Introduction to Cloud Computing

discover the advantages of cloud computing, including cost savings, reduced maintenance, scalable resources, easy collaboration across devices, and reliable performance.

Explore common cloud computing issues, including internet dependence, security and privacy concerns, downtime, latency, and integration with devices, and evaluate private cloud options and provider security.

Explore major cloud providers and their offerings, from infrastructure and storage to app development and collaboration tools, with notes on free, usage-based, and subscription models.

Explore personal cloud use, from free storage and file sharing to offline access across devices, with examples like Google Drive, Dropbox, and SkyDrive.

Discover how businesses use cloud computing with subscription and usage models, leveraging aws, google cloud platform, and azure, auto scaling, elastic load balancing, and cloud-based sales and accounting tools.

Explore the three cloud service models—software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service—and how they power apps, platforms, and hardware.

Classify cloud computing by type and location, focusing on public, private, and hybrid clouds. Compare private clouds onsite or remotely hosted, and the concepts of community and personal clouds.

Explore how Dropbox enables cloud storage and cross-device syncing, with file sharing and collaboration, free storage options, sign-up, and installation steps.

Learn to access and configure Dropbox on your computer, review syncing status and folders, adjust notifications and startup options, manage security and devices, and uninstall if needed.

Install the Dropbox app on Android and other devices, sign in, and upload files. Sync keeps files across web, tablet, and local computer, with options to move and rename.

Learn to upload and organize files in Dropbox, create folders, sync across computers and devices, and restore deleted items while leveraging automatic backups.

Learn how to collaborate by uploading files, sharing via links or email, and inviting others to shared folders, with recipients accepting invitations to access and work on documents.

Explore Dropbox's sharing and collaboration options, including revision history and version restoration across devices. Learn to share albums and links for easy file and photo collaboration.

Explore Gmail as a basic cloud email option, accessible anywhere on any device, with automatic syncing, labels and filters, spam protection, and built-in reliability.

Explore Google's email in the cloud, enabling fast chat, Hangouts for up to nine people, screen sharing, YouTube together, and offline Gmail access.

Explore Google Calendar in the cloud to access your schedules from any device, synchronize across platforms, and share calendars with permissions and real-time updates.

Learn to create repeated weekly events in Google Calendar, invite guests with automatic calendar adds, set reminders, schedule Hangouts video calls, and use SMS or email alerts.

Discover Google Drive as cloud storage that lets you store, create, organize, and edit files across devices, with syncing, sharing options, and offline access.

Learn to set up Google Drive across desktop, web, and mobile, enable selective folder syncing and auto-start, and manage space and preferences while uploading, viewing, and searching files.

Discover how to collaborate with others on Google Drive, access hours from anywhere, organize files with folders and colors, and attach Drive items to calendar events or emails for teamwork.

Learn how to access Google Drive offline in Chrome OS, install the Drive app from the Chrome Web Store, and enable offline mode to share files and calendars.

Explore Google Cloud Print to print from any device to cloud-connected printers, share printers, manage jobs, and print from cloud drives with secure transfers and files deleted after printing.

Learn to store music in the cloud with Google, access up to 20000 free songs on any device, and upload from iTunes or Windows Media Player via the Music Manager.

Explore Chrome devices running Chrome OS, using Google browser to access email, Drive files, and Chrome web apps.

Explore Google Cloud Platform to build apps, use cloud storage and APIs, and deploy a sample app; set up a storage bucket, enable billing, and upload files.

Explore Amazon Web Services to learn pay-as-you-go cloud infrastructure, scalable storage and compute, and essential services like EC2, Simple Notification Service, and Elastic Transcoder.

Launch a virtual server on EC2, connect to the instance via password and remote desktop, and learn how to terminate and delete it after exploring the Windows server setup.

Discover selecting a Joomla-enabled machine image with an OS and dependencies, launch the AMI, enable CloudWatch, create a key pair, and connect after status checks.

Connect to your EC2 instance, decrypt the administrator password, and enable remote access by adding your public IP to the security group to reach the Joomla site and its backend.

Learn to deploy WordPress on a Windows server with IIS using web deploy, configure security, install WordPress, and set up a default root database password.

Launch WordPress on an EC2 instance and configure the site title. Publish a blog post and not index search engines from localhost toward public access.

Explore Amazon S3, the simple storage service, including buckets, secure cloud storage, free tier, and use cases like backup, web hosting, media hosting, and software distribution.

Explore bucket properties, permissions, and policies, enable logging and notifications, configure lifecycle rules, and manage versioning and tagging as you prepare a static website hosted on S3.

Set up an S3 static website by creating a bucket, enabling hosting, applying a public policy, uploading an index file, and optionally configuring a custom domain.

Explore Amazon's simple notification service to create topics, subscribe endpoints, confirm subscriptions, and publish messages as sms and email alerts.

Learn to use Amazon elastic transcoder to convert avi media in S3 buckets by creating a pipeline and a job, producing an mp4 at 960x720.

Explore Amazon Cloud Drive, which offers five gigabytes free, auto uploads from devices, desktop setup, file syncing, sharing, and managing storage plans.

Learn how Amazon's cloud player stores music in the cloud for playback on devices, and how the cloud reader opens Kindle books in a browser with notes and offline access.

Explore Sky Drive cloud storage from Microsoft, including 7 gigs free, desktop and tablet syncing, and browser access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote with version history.

Learn to create and save Word and Excel documents in Sky Drive, organize with folders, drag and drop from your device, and share with individuals or groups for collaboration.

Office 365 is a Microsoft cloud service with full office apps for up to five computers, including on-demand streaming, 20 gb sky drive, 60 minutes of Skype, around $100 yearly.

Learn how to install and sign in to Office 365, access files via Sky Drive, save and stream Office apps in the browser, and explore add-ins and a free trial.

Explore Windows Azure to host websites and applications, manage credentials and dashboards, and deploy files to your site using the FGP program, with a three-month free trial.

Install Joomla on Azure to create a web site with a database, configure an admin user, and customize menus and articles through the Joomla dashboard.

Deploy a phpBB forum on Windows Azure in the introduction to cloud computing course, configure a MySQL database, install, and customize the board with users, groups, and colors.

Build an e-commerce site on Windows Azure using AP commerce, showcasing a catalog front end and an administrative back end to manage products, prices, taxes, and shipping.

Create a Windows Azure virtual machine, choosing a unique name, image, and location; connect to the server and manage its virtual hard disk and storage.

Launch a Linux-based Ubuntu virtual machine from the gallery, configure name, user, and authentication, and connect via PuTTY using SSH details to manage an Azure Ubuntu server.

Manage cloud resources in Windows Azure using dashboards, monitoring metrics, and scaling options. Configure domains, dotnet framework versions, php versions, databases, and virtual machines while controlling administrators.

Explore how Evernote syncs notes and notebooks across web, desktop, and mobile with one account, and how to use free and premium plans.

Learn to access Evernote on web and desktop, create and organize notes with notebooks and tags, format text, add attachments, checklists and images, and sync across devices.

Edit notes in Evernote, add attachments and audio, and use formatting tools to simplify pasted text. Review note details, tags, and history to organize content and save your work automatically.

Organize notes in Evernote by creating notebooks and stacks via drag and drop, tagging entries, and using favorites for quick access, while syncing across devices.

Share notes and notebooks in Evernote with others via email, links, and social media, and control access by inviting users or stopping sharing.

Explore Evernote's note types - ink, audio, and text - and learn drawing tools, color palettes, and shape stabilization. Master organizing notes with notebooks, tags, and robust sync options.

Explore how the Evernote web clipper, a browser extension, captures selected text or full pages and saves them as searchable notes with images, links, tags, and comments across devices.

Explore Skitch, an Evernote add-on for cloud computing learners, that lets you capture screenshots, annotate with text, arrows, shapes, and highlighter, crop images, and save and sync edits across devices.

Explore Evernote clearly for clean, readable web pages, clip and sync across devices, and use Evernote Hello to remember contacts and log meeting notes with time and location.

Explore Evernote Food to track meals, find nearby restaurants, and save recipes across devices. Browse the cookbook, clip web content with notes, and use add-ons like Evernote Peek or Penultimate.