Rebecca+Smith's+Cloud+Computing+and+Web+2.0

Cloud computing is a technology that provides flexible and massive online computing power. Cloud computing provides computing needs to computer users via the Internet. An organization will pay the provider of the cloud service a fee based on the amount of computing time and other resources that they consume. This allows companies to expand and diversify their network and server infrastructure. (Vermatt, 2010) The Cloud provider will increase or decrease the capability of a company’s web site dependent on the need. Cloud computing provides a variety of services. These range from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes to personal collaboration. These services are provided when you need them and where you need them. The “cloud” in cloud computing can be defined as “the set of hardware, networks, storage, services, and interfaces that combine to deliver aspects of computing as a service.” (Hurwitz) In basic terms, cloud computing is a service offered rather than a product. This service is provided to customers and their computers to help them share resources, software, and information over a network. Customers are able to access applications that are stored at a remote location from any desktop. Essentially any application that you use on the web can be considered a “cloud application.” That is because the information resides “in the cloud” the applications and sites that use this web 2.0 technology are websites such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter. However, this uses a loose definition of what a cloud application is. Users are less likely to view services such as Facebook or Twitter as being part of the cloud, but rather only focus on this when it becomes about their personal data that is being stored. There are four layers of the cloud. There is the server, infrastructure, platform, application and client. A cloud client is hardware and/or software that are dependent on cloud computing for application delivery. (wikipedia) A cloud application is actual software that is provided as a service through the cloud provider. Cloud tasks provide “compute, storage, communication, and management capabilities.” (wikipedia) These applications can scale in and out to match the workload demand. These applications base their prices on usage. What makes these applications unique is their elasticity which I will discuss later. The third layer is the platform. This provides a computing platform and/or solution stack as a service, often consuming cloud infrastructure and sustaining cloud applications. This will allow the distribution of applications without the high cost of buying and managing the hardware and software layers. (Schofield) Cloud infrastructure services refer to the delivery of computer infrastructures as a service along with storage and networking. Clients are then able to purchase these services as a fully outsourced service which saves the company time and money. Finally there is the server. The server’s layer contains the hardware and software products that are specifically designed for the cloud services. Cloud computing has a few characteristics that make it unique and beneficial to the customers. These are elasticity, self-service provisioning, application programming interfaces, and billing/metering of service usage. (Hurwitz) When it is said that Cloud computing provides elasticity, it is meaning that the resources provided can get smaller or larger dependent on the need. Along with the elasticity comes scalability which means that applications can scale when users need to be added or when changes are needed to be made. Cloud applications clone tasks in to multiple “virtual machines” at runtime to meet the changing work demand. You are able to modify and change the information without having to stop the running application. (Hamdaga) Next, there is the self-service provisioning. This means that customers are able to provision cloud services and request a particular amount of computing, storage, software, process, or more from the service provider. The third area is the applications. There are standardized interfaces that provide instructions on how two application data sources can communicate with one another. This allows customers to easily link services together. Finally, the billing of the service usage provides customers to pay-as-you-go service. Customers will only have to pay for services that they used. There seems to be a theme of fours with cloud computing. Another area is with the cloud computing types. There is public, community, hybrid and private. A public cloud is based on the standard cloud computing model. This being where a provider makes resources such as storage available to the general public. These services may be free or offered for the pay-as-you-go model. With public clouds, they are virtual data centers outside of your company’s firewall. The service provider typically makes resources available to the company. In the community cloud, you share the infrastructure between several groups within a particular community. These organizations often have common goals and/or concerns. With a community cloud, the costs are spread between fewer members, so the costs may seem a bit higher than with other types. With the hybrid cloud, it is exactly what its name suggests. It is a combination of two different types such as private and community. The hybrid cloud keeps each of the two clouds separate, but binds them together. The fourth type is the private cloud. With private clouds, it is designed to be used with a single company. Private clouds are virtual data centers that are inside your company’s firewall. The private cloud seems the least appealing in my opinion because you have the least flexibility and the most hands on approach. From what I have read, with the private cloud, the company is still responsible for managing them. Even with the seemingly endless benefits of Cloud computing, there are some risks and issues that some customers may be concerned about. As with anything done online, there is the concern of security. As cloud computing is gaining in popularity, some companies are still uncomfortable with the idea of having their information, which may contain sensitive information, managed and protected by an outside service. Yet, this is the very basis for cloud computing. It is designed to provide secure management of this information in order for companies to decrease their workload and costs. There is a great incentive to cloud computing providers to build and maintain strong secure services. Service providers have applied the same security principle that applies to on-site computing to cloud computing security. There are security measures in place to monitor identity management. This is to ensure that access to computer resources, applications, data, and services is controlled properly. Providers have also taken measures to detect and separate legitimate from illegitimate activity. Another security measure that is taken is encryption. Abuse and security will always be a concern and a legitimate one at that. There are people out there that can and have purchased items to help them try and steal passwords so that they can launch an attack on the site or whatever their ill will may be. However, with all that being said, the security provided is no less secure than any other online applications or websites that you may do business on or with. All the proper steps are taken to ensure that their customer’s information remains safe and secure. Cloud computing has mostly positive aspects about it. I like the fact that there is the option to “outsource” some of the tasks that come with maintaining a server. This saves companies time, money, and resources. From doing this paper and the research, the ones that seem to benefit most, or would benefit most, are small businesses. This isn’t to say large businesses wouldn’t see just as much a return on this concept, it’s just that with small businesses, you have less manpower, less resources, and usually just as great a need for this. I like cloud computing because your information is secure from things such as natural disasters, fires, and hardware failure. Even with the never-ending fear of your information being stolen or manipulated, I think that these fears exist with or without the cloud. Nothing is ever 100% secure. On the other side, I do see how organizations can be fearful of letting go of this information. The idea that the companies that are providing the services are controlling and able to monitor at will the organization’s information. This is not to say that the cloud providers would, but just knowing that the ability to do it is unsettling. I do believe though, that once cloud computing has been established and shows a track record of its security and benefits, I feel more and more organizations will be likely to turn that direction.

= = Hamdaga. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.stargroup.uwaterloo.ca/~mhamdaga/publications/A%20REFERENCEMODELFORDEVELOPINGCLOUD%20APPLICATIONS.pdf Hurwitz, B. K. (n.d.). //What is cloud computing?// Retrieved from www.dummies.com: www.dummies.com Schofield, J. (n.d.). //Google angles for business users with 'platform as a service'//. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/17/google.software Vermatt, S. (2010). //Discovering Computers.// Boston: Cengage. wikipedia. (n.d.). //wikipedia//. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cloud_computing http://radar.oreilly.com/2008/10/web-20-and-cloud-computing.html