Contents

INTRODUCTION...........................................3
Definition..........................................................4
Issues and
consideration…………………………………
…………………………………………………
…………………………………….8
Advantages and disadvantages of cloud
computing.......................................................13
Conclusion......................................................19
References......................................................20

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 INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing is a type of internet-based computing that provides shared computer processing
resources and data to computers and other devices on demand. Cloud computing is a general
term for the delivery of hosted services over the internet. But cloud is not the latest term of
internet; it is something more than the internet. It is making all the Technologies accessible to the
masses under the name of cloud computing. The cloud is where you go to use technology when
you need it, for as long as you need it. You do not need to install anything and you do not need to
pay for the technology when you are not using it. Cloud computing is considered as the evolution
of a variety of technologies that have come together to change an organizations’ approach for
building their IT infrastructure. Cloud computing enables companies to consume a compute
resource, such as a virtual machine, storage or an application, as a utility just like electricity
rather than having to build and maintain computing infrastructures in house. Cloud computing
and storage solution provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process
their data in either privately owned, or third party data centers that may be located far from the
users- ranging in distance from across a city to across the world.

Cloud computing is a buzzword that means different things to different people. For some, it’s
just another way of describing IT, outsourcing, other use it to mean any computing service

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provided the internet or a similar network and some define it as any bought-in computer service
you use that sits outside your firewall. However, in common understanding of cloud computing
is continuously evolving, and the terminology and concepts used to define it often need
clarifying. It is collection of servers where application is placed and is accessed via internet.
Often servers are in geographically different places, but server acts as if they are working next to
each other. Cloud computing work as a server to all computers hardware and software. It is a
service where they work as software, platform and infrastructure.
Now-a-days the service of cloud computing is getting popular because of its easy accessible
facilities. It reduces the complexity of network. For cloud computing people don’t have to buy
software licenses. Cloud computing is customized. Cloud providers have specialized in a
particular area such as e-mail that can bring advanced services which a single company might
not be able to afford or developed. For example, long ago e-mail is something you could only
send and receive using a program running on your PC. But then web-based services such as
Hotmail came along and carried e-mail off into the cloud, now we are all used to the idea that e-
mails can be stored and processed through a server in some remote part of the world, easily
accessible from a web server, whenever we happen to be. Pushing e-mail off into the cloud
makes it supremely convenient for busy people, constantly all the move. It also provides
scalability, reliability and efficiency. Information at cloud is not easily lost. So, the facilities of
cloud computing are many.
As we know that every new technology has some advantages and disadvantages. While the most
visible of these has so far been security, there are some cloud computing risks which we should
keep in mind, including: Supplier quality, longevity and lock-in; available expertise like-
technical, organizational and operational; adaption of business processes to available services;
knowledge of proper using and maintainability; exploitation and innovation. As a new
technology its disadvantages are very few and day by day cloud computing is getting popular for
its simplicity and facilities.

Definition
Cloud computing, the future of information technology, exemplifies the latest trends in the
design of computer architectures. It is a type of internet-based computing where different
services are delivered to an organizations computers and devices through the internet.  It presents
users self-service access to vast computing resources, while maintaining right levels of control.
Many authors and organizations has given their thoughts about cloud computing. Some of them
are given below:

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which defines the standard and aims to
foster cloud computing practices, defines cloud computing as “a model for enabling convenient,

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on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be
rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider
interaction.”
NIST further says that “cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential
characteristics (On-demand self-service, Broad network access, Resource pooling, Rapid
elasticity, Measured Service); three service models (Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud
Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)); and, four deployment
models (Private cloud, Community cloud, Public cloud, Hybrid cloud).”

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently released two new definitions
and standard for cloud computing.
As per ISO standard, a public cloud is a “cloud deployment model where cloud services are
potentially available to any cloud service customer and resources are controlled by the cloud
service provider.” It further says that “a public cloud may be owned, managed, and operated by a
business, academic, or government organization, or some combination of them. It exists on the
premises of the cloud service provider.”
The private cloud is defined as “a private cloud may be owned, managed, and operated by the
organization itself or a third party and may exist on premises or off premises. The cloud service
customer may also authorize access to other parties for its benefit. Private clouds seek to set a
narrowly controlled boundary around the private cloud based on limiting the customers to a
single organization.”
IEEE Standards Association
The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) defines cloud computing in two working drafts.
The P2301 (Cloud Profiles) draft highlights different ecosystem of cloud such as cloud vendors,
service providers, and users. P2302 (Inter cloud) draft provides definition on topology, functions,
and governance for cloud-to-cloud interoperability and federation. Also become more responsive
to the business.
The Amazon (AWS)
Amazon refers cloud computing as the on-demand delivery of IT resources and applications via
the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Whether you are running applications that share photos
to millions of mobile users or you’re supporting the critical operations of your business, the
“cloud” provides rapid access to flexible and low cost IT resources.

Microsoft
Microsoft defines Cloud computing as the ability and capability to leverage a pool of resources
to deliver applications and services. It is about moving past managing applications and services
at a specific resource level, such as computers or servers or even memory & disk space, but

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managing at an application capability level and being able to expand or shrink that level on
demand, using that shared resource pool.
IBM
IBM defines cloud computing as an all-inclusive solution in which all computing resources
(hardware, software, networking, storage, and so on) are provided rapidly to users as demand
dictates. The resources, or services, that are delivered are governable to ensure things like high
availability, security, and quality. The key factor to these solutions is that they possess the ability
to be scaled up and down, so that users get the resources they need: no more and no less.
Akamai
Akamai defines the cloud by its leveraging of the latest and greatest data center technologies.
Specifically, cloud computing requires extensive use of virtualization (server, storage, and
network) and automation (particularly of provisioning, scaling, and workload migration). Cloud
computing is also defined by the support of secure multi-tenancy and by the implementing of
web-oriented APIs (such as RESTful HTTP APIs) that facilitate customer self-service through
web portals or customer-created client applications.
CSC
CSC says Cloud provides computing capability with significantly less user or administrator
interaction than is possible with traditional IT functions, or highly-contractualzed outsourcing
arrangements. The cloud model promotes availability and is composed of these five essential
characteristics: On-demand self-service, broad network access, Resource pooling, rapid
elasticity, and measured service.
Dimension Data
Dimension Data defines cloud computing as a means to meet the increasing technology needs of
your business. It can reduce the costs and time required to deploy and support IT infrastructure –
and lower the risk. You can then divert your time and money to focusing on growing your
business in other areas. However, the cloud is not without its challenges: security, compliance,
integration, global coverage and internal readiness can't be considered as an afterthought.
Cloud computing also defines as a style of computing in which IT resources are abstracted from
the underlying infrastructure and provided on-demand and at scale in a multi-tenant
environment.
Joyent
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared
pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and
services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or
service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five
essential characteristics: On-demand self-service, broad network access, Resource pooling, rapid
elasticity, measured service.
Fujitsu

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Cloud computing enables technology services to be consumed on demand – it represents a major
change in the way IT creates value for businesses. At Fujitsu, cloud moves the emphasis to
business outcomes over technology. Our definition: ‘A technology or a business process
delivered as a service in a way that is scalable, pay per use and self-service.’
HP
HP describes cloud technology that allows you to use a given pool of equipment (often called
resources) to run many workloads. This allows for more efficient use of the hardware you have.
That’s the virtualization and automation part.

Douglas Gourlay says,

“People are coming to grips with virtualization and how to re-shapes IT, creates service and
software based models, and in many ways changes a lot of the physical layer we are used to.
Clouds will be the next transformation over the next several years, building of the software
models that virtualization enabled.”

Praising Gaw says,

“The way I understand it, “cloud computing” refers to the biggest picture. Basically broad
concept of using the internet to allow people to access technology-enabled services. According to
Gartner, though services must be ‘massively scalable’ to qualify as true ‘cloud computing’. So
according to the definitions every time I log into face book, or search for flights online, I’m
taking advantage of cloud computing.

So, basically cloud computing is computing model, not a technology. In this model of
computing, all the servers, networks, applications and other elements related to data centers are
made available to IT and end users via the Internet, in a way that allows IT to buy only the type
and amount of computing services that they need. 

Issues/Consideration

Looking at the roots of the cloud computing movement, it already started in the late ‘90s when
company with a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model started surfacing. Perhaps the most
well-known pioneer is salesforce.com, the first billion-dollar company in the cloud space. Today
there is a plethora of companies offering all kinds of online applications shared by the public. In
that time telecommunications companies, who previously offered primarily dedicated point-to-
point data circuits, began offering virtual private network (VPN) services with comparable
quality of service, but at a lower cost. By switching traffic as they saw fit to balance server use,
they cloud use over all network bandwidth more effectively. They began to use the cloud symbol

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to denote the demarcation point between what the providers was responsible for and what users
were responsible for. Cloud computing extended this boundary to cover all servers as well as the
network infrastructure. As computer became more diffused, scientists and technologists explored
ways to make large scale computing power available to more users through time-sharing. They
experimented with algorithms to optimize the infrastructure, platform and applications to
prioritize CPU have and increased efficiency for end users. In 2000, cloud computing has come
into existence.

In early 2008, NASA’s Open Nebula, enhanced in a RESERVOIR European commission-funded

project, became the first open source software for developing private n hybrid cloud, and for the
federation of cloud. In the same year, efforts were focused on providing quality of service
guarantees as to cloud-based infrastructures, in the framework of the IRMOS Europeans
commission-funded project, resulting the real time cloud environment. In 2011, IBM announced
the IBM Smart Cloud frame work to support Smarter Plane. In 2012, Oracle announced the
Oracle cloud. Cloud computing has become and established approach to the management and
deployment of applications within a large and growing number of businesses. The reality is the
most new software is developed using cloud as the central architectural tenant. By 2015, over 2.5
billion people with more than 10 billion devices will access the internet.

With cloud computing the technology behind it there are many potential opportunities and
capabilities. Cloud computing can open a whole new world of jobs, services, platforms,
applications, and much more. There are thousands of possibilities beginning to form as the future
of cloud computing starts to really take off. For instance, vendors and service providers can get
on board to develop new and different ways of selling their goods and services to the cloud users
through the cloud technology. It opens up a whole new platform for designers and web
developers. Businesses and organizations can organize themselves and conduct business much
more affordable and professionally. Social networking and keeping in touch with friends and
gets a great deal easier as well.

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 Considerations of cloud computing: Cloud computing manages data,
secures it and makes it available when and whenever needed. No wonder cloud is
attractive to organizations burdened with time and budget constraints. But the cloud is not
without its risks. With a poor planning, a cloud model can actually be a hindrance and
become difficult to manage. Although there are many moving parts to a cloud model, the
following are some of the most important infrastructure components:

 Hardware: In creating a cloud platform, selecting the right type of hardware will
make all of the difference. However, for large companies, the selection process is a lot
more detailed. Many administrators are looking at the modern Blade Chassis
infrastructure to help create a scalable cloud solution. With a good blade chassis,
administrators can actually “virtualize” their hardware and span setting almost
immediately between other chassis which haven’t even been configured yet.

 Storage: A major component of a cloud solution will be the storage platform. In

working with storage, it’s imperative to select the right platform for your organization.
Storage can be very expensive, so conducting the research prior to any cloud deployment
must happen. A good storage infrastructure must be capable of scaling with both the
needs of the IT environment and organization’s vision.

 Bandwidth: This consideration must happen at both LAN and WAN levels. There
must be enough internal network throughputs to properly facilitate cloud and virtual

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 workloads. Then, once outside of the network, there must be enough WAN-based
bandwidth to support optimal user performance. Poor bandwidth planning can result in a
bad end-user experience and degrade the environment.

 Virtualization: One of the core elements of the cloud platform is virtualization.

This can be desktops, application storage and even user virtualization. Administrator can
virtualize their servers, delivery applications through an application virtualization engine
and push full desktops through VDI. The beauty of current computing technologies is that
all of these virtual components can be delivered via the cloud. Virtualization creates a
very agile environment capable of fast resource provisioning.

 Delivery methodology: One of the great benefits of cloud computing is the

flexibility with the end-point. IT teams must be aware that data, information and
workloads can be delivered to almost any device with an Internet connection. If the
device is brought into the corporate setting, administrators are able to push applications
and even desktops to that device this is where IT consumers can really benefits from a
solid cloud platform.

 Public cloud access networking: First, public cloud access networking is

most often through the internet, though some cloud providers may be able to support
virtual private networks for large customers. Accessing public cloud services will always
create a tension between security and performance. Not all cloud computing providers
will support encrypted tunnels, so your information may be sent in the open on the
internet.

 Private cloud access networking: Private cloud access networking is the

consideration where most often enterprises will access their own private clouds using the
same technology they employed for access to their data centers. This may include and
internet VPN or VPN service from a network operator. If application access was
satisfactory in a “pre-cloud” configuration, a transition to private cloud computing is not
likely to impact access performance.

 Intra-cloud networking for public cloud services: Next network

application in cloud computing is intra-cloud networking for public cloud service. Public
cloud computing networks are internal and thus not visible to the user, so when you
secure public cloud computing services, it is very important to understand how your
provider interconnects its cloud computing elements.

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  Private intra-cloud networking: The final and most complicated
consideration for networking in cloud computing is private intra-cloud networking. What
makes this particular issue so complex is that it depends on how much intra-cloud
connectivity is associated with the applications being run. At a minimum, all cloud
computing implementations will rely on intra-cloud networking to link users with the
resource to which their application was assigned.

Remember, each organization will have its own sets of needs for a good cloud deployment. But
everyone must have a solid deployment plan considering the above mentioned components.

 Issues in Cloud computing: High quality computing services with reduced

cost and improved performance have made cloud computing a popular paradigm. Due to
its flexible infrastructure, net centric approach and ease of access, the cloud computing
has become prevalent. Its widespread usage is however being diminished by the fact that
the cloud computing paradigm is yet unable to address security issues which may in turn
aggravate the quality of service as well as the privacy of customers' data. There are some
issues in cloud computing. Some major cloud computing issues are giving below-

 Security Issues: Security is generally perceived as a huge issue for the cloud.
The survey found that while 58% of the general population and 86% of senior
business leaders are excited about the potential of cloud computing, more than
90% of these same people are concerned about the security, access and privacy of
their own data in the cloud. Physical security, Operational security, Programmatic
security are some of the security problem which is faced by the cloud computing.

 Data Issues: In data issues there are Data backup, Data usage, Data loss, Data
integrity, Data theft. Some of their details are given below-

1. Data loss: Data loss is a very serious problem in cloud computing. If

vendor closes due to financial or legal problems there will a loss of data for the customers. The
customers won’t be able to access those data because data is no more available for the customers
as the vendor shut down.

2. Data integrity: When a data is on a cloud anyone from any location can
access those data’s from the cloud. Cloud doesn’t differentiate between a sensitive data from a
common data thus enabling anyone to access those sensitive data’s. Thus there is a lack of data
integrity in cloud computing.

3. Data theft: Most of the cloud vendors instead of acquiring a server try to
lease a server from other service providers because they are cost affective and flexible for
operation. But the customer doesn’t know about those things, there is a high possibility that the
data can be stolen from the external server by a malicious user.

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  Performance Issues: Poor application performance causes companies to lose
customers, reduce employee productivity and reduce bottom line revenue. Due to
poor performance cost money and impact morale. If applications cannot
adequately perform during an increase in traffic, businesses loss customer and
revenue. Some performance problem and bottlenecks can even cause application
crashes and data losses.

 Design Issues: There are some design issues in cloud computing. These are-

1. Energy management

2. Novel cloud architectures

3. Software licensing

 Reliability: Reliability provides IS/IT system and solution architects,

developers, and engineers with the knowledge needed to assess the impact of
virtualization and cloud computing on service reliability and availability. It
reveals how to select the most appropriate design for reliability diligence to assure
that user expectations are met. Reliability of cloud computing is the guide for
IS/IT staff in business, government, academia, and non-governmental
organizations who are moving their applications to the cloud. It is also an
important reference for professionals in technical sales, product management, and
quality management, as well as software and quality engineers looking to broaden
their expertise.

 Legal issues: Working with cloud computing service providers can be

complicated. While cloud computing can offer enterprises a variety of benefits,
there are multiple cloud computing legal issues and security risks presented by
cloud computing, making negotiating of cloud computing contracts essential.
Cloud computing legal issues results from where a cloud provider keeps data,
including application of foreign data protection laws and surveillance. Moreover
you need to keep in mind the physical location of your data, responsibility of your
data and intellectual property rights in legal issues.

Cloud security architecture is effective only if the correct defensive implementations are in place.
Efficient cloud security architecture should recognize the issues and considerations that will arise
with security management. The security management addresses these issues and considerations
with security controls. These controls are put in place to safeguard any weaknesses in the system
and reduce the effect of an attack. While there are many types of controls behind cloud security
architecture, they can usually be found in one of the following categories:

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1. Deterrent controls: These controls are intended to reduce attacks on a cloud system.
Much like a warning sign on a fence or a property, deterrent controls typically reduce the threat
level by informing potential attackers that there will be adverse consequences for them if they
proceed.

2. Preventive controls: Preventive controls strengthen the system against incidents,

generally by reducing if not actually eliminating vulnerabilities. Strong authentication of cloud
users, for instance, makes it less likely that unauthorized users can access cloud systems, and
more likely that cloud users are positively identified.

3. Detective controls: Detective controls are intended to detect and react appropriately to
any incidents that occur. In the event of an attack, a detective control will signal the preventative
or corrective controls to address the issue. System and network security monitoring, including
intrusion detection and prevention arrangements, are typically employed to detect attacks on
cloud systems and the supporting communications infrastructure.

4. Corrective controls: Corrective controls reduce the consequences of an incident,

normally by limiting the damage. They come into effect during or after an incident. Restoring
system backups in order to rebuild a compromised system is an example of a corrective control.

By following above mentioned security controls a cloud user can easily use cloud computing
without any cloud security issues and consideration.

Advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing

Cloud computing seems to be a buzzword of the decade and more businesses are making the
switch every day. While harnessing the power of cloud computing to streamline IT processes can
make daily computing much easier. But it’s not something to rush into. There is also some
disadvantages.

Advantages:

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The future of cloud computing will be very powerful as it portends to be is that cloud technology
is extremely beneficial, the extreme agility and accessibility of a cloud is far superior to the use
of current technology. No matter where in the world someone happens to be, or what device they
are using, they can access their cloud and continue to do their work or share their information.

Not only that, but cloud technology is extremely cost efficient and a company cloud end up
saving thousands by choosing this option. For the reliability a cloud offers, the security it
provides and a performance it boasts of, the cost of a cloud makes it an incredible option for
individuals and corporation alive. The future of cloud computing is bright and wise people of any
kind should begin to get on board with trusted cloud computing providers.

Cost Saving:
The most significant cloud computing benefit is in term of IT cost saving. Businesses, no matter
what they are type or size, exist to earn money while keeping capital and operational expenses to
a minimum. With cloud computing, you can save substantial capital cost with zero in house
server storage and application requirement. The lack of on premises infrastructure also removes
their associated operational cost in the form of power, air conditioner and administration cost.
You pay for and what is used and disengage whatever you like- there is no invested IT capital to
worry about. It’s a common misconception that only large businesses can afford to use the cloud
when in fact, cloud services are extremely affordable for smaller business.

Reliability:

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With a manage service platform, cloud computing is much more reliable and consistent than in-
house IT infrastructure. Most provider offer a service level agreement with guarantees 24/7/365
and 99.99% availability. Your organization can benefit from a massive pool of redundant IT
resources, as well as quick failover mechanism- if a server fails, hosted application and services
can easily be transited to any of the available server.

Manageability:
Cloud computing provides enhance and simplified IT management and maintenance capability
through central administration of resources, vendor managed infrastructure and SLA backed
agreements. It infrastructure updates and maintenance are eliminated, as all resources are
maintained by the service provider you enjoy a simple web based user inter face for accessing
software, application and services-without the need for installation-and an SLA insures the
timely and guaranteed delivery, management and maintenance for your IT services.

Strategic edge:
Ever-increasing computing resources give you a competitive edge over competitors, as the time
you requires for IT procurement is virtually nil. Your company can deploy mission critical
applications that deliver significant business benefits, without any upfront costs and minimal
provisioning time. Cloud computing allows you to forget about technology and focus on your
key business activities and objectives. It can also help you to reduce the time needed to market
newer applications and services.

Almost unlimited storage:

Storing information in the cloud gives you almost unlimited storage capacity helps, you no more
need to worry about running out of storage space or increasing your current storage space
availability.

Backup and recovery:

Since all your data is stored in the cloud, backing it up and restoring the same is relatively much
easier than storing the same on a physical device. Furthermore, most cloud service provider are
usually competent enough to handle recovery of information. Hence, this makes the entire
process of backup and recovery much simpler than other traditional method of data storage.

Automatic software integration:

In the cloud software integration is usually something that occurs automatically. This means that
you do not need to take additional efforts to customize and integrate your applications as far your
preferences. This aspects usually takes care of itself. Not only that, cloud computing allows you
to customize your options with great ease. Hence, you can handpick just those services and
software applications that you think will best suit your particular enterprise.

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Easy access to information:
Once you register yourself in the cloud, you can access the information from anywhere, where
there is an internet connection. This convenient feature lets you move beyond time zone and
geographic location issue.

Quick Deployment:
Lastly and most importantly, cloud computing gives you the advantage of quick deployment.
Once you opt for this method of functioning, your entire system can be fully functional in a
matter of a few minutes. Of course, the amount of time taken here will depend on the exact kind
of technology that you need for your business.

Easy implementation:
Cloud computing allows business to retain the same applications and business processes without
having to deal with the backend technicalities. Readily manageable by the internet, a cloud
infrastructure can be accessed by enterprises easily and quickly.

No hardware required:
Since everything will be hosted in the cloud, a physical storage center is no longer needed
however, a backup cloud be worth looking into in the event of a disaster that cloud leave your
company’s productivity stagnant.

Environmentally friendly:
The cloud is in general more efficient than the typical IT infrastructure and it takes fewer
resources to compute, the saving energy. For example, when servers are not used, the
infrastructure normally scales down, freeing up resources and consuming less power. At any
moment, only the resources that are truly needed are consumed by the system.

Smaller learning curve:

Cloud applications usually entail smaller learning curves since people are quietly used to them.
Users find it easier to adopted them and come up to speed much faster. Main examples of this
are applications like G-mail and Google. They use these applications very easily and very

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frequently. As cloud applications are very easy to access people can easily get used to it and
make its best use.

Disadvantages:
As made clear from the above, cloud computing is a tool that offers enormous benefits to its
adopters. However, being a tool, it also comes with its set of problems and inefficient.
Businesses, especially smaller ones, need to be aware of these cons before going in for this
technology. Let’s address the most significant ones.

Security and privacy in the cloud:

Security is the biggest concern when it comes to cloud computing. By leveraging a remote cloud
based infrastructure, a company essentially gives away private data and information, things that
might be sensitive and confidential. It is then up to the cloud service provider to manage, protect
and retain them, thus the provider’s reliability is very critical. A company’s existence might be
put in jeopardy, so all possible alternatives should be explored before a decision. On the same
note, even end users might feel uncomfortable surrender their data to a third party.
Similarly, privacy in the cloud is another huge issue. Companies and users have to trust their
cloud service vendor that they will protect data from unauthorized users. The various stories of
data loss and password leakage in the media does not help to reassure some of the most
concerned users.

Dependency and vendor lock-in:

One of the major disadvantages of cloud computing is the implicit dependency on the provider.
This is what the industry calls “vendor lock-in” since it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to
migrate from a provider once you have rolled with him. If a user wishes to switch to some other
provider, then it can be really painful and cumbersome to transfer huge data from the old
provider to the new one. This is another reason why you should carefully thoroughly
contemplate all options when picking a vendor.

Technical difficulties and downtime:

Certainly the smaller business will enjoy not having to deal with the daily technical issues and
will prefer handing those to an established IT company, however you should keep in mind that
all systems might face dysfunction from time to time. Outage and downtime is possible even to

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the best cloud service providers, as the past has shown.
Additionally, you should remember that the whole setup is dependent on internet access, thus
any network or connectivity problems will render the setup useless. As a minor detail, also keep
in mind that it might take several minutes for the cloud to detect a server fault and launch a new
instance from an image snapshot.

Limited control and flexibility:

Since the applications and services run on remote, third party virtual environments, companies
and users have limited control over the function and execution of the hardware and software.
Moreover, since remote software is being used, it usually lacks the features of an application
running locally.

Increased Vulnerability:
Related to the security and privacy mentioned before, note that cloud based solutions are
exposed on the public internet and are thus a more vulnerable target for malicious users and
hackers. Nothing on the Internet is completely secure and even the biggest players suffer from
serious attacks and security breaches. Due to the interdependency of the system, If there is a
compromise one of the machines that data is stored, there might be a leakage of personal
information to the world.

No longer in control:
When moving services to the cloud, you are handing over your data and information. For
companies who have an in-house IT staff, they will be unable to handle issues on their own.
However, Stratosphere Networks has a 24/7 live help desk that can rectify any problems
immediately.

May not get all the features:

Not all cloud services are the same. Some cloud providers tend to offer limited versions and
enable the most popular features only, so you may not receive every feature or customization you
want. Before signing up, make sure you know what your cloud service provider offers.

Doesn't mean you should do away with servers:

You may have fewer servers to handle which means less for your IT staff to handle, but that
doesn't mean you can let go of all your servers and staff. While it may seem costly to have data
centers and a cloud infrastructure, redundancy is key for backup and recovery.

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No Redundancy:
A cloud server is not redundant nor is it backed up. As technology may fail here and there, avoid
getting burned by purchasing a redundancy plan. Although it is an extra cost, in most cases it
will be well worth it.

Bandwidth issues:
For ideal performance, clients have to plan accordingly and not pack large amounts of servers
and storage devices into a small set of data centers.

Despite its disadvantages and the fact that it is still in an infant age, cloud computing remains
strong and has great potential for the future. Its user base grows constantly and more big players
are attracted to it, offering better and more fine-tuned services and solutions. We can only hope
that the advantages will further grow and the disadvantages will be mitigated, since cloud
computing seems to have made IT a little bit easier.

Conclusion
As we have read above, cloud computing has the potential to be a disruptive force by affecting
the deployment and use of technology. The cloud could be the next evolution in the history of
computing, following in the footsteps of mainframes, minicomputers, PCs, servers, smart
phones, and so on, and radically changing the way enterprises manage IT. Yes, plenty of
questions are still left to be answered regarding security within the cloud and how customers and
cloud service providers (CSPs) will manage issues and expectations, but it would be a severe
understatement to say simply that cloud computing has generated interest in the marketplace.
The hype regarding cloud computing is unavoidable. It has caught the imagination of consumers,
businesses, financial analysts, and of course, the CSPs themselves. Search for “cloud computing”
on the Internet and you will uncover thousands of articles defining it, praising it, ridiculing it,
and selling it.
The cloud represents one of the most significant shifts that computing has gone through. As we
move towards the cloud, we will discover a new service-based world, where many words that
were once common in the average IT shop – like servers, data centers, OS, middleware and
clustering – will get erased.

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Much like Google and Facebook were not familiar companies a mere decade ago, the IT
landscape is due to radically change in the next five years. New entrants with a cloud pure-play
will be much more agile in creating value and won’t face the internal competition that arises
during a paradigm shift, protecting their existing revenues while providing a credible, cost-
efficient alternative. Think about it this way: List the companies you think of today as the biggest
IT players. Wait five years, perform the same exercise and compare your notes. There’s a good
chance more than half of the names on that list will be going through hard times and the shift to
the cloud and a service-based economy will be the main reasons why.

But IT vendors won’t be the only ones impacted by these changes. The cloud has already helped
companies increase their competitiveness today and will play an important role in ensuring it
tomorrow. Those who continue to reject cloud solutions as not being flexible, secure or good
enough will fail under the weight of their own IT costs and lack of agility. As of today, any
company creating new IT assets that does not consider the cloud in some form is increasing the
legacy burden that will make their move to the cloud more painful and their business less
competitive.

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%20Cloud%20Computing%20Concepts.pdf

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Tracy, P., 2016. RCR Wireless News. [Online]

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