Clustering and Cloud Computing: 1. Introduction to Cloud Computing

TOPICS: Introduction to Cloud Computing: Introduction to Cloud Computing, History of Cloud Computing, Cloud service providers, Properties, Characteristics & Disadvantages of Cloud Computing, Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing, Benefits of Cloud Computing, Cloud computing vs. Cluster computing vs. Grid computing. Legal issues when using cloud models, challenges in cloud computing, Overview of Mobile Cloud

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD COMPUTING

· When you store your photos online instead of on your home computer, or use webmail or a social networking site, you are using a “cloud computing” service.

· Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing resources over the Internet. Instead of keeping data on your own hard drive or updating applications for your needs, you use a service over the Internet, at another location, to store your information or use its applications.

· Doing so may give rise to certain privacy implications.

· Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the Internet.

· Cloud services allow individuals and businesses to use software and hardware that are managed by third parties at remote locations.

· Examples of cloud services include online file storage, social networking sites, webmail, and online business applications.

· The cloud computing model allows access to information and computer resources from anywhere that a network connection is available.

· Cloud computing provides a shared pool of resources, including data storage space, networks, computer processing power, and specialized corporate and user applications.

Definition of Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models.

1.2 HISTORY OF CLOUD COMPUTING

· The beginning of what is known as the concept of cloud computing can be traced back to the mainframe days of the 1960s when the idea of “utility computing” was coined by MIT computer scientist and Turing award winner John McCarthy.

· Utility computing ended up becoming something of a big business for companies such as IBM.

· The concept was simple that computing power could be broken down as a metered service for businesses much like how the power and telephone companies operated for their customers.

1.3 CLOUD COMPUTING SERVICES

Once a cloud is established, how its cloud computing services are deployed in terms of business models can differ depending on requirements. The primary service models being deployed (see Figure 1) are commonly known as:

Software as a Service (SaaS)

· Consumers purchase the ability to access and use an application or service that is hosted in the cloud. A benchmark example of this is Salesforce.com, as discussed previously, where necessary information for the interaction between the consumer and the service is hosted as part of the service in the cloud.

· Also, Microsoft is expanding its involvement in this area, and as part of the cloud computing option for Microsoft® Office 2010, its Office Web Apps are available to Office volume licensing customers and Office Web App subscriptions through its cloud-based Online Services.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

· Consumers purchase access to the platforms, enabling them to deploy their own software and applications in the cloud.

· The operating systems and network access are not managed by the consumer, and there might be constraints as to which applications can be deployed.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

· Consumers control and manage the systems in terms of the operating systems, applications, storage, and network connectivity, but do not themselves control the cloud infrastructure.

· Also known are the various subsets of these models that may be related to a particular industry or market.

· Communications as a Service (CaaS) is one such subset model used to describe hosted IP telephony services.

· Along with the move to CaaS is a shift to more IP-centric communications and more SIP trunking deployments. With IP and SIP in place, it can be as easy to have the PBX in the cloud as it is to have it on the premise. In this context, CaaS could be seen as a subset of SaaS

1.4 PROPERTIES OF CLOUD COMPUTING

The key properties of Cloud computing are

User centric: This means once a user is connected to cloud any data there, such as images, videos, applications, becomes his property. Not only the data but the devices connected also becomes his and he can share it with other users.
Task Centric: Cloud computing focus on what one need and how application can do it for us. Here documents are given more priority than the applications which create them.
Powerful: Powerful in the sense that as there is large computers more computing power and mass data storage possible.
Self-Healing: Is called Self-healing because hot backups are available for every document in the cloud. Hence if one document crashes there will be its duplicate ready to run.
Multi-tenancy & Intelligence: Multi-tenancy refers to sharing of data and costs across a large pool of users. As various data are stored in cloud data mining and analysis are necessary for accessing information in an intelligent manner.
Programmable: Many processes in cloud computing shall be automate such as backing up crashed data with its duplicate. Hence programming is associated with cloud computing.
Flexible: Flexible as the users may be of different varieties and hence it has to match with their needs.

1.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

1. Self-Service on- Demand

As a cloud consumer, users are privileged to request and provision computing capabilities bundled with services with or without approval process powered by automation and work force.

2. Ubiquitous Network Access

This is the characteristic by which end user and server computing devices can be accessed over the network even using the next generation heterogeneous devices such as smartphones, tablets, thin and thick clients resource pooling.

3. Resource pooling

This characteristic refers to the pooling of resources across multiple data centers.

These pooled virtual data centers are then divided into multiple pools to provide their services to various consumers in a multi tenant model.

4. Rapid Elasticity

This characteristic makes the provisioning rapid and elastic.

This provisioning can be automatic and can flex up and flex down on the basis of spikes of utilization.

1.6 PROS AND CONS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Pros:

1. Flexibility

· With the idea of a “server rental” model in place, it is easier to become more flexible in terms of technology resources.

· The reason is that businesses are able, with cloud computing, to have lateral options when it comes to technology.

· They can decide how much storage space to use, and how much processing power is required.

2. Scalability

· With cloud computing one person can go from small to large quickly.

· Research organizations would be a great example in that they would be able to process heavy amounts of data at a specified time, and then go back to the norm – all without requiring those heavy servers.

3. Capital Investment

· Companies who anticipate a huge surge in cloud usage over the next few years are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure for massive server farms.

· Many of them don’t really even know what it will all be used for specifically, but they know that the need will be there in the next couple of years.

4. Portability

· In today’s global economy organizations need to have people on the ground, far from headquarters, to manage things.

· With cloud computing technology, organizations are able to use their computing power wherever their people are as long as users are able to access thin clients.

· Thin client access is pretty much available everywhere that companies do business today, so this should not even be an issue.

Cons:

1. Dependability

· For those planning on providing cloud resources to their customers, they will need to project an image that shows that they can be very reliable, to the level of the electric utility model.

· Energy is a very dependable resource outside of force majeure and cloud computing vendors must strive for the same level of service, included in their SLAs.

· This could be a problem for companies that rely on the cloud to keep critical business functions up and running.

2. Security

· Being able to keep important data secure has always been a priority in IT, but with a technology that takes information outside of the virtual secure walls most corporations have up will raise red flags.

· The usage of thin clients could possibly be high-jacked if people are careless with data.

· Also, SLAs will need to have provisioning within them that directly specifies how cloud computing providers plan on protecting data.

· This could become a lawsuit-threatening issue someday soon if companies are not careful. With reports coming out all the time about data being lost or stolen and the rise in identity theft as the result of stolen data this could be a huge deal breaker for some companies hoping to utilize cloud technology

3. Little or no reference

· Because of privacy concerns, cloud vendors for the most part are unable or unwilling to present case studies about companies that are currently using their services.

· As a matter of fact, there are very few large companies that are publicly reporting their usage of cloud computing at a large scale level.

· This leaves many organizations feeling shy about using cloud computing resources as of yet even though it has become popular terminology in the tech world.

1.7 BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud computing is emerging because it is promising to reduce the IT complexities and costs. This provides a mechanism to request and use the services with abstraction of technology. It is a methodology where the scalable resources, storage and network are offered in a service based model over the network.

Benefits of Cloud computing are described above in PROS.

1.8 CLOUD COMPUTING VS. CLUSTER COMPUTING VS. GRID COMPUTING

1.9 LEGAL ISSUES WHILE USING CLOUD MODELS

In a recent study by the Pew Internet and American life Project 49% of US residents who use cloud computing services would be very concerned if cloud computing vendors would share their files with law-enforcement agencies.

Almost half of all people today use Web e-mail services such as Gmail. Fully a quarter use personal photo online sites that host pictures. This indeed may be personally since I information that some users would feel comfortable having out in public.

Even though cloud computing services can be very convenient it is almost hidden that there are elements of privacy concerns to possibly pop up in the future.

Although there have not been any serious data infractions as of yet, is sure that some point if something bad were to happen to someone's private data where a loss of information was reported everyone would hear about it.

1.10 CHALLENGES IN CLOUD COMPUTING

The following are some of the notable challenges associated with cloud computing, and although some of these may cause a slowdown when delivering more services in the cloud, most also can provide opportunities, if resolved with due care and attention in the planning stages.

1. Security and Privacy

Perhaps two of the more “hot button” issues surrounding cloud computing relate to storing and securing data, and monitoring the use of the cloud by the service providers. These issues are generally attributed to slowing the deployment of cloud services. These challenges can be addressed, for example, by storing the information internal to the organization, but allowing it to be used in the cloud. For this to occur, though, the security mechanisms between organization and the cloud need to be robust and a Hybrid cloud could support such a deployment.

2. Lack of Standards

Clouds have documented interfaces; however, no standards are associated with these, and thus it is unlikely that most clouds will be interoperable. The Open Grid Forum is developing an Open Cloud Computing Interface to resolve this issue and the Open Cloud Consortium is working on cloud computing standards and practices. The findings of these groups will need to mature, but it is not known whether they will address the needs of the people deploying the services and the specific interfaces these services need. However, keeping up to date on the latest standards as they evolve will allow them to be leveraged, if applicable.

3. Continuously Evolving

User requirements are continuously evolving, as are the requirements for interfaces, networking, and storage. This means that a “cloud,” especially a public one, does not remain static and is also continuously evolving.

4. Compliance Concerns

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in the US and Data Protection directives in the EU are just two among many compliance issues affecting cloud computing, based on the type of data and application for which the cloud is being used. The EU has a legislative backing for data protection across all member states, but in the US data protection is different and can vary from state to state. As with security and privacy mentioned previously, these typically result in Hybrid cloud deployment with one cloud storing the data internal to the organization.

1.11 OVERVIEW OF MOBILE CLOUD

· Mobile devices (e.g., smartphone, tablet pcs, etc) are increasingly becoming an essential part of human life as the most effective and convenient communication tools not bounded by time and place. Mobile users accumulate rich experience of various services from mobile applications (e.g., iPhone apps, Google apps, etc), which run on the devices and/or on remote servers via wireless networks. The rapid progress of mobile computing becomes a powerful trend in the development of IT technology as well as commerce and industry fields.

· However, the mobile devices are facing many challenges in their resources (e.g., battery life, storage, and bandwidth) and communications (e.g., mobility and security). The limited resources significantly impede the improvement of service qualities.

· Cloud computing (CC) has been widely recognized as the next generation’s computing infrastructure.

· CC offers some advantages by allowing users to use infrastructure (e.g., servers, networks, and storages), platforms (e.g., middleware services and operating systems), and softwares (e.g., application programs) provided by cloud providers (e.g., Google, Amazon, and Salesforce) at low cost. In addition, CC enables users to elastically utilize resources in an on-demand fashion. As a result, mobile applications can be rapidly provisioned and released with the minimal management efforts or service provider’s interactions.

· With the explosion of mobile applications and the support of CC for a variety of services for mobile users, mobile cloud computing (MCC) is introduced as an integration of cloud computing into the mobile environment. Mobile cloud computing brings new types of services and facilities for mobile users to take full advantages of cloud computing.

1. Introduction to Cloud Computing

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