Cloud Computing

H.R.Tarle
Walchand College of Engineering/Information Technology, Sangli, India

Abstract—
With the significant advances in Information 2. Platform as a service (PaaS)
and Communication Technology (ICT) over the last 3. Software as a service (SaaS)
half century, there is an increasingly perceived vision
that computing will one day be the 5th utility (after 4. Network as a service (NaaS)
water, electricity, gas, and telephony). This computing
utility, like all other four existing utilities, will In the business model using software as a
provide the basic level of computing service that is service, users are provided access to application
considered essential to meet the everyday needs of the software and databases. The cloud providers manage
general community. To deliver this vision, a number the infrastructure and platforms on which the
of computing paradigms have been proposed, of applications run. SaaS is sometimes referred to as
which the latest one is known as Cloud computing. ―on-demand software‖ and is usually priced on a pay-
Cloud computing is a relatively new way of
per-use basis. SaaS providers generally price
referring to the use of shared computing resources,
and it is an alternative to having local servers handle applications using a subscription fee. Proponents
applications. Reducing costs, accelerating processes claim that the SaaS allows a business the potential to
and simplifying management are all vital to the reduce IT operational costs by outsourcing hardware
success of an effective IT infrastructure. Companies and software maintenance and support to the cloud
are increasingly turning to more flexible IT provider. This enables the business to reallocate IT
environments to help them realise these goals. It operations costs away from hardware/software
enables tasks to be assigned to a combination of spending and personnel expenses, towards meeting
software and services over a network. This network of
other IT goals. In addition, with applications hosted
servers is the cloud. It can help businesses transform
their existing server infrastructures into dynamic centrally, updates can be released without the need for
environments, expanding and reducing server capacity users to install new software. One drawback of SaaS
depending on their requirements. Cloud computing is that the users' data are stored on the cloud
has emerged at an inflexion point in the industry and provider’s server. As a result, there could be
our lives, where IT is all prevalent and is no longer unauthorized access to the data.[6]
the panacea for all industry ills. With cloud
computing sweeping across the IT and business
world, the economics of this emerging world will be
very different. Cloud computing is the current buzz
word in the air. This paper looks at the aspects that
cloud computing presents to all IT ecosystems during
the transformation. This paper begins by asking just
what exactly is cloud computing. We will take a look
at how cloud computing works and how is that going
to make an impact to our current working
environment. Also we will take a look into a category
of Cloud Computing, i.e. SaaS (software as a service).

I. INTRODUCTION
Cloud Computing is the use
of computing resources (hardware and software) that
are delivered as a service over a network (typically
the Internet). The name comes from the use of
a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the
complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams.
Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a
user's data, software and computation.
There are many types of public cloud computing: Fig. 1 Cloud Computing
1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

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 End users access cloud based 6) Mulitenancy: enables sharing of resources and
applications through a web browser or a light-weight costs across a large pool of users thus allowing for:
desktop or mobile app while the business Centralization of infrastructure in locations with lower
software and user's data are stored on servers at a costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc.)
remote location. Proponents claim that cloud
Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer
computing allows enterprises to get their applications
for highest possible load-levels)
up and running faster, with improved manageability
and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly Utilisation and efficiency improvements for systems
adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable that are often only 10–20% utilised.
business demand. Cloud computing relies on sharing
7) Reliability: is improved if multiple redundant
of resources to achieve coherence and economies of
sites are used, which makes well-designed cloud
scale similar to a utility (like the electricity grid) over
computing suitable for business
a network. At the foundation of cloud computing is
continuity and disaster recovery.
the broader concept of converged infrastructure
shared services.[6] 8) Scalability and elasticity: via dynamic ("on-
demand") provisioning of resources on a fine-grained,
II. CHARACHTERISTIC self-service basis near real-time, without users having
to engineer for peak loads.
1) Agility: improves with users' ability to re-
provision technological infrastructure resources. 9) Performance: is monitored, and consistent and
loosely coupled architectures are constructed
2) Application Programming Interface: using web services as the system interface.
(API) accessibility to software that enables machines
to interact with cloud software in the same way the 10) Security: could improve due to centralization of
user interface facilitates interaction between humans data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but
and computers. Cloud computing systems typically concerns can persist about loss of control over certain
use REST-based APIs. sensitive data, and the lack of security for stored
kernels. Security is often as good as or better than
3) Cost: is claimed to be reduced and in a public other traditional systems, in part because providers are
cloud delivery model capital expenditure is converted able to devote resources to solving security issues that
to operational expenditure. This is purported to lower many customers cannot afford. However, the
barriers to entry, as infrastructure is typically provided complexity of security is greatly increased when data
by a third-party and does not need to be purchased for is distributed over a wider area or greater number of
one-time or infrequent intensive computing tasks. devices and in multi-tenant systems that are being
Pricing on a utility computing basis is fine-grained shared by unrelated users. In addition, user access to
with usage-based options and fewer IT skills are security audit logs may be difficult or impossible.
required for implementation (in-house). The e- Private cloud installations are in part motivated by
FISCAL project's state of the art repository contains users' desire to retain control over the infrastructure
several articles looking into cost aspects in more and avoid losing control of information security.
detail, most of them concluding that costs savings
depend on the type of activities supported and the 11) Maintenance: of cloud computing applications
type of infrastructure available in-house. is easier, because they do not need to be installed on
each user's computer and can be accessed from
4) Device and Location Independence: different places. [6]
enable users to access systems using a web browser
regardless of their location or what device they are III. CLOUD MODELS
using (e.g., PC, mobile phone). As infrastructure is Cloud computing providers offer their
off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and services according to three fundamental models:
accessed via the Internet, users can connect from infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a
anywhere. [6] service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS)
where IaaS is the most basic and each higher model
5) Virtualization: technology allows servers and abstracts from the details of the lower models. In 2012
storage devices to be shared and utilization be network as a service (NaaS) and communication as a
increased. Applications can be easily migrated from service (CaaS) were officially included by ITU
one physical server to another. (International Telecommunication Union) as part of
the basic cloud computing models, recognized service

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categories of a telecommunication-centric cloud B. Platform as service:
ecosystem.
In the PaaS model, cloud providers
deliver a computing platform typically including
operating system, programming language execution
environment, database, and web server. Application
developers can develop and run their software
solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and
complexity of buying and managing the underlying
hardware and software layers. With some PaaS offers,
the underlying computer and storage resources scale
automatically to match application demand such that
cloud user does not have to allocate resources
manually. Examples of PaaS include: AWS Elastic
Beanstalk, Cloud Foundry, Force.com, EngineYard,
Mendix, Google App Engine, Windows Azure
Compute and OrangeScape.

C. Software as service:
In the SaaS model, cloud providers install
Fig. 2 Cloud Models and operate application software in the cloud and
cloud users access the software from cloud clients.
A. Infrastructure as service: The cloud users do not manage the cloud
infrastructure and platform on which the application is
In the most basic cloud-service model,
running. This eliminates the need to install and run the
providers of IaaS offer computers - physical or (more
application on the cloud user's own computers
often) virtual machines - and other resources. Pools of
simplifying maintenance and support. What makes a
hypervisors within the cloud operational support-
cloud application different from other applications is
system can support large numbers of virtual machines
its scalability. This can be achieved by cloning tasks
and the ability to scale services up and down
onto multiple virtual machines at run-time to meet the
according to customers' varying requirements. IaaS
changing work demand. Load balancers distribute the
clouds often offer additional resources such as images
work over the set of virtual machines. This process is
in a virtual-machine image-library, raw (block) and
transparent to the cloud user who sees only a single
file-based storage, firewalls, load balancers, IP
access point. To accommodate a large number of
addresses, virtual local area networks (VLANs), and
cloud users, cloud applications can be multitenant,
software bundles. IaaS-cloud providers supply these
that is, any machine serves more than one cloud user
resources on-demand from their large pools installed
organization. It is common to refer to special types of
in data centers. For wide-area connectivity, customers
cloud based application software with a similar
can use either the Internet or carrier clouds (dedicated
naming convention: desktop as a service, business
virtual private networks).
process as a service, test environment as a service,
To deploy their applications, cloud users
communication as a service.
install operating-system images and their application
The pricing model for SaaS applications is
software on the cloud infrastructure. In this model, the
typically a monthly or yearly flat fee per user, so price
cloud user patches and maintains the operating
is scalable and adjustable if users are added or
systems and the application software. Cloud providers
removed at any point. Examples of SaaS
typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing
include: Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, Onlive,
basis: cost reflects the amount of resources allocated
and TradeCard.
and consumed.Examples of IaaS providers include
Amazon CloudFormation, Amazon EC2, Window
D. Network as service:
Azure virtual Machines DynDNS, Google compute
Engine,HP Cloud, iland, Joyent, Rackspace Cloud A category of cloud services where the
Compute,ReadySpace Cloud Services. capability provided to the cloud service user is to use
network/transport connectivity services and/or inter-

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cloud network connectivity services. NaaS involves essentially "[lacking] the economic model that makes
the optimization of resource allocations by cloud computing such an intriguing concept".
considering network and computing resources as a
unified whole. Traditional NaaS services include D. Hybrid cloud:
flexible and extended VPN, and bandwidth on
Hybrid cloud is a composition of two or
demand. NaaS concept materialization also includes
more clouds (private, community or public) that
the provision of a virtual network service by the
remain unique entities but are bound together,
owners of the network infrastructure to a third party
offering the benefits of multiple deployment models.
(VNP – VNO).
By utilizing "hybrid cloud" architecture, companies
and individuals are able to obtain degrees of fault
IV. CLOUD COMPUTING TYPES
tolerance combined with locally immediate usability
The Cloud Computing types are divide into without dependency on internet connectivity. Hybrid
the as per user use and what user want and its cloud architecture requires both on-premises
application. Such as private cloud, public cloud,
resources and off-site (remote) server-based cloud
community cloud and hybrid cloud. [6]
infrastructure. Hybrid clouds lack the flexibility,
A. Public Cloud: security and certainty of in-house applications. Hybrid
cloud provides the flexibility of in house applications
Public cloud applications, storage, and other
with the fault tolerance and scalability of cloud based
resources are made available to the general public by
services.
a service provider. These services are free or offered
on a pay-per-use model. Generally, public cloud
service providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft and
V. CLOUD CLIENTS
Google own and operate the infrastructure and offer Users access cloud computing using
access only via Internet (direct connectivity is not networked client devices, such as desktop computers,
offered). laptop, tablets and smartphones. Some of these
devices cloud clients rely on cloud computing for all
B. Community Cloud: or a majority of their applications so as to be
Community cloud shares infrastructure between essentially useless without it. Examples are thin
several organizations from a specific community with clients and the browser-based Chrome book. Many
common concerns (security, compliance, jurisdiction, cloud applications do not require specific software on
etc.), whether managed internally or by a third-party the client and instead use a web browser to interact
and hosted internally or externally. The costs are with the cloud application with AJAX and HTML5
spread over fewer users than a public cloud (but more these Web user interfaces can achieve a similar or
than a private cloud), so only some of the cost savings even better look and feel as native applications. Some
potential of cloud computing are realized. cloud applications, however, support specific client
software dedicated to these applications (e.g., virtual
C. Private cloud: desktop clients and most email clients). Some legacy
applications (line of business applications that until
Private cloud is cloud infrastructure now have been prevalent in thin client Windows
operated solely for a single organization, whether computing) are delivered via a screen-sharing
managed internally or by a third-party and hosted technology.
internally or externally. Undertaking a private cloud
project requires a significant level and degree of VI. CLOUD ARCHITECTURE
engagement to virtualize the business environment,
and it will require the organization to reevaluate Cloud Architecture the systems architecture of
decisions about existing resources. When it is done the software systems involved in the delivery of cloud
right, it can have a positive impact on a business, but computing, typically involves multiple cloud
every one of the steps in the project raises security components communicating with each other over a
issues that must be addressed in order to avoid serious loose coupling mechanism such as a messaging
vulnerabilities. They have attracted criticism because queue. Elastic provision implies intelligence in the use
users "still have to buy, build, and manage them" and of tight or loose coupling as applied to mechanisms
thus do not benefit from less hands-on management, such as these and others.[6]

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 over jurisdiction. While there have been efforts (such
as US-EU Safe Harbor) to "harmonise" the legal
environment, providers such as Amazon still cater to
major markets (typically the United States and
the European Union) by deploying local infrastructure
and allowing customers to select "availability zones."
Cloud computing poses privacy concerns because the
service provider may access the data that is on the
cloud at any point in time. They could accidentally or
deliberately alter or even delete information.
Postage and delivery services
company Pitney Bowes launched Volly, a cloud-
Fig. 3 Cloud Architecture based, digital mailbox service to leverage its
communication management assets. They also faced
The Intercloud: the technical challenge of providing strong data
The Intercloud is an interconnected global security and privacy. However, they were able to
cloud of clouds and an extension of the Internet address the same concern by applying customized,
network of networks on which it is based. application-level security, including encryption.
Cloud engineering:
Cloud engineering is the application
B. Compliance:
of engineering disciplines to cloud computing. It In order to obtain compliance with
brings a systematic approach to the high-level regulations including FISMA, HIPAA and SOX in the
concerns of commercialisation, standardisation, and United States, the Data Protection Directive in the EU
governance in conceiving, developing, operating and and the credit card industry's PCI DSS, users may
maintaining cloud computing systems. It is a have to adopt community or hybrid deployment modes
multidisciplinary method encompassing contributions that are typically more expensive and may offer
from diverse area such as system, software, web, restricted benefits. This is how Google is able to
performance, information, security, platform, risk, and "manage and meet additional government policy
quality engineering. [6] requirements beyond FISMA‖. Rackspace Cloud or
QubeSpace are able to claim PCI compliance. Many
VII. CLOUD ISSUES providers also obtain a SAS 70 Type II audit, but this
has been criticized on the grounds that the hand-
A. Privacy:
picked set of goals and standards determined by the
The cloud model has been criticized by auditor and the auditee are often not disclosed and can
privacy advocates for the greater ease in which the vary widely. Providers typically make this
companies hosting the cloud services control, thus, information available on request, under non-
can monitor at will, whether permitted or not by their disclosure agreement. Customers in the EU
customers, the communication between the host contracting with cloud providers outside the EU/EEA
company and the end user, as well as the user's stored have to adhere to the EU regulations on export of
data. Instances such as the secret NSA program, personal data.
working with AT&T, and Verizon, which recorded U.S. Federal Agencies have been directed by
over 10 million telephone calls between American the Office of Management and Budget to use a
citizens, causes uncertainty among privacy advocates, process called FedRAMP (Federal Risk and
and the greater powers it gives to telecommunication Authorization Management Program) to assess and
companies to monitor user activity. Using a cloud authorize cloud products and services. Federal CIO
service provider (CSP) can complicate privacy of data Steven VanRoekel issued a memorandum to federal
because of the extent to which virtualization for cloud agency Chief Information Officers on December 8,
processing (virtual machines) and cloud storage are 2011 defining how federal agencies should use
used to implement cloud service. CSP operations, FedRAMP. FedRAMP consists of a subset of NIST
customer or tenant data may not remain on the same Special Publication 800-53 security controls
system, or in the same data center or even within the specifically selected to provide protection in cloud
same provider's cloud; this can lead to legal concerns environments. A subset has been defined for the FIPS
199 low categorization and the FIPS 199 moderate

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categorization. The FedRAMP program has also of November 2012, the Open Standard with broadest
established a Joint Accreditation Board (JAB) industry support industry support is probably
consisting of Chief Information Officers from DoD, OpenStack, Founded in 2010 by NASA and
DHS and GSA. The JAB is responsible for Rackspace, and now governed by the Openstack
establishing accreditation standards for 3rd party Foundation. Open stack supporters include AMD,
organizations who will perform the assessments of intel Canonical, SUSE Linuc,Redhat Cisco, Dell, HP,
cloud solutions. The JAB will also review IBM,[6] Yahoo and now VMware.
authorization packages and may grant provisional
authorization (to operate). The federal agency F. Security:
consuming the service will still have the final
As cloud computing is achieving increased
responsibility for final authority to operate.
popularity, concerns are being voiced about the
C. Legal: security issues introduced through adoption of this
new model. The effectiveness and efficiency of
As with other changes in the landscape of traditional protection mechanisms are being
computing, certain legal issues arise with cloud reconsidered as the characteristics of this innovative
computing, including trademark infringement, deployment model can differ widely from those of
security concerns and sharing of proprietary data traditional architectures. An alternative perspective on
resources. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has the topic of cloud security is that this is but another,
criticized the United States government for although quite broad, case of "applied security" and
considering during the Megaupload seizure process that similar security principles that apply in shared
that people lose property rights by storing data on a multi-user mainframe security models apply with
cloud computing service. One important but not often cloud security.
mentioned problem with cloud computing is the The relative security of cloud computing
problem of whom is in "possession" of the data. If a services is a contentious issue that may be delaying its
cloud company is the possessor of the data, the adoption. Physical control of the Private Cloud
possessor has certain legal rights. If the cloud equipment is more secure than having the equipment
company is the "custodian" of the data, then a off site and under someone else’s control. Physical
different set of rights would apply. The next problem control and the ability to visually inspect the data
in the legalities of cloud computing is the problem of links and access ports is required in order to ensure
legal ownership of the data. Many Terms of Service data links are not compromised. Issues barring the
agreements are silent on the question of ownership. adoption of cloud computing are due in large part to
the private and public sectors' unease surrounding the
D. Open Source: external management of security-based services. It is
the very nature of cloud computing-based services,
Open-source software has provided the
private or public, that promote external management
foundation for many cloud computing
of provided services. This delivers great incentive to
implementations, prominent examples being
cloud computing service providers to prioritize
the Hadoop framework and VMware cloud
building and maintaining strong management of
Foundry. In November 2007, the Free Software
secure services. Security issues have been categorised
Foundation released the Affero General Public
into sensitive data access, data segregation, privacy,
License, a version of GPLv3 intended to close a
bug exploitation, recovery, accountability, malicious
perceived legal loophole associated with free software
insiders, management console security, account
designed to be run over a network.[5]
control, and multi-tenancy issues. Solutions to various
cloud security issues vary, from cryptography,
E. Open Standards:
particularly public key infrastructure (PKI), to use of
Most cloud providers expose APIs that are multiple cloud providers, standardisation of APIs, and
typically well-documented (often under a Creative improving virtual machine support and legal support.
Commons license) but also unique to their Cloud computing offers many benefits, but it
implementation and thus not interoperable. Some also is vulnerable to threats. As the uses of cloud
vendors have adopted others' APIs and there are a computing increase, it is highly likely that more
number of open standards under development, with a criminals will try to find new ways to exploit
view to delivering interoperability and portability. As vulnerabilities in the system. There are many
underlying challenges and risks in cloud computing

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that increase the threat of data being compromised. To devices that stream all content via the cloud becoming
help mitigate the threat, cloud computing stakeholders more popular.
should invest heavily in risk assessment to ensure that K. Ambiguity of terminology:
the system encrypts to protect data; establishes trusted
Outside of the information technology and
foundation to secure the platform and infrastructure; software industry, the term "cloud" can be found to
and builds higher assurance into auditing to reference a wide range of services, some of which fall
strengthen compliance. Security concerns must be under the category of cloud computing, while others
addressed in order to establish trust in cloud do not. The cloud is often used to refer to a product or
computing technology. [5] service that is discovered, accessed and paid for over
the Internet, but is not necessarily a computing
resource. Examples of service that are sometimes
G. Sustainability:
referred to as "the cloud" include, but are not limited
Although cloud computing is often assumed to, crowd sourcing, cloud printing, crowd funding,
to be a form of "green computing", there is no cloud manufacturing.[5]
published study to substantiate this assumption. Citing
the server effects on the environmental effects of
cloud computing, in areas where climate favors Conclusion
natural cooling and renewable electricity is readily In today's global competitive market,
available, the environmental effects will be more companies must innovate and get the most from its
moderate. (The same holds true for "traditional" data resources to succeed. This requires enabling its
centers.) Thus countries with favorable conditions, employees, business partners, and users with the
such as Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, are trying platforms and collaboration tools that promote
to attract cloud computing data centers. Energy innovation. Cloud computing infrastructures are next
efficiency in cloud computing can result from energy- generation platforms that can provide tremendous
aware scheduling and server consolidation. However, value to companies of any size. They can help
in the case of distributed clouds over data centers with companies achieve more efficient use of their IT
different source of energies including renewable hardware and software investments and provide a
source of energies, a small compromise on energy means to accelerate the adoption of innovations.
consumption reduction could result in high carbon Cloud computing increases profitability by improving
footprint reduction. [5] resource utilization. Costs are driven down by
H. Abuse: delivering appropriate resources only for the time
those resources are needed. Cloud computing has
As with privately purchased hardware, enabled teams and organizations to streamline lengthy
customers can purchase the services of cloud procurement processes. Cloud computing enables
computing for nefarious purposes. This includes innovation by alleviating the need of innovators to
password cracking and launching attacks using the find resources to develop, test, and make their
purchased services. In 2009, a banking trojan illegally innovations available to the user community.
used the popular Amazon service as a command and Innovators are free to focus on the innovation rather
control channel that issued software updates and than the logistics of finding and managing resources
malicious instructions to PCs that were infected by the that enable the innovation. Cloud platforms don’t yet
malware.[5] offer the full spectrum of an on-premises
I. IT governance: environment. For example, business intelligence as
part of the platform isn’t common, nor is support for
Main article: Corporate governance of
business process management technologies such as
information technology The introduction of cloud
full-featured workflow and rules engines. This is all
computing requires an appropriate IT governance
but certain to change; however, as this technology
model to ensure a secured computing environment
wave continues to roll forward. The attractions of
and to comply with all relevant organizational
cloud-based computing, including scalability and
information technology policies. As such,
lower costs, are very real. If you work in application
organizations need a set of capabilities that are
development, whether for a software vendor or an end
essential when effectively implementing and
user, expect the cloud to play an increasing role in
managing cloud services, including demand
your future. The next generation of application
management, relationship management, data security
platforms is here. [5]
management, application lifecycle management, risk
and compliance management. [5] REFERENCES
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[5] http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-
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