Cloud Computing Solutions: Deployment Models - Assignment Example

?[Your full full May 19, Task Cloud computing is an internet-based technology which helps users in accessing software applications through internet and store precious data (Mache). Using cloud services, users do not need to buy software applications and install them in their computer systems because they can access those applications using cloud services. As Schauland states, “Surfacing in late 2007, cloud computing is used to allow services used in everyday practice to be moved onto the Internet rather than stored on a local computer” (1). Cloud computing offers a number of considerable benefits to users some of which include increased data storage, workload shift, reduced need of installing costly software applications, user friendly interface, and resource sharing. If we talk about some essential features of the cloud paradigm, they include large remote datacenters, economies of scale with hardware and software, resource sharing across hosted applications, pay-as-you-go model and rapid provisioning, scalability and incremental growth to meet customer's elastic demand, more efficient resource utilization, and reduced costs. Unlike traditional business applications, cloud computing does not require installation of hardware and software products that a company may require to carry out different business processes. Usually companies need to install, organize, and run every application on their own. However, using cloud computing services, companies run their business processes in such a way that they do not have to worry about any technical hardware or software failure. One of the main benefits of using cloud services is that of workload shift because many of the tasks are performed online. As Strickland states, “Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications” (1). Having discussed the concept of cloud computing in some detail, let us now discuss some models of distributed systems in order to know how cloud computing differs from them. Web Services Web services are used by the companies for a variety of purposes, such as, for dealing with online customers, for making online presence of the company, and for performing web based business activities. As Knorr and Gruman state, “Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet” (1). Such services make cloud providers deliver exceptional cloud features to the users. SaaS SaaS is considered the simplest form of computing, as it is a single application computing method. As Cheow states, “Because there is only one application it is very easy for the company to maintain” (n.p.). SaaS is a model that helps people in saving their expenses on buying hardware and software products. This model is also beneficial because it reduces the costs that mainly occur for the maintenance of computer systems and applications. “This type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture” (Knorr and Gruman n.p.). Web 2.0 Web 2.0 refers to the sophisticated use of internet technology, as well as internet-based applications, such as, Adobe Flex, blogs, RSS, and social networking. Web 2.0 promotes better collaboration between business and users of internet related technologies (Rouse). Some of the main characteristics observed in web 2.0 include blogging, social bookmarking, improved data management, enhanced interaction between internet and users, RSS syndication, and advanced gaming. The three foremost parts of web 2.0 consist of rich internet application, web-oriented architecture, and social web. Web 1.0 is another technology but the main difference between web 1.0 and web 2.0 technologies is that with web 1.0, a person can only post or download content from the internet while with web 2.0, a person can get real-time control of the web content. Some other advantages of web 2.0 for businesses include improved marketing processes and faster access to knowledge. Today, almost every company makes use of web 2.0 technologies because it helps them in improving their business processes and productivity. Web 2.0 technologies also ensure improved interactions between customers, employees, and business partners making the business environment more informative, resourceful, and competitive. “Web 2.0 technology can fundamentally change business processes by delivering productivity gains and making user feedback an integral part of development processes” (Knights n.p.). For larger companies, the use of web 2.0 technologies is even more prolific because such companies have a large amount of data to be stored and managed. Web 2.0 helps such companies in integrating multiple sets of applications. Although web 2.0 improves the level of interaction between internet and users, there also exist some limitations or concerns regarding this technology. For example, critics of this technology say that web 2.0 affects the genuineness and credibility of the web content as every person can modify the online content on his/her own consent. Critics also say that web 2.0 is against the ethics of web content as it provides the right of modification to the users. Grid Computing Grid computing, in an understandable form, is a computer network in which the resources of the computer are being shared with different computers. In cloud computing, users can access services from the cloud, whereas in grid computing, users can share the resources. Grid computing can be analyzed in several aspects. For example, scientists are able to study proteins by the use of network of computers for data analysis. Similarly, businessmen are able to use these technology to predict the future of his company. Military officials are able to coordinate tactics because of network of computers that make work easier. Processing power, data storage, and memory are considered resources of the computers that perform task related to computer network. Grid computing system can be as easy as gathering of similar computers that run on similar operating system or as complicated as having inter-networked systems that is composed of every computer processing platform that anyone can think of. Despite being not so popular to end users, grid computing technology is not new in the industry. It is also considered a special type of distributed computing. Normally, grid computing system has its every resource being shared creating a computer network that is far significant than a supercomputer. If correct interface is provided, accessing the grid computing system is not as hard as accessing the local machine’s resources. Task 2: In this task, we will discuss some central challenges to cloud computing, as well as some key data models and technical trade-offs linking the key-value stores normally provided and relational databases. The focus will also be on knowing the way application developers select a particular storage system and ensure data survival for a long time. Challenges to Cloud Computing Cloud computing poses some challenges for users along with providing them a number of considerable benefits. Some of the main challenges of cloud computing include ensuring adequate performance, organizing and archiving data, creating varied and multi-web service object collections and sharing them, manipulating data with standard scripts or applications, ensuring adequate security, integrating and protecting personal data distributed across web-based services, and ensuring competitiveness of cloud computing costs. It is a fact that cloud computing has to deal with the inherent internet-based limitations and has to provide its services in accordance with the established policies. This causes delays in processes and the prime reasons of such delays are traffic and demand spikes. Another challenge for cloud services providers is to ensure data security and build confidence of users. Users usually consider datacenter-based and desktop-based services more reliable and secure as compared to cloud services because of security reasons. Moreover, ensuring consistency and proper functioning of services in order to remain competitive also poses a challenge for cloud services providers. The companies providing cloud-computing services need to make use of latest IT-based tools and data sharing procedures in order to overcome these challenges and promote the use of cloud computing in all fields of technology and businesses. Cloud Computing – Data Models and Deployment Options The rising fame of cloud computing cannot be attributed only to the fact that it makes businesses more lively by offering dynamic scalability, cost saving, and optimized server utilization, rather it is also linked with user-friendly interfaces and disaster recovery features. Using cloud-computing services, users can enjoy a substantial amount of workload shift. The reason is that cloud computing takes the responsibility of many of the business processes related to service and sales management. For clients, some of the main advantages of using cloud services include low capital investment, intuitive interface of software applications, no requirement of ease in running applications, ease of integration with proprietary systems, and improved ROI. Some other advantages that can make users switch to cloud services from desktop services include improved organization of business processes, reduced data security risk, and improved customer service. Let us now discuss some of the commonly used deployment modes for cloud computing solutions: Private Cloud Private cloud computing solutions are considered an expansion of the already existing concept of Virtual Private Networks (Desoza). This form of cloud computing usually works best for such companies or clients that aim to have a substantial amount of control over their private and important data. The reason is that private clouds are designed in such a way that they can provide a great level of independent security to the clients regarding their data while still allowing them to share the data. Public Cloud “This type of web hosting is backed by a fairly large amount of shared infrastructure and resources that may be present on a single location” (Desoza n.p.). Another fact regarding this model is that it cloud companies provide it to clients on a self-service basis over the internet and the billing for the services are charged on the basis of usage. The more a client uses the services, more will be the bills. Companies prefer using this data model because it helps them minimize their costs as the billing is done according to the usage. Community Cloud “Community based cloud computing can be best understood as a culmination of various public cloud networks that come together to host a network” (Desoza n.p.). As the name suggests, this data model serves the interests of the whole community. The organizations having similar needs and requirements or ones that belong to the same industry can use this form of cloud computing because it overcomes the problem of hosting large-scale requirements on a single public cloud. This form of cloud computing comes between the private and public clouds if ranked by the amount of usage. Public clouds have the biggest amount of users, whereas community cloud users are more those of private cloud computing services. Hybrid Cloud This model of cloud computing makes use of dual features of in-house resources and public cloud model. Some resources are used in-house, whereas some on public cloud. It is an economical model of cloud computing because it reduces the expenses and helps companies develop and expand inorganically. Another attractive feature of hybrid cloud computing is that it offers a significant control over stored data to the clients. In order to understand the technical trade-offs that link the key-value stores commonly provided with relational databases, let us take the example of Amazon, which is a cloud services providing company. About simple storage service (S3) of Amazon, there is a big hype that S3 provides high availability, improved reliability, and infinite scalability to users at a very low cost (Brantner et al. n.p.). The relational databases of Amazon are also very up-to-date and are able to deal with large amounts of data without any error. At present, companies and other clients use S3 to store video files, audio files, photos, and other multi-media documents shared by people with a less requirement of updating. If we talk about the selection of storage systems, we can say that application developers choose a particular storage system based on simplified and automated storage management, efficiency, increased storage utilization, reliability of performance, scalability, and availability. Usually the more a storage system has the place to store files; more will be the chances of that storage system to be selected. One designs cloud-based storage systems by ensuring large storage capacity and the ability of the system to protect data of the clients for longer years. To design such a system, developers ensure large storage capacity and improved data security and integrity features. Task 3: Organizations can gain a number of considerable benefits through virtualization. Some of the main benefits of virtualization include enhanced hardware utilization, more agile deployment and provisioning, lowered total cost of ownership, improved business continuity, and enhanced availability (Kamoun). The first step of most of the companies towards virtualization is to merge their servers using virtualization in order to make them able to serve multiple applications. This feature also improves the utilization rate of servers as they manager more than one tasks at a time. Moreover, it also results in noticeably reducing the number of required servers (Perilli). Consolidated servers not only help in cutting off the capital substantially, as well as the operating costs related to the server environments but also help in making the entire datacenter reliable and flexible. Through virtualization, users can think of the compute power as a centralized resource which is able to allocate to business units on demand, while still upholding operational brilliance and control. Another fact regarding virtualization is that it lowers the TCO for the organization, as well as allows for usage accountability while simplifying and fulfilling the requirement of on-demand requests of infrastructure and improving the ability to control, serve, and manage the SLAs (Perilli). For this reason, it can be said that virtualization definitely plays a considerable role in cloud computing. It is a very useful technology that allows the cloud services providers to provide a cost-effective hosting environment to every company or organization regardless of size and location. Virtualization helps in consolidating the servers and reducing hardware and software installation and maintenance costs. It also makes the system much more reliable, faster, and efficient. Server virtualization is considered the first step toward cloud computing for most agencies. Moving towards cloud computing becomes very easy if the process of virtualization is done properly. On the other hand, cloud computing can be difficult if less attention is given to server virtualization (Moore). Although virtualization reduces the power and hardware costs by reducing the number of required servers, it needs a great deal of attention to be productive for a company. It can work as a chance to update and expand the role of the IT department as a main service provider for the whole organization (Moore). Virtualization can be defined as an appropriate description of the role of the IT department as provision of cloud services are becoming more and more common these days. Once an agency virtualizes the server infrastructure, it becomes able to move the tasks related to data processing to the platform easily that makes the most operational or financial sense, whether is bound to be operated by a cloud services company or made to work at an internal data center (Moore). In reality, virtualization is a process that needs to be promoted dynamically within the organization to attain the critical mass that can speak for and support the cloud shift. Another important thing to consider is that virtualization takes new operating procedures and tools to adopt and maintain a service-oriented approach. In general, organizations need to think about using latest technologies to assist them in navigating between both public cloud and private cloud resources because critics usually speak for the clouds that are make use of two approaches for forming a common model (Moore). For businesses, virtualization offers solutions to the problems related to data management and sustainability of business operations. For example, cloud services based on virtualization help businesses in workload shift, improved data storage, reduced operational costs, improved project management, and provision of better customer service. Using the services, companies can store their important files, such as, Microsoft word files, spreadsheets, and video and audio files on the cloud using internet and can also access them when required. An important thing is that they do not need to bear additional costs of buying heavy systems for the storage of huge volumes of data since the cloud services company offers all of these features and functions to the clients at a minimal cost. The clients just need to pay the fee to the cloud services providers on monthly basis in return of getting the benefits. Companies do not need to buy and install a large number of expensive servers to manage the business matters. Virtualization reduces this need while making the business processes more efficient for the clients. Let us take an example of NextGen, which is a software company that uses AT&T for cloud computing services. AT&T is an American telecommunication company that provides cloud-computing services to clients. NextGen uses virtualized cloud computing services for data management, as well as for improving the customer relationship management. AT&T also manages the operating system software and the database applications of the company. Some other services that NextGen recieves from the cloud services company include data security, data management by AT&T internet data center, network management, self-service computing, audit controls, improved storage infrastructure and server management, and web portal. The company pays monthly bill to AT&T according to the usage policy. There are no termination fees or upfront charges that show the consumer-orientation of the AT&T cloud services. The hosted infrastructure of AT&T cloud services offers a number of considerable benefits to the clients some of which include improved customer service, reliable data management, quick response to business needs, and reduced capital expenditures. I do not think that current virtualization technologies are sufficient for the cloud services companies because they mostly focus on reducing the need of additional servers for companies. Some serious efforts are needed to be made in order to make virtualization offer maximum benefits to companies. Server virtualization alone cannot help companies reap the benefits of cloud computing. An application centric approach can work well in this regard. One of the best ways to ensure that the virtualization strategy is benefiting the end user is to make the resource allocation process more efficient and reliable. With only server virtualization in process, other business applications can suffer poor performance because every process needs a greater level of attention to show maximum efficiency. Task 4: Although cloud computing provides a number of considerable benefits to users, it also poses some threats related to security and privacy of data stored in the cloud. Some of those limitations include less application visibility for clients, lack of security customization, and loss of control due to increased dependency. However, privacy is the biggest concern for the clients of cloud service providers because sending of private data to the cloud does not apparently seem to be safe. Companies store their precious data to the same servers which other clients also use for the same purpose. In such cases, privacy of information can raise a question. In addition, increased dependency on cloud computing services also raises a concern regarding cloud computing. The issue of privacy of data in cloud computing is one of the main issues regarding cloud security. Development of new technologies related to data security speaks for the criticality of the issue of security. Protecting the data and information of employees, business processes, and accounts is one of the main responsibilities of companies. Use of cloud services for data storage increases the risk of information misuse because there is not a separate server for every user of the cloud. The users have to share the server to access cloud computing services because of which the risk of unauthorized information retrieval increases. With the developments in the field of information technology, hackers are also becoming more and more expert and they are coming with new hacking and intrusion techniques every other day. Therefore, it is one of the main needs of today for the cloud services providers to ensure best protection of data for the clients of the system in order to remain competitive. Data Location One of the main issues regarding security of data stored in the clouds is the location of the stored data. Sometimes, the location allocated to one client becomes visible for some other client due to mismanagement or because of some problem in the relational database. Such situations cause severe risk to the integrity of data. Cloud services providers should take special care of such incidents because it not only makes data of the clients insecure but also destroys the image of the cloud among the clients. Clouds having large datacenters, such as, Amazon usually maintain the backup of the data to avoid information loss due to any problem. However, such measures are not able to nullify the threat to the data because information misuse is some other thing. Therefore, such companies also need to take effective measures to ensure complete protection of stored data. Secondary Use of Data Another important point regarding data security is that the data that a company sends to the cloud for storage is confidential or contains precious information about the company. In all cases, data security is the primary requirement of the clients. The provider of the cloud services usually has complete access to the data for maintenance and management of servers. This also raises doubts about the security of the stored data because the cloud provider also has an access to the precious data. Although cloud providers make a legal contract that the data of the clients will not be used or viewed for any reason, but effective measures need to be taken by the cloud providers to ensure that no third party gets an unauthorized access to the data (Winkler). Security Breaches It is a fact that the risk of security breaching is always on the head while hosting in a cloud. In case of some threat to the data, it is the responsibility of the cloud providers to notify the clients so that they can take some measures to secure their data on their own. However, in such cases, the clients need to be aware of the disclosure policy of the cloud providers in order to know the mechanism the providers may use to make them aware of security breach incidents. In the United States of America, most of the areas have their own security breach disclosure laws that state that the clients must be notified in case someone tries to steal their private data stored in the cloud (Winkler). On the other hand, if a client finds out that his/her stored data has been accessed by an unauthorized source, he/she would need to take the issue to the cloud provider. The main concern here is that the same server is usually being shared by more than one client that leads to an increase in the risk of security breach. However, cloud services providers are fully aware of this fact and they take extra care in order to secure the data and make their clients satisfied by providing them with reliable security and efficiency. Encryption Cryptographic tools can ensure consistency of data and can provide integrity to the data stored in clouds (Cachin, Keidar, and Shraer 81). The providers of cloud computing service make use effective encryption techniques in order to make the data secure from hackers. One of the main techniques being widely used by the cloud providers in this regard is 123 bit encryption technique which ensures only authorized access to the data. Throuigh this measure, only authorized people can access the data by decoding it. “Data can be encrypted from your web browser so that the data sent cannot be read and modified along the way” (Wayne 1). The cloud provider decrypts the file upon reciving it for storing in the cloud’s database. However, if a client wants the storage of a file in encrypted form, then he/she should encrypt it on his/her own before sending it to the cloud. Disaster Recovery Another thing to consider is the recovery of data in case of disasters. Data security in includes a variety of storage maintenance tasks, such as, replication of stored data, proper backup of data, and easy recovery of stored data (Wayne). Cloud providers do replication of data using some special mechanisms, such as, RAID, continuous reliability checking using automatic repair, and copying on write cloning (Wayne). Summing it up, security of data is one of the main areas of concern for cloud providers, as well as for clients. Cloud providers need to apply effective measures in order to reduce the risk of data loss and security breach and make cloud computing a reliable and trustworthy choice for the clients. Task 5: It was a good experience for me to complete these tasks. I found them very interesting and useful for me as I gained a lot of precious information about cloud computing and various issues associated with it. To complete the tasks, I did proper scheduling of time. For example, I gave equal time to all tasks in order to complete them on time. In order to escape from time shortage, I gave these tasks the top priority. The most difficult task from all of the four tasks was the second one because it was a bit technical and I was not able to get required information from my sources easily. Therefore, the completion of this task took some more time of mine than I initially allocated for its completion. However, the third and fourth tasks were quite easy because of which I managed to overcome the time delay caused by the third task. I used ‘Times New Roman’ writing style to write the paper. The font size that I chose to write the paper was ‘12’. The margins for all four sides was ‘1 inch’. I used this size throughout in order to give a professional look to the writing. I also used ‘black’ font color throughout because it looks more professional than any other color. As the requirement of this paper was to write the in-text references and works cited page in MLA style, so I consulted the MLA 6th edition website to write accordingly. I believe that the experience that I have gained about writing paper in this writing style would definitely help me a lot in writing academic papers in future. I thoroughly researched relevant journal articles and internet articles to write my responses for these tasks. It was not very easy for me to search for the relevant articles. Therefore, I focused my attention and narrowed my research to internet articles because they have some good stuff about every topic and the writing style is easy to understand. The strategy I used to search for the articles was simple. I opened Google search engine because I think nit is the most efficient and reliable search engine which provides the users with the most relevant search results first and the other results that match some key words entered by the users. For the first task which was about mainly about the differences between cloud computing and Web services, Grid computing, and other previous models of distributed systems, I narrowed by research to web services, grid computing, and other similar models. I also explored the benefits that companies gain by using cloud services. Then I wrote a little about the new functionality that is available to application developers and service providers, as well as the way such applications and services leverage pay-as-you-go pricing models to meet elastic demands. I focused more on the benefits that a user can get from cloud computing services. For the second task, which was mainly about the data models supported by existing cloud-based storage systems, I narrowed my research to find the data models to write relevant information about them. I also explored the articles containing information about the technical trade-offs that link the relational databases and the key-value stores commonly provided. Finding information about the way application developers select any particular storage system took some time because there was not much information about this issue on the internet. I gathered all information about the required topics in the task and extracted the most relevant information from the articles to write proper answers to every question included in the task. For the third task, I felt it easy to write down the required amount of words because of the presence of huge amount of data on the internet. I found a lot of information about the given issue. I wrote about the role of virtualization in cloud-based services and the benefits of virtualization for cloud computing. Completing the third task seemed to be much easier for me as compared to other tasks because of the amount of information about the required topics on the internet. Fourth task was also easy as compared to the first two tasks. In this task, I wrote about the privacy and security issues of cloud computing services, as well as the ways the privacy issues can be dealt by users and cloud computing services providers. I would say that the information that I gained through this paper would be very helpful for me in my personal and professional life. I learned that cloud computing is an internet-based technology that makes people access different applications through internet on any computer system. Moreover, cloud services also help people perform business related activities by reducing the need of any specific place or a particular computer system. I learned about various benefits of cloud computing, such as, resource sharing across hosted applications, economies of scale with hardware and software, user friendliness, workload shift, and resource sharing. Cloud computing, grid computing and web services are all part of technological based system that defines information technology. All of the cloud computing technologies are somewhat complex in nature due to which it is imperative to recognize the functions of each and how it can help the people in their everyday lives. It is an interesting topic to ponder on and allows users to understand the broad terms that make up technology and IT. The infrastructure provides virtualization and improved access to internet technology. I also gained a lot of technical information about cloud computing, as well as some key information about the role of virtualization in cloud computing. Similarly, I also learned a lot about privacy and security issues of cloud computing. Summing it up, I would say that the information I gained about various cloud computing issues, such as, uses of cloud computing, scalable file system, challenges of cloud computing, client-based privacy manager system, and cryptographic techniques used for enforcing the integrity and consistency of data would really help me in making a secure and reliable use of cloud computing services. Works Cited Brantner, Matthias, et al. “Building a database on S3.” Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data (2008): 251-264. Cachin, Christian, Idit Keidar, and Alexander Shraer. “Trusting the cloud.” SIGACT News 40.2 (2009): 81-86. Cheow, Charles. “All About Cloud Computing.” Ezinearticles.com, 25 Mar. 2010. Web. 19 May 2013. Creeger, Mache. “Cloud Computing: An Overview.” Distributed Computing 7.2 (2009): 1-2. Desoza, Kavin. “Cloud Computing Solutions: Deployment Models.” Ezinearticles.com, 07 Oct. 2011. Web. 19 May 2013. Kamoun, Faouzi. “Virtualizing the Datacenter Without Compromising Server Performance.” ACM Ubiquity 2009.9 (2009): 1-12. Knights, Miya. “Using Web 2.0 for business.” ComputerWeekly.com, 12 Sep. 2007. Web. 19 May 2013. Knorr, Eric, and Galen Gruman. ”What cloud computing really means.” InfoWorld.com, n.d. Web. 19 May 2013. Moore, John. “Virtualization: A first step to the cloud.” Fcw.com, 10 Jul. 2012. Web. 19 May 2013. Perilli, Wendy. “The benefits of Virtualization and Cloud Computing.” Virtualization Journal, 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 07 Jun. 2012. Rouse, Margaret. “Web 2.0 (or Web 2).” What Is.com, 02 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 May 2013. Schauland, Derek. “What is Cloud Computing?.” Wisegeek.com, n.d. Web. 19 May 2013. Strickland, Jonathan. “How Cloud Computing Works.” Howstuffworks.com, n.d. Web. 19 May 2013. Wayne, Sean. “Discussing Data Security In Cloud Computing.” Ezinearticles.com, 13 Mar. 2013. Web. 19 May 2013. Winkler, Vic. “Cloud Computing: Data Privacy in the Cloud.” TechNet Magazine, n.d. Web. 07 Jun. 2012. Read More