Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is one of the emerging technologies in today’s world. In simple words it provides a platform for hosting myriad of services over the internet. The networking method at this point supported the transmission of data from one end-point (local network) to the “Cloud” (wide area network) and then further decomposed to another intended end-point. 

It’s been considered as a large server on which data are stored and accessed for the right purpose. The software and the data that you want to access stays on the server rather than on your computer. This methodology of using services not stored on your system is called as cloud computing.

Forrester Research provided its own definition of cloud computing as: “…a standardized IT capability (services, software, or infrastructure) delivered via Internet technologies in a pay-per-use, self-service way.”

The network resources that are being shared over the internet are servers, storage, applications and services. Examples are the services that are being used by us in our day-to-day operations like Office 365, DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Docs.

Cloud Computing providers: IBM, HP google, Amazon web Services(AWS), Salesforce.com, NetSuite, VMware etc.

Cloud computing diagram 

Basic Cloud Computing Deployment models are:

Ø  Private cloud: As the word suggests, its intended for one organization that permits authorized users by giving greater control over their data by not sharing any physical resources. Data center is managed internally.

Ø  Public Cloud: It’s a type of cloud computing that provides cloud services over a network that is open for public usage. This one is developed by commercial providers like Amazon, that hides the complex infrastructure and provides various resource services.

Ø  Hybrid Cloud: It is mix of both Private and Public cloud(integrated) that helps in achieving security, elasticity and cheaper load capabilities. It can have huge impact to organizations if they are serviced poorly.

Ø  Community cloud: It’s a type of cloud computing in which the resources are mutually shared among many organizations like banks, trading firms etc. It is hosted ether externally or internally.

Cloud Computing Service Models

1.      Infrastructure as a service(IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service is one of the fundamental building block of the cloud services that offers computing resources over the internet in a virtualized environment. It provides virtual server space, network connections, bandwidth and load balancers.

Characteristics

Ø  Iaas provides automated deployment of servers, processing power, storage where Iaas clients have access to their infrastructure.

Example: AN enterprise can use a Virtual data centers that offer cloud hosting services, that integrates all these operations within either a private or public cloud implementation.

2.      Platform as a Service(PaaS)

Platforms as a service is a computing platform where it allows creation of web applications quickly without the complexity of buying the software and its related infrastructure.

Characteristics:

Ø  The main characteristic is ability to Integrate with web services and data bases using common methodologies

Ø  Variety of tools to handle billing and subscription management for development applications.

Example: PaaS is used when there are multiple developers working on a new development project like extracting sales data from a CRM tool. It is useful where testing and deployment services are used by developers.

3.      Software as a Service(SaaS)

Software as a Service is one of the top layer in the cloud computing services where consumers are allowed to access software applications over the internet remotely.

Characteristic:

Ø  No additional hardware costs

Ø  It follows a policy like Pay for what you use where subscriptions can be stopped at any time

Ø  Cross device compatibility

Example: Google, Facebook, Twitter allows users to access their services through internet enabled device.

Service models types

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing real time examples

1.      Improving customer satisfaction

How to gain customers’ hearts is important in business. The higher satisfaction that customer has, the stronger relationship that we connect with customer. Customer prefers to make positive advocate for your services and products if their requirements are fulfilled. According to Lee Resource Inc., over 90% customer who has complaints and gets the solution instantly would love to do business with you (CSM, 2016). If they encounter negative experience and get problems that do not get fixed as soon as possible, they would give up. Here the cloud era can provide the business with great convenience and speed. With use of cloud computing it allows to minimize the response time to a customer inquiry. Businesses can use various modes to communicate or create an online customer support site with a large searchable database. Not only does the cloud allow a business to quickly respond to a customer’s needs through the Internet, but it also minimizes the actual phone calls they receive to their call center. This results in savings to the business in terms of time and resources, and an enhanced customer experience, making it a win all around.

2.      Banking and Financial sector

Customers store personal financial information to cloud computing service providers. In addition, consumers store tax records using free or low cost online backup services.

3.      Web based Email

The emails are among the most popular ways used by people to communicate today and the service is constantly evolving to become faster and more reliable. Email clients are popular way to check your emails, but they often use your physical memory to store communication data. Cloud computing enables webmail clients to use cloud storage and give you the opportunity to check your emails from any place in the world. All big technology corporations use cloud computing to make their email messaging service more reliable.

4.Apps: Several companies in the real estate business, for example, are now utilizing mobile apps that allow prospective home buyers to locate homes for sale using satellite GPS. Every time a user initiates a new search, the computation is performed on a remote server and the mobile device displays information sent to it from the Cloud.

Conclusion:

Though Cloud computing is booming up its space in the Industries, there are some factors we need to think. It’s like we should consider the scope of the cloud computing in future and its prospects. Physical or virtual machines act as Servers in the cloud where anyone with suitable internet connection can access the cloud services.  The main issues that cloud computing revolves around like how does it affect the business model of ITes? And what are the technical aspects of cloud implementation. The core capabilities that should be taken into consideration are

·         Service Management and provisioning

·         Security and Data Privacy

·         Data Center Facilities

·         Partners

So we need to look into on h ow Cloud computing will change business models.

Referenced from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/information-technology/the-future-prospects-of-cloud-computing-information-technology-essay.php

·         Cloud computing allows innovative companies offer products that are significantly less costly due to reduced capex and new business models

·         Lightweight form of real-time partnerships and outsourcing with IT suppliers

·         Cloud computing will provide agility and control that traditional outsourcing providers cannot match for the most part.

·         Awareness and leverage of the greater Internet applications and Web 2.0 in particular

·         A reconciliation of traditional SOA with the cloud and other emerging IT models

Drivers & Barriers of Cloud Computing

·         Customer Perspective: Drivers

·         economics

·         Faster, simpler, cheaper to use cloud apps

·         No upfront capital required for servers and storage

·         No ongoing operational expenses for running datacenter

·         Applications can be accessed from anywhere, anytime

·         Customer Perspective: Barriers

·         Data Security

·         Many customers don't wish to trust their data to "the cloud"

·         Data must be locally retained for regulatory reasons

·         Latency

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URtU08iYCH0 - Reason 1 To love the cloud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H3WaMzDiTo - Thinking forward about cloud computing