INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing is a model of computing in
which computer processing, storage, software, and other services are provided
as a pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the Internet.
These clouds of computing resources can be accessed on an as-needed basis from
any connected device and location. The term "Cloud Computing" has
appeared on the radar screen of information systems/information technology and
business professionals over the last few years. The term "Cloud"
refers to the Internet and "Computing" refers to the use of
technology.
In 2009 the US National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Information Technology Laboratory developed a
considered and well-written definition distilled from a number of perspectives.
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to
a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers,
storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released
with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model
promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics. The
essential characteristic are on demand self services, ubiquitous network
access, location independent resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured
services. Cloud computing consists of three different types of services. The
types are infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a
service. Deployment models are private cloud, community cloud, public cloud and
hybrid cloud. The emerging cloud abstracts infrastructure complexities of
servers, applications, data, and heterogeneous platforms.
The NIST definition arguably comes closest to
capturing in a minimal number of words all of the essential ideas of cloud
computing. Some other definitions below are more industry or commercially
oriented. For example, Wikipedia states that “Cloud computing describes a new
supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based on the
internet, and it typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and
often virtualised resources as a service over the internet. Others have
suggested that cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves
delivering hosted services over the internet. Cloud computing have lot of
potential to explore the telecom industry.
Characteristics
The
Working Group has identified four major drivers of cloud computing :
1. Everything As A Service
Service-oriented architectures define standard
interfaces and protocols (e.g. for discovery, quality, and data transfer) to
allow developers to utilise information tools and functions as services that
users can access without knowledge of,
or control over, their internal workings. Services in the cloud can be set up to
form business workflows. The advent of XML in the nineties and standards, such
as BPEL in the early 2000s, fuelled this growth.
2. Availability Of Broadband
Both the reach and capacity of Internet Protocol
networks are drivers of cloud computing. Moreover, as capacity grows, more
demanding types of data can be used in commerce, entertainment, government, and
business. In the early days of the web, data and an occasional image were
retrieved by web browsers. Today users routinely download music and short video
clips. However, full-length movies at high quality are still beyond most
broadband connections.
3. Warehouse-Size Data Centres
Another driver of cloud computing is an evolution
from small, distributed, data-oriented computing centres (e.g. 1000 node3, one
petabyte 4) to more cost-effective, very large scale commercial cloud services
(e.g. 100,000 node, 100 petabyte). This is likely to continue.
4. Energy Efficiency
In some data centres, only 30 per cent of the
electric power is used by the IT equipment, with the remaining 70 per cent
going to cooling, backup, etc. The last few years has seen rapid learning in
warehouse-size data centres on the design of cooling systems (Google, 2009),
environment monitoring (Liu, 2007), and backup with the result that power
utility efficiency is improving.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength
1. Shared
computer resources
Instead
of wasting precious and costly computing power, an inherent drawback
of the current client server model, cloud computing allows for a more
efficient and affordable use of computing resources.
2. Cost
savings
The end
user is no longer burdened with the expense of maintaining and updating
servers, data centres and software. Instead, the cloud computing provider
carries these IT costs, while organisations simply pay a low monthly
subscription fee.
3. No
licensing
The
all-in one package based upon a subscription fee does away with complicated and
expensive software licences that need managing and updating regularly.
4. Reduced
reliance on external consultants
The
provider now handles the updates and installation of software patches –
dangerous security loop holes. Conflicts in software incompatibility is no
longer your problem so there’s no need for external IT consultants to
troubleshoot your business systems.
5. Mobility
Data
stored in the cloud can be accessed from virtually anywhere with an internet connection.
6. Flexibility
The
second a company needs more bandwidth than usual, a cloud-based service can
instantly meet the demand because of the vast capacity of the service’s remote
servers. In fact, this flexibility is so crucial that 65% of respondents to an
InformationWeek survey said “the ability to quickly meet business demands” was
an important reason to move to cloud computing.
7. Disaster recovery
When
companies start relying on cloud-based services, they no longer need complex
disaster recovery plans. Cloud computing providers take care of most issues,
and they do it faster. Aberdeen Group found that businesses which used the
cloud were able to resolve issues in an average of 2.1 hours, nearly four times
faster than businesses that didn’t use the cloud (8 hours). The same study
found that mid-sized businesses had the best recovery times of all, taking
almost half the time of larger companies to recover.
8. Automatic software updates
In 2010,
UK companies spent 18 working days per month managing on-site security alone.
But cloud computing suppliers do the server maintenance – including security
updates –themselves, freeing up their customers’ time and resources for other
tasks.
9. Cap-Ex Free
Cloud
computing services are typically pay as you go, so there’s no need for capital
expenditure at all. And because cloud computing is much faster to deploy,
businesses have minimal project start-up costs and predictable ongoing
operating expenses.
10. Increased
collaboration
Cloud
computing increases collaboration by allowing all employees – wherever they are
– to sync up and work on documents and shared apps simultaneously, and follow
colleagues and records to receive critical updates in real time. A survey by
Frost & Sullivan found that companies which invested in collaboration
technology had a 400% return on investment.
11. Work from anywhere
As long
as employees have internet access, they can work from anywhere. This
flexibility positively affects knowledge workers' work-life balance and
productivity. One study found that 42% of working adults would give up some of
their salary if they could telecommute, and on average they would take a 6% pay
cut.
12. Document control
According
to one study, "73% of knowledge workers collaborate with people in
different time zones and regions at least monthly". If a company doesn’t
use the cloud, workers have to send files back and forth over email, meaning
only one person can work on a file at a time and the same document has tonnes
of names and formats. Cloud computing keeps all the files in one central
location, and everyone works off of one central copy. Employees can even chat
to each other whilst making changes together. This whole process makes
collaboration stronger, which increases efficiency and improves a company’s
bottom line.
13. Security
Some
800,000 laptops are lost each year in airports alone. This can have some
serious monetary implications, but when everything is stored in the cloud, data
can still be accessed no matter what happens to a machine.
14. Competitiveness
The cloud
grants SMEs access to enterprise-class technology. It also allows smaller
businesses to act faster than big, established competitors. A study on disaster
recovery eventually concluded that companies that didn’t use the cloud had to
rely on tape backup methods and complicated procedures to recover – slow,
laborious things which cloud users simply don’t use, allowing David to once
again out-manoeuvre Goliath.
15. Environmentally friendly
Businesses
using cloud computing only use the server space they need, which decreases
their carbon footprint. Using the cloud results in at least 30% less energy
consumption and carbon emissions than using on-site servers. And again, SMEs
get the most benefit: for small companies, the cut in energy use and carbon
emissions is likely to be 90%.
Weakness
1.
Legacy systems
Small and medium-sized organisations are more likely to embrace the
benefits of the cloud than larger companies which may have complicated legacy
systems.
2.
User attitude and
control
Organisations will still need to have ‘control’ over data and information
to meet business, legal and regulatory requirements. For many, the idea of
giving up control of the hardware that carries business critical data and
outsourcing confidential customer data to a third party is an unsettling
concept.
3.
Global economy
All segments of the cloud computing market – Software as a Service
(SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) -
will be influenced by the overall state of the economy and global demand for IT
services.
Opportunities
1.
Agility and
flexibility
Smaller firms are nimble and thus more easily able to move to the cloud
and take advantage of cloud computing many cost-saving benefits.
2.
Growth in cloud
services
Cloud services will continue to grow with increasing competition from
both established players and new entrants. Some observers estimate that the
cloud market will top $270 billion in 2020 with SaaS offering more growth
opportunities than any other segment
3.
Consolidation in
legal and regulatory environment
We will see the publication of more business guidance from law makers and
regulators over the next few years. The UK Information Commissioner has already
published his Guide to Keeping Personal Information Online and the European
Commission is currently looking into providing standard contracts for cloud
services.
Threats
1. In house IT Personnel
Many
IT professionals will need to re-invent themselves as organisations do away
with expensive IT Departments.
2. Data Protection
European
Union (EU) law states that organisations can only transfer data outside the EU
if that country’s data protection laws are adequate (to European standards).
With cloud computing, you don’t know where in the world your data is held even
though you are still liable for it.
3. Ediscovery
Should
a court or tribunal require your organisation to produce data or information
(e.g. to defend allegations of breach of contract or for an employment
disciplinary), can it retrieve them easily and guarantee that they meet
evidential standards?
4. Security
How
secure is your data? What track record does you cloud supplier have in the
technology markets. No type of data storage system is risk free and for
that reason, absolute security is impossible.
QUESTION
QUESTION
1 : What business benefits
do cloud computing services provide? What problems do they solve?
Cloud
computing has become a standard method of software operation for many
businesses. It offers many significant advantages, such as a potential cost
savings, ease of sharing
data and applications, quickly find the desired information, automatic backups, reduced support and maintenance
costs and improve the efficiencies.
In
the case they give us an example which uses cloud computing at the marketplace
that is Amazon. Amazon they use the Web services division (AWS) to get flexible
computing power and data storage. This cloud application helps Amazon get a
large amount of computing resources. According to the customer provided
information, the AWS can help Amazon separate, allocate and arrange these
resources. The AWS also can help Amazon’s computing resources. On the one hand,
Cloud computing has brought a lot of convenience for Amazon, making them save
costs and increase profits.
Moreover,
cloud computing let Amazon spend more time on other work which had more value. Because
of that using cloud computing can store large amounts of data and information, many
companies are using cloud computing. Cloud computing helps us build a large
database, and can help us to quickly find the desired information. This
improves the work efficiency. “Big Data analytical techniques are being used to
deliver more detailed data and deliver it quicker”(Top 10 business reasons to
move to the cloud). Another example for using the cloud is that it can help the
company save cost, like the Outback company who used the cloud “to avoid taxing
in-house system unnecessarily”. In the case, the Zynga Company uses cloud
computing to automatic backup data and transmits data. “Storing information in
the cloud gives you almost unlimited storage capacity” (Cloud Computing - Is it
Really All That Beneficial?). Cloud computing also can reduce support and maintenance costs by storing large
amount of data and information as backup to improve the efficiencies.
When
a new game is in the test phase and the company is not sure how many customers,
they use the Amazon cloud. “Then once game traffic stabilizes and reaches a
steady number, they would move the game on to their private zcloud”. This cloud
transfer can help the Zynga Company solve the space storage problems, and only
pay for the resources it ends up using. Using the cloud to transfer one game’s
large data is easier than using other old applications. In the case, the
InterContinental company use the cloud to provide customers with more
convenient services. According to use the cloud, the InterContinental company
lets their customers receive data faster if the data is located on a server
that is physically close to them. With the development of society, more and more
multinational companies are using the cloud, not only because of cost savings,
but because people worldwide can access the cloud, provided they have an
Internet connection.
QUESTION
2 : What are the
disadvantages of cloud computing?
Using
the cloud computing, the two major disadvantages are security and reliability.
In this case study, Amazon's cloud service has shown significant outages in
2011 and 2012, causing serious consequences. There are many large sites are
using Amazon's cloud computing, so Amazon's cloud computing failure will not
only affect Amazon, but also spread to
many other companies and have a great impact on them. It also because the user
loses control over the software application and becomes dependent on the
provider to maintain, update and manage it. If something goes wrong, the user
does not have direct access to the software and must depend on the provider to
fix the problem. If the provider is unresponsive or unable to fix the problem
quickly, the user can experience significant issues. According to the Paris
International Group of a report, after investigation they found that each year
there are about ten hours or more the server fails. Even this small amount of downtime
can lead to large revenue losses for firms that need 24/7 availability.
Another
important issue is security. “By leveraging a remote cloud based
infrastructure, a company essentially gives away private data and information,
things that might be sensitive and confidential. It is then up to the cloud
service provider to manage, protect and retain them, thus the provider’s
reliability is very critical.”(Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing
– Cloud computing pros and cons) In addition to these two major drawbacks,
another drawback is that cloud computing is prone to attack. “Store information
in the cloud could make your company vuln
erable to external hack attacks and threats.” As we know, the Internet
is virtual, so we do not know what is safe. Cloud computing can also bring
substantial risks in the privacy and confidentiality areas. By using a cloud
system, your company’s sensitive data and information will be stored on
third-party servers, and you will probably have very limited knowledge or
control regarding this information. If the provider has inadequate security or
encryption systems or procedures, or if a breach of these systems or procedures
occurs for any reason, your company’s private and confidential data may become
compromised. This could have devastating effects, and could cause legal
problems for your company if third party confidential information (for example,
customer information) is compromised.
QUESTION
3 : How do the concepts of
capacity planning, scalability, and TCO apply to this case? Apply these
concepts both to Amazon and to subscribers of its services.
Capacity
planning is defined as the process of predicting when a computer hardware
system becomes saturated to ensure that adequate computing resources are
available for work of different priorities and that the firm has enough
computing power for its current and future needs. Indeed, Amazon must plan its
future needs to be capable of providing sufficient computing power for both AWS
and Amazon retail services, a lack of which will result in the a fore mentioned
rejection by subscribers.
Related
to capacity planning is scalability, which is defined as the ability of a
computer, product, or system to expand to serve a large number of users without
breaking down. Scalability is a ability of a system, network or process to
handle a growing amount of work in capable manner or its ability to be enlarged
to accommodate that growth. Scalability relates to both Amazon and AWS
subscribers. Amazon must be able to provide its customers with services that
are scalable, as it claims to do on its website: “Take advantage of our massive
compute capacity and storage to build whatever kinds of applications your
business demands, no matter how fast it grows or how big it gets”.
Total
Cost Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate intended to help buyer and owners
determine the direct and indirect cost of a product or system.
Amazon
must provide hardware capacity planning and scalability. With the development
of information technology, Amazon will have more and more customers. Not just
Amazon, but Amazon's customer requires a large database to store a variety of
data and information. This will help the company grow. Amazon must bear the
total TCO of its services, while Amazon is also needed to maintain the
profitability of the company. However, the services' subscribers benefit from
not having to worry about these issues.
QUESTION
4 : What kinds of businesses
are most likely to benefit from using cloud Computing? Why?
As
information technology and social development, there have been more and more
companies need cloud services. First, the information Internet companies need
to use cloud services, such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, Blogspot, Ebay,
etc. Because the cloud computing can store large information, and share the
information. Second, large multinational corporations, one of the advantages
about the cloud computing is that people from around the world can get a faster
connection. Cloud services can help employees of multinational corporations to
establish good communication channels and share the company's resources. This
saves the cost of the work to help multinational companies, improve work
efficiency. Meanwhile, cloud computing is not perfect, it is sometimes also
appear outage. Therefore, it is recommended to use cloud computing company
“would be a major risk consider using another computing service as a backup.”
Enterprise-class business cloud services can be hugely beneficial, even for
quite small businesses. If data security, complete technical management and
maintenance, including user support, and high availability and reliability of
the cloud-based software applications are important to your business, then
integrated cloud services will be an excellent fit. The business can have very
sophisticated and highly available IT, which can be flexibly provisioned and
accessed from any device at any time for a monthly fixed price per user – it
dispenses with the need for upfront capital expenditure on IT related hardware,
software and overheads.
Microsoft
and Google are focusing on ‘commodity cloud services:’ basic functionality
limited customisation potential. Their business model is based on user bases of
millions of users at very low prices. In fact, competition will be almost exclusively
on price, which means levels of customer service and support may be low. The
offerings from these companies can without question meet the needs of some
businesses, but they shouldn’t be seen as a universal solution. These companies
have created much greater awareness of the cloud model for IT but, at the same
time, they have also created an expectation that all cloud services will be
very low cost. The reality is that enterprise-class sophistication and
customised services that will fit perfectly with developed business processes
will cost substantially more than basic ‘out-of-the-box’ software functionality
that can’t integrate with other parts of a company’s IT infrastructure.
CONCLUSION
The use of cloud computing utility has
increased significantly in recent years and it appears to be a natural
evolution of the data centre to execute computing and storage in a more
scalable way. With such a significant increase, the market is growing quickly
and more companies are providing new services with better features, including
isolated services.
No comments:
Post a Comment