CLOUD COMPUTING: SOME BASIC CONCEPTS

CLOUD COMPUTINGCLOUD COMPUTING, OR SOMETHING WITHIN THE CLOUD, IS AN EXPRESSION USED TO DESCRIBE A VARIETY OF COMPUTING CONCEPTS THAT INVOLVE A LARGE NUMBER OF COMPUTERS CONNECTED THROUGH A REAL-TIME COMMUNICATION NETWORKS SUCH AS THE INTERNET.IN SCIENCE, CLOUD COMPUTING IS A SYNONYM FOR DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING OVER A NETWORK, AND MEANS THE ABILITY TO RUN A PROGRAM OR APPLICATION ON MANY CONNECTED COMPUTERS AT THE SAME TIME. THE PHRASE ALSO MORE COMMONLY REFERS TO NETWORK-BASED SERVICES, WHICH APPEAR TO BE PROVIDED BY REAL SERVER HARDWARE, AND ARE IN FACT SERVED UP BY VIRTUAL HARDWARE, SIMULATED BY SOFTWARE RUNNING ON ONE OR MORE REAL MACHINES.

HISTORY OF CLOUD COMPUTINGThe 1950’s

THE UNDERLYING CONCEPT OF CLOUD COMPUTING DATES BACK TO THE 1950S, WHEN LARGE-SCALE MAINFRAME COMPUTERS BECAME AVAILABLE IN ACADEMIA AND CORPORATIONS, ACCESSIBLE VIA THIN CLIENTS/TERMINAL COMPUTERS, BECAUSE THEY WERE USED FOR COMMUNICATIONS BUT HAD NO INTERNAL PROCESSING CAPACITIES. TO MAKE MORE EFFICIENT USE OF COSTLY MAINFRAMES, A PRACTICE EVOLVED THAT ALLOWED MULTIPLE USERS TO SHARE BOTH THE PHYSICAL ACCESS TO THE COMPUTER FROM MULTIPLE TERMINALS AS WELL AS TO SHARE THE CPU TIME.THE PRACTICE OF SHARING CPU TIME ON A MAINFRAME BECAME KNOWN IN THE INDUSTRY AS TIME-SHARING.

The 1960s–1990s

JOHN MCCARTHY(AN AMERICAN COMPUTER SCIENTIST) OPINED IN THE 1960S THAT "COMPUTATION MAY SOMEDAY BE ORGANIZED AS A PUBLIC UTILITY.“OTHER SCHOLARS HAVE SHOWN THAT CLOUD COMPUTING'S ROOTS GO ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE 1950S WHEN SCIENTIST HERB GROSCH (THE AUTHOR OF GROSCH'S LAW) POSTULATED THAT THE ENTIRE WORLD WOULD OPERATE ON DUMB TERMINALS POWERED BY ABOUT 15 LARGE DATA CENTERS.DUE TO THE EXPENSE OF THESE POWERFUL COMPUTERS, MANY CORPORATIONS AND OTHER ENTITIES COULD AVAIL THEMSELVES OF COMPUTING CAPABILITY THROUGH TIME SHARING AND SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS, SUCH AS GE'S GEISCO, IBM SUBSIDIARY THE SERVICE BUREAU CORPORATION (SBC, FOUNDED IN 1957), TYMSHARE(1966), DIAL DATA (BOUGHT BY TYMSHARE IN 1968),ETC.

THE 1990’S

IN THE 1990S, TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES BEGAN OFFERING VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) SERVICES WITH COMPARABLE QUALITY OF SERVICE, BUT AT A LOWER COST. BY SWITCHING TRAFFIC AS THEY SAW FIT TO BALANCE SERVER USE, THEY COULD USE OVERALL NETWORK BANDWIDTH MORE EFFECTIVELY. THEY BEGAN TO USE THE CLOUD SYMBOL TO DENOTE THE DEMARCATION POINT BETWEEN WHAT THE PROVIDER WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR AND WHAT USERS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR. CLOUD COMPUTING EXTENDS THIS BOUNDARY TO COVER SERVERS AS WELL AS THE NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE.

SINCE 2000AMAZON PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN ALL THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLOUD COMPUTING BY MODERNIZING THEIR DATA CENTERS, WHICH, LIKE MOST COMPUTER NETWORKS, WERE USING AS LITTLE AS 10% OF THEIR CAPACITY AT ANY ONE TIME.IN EARLY 2008, OPENNEBULA, ENHANCED IN THE RESERVOIR EUROPEAN COMMISSION-FUNDED PROJECT, BECAME THE FIRST OPEN-SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR DEPLOYING PRIVATE AND HYBRID CLOUDS, AND FOR THE FEDERATION OF CLOUDS.ON MARCH 1, 2011, IBM ANNOUNCED THE IBM SMARTCLOUD FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT SMARTER PLANET. AMONG THE VARIOUS COMPONENTS OF THE SMARTER COMPUTING FOUNDATION, CLOUD COMPUTING IS A CRITICAL PIECE.

TYPES OF CLOUD• PRIVATE CLOUD : PRIVATE CLOUD IS CLOUD

INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATED SOLELY FOR A SINGLE ORGANIZATION, WHETHER MANAGED INTERNALLY OR BY A THIRD-PARTY AND HOSTED INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY.• PUBLIC CLOUD : A CLOUD IS CALLED A 'PUBLIC CLOUD'

WHEN THE SERVICES ARE RENDERED OVER A NETWORK THAT IS OPEN FOR PUBLIC USE. • COMMUNITY CLOUD : A COMMUNITY CLOUD BASICALLY

SHARES INFRASTRUCTURE BETWEEN SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS FROM A SPECIFIC COMMUNITY WITH COMMON CONCERNS (SECURITY, COMPLIANCE, JURISDICTION, ETC.), WHETHER MANAGED INTERNALLY OR BY A THIRD-PARTY AND HOSTED INTERNALLY OR EXTERNALLY.

• HYBRID CLOUD : HYBRID CLOUD IS A COMPOSITION OF TWO OR MORE CLOUDS (PRIVATE, COMMUNITY OR PUBLIC) THAT REMAIN UNIQUE ENTITIES BUT ARE BOUND TOGETHER, OFFERING THE BENEFITS OF MULTIPLE DEPLOYMENT MODELS.

• DISTRIBUTED CLOUD : CLOUD COMPUTING CAN ALSO BE PROVIDED BY A DISTRIBUTED SET OF MACHINES THAT ARE RUNNING AT DIFFERENT LOCATIONS, WHILE STILL CONNECTED TO A SINGLE NETWORK OR HUB SERVICE. EXAMPLES OF THIS INCLUDE DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING PLATFORMS SUCH AS BOINC AND FOLDING@HOME.

PROTOCOLS USED FOR CLOUD COMPUTING NUMEROUS INITIATIVES AND STANDARDS BODIES ARE ADDRESSING THE STANDARDS RELATED TO CLOUD COMPUTING. FROM THE NETWORKING SIDE, THE IEEE IS WORKING ON NEW PROTOCOLS AND THE ENHANCEMENT OF EXISTING PROTOCOLS FOR DATA CENTERS. THESE ENHANCEMENTS ARE PARTICULARLY USEFUL IN DATA CENTERS WITH CONVERGED NETWORKS—THE AREA IS OFTEN KNOWN AS CONVERGENCE ENHANCED ETHERNET (CEE).THE IEEE IS WORKING TO ENABLE FCOE(FIBRE CHANNEL OVER ETHERNET) THROUGH AN ETHERNET LINK IN WHAT IS KNOWN AS "LOSSLESS ETHERNET“.

PROS AND CONS OF CLOUD COMPUTING

PROS• COST REDUCTION : CLOUD COMPUTING REDUCES PAPERWORK,

LOWERS TRANSACTION COSTS, AND MINIMIZES THE INVEST IN HARDWARE. MOVING YOUR BUSINESS TO ‘THE CLOUD’ ALSO REDUCES THE NEED FOR AN IT STAFF.• IT’S SCALABLE : LIKE ELECTRICITY AND WATER, SOME CLOUD

COMPUTING SERVICES ALLOW BUSINESSES TO ONLY PAY FOR WHAT THEY USE. AND AS YOUR BUSINESS GROWS, YOU CAN ACCOMMODATE BY ADDING MORE SERVER SPACE.• LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD : CLOUD COMPUTING PROVIDERS OFFERS

SMALL AND MID-SIZE BUSINESSES ACCESS TO MORE SOPHISTICATED TECHNOLOGY AT LOWER PRICES.• EASIER COLLABORATION : SINCE SERVICES IN THE CLOUD CAN BE

ACCESSED ANYTIME FROM ANY COMPUTER, IT’S EASY TO COLLABORATE WITH EMPLOYEES IN DISTANT LOCATIONS.

CONS• TECHNICAL ISSUES : THOUGH IT IS TRUE THAT INFORMATION AND DATA ON

THE CLOUD CAN BE ACCESSED ANYTIME AND FROM ANYWHERE AT ALL, THERE ARE TIMES WHEN THIS SYSTEM CAN HAVE SOME SERIOUS DYSFUNCTION. BESIDES, YOU WILL NEED A VERY GOOD INTERNET CONNECTION TO BE LOGGED ONTO THE SERVER AT ALL TIMES.

• SECURITY IN THE CLOUD : BEFORE ADOPTING THIS TECHNOLOGY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT YOU WILL BE SURRENDERING ALL YOUR COMPANY’S SENSITIVE INFORMATION TO A THIRD-PARTY CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER. THIS COULD POTENTIALLY PUT YOUR COMPANY TO GREAT RISK. HENCE, YOU NEED TO MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT YOU CHOOSE THE MOST RELIABLE SERVICE PROVIDER, WHO WILL KEEP YOUR INFORMATION TOTALLY SECURE.

HOWEVER, THE ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING OVERWEIGHS ALL ITS DISADVANTAGES !