Techopedia explains Public Cloud Storage

Public cloud storage generally enables the sourcing of massive amounts of storage space on demand over the Internet, and is built over storage virtualization, which logically distributes large storage arrays into a multi-tenant architecture shared among various users and applications. Public cloud storage capacity is made possible through two different sourcing models:

• Web services APIs
• Thin client applications

Public cloud storage enabled through APIs is designed to be used for Web applications that require access to scalable storage at run time, whereas thin client applications provide end users with a way to back up and store their local data on remote cloud storage. Amazon S3, Mezeo and Windows Azure are popular examples of public cloud storage.

Definition - What does Public Cloud Storage mean?

Public cloud storage is a cloud storage model that enables individuals and organizations alike to store, edit and manage data. This type of storage exists on a remote cloud server and is accessible over the Internet under a subscription-based utility billing method where the users pay only for the storage capacity being used.

Public cloud storage is provided by a storage service provider that hosts, manages and sources the storage infrastructure publicly to many different users.

Public cloud storage service is also known as storage as a service, utility storage and online storage.

Techopedia explains Managed Cloud Hosting

Managed cloud hosting includes the safety and dependability of private cloud hosting but is as cost effective as a public cloud.

Advantages of managed cloud hosting are as follows:

• Consistent availability: Designed on a high availability and private-cloud structure, it uses effective redundancy via its various servers, storage area network (SAN) and storage protection for reliable failover protection.
• Automated resource balancing and failover: If a host stops working, cloud servers are at an advantages due to their consistently available infrastructure. Failover and resource balancing between hardware hosts is automatically managed at the virtualization level, and it has the capability to manage and update software and hardware.
• Network security: Virtual local area networks (VLAN), protected firewalls and Intrusion Detection System (IDS)/Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) may be used in cloud servers to deliver a highly protected environment.
• Creates a hybrid of virtual and physical servers: Applications and database engines can share a dedicated network with cloud servers, resulting in the creation of virtual and physical servers on the same system.
• Affordable: The costs of a managed cloud are as effective as most public clouds. The resources and also the services are billed per usage.

Managed cloud computing offers organizations the same security and provisions of a dedicated private cloud with a better and more cost-effective package. Organizations that use managed cloud computing can focus on business operations, rather than addressing server glitches and downtime.

Definition - What does Managed Cloud Hosting mean?

Managed cloud hosting is a process in which organizations share and access resources, including databases, hardware and software tools, across a remote network via multiple servers in another location.

In managed cloud hosting, servers are purchased in slices or as a virtual server. However, before considering costs, the key focus of managed cloud hosting is on security and consistent availability. In contrast to servers that are acquired on an hourly basis, managed cloud hosting is delivered in the form of monthly (or longer) contracts for businesses, which run enterprise-critical apps over long periods.

Managed cloud hosting is also known as managed cloud computing.

Why Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC)?

Mobile devices face many resource challenges such as battery life, storage and bandwidth. Mobile Cloud Computing offers advantages to users by allowing them to utilize infrastructure, platforms and software by cloud providers at low cost and elastically in an on-demand fashion. Mobile cloud computing provides mobile users with data storage and processing services in the cloud, eliminating the need to have a powerful device configuration (e.g. CPU speed, memory capacity etc.), as all resource-intensive computing can be performed within the cloud.

MCC Architecture

Advantages of MCC

• Mobile applications leverage remote processing, extending battery lifetime
• MCC enables mobile users to store and access large data on the cloud. Mobile applications are no longer constrained by the storage capacity of the device.
• Keeping data and applications in the cloud reduces the potential for loss of data in the event of a hardware failure, improving reliability and availability
• MCC can be designed with a comprehensive data security model for both service providers and users by allowing protected copyrighted digital contents in the cloud. MCC providers have security services in place such as virus scanning, malicious code detection and authentication for mobile users
• The data and services in the cloud are always available even when the users are moving from place to place
• Sharing data in the Cloud provides the user with access to the latest documentation even while ‘on the go’
• Mobile applications can be scaled to meet the growing user demands
• Service providers can easily add and expand their service offerings
• Multiple services from different providers can be integrated easily through the cloud to meet today’s complex user demands

Mobile Cloud Computing: Architectures, Algorithms and Applications

Features

• Provides the first book on the field of MCC
• Introduces sensor MCC, vehicular MCC, and femtocell-based MCC
• Addresses security and privacy concerns, the business aspects of MCC models, and resource allocation and management schemes
• Explores open research problems and future research directions to improve the strength of MCC and enrich mobile user experience
• Offers code for various algorithms on the book’s CRC Press web page

Summary

Minimize Power Consumption and Enhance User Experience

Essential for high-speed fifth-generation mobile networks, mobile cloud computing (MCC) integrates the power of cloud data centers with the portability of mobile computing devices. Mobile Cloud Computing: Architectures, Algorithms and Applications covers the latest technological and architectural advances in MCC. It also shows how MCC is used in health monitoring, gaming, learning, and commerce.

The book examines computation within a mobile device; the evolution, architecture, and applications of cloud computing; the integration of mobile computing and cloud computing; offloading strategies that address constraints such as poor battery life; and green technologies to optimize mobile power consumption. It also presents various resource allocation schemes of MCC, the architecture and applications of sensor MCC, the new concept of mobile social cloud, security and privacy issues in MCC, and different types of trust in MCC.

In addition, the book explains how to integrate MCC with vehicular networks, compares economic models, and explores the application of MCC to mobile learning, vehicle monitoring, digital forensic analysis, health monitoring, and other areas. The book concludes with a discussion of possible solutions to challenges such as energy efficiency, latency minimization, efficient resource management, billing, and security.

Mobile Cloud Applications

A mobile cloud application is a software program that is designed to be accessed over the Internet by many types of portable computing devices.

Mobile cloud apps and mobile Web apps are similar. They both run on servers external to the mobile device, they both store data externally and they are both accessed over the Internet with a browser. However, it is often said that while all cloud apps are Web apps -- not all Web apps are cloud apps. Simply put, not all mobile Web apps can run in a virtual environmentwithout being re-engineered. This is because a Web app may have originally been written to run and store data on a dedicated physical server in a data center. A cloud app, on the other hand, will always be written to live on virtual servers in a distributed, multi-tenant architecture and store data in the cloud.