Cloud ComputingOr

“How I learned to love XaaS where X= any function as a service.”

John Ahearn

Development Hypothesized by John

McCarthy in 1960

Draws ideas and concepts from: Utility Computing, Grid Computing, & Autonomic Computing

IBM, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, & Level 3 Communications are the leaders in leaders in this area

Currently 3 hypothesized types of clouds: private, public, & hybrid

Characteristics/Components

Single point of access for all computing needs Supported by large data centers Virtualization of information systems and

technologies Open Standards Internet connectivity Service level agreements by commercial

organizations No physical infrastructure owned by the end user

Functions of cloud computing Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform as a Service (PaaS) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Proposed Benefits

Cost

Device/Location Independence

Multi-tenancy

Reliability

Scalability

Security

Sustainability

Concerns

Consumer Privacy

National/International Regulation

Security

Support

Long term viability

Benefits Analysis

Cost Lower infrastructure startup and personnel costs thru the outsourcing of IT functions and

leveraging of virtualization technologies Lower overhead and maintenance costs thru the simplification of hardware components

Device/Location Independence Access of files and information from anywhere and on any platform

Multi-tenancy Sharing of costs among large pool of users Resource upgrade managed by a central pool of professionals dedicated to servicing the

technology Reliability

Business continuity and disaster recovery is easier as the cloud architecture utilizes several layers of servers to offer the virtualization technologies and database access

Eliminates data redundancy and error Scalability

Cloud architecture provides the computing resources needed to run applications as it is needed. Allows untapped resources to be utilized for other applications as needed

Security Centralization of data results in the focus of security resources

Sustainability Better resource utilization leverage by “common” picture of network demands, work loads,

and end user requirements

Operations

Concern Analysis Consumer Privacy

Privacy of personal sensitive information is an issue. Can the provider guarantee confidentiality of sensitive information such as financial data & health data?

How data is controlled is a concern for many privacy advocacy groups. Centralized data has the possibility of being utilized to blackmail or embarrass others

Ownership of data. Who really owns the files and information stored on a third party database warehouse?

National/International Regulation International regulations governing privacy differ across the many regions. Depending on the

location of the company and the database warehouse, regulations overseeing privacy of information may/will vary

Law enforcement and national security policy conflict across multinational boundaries Security

Encryption of data may or may not be as stringent as desired Attacks by dissident elements in society Merger of companies that provide this service may result in different application of security

standards to data Support

Disaster recovery caused by internal and external factors. The disaster recovery procedures by the 3rd party must be robust enough to recover all critical data and files. Estimated data losses?

Receptiveness to consumer concerns and issues. Cloud services may be cost effective for the end user, but represent a high front end cause for the provider for hardware (server farms, database warehousing, etc). Possibility of low competition among providers

Long term viability Bankruptcy of 3rd party raises the question of available recovery of data

Recommendation

Hybrid Cloud Outsource web based software applications to leverage cloud capabilities and

resources Retain and manage datacenter in order to ensure control and proper governance of

data Reasoning

Retains the benefits of reducing IT requirements to run various applications as well as ensuring that data is secured. Benefits in reducing costs will not be maximized

Requirement to maintain staffing for running data center justifies the potential medium and long term issues

Ensures location/device independence thru the use of web based application to access required information

Eliminates the concern of legal and political conflicts that result from international service providers

Security of data is not an issue Centralizes data to eliminate data error and handling Ensures that IT resources are “scaled” to fit company needs. Reduces

organizational requirements to meet spike demands in the normal business cycle Software service providers are plentiful; greater leverage for the company to seek

services elsewhere if there is a low customer service response Maximizes cost reduction and minimizes security and privacy concerns

Questions?