Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product. Resources like software and information are provided to computers and communication devices as a utility like electricity or water. This cloud computing service is done through a computer network, which is the internet typically. Cloud computing is known as encapsulation by some users since the physical location and configuration of how the resources are shared to the devices is often not revealed to the end user. It is like using the electricity. The end user doesnt have to know the whereabouts of the physical location where the electricity is produced nor how the components are configured from there to their home. They just use the feature or resource instead. Similar to this cloud computing describes the consumption of IT services through the common most computer network available in the world, the internet. Virtualized resources can be shared remotely with ease-of-access exploiting the facilities provided by the internet. The end user must have a tool or an application (Web Browser) installed on their local computers which provides the platform for the sharing of resources. Providers of cloud computing deliver applications or tools via the internet, which are accessed using web browsers and desktop mobile apps, while the main resources (business software and data) are stored in a server located in a remote location. Screen-sharing technology is used sometimes to provide cloud services to the end user, while most of the services are provide through web based technologies such as AJAX. Shared services or achieving converged infrastructure is one of the primary objectives of cloud computing services. This creates a data environment where sharing is important and rapid. Enterprises can get their applications up and running faster, while having easier manageability and less maintenance. It also allows the rapid adjustment of resources like servers, storage and networking to meet the fluctuating and unpredictable business requirements and demand. It may seem like the end user is accessing a cloud service or data from a single place, but in reality the services are delivered through shared data-centers where large amount of data and processing is shared between many centers.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

1. Agility - Provides the means to re think the way how a computer sharing architecture is configured.

2. Application Programming Interface (API) The accessibility to the software or applications that provide the cloud services. This acts like a user interface, which helps the user in the interaction to the computers. 3. Cost The cost is reduced largely because of the centralized system since the amount of hardware needed is reduced. 4. Device and location independence Users can make use of the cloud services regardless of the location they are in or the device they using. This is because they use a common web browser or app that works the same in all the different platforms and locations of the computers or devices. 5. Multi Tenancy This enables the sharing of resources and costs across a large pool of user, therefore allowing Centralization, higher Peak-load capacity, better utilization and increased efficiency. 6. Reliability Increased reliability because of the use of redundant sites. 7. Scalability High elasticity is provided in real time. 8. Security Improved security levels of the centralized storing of resources. The security can be more focused where the resources are maintained in a centralized location. Since the security is centralized each user of the cloud doesnt have to worry about the security issues related to the server or the service provider. 9. Maintenance Maintenance from the server side is less complicated, since the installation and the usage of the software or tool is determined by the user. Likewise the user only has to think of the maintenance of the tool installed, not the centralized server. Cloud computing may seem like a new service, but the characteristics of cloud computing is often similar to the following common IT technologies which have been implemented for longer time period in the history of Information Technology. 1. Autonomic Computing Self management capable computing 2. Client-server model Computing between service providers and service users 3. Grid Computing A form of distributed computing where a server is a super computer which is virtually made up of several loosely coupled computers in a cluster. 4. Mainframe Computer Powerful computer used as servers 5. Utility Computing Having computing as a measured service 6. Peer-to-Peer Distributed computing system where a server or a central computer is not needed

History of Cloud Computing

Term cloud is used to describe the internet in a metaphorical manner. Cloud drawings are used to describe the networks since the early days of the history. They used such drawings to describe the telephone network and then the internet. Virtualization, service-oriented architecture, and autonomic and utility computing helped in the growth of a more widespread converged infrastructure, which finally adopted into the service cloud computing. The first ever thought on cloud computing or the idea of a public IT utility was thought by John McCarthy in the 1960s when he mentioned computation may someday be organized as a public utility. Douglas Parkhill wrote a book called The Challenge of the Computer Utility in 1966, which discussed about utilized computing, sharing of public data resources, elasticity of the data network and infinite data supply to the users. Other scholars have shown that cloud computing's roots go all the way back to the 1950s when scientist Herb Grosch (the author of Grosch's law) postulated that the entire world would operate on dumb terminals powered by about 15 large data centers. The actual cloud computing services began when the introduction of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) were made in the 1990s. This became popular among the users since the reduced cost and increased efficiency compared to the point-to-point data circuits which were used by them up to then. These networks provided better utilization of the network medium and the resources. However cloud computing is more broad compared to VPN technology since it extends its boundary to cover the actual data servers as well as the network infrastructure of the cloud service. Amazon.com was one of the major service providers to initially implement a fullfledged cloud computing model to their users. They modernized their data centers and launched the first ever significant cloud service to its customers called the Amazon Web Service (AWS) back in 2006. Amazon.com played a key role in the development of cloud computing and it Is therefore apt to express that they are the pioneers of implementing cloud serviced to their customers in a major scale. In early 2008, another significant event occurred, when Eucalyptus became the first open source AWS API-compatible platform for cloud services. OpenNebula enhanced the deploying of hybrid cloud services in the same year, combining private and public clouds. Companies started switching from company owned hardware and software resources to per-user service-based cloud models. This was the first time when the power of the internet was utilized to the maximum. Information technology became Information and Communication Technology.

OpenStack announced in 2010 that they have more than 100 major companies as partners and more than thousand contributors just in its first year in the industry. It is officially the largest free and open cloud service and software project in the history. 2010 and 2011 became the golden years of cloud computing with the introduction more new hardware devices and sophisticated software. Devices like tablets and Smartphones became the main devices which allow the users to utilize the cloud fully. Amazon launched their new cloud service in 2010. Apple launched their first ever fully functional cloud service called the iCloud. However they have been providing cloud features to a certain extent in the past by their iTunes services. OnLive.com provides even high performance gaming to the users using the cloud. It is evident that cloud computing will be growing in a rapid pace in the near future, where more companies will step forward in to the cloud model and provide services to their users like an utility.

Layers of Cloud Computing

There are five layers of the cloud infrastructure which are used to share services with the user. Client A cloud client has the hardware and/or the software that relies on the cloud services to perform their functions. If the cloud is unavailable, these hardware and software becomes useless for the use of cloud services. Computers, Phones, Tablets, Operating systems, and Browsers are the hardware and software components usually used to access cloud services. Application Cloud application service provides a feature called Software as a Service (SaaS), which delivers a software or features of the software over the cloud. This eliminates the installation and configuration of the software in the customers local machine. It reduces the need for maintenance in the local machine. Platform Cloud platform services provides a feature called Platform as a Service (PaaS), which deliver computing platform or platform features to the end user. This eliminates the need to acquire computing as combination of hardware and software. Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure service provides features of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which delivers computing infrastructure (typically a platform virtualization environment) to the end users. This helps the user to eliminate the need for acquiring large servers, software, data-center physical space, and network equipment. Server The server layer consists of computer hardware and/or computer software products that are specifically designed for the delivery of cloud services, including multi-core processors, cloud-specific operating systems and combined offerings.

Cloud Computing Deployment Methods

Cloud computing services can be provided using different deployment strategies and methods.

Public Cloud This cloud method is the more traditional and mainstream approach to deploy a cloud service model. Resources are dynamically provisioned to the general public in a self-service manner over the internet. This is often done using web applications, which provide web services to the end users. A third party might be involved in the billing process. Community Cloud This cloud share resources and infrastructure among several organizations from a certain community connected using certain concerns like security, compliance and jurisdiction. This cloud service can be managed and hosted internally or by a thirdparty service provider. Unlike the public cloud the cloud features are not realized fully.

Private Cloud This cloud service infrastructure is operated exclusively for a single organization. The cloud service is managed and hosted internally or by a third-party service provider. Hybrid Cloud This infrastructure combines two or more cloud service infrastructures (Public, Community, or Private). This offers benefits of each different cloud models combined. The infrastructure is designed in a way that the flow of data and service between each deployment method is managed efficiently.

Cloud Architecture

The components in the cloud architecture are loosely connected between them. They use a loose coupled mechanism such as messaging queue to communicate with each other component.

The Intercloud
The intercloud is an extension of the internet which is the network of networks, that is a interconnected global cloud, which is called the cloud of clouds.

Cloud Engineering
Application of engineering methods and disciplines to the cloud service infrastructure is known as Cloud Engineering. This makes the cloud model more systematic as the high level needs of commercialization, standardization, and governance in conceiving, developing, operating, and maintaining are obtained. Diverse areas of the following are brought together or required in the engineering of cloud service infrastructure. Systems Software Web Information Security Platform Quality Engineering

Issues in Cloud Computing

Main issues in the use of long term cloud services can cause problems in concern to the following key factors. Privacy User privacy has been a major topic of discussion among the security advocates in cloud computing. This is mainly because the cloud service provider has access to the users in the cloud. People think that the service providers might monitor their activity in the cloud, and this is the reality for up to certain extent. The cloud service providers must monitor the cloud activity to provide better services to their customers. This might get interpreted in the wrong perspective. Compliance In order to gain compliance of a certain cloud service the service provider and the user must go through several acts and legal procedures by the government and other public organization. This causes the service provider to deploy community or hybrid deployment methods to provide cloud services where acquiring compliance is easier. This affects the user by increasing cost and difficulty of acquiring. Legal Legal issues are a major problem since the technology is relatively new. Different service providers might come up with the same idea or infrastructure mechanism,

where it might legal conflicts between them. Also the cloud service providers must interact with large amount of common public in order to get their services to them, this involves high amount legal issues involved with. Open Source Open source cloud services are becoming the most used cloud service available now. This is not actually an issue, but maintaining an open source infrastructure can be a difficult task sometimes. Service providers must be able to constantly monitor their cloud services for modifications, bugs and enhancements. Since the user involvement is higher than other cloud service infrastructures, the risk of getting a bug is higher. Open Standards When APIs with open standards are used it is difficult to maintain them, because usually they are not well-documented and structured. However they use open standards because of their interoperability and ease of use. However the chance of failure is high since the standards open an are not defined well enough. Security One of the major concerns in the cloud service infrastructure model is security. Since the cloud model is implemented so rapidly by many organizations, more users will enter the cloud service. This creates a question on the traditional protection mechanisms on both the users end and the cloud service providers end. Traditional mechanisms and methods are being redesigned and re-engineered so that the security of any cloud service is maintained. However this process must be done in a short period of time, since this is the main restricting factor for many companies and organizations to implement a cloud service infrastructure. Organizations are trying every possible alternative to provide secure cloud services to their customers. Not every customer is same, so providing better security measures can be challenging compared to traditional services. A user with malicious intent can not only harm the service provider, but also harm other users of the service. Sustainability Cloud computing is often referred as the greener way of computing. However this statement is not yet proved entirely. Geographical factors leads to the modification of cloud service infrastructure. Natural conditions and climate of a location is critical when deciding the location of the servers and other hardware. However the connectivity available in that chosen location is also a concern since the whole idea of cloud computing is to share computing resources fast and in real time.

The need for energy is another concern when locating a server. How well the energy source is engineered is very important and a critical deciding factor of the performance of the servers and the cloud service. It must also have a sound backup solution provided whenever there is a disaster happens, which we cannot control. The service must be provided without any interruption and delay. Abuse Since the amount of the people use the cloud is massive, it is almost impossible to constantly monitor each and every users activity on the cloud. Customers can get an easy access to cloud services, which will result in wrong people pretending as legitimate customers can get hold of the cloud service and software. These people can use the cloud services and the software related for various nefarious purposes. Cracking an application is one the major concerns regarding such users.

We all know that every innovative feature or service has many issues when it is relatively new to the public. This can be fixed in the long run by understanding the standards and values of such services and their benefits. It will take some time to the really understand the features and to discover the full potential of such service. Cloud computing turns out to be one of the major advancement in the history of computing, yet most of the people just enjoy its amazing opportunities, without actually knowing whats going on. Customers will realize how the entire cloud computing mechanism works and how they get their resources closer to them. But as usual it will take some time.

Research
More and more people are learning about the structure and the technical aspect of cloud computing recently. Organizations, Academic institutions, private institutions, and government organizations are conducting major researches and experiments in the field of cloud computing. A multi university project was initiated on October, 2007 for making the students know more about the technical aspects and core values of Cloud Computing Architecture. This project was called Academic Cloud Computing Initiative(ACCI) In July 2011 the High Performance Computing Cloud (HPCCLoud) project was kicked-off aiming at finding out the possibilities of enhancing performance on cloud environments while running the scientific applications - development of

HPCCLoud Performance Analysis Toolkit which was funded by CIM-Returning Experts Programme - under the coordination of Prof. Dr. Shajulin Benedict.