Cloud Computing

Cloud computing can be defined as a paradigm of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them.

Cloud computing provides an exciting new way to work with programs and data, collaborate with friends and family, share ideas with co-workers/friends, and most of all, to be more productive! The “cloud” consists of thousands of computers and servers, all linked and accessible to you via the Internet.

With cloud computing, everything you do is now web-based instead of being desktop-based; you can access all your programs and documents from any computer anywhere in the world that is connected to the Internet. You can use it if you want to share photographs with your family and friends, share information within clubs such as football clubs, or manage a multi-faceted project in a large organization, cloud computing can help you do it more easily than ever before. If you need to collaborate, cloud computing is the way to do it.

Cloud computing comprises of numerous key characteristics which combined mould together to provide a new exciting web based facility. These characteristics include factors such as cost, reliability, scalability, security and agility.
Cost – Greatly reduced and capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure. This lowers barriers to entry.
Reliability – Improves through the use of multiple redundant sites, which makes cloud computing suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery.
Scalability – dynamic provisioning of resources on self service basis near real time without users having to engineer for peak loads.
Security – typically improves due to centralisation of data, there are increased security focused resources. Concerns exist about loss of control over certain sensitive data and the lack of security for stored information. 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.
Agility – With users able to rapidly and inexpensively re-provision technological infrastructure resources agility is greatly improved. The cost of overall computing is unchanged and the providers will absorb up front costs and spread costs over a longer period.

The different types of cloud computing type include the following Public, Hybrid and Private clouds. A Public cloud also known as an external cloud is computing whereby resources are dynamically provisioned on fine grained, self service basis over the internet from an off site third party provider who shares resources and bills on fine grained computing basis. A hybrid cloud environment consisting of multiple internal/external providers will be a typical option for most enterprises. Private cloud or internal clouds are terms that vendors have recently used to describe offerings that emulate cloud computing on private networks. These products claim to deliver some benefits of cloud computing without the pitfalls, capitalising on data security, corporate governance and reliability concerns. Analysts claim that within five years a substantial percentage of small and medium enterprises will get most of there computing resources from external cloud computing providers.

There are six layer components of cloud computing.
Client – A cloud client consists of computer hardware/software which relies on cloud computing for application delivery and is essentially useless without it.
Service – A cloud service includes products, services and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real time over the internet.
Application – A cloud application leverages the cloud in software architecture, often eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer’s own computer, thus eliminating the burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation and support. Example would be Web Application (Twitter).
Platform – A cloud platform, such as a Platform as a service, the delivery of a computing platform and or solution stack as a service facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.
Infrastructure – Cloud infrastructure such as infrastructure as a service, is the delivery of computer infrastructure, typically a platform virtualization environment, as a service.
Architecture – The systems architecture of the software systems involved in the delivery of cloud computing comprises hardware and software designed by cloud components communicating with each other over application programming interfaces, usually web services.

Who would be affected by a shift in the computing industry? The shift would affect companies a few different sub-industries including software companies, internet service providers and hardware manufacturers. Companies in each of these industries will face significant change if cloud computing is to be the next step for the industry. Software producers that could gain from a shift towards cloud computing include Google, Netsuite and others. Internet based companies that could gain form a shift towards cloud computing include Amazon.com, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google. With those gaining there are also others that will loose out. Traditional software producers that could have some catching up to do if cloud computing include Oracle, SAP AG, Blackdaud and Lawson Software.

However I think people and organisations should ask themselves a few questions before opting for cloud computing. Is Cloud Computing secure? This is a question you need to ask yourself before deciding to use this web based computing. Would you like all your data to be stored on the cloud? How secure is the cloud? Can unauthorized users gain access to your confidential data? Data vendors do assure you that your data is secure in the cloud but you still need to ask yourself if you trust it?Can data be lost? The theory behind cloud computing is that your data stored in the cloud is replicated across multiple machines but if your data does go missing you should have physical or local back up and in order to do so you must download all your cloud documents on your desktop as relying on the cloud puts you at risk if the cloud lets you down