Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. The name was inspired by the cloud symbol which is often used to represent the Internet in flow charts and diagrams. Cloud computing comes into the picture when you think about a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software.
A cloud service has three distinct characteristics. It is sold on demand, by the minute or the hour, a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant improvement in distributed computing and improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.
A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a network or a data center that supplies services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. The goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.
Cloud computing services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instances with unique IP addresses and blocks of storage on demand. Customers use the provider's API to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. Cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed. This pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed and is sometimes referred to as utility computing.
Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform over the Internet. Force.com and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. Currently, some providers do not allow software created by their customers to be moved off the provider's platform.
In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.
Here are some advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing:
Cloud computing is a type of on-demand hosting services on the internet. It increases efficiency, is scalable, and lowers expenses. But the monetary savings may be misleading to consumers and businesses who do not fully understand the potential risks involved.
With a pay-as-you-go type structure, users are only charged for the amount of traffic, bandwidth, and memory used. Online businesses become more efficient by only utilizing the storage and space needed, while also being assured capacity for any usage increases. Cloud computing has attracted diverse customers, from popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, to educational websites of Arizona State and Northwestern University.
Although the risks of cloud hosting vs. dedicated servers are very much the same, cloud computing carries inherent risks as personal identifiable information can be distorted, the specific location of data is unknown, and any issues are especially difficult to investigate as customers share their hosting space.
Because of the high risks involved in cloud computing a financial services group has taken the initiative of offering broad technology and cyber risk insurance to lessen the exposures of data loss, network interruptions, and technology failure in general.
A cloud service has three distinct characteristics. It is sold on demand, by the minute or the hour, a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant improvement in distributed computing and improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.
A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a network or a data center that supplies services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. The goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.
Cloud computing services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instances with unique IP addresses and blocks of storage on demand. Customers use the provider's API to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. Cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed. This pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed and is sometimes referred to as utility computing.
Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform over the Internet. Force.com and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. Currently, some providers do not allow software created by their customers to be moved off the provider's platform.
In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.
Here are some advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing:
Cloud computing is a type of on-demand hosting services on the internet. It increases efficiency, is scalable, and lowers expenses. But the monetary savings may be misleading to consumers and businesses who do not fully understand the potential risks involved.
With a pay-as-you-go type structure, users are only charged for the amount of traffic, bandwidth, and memory used. Online businesses become more efficient by only utilizing the storage and space needed, while also being assured capacity for any usage increases. Cloud computing has attracted diverse customers, from popular social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, to educational websites of Arizona State and Northwestern University.
Although the risks of cloud hosting vs. dedicated servers are very much the same, cloud computing carries inherent risks as personal identifiable information can be distorted, the specific location of data is unknown, and any issues are especially difficult to investigate as customers share their hosting space.
Because of the high risks involved in cloud computing a financial services group has taken the initiative of offering broad technology and cyber risk insurance to lessen the exposures of data loss, network interruptions, and technology failure in general.
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