Computing: An Overview

Bhanu Jallandhra Manpreet Singh Bajwa (8CS20) (8CS41)

Abstract-- as an -based computing; When a Cloud is made available in a pay-as-you-go where resources, software and information are provided to manner to the public, we call it a Public Cloud; the service computers on-demand, like a public utility; is emerging as a being sold is Utility Computing. Current examples of platform for sharing resources like infrastructure, software public Utility Computing include AmazonWeb Services, and various applications. The majority of cloud computing AppEngine, and Azure. We use the term infrastructure consists of reliable services delivered through Private Cloud to refer to internal datacenters of a business data centres and built on servers and the prominent applications of Cloud Computing, and how they meet the or other organization that are not made available to the requirements of reliability, availability of data, and scalability public. Thus, Cloud Computing is the sum of SaaS and of software. Utility Computing, but does not normally include Private Clouds. We’ll generally use Cloud Computing, replacing it Keywords: with one of the other terms only when clarity demands it. Cloud computing, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, network cloud, data Figure 1 shows the roles of the people as users or center providers of these layers of Cloud Computing, and we’ll use those terms to help make our arguments clear. 1. INTRODUCTION The advantages of SaaS to both end users and service providers are well understood. Service providers enjoy As a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is a familiar greatly simplified software installation and maintenance cliché, but when combined with "computing", the meaning and centralized control over versioning; end users can gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define access the service “anytime, anywhere”, share data and cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility collaborate more easily, and keep their data stored safely in computing: basically virtual servers available over the the infrastructure. Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud", including Cloud Computing does not change these arguments, but it conventional outsourcing. does give more application providers the choice of

deploying their product as SaaS without provisioning a Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think : just as the emergence of semiconductor about what we always need: a way to increase capacity or foundries gave chip companies the opportunity to design add capabilities on the fly without investing in new and sell chips without owning a fab, Cloud Computing infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new allows deploying SaaS—and scaling on demand—without software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription- building or provisioning a data center. based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the

Internet, extends ICT's existing capabilities. Analogously to how SaaS allows the user to offload some

problems to the SaaS provider, the SaaS provider can now Cloud computing is at an early stage, with a motley crew offload some of his problems to the Cloud Computing of providers large and small delivering a slew of cloud- provider. From now on, we will focus on issues related to based services, from full-blown applications to storage the potential SaaS Provider (Cloud User) and to the Cloud services to spam filtering. Yes, utility-style infrastructure Providers, which have received less attention. providers are part of the mix, but so are SaaS (software as From a hardware point of view, three aspects are new in a service) providers such as .com. Today, for the Cloud Computing: most part, IT must plug into cloud-based services individually, but cloud computing aggregators and I. The illusion of infinite computing resources available integrators are already emerging. on demand, thereby eliminating the need for Cloud Computing users to plan far ahead for provisioning; 2. THE CONCEPT II. The elimination of an up-front commitment by Cloud Cloud Computing refers to both the applications delivered users, thereby allowing companies to start small and as services over the Internet and the hardware and systems increase hardware resources only when there is an software in the data centres that provide those services. increase in their needs; The services themselves have long been referred to as Software (SaaS), so we use that term. The III. The ability to pay for use of computing resources on a datacentre hardware and software is what we will call a short-term basis as needed (e.g., processors by the hour Cloud. and storage by the day) and release them as needed,

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thereby rewarding conservation by letting machines Amazon.com played a key role in the development of and storage go when they are no longer useful. cloud computing by modernizing their data centers after the dot-com bubble and, having found that the new cloud architecture resulted in significant internal efficiency improvements, providing access to their systems by way of in 2005 on a utility computing basis.

2007 saw increased activity, with Google, IBM, and a number of universities embarking on a large scale cloud computing research project, around the time the term started gaining popularity in the mainstream press. It was a hot topic by mid-2008 and numerous cloud computing events had been scheduled.

In August 2008, Gartner Research observed that "organizations are switching from company-owned Figure 1: Users and Providers of Cloud Computing. The benefits hardware and software assets to per-use service-based of SaaS to both SaaS users and SaaS providers are well models" and that the "projected shift to cloud computing documented, so we focus on Cloud Computing’s effects on Cloud will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas Providers and SaaS Providers/Cloud users. The top level can be and in significant reductions in other areas." [1] recursive, in that SaaS providers can also be a SaaS users.

4. IMPLEMENTATION 3. HISTORY

Adopting cloud computing services is a process that must The Cloud is a term with a long history in telephony, which be carefully planned and executed in order for an has in the past decade, been adopted as a metaphor for organization to experience the best possible return on internet based services, with a common depiction in investment and use of the technology. network diagrams as a cloud outline. Below are a few steps that all companies must take along The underlying concept dates back to 1960 when John the way: McCarthy opined that "computation may someday be organized as a public utility"; indeed it shares I. Recognize the need for integration solutions: characteristics with service bureaus which date back to the 1960s. The term cloud had already come into commercial While the technology may be different, the process for use in the early 1990s to refer to large ATM networks. By implementing cloud-based applications into the rest of the turn of the 21st century, the term "cloud computing" the business remains unchanged. The need for business had started to appear, although most of the focus at this integration solutions may actually be more important [1] time was on (SaaS). now than ever.

In 1999, Salesforce.com was established by Marc Benioff, Through A2A integration processes, companies can Parker Harris, and his fellows. They applied many ensure that cloud-based apps are effectively deployed technologies of consumer web sites like Google and alongside on-premise, legacy systems, as well as other Yahoo! to business applications. They also provided the hosted services. Doing so will avoid the dreaded silo, concept of "On demand" and "SaaS" with their real where an application is left out on its own, unable to business and successful customers. The key for SaaS is communicate or transfer data. being customizable by customer alone or with a small amount of help. Flexibility and speed for application II. Identify areas to migrate: development have been drastically welcomed and accepted by business users. Everything should not be migrated to the cloud. There are some softwares that are best when left on their IBM extended these concepts in 2001, as detailed in the resident places. That's true, at least, for the time being. Autonomic Computing Manifesto -- which described So any move to the cloud will begin by identifying advanced automation techniques such as self-monitoring, which areas of the organization can be migrated. self-healing, self-configuring, and self-optimizing in the According to recent research conducted by Techaisle, management of complex IT systems with heterogeneous many companies have chosen to migrate email, data storage, servers, applications, networks, security storage and industry-specific applications to a cloud- mechanisms, and other system elements that can be based model. virtualized across an enterprise.

P a g e | 2 III. Focus on data security: showing the integration of enterprise security management with the cloud. The security of one’s information has become an important issue. Keeping security issues in mind, the cloud providing companies have started integrating the security management at an enterprise level. Figure 2

[4] Figure 2: Integration of cloud with security

5. ARCHITECTURE

Mainly, three types of services you can get from a cloud service provider as shown in figure 3.

I. Infrastructure as a service- service provider bears all the cost of servers, networking equipment, storage, and back-ups. You just have to pay to take the computing service. And the users build their own application softwares. Amazon EC2 is a great example of this type of service.

II. -service provider only provides platform or a stack of solutions for your users. It helps users saving investment on hardware and software. Google Gc engine and Force.com provide this type of service.

III. Software as a service- service provider will give your users the service of using their software, especially any type of applications software. Example- Google (GOOG), Salesforce.com (CRM), NetSuite (N). Figure 3: Architecture of cloud computing

P a g e | 3 6. COMPONENTS

Figure 4: Components of Cloud Computing

I. Application III. Infrastructure A cloud application leverages the Cloud in software architecture, often eliminating the need to install and Infrastructure as a service, is the delivery of computer run the application on the customer's own computer, infrastructure, typically a platform virtualization thus alleviating the burden of software maintenance, environment, as a service. ongoing operation, and support. For example: For example:  Full virtualization (GoGrid, Skytap).  Peer-to-peer / volunteer computing  Management (RightScale) . (, BOINC Projects, Skype)  Compute (Amazon Elastic Compute cloud).  Web application (Facebook)  Platform (Force.com).  Software as a service (Google Apps, SAP and Salesforce) IV. Platform  Software plus services (Microsoft Online Services) Platform as a service, the delivery of a computing platform, and/or solution stack as a service, facilitates II. Client deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying A cloud client consists of computer hardware and/or hardware and software layers. computer software which relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or which is specifically For example: designed for delivery of cloud services and which, in  Web application frameworks: either case, is essentially useless without it. Python Django (), Ruby on Rails (), For example: .NET (Azure Services Platform),  Mobile (Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile).  Web hosting (Mosso)  Thin client [12] (CherryPal, , gOS-based  Proprietary (Force.com) systems)  Thick client[13] / Web browser (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox).

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V. Service VI. Storage

A cloud service includes "products, services and involves the delivery of data storage as a solutions that are delivered and consumed in real-time service, including database-like services, often billed over the Internet". For example, Web Services on a utility computing basis, e.g., per gigabyte per ("software system[s] designed to support interoperable month. machine-to-machine interaction over a network") which may be accessed by other cloud computing For example: components, software, e.g., Software plus service, or  Database (Amazon SimpleDB, Google App end users directly. Engine's BigTable datastore).  Network attached storage (MobileMe iDisk, Specific examples include: Nirvanix CloudNAS).  Identity (OAuth, OpenID).  Synchronization (Live Mesh Live Desktop  Integration (Amazon Simple Queue Service). component, MobileMe push functions)  Payments (Amazon Flexible Payments Service,  Web service (Amazon Simple Storage Service, Google Checkout, PayPal). Nirvanix SDN).  Mapping (Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps)  Search (Alexa, Google Custom Search, Yahoo! BOSS).  Others ()

[6] Figure 5.Types of clouds

7. TYPES II. Private cloud

I. Public cloud The Private Cloud means that the computing infrastructure is hosted on a “Private Cloud” platform, The Public Cloud refers to the hosting of a customer’s dedicated to a particular organization, and not shared computing infrastructure by the Cloud vendor from the with other organizations. There are two types of Private Cloud vendor’s premises. The customer has no Clouds: on-premise Private Clouds and externally- visibility and control over where the Cloud services are hosted Private Clouds (externally-hosted Private being hosted. The computing infrastructure is shared Clouds are also exclusively used by one organization, between many organizations; however, the service is but are hosted by a third-party that specializes in Cloud secured for the customer’s access only. infrastructure).

P a g e | 5 III. Hybrid cloud vendors' policies on data security before using vendor services. One technology analyst and consulting firm, The usage of both Private and Public Clouds together is Gartner, lists seven security issues which one should called a Hybrid Cloud. This often entails the customer discuss with a cloud-computing vendor: company’s use of its own personal (in-house) computing infrastructure for regular operations, I. Privileged user access—inquire about who has combined with the hosting of certain additional services specialized access to data and about the hiring and on the Cloud. management of such administrators. II. Regulatory compliance—makes sure a vendor is 8. ROLES willing to undergo external audits and/or security certifications. III. Data locations—ask if a provider allows for any control I. Provider over the location of data. IV. Data segregation—make sure that encryption is A cloud computing provider or cloud computing available at all stages and that these "encryption service provider owns and operates live cloud schemes were designed and tested by experienced computing systems to deliver service to third parties. professionals". The barrier to entry is also significantly higher with V. Recovery—find out what will happen to data in the capital expenditure required and billing and case of a disaster; do they offer complete restoration management creates some overhead. Nonetheless, and, if so, how long that would take. significant operational efficiency and agility advantages VI. Investigative Support—inquire whether a vendor has can be realized, even by small organizations, and server the ability to investigate any inappropriate or illegal consolidation and virtualization rollouts are already activity. well underway. Amazon.com was the first such VII. Long-term viability—ask what will happen to data if provider, modernizing its data centers which , like most the company goes out of business; how will data be computer networks, were using as little as 10% of its returned and in what format. capacity at any one time just to leave room for occasional spikes. This allowed small, fast-moving groups to add new features faster and easier, and they 10. CHARACTERISTICS went on to open it up to outsiders as Amazon Web Services in 2002 on a utility computing basis. I. Cost is greatly reduced and capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure. This lowers II. User barriers to entry, as infrastructure is typically provided by a third-party and does not need to be purchased for A user is a consumer of cloud computing. The privacy one-time or infrequent intensive computing tasks. of users in cloud computing has become of increasing Pricing on a utility computing basis is fine-grained with concern. The rights of users are also an issue, which is usage-based options and minimal or no IT skills are being addressed via a community effort to create a bill required for implementation. of rights. II. 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. III. Vendors As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet the users can A vendor sells products and services that facilitate the from anywhere. delivery, adoption and use of cloud computing. III. Multi-tenancy enables sharing of resources and costs

among a large pool of users, allowing for: For example: IV. Centralization of infrastructure in areas with lower  Computer hardware (Dell, HP, IBM, Sun costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc.) Microsystems): V. Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer . Storage (Sun Microsystems, EMC, IBM) for highest possible load-levels) . Infrastructure (Cisco Systems) VI. Utilization and efficiency improvements for systems  Computer software (, Hadoop, IBM, that are often only 10-20% utilized. RightScale): VII. Reliability improves through the use of multiple . Operating systems (Solaris, AIX, Linux redundant sites, which makes it suitable for business including Red Hat) continuity and disaster recovery. Nonetheless, most . Platform virtualization (Citrix, Microsoft, major cloud computing services have suffered outages VMware, Sun xVM, IBM) and IT and business managers are able to do little when they are affected. 9. RISK MITIGATION VIII. Scalability via dynamic ("on-demand") provisioning of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near real- Corporations or end-users wishing to avoid not being able time, without users having to engineer for peak loads. to access their data — or even losing it — should research Performance is monitored and consistent and loosely-

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coupled architectures are constructed using web XI. CONCLUSION services as the system interface. IX. Security typically improves due to centralization of Cloud Computing is a vast topic and the above report does data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but not give a high level introduction to it. It is certainly not raises concerns about loss of control over certain possible in the limited space of a report to do justice to sensitive data. Security is often as good as or better these technologies. Well, Cloud Computing is leading the than traditional systems, in part because providers are industry’s endeavour to bank on this revolutionary able to devote resources to solving security issues that technology. many customers cannot afford. Providers typically log accesses, but accessing the audit logs themselves can be Cloud Computing brings possibilities: difficult or impossible. I. Increases business responsiveness X. Sustainability comes about through improved resource Accelerates creation of new services via rapid utilization, more efficient systems, and carbon II. prototyping capabilities neutrality. Nonetheless, computers and associated infrastructure are major consumers of energy. III. Reduces acquisition complexity via service oriented approach 11. CASE STUDY IV. Uses IT resources efficiently via sharing and higher system utilization

V. Reduces energy consumption I. Cloud (Operating System) [11] Handles new and emerging workloads VI. Cloud is a "browser based Operating system" created VII. Scales to extreme workloads quickly and easily by 'Good OS LLC’, a Los Angeles-based corporation. VIII. Simplifies IT management The company initially launched a Linux distribution IX. Platform for collaboration and innovation called gOS which is based on Ubuntu, now in its third X. Cultivates skills for next generation workforce. incarnation. Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in  Browser and Operating System evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately Cloud is a combination of a simplified operating described as "sky computing," with many isolated clouds system that runs just a web browser, providing of services which IT customers must plug into access to a variety of web-based applications that individually. On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA allow the user to perform many simple tasks permeate the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled without booting a full-scale operating system. services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should Because of its simplicity, Cloud can boot in just a eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. It's a few seconds. The operating system is designed for long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big , Mobile Internet Devices, and PCs that metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue are mainly used to browse the Internet. From with in the long term. Cloud the user can quickly boot into the main OS, because Cloud continues booting the main OS in Cloud Computing is a technology which took the software the background. and business world by storm. The much deserved hype Combining a browser with a basic operating over it will continue for years to come. system also allows the use of cloud computing, in which applications and data "live and run" on the Internet instead of on the hard drive. Cloud can be installed and used together with other operating systems, or can act as a standalone operating system. When used as a standalone operating system, hardware requirements are relatively low. At the moment Cloud is only officially available built into the GIGABYTE M912 Touch Screen , but a Private Beta test is currently (early February, 2009) running.

 Reception Early reviews compared the operating system's user interface to Mac OS X and noted the similarity of its browser to Google Chrome, although it is actually based on a modified Mozilla Firefox browser.

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REFERENCES

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing#Hi story [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com#Histo ry [3] http://www.oxford-consulting.com/industry- news/a2a-integration/how-to-implement-cloud- computing/#.T5Kd0atRKys [4] Slide number 53; http://www.sit.informatik.tu- darmstadt.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Group_SIT/ Presentations/100302a%20Cloud%20Security%2 0Lecture.pdf [5] http://andromida.hubpages.com/hub/cloud- computing-architecture [6] http://www.nirix.com/cloud-solutions/ [7] www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/07/15FE-cloud- computing-reality_1.html [8] Michael Armbrust, Armando Fox, David A. Patterson; Above the clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing; http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/200 9/EECS-2009-28.pdf [9] http://www.nirix.com/cloud-solutions/ [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing [11] Case study of cloud operating system; http://www.scribd.com/doc/50421213/cloudcomp utingdocumentationreport-091010032344- phpapp01 [12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_client [13] http://www.techterms.com/definition/thickclient

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