Database Reference
In-Depth Information
can be used to run a company's daily business. Commonly used application software provided by
cloud providers are web-based e-mail, document processing software, multimedia software, web
development software, application development software, and digital games.
Some of the well-known cloud IT organizations have been providing SaaS services for years.
For example, Google is currently providing cloud-based application software such as Google Mail,
Google Doc, Google Cloud Print, and Google Calendar. Google's application software is sup-
ported by Google App Engine.
Microsoft also provides cloud-based applications such as Microsoft Oice 365. In addition to
the web-based oice software such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, Microsoft Oice
365 also includes software for cloud-based e-mail, shared calendars, PC-to-PC calling, video con-
ferencing, and antivirus and antispam ilters.
1.5.2 Platform as a Service
his service provides a web-based application development platform for cloud subscribers. A com-
pany can use this service to design, develop, test, deploy, upgrade, and host web-based applica-
tion software. Application developers can also use this service to form a community to carry out
collaborative work on a project. To support application development, cloud providers provide the
application development environments, which include the necessary IT infrastructure as well as
the software such as server operating systems, databases, middleware, web servers, and project
management tools.
One of the well-known PaaS services is implemented with Microsoft Windows Azure.
Windows Azure provides a cloud computing environment that consists of a large number of
virtual machines. It supports data storage and network infrastructure for application develop-
ment. With Windows Azure, application developers are able to create web-based applications
that are scalable and highly available to customers. To help with the application development,
Microsoft provides the free application development package, Windows Azure SDK. Windows
Azure SDK allows application developers to develop application collaboratively in the cloud
as well as individually on their local computers. For data storage, Windows Azure ofers data
storage service for storing and managing nonrelational data. For applications that require rela-
tional data, Microsoft provides the cloud version of Microsoft SQL Server, Windows Azure SQL
Database. With Windows Azure SQL Database, application developers can handle tasks such as
data storage, data management, data transfer, and data querying. Windows Azure SQL Database
provides almost the same working environment as that of Microsoft SQL Server. Like SQL
Server, Windows Azure SQL Database supports Transact-SQL for programming. hat is why
the Windows Azure SDK includes a version of SQL Server Express for processing relational data.
SQL Server application data accessing tools such as ODBC and ADO.NET are also included in
the Windows Azure SDK.
IBM Blue Cloud provides similar services called IBM SmartCloud Application Services.
IBM Blue Cloud provides the data center and Linux virtual machines to form an environment
for developers to develop, test, and run the distributed applications. Application developers can
share the cloud infrastructure provided by IBM. IBM Blue Cloud can also be used to test the
migration of the existing traditional IT infrastructure to the cloud-based IT infrastructure. he
application lifecycle service provided by IBM PaaS ofers a test-based real-time collaborative
development and deployment environment. With the application lifecycle service, application
developers can collaborate on agile planning, change management, and software coniguration
management. he application resource service ofers a centralized environment that can be
