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Cloud Computing Is cloud computing poised for the next major evolution/revolution and a paradigm shift in IT? Users apprehensiveness toward the cost of maintaining IT infrastructure as well as their confidence in Web application accessibility has led analysts to believe that technological advancements will cause mainstream cloud computing adoption. Cloud computing will not only change the IT industry, but will also revolutionize how people and companies operate, inevitably affecting many aspects of society and the economy which will expectedly cause political issues. Other potential issues eliciting concern among stakeholders include security, morals and legalities. Studies show cloud computing has high potential for commercial success. According to Merrill Lynch, cloud computing is a $160 billion market opportunity, which is comprised of $95 billion worth of business and productivity applications and $65 billion worth of online advertising. Accordingly, many corporations and venture capitalists are investing in technologies related to cloud computing. Even with the ubiquity of cloud computing, there are still an inordinate amount of IT professionals who are unaware of the benefits, strengths, weaknesses and risks. (Murugesan) What values does cloud computing present to users and businesses, and what are the risks by computing in a cloud for enterprise and personal applications? According to The Boston Consulting Group, there are three distinct levels of value in cloud computing: Utility Level, Process Transformation Level and Business-ModelInnovation-Level. Each of the listed levels builds on the previous and requires a shift in current business processes. (Dean 3) The Utility Level allows enterprises to benefit from lower costs and higher service levels through the availability of elastic computing resources and pay-per-use models. CIOs have recognized the fact that their departments usually spend time exclusively making sure the business is running. Cloud computing significantly reduces these responsibilities and lets the IT department focus on other tasks. The IT staff can work on improving the functionality and features of IT systems and the CIO can transform the business. This level strongly benefits companies through the higher efficiency provided by cloud computing. Corporate data centers must optimize utilization while managing increases in volume and delivering exceptional service. Cloud service providers aim to achieve a better balance across these demands by leveraging scale and standardization along with smarter technologies, such as sever virtualization. (Dean 4) New applications can be deployed with ease when cloud technology is implemented. Maintenance is performed by the cloud service provider, reducing enterprises operating costs. The Process Transformation Level allows enterprises to introduce new and improved business processes by exploiting the common and scalable assets and collaborative potential of cloud computing. (Dean 2) While the previous level appeals mostly to the IT department, the benefits of this level permeate an entire enterprise. The finance department is able to streamline their transactions, researchers are able to

efficiently set up their computer models and sales professionals are able to provide better service to their customers. The Business-Model-Innovation level allows new business models to be created which link, share and combine resources with cloud computing technology. This technology can facilitate the growth of future business ecosystems with the deconstruction of value chains and the rise of revolutionary business models. It is important to note that cloud computing is not a panacea. There certainly are other ways for companies to collaborate. The European Network and Information Security Agency has identified seven risks associated with cloud computing. Isolation Failure relates to the failure of mechanisms separating storage, memory, routing and reputation between different tenants. (ENISA 7) Management Interface Compromise refers to the risk customer management interfaces are faced with when they are coupled with remote access and web browser vulnerabilities. Protecting data is a vital and difficult task. It can be difficult for the customer to track the data handling processes of the cloud provider. A dire situation could arise if proper precautions are not taken to avoid data leaks. Sometimes data is not completely deleted from a cloud when such a request is made. This may have happened because either extra copies are stored but are not available or the disk to be destroyed also stores data from other clients. (ENISA 7) Malicious insiders, although rare, can cause great damage to the enterprises cloud. The security concerns of customers could pose as a risk. Customers perception of security levels could vary from the actual amount of security delivered by the cloud provider. The provider could also reduce their costs by sacrificing certain elements of security. The providers reliance on the customer for internet connectivity creates a Single point of failure. (ENISA 7) Is cloud computing currently being used in personal, business and social applications? If yes, how and who offers them? As of 2012, the top five cloud providers include Verizon/Terremark, Salesforce.com, CenturyLink/Savvis, Rackspace and Amazon. Salesforce.com was responsible for being among the first to provide cloud based CRM solutions. The company now wants to enter the so called Cloud 2 which is comprised of social media, mobile computing and real time. Amazon offers a cloud service called Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) which provides provides resizable computing capacity in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. (Amazon EC2 User Guide) What are some of the ongoing developments in cloud computing? There have been many developments in cloud computing within the last few years. SAP Hana has created a touchscreen vending machine which utilizes cloud technology. The vending machine has a smartphone inside so we transmit every single transaction to the cloud and then we can run analytics. For example, to replenish the machines, we measure the inventory, and if the machine is close to being empty, we send a truck to fill it up. Christian Busch of SAP Labs. (Cheney)

Amazon launched a free cloud service for startups. In addition to this cloud service, startups will heavily use AWS service. Startups operate in a world of high uncertainty and limited capital, so an elastic and on-demand infrastructure at low and variable cost aligns very naturally with their needs. Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon (Cheney) Some believe that the recent hacks of cloud applications could lead to further innovations which will foster greater security and corporate control. More companies will be able to perform essential processes online with ease. The future of cloud computing will have clearly defined security solutions and technology which will allow enterprises to maintain full control of sensitive data. Can cloud computing give rise to an entirely new set of applications? Cloud computing makes a completely new type of applications possible. This happens similarly to how networked PCs made it possible to deliver applications to workgroups or departments cost-effectively. (Golden) The main benefit from cloud computing is ostensibly unexpected and unknown. Understanding cloud computing in terms of how well current applications are supported by it indicates an underestimation of the technologys full benefits. What do you think will happen as a result of Cloud Computing? One of the ways cloud computing has affected the common individual is through the advent of cloud storage. Several storage companies offer services which allow the user to securely back up anywhere between 5GBs to several terabytes of data. This has allowed users to access files from almost any device anywhere in the world as long as they have an internet connection. These services have also allowed users to easily recover data in the event of a hard drive failure. Kim Dotcoms mega.co.nz popularized extremely secure file hosting for everyday users. This will incite the development of more file hosting services which emphasizes security and privacy. The still unfolding story of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 made me wonder why the data that is normally recorded in a black box is not live streamed or sent to a central storage device. If this cloud technology was adopted by airlines, 100s (maybe 1000s) of lives could be saved as well as countless man hours and the millions of dollars it takes to conduct such large scale search efforts. After some research, I found that this idea has already been deliberated by airlines for quite some time and most if not all have chosen to opt out of this technology because the cost benefit analysis doesnt check out. In some sense, this issue is analogous to gun laws in the US. How many mass shootings must occur before law makers are convinced that gun control is necessary? It may take several more of these catastrophes before the FAA mandates cloud technology which streams and stores flight data. Surely passengers wouldnt mind paying a few extra dollars per ticket for safety. What are Business models related to Cloud Computing and the Cloud Service? There are three models related to cloud computing: SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Software as a Service (SaaS) is defined as software which is deployed via the internet. The application is licensed to customers by a provider either as a service-on-demand, through a subscription

or a pay as you go model. Some of the core characteristics of this model include: web access to commercial software, software is managed from a central location and users are not required to handle software upgrades and patches. (Rackspace Support) SaaS was first introduced by Salesforces CRM tool. Platform as a Service (PaaS) does to software development what SaaS does for applications. It is defined as a computing platform that allows the creation of web applications quickly and easily and without the complexity of buying and maintaining the software and infrastructure underneath it. (Rackspace Support) Some of the core characteristics of PaaS: web based UI creation tools, integration of with web services and databases via common standards and built in scalability of deployed software including load balancing and failover. (Rackspace Support) PaaS is most useful when many developers will work on a project or when external developers need to interact with the process. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is concerned with the delivery of cloud computing infrastructure (servers, storage, network and operating systems). Clients can buy these resources as an outsourced service rather than outright buying the equipment. IaaS can be separated as public or private infrastructure. The public cloud is infrastructure which contains shared resources, while the opposite is true for the private cloud. Some the core characteristics: resources are distributed as a service, allows for dynamic scaling, variable cost, utility pricing mode and includes multiple users on a single piece of hardware. (Rackspace Support) Amazon Web Service and Rackspace are good examples of IaaS.

Sources "Cloud Computing Benefits, Risks and Recommendations for Information Security." European Network and Information Security Agency, Dec. 2012. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <https://resilience.enisa.europa.eu/cloud-security-andresilience/publications/cloud-computing-benefits-risks-and-recommendationsfor-information-security>. Dean, David, and Tamim Saleh. "Capturing the Value of Cloud Computing." BCG Tel Aviv. The Boston Consulting Group, Nov. 2009. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. <http://www.bcgtelaviv.com/documents/file34246.pdf>. Golden, Bernard. "The New Applications of Cloud Computing." Hyperstratus. N.p., 28 July 2010. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://www.hyperstratus.com/blog/new-applicationscloud-computing>. "Understanding the Cloud Computing Stack: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS." Understanding the Cloud Computing Stack: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. Rackspace, 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/whitepaper/understanding-thecloud-computing-stack-saas-paas-iaas>. "What Is Amazon EC2?" Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Amazon, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/concepts.html>. "What You Might Have Missed: 5 Recent Developments in Cloud Computing." Cloud Tech News. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2014. <http://www.cloudcomputingnews.net/news/2013/nov/01/what-you-might-have-missed-5-recentdevelopments-cloud-computing/>.