CLOUD COMPUTING

1. ABSTRACT

“A style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilites are provided
as a service to external customers using Internet technologies” – Gartner

Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software,

and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, like the
electricity grid.

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client–
server in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users, who no longer have
need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that
supports them. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and
delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves over-
the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources. It is a
byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided
by the Internet. This frequently takes the form of web-based tools or applications that
users can access and use through a web browser as if it were a program installed
locally on their own computer. NIST provides a somewhat more objective and
specific definition here. The term "cloud" is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based
on the cloud drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, had later to
depict the Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying
infrastructure it represents. Typical cloud computing providers deliver common
business applications online that are accessed from another Web service or software
like a Web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers. A key element
of cloud computing is customization and the creation of a user-defined experience.

Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through common

centers and built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of access for all
consumers' computing needs. Commercial offerings are generally expected to meet
quality of service (QoS) requirements of customers, and typically include service
level agreements (SLAs).The major cloud service providers include Microsoft,
HewlettPackard, IBM, Salesforce, Amazon and Google.

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2. INTRODUCTION

The term “cloud”, as used in this white paper, appears to have its origins in network
diagrams that represented the internet, or various parts of it, as schematic clouds.
“Cloud computing” was coined for what happens when applications and services are
moved into the internet “cloud”. Cloud computing is not something that suddenly
appeared overnight; in some form it may trace back to a time when computer systems
remotely time-shared computing resources and applications. More currently though,
cloud computing refers to the many different types of services and applications being
delivered in the internet cloud, and the fact that, in many cases, the devices used to
access these services and applications do not require any special applications.

The primary business service models being deployed (such as software, platform, and
infrastructure as a service) and common deployment models employed by service
providers and users to use and maintain the cloud services (such as the private, public,
community, and hybrid clouds) are discussed. Also introduced are the benefits and
challenges associated with cloud computing, and for those seeking to use
communications services in the cloud, briefly presented are different ways of
determining the interfaces needed to use these communications services.

Many companies are delivering services from the cloud. Some notable examples as of
2010 include the following:

• Google — Has a private cloud that it uses for delivering many different services to
its users, including email access, document applications, text translations, maps, web
analytics, and much more.

• Microsoft — Has Microsoft® Sharepoint® online service that allows for content
and business intelligence tools to be moved into the cloud, and Microsoft currently
makes its office applications available in a cloud.

• Salesforce.com — Runs its application set for its customers in a cloud, and its
Force.com and Vmforce.com products provide developers with platforms to build
customized cloud services.

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3. PROBLEM DOMAIN

In the past computers were clustered together to form a single larger computer. This
was a technique common to the industry, and used by many IT departments. The
technique allowed you to configure computers to talk with each other using specially
designed protocols to balance the computational load across the machines. As a user,
you didn't care about which CPU ran your program, and the cluster management
software ensured that the “best” CPU at that time was used to run the code.

In the early 1990s Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman came up with a new concept of
“The Grid”. The analogy used was of the electricity grid where users could plug into
the grid and use a metered utility service. If companies don't have their own powers
stations, but rather access a third party electricity supply, Grid computing expands the
techniques of clustering where multiple independent clusters act like a grid due to
their nature of not being located in a single domain.

One of the hurdles that had to be jumped with the move from clustering to grid was
data residency, storage management, security provisioning and data movement
became the nuts to be cracked in order for grid to succeed. But, more important than
these technical limitations, was the lack of business buy in. The nature of Grid/Cloud
computing means a business has to migrate its applications and data to a third party
solution. This creates huge barriers to the uptake.

The other bridge that had to be crossed was that of data security and confidentiality.
For many businesses their data is the most sensitive, business critical thing they
possess. To hand this over to a third party was simply not going to happen.
Desktop applications must be physically installed on a PC, upgraded periodically,
have patches applied when they become available, and re-installed when the user
moves to a new desktop or when the old one crashes. Desktop applications require the
user to actively install a patch, or at least, allow for an auto-connection to take place.

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4. SOLUTION DOMAIN

The following are some of the possible solutions for those who offer cloud
computing-based services and applications:

• Shared Infrastructure — Uses a virtualized software model, enabling the sharing

of physical services, storage, and networking capabilities. The cloud infrastructure,
regardless of deployment model, seeks to make the most of the available
infrastructure across a number of users.

• Dynamic Provisioning — Allows for the provision of services based on current

demand requirements. This is done automatically.

• Network Access — Needs to be accessed across the internet from a broad range of
devices such as PCs, laptops, and mobile devices, using standards-based APIs (for
example, ones based on HTTP). Deployments of services in the cloud include
everything from using business applications to the latest application on the newest
smartphones.

• Managed Metering — Uses metering for managing and optimizing the service and
to provide reporting and billing information. In this way, consumers are billed for
services according to how much they have actually used during the billing period.
In short, cloud computing allows for the sharing and scalable deployment of services,
as needed, from almost any location, and for which the customer can be billed based
on actual usage using software automation, enabling the expansion and contraction of
service capability, as needed. This dynamic scaling needs to be done while
maintaining high levels of reliability and security.

• Scalability/Flexibility — Companies can start with a small deployment and grow to

a large deployment fairly rapidly, and then scale back if necessary. Also, the
flexibility of cloud computing allows companies to use extra resources at peak times,
enabling them to satisfy consumer demands.

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• Reliability — Services using multiple redundant sites can support business
continuity and disaster recovery.

• Maintenance — Cloud service providers do the system maintenance, and

access is through APIs that do not require application installations onto PCs, thus
further reducing maintenance requirements.

• Cost — is greatly reduced and capital expenditure is converted to operational

expenditure. This lowers barriers to entry, as infrastructure is typically provided
by a third-party and does not need to be purchased for one-time or infrequent
intensive computing tasks. Pricing on a utility computing basis is fine-grained
with usage-based options and minimal or no IT skills are required for
implementation.

• Device and location independence — enable users to access systems using a

web browser regardless of their location or what device they are using, e.g., PC,
mobile. As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and
accessed via the Internet the users can connect from anywhere.

• Multi-tenancy — enables sharing of resources and costs among a large pool

of users, allowing for:
o Centralization of infrastructure in areas with lower costs (such as real
estate, electricity, etc.)
o Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer for highest
possible load-levels)
o Utilization and efficiency improvements for systems that are often
only 10-20% utilized.

5. SYETEM DOMAIN

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5.1 SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT

5.1.1 DEVELOPMENT

• Front End : C#.Net Framework

• Back End : SQLServer as Database

5.1.2 DEPLOYMENT
• IIS WebServer

5.2 HARDWARE REQUIREMENT

5.2.1 DEVELOPMENT
• Processor : Pentium II class, 450MHz
• RAM : 128MB
• Hard Disk Drive : 3GB
• Key Board : Standard 101/102 or Digi Sync Family
• Monitor : Display Panel (1024 X 764)

5.2.2 DEPLOYMENT
• Processor : INTEL Pentium 4
• RAM : 512MB
• Hard Disk Drive : 40GB

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6. APPLICATIONS

• Large enterprises are building their own private clouds to resolve the security
problems.
• Coding & development skills will take a back seat to project management, quality
assurance testing, business analysis, and other high-level abstraction thinking.
• IT departments will shrink as users go directly to the cloud for IT resources.
• Cloud computing providers will support information security as if banks secure
money.
• Small-sized to medium-sized businesses as well as large enterprises will be run on
the cloud.
• Large enterprises will become part-time cloud-computing vendors.
• The browser will be all the desktop software you need.
• Game services will be one of the most interesting applications of Cloud Computing.

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7. EXPECTED OUTCOMES

The emergence of cloud computing as a viable option for a growing number of IT

services speaks to a level of Internet penetration and infrastructure maturity that did
not exist just a few years ago. Analysts expect cloud computing to see mainstream
adoption in 2–5 years, and some higher education IT leaders believe that cloud
computing programs on campus will increase considerably in the coming years. To
the extent that these efforts are successful, confidence in the model and trust in
providers will grow, and institutions will be more amenable to transferring a larger
number of services to the cloud. Conversely, a breach of trust by a cloud provider
would likely leave institutions uneasy about cloud services.

Although the benefits of cloud computing are becoming more tangible, significant
policy and technology issues must still be sorted out for it to reach its potential. Even
as “public” clouds are being developed, a new class of “private” clouds is taking
shape. Whereas public cloud providers offer relatively undifferentiated services,
private clouds pursue similar economies of scale but do so while preserving the ability
to customize applications and services for consumers. Large organizations, such as
statewide offices for higher education, for instance, might invest in cloud services for
all the institutions in the system. As greater numbers of campuses consider cloud
computing, services that have institutional identification or integration needs are less
likely to be sourced from the cloud, and a heterogeneous mix of services—some from
the public cloud, others from private clouds, still others developed in-house or
purchased and customized—is likely to characterize most institutional IT portfolios.

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8. REFERENCES

• www.wikipedia.com
• www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/07/15FE-cloud-computing-reality_1.html
• www.wiki.cloudcommunity.org/wiki/CloudComputing:Bill_of_Rights
• www.davidchappell.com/CloudPlatforms--Chappell. PDF
• www.amazon.com
• www.thinkgos.com/cloud/index.html
• www.salesforce.com
• www.google.com
• Chip Computer Magazine, December 2008 - Feb 2009 Edition

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