Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams.

A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic -- a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.

A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instanceAPI) to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. In the enterprise, cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, and bring more online as soon as required. Because this pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed, it's sometimes referred to as utility computing.

Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway software installed on the customer's computer. Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. Developers need to know that currently, there are not standards for interoperability or data portability in the cloud. Some providers will not allow software created by their customers to be moved off the provider's platform.

In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.

Cloud computing has several advantages. among others, are :

1. Achieve economies of scale – increase volume output or productivity with fewer people. Your cost per unit, project or product plummets.
2. Reduce spending on technology infrastructure. Maintain easy access to your information with minimal upfront spending. Pay as you go (weekly, quarterly or yearly), based on demand.
3. Globalize your workforce on the cheap. People worldwide can access the cloud, provided they have an Internet connection.
4. Streamline processes. Get more work done in less time with less people.
5. Reduce capital costs. There’s no need to spend big money on hardware, software or licensing fees.
6. Improve accessibility. You have access anytime, anywhere, making your life so much easier!
7. Monitor projects more effectively. Stay within budget and ahead of completion cycle times.
8. Less personnel training is needed. It takes fewer people to do more work on a cloud, with a minimal learning curve on hardware and software issues.
9. Minimize licensing new software. Stretch and grow without the need to buy expensive software licenses or programs.
10. Improve flexibility. You can change direction without serious “people” or “financial” issues at stake.

To understand how does cloud computing work, imagine that the cloud consists of layers mostly the back-end layers and the front-end or user-end layers. The front-end layers are the ones you see and interact with. When you access your email on Gmail for example, you are using software running on the front-end of a cloud. The same is true when you access your Facebook account. The back-end consists of the hardware and the software architecture that fuels the interface you see on the front end.

Because the computers are set up to work together, the applications can take advantage of all that computing power as if they were running on one particular machine. Cloud computing also allows for a lot of flexibility. Depending on the demand, you can increase how much of the cloud resources you use without the need for assigning specific hardware for the job, or just reduce the amount of resources assigned to you when they are not necessary.

Cloud computing has several characteristics that is;

1.       On demand self services: computer services such as email, applications, network or  server service can be provided without requiring human interaction with each service  provider. Cloud service providers providing on demand self services include Amazon Web  Services (AWS), Microsoft, Google, IBM and Salesforce.com. New York Times and  NASDAQ are examples of companies using AWS (NIST). Gartner describes this  characteristic as service based.

2.       Broad network access: Cloud Capabilities are available over the network and accessed  through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client  platforms such as mobile phones, laptops and PDAs.

3.      Resource pooling: The provider’s computing resources are pooled together to serve  multiple consumers using multiple-tenant model, with different physical and virtual  resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. The  resources include among others storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, virtual  machines and email services. The pooling together of the resource builds economies of  scale (Gartner).

4.      Rapid elasticity: Cloud services can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases  automatically, to quickly scale out and rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the  consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can  be purchased in any quantity at any time.

5.      Measured service: Cloud computing resource usage can be measured, controlled, and  reported providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilised service.  Cloud computing services use a metering capability which enables to control and optimize resource use. This implies that just like air time, electricity or municipality water IT  services are charged per usage metrics – pay per use. The more you utilise the higher the  bill. Just as utility companies sell power to subscribers, and telephone companies sell  voice and data services, IT services such as network security management, data center  hosting or even departmental billing can now be easily delivered as a contractual service.

6.      Multi Tenacity: is the 6th characteristics of cloud computing advocated by the Cloud  Security Alliance. It refers to the need for policy-driven enforcement, segmentation,  isolation, governance, service levels, and chargeback/billing models for different  consumer constituencies. Consumers might utilize a public cloud provider’s service  offerings or actually be from the same organization, such as different business units rather  than distinct organizational entities, but would still share infrastructure.

            Cloud computing security or, more simply, cloud security is an evolving sub-domain of computer security, network security, and, more broadly, information security. It refers to a broad set of policies, technologies, and controls deployed to protect data, applications, and the associated infrastructure of cloud computing.

Cloud security is not to be confused with security software offerings that are cloud-based such as security as a service.

Source:

http://www.verio.com/resource-center/articles/cloud-computing-benefits/

http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/cloud-computing-work-technology-explained/

http://www.isaca.org/groups/professional-english/cloud-computing/groupdocuments/essential%20characteristics%20of%20cloud%20computing.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing_security