App Development for Mobile Platforms - Essay Example

CLOUD COMPUTING Name Course Tutor University Date Introduction Web applications are client-server applications that are distributed over the web browser. The web browser provides the user interface, client browser, and the server-side protocol. Indeed, Web users have made advances over the past few years in the field of network-based computing and applications on demand have led to growth in application models. Cloud computing is a major application model in the era of the internet. Still, this model could be described as a range of computer-based services provided by web-based cluster system. The cluster system of internet organizes computer resources according to management strategy by offering safe, fast, reliable, convenient, and transparent services to clients. Essentially, cloud computing centralizes computing, services, and some specific applications that usually provided to users at a fee. Also, cloud computing in mobile cloud networks is virtualized and assigned to a group of distributed computers. It also extends services to mobile devices such as the smartphones and portable terminals. Various applications such as Googles Gmail, Maps, and Navigation system for mobile, voice search, MobileMe from Apple, and live mesh from Microsoft have been developed based on mobile cloud computing to serve users. Conversely, cloud computing, though it has made great contributions to people’s lives, has some challenges. These include issues as how to combine the two technologies seamlessly and how to make the mobile phones make full utilization of cloud computing increase functionalities. Still, mobile cloud computing presents limitations on power, processing capabilities, user interface, the screen size, and cloud computing. In the context, some solutions to solve this problem will be presented. Additionally, cloud computing, advantages, and issues related to cloud computing are also discussed in the paper. Primarily, this article provides an introduction to the basic model of mobile cloud computing, the background, the key technologies in cloud computing. Web Application and Cloud Computing Cloud computing is the latest technology that has significantly contributed to the functionality of a computer. Indeed, it has done this without licensing on new software, investing in hardware and infrastructure, or giving training to new personnel. The applications to be hosted are purchased, licensed, and are run over the network rather than on the user’s desktop. Cloud computing provides common business applications online; these applications are accessed through the browser while the software and data are stored on the servers. According to (Cohen 2010) Cloud computing services are retrieved from any location in the world, with the cloud appearing as a point of access to meet the user’s needs. Indeed, there is a new advancement made in numerous functionalities such as the disk storage, processors, virtualization technology, broadband internet access. Therefore, these new features as well as inexpensive servers all make cloud computing to be a very compelling paradigm. However, users and companies pay a fee when they use software and storage in cloud computing. This software service provided by cloud computing is called software as a service (SaaS). For a paradigm to mature, it takes some time, mostly ten to fifteen years. Besides, cloud computing in its case is not extremely new shift in the way data storage and communication are managed. Indeed, it hosts some resources and components such as infrastructure resources, software resources, application resources, and business resources (Cohen 2010). Also, in the cloud computing paradigm, all of these resources are treated as the cloud services and indeed, users do not pay huge license fees to access and make use of the cloud computing services. Infrastructure resources include computing power and storage, and, they can take advantage of the existing technologies while software resources include database servers, application servers, and IDE and lastly, the application resources are made up of an application deployed as SaaS. Features of cloud computing: Virtualization. A cloud can be well-thought-out as the pool of virtual resources where all bottom layer devices are virtualized. In this feature, users access resources in a cloud using a browser and data is generated to them using cloud computing providers without maintaining their data centers. Additionally, virtual machines are installed on servers to improve the efficiency of using resources. In case there are issues related to server overload, virtual machines support data migration that helps in protecting loss of data. Reliability, usability, and extensibility. Also, Cloud computing provides a mode of safety that protects data while users have no worries over software upgrades, virus attacks, data loss, and leak patching. In a case of failure occurrence on the virtual machine and the server, cloud computing systems transfer and backup data on other machines, and automatically delete the failure nodes from the system (Cohen 2010). Autonomy. Further, Cloud computing is an autonomic system that configures and allocates hardware resources automatically. Large-scale. Lastly, Cloud computing usually consists of thousands of servers. This large number of servers enable cloud computing to have the capability of hosting mass storage services. Nevertheless, Major players in cloud computing include Google, Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Sales-Force. Currently, cloud computing services include spam filtering services, storage services, applications in high-level programming languages such as python, java, and database. Still, Google has released Google Application Engine and a cloud-based platform to be run by users and businesses. On the other hand, Amazon has released Windows Azure, a cloud-based operating system used for the preview of community technology. Subsequently, Amazon computers cloud provides expandable computing power and storage for the users. Advantages and Issues Related To Cloud Computing Benefits related to cloud computing include; Price: Start-up businesses do not have to invest huge sums of money in setting up infrastructure such as massive data servers, application servers, database administrators, resources for managing critical systems such as backup recovery. Indeed, the start-up business enterprise pays for services according to use. Simplicity: It is straightforward in setting up resources without worrying about management since all the management and maintenance is provided by the cloud (Cohen 2010). Also, other hassles that come with cloud computing infrastructure set up are also simple to maintain. Reliability: Data and network are reliably maintained as the service providers are experts in the maintenance of the infrastructure. Besides, it is supported by penalties to the service providers in case they provide unreliable service, and indeed, this makes it relevant to mid-size start-up companies. However, Cloud computing is faced with some issues and challenges. The primary objective of mobile cloud computing is to provide Web users with a convenient and efficient method to access cloud computing resources by use of mobile devices. Indeed, the biggest challenges of cloud computing on mobile devices comes from the features of the mobile devices and the wireless networks. Also, restrictions, as well as limitations challenges, make the design of the application, programming, and deploying on the mobile even more complicated than on a fixed cloud device. Significant factors affecting assessing of cloud computing include; limitation of mobile devices, the quality of wireless communication, and types of applications. Practically, all these factors are contained in the mobile cloud computing environment. Privacy and Security How strictly are the privacy issues handled? How are the security issues dealt with by the cloud providers? How are the access control policies addressed? Although cloud computing allows users to increase capacity, more services, and seamless software patches, despite the presence of encryption and software for control access, some organization will hesitate to put their data in the public-access cloud. According to the practical point of view, does some data remain secure in the public cloud access? What are the regulations that protect the data in case of software piracy? Anyone who uses memory bank to store data could store data access data outside their space. How is the data security handled in this case? For both privacy and security point of view, it is logical that to increase the security of the service; accessibility has to be restricted. Certainly, to ensure fast access to data stored in the cloud, and to prevent loss of data just in case one of the centers fail, the user’s data has to be uploaded to two or more sites. This makes it even more vulnerable instead. On the other overview, grouping such amount of data together in one physical location makes it prone to catastrophic failures. Therefore, to prevent such failures, data should be stored in sites that are geographically far apart. Standards There should be rules that govern regulations on the uniformity on how data is accessed, stored, and modified in the application. Otherwise, in practical overview consumers have fewer considerations to move entire operation because of the cost factor. However, with reviews of standards, enterprises will be neutral when choosing the service provider. Legality and Mentality Does the enterprise service provider have ownership? Who owns the business? Non-disclosure agreements are signed hence, involving the government agencies. This makes the clients doubt if they will be ready to forego the rights on their data. Besides, another issue arises when it comes to intellectual property rights when a third party site hosts the data. In essence, consumers are required to develop a broader mindset by relinquishing the ownership mentality as this will promote full acceptance of cloud computing. Pricing theory In case the prices are made prohibitive, then the pricing methods and mechanisms have to be revised in the long run. Questions to be asked in this issue are whether the service providers will be willing to provide discounts with regards to length of usage and the frequency of usage. However, it would be difficult to introduce limits on a free market especially in a condition whereby the company survival relies on cloud computing for its operations. DATA SERVERS AND MANAGING ENERGY CONSUMPTIONS The majority of cloud computing infrastructures services delivered through data centers and hosted on servers with different virtualization technologies levels. Data centers are physical manifestations of the cloud computing paradigm. Therefore, the idea behind it is to move the storage and computing from the desktop of the users to locations that host the vast collection of servers, storage, and network equipment. Indeed, this usually forms the seamless infrastructure for both applications and storage (Mahapatra 2011). Without a doubt, data centers are building structures with thousands of servers placed together. They are made by internet giants such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. However, construction is based on land availability, ready fiber-connectivity, cheap electricity, available water, and relatively good weather. Most advanced data centers store thousands and millions of servers. Indeed, each server contains processors, hard disk, storage, a power supply, a network interface, and a fan (Mahapatra 2011). Conclusion In the next generation, the bulk of applications and user data will be hosted in the cloud network. Indeed, Cloud computing is gaining its popularity as the cheapest and affordable method of data storage and software. Also, the wireless broadband connection options are growing. Certainly, this will make cloud computing allow users to pay for and make the use of storage and software as needed. In this case, the data, software, and applications do not exist on the client side but rather are regarded as services and thus, exist on the server according to (Mahapatra 2011). A cloud can be viewed as a network existing on the server side. There is special software such as virtualization technologies that make a single machine be seen as multiple independents. For sure, this helps to increase the server utilization by managing the data usage. Also, it helps in controlling the power usage, sharing distributed data, failure correction, and detection. Additionally, open source and standard software are also critical in cloud computing growth. Many organizations are moving forward with the intention of developing easy to use a cloud. Indeed, the clouds they intend to use will provide efficiency and will be cost effective regarding service and workability. Also, the consumers have the potential of exploiting cloud computing technology. Therefore, with all these details in mind, in this paper, we have provided an introduction to cloud computing technology and then discussed the advantages and challenges facing cloud computing. Due to the high increase of data computation, mobile cloud computing has become a topic of significant research in the recent years in scalability and high mobility. However, the quality of communication in the wired network is better than in wireless network. As such, decreasing data delivery proportion in the wireless environment is effective to increase the quality. Additionally, upgrading bandwidth increases performance but the most unfortunate part is that the users will incur an additional cost. List of References R. Cohen. (2010) The cloud computing opportunity by the numbers. [Online]. Available: http://www.elasticvapor.com/2010/05/ cloud-computing-opportunity-by-numbers.html A. Singh, M. Korupolu, D. Mahapatra. (2011) Server-Storage Virtualization: Integration and Load Balancing in Data Centers. IEEE/ACM Supercomputing Read More