Characteristics & Challenges Cloud Computing

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

On-demand self-services: The Cloud computing services does not require any human
administrators, user themselves are able to provision, monitor and manage computing
resources as needed.
Broad network access: The Computing services are generally provided over standard networks
and heterogeneous devices.
Rapid elasticity: The Computing services should have IT resources that are able to scale out
and in quickly and on as needed basis. Whenever the user requires services it is provided to
him and it is scale out as soon as its requirement gets over.
Resource pooling: The IT resource (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services)
present are shared across multiple applications and occupant in an uncommitted manner.
Multiple clients are provided service from a same physical resource.
Measured service: The resource utilization is tracked for each application and occupant; it will
provide both the user and the resource provider with an account of what has been used. This
is done for various reasons like monitoring billing and effective use of resource.
Multi-tenancy: Cloud computing providers can support multiple tenants (users or
organizations) on a single set of shared resources.
Virtualization: Cloud computing providers use virtualization technology to abstract underlying
hardware resources and present them as logical resources to users.
Resilient computing: Cloud computing services are typically designed with redundancy and
fault tolerance in mind, which ensures high availability and reliability.
Flexible pricing models: Cloud providers offer a variety of pricing models, including pay-per-
use, subscription-based, and spot pricing, allowing users to choose the option that best suits
their needs.
Security: Cloud providers invest heavily in security measures to protect their users’ data and
ensure the privacy of sensitive information.
Automation: Cloud computing services are often highly automated, allowing users to deploy
and manage resources with minimal manual intervention.
Sustainability: Cloud providers are increasingly focused on sustainable practices, such as
energy-efficient data centres and the use of renewable energy sources, to reduce their
environmental impact.

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Characteristics & Challenges Cloud Computing

Most Common Cloud Computing Challenges

Cloud computing is the provisioning of resources like data and storage on demand, that is in
real-time. It has been proven to be revolutionary in the IT industry with the market valuation
growing at a rapid rate. Cloud development has proved to be beneficial not only for huge
public and private enterprises but small-scale businesses as well as it helps to cut costs. It is
estimated that more than 94% of businesses will increase their spending on the cloud by more
than 45%. This also has resulted in more and high-paying jobs if you are a cloud developer.
Cloud technology was flourishing before the pandemic, but there has been a sudden spike in
cloud deployment and usage during the lockdown. The tremendous growth can be linked to
the fact that classes have been shifted online, virtual office meetings are happening on video
calling platforms, conferences are taking place virtually as well as on-demand streaming apps
have a huge audience. All this is made possible by us of cloud computing only. We are safe to
conclude that the cloud is an important part of our life today, even if we are an enterprise,
student, developer, or anyone else and are heavily dependent on it. But with this dependence,
it is also important for us to look at the issues and challenges that arise with cloud computing.
Therefore, today we bring you the most common challenges that are faced when dealing with
cloud computing, let’s have a look at them one by one:
1. Data Security and Privacy
Data security is a major concern when switching to cloud computing. User or organizational
data stored in the cloud is critical and private. Even if the cloud service provider assures data
integrity, it is your responsibility to carry out user authentication and authorization, identity
management, data encryption, and access control. Security issues on the cloud include
identity theft, data breaches, malware infections, and a lot more which eventually decrease
the trust amongst the users of your applications. This can in turn lead to potential loss in
revenue alongside reputation and stature. Also, dealing with cloud computing requires
sending and receiving huge amounts of data at high speed, and therefore is susceptible to
data leaks.
2. Cost Management
Even as almost all cloud service providers have a “Pay As You Go” model, which reduces the
overall cost of the resources being used, there are times when there are huge costs incurred
to the enterprise using cloud computing. When there is under optimization of the resources,
let’s say that the servers are not being used to their full potential, add up to the hidden costs.
If there is a degraded application performance or sudden spikes or overages in the usage, it
adds up to the overall cost. Unused resources are one of the other main reasons why the costs
go up. If you turn on the services or an instance of cloud and forget to turn it off during the
weekend or when there is no current use of it, it will increase the cost without even using the
resources.
3. Multi-Cloud Environments
Due to an increase in the options available to the companies, enterprises not only use a single
cloud but depend on multiple cloud service providers. Most of these companies use hybrid

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Characteristics & Challenges Cloud Computing

cloud tactics and close to 84% are dependent on multiple clouds. This often ends up being
hindered and difficult to manage for the infrastructure team. The process most of the time
ends up being highly complex for the IT team due to the differences between multiple cloud
providers.
4. Performance Challenges
Performance is an important factor while considering cloud-based solutions. If the
performance of the cloud is not satisfactory, it can drive away users and decrease profits. Even
a little latency while loading an app or a web page can result in a huge drop in the percentage
of users. This latency can be a product of inefficient load balancing, which means that the
server cannot efficiently split the incoming traffic so as to provide the best user experience.
Challenges also arise in the case of fault tolerance, which means the operations continue as
required even when one or more of the components fail.
5. Interoperability and Flexibility
When an organization uses a specific cloud service provider and wants to switch to another
cloud-based solution, it often turns up to be a tedious procedure since applications written
for one cloud with the application stack are required to be re-written for the other cloud.
There is a lack of flexibility from switching from one cloud to another due to the complexities
involved. Handling data movement, setting up the security from scratch and network also add
up to the issues encountered when changing cloud solutions, thereby reducing flexibility.
6. High Dependence on Network
Since cloud computing deals with provisioning resources in real-time, it deals with enormous
amounts of data transfer to and from the servers. This is only made possible due to the
availability of the high-speed network. Although these data and resources are exchanged over
the network, this can prove to be highly vulnerable in case of limited bandwidth or cases when
there is a sudden outage. Even when the enterprises can cut their hardware costs, they need
to ensure that the internet bandwidth is high as well there are zero network outages, or else
it can result in a potential business loss. It is therefore a major challenge for smaller
enterprises that have to maintain network bandwidth that comes with a high cost.
7. Lack of Knowledge and Expertise
Due to the complex nature and the high demand for research working with the cloud often
ends up being a highly tedious task. It requires immense knowledge and wide expertise on
the subject. Although there are a lot of professionals in the field, they need to constantly
update themselves. Cloud computing is a highly paid job due to the extensive gap between
demand and supply. There are a lot of vacancies but very few talented cloud engineers,
developers, and professionals. Therefore, there is a need for upskilling so these professionals
can actively understand, manage and develop cloud-based applications with minimum issues
and maximum reliability.

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