ABSTRACT

Cloud computing is computation, software, data access, and storage services that do not require end-
user knowledge of the physical location and configuration of the system that delivers the services.
Parallels to this concept can be drawn with the electricity grid where end-users consume power resources
without any necessary understanding of the component devices in the grid required to provide the
service.

Cloud computing is a natural evolution of the widespread adoption of virtualization, service-oriented

architecture, autonomic and utility computing. Details are abstracted from end-users, who no longer have
need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.

Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and delivery model for IT services based on
Internet protocols, and it typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualized
resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote computing sites provided
by the Internet.This frequently takes the form of web-based tools or applications that users can access
and use through a web browser as if it were a program installed locally on their own computer.

Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through common centers and
built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of access for consumers' computing needs.
Commercial offerings are generally expected to meet quality of service (QoS) requirements of
customers, and typically include service level agreements (SLAs).

Overview Comparisons
Cloud computing derives characteristics from:-

1. Autonomic computing — "computer systems capable of self-management

2. Client–server model – client–server computing refers broadly to any distributed
application that distinguishes between service providers (servers) and service requesters
(clients)
3. Grid computing — "a form of distributed computing and parallel computing, whereby a
'super and virtual computer' is composed of a cluster of networked, loosely
coupled computers acting in concert to perform very large tasks"
4. Mainframe computer — powerful computers used mainly by large organizations for critical
applications, typically bulk data-processing.
5. Utility computing — the "packaging of computing resources, such as computation and
storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility, such as electricity".
 6. Peer-to-peer – distributed architecture without the need for central coordination, with
participants being at the same time both suppliers and consumers of resources (in contrast
to the traditional client–server model)
7. Service-oriented computing – Cloud computing provides services related to computing
while, in a reciprocal manner, service-oriented computing consists of the computing
techniques that operate on software-as-a-service.

Characteristics

The key characteristic of cloud computing is that the computing is "in the cloud" i.e. the processing
(and the related data) is not in a specified, known or static place(s). This is in contrast to a model in
which the processing takes place in one or more specific servers that are known. All the other
concepts mentioned are supplementary or complementary to this concept.

History
The underlying concept of cloud computing dates back to the 1960s, when John McCarthy opined
that "computation may someday be organized as a public utility." Almost all the modern-day
characteristics of cloud computing (elastic provision, provided as a utility, online, illusion of infinite
supply), the comparison to the electricity industry and the use of public, private, government and
community forms was thoroughly explored in Douglas Parkhill's 1966 book, The Challenge of the
Computer Utility.

The actual term "cloud" borrows from telephony in that telecommunications companies, who until
the 1990s primarily offered dedicated point-to-point data circuits, began offering Virtual Private
Network(VPN) services with comparable quality of service but at a much lower cost. By switching
traffic to balance utilization as they saw fit, they were able to utilize their overall network bandwidth
more effectively. The cloud symbol was used to denote the demarcation point between that which
was the responsibility of the provider from that of the user. Cloud computing extends this boundary
to cover servers as well as the network infrastructure. The first scholarly use of the term “cloud
computing” was in a 1997 lecture by Ramnath Chellappa.

Amazon played a key role in the development of cloud computing by modernizing their data

centers after the dot-com bubble, which, like most computer networks, were using as little as 10% of
their capacity at any one time, just to leave room for occasional spikes. Having found that the new
cloud architecture resulted in significant internal efficiency improvements whereby small, fast-
moving "two-pizza teams" could add new features faster and more easily, Amazon initiated a new
product development effort to provide cloud computing to external customers, and
launched Amazon Web Service (AWS) on a utility computing basis in 2006.

In 2007, Google, IBM and a number of universities embarked on a large scale cloud computing

research project.[19] In early 2008, Eucalyptus became the first open source AWS API compatible
platform for deploying private clouds. In early 2008, OpenNebula, enhanced in the RESERVOIR
European Commission funded project, became the first open source software for deploying private
and hybrid clouds and for the federation of clouds.[20] In the same year, efforts were focused on
providing QoS guarantees (as required by real-time interactive applications) to Cloud-based
infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS European Commission funded project.[21] By mid-
2008, Gartner saw an opportunity for cloud computing "to shape the relationship among consumers
of IT services, those who use IT services and those who sell them"[22] and observed that
"[o]rganisations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use
service-based models" so that the "projected shift to cloud computing ... will result in dramatic
growth in IT products in some areas and significant reductions in other areas."[23]

[edit]Client
See also:  Category:Cloud clients

A cloud client consists of computer hardware and/or computer software that relies on cloud

computing for application delivery, or that is specifically designed for delivery of cloud services and
that, in either case, is essentially useless without it. Examples include some computers, phones and
other devices, operating systems andbrowsers.[34][35][36][37][38]

[edit]Application
See also:  Category:Cloud applications

Cloud application services or "Software as a Service  (SaaS)" deliver software as a service over

the Internet, eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computers
and simplifying maintenance and support. People tend to use the terms ‘SaaS’ and ‘cloud’
interchangeably, when in fact they are two different things.[citation needed] Key characteristics include:[39]
[clarification needed]

 Network-based access to, and management of, commercially available (i.e., not custom) software
  Activities that are managed from central locations rather than at each customer's site, enabling
customers to access applications remotely via the Web
 Application delivery that typically is closer to a one-to-many model (single instance, multi-tenant
architecture) than to a one-to-one model, including architecture, pricing, partnering, and
management characteristics
 Centralized feature updating, which obviates the need for downloadable patches and upgrades.
[edit]Platform
See also:  Category:Cloud platforms

Cloud platform services or "Platform as a Service (PaaS)" deliver a computing

platform and/or solution stack as a service, often consuming cloud infrastructure and
sustaining cloud applications.[40] It facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and
complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.[41][42]

[edit]
Server
The servers layer consists of computer hardware and/or computer software products that are
specifically designed for the delivery of cloud services, including multi-core processors, cloud-
specific operating systems and combined offerings.[34][44][45][46]

Public cloud
Public cloud or external cloud describes cloud computing in the traditional mainstream sense,
whereby resources are dynamically provisioned on a fine-grained, self-service basis over the
Internet, via web applications/web services, from an off-site third-party provider who bills on a fine-
grained utility computing basis.[26]

Combined cloud
Two clouds that have been joined together are more correctly called a "combined cloud".
A combined cloud environment consisting of multiple internal and/or external providers "will be
typical for most enterprises".By integrating multiple cloud services users may be able to ease the
transition to public cloud services while avoiding issues such as PCI.Private cloud
Douglas Parkhill first described the concept of a "private computer utility" in his 1966 book The
Challenge of the Computer Utility. The idea was based upon direct comparison with other industries
(e.g. the electricity industry) and the extensive use of hybrid supply models to balance and mitigate
risks.

Cloud engineering
Cloud engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable, and interdisciplinary
approach to the ideation, conceptualization, development, operation, and maintenance of cloud
computing, as well as the study and applied research of the approach, i.e., the application of
engineering to cloud. It is a maturing and evolving discipline to facilitate the adoption, strategization,
operationalization, industrialization, standardization, productization, commoditization, and
governance of cloud solutions, leading towards a cloud ecosystem. Cloud engineering is also known
as cloud service engineering.

Cloud storage
Cloud storage is a model of networked computer data storage where data is stored on multiple
virtual servers, generally hosted by third parties, rather than being hosted on dedicated
servers. Hostingcompanies operate large data centers; and people who require their data to be
hosted buy or lease storage capacity from them and use it for their storage needs. The data
center operators, in the background, virtualize the resources according to the requirements of the
customer and expose them as virtual servers, which the customers can themselves manage.
Physically, the resource may span across multiple servers.

The Intercloud
The Intercloud is an interconnected global "cloud of clouds” and an extension of
the Internet "network of networks" on which it is based.The term was first used in the context of
cloud computing in 2007 when Kevin Kelly stated that "eventually we'll have the intercloud, the cloud
of clouds. This Intercloud will have the dimensions of one machine comprising all servers and
attendantcloudbooks on the planet.".[58] It became popular in 2009[61] and has also been used to
describe the datacenter of the future.[62]

The Intercloud scenario is based on the key concept that each single cloud does not have infinite
physical resources. If a cloud saturates the computational and storage resources of its virtualization
infrastructure, it could not be able to satisfy further requests for service allocations sent from its
clients. The Intercloud scenario aims to address such situation, and in theory, each cloud can use
the computational and storage resources of the virtualization infrastructures of other clouds. Such
form of pay-for-use may introduce new business opportunities among cloud providers if they
manage to go beyond theoretical framework. Nevertheless, the Intercloud raises many more
challenges than solutions concerning cloud federation, security, interoperability, quality of service,
vendor's lock-ins, trust, legal issues, monitoring and billing.[citation needed]
 The concept of a competitive utility computing market which combined many computer utilities
together was originally described by Douglas Parkhill in his 1966 book, the "Challenge of the
Computer Utility". This concept has been subsequently used many times over the last 40 years and
is identical to the Intercloud.

[edit]Issues

Privacy
The cloud model has been criticized by privacy advocates for the greater ease in which the
companies hosting the cloud services control, and thus, can monitor at will, lawfully or unlawfully,
the communication and data stored between the user and the host company. Instances such as
the secret NSA program, working with AT&T, and Verizon, which recorded over 10 million phone
calls between American citizens, causes uncertainty among privacy advocates, and the greater
powers it gives to telecommunication companies to monitor user activity.[63] While there have been
efforts (such as US-EU Safe Harbor) to "harmonize" 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.”.

Security

The relative security of cloud computing services is a contentious issue which may be delaying its
adoption.Issues barring the adoption of cloud computing are due in large part to the private and
public sectors unease surrounding the external management of security based services. It is the
very nature of cloud computing based services, private or public, that promote external management
of provided services. This delivers great incentive amongst cloud computing service providers in
producing a priority in building and maintaining strong management of secure services.