Cloud Computing - Changing Technology and Management Issues - Essay Example

Running head: Cloud Computing Cloud Computing [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] Cloud Computing Changing Technology We see a frequent change occurring in information technology. In today’s age information technology has formed a kind of an invisible layer which is more and more touching all the aspects of our lives. Almost everything in our lives, whether it be power grids or traffic control, food or financial transactions, depend upon information technology. The phenomenal expansion of internet connected devices is addressed by an emerging compute model – cloud computing. It is perfect considering the increasing presence of technology nowadays. Cloud computing is scalable to a great degree, it allows for a superior user experience and it has characteristics like new, internet driven economies (Jaatun, Zhao, & Rong, 2009). Hardware During the 1980s and 1990s personal computing hardware stayed behind. However, the software advanced to a great degree. There were more and more applications available due to the fact that this was considered to be easier, faster and cheaper. However, now the software required a huge amount of space and needs extremely advanced machines to run. This also means very expensive machines. With the change in technology it would be possible to work without such heavy machines. There can be cheaper machines used for the necessary work. Cheap machines would definitely also mean slower machines. However, engineers can design machines such that they are able to run a browser and email software. In this way the expensive configurations, which it has become quite necessary to obtain if one is to use those heavy applications, would be eliminated. Through this the expectation would be that a lot of people would start owning these types of cheaper machines, particularly if one considers the state of the economy. Operating systems There are cloud computers for home as well, for instance the Webbook. These do not have a desktop, files, folders, applications, or even a hard drive in which can be stored the movies or MP3s. Everything can be obtained by means of the built-in Web browser. Such a computer may be conceived in future. This is due to the fact that the majority of the computer users spend a lot of time on cloud-based applications and services. Therefore, it is very much probable that in future there would be no use of such heavy operating systems like Microsoft and Apple. “We don’t need any more operating systems that integrate with machinery. We need operating systems that interact with your life.” says John Chuang, Litl’s founder and CEO (Xconomy, 2009). Application software In the near future there may also be no use at all of application software. Just like operating systems may become obsolete so may happen with the application software. A website (Salesforce.com) offers on demand software. It is not the only one. There are several others out there who promise to offer a trusting platform on which to make custom applications that are faster and easier to use as compared to the usual ones. In the case of Salesforce.com there is a database, security, workflow, user interface and other such instruments which allow the user to enter the procedure of constructing viable business applications, websites and mobile software. Databases Due to the fact that new means are coming up through which the data can be massaged in the cloud, the businesses are able to radically reshape the manner in which they employed the computing resources for delivering unparallel degrees of research upon the least of the investments. Database software is already in use now and it is expected to advance greatly with time. For instance there is the medical research and consulting firm Eidetics which uses database software running from EC2 to old medical records. The novel types of databases coming up, and yet to come, would hold datasets completely in RAM and would not be needing disk space. This would allow for extremely fast response to altering real-time inquiries. It can turn out to be an interactive web interface. By using databases there would be no use of such expensive hardware and the costs would be made irrelevant in the case of getting a new installation or project. To the users would be available feasibly huge amounts of processing power as well as RAM and they would be able to use it on-demand. Middleware When talking about middleware it can be said to be a typical region in your IT architecture from where you can benefit from the grid/cloud advantages of efficacy and flexibility. Middleware comes right under the applications and SOA services. It allows for the correct degree of granularity of resources that one can pool and share for enabling the needed control. However, there is no complication involved in this. As technology is changing and advancing regularly it is very much expected that the future middleware would be vastly improved and more efficient. There would be a possibility of providing the best application server computing environment that can run on a database in extremely short durations. An example of a middleware can be the Amazon Machine Images pre-configured with Oracle Weblogic Server. Infrastructure Cloud infrastructure is said to be a style of application infrastructure wherein are provisioned dynamically scalable resources as a service. The users are not required to know about, be skilled in, or control the technology infrastructure in the cloud which is supporting them. About cloud infrastructure Bryan Doerr, chief technology officer of Savvis, said: "Our next generation cloud services and resulting virtual private data center will, for the first time, enable push button web application hosting for the enterprise" (On cloud computing, 2009) It is expected that with newer and better technology the infrastructure would surely improve. Some areas in which enhancement is expected include more and more automation, less expenses with more characteristics, increased scale, wider quality of service and increased security. Management Issues Managing service provider relationships Cloud computing is of great advantage to customer relationship management. Organizations would be having accessibility to programs without having to purchase new software or to pay extra workforce in order to maintain the programs. Due to this fact more of the available time and energy would be concentrated upon enhancing the customer relationships. Through online hosts the businesses would be able to allow for the provision of real-time services to the customers at any time as long as the customers are able to access the Internet. Customer satisfaction can be improved through services similar to online help desks. This would allow the businesses in gaining increased opportunities for success. These kinds of services would allow for the provision of tracking, maintenance and organization of customer contact information. Through having the capability of analyzing customer information and any kind of noticeable patterns, the businesses can provide more and more customer satisfaction. Cloud computing allow the businesses the instruments that are mainly required for bringing about an improvement in customer relations and accessing the important information in an operational way. Managing legacy systems The legacy IT systems can be integrated with private cloud (whose infrastructure is operated solely for a single organization) and do not need to be outwardly discarded (Aliya, 2009). The process of linking these legacy systems with the cloud infrastructure is simple and practicable. As a result, the legacy environments can be managed for improved services, in a cost-effective manner. Cloud computing also offers an easily adoptable chance to get rid of the difficult model of managing internal legacy IT systems. Managing assets Cloud computing has a part to play in the management of assets as well. There is an application which is quite simple to use. The users are only required to launch their browsers and they are able to manage all their property, physical or digital. Their location does not matter. The users are able to obtain a real-time view regarding their property by asset type and by location. The application may also have virtually a limitless capacity. The users, after launching the application, can remain on the site all the time and run reports and manage their assets. Another good thing about this is that they can share the information with each of the persons of the organization that has been given the access. It is an efficient and cost-effective way of maintaining. Organizational issues In order to take maximum benefit from cloud, the organization should take a logical approach. The changes linked with cloud computing should be carefully planned and worked out by the organization. The organization first need to develop a cloud strategy for successfully implementing cloud services to meet the objectives of cost-reduction and maximum access to market, of the organization. The issues like a closely controlled and updated architecture capable of effectively applying SOA and integrating legacy systems should be kept in consideration. Outsourcing Cloud computing is not traditional outsourcing wherein a company farms out (subcontracts) its computing services to an outside firm (Michael, 2008). There is an enormous amount of outsourcing with cloud computing, which outsources the delivery of the application service as opposed to the code itself. Discussing an adoption of the cloud computing paradigm in an organization normally moves in the direction of outsourcing of infrastructure plus the connected security reasons for worry for an organization. Through cloud computing organizations can outsource their absolute IT infrastructure. For instance there is Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) which provides scalable capacity run on the servers of Amazon. The client is required to only pay for the storage that he is using. EC2 powers Amazon’s own website together with very varied instruments, such as the New York Times’ online archive and Twitter. Other services that work like this includes Flexiscale, based in the UK, and it is directed toward web 2.0 startups. References Jaatun, M. G., Zhao, G., & Rong, C. (2009). Cloud Computing: First International Conference, CloudCom 2009, Beijing, China, December 1-4, 2009, Proceedings. Springer. Michael, M. (2008). Cloud Computing: Web-Based Applications That Change the Way You Work and Collaborate Online. 1st ed. Que. On Cloud Computing. (2009). Cloud operations leader OpSource’s CEO Treb Ryan and CTO John Rowell to speak at SIIA OnDemand 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2009, from http://www.oncloudcomputing.com/en/tag/cisco/ Sternstein, Aliya. (2009). Microsoft: Legacy systems not a barrier to cloud computing. Retrieved 20 December 2009, from http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090626_4039.php Xconomy. (2009). Will Cloud Computing Kill the Operating System? We’ll Debate that, and Much More, at Cloud. Retrieved 30 November 2009, from http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/11/23/will-cloud-computing-kill-the-operating-system-well-debate-that-and-much-more-at-cloud3/ Read More