 Hello and welcome to the session in which we will discuss a cloud base system or cloud computing. So what is cloud computing? It's a type of computing in which resources such as software, storage, and processing power are provided over the internet through a network of remote servers. Now why is it called cloud? Well, think of this picture, you have your computer here, you have the user here. However, the software is not installed on this computer. The software is someplace in the cloud. So how would the user use the software? Well, they will have access to it through a network, software, storage, processing power, everything lives in the cloud. So the user, think of it, you are working in your office and you only have a monitor and somehow an internet connection, but you don't have the database there, you don't have the software, you don't have the storage. It's on a server somewhere in the cloud and you have access to them. This system sometime called the cloud, cloud computing, cloud storage, and cloud services, it all means the same thing. Simply put, allowing users to access these resources without having them installed on their own devices. So the software itself, you could be using Office 365, but it's not installed, you have access to it. You could be using Excel, Microsoft Office. So on and so forth, they're not installed, you have access to them. Now cloud-based system are often categorized or used under three categories. Software as a service or SaaS, platform as a service or pass applications, three infrastructure as a service or IAAS. What I'm going to do next is going over each one of those separately because you need to know what type of a cloud-based system do we have, what are the most common one. And they can all be categorized under these three umbrellas. Before we proceed any further, I have a public announcement about my company, farhatlectures.com. Farhat Accounting Lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's going to help you with your CPA exam preparation as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course, such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses, broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true-false questions, as well as exercises. Go ahead, start your free trial today. No obligation, no credit card required. Starting with software as a service, and I started with this one because this is the one that you should be able to relate to as a user. You are all using a SaaS software as a service without even knowing. Maybe knowing, maybe not knowing, but you're going to know shortly what does that mean. So SaaS is a form of a cloud computing. Well, this type of cloud computing provides access to software application over the internet. Well, what am I talking about? Think of Google documents. If you use Google documents or Google Excel or Google PowerPoint, this is exactly what you are doing. Even when you're using the regular Word document or the regular Excel or whatever you call it, what I mean by regular, I mean Microsoft, you no longer install them. And I can tell you from my own experience, back in the old days, and that's not a long time ago, maybe 20, 25 years ago, maybe longer than 25, I don't remember exactly. To have Windows or to have Word or Excel, you needed to have a disk, a hardware disk. And every computer came with a CD-ROM where you will insert the disk into the computer to download the software. You needed space on your computer to run the software. And at some point, I was browsing and best by the laptops and I saw no CD-ROMs. And I asked the clerk, where's the CD-ROM? I was like, we no longer offer CD-ROMs at the laptop. And this was my first introduction because I had an old laptop. And I was like, how come these don't have a CD-ROM? So the software now resides in the cloud. You access the software through the cloud. So example of SASs include email, customer relationship management, CRM, which will have separate recording about this. We could have HR software, many, many examples. Usually those resources are subscription-based. So you pay a monthly fee for them. You don't have to install them on your own device. It means your device don't need the space. You have less, you have more space for something else if you'd like to. Like games, for example, right? No need to buy them. There is no investment. But you need to have access to them, you rent them. So rent is usually cheaper than buying. And it's really, always when you have to choose between buying and renting over all outs, you always buy. But for those type of things, it's better to rent. Why? Because you can rent them for a year or two for the fraction of the cost. Then the software becomes old and you need a new software. You can rent it again for the fraction of a cost. But always my philosophy between buying and renting always buy, but not in this situation. And you always have access to updates and the latest technology. So you don't have to sit down. I remember back in the old days, I know I keep saying this. Every time Microsoft will have an update, I will have to update my computer so the software is updated. That's no longer the case. You access it through the server and the server is updated. And those type of software as a service, SaaS systems, they can be good for a startup business, one person, or well-established businesses no matter what the size is. And some common examples that I just mentioned, Google Document, which is Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, certain CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot, HR software such as Zenfit and ADP, other project management software, email marketing like MailChimp and Constant Contact, and accounting software such as QuickBooks. I do use QuickBooks and the cloud myself. So my software, it's not installed on my computer, but I have access to it in the cloud. The second platform that we're gonna be discussing, actually it's called the platform as a service, PSS application, and this type of a cloud computing provide a platform for developers. Now, when we say developers, unless you are a developer, it means you develop software, it's not you and I who are users. So developer, what they do, they build, test, and deploy their own application. Simply put, if you work for a company, they want to create a new application, a new website for their business. So what this P-A-S-S does, it gives them the platform to do that. It includes to the tools, the databases, and other resources needed to create and run the application. So what they offer usually is sets of tools and framework that developer can utilize to create and run the application. And the P-A-S-S provider like Google App Engine takes care of the underlying infrastructure such as servers, storage, and networking allow developer to do what, develop, focus on what you are doing, which is developing the application. An example of these are Heroku, AWS, Google App Engine, Azure, which is Microsoft. So what it allows, it allows for faster development and deployment as developer can focus only on writing the code because they do have the sandbox where they need to do it. Basically, I'm saying I'm referring to the sandbox of the P-A-S-S, in other words, they are giving the tools and the field to do it rather than dealing with the infrastructure and deployment tasks. Many past services also offer scalability and high availability. All these cloud, they use the word scalability. I'm gonna use it here, I'm gonna use it in the next platform. Well, what does scalability means? It means that the platform can automatically scale up or scale down. So if you need more resources, they can give you. If your business grew. Well, if your business also shrunk, you can downgrade as well depending on the load and it can ensure that the application is always available. That's the beauty thing about cloud and the most important, as I mentioned, it's cost effective. Then we have something called the I-A-A-S or infrastructure as a service. Well, this type of cloud basing provide access to infrastructure resources, such as virtualize computing resources, storage and networking also over the internet. Simply put, you virtually have a version of the traditional on-premise infrastructure, but it's owned and operated by someone else, by a third party. Well-known names Amazon and Google, they do this. The provider, which is such as Amazon or Google, is responsible for the underlying hardware. So you don't buy the hardware. You use their hardware, they give you access to it. While the customer is responsible for operating the system, middleware and application that run on top of it. So that's important that they give you the infrastructure, the hardware, but you run your own software. Big examples, again, Amazon, AWS services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud. Notice all those big tech companies are involved in the cloud. And that's relatively a new business, relatively a new business, still fairly a new business. Digital Ocean as well. Notice the word ocean is big because you want to have a lot of things into the cloud. More about the infrastructure as a service. What can we say? It can provide organization with the flexibility again to scale their infrastructure up or down as needed, depending on the number of users and the amount of data being processed. That's the good thing. So this makes this type of service cost effective, just like all the other services, then traditional on-premise solution. Think about rather than installing the hardware, having, you need the space, you need to maintain it. You don't have to worry about any of this. You can rent it online. As organization only pay for the resources that they use. And usually they provide a wide range of option and configuration because AWS and Google Cloud, that's their specialty, including different types of virtual machines, storage option and networking capabilities. So you don't have to study any of this. It's provided to you again at a fraction of a cost compared to if you want to install this yourself on-premise and own it yourself, which it could become absolute three to five years. Why do it? And this allows organization to tailor their infrastructure to their specific needs and requirement. Also, AIAS provide various management that automate automation tools, which can help to reduce the operation overhead and improve the efficiency of IT teams. And that's the whole purpose of using the cloud is it's cost effective. It's more efficient for you and your IT team. So you don't need a huge IT team, maybe one or two person. Now it's important to note, I mentioned this that the IAAS does not include the software and the application. It provides the hardware that run on top of it. That for that you will need either an SAS or PAAS, but it provides the foundational layers like the servers, the storage networking, which needed to run those applications. So make sure IAAS don't include software, don't include application. Now what should you do now? Go to Farhat Lectures and look at MCQs to help you understand these topics. We're not done with cloud computing yet. We're gonna have maybe one or two more session about the cloud computing. The cloud computing is the future and that's why it's tested on the CPA exam, on the CMA exam, on CISA and any accounting information system course. Invest in yourself and invest in your career. Take your education seriously. Good luck, study hard and always stay up to date on technology.