Cloud Computing Strategically security impact

matters!
Date:April 23, 2015, By:Vikash Bajpai

Cloud Computing, one of the biggest buzzwords across all industries has changed the way
organizations operate. With the advent of the same in fields like Analytics, Healthcare, Research,
BFSI, Media, Consulting and many others, the thought process has already shifted from
convergence to consolidation. The world is no longer just a smaller place, it is turning into an
integrated place now, especially with the possibilities of outsourcing spreading into all industries.
Cloud Computing is all about serving, storing, and computing. However there are many hurdles
one has to cross to ensure that the computing is seamless. According to Gartners 2015 report,
Privacy, security standards, and levels of access to information, are things that companies are
already working on, but one of the major hurdles is interoperability across infrastructure,
platforms, and softwares on the cloud, with regard to security measures, work flow, Information
access levels, vendors, technology, people, and cultures.

Some of the other obstacles we foresee, in terms of interoperability are:

1. Transitioning data from one cloud service to the other and ensuring that the network in the
target cloud gives the application the same support that it had in its original cloud.
2. Ensuring that the security offered by the cloud service, matches or suitably surpasses the
capabilities provided by the source cloud.
3. Data is encrypted in a format readable by the source and the target cloud and application.
Companies using cloud computing would welcome standards that address workload migration &
data migration so that they have the flexibility to switch vendors if needed. This would need
standardization of virtual-machine image file formats & APIs for cloud storage [Ahronovitz
2010]. Similarly, standardization to support the workload-management using workloadmanagement clients & scripts could help immensely.
Another area where standards would be welcome are, transparency and information sharing
levels based on Open ID or OAuth, to solve user authentication issues across infrastructure and
platforms.
However, cloud providers use different types of service models and generations of systems; First
generation involving those discovered at design time and integrated at compile time, second
involving service oriented systems that are adapted and reconfigured at installation and to some
extent at runtime; and the third generation involving services that are integrated at runtime and
are context sensitive and reconfigurable in an autonomic, ad hoc manner. (As defined in 2005, a
group of researchers from the European Union defined three generations of service oriented
systems [Papazoglou 2008] )
Cloud computing refers to the applications delivered as software as a service(Saas), platform as a
service(Pass) and infrastructure as a service(Iaas).
In SaaS there is no need to install and run application on individual computers instead it uses the
web to deliver applications that are managed by a third-party vendor and whose interface is
accessed on the clients side. Paas are used to provide a platform for applications where it can be
used for development. So a developer does not have to worry about operating system and
hardware. IaaS provides virtual data centre in the cloud that have all the technologies and
capabilities of a traditional data centre and it doesnt need investment for maintenance.
But with everything there are certain risk and uncertainties. One of them being security issues
when an enterprise or a user outsources their data. By outsourcing their private information and
business data there are chances of data/information getting leaked as user/enterprise may not
have direct control over it as the data is handled by a third party. And in cloud the details of the
service and processes used by cloud service provider (CSP) may not be transparent. In the end
customers are responsible for the security and integrity of their own data. Cloud computing
providers who refuse to undergo this scrutiny are signaling that customers can only use them for
the most trivial functions. [Gartner].
One way to minimize the above stated risk is to use encryption, i.e. encrypting your data before
we transmit. The encrypted data will be gibberish to a person without a proper key. But as the
data is encrypted it might lead to other problems, if in future we try to shift our data to another
cloud service provider.

Hosted ERP and Cloud ERP software effect in ERP!

When we take about Hosted ERP and Cloud ERP software, people have targeted Hosted ERP as
fake ERP Clouds. While there are advantages and as well as disadvantages of both Hosted ERP
and Cloud ERP, one of the main reasons hosted ERP has been called as fake is because Cloud
ERP offers more cost savings and operational benefits than hosted ERP. Moreover, according to
Gartner, it has been reported that legacy ERP systems lack scalability to support 21rst century
compliance.
However, the entire scenario is going to change with the introduction of OmniFabric software
platform. It is termed as the next generation of computing. Usually 3rd generation level
languages like Java and .Net were deemed as costly and time consuming by ERP developers.
However with the introduction of OmniFabric software, these barriers might finally be overcome
by the software. OminiFabric has been designed to create a world such that devices worked
together to achieve any task, simply, cheaply, quickly and even automatically. It is deemed as
small enough to run on the tiniest of devices and is capable of replacing the functionality offered
by existing systems. OmniFabric also uses a new kind of Agent technology. It has been designed
to be able to carry all of the information and resources it needs to any target platform where it
carries out its task before returning to the host platform. The task can be a whole operation or any
part thereof. Agents can move from system to system looking for a particular resource and then
return back to the originating host. Moreover when it moves from one platform to another, it can
carry any documents, media, data, applications that it requires. Thus, Cloud ERP developers now
have an opportunity to move away 3rd generation level languages like Java and .Net and towards
broader platforms like Omnifabric.
These would definitely lead to an increase in cheaper ERPs options in cloud and hosted and as
such the battle for cloud enterprises is just heating up with such new disruptive technology
coming up.