Modern Cloud Computing - Research Paper Example

?CLOUD In cloud computing, all information technology resources would be provided over the Internet from a cloud. The cloud allows businesses and individuals to utilize software and hardware under the management of a third party in remote locations (Mell & Grance, 2011). These include webmail, online business applications, social networking websites and file storage among others. This allows for accessibility of information anywhere network connection could be accessed. Thus, the cloud provides a pool of shared resources such as computer processing power, networks, storage space and specialized user and corporate applications. For this analysis, focus would be on the public cloud where software and hardware systems are hosted in the remote data center of the provider as opposed to private cloud where the software and hardware systems are hosted in the enterprise of the customer. Thus, instead of having local servers and computers in the consumer’s premises, the provider provides a remote data center from which end users access the cloud through web browsers or mobile applications (Rountree & Castrillo, 2013). These cloud application providers seek to provide similar or better service as if the software programs were locally installed in the end-users’ computers. The capital investment involved in setting up a cloud would be mainly on the data center. This cost would be borne by the cloud provider who acquires all physical computing resources including networks, storage, servers and hosting infrastructure. On the other hand, the operation costs would be passed on to the users. The equipment and assets in the data center belong to the service provide while the user would enter into a contract with the provider on a monthly or annual basis. Additionally, this cloud provider manages the computing infrastructure meant to provide the cloud services and runs the cloud software which provides the required services. The provider takes up the responsibility of deploying, configuring, maintaining and updating the way software applications operate on cloud infrastructure so as to meet the expected service provision levels. Therefore, the cloud provider would be expected to design, develop, procure, install, test, deploy, provide and manage the IT resources in cloud computing. Raj (2013) observes that this shift of capital demanding model to an operating expense model transfers material risk from the service user to the provider. DEPLOYMENT MODELS Organizational requirements on the services to be accessed from the cloud and the control needed varies greatly. Therefore, different service models have been used to implement the cloud environment. During the early stages in the development of cloud computing, there were only two categorizations, private and public cloud according to Hollwarth (2012). These two shared specific characteristics. However, these categories were extended to cover forms like the hybrid cloud and even a more specialized model known as community cloud. Private cloud Private cloud infrastructure is solely operated for an organization made up of multiple consumers. According to Mell and Grance (2011), the ownership, management and operation of this cloud could be vested in the organization, an appointed third party or a combination of these. It could be hosted on or off premises. Accessibility would be through local area network, LAN or wide area network, WAN (Raj, 2013). This implies that the organization substantially holds control of the data center thus improves on privacy and security issues. Nonetheless, Hollwarth (2012) observes that private clouds could fail to be fully utilized as compared to public clouds and as such could fail to operate efficiently. Additionally, undertaking the control of security of the cloud could come with higher cost implications as opposed to public clouds. Community cloud Shared by various organizations, community cloud is exclusively provisioned for use by a specific consumer community sharing similar concerns such as compliance considerations, policy, security requirements or mission (Mell & Grance, 2011). An organization or various organizations, a third party or a combination of these could be selected from the community and tasked with the management, ownership and operation of this model. This could be hosted on or off premises. Since any member of the community has access to the stored data, additional security features could be introduced. According to Rountree and Castrillo (2013), this model provides privacy for the respective organizations and maintenance responsibility is shared. Raj (2013) notes the pitfalls in this model including security lapse due to sharing among multiple parties in a community. It could also be faced with management issues due to lack of clarity of its leadership. Public cloud Normally, when referring to the cloud, it is the public cloud that would be referred to. In this model, the cloud infrastructure is provided to the general public for open use though ownership, management and operation would be charged to an organization or a combination of organizations including business, governments or academic institutions (Hollwarth, 2012). The premises of the cloud provider thus host the public cloud. The data of different entities would be segmented virtually but share a common IT infrastructure. Mell and Grance (2011) observe that these clouds are dissimilar by nature, raising the question of availability, security and law. A user cannot influence the usage of the service and has limited customization options. Resources cannot be localized and would only be accessed through the Internet. This model saves an organization the cost of investing in IT infrastructure, avoiding capital expenditure which is converted to operating costs. Hybrid cloud Finally, a hybrid cloud comprises of multiple distinct cloud infrastructures, be they private, public or community, which remain unique entities brought together by proprietary or standardized technologies which allows for the portability of data and application such as cloud bursting meant for load-balancing (Mell & Grance, 2011). This model offers flexibility provided by the public cloud and security and reliability provided by the private cloud (Hollwarth, 2012). According to Raj (2013), this model allows for an organization to outsource information and processing considered as non-critical to business to the public cloud while the critical data and services would be held in the organization’s private cloud. Additional need for computing storage or power would be provided for through the seamless connection between the various decentralized clouds. However, this complexity brings forth greater service management challenges especially identity management. References Hollwarth, T. (Ed.). (2012). Cloud migration. Heidelberg: MITP. Mell, P. & Grance, T. (2011). The NIST definition of cloud computing. US National Institute of Standards and Technology. Retrieved 25 November 2013 from http://csrc.nist.gov/ Raj, P. (2013). Cloud enterprise architecture. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Rountree, D. & Castrillo, I. (2013). The basics of cloud computing: Understanding the fundamentals of cloud computing in theory and practice. Oxford: Newnes Read More