Composition of the cloud
1. Composition of the cloud
Thanks to the cloud, we can now interact with data pretty much anywhere and at any time, whether it's checking the weather to see if I need a sweater, or streaming my favorite podcast. It may seem like magic, but storing all that data —and keeping it organized— takes infrastructure. Of course, data existed and needed to be stored before the cloud, so let's check out where we started before learning where we're going. Before the cloud, organizations kept their data in large physical infrastructures, usually on-premises. On-premises —or “on prem” as we say in the industry— describes information technology infrastructure that’s physically located in an organization’s own data center or office. This means the organization manages their own servers, networks, and storage to run and store data. Now, the cloud uses these physical structures to run. All of the information it holds is hosted by a cloud service provider, also known as a CSP. And these providers store cloud resources in data centers. A data center is a physical building that stores servers, computer systems, and associated components creating a centralized location for vast amounts of data. The servers within data centers provide computing power to the cloud. Cables connect the machines, which then link up to other data centers in the area. This is called a zone. A zone is the collective number of data centers in an area. A zone may contain one data center or multiple data centers. And a region is a group of zones. Google Cloud has many regions across the globe, and it’s always growing! Google Cloud refers to the grouping of zones and regions as failure domains. A failure domain is a resource that can fail without impacting the availability of data. Failure domains can include zones and regions where data is replicated to improve resiliency. Resiliency is the ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptions. Having data across failure domains is one way that cloud service providers safeguard user data. Let’s use an example. Let’s say you’re a cloud cybersecurity professional and your organization uses cloud resources in a zone on the coast of Australia. You’re in the middle of work one day, when there’s a power outage to the data center in your zone. It’s all okay, though. Your work is safe because you’ve selected services from your CSP that replicate your resources across other failure domains. The practice of having multiple copies of data in different locations to avoid a single point of failure is referred to as redundancy. Redundancy ensures your data is available when you need it. All right, now you know where data is kept in the cloud. But how is data stored? And more importantly, how fast can you access the stored data? With such an incredible amount of information being generated every single second, quick access is essential. This concept is called latency. Latency is the time it takes for data to travel from one location to another. This can be from a user’s device to a cloud server or between cloud servers. For example, when you’re on a website, the lower the latency, the faster the web page loads. And research shows that 53% of users will leave web pages that don’t load within three seconds. I am definitely in that 53%, for the record. So, CSPs strive to provide low latency to users. Latency, redundancy, and the cloud’s underlying infrastructure have the potential to significantly improve an organization’s commitment to their users. In fact, these benefits contribute to an organization’s digital transformation journey. Digital transformation is when an organization modernizes their applications, services, and customer relationships by using new technologies. The cloud’s ability to scale and globally replicate data enables an organization to provide a better user experience to not only their employees, but also their customers. As a cloud security professional, it will be really important to understand how cloud infrastructure works. With your knowledge of these core cloud components, your cloud learning journey is underway! No latency here!2. Let's practice!
Create Your Free Account
or
By continuing, you accept our Terms of Use, our Privacy Policy and that your data is stored in the USA.