CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

1.0 Overview of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is a popular buzz word which has been making headlines among the industry and researchers. Frost & Sullivan predicts that in 2013, Cloud Computing will become a strategic business and will drive innovation and disruption together with mobility. The term cloud computing is simplified as the delivery of computing services over the internet. The computing services refers to both the application delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and systems software in the data centers that provide those services (Armbrust et al, 2010). It offers benefit to both organisations and individuals. Cloud computing enables computer software, platforms and infrastructure to be used as a service. Many people use cloud computing for their personal needs whether they realize it or otherwise. In todays digital world, photos or documents are stored on lines instead of your personal computer at home, or webmail and social networking site is used daily, business applications are managed by third parties at remote location, of which actually the noticeable examples of the cloud computing services. The cloud has reached its adoption stage.

1.1 Cloud Computing Definition

It is rather interesting in the exploration of finding the definition and the common attributes though some of the service that adopts cloud computing like Google, Yahoo! and Facebook had been some time in the market. When it comes to Cloud Computing, there is no consistent definition (Buyya et al, 2008). Therefore, it is not a surprise that there are still some uncertainties and confusion around the definition and the service attributes of Cloud Computing itself. Han, Y. (2010) and Sharon Q. Yang, (2012) mentioned that the most cited definition is by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as [.] a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shred pool of configurable computing resources (such as network, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. An integrative definition as well as most common denominators (Vaquero et al, 2009) as Cloud is conceived today is scalable, pay-per-use utility model and virtualization which enable large pool of resources such as hardware, deployment platforms and/or services easily usable and accessible which is can be dynamically configured for optimum resource utilization and guaranteed by SLA provider by Infrastructure Provider.

Cloud Computing is redefined by Gartner (2009) as a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities are provided as a service to consumers who could be from either or both, external and internal customers using Internet technologies. IDC (2009, 2010) defines it as an emerging IT development, deployment and delivery model, enabling real-time delivery of products, services and solutions via ubiquitous network

access and browser base. Frost and Sullivan (2010) defines it as scalable and shared environment in which third party suppliers use virtualization technologies to create and distribute computing resources to customers on as-needed basis via internet browser, and where the pricing is done on utility basis. Though the terms may be a new buzzword but the underlying evolution is not new. The birth of cloud computing evolves from established work done where it evolves from cluster computing and super-computing to grid computing. Cloud Computing is a commercial extension of computing resources like computation cycles, servers, storage and database as a metered service similar to a physical public utility like electricity, water, gas or telephone network (Buyya et al, 2009) It enables a computing system to acquire or release. The loss of any one component of the system will not cause total system failure. At the infrastructure layer Cloud Computing is defined by Buyya et all, 2008 as a type of parallel and distributed system consisting of a collection of interconnected and virtualised computers that are dynamically provisioned and presented as one or more unified computing resources based on service-level agreements established through negotiation between the service provider and consumers. It will be one day be the next utility that are commoditized and delivered to serve the need of the community. (Buyya et al, 2008). However, to gain the market share, the Industry Researchers (IDC, 2010) recommended the use of Cloud instead, be it Cloud Services or Cloud Computing.

As referred to in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definition of Cloud Computing [NIST 2011], this model is composed of five essential characteristics: (On-demand self-service, Broad network access, Resource pooling, Rapid elasticity, Measured Service); three service models (Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)); and, four deployment models (Private cloud, Community cloud, Public cloud, Hybrid cloud). Key enabling technologies include: (1) fast wide-area networks, (2) powerful, inexpensive server computers, and (3) high-performance virtualization for commodity hardware.

1.2 Purpose and Significant of Study

Most of the research published recently, focused on technical issues of cloud computing (Vaquero et al, 2009)and assumed specific consumer preferences (Koehler et al, 2010). There are also numerous studies which come from consulting and industry companies to view the perspective of consumers preference (Koehler et al, 2010) in comparison with academic literature. The fundamental success of cloud services relate to vendors, service providers and consumers and understanding fundamental ICT consumptions behavior (M Sharif, 2010) rather than being driven by the computing architectures. There are lack of users studies that play a vital role in the success and failure of this emerging technology. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the cloud computing service adoption determinants from the users perspective. According to Frost & Sullivan (2011), cloud computing is witnessing a growing traction in Malaysia with market is expected to grow at 38.4% for the 2011 to 2016 period. Australia lead cloud adoption at 43% in Asia Pacific with Malaysia (33%) and Singapore

(32%) have emerged as the next hot beds of adoption. Thus, this study could serve as a guide and enrich knowledge of technology providers or cloud providers to understand the factors that influence the adoption of individual for the cloud services. In Malaysia, Telcos that are leveraging their networking capabilities and infrastructures to offer value based cloud services are Telekom Malaysia (VADS), Maxis and AIMS. Hence, the knowledge could help them design the best features and design that mould to the consumers adoption factors.