Introduction to Distributed Cloud

The term "distributed cloud" refers to the delivery of public cloud services to several physical locations while the original public cloud provider is responsible for the services' operation, governance, updates, and evolution.

 

 

Definition of Distributed Cloud

 

The concept "distributed cloud" refers to an innovative approach to define cloud computing. According to it, a distributed cloud is a public cloud architecture that uses a distributed approach to data storage and processing. Simply said, a company that uses scattered cloud computing may store and analyze its data in many data centers located in different areas.

 

With this targeted, coordinated distribution of public cloud services, your business may deploy and run applications or particular application components in a mix of cloud locations and environments that best meet your performance, regulatory compliance, and other requirements. The distributed cloud avoids operational and administrative inconsistencies that may arise in hybrid or multi-cloud environments.

 

A distributed cloud service is essentially a public cloud that operates in several locations, such as

• The infrastructure of a public cloud provider

• End-user locations in the data center or at the edge are considered on-premises.

• In a different cloud provider's data center

• Using third-party hardware or a colocation facility

 

How distributed cloud works?

 

You've definitely heard of distributed computing, which involves deploying application components across several networked computers and communicating with them via messages or APIs in order to improve overall program performance or maximize computing efficiency.

 

Distributed cloud takes things a step further by distributing a public cloud provider's entire compute stack to wherever a customer needs it: on-premises in the customer's own data center or private cloud, or off-premises in one or more public cloud data centers that may or may not be owned by the cloud provider as explained by IBM.

 

The provider's centralized cloud is effectively expanded with regionally scattered micro-cloud satellites in a distributed cloud. All distributed infrastructure operations, updates, governance, security, and reliability are under the authority of the cloud provider. And the user views everything as a single cloud, including centralized cloud services and satellites in any location, and manages everything from a single control plane. 

 

Distributed Cloud Examples

 

1. Intelligent Transport: 

 

Autonomously driven trucks driving in echelon may interpret data from onboard and road sensors locally to maintain a constant speed and separation from other vehicles, all while reporting traffic and engine data back to a central cloud. 

 

A fleet management program on a regional cloud monitors their journey to the destination, analyzing data from many vehicles to establish ideal routes and identify cars needing maintenance.

 

2. Intelligent Caching: 

 

A large over-the-top video service provider employs a centralized cloud to transcode and format videos for various device types provided over multiple networks. It caches material in numerous forms across several CDNs. 

 

It pre-positions material in caches nearest to end-users in anticipation of high demand for a newly launched series in a certain region—for example, storage collocated with cable head ends to serve a home location, or at 5G base stations in congested metropolitan areas for mobile viewing. (source)

 

Benefits of Distributed Cloud Computing

 

1. Cost-effectiveness: One of the most significant advantages of Cloud computing is the ability to save money. You save money not just on infrastructure but also on teams to manage and repair the hardware. Your workers' savings and enhanced bandwidth can be put to better use. 

2. Auto-updates: You are kept up to speed on the newest advancements and modifications, including the software's auto-update. Software integration is also automated, so you don't have to bother about configuring or integrating apps. Furthermore, your remote employees may use cloud services at any time and from any location, increasing their productivity.

3. Quick deployment: With cloud computing, you can launch the service in only a few clicks. The rapidity of service provides for the faster deployment of resources required for the entire procedure.

4. Infinite storage: With the cloud, you always have the option of having unlimited storage, which is one less worry for you. And there's more. It's expandable. You can increase your capacity limit at any moment by paying a small monthly cost.

 

(Must read: Cloud computing platforms)

 

Types of distributed cloud

 

One of the uses of cloud computing technology is distributed cloud, which is used to link data and applications that are served from different geographical locations. 

 

Distributed in the context of information technology refers to something that is shared among numerous systems that may be located in various places. The distributed cloud aids in the acceleration of global service communication while also enabling more responsive communications for any given location. Types of distributed clouds are;

 

1. Public-resource computing

 

This sort of distributed cloud is the outcome of a broad definition of cloud computing since it is more closely connected to distributed computing than cloud computing. This is also seen as a subset of cloud computing.

 

2. Volunteer cloud computing

 

This sort of computing is defined as the meeting point of cloud computing and public-resource computing. A cloud computing infrastructure of this sort is developed utilizing volunteered resources. 

 

However, several issues occur with this form of infrastructure due to the volatility of the resources utilized to develop it and the dynamic environment in which it functions. Peer-to-peer clouds and ad-hoc clouds are other names for it.

 

(Related reading: Public vs private clouds)

 

Distribution cloud vs Edge computing

 

Edge computing, a modern adaption of computing paradigms, is the most current approach for businesses to spread computer resources. Edge topology distributes data processing and service delivery among numerous devices to provide data processing and service delivery near to the data source or computing device. 

 

This closeness to the end-user, whether an employee or a customer using a mobile phone or a store utilizing a point of sale system, is what assures timely and efficient operations.

 

1. Model 

 

A model for distributed systems is distributed computing. A distributed system is a collection of independent computing devices that can communicate with one another. It is a computing approach in which system components are spread over numerous computers yet work together to solve a problem. 

 

Edge computing is a modern adaption of computing models based on a distributed computing architecture that moves data storage and workloads closer to the edge of where data is created and actions are performed.

 

2. Scalability 

 

For greater scalability, edge systems employ the concept of dispersed data storage and processing. The concept is to boost mobile devices' computing capabilities by offloading computationally demanding activities to cloudlets, which are mobile cloud datacenters. 

 

The distributed computing architecture is horizontally scalable, which means that node capacity and hence system functionality may be expanded as each node operates independently, drastically lowering the cost curve of many things. Because the burden is divided over numerous server nodes, the load is also reduced.

 

3. Performance

 

Edge computing environments drastically minimize data traffic to and from the core network by processing data closer to where it is produced rather than in a centralized infrastructure. 

 

By offloading the load to edge devices, there may be a considerable decrease in network congestion, an improvement in application performance and throughput, and, ultimately, a faster response time to end-users. Distributed systems advocate for the spread of tasks that may be transmitted to several machines, resulting in more efficient and dependable systems.

 

4. Security

 

Traditional cloud computing architecture is centralized, which means that the computation is done in the cloud and that all devices and systems sync to a centralized cloud server cluster. Because computing uses a single server to service several clients, the systems are more vulnerable to DDoS assaults and power failures. 

 

Edge computing relies on decentralization, which implies placing processing equipment near to the source of data, making it exceedingly difficult to interrupt the entire network. Because the devices are in various locations, an assault on one system will have no effect on the other systems. (source)

 

 

Conclusion

 

Distributed computing distributes compute effort over several, networked servers; distributed cloud computing extends this concept to the cloud architecture itself. A distributed cloud is an execution environment in which application components are located in geographically separated locations chosen to fulfill the application's needs.

 

Distributed cloud computing extends the traditional, large data center-based cloud model to a set of geographically dispersed distributed cloud infrastructure components.

 

Distributed cloud computing continues to provide on-demand scaling of computing and storage while bringing it closer to where it is needed for better performance.