simplify application development. | 11% |
| bpmPaaS | Provide business process management development environment. | 10% |
| Cloud Application Security Services | Cloud application security development environment | 9% |
| Cloud MFT Services | Provides a managed file transfer development environment | 6% |
| BAPaaS | Provide business analysis and development environment | 4% |
| DBPaaS | Provide database platform development environment | 4% |
| Cloud Application Services Governance | Cloud Application Service Management | 3% |
| Cloud MOM Services | Provide message-oriented middleware management development services | 2% |
| Portal PaaS | Provide Internet portal and portal system development environment for enterprise application systems | 2% |
4.4 The rise of AI drives AI-related cloud industry services
The rise of AI will drive more PaaS services . It can be seen from the early deployment of ChatGPT by Microsoft that many major manufacturers have already begun to deploy in the AI field. Not long after the release of ChatGPT3, Microsoft quickly embedded OpenAI services in its own Azure. In and in the Microsoft family bucket. In addition, some students should have felt the activity of AWS's SageMaker and Huawei's ModelArts during this period of time.
4.5 Approaching the Camps of PaaS Service Vendors
At present, there are many participants in the domestic PaaS market, and five manufacturers have formed camps: First, aPaaS manufacturers , such as Yanhuang Yingdong AWS PaaS, Huawei Cloud Kaitian aPaaS, the main features are low-code or development framework as the core, providing cloud-based Rapid development environment; the second is iPaaS vendors , such as Tencent Cloud, whose main feature is to integrate and manage existing platforms centered on opening up the system; the third is IaaS+ vendors, such as Alibaba Cloud, whose main feature is to tend to the underlying infrastructure services of IaaS; The fourth is IoT PaaS vendors , such as H3C Oasis IoT Platform, which is mainly characterized by various cross-platform IoT applications; the fifth is AI PaaS vendors , such as SenseTime, whose main features are algorithms, vertical expansion, horizontal expansion, and high availability. It has high compatibility with environment migration and other aspects.
4.6 Trends and Challenges of Enterprises Going to the Cloud
It has become an irreversible trend for enterprises to go to the cloud, and more and more enterprises are paying attention to cloud computing because it brings many benefits. However, for enterprises that have not yet migrated to the cloud, migrating to the cloud also faces some challenges. First, you need to consider how your business or product will transition to a cloud platform, and which cloud platform to choose (public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud). This is a question that needs to be carefully weighed.
On the other hand, for enterprises that have already migrated to the cloud, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency is an eternal theme. This includes optimizing cloud computing spending as well as architectures that are already in the cloud. Therefore, how to optimize the cloud-enabled architecture while ensuring performance and reliability is a very important challenge.
V. Summary
This article mainly introduces the basic concept and development history of cloud computing, including the division of cloud service model and deployment mode, and the relationship between cloud computing and cloud native. At the same time, the article also discusses the advantages of cloud computing, such as high availability, elastic expansion, and rapid deployment, as well as the future trends and challenges of cloud computing development, including multi-cloud trends, PaaS services, and the development of AI technology.
Generally speaking, cloud computing, as an emerging computing model, has gradually become the new darling of various industries. Through cloud computing, enterprises can deploy resources such as IT infrastructure and application software on the cloud platform to achieve efficient, flexible and secure operations. In the future, with the rise of AI technology and the acceleration of the multi-cloud trend, cloud computing will have a wider range of application scenarios. At the same time, manufacturers and users will need to work together to solve issues such as security and data privacy.
6. References
https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/The-history-of-cloud-computing-explained
https://simplycoding.in/cloud-computing/
https://www.qianzhan.com/analyst/detail/220/220906-13c574b1.html
https://aws.amazon.com/cn/what-is/cloud-native/
https://www.c114.com.cn/live/t578.html
https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/legacy/sp/nistspecialpublication800-145.pdf
https://blog.kintone.com/business-with-heart/difference-saas-iaas-paas-apaas-hpapaas