CLOUD COMPUTING

CLOUD COMPUTING

 

Users or clients can perform a task, such as word processing, with a client such as browser and with service provided through such cloud based computational resources.

Since the cloud is the underlying delivery mechanism, cloud-based remote applications and services may support any type of software application or service in use today.

In the past, tasks such as word processing were not possible without the installation of software on a local computer. With the development of local area networks (LAN) and wider bandwidth, multiple CPUs and storage devices could be used to host services like word processing in a remotely managed datacenter.

The Cloud computing takes away the installation and upgrades hassles and need for higher computing power from users and gives more control to the service providers on administration of the services.

Consumers now routinely use data-intensive applications driven by cloud technology that were previously unavailable due to cost and deployment complexity.^[

In many companies, employees and company departments are bringing a flood of consumer technology into the workplace, which raises legal compliance and security concerns for the corporation.

The term "software as a service" is sometimes used to describe programs offered through "The Cloud".

A common shorthand for a provided cloud computing service (or even an aggregation of all existing cloud services) is "The Cloud".

An analogy to explain cloud computing is that of public utilities such as electricity, gas, and water. Centralized and standardized utilities freed individuals from the difficulties of generating electricity or pumping water. All of the development and maintenance tasks involved in doing so was alleviated. With Cloud computing, this translates to a reduced cost in software distribution to providers still using hard mediums such as DVDs. Consumer benefits are that software no longer has to be installed and is automatically updated, but savings in terms of money is yet to be seen.

The principle behind the cloud is that any computer connected to the Internet is connected to the same pool of computing power, applications, and files. Users can store and access personal files such as music, pictures, videos, and bookmarks or play games or do word processing on a remote server rather than physically carrying around a storage medium such as a DVD or thumb drive. Even those using web-based email such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, a company-owned email, or even an e-mail client program such as Outlook, Evolution, Mozilla Thunderbird, or Entourage are making use of cloud email servers. Hence, desktop applications that connect to internet-host email providers can also be considered cloud applications.

 How it works

This section may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, as it is not describing how a cloud works. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (April 2011)

Cloud computing utilizes the network as a means to connect the user to resources that are based in the cloud, as opposed to actually possessing them. The cloud may be accessed via the Internet or a company network, or both. Cloud services may be designed to work equally well with Linux, Mac, and Windows platforms. With smartphones and tablets on the rise, cloud services have changed to allow access from any device connected to the Internet, allowing mobile workers access on-the-go, as in telecommuting, and extending the reach of business services provided by outsourcing.

The service provider may pool the processing power of multiple remote computers in "the cloud" to achieve the task, such as backing up of large amounts of data, word processing, or computationally intensive work. These tasks would normally be difficult, time consuming, or expensive for an individual user or a small company to accomplish, especially with limited computing resources and funds. With cloud computing, clients require only a simple computer, such as netbooks, which were created with cloud computing in mind, or even a smartphone, with a connection to the Internet, or a company network, in order to make requests to and receive data from the cloud, hence the term "software as a service" (SaaS). Computation and storage is divided among the remote computers in order to handle large volumes of both, thus the client need not purchase expensive hardware or software to handle the task. The outcome of the processing task is returned to the client over the network, depending on the speed of the Internet connection.

 Technical description

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides a concise and specific definition:

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.^[4]

Cloud computing provides computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services. Parallels to this concept can be drawn with the electricity grid, wherein end-users consume power without needing to understand the component devices or infrastructure required to provide the service.

Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on Internet protocols, and it typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources^[5][6] It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet.^[7] This may take the form of web-based tools or applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if they were programs installed locally on their own computers.^[8]

Cloud computing providers deliver applications via the internet, which are accessed from a Web browser, while the business software and data are stored on servers at a remote location. In some cases, legacy applications (line of business applications that until now have been prevalent in thin client Windows computing) are delivered via a screen-sharing technology such as Citrix XenApp, while the compute resources are consolidated at a remote data center location; in other cases, entire business applications have been coded using web-based technologies such as AJAX.

Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through shared data-centers. The Cloud may appear as a single point of access for consumers' computing needs; notable examples include the iTunes Store and the iOS App Store. Commercial offerings may be required to meet service level agreements (SLAs), but specific terms are less often negotiated by smaller companies.^[9]

 Risks

Cloud computing's users are esposed to risks mainly associated with:

1)Information security and user's privacy

• Using a service of cloud computing to store data may expose an user to potential violation of privacy. Possession of user's personal information is entrusted to a provider that can reside in a Country other than the user's. In the case of a malicious behavior of the cloud provider, it could access the data in order to perform market research and user profiling^[10].
• In the case of wireless cloud computing the safety risk increases as a function of reduced security offered by wireless networks. In the presence of illegal acts like misappropriation or illegal appropriation of personal data, the damage could be very serious for the user, with difficulty to reach legal solutions and/or refunds if the provider resides in a State other than the user's Country.
• In the case of industries or corporations all the data stored in external memories are seriously exposed to possible cases of international or industrial espionage

2)International, political and economical problems

• May arise when the cloud's archives with all the stored informations are located in a Country other than those of the cloud's users. Crucial and intellectual productions and large amounts of personal informations are increasingly recorded in the form of digital data. And it's seems clear that a complete personal/national access and/or property of such archives it's of critical intrest for every nation.
• Issues are also related with the centralization of the cloud's archives in a few rich Countries, rather than decentralizing them in many Countries. If supported, the rapid growth of this phenomenon: a)will greatly increase the digital divide between rich and poor nations, b)being the intangible property considered as a strategic factor for the modern knowledge-based economies will favorite big corporations with "polycentric bodies" and "monocentric minds" resident in the "cloud's Countries".

3)Continuity of service

• Delegating their data-managing/processing to an external service, users are severely limited when these services are not operating. A malfunction also affects a large number of users at once because these services are often shared on a large network. As the service provided is supported by a high-speed Internet connection (both in download and upload), even in the event of an interruption of the line connection due to the user's Internet Service Provider/ISP he/she will face a complete paralysis of the work.

4)Data migration problems when changing the cloud provider

• Another issue is related with the data migration/porting when a user wants to change his cloud provider. There is no defined standard between the operators and such a change is extremely complex. The case of bankruptcy of the company of the cloud provider could be extremely dangerous for the users.^[11][12]