Cloud Services Requirements

Cloud infrastructure is generally categorized into three parts that all collaborate to create a cloud
service:

Networking: To transfer data externally as well as between computer and storage systems, this part
of the infrastructure relies on routers and switches.

Computing: The computing portion of the infrastructure is delivered by server racks in order to
deliver cloud services for various services and partners.

Storage: A cloud infrastructure will likely need considerable storage often using a combination of
hard disks and flash storage.

Requirements

Availability: With loss less DR

Customers want their IT services be up and available at all times. But in reality, computers sometimes
fail. This implies that the service provider should have implemented a reliable disaster recovery (DR)
mechanism where in the service provider can move the customer from one data center to another
seamlessly and the customer does not even have to know about it.

As a cloud service provider, there will be enormous pressure to minimise costs by optimally utilizing
all the IT infrastructure. The traditional Active-Passive DR strategy is very expensive and cost
inefficient. Instead, service providers will have to create an Active-Active disaster recovery
mechanism where more than one data center will be active at all times and ensures that the data
and services can be accessed by the customer from either of the data centers seamlessly.

Data Security

Security is the key concern for all customers since the applications and the data is receding in the
public cloud, it is the responsibility of the service provider for providing adequate security. In my
opinion security for customer data/applications becomes a key differentiator when it comes to
selecting the cloud service provider. When it comes to IT security, customers tend to view the cloud
service providers like they view banks. The service provider is totally responsible for user security,
but there are certain responsibilities that the customer also needs to take.

The service provider must a robust Information Security Risk Management process which is well
understood by the customer, and customer must clearly know his responsibilities as well. As there
are several types of cloud offerings (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS etc), there will be different sets of responsibility
for the customer and the service provider depending on the cloud service offering.

When it comes to security, the cloud service providers offer better security than what the customer’s
own data center security. This is kin to banks where banks can offer far greater security than any
individual or company. The security in cloud is much higher due to: Centralized monitoring,
enhanced incidence detection/forencics, logging of all activity, greater security/venerability testing,
centralized authentication testing (aka password protection/assurance), Secure builds & testing
patches before deployment and lastly better security software/systems.

Elasticity

Customer on Cloud computing have a dynamic computing load. At times of high load, they need
greater amount of computing resources available to them on demand, and when the work loads are
low, the computing resources are released back to the cloud pool. Customer expect the service
provider to charge them for what they have actually used in the process.

Customers also want a self-service on-demand resource provisioning capability from the service
provider. This feature enables users to directly obtain services from clouds, such as spawning the
creation of a server and tailoring its software, configurations, and security policies, without
interacting with a human system administrator. This eliminates the need for more time-consuming,
labour-intensive, human driven procurement processes familiar to many in IT.

This implies that the dynamic provisioning system should be the basic part of cloud management
software through which users can easily interact with the system.

Cloud Adoption Measured Services

Measured service is a term that IT professionals apply to cloud computing. This is a reference to
services where the cloud provider measures or monitors the provision of services for various
reasons, including billing, effective use of resources, or overall predictive planning.

The idea of measured service is one of five components of a definition of cloud computing supported
by the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST. These five principles support a higher-
level definition of cloud services and describe how they are typically designed. Other aspects of this
definition include the terms ‘rapid elasticity’ and ‘Resource pooling,’ which cover different kinds of
resource allocation. There’s also ‘On-demand self-service,’ which refers to more automated service
changes, and ‘Broad network access,’ which refers to the overall footprint and capabilities of cloud
systems.

Measured Service Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a
metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage,
processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and
reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at
some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth,
and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing
transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Metered services (also called pay-per-use) is any type of payment structure in which a customer has
access to potentially unlimited resources but only pays for what they actually use. With utility
computing, for example, a company can purchase computing resources to match fluctuating needs.

Furthermore, what are the four types of cloud computing services? Cloud computing services fall
into 4 categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service
(SaaS) and FaaS (functions as a service).

Measuring the effectiveness of cloud adoption:

Effectiveness of cloud adoption is rarely assessed.

No established industry-standard metrics for measuring cloud effectiveness.

Cloud adoption context significantly differs between organizations.

Different stakeholders have different perceptions of cloud adoption.

Most cloud metrics aim to measure cloud value in IT terms not in business terms.

Measurement data concerning cloud adoption often does not exist within the organization.

Objectives of cloud adoption change during the implementation path.

Most employees belonging to an organization do not know about the cloud initiative.

Measuring cloud metrics are necessary to:

Switch away from a CapEx intensive model to a subscription model

Adopt a utility model and on-demand consumption vs. a one-time investment

Free up resources from mundane technological activities to roles that contribute more value to the
business

Reduce TCO
Improve ability to seize new business opportunities

Improve business agility

The cloud adoption success measurement should:

Increase in revenue margin

Improve ROI

Improve quality of user experience

Improve elastic scaling cost

Improve level of automation

Improve transaction latency and throughput

Increase open source adoption

Cloud Deployment Models: Public, Community, Private & Hybrid Models

The Public Cloud

The public cloud deployment model represents true cloud hosting. In this deployment model,
services and infrastructure are provided to various clients. Google is an example of a public cloud.
This service can be provided by a vendor free of charge or on the basis of a pay-per-user license
policy.

This model is best suited for business requirements wherein it is required to manage load spikes,
host SaaS applications, utilize interim infrastructure for developing and testing applications, and
manage applications which are consumed by many users that would otherwise require large
investment in infrastructure from businesses.

This model helps to reduce capital expenditure and bring down operational IT costs.

The Community Cloud

In the community deployment model, the cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations with
the same policy and compliance considerations. This helps to further reduce costs as compared to a
private cloud, as it is shared by larger group.

Various state-level government departments requiring access to the same data relating to the local
population or information related to infrastructure, such as hospitals, roads, electrical stations, etc.,
can utilize a community cloud to manage applications and data.

The Private Cloud

This model doesn’t bring much in terms of cost efficiency: it is comparable to buying, building and
managing your own infrastructure. Still, it brings in tremendous value from a security point of view.
During their initial adaptation to the cloud, many organizations face challenges and have concerns
related to data security. These concerns are taken care of by this model, in which hosting is built and
maintained for a specific client. The infrastructure required for hosting can be on-premises or at a
third-party location.

Security concerns are addressed through secure-access VPN or by the physical location within the
client’s firewall system.

Furthermore, for mission-critical applications we need to consider downtime in terms of internet

In addition to security reasons, this model is adopted by organizations in cases where data or
applications are required to conform to various regulatory standards such as SOX, HIPAA, or SAS 70,
which may require data to be managed for privacy and audits that govern the corporation. For
example, for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, moving data to the cloud may violate the
norms. Similarly, different countries have different laws and regulations for managing and handling
data, which can impede the business if cloud is under different jurisdiction.

Several SaaS applications, such as SugarCRM, provide options to their clients to maintain their data
on their own premises to ensure data privacyis maintained according to the requirements of the
particular business. Amazon also provides the option of a virtual private cloud.

The Hybrid Cloud

This deployment model helps businesses to take advantage of secured applications and data hosting
on a private cloud, while still enjoying cost benefits by keeping shared data and applications on the
public cloud. This model is also used for handling cloud bursting, which refers to a scenario where
the existing private cloud infrastructure is not able to handle load spikes and requires a fallback
option to support the load. Hence, the cloud migrates workloads between public and private hosting
without any inconvenience to the users.

Many PaaS deployments expose their APIs, which can be further integrated with internal applications
or applications hosted on a private cloud, while still maintaining the security aspects. Microsoft Azure
and Force.com are two examples of this model.

Cloud infrastructure Self Service

Self-service provisioning in cloud computing is enabled by many public cloud providers so that you
can pay as you go to use public resources. Enterprises configure self-service provisioning by setting
up a user web portal typically with a catalog of cloud computing resources that have been pre-
configured for them to use. The backend complexity and accounting is taken care of by central IT.

The demand is growing for the self-service in cloud environments, which allows knowledge workers
to do for themselves what once took weeks, or even months of coordinated activity: provision the IT
resources needed to complete their tasks.

Self-service platforms do more than allow end-users to provision their own resources, they also
streamline both IT infrastructure and operations. By default, a self-service portal must be backed by
highly effective automation and orchestration, which can even be augmented with artificial
intelligence and machine learning. Not only does this produce a more fluid user experience, it cuts
management overhead and frees administrators to concentrate on high-value processes such as
managing the system architecture instead of managing the end-users. By shifting the provisioning
platform onto a public, private, or hybrid cloud, organizations can take advantage of lower
infrastructure costs by using software-defined architectures built on commodity hardware.

But the benefits don’t end there. Self-service provides end-users with a wealth of opportunities that
cannot be supported by traditional IT infrastructure, with ripple effects felt across a wide range of
enterprise functions. This not only improves efficiency and performance of today’s digital
environment, but unlocks new services and even new markets in the emerging digital economy.

The popularity of self-service provisioning has gained much momentum because of agile delivery of
software and services. DevOps engineers need access to infrastructure on a continuous basis so that
a self-service option provides a much faster workflow than having to make requests to central IT
service.

Demand self-service in cloud computing can be configured in public cloud environments to handle
peak usage automatically. When the computing power of resources running in the cloud needs to
scale to more capacity, the resources can be provisioned for the extra demand. It is important to
monitor any demand self-service capability so that a pay as go service does not end up costing a lot
more than expected.

Cloud computing that includes demand self-service can help a business achieve its digital
transformation objectives and be more responsive to customer needs. Demand self-service can also
be integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) devices so that a 360 view of customer data or
environmental data can be fully digital and responsive to any changes in an environment.

The advent of digital self-service

As ecommerce and online communications became a major part of the retail experience, self-service
grew into a key component of customer support. Research shows that 90% of consumers now expect
a brand or organization to offer a self-service customer support portal. But it’s not just expectations
driving the self-service boom; customers love helping themselves. Roughly three-quarters of
consumers want the ability to solve product or service issues on their own. From basic order-tracking
pages to sophisticated AI-powered chatbots that can guide customers to the information they need,
digital self-service is proving a cost-effective way to deliver faster customer support, cheaper.

Where consumers go, employees are sure to follow. Used to always-available, customer-friendly self-
service options in their personal lives, workers increasingly expect the same experience from their
employers. Whether it’s responding to common HR queries or building libraries of IT support
content, more and more organizations see the efficiency, effectiveness, and benefit to employees in
building out self-service systems.

Self-service portal

A self-service portal is a website with resources that help users resolve service needs and find related
information on their own. Self-service portals typically fall into one of two categories: customer self-
service or employee self-service. It’s not at all uncommon for a single company to offer both
customer and employee self-service portals, and while the content and user experience will
obviously vary dramatically between the two, both may be built using the same technology.

At a high level, any self-service portal should offer content and functionality to help users address
common needs efficiently and without outside help. The specifics of which common needs are
addressable without outside help will, of course, vary greatly from company to company. A software
company that caters to engineers might expect a high level of technical aptitude from its users, and
so offer fairly complex solutions on its self-service portal. A food delivery service catering to the
general public, on the other hand, would likely want to keep its self-service options simple in
comparison.

Employee Self-service

Employee self-service (ESS) is a type of self-service system built specifically for employees. ESS lets
employees handle many administrative and HR-related needs on their own. Common employee self-
service tasks include updating personal information, accessing employee handbooks, and logging
vacation and personal days. Some employee self-service portals also allow individuals to manage
their insurance plans and other benefits.

Moving routine administrative tasks to an employee self-service portal can save companies time and
money, while also increasing employee satisfaction. Rather than scheduling an appointment with HR
to handle a simple chore like updating personal information, employees with access to an ESS portal
can quickly take care of the matter from their desktop computer or mobile device. This frees the
employee up to be more productive in their work, while also letting HR staffers focus on more
complex or creative work of their own.

Customer Self-service

Customer self-service portals are designed to help consumers request services, find information, and
resolve issues related to a company’s products or services. Customer portal software often combines
user-searchable knowledge bases with basic administrative functionality.

The knowledge base part of a customer self-service portal might contain one or more FAQs; a
browseable and searchable database of topics, articles, and tutorials; and a Q&A section where users
pose questions for employees and community experts to address. Sometimes Q&As are set up as
part of user forums to facilitate ongoing, in-depth product discussions and knowledge exchange.

On the administrative side, customer self-service functionality can range from simple password
resets to software downloads and basic technical configuration processes. Sophisticated self-service
systems can leverage a sort of triage system that points basic service requests to self-serve solutions
while routing more complex problems to a human service agent.