EXPLORING THE DYNAMICS OF

CLOUD COMPUTING: A NIST FRAMEWORK PERSPECTIVE

 G. RAMESH, Department of CSE, Kuppam Engineering College, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh.
 B. PURUSHOTHAM, Department of CSE, Kuppam Engineering College, Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh.

ABSTRACT hosted. Several computing paradigms, such as grid

computing, have promised to deliver this utility
Cloud computing has revolutionized the landscape
computing vision. Cloud computing is the most
of information technology, ushering in an era of
recent emerging paradigm promising to turn the
abundant computing resources accessible on-
demand. This paradigm shift from scarcity to vision of “computing utilities” into a reality. Cloud
abundance computing has disrupted traditional ICT computing is a technological advancement that
industries by offering ubiquitous, convenient, and focuses on the way we design computing systems,
cost-effective access to a shared pool of configurable develop applications, and leverage existing services
computing resources. The National Institute of for building software. It is based on the concept of
Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud dynamic provisioning, which is applied not only to
computing as a model characterized by on-demand services but also to compute capability, storage,
self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, networking, and information technology (IT)
rapid elasticity, and measured service. Cloud services infrastructure in general. Resources are made
encompass a variety of offerings such as
available through the Internet and offered on a pay-
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a
per-use basis from cloud computing vendors.
Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS),
enabling users to store, process, and access data and Today, anyone with a credit card can subscribe to
applications over the internet. cloud services and deploy and configure servers for
an application in hours, growing and shrinking the
Keywords: Cloud computing, NIST cloud infrastructure serving its application according to
computing, Cloud services, Characteristics of cloud the demand, and paying only for the time these
computing, cloud components, Benefits and resources have been used. This chapter provides a
Limitations of cloud computing, Evolution of cloud brief overview of the cloud computing phenomenon
computing, Cloud computing techniques, by presenting its vision, discussing its core features,
Deployment models and tracking the technological developments that
have made it possible. The chapter also introduces
1. INTRODUCTION
some key cloud computing technologies as well as
1.1 CLOUD COMPUTING: some insights into development of cloud computing
environments.[1]
Computing is being transformed into a model
consisting of services that are commoditized and 1.1.1DEFINITION BY NIST CLOUD
delivered in a manner similar to utilities such as COMPUTING:
water, electricity, gas, and telephony. In such a
The National Institute of Stands and
model, users access services based on their
Technology(NIST) has a more comprehensive
requirements, regardless of where the services are
definition of cloud computing. It describes cloud using cloud resources very quickly on their own
computing as "a model for enabling ubiquitous, without help from a sales agent.
convenient, on-demand network access to a shared  Broad network access: Customers access
pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., cloud services via the Internet.
networks, servers, storage, applications and  Resource pooling: Many different
services) that can be rapidly provisioned and customers (individuals, organizations or different
released with minimal management effort or service departments within an organization) all use the
provider interaction." same servers, storage or other computing resources.
 Rapid elasticity or expansion: Cloud
 Ability / space where you store your data customers can easily scale their use of resources up
,process it and can access anywhere from the world or down as their needs change.
 As a Metaphor for the internet.  Measured service: Customers pay for the
 Cloud computing is : amount of resources they use in a given period of
 Storing data /Applications on remote time rather than paying for hardware or software
servers upfront. (Note that in a private cloud, this measured
 Processing Data / Applications from service usually involves some form of charge backs
servers where IT keeps track of how many resources
 Accessing Data / Applications via internet different departments within an organization are
1.1.2 CLOUD SERVICE: using.)
Cloud computing is taking services and 1.3 APPLICATION:
moving them outside an organization's
firewall. Applications, storage and other  Storage:cloud keeps many copies of
services are accessed via the Web. The storage. Using these copies of resources, it extracts
services are delivered and used over the another resource if anyone of the resources fails.
Internet and are paid for by the cloud  Database: are repositories for information
customer on an as needed or pay-per-use with links within the information that help making
business model. the data searchable.

SERVICE: This term in cloud computing is the 1.4 CLOUD COMPONENTS:

concept of being able to use reusable, fine-grained
Three components of a cloud computing are :
components across a vendor’s network.
• Clients
 Iaas,Paas,Saas,Daas,Naas,Caas are some
of the services Provided by different providers • Data center
1.2 CHARACTERISTICS (OR) FEATURES • Distributed servers
OF CLOUD ENVIRONMENTS:
 Clients:
According to the NIST, all true cloud Clients are the devices that the end users interact
environments have five key characteristics: with to manage their information on the cloud.
• Clients are of three categories :
 On-demand self-service: This means that
cloud customers can sign up for, pay for and start
  Mobile: mobile devices including
PDAs/smart phones like a blackberry, windows,
iphone.
 Thin: are comps that don’t have internal
hard drives then display the info but rather let server
do all the work.
 Thick: is a regular comp, using web
browser like Firefox/Internet Explorer to connect to
the cloud.
 Data Center :
It is a collection of servers where the application
Figure: Benefits and Limitation of Cloud
you subscribe and housed.
Computing…
 Distributed Servers:
Servers are in geographically disparate locations Consumers and organizations have many different
but act as if they’re humming away right next to reasons for choosing to use cloud computing
each other. This gives the service provider more services. They might include the following:
flexibility in options and security.
 Convenience
1.5 BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF  Scalability
CLOUD COMPUTING  Low costs
The advantage of cloud computing is twofold. It is  Security
a file backup shape. It also allows working on the  Anytime, anywhere access
same document for several jobs (one person or a  High availability
nomad traveling) of various types (or PC, tab or
LIMITATIONS /DISADVANTAGES:
smart phone).
 Down time: Since cloud computing
Cloud computing simplifies usage by allowing
systems are internet-based, service outages are
overcoming the constraints of traditional computer
always an unfortunate possibility and can occur for
tools (installation and updating of software, storage,
any reason.
data portability...). Cloud computing also provides
Best Practices for minimizing planned
more elasticity and agility because it allows faster
downtime in a cloud environment:
access to IT resources (server, storage or
Design services with high availability and disaster
bandwidth) via a simple web portal and thus
recovery in mind. Leverage the multi- availability
without investing in additional hardware.
zones provided by cloud vendors in your
infrastructure. If your services have a low tolerance
for failure, consider multi-region deployments with
automated failover to ensure the best business
continuity possible.Define and implement a disaster
recovery plan in line with your business objectives
that provide the lowest possible recovery time
(RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO).
Consider implementing dedicated connectivity such and back end. Front end consist client part of cloud
as AWS Direct Connect, Azure Express Route, or computing system. It comprise of interfaces and
Google Cloud’s Dedicated Interconnect or Partner applications that are required to access the cloud
Interconnect. These services provide a dedicated computing platform.A central server administers the
network connection between you and the cloud system, monitoring traffic and client demands to
service point of presence. This can reduce exposure ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of
to the risk of business interruption from the public rules called protocols and uses a special kind of
internet. software called MIDDLEWARE. Middleware
 Security and Privacy: Code Space and allows networked computers to communicate with
the hacking of their AWS EC2 console, which led each other. Most of the time, servers don't run at
to data deletion and the eventual shutdown of the full capacity. That means there's unused processing
company. Their dependence on remote cloudbased power going to waste. It's possible to fool a physical
infrastructure meant taking on the risks of server into thinking it's actually multiple servers,
outsourcing everything. each running with its own independent operating
Best practices for minimizing security and system. The technique is called server
privacy risks: virtualization. By maximizing the output of
Understand the shared responsibility model of individual servers, server virtualization reduces the
your cloud provider. Implement security at every need for more physical machines
level of your deployment. Know who is supposed to
have access to each resource and service and limit
access to least privilege.Make sure your team’s
skills are up to the task: Solid security skills for
your cloud teams are one of the best ways to
mitigate security and privacy concerns in the
cloud.Take a risk-based approach to securing assets
used in the cloud Extend security to the device.
Implement multi-factor authentication for all
accounts accessing sensitive data or systems.
1.6 Architecture
Let’s have a look into Cloud Computing and see
what Cloud Computing is made of. Cloud
FIGURE:Architecture
computing comprises of two components front end
While back end refers to the cloud itself, it Cloud computing is all about renting computing
comprises of the resources that are required for cloud services. This idea first came in the 1950s. In making
computing services. It consists of virtual machines, cloud computing what it is today, five technologies
servers, data storage, security mechanism etc. It is played a vital role. These are distributed systems and
under provider’s control. its peripherals, virtualization, web 2.0, service
orientation, and utility computing.
Evolution of Cloud Computing:

 Difficulty Level : Easy

 Last Updated : 14 May, 2020
 machine in the cluster was connected to each other by
a network with high bandwidth. These were way
cheaper than those mainframe systems. These were
equally capable of high computations. Also, new
nodes could easily be added to the cluster if it was
required. Thus, the problem of the cost was solved to
some extent but the problem related to geographical
restrictions still pertained. To solve this, the concept of
grid computing was introduced.

Grid computing: In 1990s, the concept of grid

Distributed Systems: computing was introduced. It means that different
systems were placed at entirely different geographical
It is a composition of multiple independent systems
locations and these all were connected via the internet.
but all of them are depicted as a single entity to the
These systems belonged to different organizations and
users. The purpose of distributed systems is to share
thus the grid consisted of heterogeneous nodes.
resources and also use them effectively and efficiently.
Although it solved some problems but new problems
Distributed systems possess characteristics such as
emerged as the distance between the nodes increased.
scalability, concurrency, continuous availability,
The main problem which was encountered was the low
heterogeneity, and independence in failures. But the
availability of high bandwidth connectivity and with it
main problem with this system was that all thesystems
other network associated issues. Thus.cloud computing
were required to be present at the same geographical
is often referred to as “Successor of grid computing”.
location. Thus to solve this problem, distributed
computing led to three more types of computing and Virtualization: It was introduced nearly 40 years
they were-Mainframe computing, cluster computing, back. It refers to the process of creating a virtual layer
and grid computing. over the hardware which allows the user to run
multiple instances simultaneously on the hardware. It
Mainframe computing: Mainframes which first came
is a key technology used in cloud computing. It is the
into existence in 1951 are highly powerful and reliable
base on which major cloud computing services such as
computing machines. These are responsible for
Amazon EC2, VMwarevCloud, etc work on. Hardware
handling large data such as massive input-output
virtualization is still one of the most common types of
operations. Even today these are used for bulk
virtualization.
processing tasks such as online transactions etc. These
systems have almost no downtime with high fault Web 2.0: It is the interface through which the cloud
tolerance. After distributed computing, these increased computing services interact with the clients. It is
the processing capabilities of the system. But these because of Web 2.0 that we have interactive and
were very expensive. To reduce this cost, cluster dynamic web pages. It also increases flexibility among
computing came as an alternative to mainframe web pages. Popular examples of web 2.0 include
technology. Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Needless to say,
social media is possible because of this technology
Cluster computing: In 1980s, cluster computing came
only. In gained major popularity in 2004.
as an alternative to mainframe computing. Each
Service orientation: It acts as a reference model for When we switch on the fan or any electric device,
cloud computing. It supports low-cost, flexible, and we are less concern about the power supply from
evolvable applications. Two important concepts were where it comes and how it is generated. The power
introduced in this computing model. These were supply or electricity that we receives at our home
Quality of Service (QoS) which also includes the SLA travels through a chain of network, which includes
(Service Level Agreement) and Software as a Service power stations, transformers, power lines and
(SaaS). transmission stations. These components together
make a ‘Power Grid’. Likewise, ‘Grid Computing’ is
Utility computing: It is a computing model that an infrastructure that links computing resources such
defines service provisioning techniques for services as PCs, servers, workstations and storage elements
such as compute services along with other major and provides the mechanism required to access
services such as storage, infrastructure, etc which are them.Grid Computing is a middle ware to co-
provisioned on a pay-per-use basis. 1.7 Cloud ordinate disparate IT resources across a network,
computing techniques allowing them to function as whole. It is more often
Some traditional computing techniques that have used in scientific research and in universities for
helped enterprises achieve additional computing and educational purpose.
storage capabilities, while meeting customer demands
Cloud computing Grid computing
using shared physical resources, are:
Cloud computing works Grid computing use the
Cluster computing connects different computers in more as a service available resources and
a single location via LAN to work as a single provider for utilizing interconnected computer
computer. Improves the combined performance of computer systems to accomplish
goal
the organization which owns it
Cloud computing is a Grid computing is a
Grid computing enables collaboration between centralized model decentralized model
Cloud is a collection of A grid is a collection of
enterprises to carry out distributed computing jobs
computers usually computers which is
using interconnected computers spread across owned by a single party. owned by a multiple
multiple locations running independently parties in multiple
locations and connected
Utility computing provides web services such as together so that user can
computing, storage space, and applications to users share the combined
at a low cost through the virtualization of several power of resources.
backend servers. Utility computing has laid the cloud computing is Grid computing federates
foundation for today’s cloud computing typically provided the resources located
within a single within different
Distributed computing landscape connects organization( eg: organization
ubiquitous networks and connected devices enabling Amazon)
peer-to-peer computing. Examples of such cloud
infrastructure are ATMs, and intranets/ workgroups 1.8 Deployment Models:
Grid Computing Vs Cloud Computing There are many deployment models for cloud
computing public, private, hybrid and Community. a
public cloud is implemented by a cloud service provided on a fine-grain utility computing basis and
provider who makes those services available to accessed by subscription. Examples of public
external entities. The provider is responsible for all clouds are Google Apps, iPhone apps and Amazon’s
of the capital and operating expense of the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). (IBM is collaborating
underlying infrastructure. It spreads that cost across with Amazon to enable software developers to
all of its consumers either through a direct fee or quickly build preproduction applications based on
through revenue generated from advertisements [2]. IBM software within the Amazon EC2
environment)[3]. As enterprises and service
providers become more experienced with the cloud
architecture model and gain confidence in the
security and access-control technologies that are
available, it is expected that many service providers
will deploy externally facing cloud services.

Hybrid Cloud:

Hybrid Cloud means either two separate clouds

joined together (public, private, internal, or external)
or a combination of virtualized cloud server
instances used together with real physical hardware.
The most correct definition of the term "Hybrid
Public Cloud: Cloud" is probably the use of physical hardware and
Public or external cloud is traditional cloud virtualized cloud server instances together to provide
computing where resources are dynamically a single common service. Two clouds that have been
provisioned on a fine-grained, self service basis over joined together are more correctly called a
the Internet or VPN and or from an off-site third- "combined cloud".
party provider who bills on a fine-grained basis
Hybrid cloud represents a strategic approach to IT
Public clouds are “stand-alone,” or proprietary, infrastructure that combines the strengths of on-
clouds mostly off-premise, run by third party premises data centers with the scalability and agility
companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and of public and private cloud services. This
others [2]. Public clouds are hosted off customer architecture allows organizations to leverage the
premises and usually mix applications benefits of cloud computing, such as elastic
(transparently) from different consumers on shared resources and pay-as-you-go pricing models, while
infrastructure [4]. Public (or external) clouds deliver retaining sensitive data and critical workloads within
a select set of dynamically provisioned, standardized their own controlled environments. For example,
business process, application and infrastructure sensitive customer data or proprietary applications
services and resources using Internet-based can be kept on-premises to meet strict compliance
technologies on a flexible, variable payment and standards, while non-sensitive workloads can be
self-service basis. Typically owned and managed by shifted to the cloud for increased scalability and cost
an offsite, third-party provider, the billing is efficiency. Additionally, hybrid cloud enables
organizations to implement flexible and resilient IT
strategies, such as hybrid disaster recovery solutions National Institute of Standards and Technology
that replicate data and applications across multiple (NIST) defines cloud computing with five key
environments to ensure business continuity in the characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad
event of disruptions or outages. network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity,
and measured service. These characteristics
Private Clouds: emphasize the flexibility, scalability, and efficiency
Private clouds describe offerings that deploy cloud inherent in cloud environments. Cloud computing
computing on private networks. It consists of encompasses various services such as Infrastructure
applications or virtual machines in a company's own as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and
set of hosts. They provide the benefits of utility Software as a Service (SaaS), catering to diverse
computing -shared hardware costs, the ability to computing needs. Its benefits include convenience,
recover from failure, and the ability to scale up or scalability, cost-effectiveness, security, and anytime,
down depending upon demand. anywhere access.

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