Essay On Cloud Computing

The focus of cloud computing is providing with scalable and a cheap on-demand computing infrastructure with a good quality of service levels. The process of the cloud computing involves a set of network enabled services that can be accessed in a simple and general way. Cloud computing provides with a unique value proposition for any organization to outsource their information and communication technology infrastructure. Moreover, the concept itself provides with a value proposition for an organization as using the cloud saves on cost, resources, and staff, and business opportunities for the organization (Katzan). An extensive connectivity of

Most traditional online computing services offer business services that are bundled. Accessing the Cloud, Riordan will only pay for services used while saving the company money. These three characteristics proves that cloud computing is efficient and has more benefit than traditional computing (Hartig, Dec).

This research paper tackles the issues that faces Cloud Computing today and gives the experts and industry’s point of view on the matter. The aspects explored are the significant industry questions that have risen about the use of Cloud Computing, business value, organization impact, adaptability, limitations, initial cost of implementation, and the severe business security risks

The national institute of standards and technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as “a model that is meant to enable convenient access to a network that is on demand to a pool of shared computing resources that are configurable” (Jansen & Timothy, 2015). Computer system resources includes, but not limited to, storage, system servers, applications, services, and networks. Cloud computing allows these computing resources to be accessed virtually anytime, anywhere. Cloud computing opens up new possibilities in the field of information technology that many of us have or will experience. As the clients or the customers are very excited about the numerous opportunities that come along with the cloud computing technology such as a reduction in the costs of capital, and the opportunity of divesting themselves of management of infrastructure, and a massive focus on the core competencies, and most importantly, the agility that is usually offered by the provision of computing that is on-demand, there are challenges and other numerous issues that need to be looked into and addressed before a universal adoption might happen (Jansen & Timothy, 2015).

Cloud computing is basically the use of large groups of resources linked together through networking to produce a lot of performances. One of the main purpose of this technology is the scalability that it offers. Indeed, when you need more speed or performances, the only thing to do is to add more servers to the cloud. It has a lot of advantages, but the most valuable one for a company is that they pay for what they use, and don’t have to buy some powerful servers “just in case” they will need more resource. This technology is a huge money-saver.

“Cloud Computing” is a buzzword that the IT industry has been talking about since the past few years. The future of computing is distributed and off-premise where remote servers handle terabytes of data every day. From both technical and social viewpoint, the concept of distributed data centers maintained by “server” companies somewhat dates back to 1990s where grid computing was actively thought upon as an IT requirement. Cloud Computing’s primary aim is provision of IT as-a-service to the cloud users on a utility-based delivery model envisioning greater storage availability, flexibility and scalability of IT systems.

Undeniably, the internet technology grows exponentially since its inception. Currently, a new "trend" is emerging in the world of IT (Information Technology and Communication), this is cloud computing. This technology, based on the WEB 2.0, provides opportunities for companies to reduce operating costs by their software applications online. Various vendors like Google, Amazon, and IBM offer a wide range of cloud computing services (Schroth, 2007). This technology has just hatched, it is at the beginning of its operations but already several major players mentioned above adopt their own pioneering strategies that determine the use of cloud computing companies wishing to invest.

Cloud computing can be a very damning topic to an ordinary manager. In fact, it takes above average knowledge of computer terminologies and concepts to fully grasp what cloud computing is all about. The focus of this section, however, is to outline the basic that is needed for an average manager of a company in other to get the best cloud services for his/her company. There are many cloud computing vendors out there, and selecting the best provider can seem daunting. This doesn’t have to be. The focus should be on the QoS requirements which should be discretely organized in an order to compare multiple service provider against company’s QoS. Defining the standards for company’s QoS would be another challenge a manager might face in an organization. According to CSMIC (Cloud Service Measurement Initiative Consortium) have established a rather complex but easy framework for measuring cloud services providers. A Service Measurement Index (SMI).

The Public Cloud resides at the cloud provider’s location and defines the sharing of a common infrastructure by entities (businesses, academic, or government) that meet the same type of infrastructure needs and is designed for general public use (Mell, P., Grance, T., 2010). By sharing resources, cost is spread across the entities and this can lead to cost savings for everyone.

In the last few years, the advancement of cloud computing technology has revolutionized the IT infrastructure and business model of many organizations. Businesses from green field startups, to enterprises and market giants have repositioned their services and infrastructure to take benefits of Cloud computing models. Cloud technology is leveraged by the underlying infrastructure and virtualization techniques that make the magic of on demand resource allocation, service orchestration possible. While the Internet provides the ubiquitous access necessary for utilization of the cloud services.

With the current shift towards a more technological state within businesses and organisations, increased costs arise. These costs often relate to data management, hardware, people, as well as a multitude of other costs. Cloud computing often alleviates these costs from an organisation or business as these services are provided through a third party. [3]“It dramatically lowers the cost of entry for smaller firms trying to benefit from compute-intensive business analytics that were hither to available only to the largest of corporations”( Avram, 2014, p531). This enables more companies and businesses to meet the rising standards and information technology practices adopted by bigger and more influential companies. [3] Cloud computing and it’s cost efficiency presents an opportunity for less developed countries to benefit from the advantages that cloud computing offers without the high costs ( Avram, 2014).

Cloud computing is defined by Cearly and Phifer in their case study titled “Case Studies in Cloud Computing” as “a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities are provided ‘ as a service’ to customers using Internet technologies”. Cloud computing services had been provided by major vendors such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and others for business computing until recently when Apple Corporation announced iCloud for consumers. Therefore, cloud computing is now available for businesses as well as consumers. Read the case study titled, “ Ericsson”, located here, about Ericsson cloud computing.

One section is referred to the public cloud in which it can be used as a pay as you go service (Armbrust et al., 2010). The private cloud is the second section. This is in reference to the enormous data centers in use by organizations and private businesses. These businesses will see the most benefit from using cloud technology. Furthermore, people involved in cloud computing can be organized into two groups as well; the cloud providers and the cloud user’s. The cloud user’s take resources from the cloud and utilize data storage. Cloud providers house the hardware or equipment for the cloud and also manage it.

Remarkable developments in the IT sector have created a vibrant business environment worldwide. Improvement in fields like virtualization and consolidation has promoted the IT growth rate to a level that is unprecedented. However, to make the most of these favorable IT advancements, human advancement is vital to create a win-win situation both for consumers and producers. Cloud computing can be quite effective in terms of achieving this common goal, through reduction of complexity in the IT mechanism. If applied properly, it can create a shared environment and can help any business organization, small or large, save time and space.

Cash-strapped organizations look for alternatives which can reduce their capital investments involved in purchasing and maintaining IT hardware and software so that they can get maximum benefits of IT. Cloud computing (CC) becomes a natural and ideal choice for such organizations and customers. Cloud computing takes benefit of many technologies such as server consolidation, huge and faster storage, grid computing, virtualization, N-tier architecture and robust networks. It delivers highly scalable and expensive infrastructure with minimal set up and negligible maintenance cost. It provides IT-related services such as Software-as-a-Service, Development Platforms-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-asa-Service over the network on-demand anytime from anywhere on the basis of “pay-as-you-go" model. It is a fast growing concept changing the IT related perceptions of its users. Elasticity, scalability, high availability, priceper-usage and multi-tenancy are the main features of Cloud computing. It reduces the cost of using expensive resources at the provider’s end due to economies of scale. Quick provisioning and immediate deployment of latest applications at lesser cost are the benefits which force people to adopt Cloud computing. Cloud computing has brought a paradigm shift not in the technology landscape, but also in the database landscape. With more usage of Cloud computing,