Gopallapuram, Renigunta-Srikalahasti road, Tirupati

by B. Hari Prasad, Asst.Prof, CSE Dept. Faculty

Cloud Computing

Meaning of the terms cloud and cloud computing Cloud based service offerings

Grid Computing vs Cloud computing

Benefits of Cloud model Limitations Legal Issues Key Characteristics of Cloud Computing Challenges for the cloud The evolution of Cloud Computing

What is Cloud and Cloud Computing

The word cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet

The cloud symbol was used to represent the Internet as early as 1994.
Cloud-like shape to denote a network on telephony schematics and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams

Cloud computing is the use of delivering hosted services over the internet. Information is provided to the computers involved on demand

The cloud can manage multiple infrastructures and ties all resources needed together and will give access to services when needed which prevents services from running when they arent needed which can save valuable resources.

Many cloud computing infrastructures are data centers that deliver the different on demand services
Many companies are now investing in cloud computing and research groups are researching new ways to put it to good use. Some experts say cloud computing is the way of the future and predict that it will be widely used in the near future

History of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing first came into concept back in the 1960s - John McCarthy proposed that computers may some day be organized in a method that would involve it acting as a public utility. Telecommunication companies began offering VPN (Virtual Private Network) services during the 90s, low cost, point-to-point data circuits that provided their services.

The cloud symbol represents the difference between the users and providers responsibilities.
In 2007, major companies such as IBM, Google, Amazon and different school universities created a huge cloud computing research project which allowed many to see the prospects of cloud computing and the positive effects it could have on IT users and those who sell IT services. Cloud computing has been predicted to be put to use by nearly 80 percent of fortune 500 companies by the year 2012 and will continue to grow in use as the years go by.

Cloud Based Service Offerings

Cloud computing may be viewed as a resource available as a service for virtual data centers, but cloud computing and virtual data centers are not the same. Amazon.com has played a vital role in the development of cloud computing. Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web with the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites Cloud computing providers offer their services according to three fundamental models: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), Software as a service (SaaS)

Software as a service (SaaS) SaaS is a type of cloud computing that delivers applications through a browser to thousands of customers using a multiuser architecture Cloud providers install and operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the software from cloud clients. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example of SaaS computing among enterprise applications. Salesforce.com was founded in 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff, delivering enterprise applications via a simple web site Examples of SaaS include: Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, and Onlive.

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Cloud providers deliver a computing platform typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. PaaS is closely related to SaaS but delivers a platform from which to work rather than an application to work with Delivers development environments to programmers, analysts, and software engineers as a service Examples of PaaS include: Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, Cloud Foundry, Heroku, Force.com, EngineYard, Mendix, Google App Engine, Windows Azure Compute and OrangeScape.

The Google App Engine environment includes the following features

Dynamic web serving, with full support for common web technologies
Persistent storage with queries, sorting, and transactions Automatic scaling and load balancing APIs for authenticating users and sending email using Google Accounts A fully featured local development environment that simulates Google App Engine on your computer

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) IaaS providers offer computers, as physical or more often as virtual machines, and other resources. The virtual machines are run as guests by a hypervisor, such as Xen or KVM. Pools of hypervisors within the cloud operational support system support large numbers of virtual machines and the ability to scale services up and down according to customers' varying requirements cloud users install operating system images and their application software on the cloud infrastructure. In this model, it is the cloud user who is responsible for patching and maintaining the operating systems and application software. Examples of IaaS providers include Amazon CloudFormation, Amazon EC2, Windows Azure Virtual Machines, DynDNS, Google Compute Engine, HP Cloud, Joyent, Rackspace Cloud, ReadySpace Cloud Services, and Terremark.

A managed services provider (MSP)

Is typically an information technology (IT) services provider that manages and assumes responsibility for providing a defined set of services to their clients either proactively or as they (not the client) determine that the services are needed.

Grid Computing vs Cloud computing

Grid computing is often confused with cloud computing. Cloud computing evolves from grid computing and provides on-demand resource provisioning Cloud computing and grid computing are scalable Both computing types involve multitenancy and multitask, The only differentiating factor between the two is

In grid computing, a single big task is split into multiple smaller tasks which are further distributed to different computing machines
In cloud computing architecture is intended to enable users to use difference services without the need for investment in the underlying architecture In Cloud the consumer does not own the infrastructure, software, or platform in the cloud. He has lower upfront costs, capital expenses, and operating expenses. Grid computing requires the use of software that can divide and farm out pieces of a program as one large system image to several thousand computers

Benefits of cloud model

There are many reasons why organisations of all sizes and types are adopting this model of IT Removal / reduction of capital expenditure Reduced administration costs Scalability on demand Quick and easy implementation Quality of service Improved resource utilisation Disaster recovery / backup Guaranteed uptime, SLAs Anywhere Access

Limitations of Cloud Computing

Network connection

Control of data security

Additional costs Peripherals Integration Generic

Key Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing exhibits the following key characteristics:

Ability. Application programming interface (API) Cost Device and location independence Virtualization Multitenancy : Centralization Peak-load capacity Utilization and efficiency] Reliability Scalability and elasticity Performance Security Maintenance

Legal Issues
StatesEuropean Union Safe Harbor Act provides a seven-point framework of requirements for U.S. companies that may use data from other parts of the world, namely, the European Union Notify individuals about the purposes for which information is collected and used. Give individuals the choice of whether their information can be disclosed to a third party. Ensure that if it transfers personal information to a third party,that third party also provides the same level of privacy protection. Allow individuals access to their personal information.

Take reasonable security precautions to protect collected data from loss, misuse, or disclosure.
Take reasonable steps to ensure the integrity of the data collected.;

Have in place an adequate enforcement mechanism.

Major service providers such as Amazon Web Services cater to a global marketplace, typically the United States, Japan, and the European Union, by deploying local infrastructure at those locales and allowing customers to select availability zones. The USA PATRIOT (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (Public Law P.L. 107-56))Act, more commonly known as the Patriot Act, is a controversial Act of Congress thatU.S. President George W. Bush signed into law on October 26, 2001 The Electronic Communications Privacy Acts Stored Communications Act is defined in the U.S. Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 121, 2701, Unlawful Access to Stored Communications.

Terms and conditions Before entrusting your data to a cloud provider you need to have a very close read of their terms and conditions , and that you cannot eliminate all the risks you are responsible for The terms and conditions are non-negotiable, and not necessarily favourable to the customer The Data Protection Principles The Data Protection Act is based on eight legally-binding Principles. Of these two are particularly relevant to cloud computing: Principle 7, which says you must have appropriate security, and Principle 8, which controls transfers of data abroad All the Principles are aimed firstly at preventing harm to individuals and secondly at ensuring that they are treated fairly whenever their data is used.

Security is one of the most important safeguards from harm. The Principle says that you must take appropriate steps to prevent: Unauthorised access Accidental loss or damage

Security
Cloud providers typically stress the degree to which they take security seriously, and it is often claimed that their security is likely to be considerably tighter than in most small organisations. This is probably true, but cloud providers are also a more tempting target, and breaches undoubtedly do occur. Organisations that have close dealings with government agencies may also want to review the cloud providers offering against the HMG Security Framework, which is substantially based on ISO 27000. Many US organisations rely on SAS (Statement on Auditing Standards) 70 compliance. This is not a security standard but an auditing process which checks that the company is meeting its own stated objectives.

Transfers abroad Under Principle 8, transfers of data outside the European Economic Area are allowed if: The jurisdiction it is going to has an acceptable law; or The recipient in the USA is signed up to Safe Harbor; or One of a set of conditions is met. Transfers include storing data on a cloud providers system abroad, even if the data is not intended to be used anywhere outside the UK. Almost all European countries are OK, one way or another, but almost no others. Australia and Hong Kong, for example, have Data Protection laws but these are not deemed adequate

Challenges for the cloud

The biggest challenges these companies face are secure data storage, highspeed access to the Internet, and standardization. Storing large amounts of data that is oriented around user privacy, identity, and application-specific preferences in centralized locations raises many concerns about data protection.

Another challenge to the cloud computing model is the fact that broadband. Cloud computing is untenable without highspeed, connections (both wired and wireless). Unless broadband speeds are available, cloud computing services cannot be made widely accessible. technical standards used for implementation of the various computer systems and applications necessary to make cloud computing work have still not been completely defined, publicly reviewed, and ratified by an oversight body.