Resource Pooling in Cloud Computing

The meaning of the cloud entails the use of computing resources by businesses and individuals. Resource pooling is one of the major principles of cloud computing whereby resources can be placed into certain states of utilization effectively to be scalable, agile, and economical. Resource pooling allows service providers to enter a dynamic arena of multi-user resource allocation that is greatly optimized in terms of hardware and software.

What is Resource Pooling?

Resource pooling is when cloud computing resources are pooled for clients and users. These include computing resources, storage, network bandwidth, and memory, which are allocated based on demand. Rather than assigning physical servers to discrete users, cloud providers maintain a pool of resources that are able to be provisioned and scaled in real time according to client needs.

Resource pooling adopts the multi-tenant model, where multiple clients (also referred to as tenants) share the same infrastructure. Resource pooling ensures data privacy and security among the multi-clients. Cloud providers use virtualization technologies to make sure these resources are logically separated and securely distributed among different users.

Characteristics of Resource Pooling

The following are the main characteristics of resource pooling in cloud computing −

• Computing Power − The CPU and the RAM are virtually created at the pump. Demand determines effective assignment of melted workloads across users.
• Storage − This would allow different users to share disk storage through cloud storage facilities. Use of storage virtualization for performance and security.
• Networking − Networking capacity is pooled so that the transmission of data occurs among users without barriers. Load-balancing features optimize distribution of traffic.
• Memory and Database Resources − Optimized use of memory and database instances will serve many clients with efficiency on the part of cloud providers.

How Resource Pooling Works?

Resource pooling uses virtualization and man-made abstractions. And so now, cloud providers use hypervisors and containerization technologies to create multiple virtual environments in a physical machine. Here’s how it works:

• Virtualization − An input will make newly created virtual machines (VM) or containers out of the physical machine and assign all its hardware resources to that VM or container in appropriate parts.
• Dynamic Resource Allocation − As the name implies, resources are assigned based on demand and idle resources can be reclaimed.
• Load Balancing − Many providers use algorithms to disperse workloads across several servers for their distributions.
• Elasticity − Increased or decreased resources automatically prepare resources to be consumed or freed when necessary, according to the marked rise or decrease in their daily consumption.
• Multi-Tenancy − This feature allows numerous users to use the same infrastructure behind a wall of data privacy and security.

Benefits of Resource Pooling

Below, we have listed some main benefits of resource pooling in cloud computing −

• Economic Efficiency − Expenses for IT infrastructure capital expenditure is reduced by only charging the user for newly consumed resources.
• Scalability − Dynamic scaling up or down of resources according to business requirements.
• Better Utilization − Efficient task allocation reduces the idle resource pool.
• Flexibility − The user accesses resources as and when required, removing initial investment for hardware.
• High Availability − Provision of fail-over mechanisms and redundancies by cloud providers to assure continuous uptime services.
• Isolation and Security − Levels of security measure such as data encryption and access control are utilized to prevent unauthorized access among tenants.

Challenges Associated with Resource Pooling

There are some challenges associate with resource pooling. Let's discuss some of them −

• Security Issues − The sharing of resources among multiple users becomes dangerous because almost all will be able to breach data if proper isolation mechanisms are not implemented.
• Performance Problems − Improperly managing resources will lead into a situation whereby users suffer from performance degradation.
• Complexity of Management − Managers of a shared infrastructure will need complex kinds of monitoring and automation tools for effective management.
• Compliance Issues − Various industries have their own regulations which may put a restriction on shared resources.

Applications of Resource Pooling

Following are the main application of resource pooling −

• Public Cloud Service − The pooling of resources is used as a vehicle for AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud to offer IaaS and PaaS services.
• Enterprise IT Infrastructure − Organizations use resource pooling in the private cloud to optimize their internal IT operations.
• Web Hosting − Through pooling resources, shared hosting environments serve multiple websites with great efficiency.
• Big Data and Analytics − This type of data processing through the cloud uses resource pooling while analysing data on a really large scale.
• Software as a Service (SaaS) − Applications that include Gmail, Dropbox, and Salesforce pool resources to be able to serve millions of users worldwide.