Cloud Computing: State Of The Art Reseach Issues
Babak Abbasov
Department of Information Technology and Systems
Qafqaz University
Baku, Azerbaijan
babbasov@qu.edu.az
Abstract— Cloud computing has emerged as a new
technology aimed to host computer resources and deliver
appropriate services over the Internet. Cloud computing
become attractive to IT industry by providing user
requirements in pay as you go principle and increase
resources only when service demand increases. However,
despite the fact that cloud computing offers tremendous
opportunities to the IT industry, there are still many issues
still to be addressed in the development of cloud
computing technology. In this paper, a review of cloud
computing technology and its concepts, state-of-the-art
implementation, brief architecture and research challenges
have been investigated.
Keywords: cloud computing; services; SaaS; cloud resource
management
I. INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing has become a tremendous paradigm for
hosting and delivering services over the Internet. The goal of
this computing model is to make a better use of various
computer resources, keep together in order to achieve higher
throughput and to resolve problems require high performance
computations. It allows users to develop and leverage
available computer resources in pay as you go manner.
II. CLOUD: OVERVIEW
A. Definitions of Cloud Computing
Diverse formal definitions have been proposed in both
research studies and IT industry. Widely used definitions in the
Cloud Computing community are illustrated in Table 1.
TABLE I. CLOUD C OMPUTING DEFINITIONS
Name Definition
Nist Cloud computing is a model for enabling
ubiquitous, 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 is composed of five essential
characteristics, three service models, and four
deployment models [3].
IEEE It is a paradigm in which information is
permanently stored in servers on the Internet and
cached temporarily on clients that include
desktops, entertainment centers, table computers,
notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, etc.
MIT Technology …the idea of relying on Web-based application
and storing data in the “CLOUD” of the internet.
Eric Schmidt It starts with the premise that the data services and
(Chairman/CEO of architecture should be on the servers. We call it
Google Inc) Cloud Computing – they should be in a “CLOUD”
somewhere.
Garter “A style of computing in which massively scalable
ITrelated capabilities are provided “as a service”
using Internet technologies to multiple external
customers”[1].
IDC “An emerging IT development, deployment and
delivery model, enabling realtime delivery of
products, services and solutions over the Internet
(i.e., enabling cloud services)” [2].
The 451 Group “A service model that combines a general
organizing principle for IT delivery, infrastructure
components, an architectural approach and an
economic model – basically, a confluence of grid
computing, virtualization, utility computing,
hosting and software as a service (SaaS)” (Fellows
2008)
Five essential characteristics of cloud computing is clearly
articulated in these definitions:
On-demand self-service. A user can provision cloud
resources, such as server time and network storage,
automatically without requiring human interaction with each
service provider.
Broad network access. Cloud resources are available over
the internet and accessed through diverse terminals such as
thin or thick client platforms (e.g., computers, mobile phones,
tablets etc.).
Resource pooling. The computing resources are pooled
together to serve multiple consumers in a multi-tenant manner.
These physical and virtual resources are assigned as the
consumer needed. Customer generally has no control or
knowledge over the exact location of the provided computer
resources. But customer may be able to specify location at a
country, state, or datacenter etc. levels. Computer resources
provided to customers include storage, processing, memory,
and network bandwidth.
Rapid elasticity. Computer resources provisioned to
customers can be elastically provisioned and released and can
be scaled rapidly outward and inward appropriately with
demand. Consumer generally is able to scale out resources that
appears to be unlimited and can be provisioned in any quantity
at any time.
 Measured service. Computer resources can be
automatically controlled and optimized using a metering
capability appropriate to the type of service provisioned (e.g.,
storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts).
Resource utilization can be monitored, controlled, and
reported for both the provider and consumer to provide
transparency.
B. Cloud Services
Following cloud service models have been used to classify
the cloud services in cloud community:
Software as a Service (SaaS). Cloud user release their
applications on a hosting environment, which can be accessed
through internet from diverse terminals (e.g. web browser,
PDA, etc.). Cloud consumers do not have control over the a
multi-tenant cloud infrastructure. Cloud consumers'
applications are managed in a single virtual environment on
the SaaS to leverage optimized amount of resources in terms
of availability, speed, security, maintenance and disaster
recovery. Examples of SaaS include SalesForce.com, Google
Mail, Google Docs, Amazon etc.
Platform as a Service (PaaS). PaaS is a development
platform supporting the full "Software Lifecycle" which
allows cloud consumers to develop cloud services and
applications (e.g. SaaS) directly on the PaaS cloud. Hence the
difference between SaaS and PaaS is that SaaS only hosts
completed cloud applications whereas PaaS offers a
development platform that hosts both completed and in-
progress cloud applications.
This requires PaaS, in addition to supporting application
hosting environment, to possess development infrastructure
including programming environment, tools, configuration
management, and so forth. An example of PaaS is Google
AppEngine.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Cloud consumers
directly use IT infrastructures (processing, storage, networks,
and other fundamental computing resources) provided in the
IaaS cloud. Virtualization is extensively used in IaaS cloud in
order to integrate/decompose physical resources in an ad-hoc
manner to meet growing or shrinking resource demand from
cloud consumers. The basic strategy of virtualization is to set
up independent virtual machines (VM) that are isolated from
both the underlying hardware and other VMs. Notice that this
strategy is different from the multi-tenancy model, which aims
to transform the application software architecture so that
multiple instances (from multiple cloud consumers) can run on
a single application (i.e. the same logic machine). An example
of IaaS is Amazon's EC2.
C. Deployment Models
More recently, four cloud deployment models have been
defined in the Cloud community:
Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is operated solely
within a single organization, and managed by the organization
or a third party regardless whether it is located premise or off
premise. The motivation to setup a private cloud within an
organization has several aspects. First, to maximize and
optimize the utilization of existing in-house resources. Second,
security concerns including data privacy and trust also make
Private Cloud an option for many firms. Third, data transfer
cost [2] from local IT infrastructure to a Public Cloud is still
rather considerable. Fourth, organizations always require full
control over mission-critical activities that reside behind their
firewalls. Last, academics often build private cloud for
research and teaching purposes.
Community cloud. Several organizations jointly construct
and share the same cloud infrastructure as well as policies,
requirements, values, and concerns. The cloud community
forms into a degree of economic scalability and democratic
equilibrium. The cloud infrastructure could be hosted by a
third-party vendor or within one of the organizations in the
community.
Public cloud. This is the dominant form of current Cloud
computing deployment model. The public cloud is used by the
general public cloud consumers and the cloud service provider
has the full ownership of the public cloud with its own policy,
value, and profit, costing, and charging model. Many popular
cloud services are public clouds including Amazon EC2, S3,
Google AppEngine, and Force.com.
Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a combination of
two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that
remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized
or proprietary technology that enables data and application
portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between
clouds). Organizations use the hybrid cloud model in order to
optimize their resources to increase their core competencies by
margining out peripheral business functions onto the cloud
while controlling core activities on-premise through private
cloud. Hybrid cloud has raised the issues of standardization
and cloud interoperability that will be discussed in later
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D. A layered model of cloud computing
Cloud computing architecture can be divided into 4 layers:
the hardware datacenter layer, the infrastructure layer, the
platform layer and the application layer, as shown in Table. 2.
Detailed description of these layers is as follows:
TABLE II. A LAYERED MODEL OF CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud computing Resource Example applications
services management
Applications, web Facebook,
Software as a Service
(SaaS)
services, multimedia Youtube,
Application Google Apps
Platform as a Service Software framework Google AppEngine,
(PaaS) (Java, .Net), Storage Microsoft Azure,
Amazon Simple DB/S3
Platform
 Computation, Storage Amazon EC2,
Infrastructure as a Flexiscale
Infrastructure
Service (IaaS) CPU, Memory, Disk Data Centers
Hardware
The hardware layer refers to managing the physical
resources of the cloud computing infrastructure, including
physical servers, routers, switches, power and cooling
systems. This layer is implemented in data centers and
contains thousands of servers which arranged in racks and
interconnected through switches, routers or other techniques.
The infrastructure layer (the virtualization layer) manages
a pool of storage and computing resources by partitioning the
physical resources using virtualization techniques (Xen [16],
KVM [17] and VMware [18]).
The platform layer includes operating systems and
application frameworks. The aim of this layer is to minimize
the burden of deploying applications directly into virtual
machine containers.
The application layer consists of the cloud applications
which can be exploited with the automatic-scaling feature to
achieve better performance, availability and lower operating
cost.
III. STATE OF THE ART RESEACH ISSUES
Recently, researchers focus on diverse areas of cloud
computing regarding to the importance. In this paper state of
the art research issues investigated on the cloud computing.
A. Cloud Resource Management
Resource Allocation is the process of provisioning
available computer resources to satisfy request made from
cloud applications. Applications require type and amount of
resources in order to complete a user process. The order and
time of allocation of resources are also important. Related
research issues on resource allocation techniques done in the
literature [4:10]. A resource allocation schema should avoid
the following criteria:
• Resource contention arises when two applications
want to access the same resource at the same time.
• Scarcity of resources arises when there are limited
resources.
• Resource fragmentation situation arises when the
resources are isolated. There will be enough resources but not
able to allocate to the needed application.
• Over-provisioning of resources arises when the
application gets surplus resources than the demanded one.
• Under-provisioning of resources occurs when the
application is assigned with fewer numbers of resources than
the demand.
For a cloud provider, predicting the dynamic nature of
cloud users, user and application demands are inapplicable.
For the cloud users, the task should be completed on time with
minimal cost. An efficient resource allocation scheme requires
overcoming lack of limited resources, resource heterogeneity,
locality restrictions, environmental necessities and dynamic
nature of resource demand.
Finding an optimum resource allocation strategy in huge
systems like data centers is expansive due to dynamic and
uncertain resource demand and supply. Various resource
allocation schemes are proposed in practice.
B. Cloud Security, Privacy and Reliability
Important concerns about cloud computing are security
and privacy. Company confidential data must be unavailable
and inaccessible by other companies. Related research issues
on resource allocation techniques done in the literature
[11:15].
Companies offering cloud computing services must satisfy
security concerns. Customers only pay these companies when
they are convinced in security measures. Contrarily companies
advance security concerns to not lose their customers.
Privacy is another issue. As user’s data can be accessed
from any location, proper authentication techniques should be
developed. When using authorization each user can access
only the data and applications relevant to his or her job.
Replication time and costs also play an important role due
to how fast can the data be replicated is important for data
resiliency.
Reliability is an issue. Server’s stability should be
provided to avoid downtimes that can occur with cloud
servers.
C. Virtual machine migration
Virtualization technique in cloud computing can be used to
increase efficiency, balance load across the data centers and
enables robust and highly responsive provisioning in data
centers.
D. Server consolidation
Server consolidation is an approach to maximize resource
utilization while minimizing energy consumption in a cloud
computing. Some under-utilized servers can be set to an
energy-saving state by combine VMs located on several
servers onto a single server using Virtual machine migration.
E. Energy management
Increasing energy efficiency in cloud computing and
designing energy-efficient data centers has recently received
considerable attention. Energy efficient hardware architecture
that enables slowing down CPU speeds and turning off partial
hardware components [19], energy-aware job scheduling [20]
and server consolidation [21] used to reduce power
consumption by turning off unused machines, studying
energy-efficient network protocols and infrastructures [22] are
all intended to achieve a good trade-off between energy
savings and application performance.
F. Traffic management and analysis
Analysis of network traffic is important for today’s data
centers to increase efficiency. Network operators also need to
know how traffic flows through the network in order to make
many of the management and planning decisions. Many
techniques used to increase network performance in computer
networks [23, 24, 25]. Also, it is important to improve
network performance in datacenter networks.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper a new paradigm in the field of information
technology: cloud computing is discussed. Cloud computing
architecture, advantages and some issues are described. There
is no doubt that cloud computing is the development trend for
the future.
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