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Transcript of Trends in Cloud Computing
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 1
Michael R. Vollor
MMIS 627 Enterprise Information Systems
Trends in Cloud Computing
21 April 2013
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 2
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...……...3, 4
What is cloud computing?.........................................................................................................3
Background………………………………………………………………………………………..4
How cloud computing was first introduced or used…………………………………………..4
The layers of cloud computing………………………………………………………………..5
Government Cloud Computing…………………………………………………………..6, 7, 8
Big Data in the cloud………………………………………………………………………….9
Disaster Recovery as a Service……………………………………………………………9, 10
Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………10, 11
Summary and Conclusion……………………………………………………………………12, 13
References……………………………………………………………………………………14, 15
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 3
Introduction
During the past few decades, computing has relied on local resources, meaning the
systems were located next to us, or in proximity to our physical location. For the home user, this
typically included a desktop computing system, often referred to as a tower, or perhaps a smaller,
more portable system such as a laptop. With each of these systems, the hard drive was included
as part of the computing system, and all data would reside locally. The physical characteristics
remained similar in corporate computing environments, with the exception of networked
resources. Large high powered computing systems, known as servers, were used to share data
and provide access to resources outside the local computing environment. Complex enterprise
applications and databases were often configured on servers due to their robust processing
power. Users could access these applications and data sources using a front-end application
installed locally on their desktop workstation. This architecture would allow multiple users to
access the data stored in one central location. During this time, the Internet presented new
opportunities for information sharing and access to data resources. It evolved into a complex
network of interconnected systems which would soon change how information was accessed and
stored.
Anyone who has seen a network diagram, or an illustration representing a computing
environment, has seen the picture of a cloud used to represent the Internet. Flowcharts would
often depict arrows going in to and coming out of the cloud. It is this picture where the term
cloud computing originated. In simplistic terms, cloud computing is the use of the Internet to
access applications and store data, rather than using local resources as described above. It does
not rely on the hard drives of desktops or portable systems. It no longer contains a locally
configured server to run applications and store data (Griffith, 2013). Resources are no longer
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 4
stored on intercompany network resources; they are “stored in the cloud.” The term cloud
computing is just a metaphor referring to the Internet. It no longer refers to locally managed
computing resources; for cloud computing, it involves using the Internet to access data and run
applications. One obvious advantage of cloud computing is in the ability to access company
resources from any location as long as Internet connectivity is available. This paper attempts to
explain the uses of cloud computing as well as developing trends. It is not a comprehensive
document, but rather an overview as to how businesses plan to use cloud computing to improve
IT operations. There is an obvious value in reducing IT costs through the use of cloud
technologies and its flexibility may just be too difficult to ignore.
Background
Salesforce.com was one of the early pioneers of cloud computing, introducing the
concept of delivering enterprise applications via the Internet in 1999 (Biswas, 2011). In 2002,
Amazon introduced Amazon Web Service, followed by the release of both Google Docs and
Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2006. In the years following, companies such as
IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle would enter the cloud dimension, and quickly began to reshape the
current computing model. Now that the big players were involved, companies began looking at
how cloud computing could be integrated into their environment. Today, cloud computing has
been introduced to a multitude of industry categories, including small business, large enterprises,
education, construction, healthcare and government (Biswas, 2011). Those organizations who
have adopted a cloud presence are likely to be in a strategic position for future integrations with
other companies and industries. Cloud computing will continue to develop and introduce new
trends to further strengthen its acceptance.
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 5
There are three services associated with cloud computing, these include Software as a
Service (SaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) (Rosoff,
2011). SaaS are end-user applications such as Microsoft Office 365, where users access the
application from the Internet, rather than a locally installed instance of Microsoft Office. SaaS is
likely to reduce cost of software licensing and offers flexibility for small businesses. According
to Wikipedia, Platform as a service provides a computing platform and includes a set of
application building blocks which can be used for application development. PaaS allows a
company to rent the necessary hardware, operating systems, and storage space. It is ideal for
globally dispersed development teams who are working together on a project by allowing them
access to the same resources (Rouse, 2010). IaaS provides a valuable testing environment
through the availability of server resources without the equipment overhead. At first glance,
IaaS appears relatively similar to PaaS, however one significant difference is in who maintains
the operational task of configuring, updating, and optimizing the environment. In PaaS, this is
handled by the cloud vendor, whereas in IaaS, it is handled by the developers (EngineYard,
2013).
Cloud computing has moved beyond the introductory period and businesses are looking
for new capabilities to simplify processes and expand services to their customers. Currently,
businesses are using the cloud to connect to applications that run on a multitude of servers, rather
than just a single dedicated system. They are gradually transitioning away from the client-server
computing model. After all, there are numerous benefits, such as efficiency, agility, and
flexibility, which are making cloud computing so attractive. There can be a significant savings
with not having to purchase and manage dedicated server resources. Many are using the services
of Microsoft and Amazon to lease server space, and hiring their IT staff to maintain the systems.
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 6
This often translates to a reduction in the cost of staffing and less resources to maintain to run
company applications. It provides agility allowing resources to expand and contract based on
needs of the applications and users. For example, an accounting firm may require additional
storage space during tax time. Cloud computing allows businesses to allocate space on demand,
opposed to purchasing additional server hardware, as is typical in a locally managed client-server
environment (Rosoff, 2011).
Cloud computing continues to raise the eyebrows of CIO’s and offer new possibilities to
enterprise computing practices. Numerous trends have appeared since cloud computing first
made its debut. In the years to come, it will become more refined to further strengthen its
acceptance. Currently cloud computing provides alternatives to commercial and private
industries in terms of application accessibility, robust development environments, and flexible
infrastructure management. The U.S. Government has recognized the benefits of utilizing a
cloud infrastructure, but their requirements present a new set of challenges.
Although every company is concerned with data integrity and preventing unwanted
access, the government is even more so. Once challenge involves the securing of sensitive and
classified data. The obvious question becomes, how can cloud computing be used and still
satisfy the strict security policies? The Federal Cloud Computing Initiative (FCCI), for instance,
is helping the government to implement cloud technologies for the Federal government. Their
mission is to not only to provide operation efficiency and develop best practice models, but to
close the performance gap between public and government IT. The government has always been
hesitant to implement new commercial technologies due to the sensitivity of their information. It
is the mission of the FCCI to further the ability for the government to effectively and quickly
acquire cloud computing services. This will address one of the federal government’s key
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 7
initiatives, cost effective data center consolidation. Government agencies will adopt cloud
computing at various speeds, some will jump right in, while others will barely budge (Linthicum,
2012). Federal IT workers are just not willing to give up control in exchange for efficiency,
although they may sound eager, their progress speaks a different tune. However, General
Alexander, who runs the Pentagon’s National Security Agency, has repeatedly told lawmakers
that the 15,000 military networks will eventually move to the cloud. This move will save an
estimated 680 million dollars in annual operation costs. Getting multiple clouds from different
agencies communicating will be yet another challenge, but will be essential for information
sharing and collaboration, one area that is sensitive among agencies; simply put they do not like
to share information. This way of thinking will have to change in order to provide better
intelligence gathering and to provide a better defense against terrorist threats and malicious
infrastructure attacks.
The U.S. government is regarded as one of the highest targeted agencies by hackers.
Currently the government employs dedicated security teams to protect each agency and
command network. This includes firewalls, routers, switches, servers, desktop computers, and
mobile devices. Transferring sensitive applications to the cloud would allow a more manageable
defense against malicious attacks. With anticipated budget cuts, the government will need to
learn to use cloud computing to strengthen the security posture of critical intelligence and
defense information systems.
Architects in the Intelligence community are working together to bring the seventeen
intelligence entities together in to a single cloud. This would greatly improve information
sharing, however, security concerns continue to grow. Each of the intelligence agencies houses
their own security team to safeguard their classified data. Security teams are comfortable with
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 8
this because it allows them to feel they have a tighter hold on the security of the systems.
However, the problem with this way of thinking is that there are seventeen individual vulnerable
agencies. If a security threat is identified, each of the seventeen agencies needs to apply the
hotfix independently. This broadens the likelihood of an incident. By transitioning all of these
systems to a single cloud infrastructure, applying security patches is simplified and more
responsive.
The Intelligence community, just as other government agencies, is facing budget cuts.
The focus could very well shift from physical terrorist attacks to cyber-attacks. As a result, the
intelligence community has begun developing a cloud environment which they hope will
improve not only security, but the efficiency of sharing data. Engineers are currently developing
a front-end desktop application for use by intelligence analysts to access data stored in the cloud.
Once finalized, security measures will be developed and enforced to restrict access to
information. It is similar to the concept of standard systems administration where administrators
make a user part of a group and allow them permissions to perform certain tasks.
Transitioning classified information to the cloud does come with its own set of risks.
Since the information is stored in a single location, the government must be careful in their
background investigations, and to whom they allow access to the system. There is also the
concern of the rogue employee who accesses and uses information against the country; this is
thought to be one of the worst case scenarios in this type of design. As a result, the architects
plan on tagging data as well as carefully monitoring who accesses what. Despite the security
challenges that lie ahead for government architects, they also face the delivery of the design they
worked so hard to sell (Kelly 2012).
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Another trend projected to pick up momentum in cloud computing is big-data. This does
not necessarily refer to a specific amount of data; however, it generally refers to petabytes and
exabytes of both structured and unstructured data (Rouse, 2012). The amount of data goes far
beyond the capabilities of database storage. The storage of big data not only includes data that
has been collected over the previous years, but that which is being collected by social media
sites, mobile devices, sensors, and other technologies (Chong, 2013).According to Raul Chong,
Big Data and Cloud Program Manager at the IBM Information Management Cloud Computing
Center of Competence, “big data is a collection of data sets that are so big that it is hard to
collect, analyze, visualize, and process using regular software such are relational database
management systems.” According to a recent study, 80% of the world’s data is considered
unstructured. Meaning it is just there, it is not categorized, or indexed. This translates to the
thought that mission critical decisions are being made from only 20% of the data that is
structured. According to Chong, the days of the digital scientist are not far from reality. Big
data could very well lead to the discovery of new drugs, cure for disease, and weather prediction.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is another trend in cloud computing expected to
grow during the next year. Currently, implementing a disaster recovery plan is not always cost
effective depending on the size of the organization. At times, servers need to be replicated in
order to perform a system restore in times of failure. This often requires a mirroring of the
hardware internals. It also involves duplication efforts in order for the two systems to be in sync.
DRaaS eliminates this requirement (Violino, 2013). It was developed to make disaster recovery
more affordable as well as offer offsite failover should a natural disaster occur. Building a
disaster recovery plan through the use of DraaS eliminates the upfront costs associated with
purchasing the backup hardware and medium. It is estimated that a disaster recovery test costs a
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 10
company on average of $100,000 per exercise. DRaaS significantly reduces the time needed to
perform such tests, as well as allow for more frequent testing, therefore, providing more
confidence and predictability in a company’s recovery efforts. During a recovery effort,
traditional tape restoration methods can take days to recover, DRaaS allows systems to be
restored in a matter of hours, if not minutes. Having the ability to restore a system quickly is
essential. For example, if an online shopping site is down for days while being recovered, this
translates to not only a loss of revenue, but a loss of customers as well. By the year 2014, 30%
of businesses are expected to look to DRaaS for failover protection (Manca, 2012).
Analysis
There is no doubt that cloud computing will continue to develop in the years to come.
Many organizations are expected to be able to do more with less. This simply means to be more
efficient in their abilities as professionals, while operating under fewer resources. Companies
are continually restructuring and looking for ways to save money, and reducing personnel has
been a trend in the IT community. Cloud computing offers an alternative through efficient,
scalable computing models. With this thought of having to do more with less, cloud computing
should force companies to think, rather than react. In other words, to retain their qualified
engineers and better utilize their skills for more complex resolution.
Cloud computing offers a plethora of services to simplify processes and reduce cost
through pay as you go services. It no longer requires overspending for computing resources.
The benefits of the cloud could very well free up the repetitive mundane tasks of day-to-day
activities. Therefore, allowing the engineers to focus on how best to align IT with the goals of
the organization, as well as on more strategic methods of improving operations. This may
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 11
require the hiring of a new management team that better understands the advances of cloud
computing and how it can be leveraged to gain competitive advantage.
There are numerous benefits of the government transitioning their systems to the cloud.
It only makes sense for all agencies to begin sharing data, especially in the area of intelligence. I
was once part of a support team responsible for managing the data feeds from multiple
intelligence sources. The ingestion process was not only complex, it required constant
monitoring. The data often had to be restructured in order to meet the database requirements.
This sharing proved valuable to the work we were doing, and to those who relied upon it. The
benefits are obvious from my experience. If all agencies were willing to combine their data into
a central location the predictive analysis could prove invaluable to the security of our country.
From a management perspective, cloud computing would provide for a more secure
environment. I have been responsible for securing systems and networks, the work can be
exhausting. Today, vulnerabilities are identified on a daily basis, and remediating the threat on
multiple systems takes time. Consolidating system resources in a cloud environment would not
only make the remediation process more efficient, but more responsive as well.
When it comes to storing data, cloud computing is the answer. It allows system resources
to be combined to better process and analyze big data. It was alarming to read that critical
decisions were being made from only 20% of the world’s data. Cloud computing brings the
power that is needed to identify patterns, and possible medical breakthroughs that humans are
just incapable of doing on their own. The analysis of big data should be used by scientists as a
precursor to their research. People can have access to an abundance of information through
cloud resources. Specific industry applications can be used to reduce research time through the
use of predictive analysis algorithms. It could very well be the answer to being able to better
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 12
predict weather patterns, especially those that provide little time to prepare. If information is
key, it would be irresponsible of us not to put it to good use.
Summary and Conclusion
Cloud computing is obviously the next leap ahead for technology. The benefits are
obvious in terms of affordability and scalability. It allows smaller business the opportunity to
utilize the same system resources of larger organizations. They do not have to purchase
enterprise equipment in order to run in house applications; they can simply be hosted in a cloud
environment. They no longer have to employ a dedicated IT staff to manage their system
resources. Cloud computing allows businesses of all sizes the ability to grow affordably using
pay as you go resources. Many cloud providers allow companies to purchase additional system
resources as needed, as well as downsize resources. This eliminates the need for companies to
purchase expensive server hardware and network equipment. The need to upgrade system
hardware is also eliminated. As a business expands it requirements, it involves purchasing
additional servers, routers, firewalls, bandwidth, etc., cloud computing once again eliminates this
need. It allows smaller businesses to focus their spending on hiring qualified personnel, rather
than on equipment and IT staff. Through the use of cloud computing, it will allow many new
startup companies to develop and present new ideas, and introduce endless possibilities that
would normally be prevented using current computing models.
Cloud computing will also introduce new certification programs for IT professionals.
There will still be a need for administrators of in-house systems, but as cloud computing
continues to gain momentum, it will gradually diminish. Just as the mainframe computer is still
used today, there will always be that need for support. Cloud computing could very well prove
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 13
to be a similar transition from mainframe computing to client server architecture. As the future
of cloud computing continues to develop, news ideas will be presented that will simply be too
resistible to ignore.
TRENDS IN CLOUD COMPUTING 14
References
Biswas, Sourya (2011). A History of Cloud Computing. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2011/02/a-history-of-cloud-computing/. [Last Accessed 02
March 13].
Biswas, Sourya (2011). Where Is Cloud Computing Going? Up, Up And Away! [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2011/01/where-is-cloud-computing-going-up-
up-and-away/. [Last Accessed 02 March 13].
Chong, Raul (2012). Changing the World: Big Data and the Cloud. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/ibm-cloud-rescue/archive/2012/09/changing-the-
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https://www.engineyard.com/paas-vs-iaas