Cloud Computing:

A Definition, Challenges and

Opportunities

PRESENTATION AGENDA

INTRODUCTION
DEFINITION OF CLOUD
SERVICE MODELS
CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELS
OAU PRIVATE CLOUD
CHALLENGES
OPPORTUNITIES
CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

Cloud computing is not a new concept.

The underlying concept dates back to the 1950s
when mainframe computers became available
in academia and corporations and accessible to
users via non intelligent terminals.
The concept of TIMESHARING was introduced
to make more efficient use of costly mainframes.
The era of PERSONAL COMPUTERS
COMPUTER NETWORKS
INTERNET
GRID COMPUTING
CLOUD - providing unlimited computing power
as against the finite computing power of the
mainframe

INTRODUCTION

The Cloud
Cloud computing is model for enabling
network users on-demand access to a
shared pool of configurable computing
resources that can be rapidly provisioned
and release to the client without direct
service provider interaction

Whats new?
Acquisition Model:
Based on
purchasing of
services

Business Model:
Based on pay for
use

Access Model:
Over the Internet
to ANY device

Technical Model:
Scalable, elastic,
dynamic, multitenant, & sharable

Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (United States)

and the ITU Focus Group.
6

THE CLOUD
Cloud computing is the result of evolution and
adoption of existing technologies and paradigms (
autonomic computing,
Clientserver model,
Grid computing,
Mainframe computer,
Utility computing, Peer-to-peer, and Virtualization).

Goal of Cloud Computing: To allow users to take

maximum benefits from all of these technologies,
without the need for deep knowledge about or
expertise with each one of them.

The Cloud aims to cut costs, and help the users focus
on their core business instead of being impeded by IT
obstacles
four essential characteristics, five service models,
and four deployment models.

SERVICE
MODELS

CLOUD CLIENTS
- Web browser, terminal, thin client, mobile app

etc

SaaS
CRM, E-mail, games,
etc.

PaaS
Execution runtime, database, development
tools. etc.
IaaS
Virtual machines, servers,
storage, etc.
CaaS

Audio/video collaborative services, unified communications

e-mail, instant messaging, data sharing (web conference).
NaaS
managed Internet (guaranteed speed, availability, etc.),
virtualized networks (VPNs)
flexible and on-demand bandwidth.

PROVIDERS
SaaS: Google Apps, Microsoft Office
365, Onlive, GT Nexus, Marketo,
Casengo, TradeCard etc.
PaaS: Google App Engine,
Salesforce.com, etc.
IaaS: Amazon EC 2, Google computer
engine, HP Cloud, iland, joyent, lease
web, oracle infrastructure, Rackspace
Open Cloud, Relia Cloud etc.

4 CLOUD DEPLOYMENT
MODELS
Private cloud
enterprise owned or leased

Community cloud
shared infrastructure for specific community

Public cloud
Sold to the public, mega-scale infrastructure

Hybrid cloud

composition of two or more clouds

11

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Software studio,BUILDING
Telepresence, Cloud Computing

OAU PRIVATE CLOUD (IaaS,

PaaS, SaaS)

Users on
INTERNE
T

INTERN
ET

OA
UN
ET

Users on
OAUNET

OAU PRIVATE CLOUD (IaaS,

PaaS, SaaS)

For OAU Investment on IT resources too

high (bandwidth alone is N131m, need to
move to the cloud environment and
share
these
resources
with
the
community and the public)
Facilities (cloud server 7.7TB for
applications and OS, Cloud Storage 12T),
fibre optic backbone(40Km?), 491 Mbps
(Aggregates) (245.5 /245.5). For now
Power backups ok( NEPA, 250KVA/50KVA
generators + Inverters + Solar Panels)
but for the future we need to plan.

OAU PRIVATE CLOUD (IaaS,

PaaS, SaaS)

Iaas: file-based storage,

SaaS: Standard Application Software, Inhouse software ISIS, E-portal, Akowe,
Interface for ilab
PaaS: programming language execution
environment, development tools, (12
developers, about 3,000 students for
now)
CaaS: web conference, video
communication services, e-mail
NaaS: flexible and on-demand bandwidth

OAU PRIVATE CLOUD DATA

CENTRE

700 PCs Connected to the OAU Private

Cloud

500 Thin Clients Connected

to the OAU Private Cloud

500 Thin Clients Connected

to the OAU Private Cloud

OAU SOFTWARE STUDIO

Developers using PaaS

OAU TELEPRESENCE STUDIO

(2)
FOR WEB CONFERENCE AND
OTHERS

CHALLENGES
Nigeria is yet to derive full benefits
of cloud computing services due to a
number of challenges confronting the
nations
Information
and
Communication Technology industry
[12]. Nigeria, like other developing
countries, is still facing challenges in
full adoption of cloud computing
paradigm due specifically to the
inefficient infrastructure, and cost of
access to ICT products and services.

1.

CHALLENGES
2. Traditional
Lack of awareness and problem of control:
Many organizations especially Small and
Medium scale (SMEs) in Nigeria are not
aware if cloud technology exists. For
organization that are aware, data control is
most critical. It is the belief of many
organizations that storing and processing
of data in remote location is a compromise
in data control and that the world of data
computing will end up in hands of massive
distributed computing companies such as
Google, Amazon, IBM etc,.

CHALLENGES
3.

Legal

Most cloud computing vendors fail to

provide a guaranteed level of data security
and for the cloud users this compromises a
basic requirement they are obligated to
fulfill under the Data Protection Act i.e.
failure to ensure an appropriate level of
security. Hence, many cloud users are of the
opinion that there are a lot of risks if data is
accidentally lost, damage or lost There are
clouds within clouds and a cloud user may
never be aware of their geographic location
and knows whether data protection privacy
law are being honor or not.

CHALLENGES
4. Security

Data security in the cloud is one of the major

challenges raised by prospective cloud users.
Within the cloud data is vulnerable to threats
during transmission, processing, storage and
downloading stages. The lack of robust security
mechanism within the cloud computing
provides opportunities for cyber criminals.
Secondly, the primary concern is the damage
that a criminal can cause by planting a virus,
from a normal desktop machine of an office
using cloud services which could spread across
the cloud and cause data damage. The inability
of most organization to store critical data on
the cloud as a result of lack of guarantee
mechanism to ensure data security by cloud
vendors will also increase the cost of IT
resources within the organization.

CHALLENGES
5. Technical
The fundamental dependence of cloud
computing on the internet presents a set of
technical challenges to the domain [13]. The
first technical challenge is data outage due to
interruption in Internet services. Vendor lockin and lack of transition mechanism when
cloud consumers intends to change their
respective cloud vendors based on better
offers provided by other vendor are other two
major technical challenges.
If cloud computing intends to attain a status
in computing domain similar to the utility
providers in the general world then they have
to address the issues mentioned above.

OPPORTUNITIES

Among the specific benefits/opportunities of cloud computing in Nigeria, two in

particular are liable to make a significant contribution to reducing the digital divide,
namely:

the ability to have immediate access to the latest innovations;

the possibility for an organization to do away with heavy investment in
infrastructure

Particularly where computation centres are concerned, given the unreliability of

the
electric power supply in Nigeria. According to the Minister of Communication
Technology, the federal government intends to cut down its spending on
Information
Communication Technologies (ICTs) by embracing cloud computing services.
Given our plans for e-Government and the increased use of ICT by government
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), this is an unsustainable practice
that must be managed. A Government cloud will provide some economic
savings.
In view of this, Galaxy Backbone is currently building a major cloud computing
infrastructure with the aim of bringing significant cost savings to the running of
the
federal government. The government cloud, according to the Communication
Technology Minister is expected to not only to improve cost savings but drive
efficiency
and productivity across all its MDAs.

The higher institutions in Nigeria will also benefits from this lovely
concept.
Job/wealth creation?

CONCLUSION
The essential value of this new way of using
IT resources known as cloud computing
resides in the fact that IT services, from the
storage and processing of data to software
applications,
are
now
available
and
accessible to everyone, instantly, without
commitment and on request. It is my
believe that the cloud computing model has
already come to represent a solution to IT
under-equipment problems in Nigeria, and
the trends indicate that this model is set for
major development provided most of the
challenges raised are properly tackled.

 Management of Obafemi
Awolowo University, Ile-Ife
World Bank Step-B
Skye Bank Plc
Hicos Technology

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