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Cloud Computing
Introduction
Human brain has always been a source of creativity in every way possible. Human did invented computers, in order to help own kind and still computers are helping human kind in every way possible either it is regarding study or research or entertainment or from business point of view; computers are doing their job as expected. In the early 90's, computer has been the sensational creation but, after the invention of internet; the computing era has moved far away within one step. With this noble creativity of human which lead to the creation of today's most happening sensational virtual service called as "Cloud Computing".
In today’s world, we all use computer and internet. In fact our business runs with computer. Some of us need software and resources to run our business. For this we may need data servers with a team of technicians maintaining it which increase the expenditure of our business. Sometimes we do need high spaced servers and sometime we don’t depending upon our business. For example: if I run a gift shop then, my business will be much high during the festive season than other. So I may need bigger spaced server, other applications and software at that time than usual. So do I need to purchase high spaced server and install in my gift shop for all the time in order to cover the festive season? NO, this is where the cloud computing comes to rescue you and your business. Cloud computing is simply like a utility where you plug in and configure your need. You don’t have buy servers and install in your office, you don’t need to hire technicians to configure servers and maintain them. With cloud computing, you will get what you wanted over internet connection with your cloud service provider. You don’t have to bother about anything at all. So, it’s all about computer and internet mixed together to form a virtual service resulting cloud computing.
So, what is cloud computing? Cloud computing can be defined as a model for providing on-demand access to the pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, software, storage, applications, and services) with minimum effort over internet with the provider.
In general, cloud computing is
- An internet based computing environment where you pay only for what you use.
- A set of shared computing resources via internet.
- Next phase in the evolution of computing.
History
Before we dig deeper into cloud computing, let’s talk about how cloud computing get started. Cloud computing has evolved with the evolution of computer and information technology. The cloud computing is brought upfront by John McCarthy, a computer scientist during 1960 with his idea that “computation may someday be organized as a public utility”. In his speech, he mentioned that computing can be sold like a utility, like electricity or water which was a brilliant idea. Tracing history, like all brilliant ideas it was ahead of its time. The technology of the time was not ready for that kind of idea.
As time passes and the technology has also evolved beyond the imagination and finally the platform for that kind of idea was ready. There are few developments in cloud computing in between which we must mention,
In 1999, Salesforce started web based applications. This kind of applications are delivered to enterprises over internet , and this way the idea of selling computing as utility has begin. In 2002, Amazon started Web Services like storage and computation. Similarly, In 2009, the turning point in cloud computing started with the arrival of browser based cloud enterprise applications, with the best known being Google Apps.
Key Aspects of Cloud Computing
a) Software as a Service (SaaS)
Computer is familiar with all of us and we know that computer communicates with user via software. Software is specially designed for certain purpose and is not free at all. For example: suppose you are running a commercial bank and for this you will need various kinds of software and you need to purchase them in order to use them, upgrade them with need and sometimes it does not work with your system or it won’t be compatible with the system you are using and all your investment will be counted as ZERO. Use or not you have to pay for it all the time for that kind of traditional software and sometimes maintenance cost. All this won’t let you to focus on your work. You are a banker and you need to focus on your banking. So why do you take much worry about your software and maintenance?
With cloud computing everything is minimized and you don’t have to take worry about the software, updates and maintenance. You simply plug in, customize your need of software and you are done. You will pay for what you use and even you don’t need to have much knowledge of computing for this. The main beauty of cloud computing is, you don’t need to have hardware or software with you. If you need any other additional software you don’t have to go anywhere; you can customize your need sitting inside your room. You will get much far better secure environment for your work than your office. CRM, Financial Planning, Human Resources and word processing are the some of the example of SaaS.
b) Platform as a Service (PaaS)
As a developer or business man, you need to run with the market trend and for that you need to have huge range of resources and for those resources you need to have platform in order for running them in your system. To work with your project, you need to have platform for it. For example: if you want to develop a web page in j-query, you will need platform for it but, Google is providing APIs platform so that you can build page without worrying about the platform.
Generally platforms are built upon infrastructure and over it you can design and plan whatever you want to. If you want to do on your own then, first of all you will need infrastructure for this and then only you can build your platform for your project and which will cost much higher and remember platform management is not FUN but, with cloud computing you can simply plug in, customize your need of platform and you are done for it. You can choose whatever platform you are going to need for your project and you don’t need to pay for what you don’t use. Storage, Database and Scalability are the some of the popular PaaS Services. Generally, Google App Engine can termed as the example of PaaS.
c) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Whatever business you are running one thing you need the most is, Infrastructure. In today’s context, every business runs with computer. People living in Europe buy painting from Nepal, people can listen radio live from anywhere in the world via internet. For this all we need a good infrastructure to get start. For example: I want to start a bank and I will need a strong database center for my all transaction records and customer records. If I buy the entire infrastructure then, it will cost me more than ever I dreamed of getting started and not to forget; with in time to time it will need maintenance. For this I need to hire bunch of technicians and made then stand by if anything happens. This will maximize the total cost for my business start up and will also affect the outcome.
With cloud computing, you don’t have to buy any infrastructure physically. You just need to plug in, customize your need of infrastructure and you are done. You just need to customize your requirements like processors, RAMs and so on. This will minimize all the tension of creating infrastructure on your own and is also less expensive. You will pay for what you use only and you don’t have to pay on the time you don’t use. Technically you never did buy anything. Flexi Scale and AWS:EC2 are the example of Infrastructure as a Service.
Types of Cloud
a) Public Cloud
Public Cloud is generally run by third party; some of them are free and some of them are pay per used base. Generally they are targeted for the business with little money to expend. So, they are much economical, highly scalable and out of the physical access probability. They provide their customer a way to minimize the risk and cost for starting the business. Generally, Public Cloud is Huge in Infrastructure basis and started with High business point of view. Generally, In our day to day life we are using the public cloud provided by Microsoft and Google.
The main benefits of using a public cloud service are:
- Easy and inexpensive set-up because hardware, application and bandwidth costs are covered by the provider.
- Scalability to meet needs.
- No wasted resources because you pay for what you use.
b) Private Cloud
Private cloud is generally setup by a private company for their own use which provides much control over data, security and quality of service behind firewall. They are usually managed by themselves or by third party internally or externally. This is why private cloud is also known as “Internal Cloud or Co-operate Cloud”.
This type of cloud computing service is often used by large companies and organizations but, this type of cloud does not come with the benefits of cloud computing because the organization that runs this kind of cloud; they need to buy infrastructure for their own cloud, set up it and also manage it.
c) Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud is combination of at least (each) one private cloud and public cloud. Normally Hybrid cloud is offered by a private cloud company with mutual understanding with public cloud company or Vice versa. This type of cloud offers benefits of both clouds.
Overview
Yet we have discussed about what is cloud computing and how did cloud computing is started and now we are going to discuss about the issues with cloud computing. There is no doubt that, cloud computing is the next evolution in computing history.
Cloud computing has enabled user to,
- Remotely control their data centers and business.
- Pay for what they use only.
- Customize their need of infrastructure for their business.
- Be worry free from any technical queries. So that they can focus on their proper business.
- Wide range of infrastructure so that they can customize whenever they want to change it.
And so on....
With all these prospective, the popularity of cloud computing is raising day by day. As we know that each coin has two faces. With in every shiny object, there is darkness within itself. Beside all the advantages, there are certain disadvantages of cloud computing which we will discuss briefly below.
Advantages of Cloud Computing
The rising popularity of cloud computing proves how much cloud computing is beneficial for us. With cloud computing, we are doing something we have never really dreamed of. Customizing hardware, software and applications needs over internet without physically purchasing them is really what we called virtualization and flexibility of cloud computing which minimize the cost of set up, maintenance and technical haphazard. Paying for only the system and service you use is really economical which comes with cloud computing which minimize the over cost of purchasing infrastructure and unused of them. It also gives us the advantage of software platform dependency like the compatibility of the software with the system we are using. With all these advantage lead cloud computing to today’s state of being popular.
a) Cost Management
With cloud computing you don’t need to purchase infrastructure, software, platform and application because with cloud computing, you never need physical hardware and software. You just plug in, customize your need and you are ready to go. You will use the hosted resource via internet for your business and because of which the cost of maintenance, set up and updates will never work on you after using cloud computing.
b) Pay per use
Cloud computing has enabled user to use resource in pay per use basis so that you don’t have to pay for what you never used. With cloud computing, you will always use virtual hardware and software which is hosted either in your office or in the vendor’s office. So you never did buy anything, you have just subscribed a package for limited time and you are paying for it as much as you are using which is also economically friendly.
c) Risk Management
Cloud computing also helps its user to minimize the risk. We know that with cloud computing, you never buy anything physically. For example: if you buy a computer with processor i5 and if it failed to match with one of the requirement of your software. Then what will you do? So, with cloud computing, it is much easier that changing the diaper of a baby. You can cancel it, change it instantly and even operating system. You can even rebuild your infrastructure according to your need anytime. This minimizes the risk of your money being wastage.
d) Ease of Use
Cloud computing has given user a complete easy platform to work on without taking worry about the technical part because cloud computing is too easy to use and you don’t need to have any technical training for using it. Neither you need to worry about the updates of software nor you need to worry about the maintenance of software and hardware. There is no need of cabling, screwdrivers, buying, un-boxing, racking with cloud computing. You can do it from anywhere via internet and all you need to do is, plug in and you are ON.
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing
Being the most advanced innovation, cloud computing has given a lot of benefits to the society. Like, I previously said, “there is good and bad in all of us”. Cloud computing too have few drawbacks. Ignoring other few negligible drawback; what we feel about cloud computing is, the main threat is security and privacy. Cloud computing is based on two technologies, computing and internet. Both of them are also affected from these two facts. Every time you access, you will be using internet and over internet there are several chances of being victim of hackers and there is chance of losing data by attacks of these hackers. In most of the cloud, you might not have physical access to your data. So, there is no guarantee that your data will not be compromised but, we can’t say cloud computing is wastage because of few drawbacks.
The main disadvantages of cloud computing are,
a) Privacy and Security
In today’s context, the biggest concern in cloud computing is Privacy and Security. In cloud computing, everything we use is over internet and depending upon the package, sometimes we might not have physical access to our data. Because of which Users might not be able to host their personal data in a server which is physically hard to reach. Even if we do store our date in those servers, there is no guarantee that our databases will not be compromised or accessed by third party. In cloud computing, everything runs with computer and internet so, there are a lot of chances of system being hacked by hacker and threat of database loss. So, ignoring this statement of privacy and security, cloud computing is an angel to this computing era.
b) Complete Dependency (Loss of Control)
Cloud computing has enabled an easy way of doing business over internet without taking worries of technical part which made us dull and we are losing control. If you need anything, you need to call someone to do it. You don’t have control upon your own system. If software does not open properly, you can’t do anything because you don’t have physical access and you need to wait for the response from the vendor on that problem of software. So we are losing control over our own system because of being completely dependent on vendor.
c) Network Overload (Service downtime)
In cloud computing, everything runs with internet and there is no guarantee that your internet runs properly 24 hour a day. Sometimes your internet may get overload or the vendor providing cloud service may experience problem with internet then, the internet is down, your service is down.
d) Lack of Support
The vendor who is supplying you the cloud service may have agreed to give 24 hour support if needed but, nothing goes as planned and everything is not as foretold. We know that we are not physically near to the vendor, so whatever happens we need to write e-mail to them and there is no guarantee that we will receive help instantly after we send our mail. Sending mail for help and waiting for the response is not a acceptable. So there is lack of support with cloud computing.
Summary
Evolving from main frame computer and moving over from web services, cloud computing has became the next evolution in computing history. Cloud computing has enabled the way of using computing resources over Internet. It delivers huge range of infrastructure to its user without purchasing them on pay per use basis. The ease of use of cloud computing is the main point of raising popularity of it. Cloud computing may be a new concept but, it’s evolving every day by day.
Indeed, cloud computing has some issues regarding security and privacy but, what we believe is, with computing your business is much safer than usual and managed than usual. All cloud computing vendors are professionally doing their business in cloud computing so, they do create a reliable medium for their user and they are not targeted for only one user. So there is no question of mis-use of their content or database. vendor do business in huge mass so, for that they do create a perfect system for their client and trust me, if you work in a environment sitting under that worry of something that your never understand i.e., the technical part then, you never can properly manage your way to the top. If you can focus only on your work and let the geek handle their tool then, that’s make sense.
With smart mobile devices, tablets, laptops cloud computing has become much easier to handle. You can check your office anytime anywhere. With cloud computing, you will get a flexibility of using resources. For example: if you own a gift shop then, your business will be pretty good during the festive season and you might need other application during that time and who know additional infrastructure also. Then, with traditional method you need to buy everything and after festive season whether use or not you will pay for it but, with cloud computing you use as much as resource and application without purchasing them and you don’t have to pay if you do not use them.
It is a way of increasing our capacity or adding capabilities without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel or licensing new software. This is what extending the existing capabilities of Information technology. With cloud computing, the world is changing and visualization of the possibilities and extending the limitations of Information technology.
In future what we believe is, Cloud computing will be the far safer and much more managed environment in the world for any business because of the trend in job and user’s interest cloud computing is rising day by day. With all contributing in this new concept obviously cloud computing will be far better happening virtual system one day.
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