Cloud Computing : A Compelling Paradigm For Delivering And Managing Services Over The Internet

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources which included networks, servers, storage, applications, services and so on that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort on service provider interaction” (Mell & Grance, 2011, p. 2). It is an on-demand self-service that could supply computing capabilities unilaterally without requiring human interaction. Capabilities are delivered over broad network access and used by heterogeneous thin (Boss, Malladi, Quan, Legregni, & Hall, 2007, p. 4). The computing resources are pooled in order to serve multiple consumers using either the multi-tenancy or the virtualization model according to consumer demand. And computing resources have no up-front contract as

Cloud computing enables businesses to deploy or subscribe to services as it needs them. A cloud features self-service, broad network access, centralized shared resources, and measurement of service usage. There are three widely accepted types of cloud service models. They are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Each serves a different purpose and business may choose to use just one, two, or even all three of the cloud types simultaneously as the needed.

Cloud Computing is a new paradigm of large-scale distributed computing which is rapidly becoming one of the hottest topic among business organisations (Pallis, 2010), and represents a fundamental change in the way of Information Technology (IT) services are invented, developed, deployed, scaled, updated, maintained and paid for (Martson et al, 2011).

"Cloud Computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, 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

On-demand self-service: Customers can use Cloud computing services based on their need and interaction with service providers in not required.

Several years after the emergence of cloud computing, most of people still confuse with its concept because different research institutes defined the term differently. With the development of cloud computing, its concept evolves gradually in years. According to the Wikipedia, the most recent definition of cloud computing is “the delivery of services of the computing a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network (typically the Internet).” Cloud computing, in one word, was termed as the many different types of virtualized applications and services that are moved into the “cloud” – a metaphor for the internet. Cloud computing providers maintain and control physical servers, and data is processed in the “cloud” provider’s environment which also delivers hosted services. For the user, the entire computing infrastructures virtually reside “in the cloud.” In many cases, devices that used to access these services and

A major shift in the way companies obtain software and computing capacity is under way as more companies tap into Web-based applications like cloud computing and Web 2.0. A host of providers including Amazon, IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft are helping businesses use the Internet to tap into everything from more server capacity to software that helps manage the workload. Assigning these tasks to an offsite location is known as cloud computing (Kroenke, 2013, King, 2008, Wardley, 2012, Hinchcliffe, 2014).

With the rapid development of processing and storage technologies and the success of the Internet, computing resources have become cheaper, more powerful and more ubiquitously available than ever before. This technological trend has enabled the realization of a new computing model called cloud computing, in which resources (e.g., CPU and storage) are provided as general utilities that can be leased and released by users through the Internet in an on-demand fashion. In a cloud computing environment, the traditional role of service provider is divided into two: the infrastructure providers who manage cloud platforms and lease resources according to a usage-based pricing model, and service providers, who rent resources from one or many infrastructure providers to serve the end users. The emergence of cloud computing has made a tremendous impact on the Information Technology (IT) industry over the past few years, where large companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft strive to provide more powerful, reliable and cost-efficient cloud platforms, and business enterprises seek to reshape their business models to gain benefit from this new paradigm. Indeed, cloud computing provides several compelling features that make it attractive to business owners, as shown below.

In this paper, I will briefly introduce what cloud computing is and some of its fundamental concepts (service models and deployment models). The later part of the paper will mainly focus on examining cloud computing impacts on business – the benefits it will bring, and the risks and challenges that go along with it.

Since the innovation of the internet, people in computing fields have seek to find storage solutions that could provide users and organizations with capabilities to store and process their data distant from end-uses. Since 2000s, cloud computing has come into existence, later on, became business feasible through the observation that organizations start to substitute from self-owned hardware and software to subscription mode based models. Thus, we’re currently on the shift to cloud computing that may cause a dramatic growth in internet-based IT services in some industrial areas and some decline in other areas. By definition, cloud computing is an internet based computing for storing or sharing used computer or applications on multiple servers.

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing services over the internet. The computing services include: infrastructure, development platforms and software applications. Cloud services are privately owned for the purpose of remotely provisioning scalable and measured IT resources from data centers located around the world.

The previous chapter demonstrated the key fundamentals of the research and an introduction to the concept of Cloud Computing. Even though a lot of research work has been done on the subject of cloud computing, the field is still a relatively new academic field. The National Institute of standards has established the standards related to Cloud computing and the research into the subject continues, especially with new tools and technology infrastructure that continues to evolve at a very fast pace.

Cloud computing is a part of internet growth, it’s the next generation of internet. Cloud computing deliver everything –computing resource, infrastructure, application, and business process to personal collaboration – and can be access as service wherever and whenever through various devices. The cloud itself is a set of hardware, networks, storages, services, and interface that enable to delivery of computing as services based on user demand. (Hurwitz, J, 2009)

The technology used in Cloud Computing is often centralized on demand and can be offered in terms of services. Just like most internet service providers, the cloud services provide platforms for their clients to create web services (applications) on the internet. These applications are accessed through the web opposed to running off your local hard drive. Cloud computing enables its users to conveniently use various resources like storage, servers, and applications that can be launched with minimal effort. In common terms, cloud computing proposes three types of services: 1) SaaS: Software as a service, 2) PaaS: Platform as a service, and 3) IaaS: Infrastructure as a service. Cloud

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computer resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) tha can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Five essential characteristics of cloud computing: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity or expansion, and measured service. Three service models (software,