CCSP for Dummies by Deane Arthur J.;

Author:Deane, Arthur J.; [Deane, Arthur J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated
Published: 2023-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

Cloud development basics

The key difference between application development in the cloud and in traditional IT models is that cloud development relies heavily on the use of cloud APIs. While it may almost sound like a type of beer, an API, or Application Programming Interface, is a software-to-software communication link that allows two applications (like a client and a server) to interact with one another over the Internet. APIs include the set of programming instructions and standards necessary for a client application to interact with some web-based server application to perform actions or retrieve needed information.

Because cloud environments are strictly web-accessible, CSPs make APIs available to cloud developers to allow them to access, manage, and control cloud resources. There are several types of API formats, but the most commonly used are Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Representational State Transfer (REST).

SOAP and REST both work across HTTP, and both rely on established rules that their users have agreed to follow — but that’s just about where the similarities end; they are quite different in approach and implementation.

SOAP is a protocol that was designed to ensure that programs built in different languages or platforms could communicate with each other in a structured manner. SOAP encapsulates data in a SOAP envelope and then uses HTTP or other protocols to transmit the encapsulated data. A major limitation of SOAP is that it only allows usage of XML-formatted data. While SOAP was long the standard solution for web service interfaces, today it is typically used to support legacy applications, or where REST is not technically feasible to use.

REST is a standard that addresses SOAP’s shortcomings as a complicated, slow, and rigid protocol. REST is not a protocol, but rather a software architecture style applied to web applications. REST is a flexible architectural scheme that can use SOAP as the underlying protocol, if desired, and supports data formats such as JSON, XML, or YAML. Part of the convenience behind REST is that RESTful services use standard URLs and HTTP methods (like GET, POST, and DELETE) to manage resources.

Five architectural constraints are required for a system to be considered RESTful: client-server architecture, statelessness, cacheable, layered system, and uniform interface. These constraints restrict the ways in which clients and servers communicate and ensure the appropriate scalability, performance, and interoperability.

Understanding the basics of APIs is important for every cloud professional and is especially important when preparing for the CCSP exam. Make sure that you understand which types of APIs your cloud provider offers and thoroughly consider any limitations and impact to your organization’s cloud application security.

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