CLOUD COMPUTING
First and foremost I would like to thank God for creating so much, so beautiful that one would never get bored exploring things.
I believe the best thing that happened to information crazy humans was the invention and advancement of internet.
Internet for me is a repository of information. It provides the information from around the world which would have rather taken years to gather.
So I would like to thank father of internet, Vint Serf for connecting this world together.
But the best thing that happened to internet, which has well now become synonym for internet, is “Google” .It would have taken a lot of pain to search information on internet if the concise and appropriate results form Google has not been there.
I would like to thank Larry Page and Sergey Brin for their innovative effort to provide the best search engine ever.
I would also like to thank Wikipedia which has always been the first place I go to know about something. I also thank the people who put in effort to add and organize information in this free encyclopedia which anyone can edit. Much of the information in this reports are from Wikipedia which explained the concept in such simple way that it was worth including in the report.
I would also like to thank Microsoft to have built such powerful Word Processing software that helped me to store and organize information. It also helped me to indentify the numerous spelling and grammar mistakes that I make that would have otherwise gone Unnoticed.
What’s Inside
1. Introduction
2. Comparisons
3. Economics
4. Architecture
5. Key Features
6. Layers
7. Deployment Models
8. Issues with Cloud
9. Research
10. Recent Developments
11. Sum Up Picture
1. Introduction
Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the electricity grid.
Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client–server in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.
Cloud Computing Conceptual Diagram
Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet.
This frequently takes the form of web-based tools or applications that users can access and use through a web browser as if it was a program installed locally on their own computer. NIST provides a somewhat more objective and specific definition here. The term "cloud" is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents.
Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online that are accessed from another Web service or software like a Web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers. A key element of cloud computing is customization and the creation of a user-defined experience.
Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through common centers and built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of access for all consumers' computing needs. Commercial offerings are generally expected to meet quality of service (QoS) requirements of customers, and typically include SLAs. The major cloud service providers include Microsoft, Salesforce, Skytap, HP, IBM, Amazon and Google.
2. Comparisons
Cloud computing derives characteristics from, but should not be confused with:
1. Autonomic computing — "computer systems capable of self-management".
2. Client–server model – Client–server computing refers broadly to any distributed application that distinguishes between service providers (servers) and service requesters (clients).
3. Grid computing — "a form of distributed computing and parallel computing, whereby a 'super and virtual computer' is composed of a cluster of networked, loosely coupled computers acting in concert to perform very large tasks"
4. Mainframe computer — powerful computers used mainly by large organizations for critical applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.
5. Utility computing — the "packaging of computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility, such as electricity";
6. Peer-to-peer – a distributed architecture without the need for central coordination, with participants being at the same time both suppliers and consumers of resources (in contrast to the traditional client–server model).
3. Economics
Cloud computing users avoid capital expenditure (CapEx) on hardware, software, and services when they pay a provider only for what they use. Consumption is usually billed on a utility (resources consumed, like electricity) or subscription (time-based, like a newspaper) basis with little or no upfront cost. Other benefits of this approach are low barriers to entry, shared infrastructure and costs, low management overhead, and immediate access to a broad range of applications. In general, users can terminate the contract at any time (thereby avoiding return on investment risk and uncertainty), and the services are often covered by service level agreements (SLAs) with financial penalties.
According to Nicholas Carr, the strategic importance of information technology is diminishing as it becomes standardized and less expensive.
He argues that the cloud computing paradigm shift is similar to the displacement of electricity generators by electricity grids early in the 20th century.
Although companies might be able to save on upfront capital expenditures, they might not save much and might actually pay more for operating expenses. In situations where the capital expense would be relatively small, or where the organization has more flexibility in their capital budget than their operating budget, the cloud model might not make great fiscal sense. Other factors impacting the scale of any potential cost savings include the efficiency of a company's data center as compared to the cloud vendor's, the company's existing operating costs, the level of adoption of cloud computing, and the type of functionality being hosted in the cloud.
Among the items that some cloud hosts charge for are instances (often with extra charges for high-memory or high-CPU instances); data transfer in and out; storage (measured by the GB-month); I/O requests; PUT requests and GET requests; IP addresses; and load balancing. In some cases, users can bid on instances, with pricing dependent on demand for available instances.
4. Architecture
Cloud architecture, the systems architecture of the software systems involved in the delivery of cloud computing, typically involves multiple cloud components communicating with each other over application programming interfaces, usually web services.
Cloud computing sample architecture
This resembles the UNIX philosophy of having multiple programs each doing one thing well and working together over universal interfaces. Complexity is controlled and the resulting systems are more manageable than their monolithic counterparts. The two most significant components of cloud computing architecture are known as the front end and the back end. The front end is the part seen by the client, i.e. the computer user. This includes the client’s network (or computer) and the applications used to access the cloud via a user interface such as a web browser.
The back end of the cloud computing architecture is the ‘cloud’ itself, comprising various computers, servers and data storage devices.
5. Key Features
• Agility improves with users' ability to rapidly and inexpensively re-provision technological infrastructure resources.
• Cost is claimed to be greatly reduced and capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure. This ostensibly lowers barriers to entry, as infrastructure is typically provided by a third-party and does not need to be purchased for one-time or infrequent intensive computing tasks. Pricing on a utility computing basis is fine-grained with usage-based options and fewer IT skills are required for implementation (in-house).
• Device and location independence enable users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their location or what device they are using (e.g., PC, mobile). As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet, users can connect from anywhere.
• Multi-tenancy enables sharing of resources and costs across a large pool of users thus allowing for:
o Centralization of infrastructure in locations with lower costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc.)
o Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer for highest possible load-levels)
o Utilization and efficiency improvements for systems that are often only 10–20% utilized.
• Reliability is improved if multiple redundant sites are used, which makes well designed cloud computing suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery. Nonetheless, many major cloud computing services have suffered outages, and IT and business managers can at times do little when they are affected.
• Scalability via dynamic ("on-demand") provisioning of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near real-time, without users having to engineer for peak loads. Performance is monitored and consistent and loosely coupled architectures are constructed using web services as the system interface.One of the most important new methods for overcoming performance bottlenecks for a large class of applications is data parallel programming on a distributed data grid.
• Security could improve due to centralization of data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but concerns can persist about loss of control over certain sensitive data, and the lack of security for stored kernels. Security is often as good as or better than under traditional systems, in part because providers are able to devote resources to solving security issues that many customers cannot afford. Providers typically log accesses, but accessing the audit logs themselves can be difficult or impossible. Furthermore, the complexity of security is greatly increased when data is distributed over a wider area and / or number of devices.
• Maintenance cloud computing applications are easier to maintain, since they don't have to be installed on each user's computer. They are easier to support and to improve since the changes reach the clients instantly.
• Metering cloud computing resources usage should be measurable and should be metered per client and application on daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis. This will enable clients on choosing the vendor cloud on cost and reliability (QoS).
6. Layers
Cloud has 5 layers:
A cloud client consists of computer hardware and/or computer software that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or that is specifically designed for delivery of cloud services and that, in either case, is essentially useless without it. Examples include some computers, phones and other devices, operating systems and browsers.
Layers of Cloud
Cloud application services or "Software as a Service (SaaS)" deliver software as a service over the Internet, eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computers and simplifying maintenance and support. Key characteristics include:-
• Network-based access to, and management of, commercially available (i.e., not custom) software
• Activities that are managed from central locations rather than at each customer's site, enabling customers to access applications remotely via the Web
• Application delivery that typically is closer to a one-to-many model (single instance, multi-tenant architecture) than to a one-to-one model, including architecture, pricing, partnering, and management characteristics
• Centralized feature updating, which obviates the need for downloadable patches and upgrades.
Cloud platform services or "Platform as a Service (PaaS)" deliver a computing platform and/or solution stack as a service, often consuming cloud infrastructure and sustaining cloud applications. It facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.
Cloud infrastructure services or "Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)" delivers computer infrastructure, typically a platform virtualization environment as a service. Rather than purchasing servers, software, data center space or network equipment, clients instead buy those resources as a fully outsourced service. The service is typically billed on a utility computing basis and amount of resources consumed (and therefore the cost) will typically reflect the level of activity. It is an evolution of virtual private server offerings.
The server’s layer consists of computer hardware and/or computer software products that are specifically designed for the delivery of cloud services, including multi-core processors, cloud-specific operating systems and combined offerings.
7. Deployment models
1. Public cloud or external cloud describes cloud computing in the traditional mainstream sense, whereby resources are dynamically provisioned on a fine-grained, self-service basis over the Internet, via web applications/web services, from an off-site third-party provider who and bills on a fine-grained utility computing basis.
2. A community cloud may be established where several organizations have similar requirements and seek to share infrastructure so as to realize some of the benefits of cloud computing. With the costs spread over fewer users than a public cloud (but more than a single tenant) this option is more expensive but may offer a higher level of privacy, security and/or policy compliance. Examples of community cloud include Google's "Gov Cloud".
3. A hybrid cloud environment consisting of multiple internal and/or external providers" will be typical for most enterprises”. By integrating multiple cloud services users may be able to ease the transition to public cloud services while avoiding issues such as PCI compliance.
Another perspective on deploying a web application in the cloud is using Hybrid Web Hosting, where the hosting infrastructure is a mix between Cloud Hosting for the web server, and Managed dedicated server for the database server.
4. Private cloud and internal cloud have been described as neologisms; however the concepts themselves pre-date the term cloud by 40 years. Even within modern utility industries, hybrid models still exist despite the formation of reasonably well functioning markets and the ability to combine multiple providers. The idea was based upon direct comparison with other industries (e.g. the electricity industry) and the extensive use of hybrid supply models to balance and mitigate risks.
5. Cloud Storage is a model of networked Computer data storage where data is stored on multiple virtual servers, generally hosted by third parties, rather than being hosted on dedicated servers. Hosting companies operate large data centers; and people who require their data to be hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them and use it for their storage needs. The data center operators, in the background, virtualize the resources according to the requirements of the customer and expose them as virtual servers, which the customers can themselves manage. Physically, the resource may span across multiple servers.
6. The Intercloud is an interconnected global "cloud of clouds" and an extension of the Internet "network of networks" on which it is based. The term was first used in the context of cloud computing in 2007 when Kevin Kelly opined that "eventually we'll have the intercloud, the cloud of clouds. This Intercloud will have the dimensions of one machine comprising all servers and attendant cloudbooks on the planet." It became popular in 2009 and has also been used to describe the datacenter of the future.
8. ISSUES with CLOUD
1. Privacy
The Cloud model has been criticized by privacy advocates for the greater ease in which the companies hosting the Cloud services control, and thus, can monitor at will, lawfully or unlawfully, the communication and data stored between the user and the host company. Instances such as the secret NSA program, working with AT&T, and Verizon, which recorded over 10 million phone calls between American citizens, causes uncertainty among privacy advocates, and the greater powers it gives to telecommunication companies to monitor user activity. While there have been efforts (such as US-EU Safe Harbor) to "harmonise" the legal environment, providers such as Amazon still cater to major markets (typically the United States and the European Union) by deploying local infrastructure and allowing customers to select "availability zones.
2. Legal
In March 2007, Dell applied to trademark the term "cloud computing" (U.S. Trademark 77,139,082) in the United States. The "Notice of Allowance" the company received in July 2008 was cancelled in August, resulting in a formal rejection of the trademark application less than a week later.
Since 2007, the number of trademark filings covering cloud computing brands, goods and services has increased at an almost exponential rate. As companies sought to better position themselves for cloud computing branding and marketing efforts, cloud computing trademark filings increased by 483% between 2008 and 2009. In 2009, 116 cloud computing trademarks were filed, and trademark analysts predict that over 500 such marks could be filed during 2010.
3. Security
The relative security of cloud computing services is a contentious issue which may be delaying its adoption. Some argue that customer data is more secure when managed internally, while others argue that cloud providers have a strong incentive to maintain trust and as such employ a higher level of security.
The Cloud Security Alliance is a non-profit organization formed to promote the use of best practices for providing security assurance within Cloud Computing
4. Availability and Performance
In addition to concerns about security, businesses are also worried about acceptable levels of availability and performance of applications hosted in the cloud.
There are also concerns about a cloud provider shutting down for financial or legal reasons, which has happened in a number of cases.
5. Sustainability and siting
Although cloud computing is often assumed to be a form of "green computing", there is as of yet no published study to substantiate this assumption.Siting the servers affects the environmental effects of cloud computing. In areas where climate favors cooling and lots of renewable electricity is available the environmental effects will be more moderate. Thus countries with favorable conditions, such as Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, are trying to attract cloud computing data centers.
9. Research
A number of universities, vendors and government organizations are investing in research around the topic of cloud computing. Academic institutions include University of Melbourne (Australia), Georgia Tech, Yale, Wayne State, Virginia Tech, University of Wisconsin Madison, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Indiana University, University of Massachusetts, University of Maryland, North Carolina State, Purdue, University of California, University of Washington, University of Virginia, University of Utah, University of Minnesota, among others.
Joint government, academic and vendor collaborative research projects include the IBM/Google Academic Cloud Computing Initiative (ACCI). In October 2007 IBM and Google announced the multi- university project designed to enhance students' technical knowledge to address the challenges of cloud computing. In April 2009, the National Science Foundation joined the ACCI and awarded approximately $5 million in grants to 14 academic institutions.
In July 2008, HP, Intel Corporation and Yahoo! announced the creation of a global, multi-data center, open source test bed, called Open Cirrus, designed to encourage research into all aspects of cloud computing, service and data center management. Open Cirrus partners include the NSF, the University of Illinois (UIUC), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in Korea, the Malaysian Institute for Microelectronic Systems (MIMOS), and the Institute for System Programming at the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISPRAS).
In July 2010, HP Labs India announced a new cloud-based technology designed to simplify taking content and making it mobile-enabled, even from low-end devices.Called SiteonMobile, the new technology is designed for emerging markets where people are more likely to access the internet via mobile phones rather than computers.
The IEEE Technical Committee on Services Computing in IEEE Computer Society sponsors the IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD).CLOUD 2010 was held on July 5–10, 2010 in New York, NY.
10. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
In 2007, Google, IBM, and a number of universities embarked on a large scale cloud computing research project. In early 2008, Eucalyptus became the first open source AWS API compatible platform for deploying private clouds. By mid-2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing "to shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them”, and observed that "organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models" so that the "projected shift to cloud computing ... will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and significant reductions in other areas.”
In March 2010, Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, made his strongest statement of betting the company's future in the cloud by proclaiming "For the cloud, we're all in" and further stating "About 75 percent of our folks are doing entirely cloud based or entirely cloud inspired, a year from now that will be 90 percent."
Hewlett Packard’s chief technology and chief strategy officer Shane Robison in July 2010 named the “inevitability of the cloud” as a top tenet of HP’s strategy. Cloud computing is one of eight key research focus areas for HP Labs.
11. Sum Up Picture
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