Data Analytics

1. UNIT II
Online Data Storage
Online data storage is a virtual storage approach that allows users to use the Internet to store recorded
data in a remote network. This data storage method may be either a cloud service component or used
with other options not requiring on-site data backup.
Online data storage is generally defined in contrast to physical data storage, where recorded data is
stored on a hard disk or local drive, or, alternately, a server or device connected to a local network.
Online data storage usually involves a contract with a third-party service that will accept data routed
through Internet Protocol (IP).
Advantages of online data storage and similar services include data backup security and
convenience. Smaller businesses and entities have networks that are unable to efficiently handle data
backups or provide compliance with security standards. In such cases, a vendor that provides online
data storage is often a viable solution.
Online data storage uses Internet channels to store information on remote servers kept secure by
service providers.
It can cost a company a lot of money to store data on-site, and every day someone loses their entire
family photo album. Online data storage is a virtual storage model that lets users and businesses
upload their data across Internet channels to a remote data network. Data is stored in the cloud, or
stored on servers that are not owned by the person using them. Other users can also access the same
infrastructure. It's like a cloud in that we can all see the same cloud in the sky but no single individual
owns it, yet we can each access it.
Unlike a USB drive, external hard drive, or flash drive, users do not need to carry around a physical
device to store their data. They just have to remember a password and trust the security of the service
provider.
Online storage is a viable option for data backup: it provides both security and convenience to the end
user. Small businesses and individuals may not have the network bandwidth or the resources to
maintain a strong on-site storage and retrieval system. Further, online storage may alleviate the need
to have physical backups of the data: the storage solution provider may already do this at their data
centers.
Online data storage refers to the practice of storing electronic data with a third party service accessed
via the Internet. It is an alternative to traditional local storage (such as disk or tape drives)
and portable storage (such as optical media or flash drives). It can also be called ―hosted storage,‖
―Internet storage‖ or ―cloud storage.‖
In recent years, the number of vendors offering online data storage for both consumers and businesses
has increased dramatically. Some services store only a particular kind of data, such as photos, music
or backup data, while others will allow users to store any type of file. Most of these vendors offer a
small amount of storage for free with additional storage capacity available for a fee, usually paid on a
monthly or annual basis.

2. BENEFITS OF ONLINE STORAGE
One of the biggest benefits of online storage is the ability to access data from anywhere. As the number of devices
the average person uses continues to grow, syncing or transferring data among devices has become more important.
Not only does it help transfer data between devices, online data storage also provides the ability to share files
among different users. This is particularly helpful for business users, although it’s also popular with consumers
who want to share photos, videos and similar materials with their friends and family.
Online data storage also offers distinct advantages for backup and disaster recovery situations because it’s
located off site. In a fire, flood, earthquake or similar situation, on-site backups could be damaged, but online
backups won’t be affected unless the disaster is very widespread.
However, online data storage does have some potential downsides. Some people worry about the security of cloud
storage services, and some vendors have experienced significant outages from time to time, leading to concerns
about reliability.
ONLINE STORAGE ENHANCES DATA PROTECTION AND AVAILABILITY
Before the development of the Internet, computer systems were limited to local storage or portable storage, first in
the form of tapes and floppy disks, then CDs, DVDs and USB thumb drives. Generally, using on-site storage is
faster than using Internet storage, because you don’t have to wait for files to upload or download. However, on-site
storage is more susceptible to loss due to theft, natural disasters or device failure. By contrast, most online data
storage facilities offer enhanced physical security and automated backup capabilities to ensure that data is not lost.
Online data storage also enables easier data transfer and sharing.
Like local storage, portable storage devices offer fast data transfer along with some data transfer and sharing
capabilities. However, portable storage isn’t quite as convenient as online data storage, particularly if you want to
share files with a large number of users. Portable storage devices are also easy to lose or damage, and they offer
limited storage capacity.
Recently, the term cloud storage has become increasingly common. Although many people use the terms ―cloud
storage‖ and ―online storage‖ interchangeably, technically, cloud storage is a particular kind of online data storage.
In order to be considered cloud storage, a service must be sold on demand, provide elasticity (the user can have as
much or as little as desired) and offer self-service capabilities.
Many individuals and organizations use a mix of on-site and online storage capabilities. For example, they might use
local storage for files they use frequently and online storage for backup or archive data. Or they might use local
storage for personal data and online storage for files that they wish to share with others.
ONLINE STORAGE IMPLEMENTATION
In most cases, setting up online data storage is incredibly easy, but the exact process will depend on the vendor. For
most consumer online storage services, the process entails nothing more than setting up an account with a user name
and password, although in some cases users will also need to download and install some software. Using these
online data storage services is also very simple, and many offer intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces. Again, the exact
details vary by vendor.
For business-oriented online storage services, the set up and use procedures can be slightly more complex because
they generally offer more options for configuration, security and reliability. However, because they want to appeal to

3. as many customers as possible, enterprise vendors generally make their services as easy to use and maintain as
possible.
Relevance of Online Data Processing
Online Data processing is an automated way to enter and process data or reports continuously
whenever changes occur in the source documents. A good example of online processing is bar code
scanning. When you buy a shirt at Target, the bar code gets scanned at the register. This shirt (source
document) is immediately updated in Target’s inventory system as being sold. It is also updated in
cost and sales reports. The online processing system continuously updates the entire accounting
system.
Before computers were widespread in business accounting systems, most companies had to process
data or reports in batches. Invoices, for instances, had to be gathered, entered, and processed
periodically by employees. Batch processing could be done daily or even weekly. As you can see, this
is the most efficient manual way to process data, but it also provides outdated information. After
computers and mainframe servers became more affordable for smaller business, most business moved
from batch processing to online processing.
Benefits
1. Gives continuous data for management.
2. Real time process
3. Quick updation of inventory
4. Less cost
5. Less time consuming
6. Avoid extra use of resources, devices and employees
7. Accurate up-to-date information
Cloud Computing
A simple explanation for cloud computing would be not storing data and information on local hard
disk or local servers, but storing it away from our physical location. When the need arises to use that
data or reference that information, access is obtained via the Internet. Since access to that data and
information is via the Internet, it is available from anywhere via Internet. Access to data and
information is not confined to any location, and that is the essence of cloud computing.
How did a simple explanation acquire a fancy name as ―cloud computing‖? Clouds can be seen
somewhere in the sky whenever we look up regardless of physical location. Whenever we connect to
the Internet, data and information is up there regardless of physical location. There are claims of
technical reasons behind the name. Network configuration diagrams show connections to the Internet
away from the local area network [LAN] and virtual private network [VPN] connections with a fluffy
cloud symbol as in Figure 4.1 below. Any organisation or institution that uses an Internet application
can claim to be computing in cloud.

4. fluffy cloud
Figure 4.1: Network Configuration Diagram Showing Connection to Internet with Fluffy Cloud Symbol
―Clouds are a large pool of easily usable and accessible virtualized resources (such as hardware,
development platforms and/or services). These resources can be dynamically reconfigured to adjust to a
variable load (scale), allowing also for an optimum resource utilization. This pool of resources is typically
exploited by a pay-per-use model in which guarantees are offered by the Infrastructure Provider by means
ofcustomized SLA [Service Level Agreement]‖.
Cloud computing is Internet-based computing where virtual shared servers
provide software, infrastructure, platform, devices, and other resources and
hosting to customers on a pay-as-you-use basis. All information that a digitized
system has to offer is provided as a service in the cloud computing model. Users
can access these services available on the "Internet cloud" without having any
previous know-how on managing the resources involved. Thus, users can
concentrate more on their core business processes rather than spending time and
gaining knowledge on resources needed to manage their business processes.
Cloud computing customers do not own the physical infrastructure; rather they rent
the usage from a third-party provider. This helps them to avoid huge capital
investments. They consume resources as a service and pay only for resources that
they use. Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through
shared resources. This increases efficiency as servers are not unnecessarily left idle,
which can reduce costs significantly while increasing the speed of application
development
Characteristics of Cloud Computing
The five essential characteristics are:
1. on-demand service
2. broad network access
3. resource pooling
4. rapid elasticity

5. 5. measured service.
 On-demand self-service: a consumer has unilateral provision for computing capabilities, such
as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human
interaction with each service provider.
 Broad network access: capabilities are available over the network and accessed through
standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g.,
mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).
 Resource pooling: the provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers
using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned

6. and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of location
independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the
exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a
higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of resources
include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.
 Rapid elasticity: capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some
cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with
demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to
be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.
 Measured service: cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by
leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type
of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource
usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both
the provider and consumer of the utilized service.
Cloud Service Models/ Types of cloud computing services
The cloud service providers provide different services based on different capabilities such as
1. SaaS (Software-as-a- Service)
2. PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)
3. HaaS (Hardware-as-a-Service
4. IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a- Service)
5. XaaS (Everything-as-a-Service).
Cloud computing can be separated into three general service delivery categories or
forms of cloud computing:
1. IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service). IaaS providers, such as Amazon Web Services
(AWS), supply a virtual server instance and storage, as well as application programming
interfaces (APIs) that let users migrate workloads to a virtual machine (VM). Users have
an allocated storage capacity and can start, stop, access and configure the VM and storage
as desired. IaaS providers offer small, medium, large, extra-large, and memory- or
compute-optimized instances, in addition to enabling customization of instances, for
various workload needs. The IaaS cloud model is closest to a remote data center for
business users.
2. PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). In the PaaS model, cloud providers host development
tools on their infrastructures. Users access these tools over the internet using APIs, web
portals or gateway software. PaaS is used for general software development, and many

7. PaaS providers host the software after it's developed. Common PaaS products include
Salesforce's Lightning Platform, AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Google App Engine.
3. SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). SaaS is a distribution model that delivers software
applications over the internet; these applications are often called web services. Users can
access SaaS applications and services from any location using a computer or mobile
device that has internet access. In the SaaS model, users gain access to application
software and databases. One common example of a SaaS application is Microsoft 365 for
productivity and email services.
4. HaaS (Hardware-as-a-Service): a business model where companies sell packages that
include hardware, software, maintenance and, sometimes, installation, for a monthly fee.
Leasing or licensing in which hardware that belongs to a managed service provider
(MSP) is installed at a customer's site and a service level agreement (SLA) defines the
responsibilities of both parties.
5. XaaS (Hardware-as-a-Service) is a general, collective term that refers to the delivery of
anything as a service. It recognizes the vast number of products, tools and technologies
that vendors now deliver to users as a service over a network -- typically the internet --
rather than provide locally or on-site within an enterprise.
Deployment Models Cloud Computing
There are four different deployment models of cloud computing:
Public clouds
Public clouds are cloud environments typically created from IT infrastructure not owned by
the end user. Some of the largest public cloud providers include Alibaba Cloud, Amazon
Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Traditional public clouds always ran off-premises, but today's public cloud providers have
started offering cloud services on clients’ on-premise data centers. This has made location
and ownership distinctions obsolete.
All clouds become public clouds when the environments are partitioned and redistributed
to multiple tenants. Fee structures aren't necessary characteristics of public clouds anymore,
since some cloud providers (like the Massachusettes Open Cloud) allow tenants to use their
clouds for free. The bare-metal IT infrastructure used by public cloud providers can also be
abstracted and sold as IaaS, or it can be developed into a cloud platform sold as PaaS.
Private clouds
Private clouds are loosely defined as cloud environments solely dedicated to a single end user
or group, where the environment usually runs behind that user or group's firewall. All clouds
become private clouds when the underlying IT infrastructure is dedicated to a single customer
with completely isolated access.

8. But private clouds no longer have to be sourced from on-prem IT infrastructure.
Organizations are now building private clouds on rented, vendor-owned data centers located
off-premises, which makes any location and ownership rules obsolete. This has also led to a
number of private cloud subtypes, including:
Managed private clouds
Customers create and use a private cloud that's deployed, configured, and managed by a
third-party vendor. Managed private clouds are a cloud delivery option that helps enterprises
with understaffed or underskilled IT teams provide better private cloud services and
infrastructure.
Dedicated clouds
A cloud within another cloud. You can have a dedicated cloud on a public cloud (e.g. Red
Hat OpenShift® Dedicated) or on a private cloud. For example, an accounting department
could have its own dedicated cloud within the organization's private cloud.
Hybrid clouds
A hybrid cloud is a seemingly single IT environment created from multiple environments
connected through local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), virtual private
networks (VPNs), and/or APIs.
The characteristics of hybrid clouds are complex and the requirements can differ, depending
on whom you ask. For example, a hybrid cloud may need to include:
 At least 1 private cloud and at least 1 public cloud
 2 or more private clouds
 2 or more public clouds
 A bare-metal or virtual environment connected to at least 1 public cloud or private
cloud
But every IT system becomes a hybrid cloud when apps can move in and out of multiple
separate—yet connected—environments. At least a few of those environments need to be
sourced from consolidated IT resources that can scale on demand. And all those
environments need to be managed as a single environment using an integrated management
and orchestration platform.
Multiclouds
Multiclouds are a cloud approach made up of more than 1 cloud service or from more than 1
cloud vendor—public or private. All hybrid clouds are multiclouds, but not all multiclouds
are hybrid clouds. Multiclouds become hybrid clouds when multiple clouds are connected by
some form of integration or orchestration.
A multicloud environment might exist on purpose (to better control sensitive data or as
redundant storage space for improved disaster recovery) or by accident (usually the result of
shadow IT). Either way, having multiple clouds is becoming more common across enterprises
that seek to improve security and performance through an expanded portfolio of
environments.

9. Benefits of Cloud Computing
The benefits of cloud computing for an enterprise include:
1. Reduction in upfront capital expenditure on hardware and
software deployment. Consumption is usually billed on a utility
(like phone bills) or subscription (like magazines)
model. Users can terminate the contract at any time & are often
covered by Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with financial
penalties. This reduces risk and uncertainty and ensures ROI.
2. Location independence, so long as there is access to the Internet.
Increased flexibility and market
3. Agility - quick deployment model of cloud computing increases the
ability to re-provision rapidly as required
4. Allows enterprise to focus on its core business
5. Increased competitive advantage
6. Increased security at a much lesser cost as compared to
traditional standalone applications due to the
centralization of data & increased security-focused resources.
7. Easy to maintain as they don't have to be installed on each user's
computer.

10. Cloud Computing Market Size
The global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from USD
371.4 billion in 2020 to USD 832.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.5% during the forecast period. North
America and Europe region have the highest market share in the cloud
computing market, where these two regions together contribute more
than half of the global cloud computing market in the year 2020. The
Software as a Service model is expected to witness the highest adoption
in the coming five years, as enterprises are deploying this service model
to cut down on the CAPEX cost and focus on their core competencies
instead of worrying about the IT infrastructure. The emergence of
serverless computing, containerization, edge computing, and
hybrid cloud architectures are few trends that are expected to shape the
market in the coming years.
Cloud Computing For Business
Cloud computing is going to change business processes. This section looks at how
businesses can use cloud computing and what cloud computing technology can offer them.
We are now in what is considered the ―knowledge‖ economy. In this knowledge economy,
the currency is ―information‖. Wealth in this economy is measured by the amount of
information that can be accessed, manipulated and provided. Founders of FaceBook,
Google, Yahoo, and many other cloud service providers and social networking web sites
have become overnight billionaires by trading information. Their trade and trading secrets
are known now. The world is full of people with a voracious appetite for information. For
business considering of going into the trade of information, their link to the people of this
world is through cloud computing.
Organizations are being founded with very little physical capital. For a services or knowledge
intensive business, free tools and low-cost computing cycles can mostly be expensed,
changing the fund-raising and organizational strategies significantly. Smartphone’s, Tablet
PCs and other devices built without mass storage can thrive in a cloud-centric environment,
particularly if the organization is designed to be fluid and mobile. Coburn Ventures in New
York, for example, is comprised of a small team of mobile knowledge workers who, for the
first five years, had no corporate office; the organization operated from Wi-Fi hot spots, with
only face-to-face meetings.

11. Characteristics and advantages of cloud computing
Cloud computing has been around for several decades now, and today's cloud computing
infrastructure demonstrates an array of characteristics that have brought meaningful benefits
for businesses of all sizes. Some of the main characteristics of cloud computing are the
following:
 Self-service provisioning. End users can spin up compute resources for almost any type
of workload on demand. An end user can provision computing capabilities, such as server
time and network storage, eliminating the traditional need for IT administrators to
provision and manage compute resources.
 Elasticity. Companies can freely scale up as computing needs increase and scale down
again as demands decrease. This eliminates the need for massive investments in local
infrastructure, which might or might not remain active.
 Pay per use. Compute resources are measured at a granular level, enabling users to pay
only for the resources and workloads they use.
 Workload resilience. CSPs often implement redundant resources to ensure resilient
storage and to keep users' important workloads running -- often across multiple global
regions.
 Migration flexibility. Organizations can move certain workloads to or from the cloud --
or to different cloud platforms -- as desired or automatically for better cost savings or to
use new services as they emerge.
 Broad network access. A user can access cloud data or upload data to the cloud from
anywhere with an internet connection using any device.
 Multi-tenancy and resource pooling. Multi-tenancy lets numerous customers share the
same physical infrastructures or the same applications yet still retain privacy and security
over their own data. With resource pooling, cloud providers service numerous customers
from the same physical resources. The resource pools of the cloud providers should be
large and flexible enough so they can service the requirements of multiple customers.
These characteristics support a variety of important benefits for modern business, including
the following:
 Cost management. Using cloud infrastructure can reduce capital costs, as organizations
don't have to spend massive amounts of money buying and maintaining equipment. This
reduces their capital expenditure costs -- as they don't have to invest in hardware,
facilities, utilities or building large data centers to accommodate their growing
businesses. Additionally, companies don't need large IT teams to handle cloud data center
operations because they can rely on the expertise of their cloud providers' teams. Cloud
computing also cuts costs related to downtime. Since downtime rarely happens in cloud

12. computing, companies don't have to spend time and money to fix any issues that might be
related to downtime.
 Data and workload mobility. Storing information in the cloud means that users can
access it from anywhere with any device with just an internet connection. That means
users don't have to carry around USB drives, an external hard drive or multiple CDs to
access their data. Users can access corporate data via smartphones and other mobile
devices, enabling remote employees to stay up to date with co-workers and customers.
End users can easily process, store, retrieve and recover resources in the cloud. In
addition, cloud vendors provide all the upgrades and updates automatically, saving time
and effort.
 Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR). All organizations worry about data
loss. Storing data in the cloud guarantees that users can always access their data even if
their devices, e.g., laptops or smartphones, are inoperable. With cloud-based services,
organizations can quickly recover their data in the event of emergencies, such as natural
disasters or power outages. This benefits BCDR and helps ensure that workloads and data
are available even if the business suffers damage or disruption.
Disadvantages of cloud computing
Despite the clear upsides to relying on cloud services, cloud computing carries its own
challenges for IT professionals:
 Cloud security. Security is often considered the greatest challenge facing cloud
computing. When relying on the cloud, organizations risk data breaches, hacking of APIs
and interfaces, compromised credentials and authentication issues. Furthermore, there is a
lack of transparency regarding how and where sensitive information entrusted to the
cloud provider is handled. Security demands careful attention to cloud configurations and
business policy and practice.
 Cost unpredictability. Pay-as-you-go subscription plans for cloud use, along with
scaling resources to accommodate fluctuating workload demands, can make it tough to
define and predict final costs. Cloud costs are also frequently interdependent, with one
cloud service often utilizing one or more other cloud services -- all of which appear in the
recurring monthly bill. This can create additional unplanned cloud costs.
 Lack of capability and expertise. With cloud-supporting technologies rapidly
advancing, organizations are struggling to keep up with the growing demand for tools and
employees with the proper skill sets and knowledge needed to architect, deploy, and
manage workloads and data in a cloud.
 IT governance. The emphasis on do-it-yourself capability in cloud computing can make
IT governance difficult, as there is no control over provisioning, deprovisioning and
management of infrastructure operations. This can make it challenging to properly
manage risks and security, IT compliance and data quality.

13.  Compliance with industry laws. When transferring data from on-premises local storage
into cloud storage, it can be difficult to manage compliance with industry regulations
through a third party. It's important to know where data and workloads are actually hosted
in order to maintain regulatory compliance and proper business governance.
 Management of multiple clouds. Every cloud is different, so multi-cloud deployments
can disjoint efforts to address more general cloud computing challenges.
 Cloud performance. Performance -- such as latency -- is largely beyond the control of
the organization contracting cloud services with a provider. Network and provider
outages can interfere with productivity and disrupt business processes if organizations are
not prepared with contingency plans.
 Building a private cloud. Architecting, building and managing private clouds -- whether
for its own purpose or for a hybrid cloud goal -- can be a daunting task for IT departments
and staff.
 Cloud migration. The process of moving applications and other data to a cloud
infrastructure often causes complications. Migration projects frequently take longer than
anticipated and go over budget. The issue of workload and data repatriation -- moving
from the cloud back to a local data center -- is often overlooked until unforeseen cost or
performance problems arise.
 Vendor lock-in. Often, switching between cloud providers can cause significant issues.
This includes technical incompatibilities, legal and regulatory limitations and substantial
costs incurred from sizable data migrations.
Cloud computing examples and use cases
Cloud computing has evolved and diversified into a wide array of offerings and capabilities
designed to suit almost any conceivable business need. Examples of cloud computing
capabilities and diversity include the following:
 Google Docs, Microsoft 365. Users can access Google Docs and Microsoft 365 through
the internet. Users can be more productive because they can access work presentations
and spreadsheets stored in the cloud at anytime from anywhere on any device.
 Email, Calendar, Skype, WhatsApp. Emails, calendars, Skype and WhatsApp take
advantage of the cloud's ability to provide users with access to data remotely so they can
access their personal data on any device, whenever and wherever they want.
 Zoom. Zoom is a cloud-based software platform for video and audio conferencing that
records meetings and saves them to the cloud, enabling users to access them anywhere
and at any time. Another common communication and collaboration platform is
Microsoft Teams.
 AWS Lambda. Lambda enables developers to run code for applications or back-end
services without having to provision or manage servers. The pay-as-you-go model
constantly scales with an organization to accommodate real-time changes in data usage

14. and data storage. Other major cloud providers also support serverless
computing capabilities, such as Google Cloud Functions and Azure Functions.
Cloud computing service providers
The cloud service market has no shortage of providers. The three largest public CSPs that
have established themselves as dominant fixtures in the industry are the following:
 AWS
 GCP
 Microsoft Azure
Other major CSPs include the following:
 Apple
 Citrix
 IBM
 Salesforce
 Alibaba
 Oracle
 VMware
 SAP
 Joyent
 Rackspace
History of cloud computing
The history and evolution of cloud computing date back to the 1950s and 1960s.
In the 1950s, companies started to use large mainframe computers, but it was too expensive
to buy a computer for each user. So, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, a process called
time sharing was developed to make more efficient use of expensive processor time on the
central mainframe.
Time Sharing: A method of operation in which multiple users with different programs
interact nearly simultaneously with the central processing unit (CPU) of a large-scale digital
computer.

15. Time sharing enabled users to access numerous instances of computing mainframes
simultaneously, maximizing processing power and minimizing downtime. This idea
represents the first use of shared computing resources, the foundation of modern cloud
computing.
The origins of delivering computing resources using a global network are, for the most part,
rooted in 1969 when American computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider helped create the
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, the so-called precursor to the internet.
Licklider's goal was to connect computers across the globe in a way that would enable users
to access programs and information from any location.
In the 1970s, cloud computing began taking a more tangible shape with the introduction of
the first VMs, enabling users to run more than one computing system within a single physical
setup. The functionality of these VMs led to the concept of virtualization, which had a major
influence on the progress of cloud computing.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Microsoft, Apple and IBM developed technologies that enhanced the
cloud environment and advanced the use of the cloud server and server hosting. Then, in
1999, Salesforce became the first company to deliver business applications from a website.
In 2006, Amazon launched AWS, providing such services as computing and storage in the
cloud. Following Suit, the other major tech players, including Microsoft and Google,
subsequently launched their own cloud offerings to compete with AWS.
Future of cloud computing and emerging technologies
Over 30% of enterprise IT decision-makers identified public cloud as their top priority in
2019, according to the "RightScale 2019 State of the Cloud Report." Still, enterprise adoption
of the public cloud, especially for mission-critical applications, hasn't been happening as
quickly as many experts predicted.
Today, however, organizations are more likely to migrate mission-critical workloads to
public clouds. One of the reasons for this shift is that business executives who want to ensure

16. that their companies can compete in the new world of digital transformation are demanding
the public cloud.
What is Cloud Storage?
Cloud storage is a cloud computing model that stores data on the Internet through a cloud
computing provider who manages and operates data storage as a service. It’s delivered on
demand with just-in-time capacity and costs, and eliminates buying and managing your own
data storage infrastructure. This gives you agility, global scale and durability, with ―anytime,
anywhere‖ data access.
How Does Cloud Storage Work?
Cloud storage is purchased from a third party cloud vendor who owns and operates data
storage capacity and delivers it over the Internet in a pay-as-you-go model. These cloud
storage vendors manage capacity, security and durability to make data accessible to your
applications all around the world.
Applications access cloud storage through traditional storage protocols or directly via an API.
Many vendors offer complementary services designed to help collect, manage, secure and
analyze data at massive scale.
Examples of Cloud Storage
1. Ice Drive. Ice drive is a famous cloud storage service provider for businesses that
specialize in mobile services.
2. The pCloud cloud drive storage offers access for a lifetime. This makes cloud file
storage a great choice for businesses with a limited budget. The cost of cloud storage
reduces drastically with PCloud and its affordable lifetime access plans. How cloud
storage works from pCloud is interesting, users need to pay 175 USD for 500 GB of
storage. The plan needs a one-time registration fee. Apart from this, pCloud is famous
for its annual plans too.
3. Google Drive: Another important player in this list would be Google Drive. The Drive
became famous for its free offerings. If your daily need depends on the Android
applications, and other services offered by Google, this would be your ideal solution.
Google Drive offers 15 GB of free cloud storage space to newbie users.
4. Dropbox is one of the market’s fastest cloud storage solutions. It has been offering
cloud services since 2008. Indeed, this is one of the most famous cloud data storage
providers out there. Regardless of the device or platform used, Dropbox offers many
versatile features. Its admin dashboard is extremely useful, especially for transmitting
files and documents on the fly. Even though it ranks among the major cloud storage
providers, Dropbox limits new users to only 2GB of free storage space. Once the free

17. plan is exhausted, users can buy 3TB for 16.58 USD. This comes with watermarking,
password protection, and remote device wiping. Dropbox Paper is another offering
from Dropbox for uploading documents and single-page files.
5. One Drive: OneDrive is identified as one of the most secure cloud storage providers.
It is created and managed by Microsoft. This means OneDrive is an ideal choice for
windows users. The cloud platform integrates seamlessly with outlook and the office
suite. It takes care of scanning and automatic backup of documents too. It supports
offline access. This means users don’t need an active network connection to view and
open their files. Personal Vault is an important feature of OneDrive. As suggested by
its name, it supports the storage of confidential files with identity verification. The
verification is broken into multiple layers, making the OneDrive a choice for many
companies.
Benefits of Cloud Storage
Storing data in the cloud lets IT departments transform three areas:
1. Total Cost of Ownership. With cloud storage, there is no hardware to purchase, storage to
provision, or capital being used for "someday" scenarios. You can add or remove capacity
on demand, quickly change performance and retention characteristics, and only pay for
storage that you actually use. Less frequently accessed data can even be automatically
moved to lower cost tiers in accordance with auditable rules, driving economies of scale.
2. Time to Deployment. When development teams are ready to execute, infrastructure should
never slow them down. Cloud storage allows IT to quickly deliver the exact amount of
storage needed, right when it's needed. This allows IT to focus on solving complex
application problems instead of having to manage storage systems.
3. Information Management. Centralizing storage in the cloud creates a tremendous leverage
point for new use cases. By using cloud storage lifecycle management policies, you can
perform powerful information management tasks including automated tiering or locking
down data in support of compliance requirements.

18. Business leaders are also looking to the public cloud to take advantage of its elasticity,
modernize internal computer systems, and empower critical business units and their DevOps
teams.
Additionally, cloud providers, such as IBM and VMware, are concentrating on meeting the
needs of enterprise IT, in part by removing the barriers to public cloud adoption that caused
IT decision-makers to shy away from fully embracing the public cloud previously.
Generally, when contemplating cloud adoption, many enterprises have been mainly focused
on new cloud-native applications -- that is, designing and building applications specifically
intended to use cloud services. They haven't been willing to move their most mission-critical
apps into the public cloud. However, these enterprises are now beginning to realize that the
cloud is ready for the enterprise if they select the right cloud platforms, i.e., those that have a
history of serving the needs of the enterprise.
Cloud providers are locked in ongoing competition for cloud market share, so the public
cloud continues to evolve, expand and diversify its range of services. This has led public IaaS
providers to offer far more than common compute and storage instances.
For example, serverless, or event-driven, computing is a cloud service that executes specific
functions, such as image processing and database updates. Traditional cloud deployments
require users to establish a compute instance and load code into that instance. Then, the user
decides how long to run -- and pay for -- that instance.
With serverless computing, developers simply create code, and the cloud provider loads and
executes that code in response to real-world events so users don't have to worry about the
server or instance aspect of the cloud deployment. Users only pay for the number of
transactions that the function executes. AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions and Azure
Functions are examples of serverless computing services.
Public cloud computing also lends itself well to big data processing, which demands
enormous compute resources for relatively short durations. Cloud providers have responded
with big data services, including Google BigQuery for large-scale data warehousing and
Microsoft Azure Data Lake Analytics for processing huge data sets.
Another crop of emerging cloud technologies and services relates to AI and machine
learning. These technologies provide a range of cloud-based, ready-to-use AI and machine
learning services for client needs. Amazon Machine Learning, Amazon Lex, Amazon Polly,
Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine and Google Cloud Speech API are examples of
these services.

19. E-Commerce
Ecommerce or electronic commerce actually means the use of an electronic
medium for commercial transactions, but it is commonly used to refer to selling
products and services over the internet to consumers or other businesses.
According to another definition, ecommerce refers to the sharing of business
information, maintenance of business relationships and conducting business
transactions with the help of computers that are connected to a
telecommunication network, and without the use of paper documents.
We can classify Ecommerce by application into:
 Electronic markets – here the buyer is presented a range of products and
services available in a market so that they can compare prices and make
the purchase
 Electronic Data Interchange – this is a standardized system where
computers communicate with one another without printed documents like
order forms or invoices; it eliminates delays and errors otherwise seen
when paper handling is involved
 Internet Commerce – the one we are most familiar with; the medium used
to advertise, and sell innumerable products and services; the purchased
goods are then shipped to the buyer.
Types of E-Commerce
Ecommerce is used in various business fields; the major categories of
ecommerce are:
Business-to-Business (B2B)
B2B is e-commerce representing electronic exchange of products, services and
information between businesses. It is expected that the B2B e-commerce market
would reach $1.1 trillion in the U.S.in the upcoming years. Some of the B2B e -
commerce applications are product supply and exchange websites, online
directories, that feature an option to search for particular products and services
and thus initiate payment transactions within.
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
B2C is the retail part of e-commerce where businesses sell products, services and
information directly to its customers online. B2C was introduced in the late 90s
which revolutionized the retail system from then. Now the B2C market
comprises all sorts of consumer goods including many virtual stores and online
shopping platforms where Amazon or flipkart leading the markets with
domination and valuable customers.
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
It is a type of e-commerce where consumers could trade their products or
services with each other online. The transactions are carried out through third
party online platforms. C2C e commerce consists of classified advertisements

20. and online auctions like the popular eBay and Craigslist. These types of
businesses are also known as C2B2C or consumer-to-business-to-consumer.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
C2B is that type of e-commerce in which the consumer builds their products and
services, making it available online for businesses to bid on and purchase. The
most popular example of C2B platform is an online market which sells
everything for free like the iStock and Job Board. C2B e-commerce is moreover
said to be an opposite kind of traditional commerce B2C model.
Business-to-Administration (B2A)
This kind of e-commerce platform enables online payment transactions between
companies and administration or government bodies.Many government
authorities depend on e services or products directly or indirectly. Businesses
offer supply of e documents, registers,security, etc electronically which has a
tremendous growth in the recent years.
Consumer-to-Administration (C2A)
C2A e-commerce refers to transactions conducted between individual customers
and public administration or government authorities. Unlike government
authorities, consumers make use of e-commerce and methods to make
transactions for various industries including educational, health, retail
industries.
Most common applications of Ecommerce:
 Retail and Wholesale
Ecommerce has numerous applications in this sector. E-retailing is
basically a B2C, and in some cases, a B2B sale of goods and services
through online stores designed using virtual shopping carts and electronic
catalogs. A subset of retail ecommerce is m-commerce, or mobile
commerce, wherein a consumer purchases goods and services using their
mobile device through the mobile optimized site of the retailer. These
retailers use the E-payment method: they accept payment through credit or
debit cards, online wallets or internet banking, without printing paper
invoices or receipts.
 Online Marketing
This refers to the gathering of data about consumer behaviors,
preferences, needs, buying patterns and so on. It helps marketing activities
like fixing price, negotiating, enhancing product features, and building
strong customer relationships as this data can be leveraged to provide
customers a tailored and enhanced purchase experience.

21.  Finance
Banks and other financial institutions are using e-commerce to a
significant extent. Customers can check account balances, transfer money
to other accounts held by them or others, pay bills through internet
banking, pay insurance premiums, and so on. Individuals can also carry
out trading in stocks online, and get information about stocks to trade in
from websites that display news, charts, performance reports and analyst
ratings of companies.
 Manufacturing
Supply chain operations also use ecommerce; usually, a few companies
form a group and create an electronic exchange and facilitate purchase and
sale of goods, exchange of market information, back office information
like inventory control, and so on. This enables the smooth flow of raw
materials and finished products among the member companies and also
with other businesses.
 Online Booking
This is something almost every one of us has done at some time – book
hotels, holidays, airline tickets, travel insurance, etc. These bookings and
reservations are made possible through an internet booking engine or IBE.
It is used the maximum by aviation, tour operations and hotel industry.
 Online Publishing
This refers to the digital publication of books, magazines, catalogues, and
developing digital libraries.
 Digital Advertising
Online advertising uses the internet to deliver promotional material to
consumers; it involves a publisher, and an advertiser. The advertiser
provides the ads, and the publisher integrates ads into online content.
Often there are creative agencies which create the ad and even help in the
placement. Different types of ads include banner ads, social media ads,
search engine marketing, retargeting, pop-up ads, and so on.
 Auctions
Online auctions bring together numerous people from various geographical
locations and enable trading of items at negotiated prices, implemented
with e-commerce technologies. It enables more people to participate in
auctions. Another example of auction is bidding for seats on an airline
website – window seats, and those at the front with more leg room
generally get sold at a premium, depending on how much a flyer is willing
to pay.

22. E-Commerce is all around us today, and as an entrepreneur, you should
also get into this realm if you want to expand your markets, get more
customers and increase your profitability.
Strategy behind the eCommerce Market
The e-Commerce market depends on mainly 3 dominant elements:
 Market Requirements
 Target Customer Market
 Frequent Trends in the Industry
How can you improve your marketing strategy for e-commerce websites?
Everything you do affects the promotion of your particular online business.
Doing it following a strict pattern would make wonders on your business
website.
 Analysis
Analyze the statistics and current trends in the business in the niche.
Gathering as much as possible data regarding a particular industry, the
product makes much difference. It should be more specific to the point to
make perfect decisions.
 Understanding Consumer Data
Setting demography always betters the business. Find out the geography,
economy, particulars of potential customers. Frequently keep a check and
maintain a data record on consumer surveys, consumer reports, and social
media audiences.
 Research
Research is the best way to improve business. There are a lot of
competitors and a slight fall indicates serious weakness in the market.
Research about the competitors, regarding their dominance, their strength,
and weakness, their business goals, insights, etc.
E-Commerce Research and Analytic
Applications
Analytics plays a vital role in the development of e-commerce which decides
everything from optimizing the CTA to the traffic on the website. Analytic tools
differ with their accessibility, price, complexity, etc. there are various e-
commerce tools available that depict your data the way you wanted it to look and
help you get more customers independent of organic traffic, social media, or
email marketing.

23. Why do you need to research your eCommerce market? It isn’t that complicated
to sort out online marketing. In the end, it’s all about finding your customer
requirements. Ecommerce market research is just gathering information to
analyze what your potential customer exactly needs. Concerning analytics,
research gives an idea of the quantitative and qualitative notions behind why
people buy a particular product or service. Here we list out some popular E-
Commerce Analytical Applications.
Analytical Tools
 Google Analytics
One of the best and free analytic tools for e-commerce business marketing
and who refuses to use a Google product! Whatever the product is, you
need to increase the e-commerce conversion rate. It is more powerful and
preferred than any other analytic tool as it allows you to track your
website traffic at every stage. So that you can point out weakness if any
that leads to friction.
Features:
o Optimization
o Data studio
o Tag manager
o Effective surveys
o Search Ads 360
o Display video 360
At the end of the day, Google analytics could inform you about how many
visitors arrive at your website daily, at what location, and through which
device. Also, google analytics offer you to examine:
o Your customers LTV
o The performance of individual products in the market
o The point from where traffic is driven(device)
o The page that attracts most visitors
o The page having the most bounce
o About how the visitors are transforming
 Kissmetrics
This is an ideal analytic tool that enables brands to remarket into a large
audience focusing on individual visitors rather than in general traffic.
Kissmetrics is intended for large scale marketers wanting more advanced
and deep reports. It allows you to know the count of visitors, about how
many times a specific visitor checked in and how frequently they landed
on a product page, etc.
Features:
o User Insight management

24. o Engagement management
o Intelligent Campaign
o Integrated with Instagram, Facebook, Shopify, woo commerce, etc.
Kissmetrics helps you determine the marketing channels with the highest
ROI and about the campaigns working. It allows you to activate
notifications like popups and lightboxes to persuade visitors. Kissmetrics
is customizable and you can segment them to preview the trigger
appearance. Services of Kissmetrics includes:
o improves the conversion rate
o Analyze potential audience
o Drives traffic
o Automates email chain
Research Tools
 Google Trends
A popular Google product used to analyze queries across multiple regions
and languages, thereby knowing what is trending in your market category.
Marketers could examine what people are searching for and what matters
the most. Google trends use graphical representation to illustrate and
compare search volumes of different queries.
Key Features:
o Trending Search
o Realtime search query analysis
o Realtime search trends
 Hubspot
It is a complete CRM platform that proffers you all the tools to upgrade
your e-commerce website. Hubspot is immensely used in Search Engine
Optimization(SEO), Content Management, social media marketing, web
analytics, etc. It provides four different software specialized to grow your
business.
 Features
Marketing Hub Sales Hub Service Hub CMS Hub
Lead generation Advanced CRM
Customer
feedback
SEO
recommendations

25. Marketing
automation
Meeting
scheduling
Knowledge base Drag-and-drop editor
Analytics Quotes Tickets Website themes

 Advantages of Hubspot:
o Increased conversation
o Potential Lead generation
o Accelerate sales
o Streamlines customer service