Q1: (a)

Cloud computing is a term commonly used for the delivery of hosted services over the Internet.
Cloud computing enables companies to consume compute resources as a utility just like
electricity rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in-house. National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) gives this definition "Cloud computing is a model
for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management
effort or service provider interaction.
Cloud computing system is divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end. They
connect to each other through a network, usually the internet. The front end is the side the
computer user or client sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system. Front End refers
to the client part of cloud computing system. It consists of interfaces and applications that are
required to access the cloud computing platforms, e.g., Web Browser. Back End refers to the
cloud itself. It consists of all the resources required to provide cloud computing services. It
comprises of huge data storage, virtual machines, security mechanism, services, deployment
models, servers, etc.

(b) A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure
everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of
software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each
other.
(c) Cloud computing can be used for
IaaS; using an existing infrastructure on a pay-per-use scheme seems to be an obvious choice for
companies saving on the cost of investing to acquire, manage and maintain an IT infrastructure.
PaaS; for the same reasons while also seeking to increase the speed of development on a readyto-use platform to deploy applications.
Private cloud; hybrid cloud;
Test and development; Probably the best scenario for the use of a cloud is a test and development
environment. This entails securing a budget, setting up your environment through physical
assets, significant manpower and time. Then comes the installation and configuration of your
platform. All this can often extend the time it takes for a project to be completed and stretch your
milestones.
Big data analytics; One of the aspects offered by leveraging cloud computing is the ability to tap
into vast quantities of both structured and unstructured data to harness the benefit of extracting
business value.
File storage; Cloud can offer you the possibility of storing your files and accessing, storing and
retrieving them from any web-enabled interface. The web services interfaces are usually simple.
At any time and place you have high availability, speed, scalability and security for your
environment.
Disaster recovery; By using cloud based on the cost effectiveness of a disaster recovery (DR)
solution that provides for a faster recovery from a mesh of different physical locations at a much
lower cost that the traditional DR site with fixed assets, rigid procedures and a much higher cost.
Backup;
Backing up data has always been a complex and time-consuming operation. This included
maintaining a set of tapes or drives, manually collecting them and dispatching them to a backup
facility with all the inherent problems that might happen in between the originating and the
backup site.
(d) The major concern about cloud computing are security and privacy. Handing over of crucial
confidential data to another company gives jitters to some people. Corporate users will definitely

hesitate to some extent in adopting cloud services as they can't keep their company's information
under lock and key. Privacy is another factor. As these data are accessed from any location, it's
possible the client's privacy could be compromised. Replication time and costs also play an
important role. How fast can the data be replicated is important for data resiliency. Reliability is
an issue. Servers in the cloud can have the same problems as the organization's resident servers.
Downtimes can occur with cloud servers too.
Q2(a)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision
processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer
is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and
applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but
has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited
control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).
Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the
cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming
languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not
manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating
systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration
settings for the application-hosting environment.
Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider's
applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client
devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a
program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure
including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application
capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration
settings.
(b) Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as
an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources.
(c) There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the
system hardware. They are often referred to as a "native" or "bare metal" or "embedded"
hypervisors in vendor literature. Type 2 hypervisors run on a host operating system. When the
virtualization movement first began to take off, Type 2 hypervisors were most popular.
Administrators could buy the software and install it on a server they already had. Type 1
hypervisors are gaining popularity because building the hypervisor into the firmware is proving

to be more efficient. According to IBM, Type 1 hypervisors provide higher performance,

availability, and security than Type 2 hypervisors.
Q3:
Full Virtualization using Binary Translation:
Virtualization of any x86 operating system using a combination of binary translation and direct
execution techniques. This approach , translates kernel code to replace nonvirtualizable
instructions with new sequences of instructions that have the intended effect on the virtual
hardware . Each virtual machine monitor provides each virtual machine with all the services of
the physical system , including a virtual BIOS, virtual devices and virtualized memory
management. This combination of binary translation and direct exaction provides full
virtualization as the guest OS is completely decoupled from the underlying hard ware by the
virtualization layer. The guest OS is not aware it is being virtualized and requires no
modification . Full virtualization is the only option that requires no hard ware assist or operating
system assist to virtualize sensitive and privileged instructions. The hypervisor translates all
operating system instructions on the fly and caches the results for future use, while user level
instructions run unmodified at native speed. Full virtualization offers the best isolation and
security for virtual machines, and simplifies migration and portability as the same guest OS
instance can run virtualized or on native hardware.
OS Assisted Virtualization or Para-virtualization:
Para- is an English affix of Greek origin that means " beside" given the meaning alongside
virtualization para-virtualization refers to communication between the guest OS and the
hypervisor to improve performance and efficiency.
Para-virtualization involves modifying the OS kernel to replace non-virtualizable instructions
with hypercalls that communicate directly with the virtualization layer hypervisor. The
hypervisor also provides hypercall interfaces for other critical kernel operations such as memory
management, interrupt handling and time keeping . Para-virtualization is different from full
virtualization , where the unmodified OS does not know it is virtualized and sensitive OS calls
are trapped using binary translation . The value proposition of para-virtualization is in lower
virtualization overhead , but the performance advantage of para-virtualization overfull
virtualization can vary greatly depending on the workload . As para-virtualization cannot support
unmodified operating systems (e.g . Windows 2000/XP) , its compatibility and portability is
poor. Paravirtualization can also introduce significant support and maintain ability issues in
production environments as it requires deep OS kernel modifications.

Hardware Assisted Virtualization:

First generation enhancements include Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) and AMDs
AMD-V which both target privileged instructions with a new CPU execution mode feature that
allows the VMM to run in a new root mode below ring 0. Privileged and sensitive calls are set to
automatically trap to the hypervisor, removing the need for either binary translation or paravirtualization . The guest state is stored in Virtual Machine Control Structures (VT-x) or Virtual
Machine Control Blocks (AMD-V) . Processors with Intel VT an d AMD-V became available in
2006,
so
only
newer
systems
contain
these
hardware
assist
features.

Q4:
Cloud databases are used because they have increased accessibility, automatic failover and fast
automated recovery from failures, automated on-the-go scaling, minimal investment and
maintenance of in-house hardware, and potentially better performance as compared to traditional
databases.
Reason behind not using cloud databases is traditional databases include
potential security and privacy issues as well as the potential loss of or
inability to access critical data in the event of a disaster or bankruptcy of the
cloud database service provider.