Modern Enterprise — Application Components & Hosting Models
In Today’s context, the enterprise has to deal with the challenges of governing the hybrid and poly cloud ecosystem. The cloud technology has enabled the IT software providers to offer a different variety of hosting and business models for consumption.
The key components of the technology,
Applications: Solutions to a specific business problem and targeted users (Ex: Mail, Salesforce automation, Online websites, and banking mobile apps)
Platforms: A solution for a common problem that provides the reusable components and services that can be leveraged (Ex: SharePoint, Big data and Low code platforms)
Runtime: Machine independent programming and execution environment which provides API to access the basic functions (Ex: .NET, Java, etc.)
Operating System: Software that runs on the hardware and provides the interface to manage the different devices & services (Ex: Windows, Linux, Android, etc.)
Virtualization: Logical computation, storage units, and software-enabled networks (Ex: vCPUs, cloud storage, Limited bandwidth, etc.)
Infrastructure: Physical computation, storage racks, and network wiring between the devices (Ex: Processors, RAID storage, Security appliances, etc.)
The models of the software services are,
On-Premise: Applications can be a custom developed or off the shelf products that are set up and installed on the customer network. The customer is responsible for the entire stack from infrastructure to the application. It gives better security and control over the environment but works out expensive.
Cloud IaaS: Cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure, Rackspace, etc bring the virtualized & dedicated computation & storage engines for the customers. It takes away the need to manage hardware life cycle management and network complexities between the data centers by the customers.
Example: Virtual Machines, storage from AWS, Azure, and Google
Cloud PaaS: Some of the cloud service providers also provide the managed operating systems and runtime to host the applications for the customers. The customers are responsible for the application code and components deployed in the cloud environment.
Example: Azure App Services, Google Containers, etc
Software PaaS: Software provides offer the reusable platforms for the customers, which they can customize for the respective business functions. The common features such as authentication, access control, integration, security, etc are managed by the Software PaaS providers.
Example: Pega, SharePoint, and Office 365 tools
Software As a Service (SaaS): A pointed software solution, which solves a particular business problem. It brings with all the predefined domain-related features & capabilities, which business can directly consume with a little customization.
Example: Workday, Emails, and Salesforce automation
