In the world of data technology, it seems that each few years a replacement concept comes along that emerges as being subsequent great leap in technology. one among the present concepts that matches that description within the IT world is named cloud computing. However, before a corporation decides that it'll embrace cloud computing, it must confirm that it understands all the implications of this new offering. like most technologies, there are many benefits which will be gained, but along side understanding the advantages , the business risks must even be evaluated. When making this evaluation, it's important to stay in mind not only the short term needs, but the future objectives and goals of the organization. In recent years, the Obama administration has pushed for all federal agencies to research cloud computing to ascertain if it'll benefit each agency. "The Federal CIO Council under the guidance of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and therefore the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), Vivek Kundra, established the Cloud Computing Initiative to satisfy the President's objectives for cloud computing."5 With the recent push from the present administration, cloud computing is predicted to grow by leaps and bounds over subsequent few years. In some studies, there are predictions that "cloud services will reach $44.2 billion in 2013, up from $17.4 billion of today, consistent with research firm IDC."4 This paper will lay out the considerations that a corporation should consider at before making a choice to use or dismiss cloud computing at this time.
Overview of Cloud Computing:
"Cloud Computing may be a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network-based access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) which will be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interactions."2 This definition is one among many who are introduced within the IT industry, but what does this actually mean? The concept of a cloud are often checked out as a "leasing-versus-owning concept - an operational expense versus a capital one."4
To understand the cloud computing concept more clearly, allow us to compare it to a more common concept: paying for electric utility. monthly , a household or business utilizes a particular amount of electricity which is monitored by a corporation and therefore the consumer is billed supported their usage. If each household had their own power source, that might be congruent with non-cloud computing; there's no central power source that households cash in of. If, as is that the standard case, households buy their power from a consolidated power source (e.g. an influence plant), that might be like taking advantage of a cloud; many users sharing a resource to satisfy their independent needs. Using this easy example, the cloud would be almost like the facility plant, providing either infrastructure or software to customers on pay-per-use basis.
Some experts may disagree, but in many regards, cloud computing is analogous to the way that computers were used once they first entered the market. At the arrival of computers, computers (and associated facilities) were extraordinarily expensive and only owned by a couple of select organizations like universities or the govt . Few had the expertise to support a separate computing facility in house. Therefore, companies would lease time on computing resources provided by alittle number of providers, only purchasing what they needed for what they were performing on . during a similar model, cloud computing introduces the concept of shopping for resources as required , and almost like the past, the resources are often accessed from a foreign location. Key differences include quality of service, and sort of services offered by cloud computing vendors.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a guide towards helping government agencies achieve cloud. NIST's cloud model "promotes availability and consists of 5 essential characteristics, three service models, and 4 deployment models."2 As this paper continues, each of those components are going to be addressed.
Development Models:
Prior to having the ability to guage if cloud computing may be a good fit a given organization, the overall concepts of cloud computing must be understood. There are variety of various deployment models also as applications of clouds that structure a cloud environment. The cloud deployment models include: public cloud, community cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud. There are strengths and weaknesses to every deployment model because it relates to the precise case that a cloud is being considered to be used with. the subsequent provides a summary understanding of every deployment model in order that one are often chosen to maneuver forward considerately of cloud implementation.
Public Cloud
"Made available to the overall public or an outsized industry group and is owned by a corporation selling cloud services"2
A public cloud is owned by a 3rd party vendor that sells, or offers freed from service, a cloud which will be employed by the overall public. A public cloud is that the quickest to setup within a corporation , but it also features a limited amount of transparency and limits the quantity of customization.
Community Cloud
"Shared by several organization and supports specific community that has shared concerns" 2
A community cloud is an architecture that's established when a gaggle of organizations close to share resources. A community cloud may be a mini public cloud, but only a get group of organizations are going to be authorized to use the cloud. In contrast to the general public cloud, it'll generally be costlier since it'll only be used within a smaller group of organizations and every one of the infrastructure must be established. A community cloud may be a great choice for a gaggle of organizations, like a gaggle of federal agencies that desire to share resources but want to possess more control over security and insight into the cloud itself.
Private Cloud
"Operated solely for an organization" 2
A private cloud is one that's established to support alittle singular organization. there's much debate if a personal cloud should be considered a cloud in the least , because the infrastructure and management of the cloud remains within the organization.
Hybrid Cloud
"Composition of two or more clouds (private, community or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enable technology that permits data and application portability."2
A hybrid cloud allows for a few of the resources to be managed by a public cloud environment, while others are managed internally by a personal cloud. this may normally be employed by a corporation that desires to permit itself to possess the scalability features that a public cloud offers, but will want to stay mission critical or private data internal to the organization.
Service Models:
In addition to the platform on which a cloud are going to be deployed, there are a spread of various applications of cloud. There are three major sorts of cloud services, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Described below are the concepts between the varying sorts of cloud models.
"Delivers software over internet without got to install and run applications on the purchasers own computers" 2
SaaS allows applications to be employed by customers over the web to finish business processes. SaaS isn't a replacement concept; for instance , "Salesforce.com has been providing on-demand software for patrons since 1999."6 The advantage of SaaS is that the software is run from one centralized location, which suggests that that the software are often accessed from any location over the web . the opposite advantage of having the software managed in one location is that the patches and updates only got to be done once, eliminating the time consuming got to conduct software updates on every machine. Lastly, SaaS is usually "on-demand" which suggests that a corporation doesn't need to plan to enterprise licenses.
Platform as a Service (PaaS):
"Delivers a computing platform and/or solution stack as a service, often consuming cloud infrastructure and sustaining cloud applications" 2
The PaaS may be a platform that helps to deliver an environment where a user can use the clouds to develop new applications without the necessity to possess the software or infrastructure purchased in-house. the buyer will have control of the applications that are running on the cloud, but won't have control of the infrastructure that it's running on. In essence, PaaS provides "anything needed to support how a corporation builds and delivers Web applications and services within the cloud."3
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS):
"Delivers computer infrastructure, typically platform virtualization environment as a service. It's an evolution of virtual private server offerings." 2
IaaS is using the cloud to provide the infrastructure that might normally need to be procured by a singular organization to run an organizations IT infrastructure. Included within the infrastructure are such things as servers, memory and storage that allow a customer to proportion or down as necessary. The infrastructure can than be employed by customers to run their own software with only the quantity of resources that are needed at a given moment in time. within the past, companies would often need to purchase an enormous infrastructure to support a periodic spike within the need for resources, leaving the servers and networks idle for much of the remaining time. With IaaS, resources won't be wasted, because only what's needed at a given moment is employed . the purchasers to the cloud service have control over the operating systems and applications, but don't manage the cloud infrastructure.
Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing:
Now that the essential concepts of cloud computing are understood, a corporation must consider all of the impacts that cloud will influence. together might expect, there are variety of considerations that require to be weighed to make a decision if an implementation of cloud computing is that the best approach for a given organization.
Advantages:
There are many advantages which will be gained from the utilization of cloud computing. Cloud computing is made upon the thought of economies of scale. the good thing about the concept of cloud is that the potential cost-savings benefits which will be gained for alittle startup, large company, or maybe a whole agency .
Cloud computing eliminates the standard high up-front cost that companies often cannot afford, allows for "infinite" resources on-demand, and provides the power to buy resources as they're needed. It also removes the necessity for special facilities and highly trained personnel dedicated thereto and therefore the got to continually upgrade hardware and software as technology moves on and company requirements change.
In general, the utilization of cloud computing should reduce costs by companies paying for less than the resources that are needed. Many companies don't know what the demand are going to be for his or her IT infrastructure, which previously meant that companies either over-bought servers or were overwhelmed by demand that would not be handled; resulting in a loss of consumers or degradation of service to their customers. In either scenario, there's a detrimental impact because money was inefficiently expensed on unnecessary hardware and/or potential sales were lost.
Maintenance of software are often even as big an expense for organizations because the initial purchase. With the utilization of cloud computing, software updates and backups are made without the organization having to spend time and money on these activities. This helps to alleviate many of the technical burdens that are often placed on companies and allows them to consider their core competencies while still gaining the advantage of getting the foremost up-to-date version software.
Cloud computing allows a corporation to work in an elastic fashion. Resources are often scaled up or down as required by a project, consumer demand or operating need. The elasticity that's gained by cloud computing allows projects to proceed during a manner that's appropriate, without the time consuming and dear delays that the acquisition of hardware and software has through the procurement process. Resources are often quickly provisioned/de-provisioned, which should end in a lower investment cost.
The use of cloud is checked out as an environmentally friendly approach. Currently, there are an enormous number of server farms that operate to serve individual organizational needs. With cloud computing, one server farm can support an outsized number of various entities, potentially reducing power requirements, emissions, and disposal of old electronics.
Disadvantages:
A company might imagine that cloud computing is certainly the thanks to go, but there are variety of concerns that require to be taken into consideration before a corporation elects to implement cloud computing. the most concerns inherent in cloud computing include security, privacy, reliability and price .
Security is far and away the foremost common reason that a corporation states for not moving forward with cloud. Many organizations ask: "who would trust their essential data out there somewhere?" the quantity of security control that a corporation will have depends on the sort of cloud structure that's adopted; private, public or community. the quantity of security control is highest during a private cloud and lowest during a public one. While a cloud environment could be even as secure as a non-cloud, there's limited transparency into the cloud which escalates the fear of security. Along an equivalent lines, there's also a priority by many organizations about the quantity of privacy that a cloud environment could potentially lack. The third party vendor that's supplying the cloud could potentially access a company's sensitive information, which increases the danger of a privacy breach.
Reliability may be a huge concern for several organizations; having a service down for even a couple of minutes a year might be very costly or maybe cause a security concern. Cloud takes the control of reliability out of the hands of the organization and puts it into the hands of the cloud vendor. it's important that service level agreements are established with the cloud vendor to form sure the reliability requirements are prescribed by both parties upfront.
In some organizations, especially within the govt , there are reporting laws that make it so a cloud option might "not be a suitable solution thanks to government regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley and Health and Human Services insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA)".1 additionally , there are many regulations that prevent sensitive data from being transmitted beyond the borders of a nation. Cloud computing farms are general inbuilt locations that provide rock bottom possible cost, repeatedly outside the borders of the customer's nation. Currently, clouds are being established that alleviate this concern, but as a result, the value of using the cloud vendor increases.
While the "advantage" section mentioned how cloud computing was how to lower costs, this is often not always the case. The initial cost of utilizing a cloud are going to be lower, but the lifetime costs might be much higher thanks to the continual expense of paying for service. Lastly, there's always the priority the business that's selling the cloud services goes out of business. Cloud applications from one provider will generally not be compatible with other providers' clouds; thus limiting an organization's options if they needed to vary providers for a few reason.
Cloud Implementation:
The first step that must be taken before deciding to implement a cloud within a corporation is deciding if cloud is that the right fit. the right analysis must be conducted to include: cost, time, risk, benefits and interoperability. The cloud environment might be an excellent revolution for a given organization, but it's not a one-size-fits-all solution. If flexibility and scalability are an organization's paramount needs, cloud is probably going an optimal solution. In organizations that have high concerns for security and privacy, cloud could be a viable IT solution, but an in-depth analysis of the tradeoffs must be conducted. The length of your time that an application or infrastructure are going to be commissioned should be an element choose if cloud is an appropriate model. For a brief duration project, cloud is probably going a superb candidate thanks to the very fact that the infrastructure doesn't got to be procured. within the case of an extended term implementation, cloud might still be a really viable option thanks to the very fact that demand often fluctuates. This being the case, if demand is steady, a purchase of the hardware might a far better option, considering cloud normally features a higher cost per transaction.
After it's been decided that a cloud environment is that the correct fit, the layer of cloud which will be implemented must be selected: SaaS, PaaS or IaaS. Each of the differing layers brings with it entirely different questions. Following the choice of the layer, the sort of platform that the cloud are going to be deployed on must be chosen: public, community, private or hybrid.
It is important to require into consideration the whole life cycle cost of implementing cloud. Without much question, the initial cost of implementing a cloud are going to be lower, but since costs are purchased on a per-use basis, the value over the whole lifetime of could potentially be higher with cloud. When developing the value estimate to determine an IT infrastructure without cloud, it's essential that cost beyond the initial purchase of the hardware and software are taken under consideration . With cloud, especially within the public cloud, there's an outsized reduction within the costs for updates/patches, maintenance and reductions in staff, all factors that require to be taken into consideration when doing a good comparison. Simply put, cost must be determined for moving to a cloud and a choice should be made supported the requirements of the organization.
Summary:
In summary, cloud computing has the potential to vary the way organizations view and affect IT needs. because the private and government sectors continually search for ways to scale back costs, cloud is an approach that must be evaluated. generally , the value of this sort of infrastructure are going to be lower, but to a point at the expense of customization and control over security within the organization's IT structure. By fully investigating all of the considerations and options presented during this paper, a corporation are going to be well positioned to form a sensible decision on cloud computing for his or her current and future needs. more.....
0 Comments