What Is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing consists of hardware and software resources made available on the Internet as managed third-party services. These services typically provide access to advanced software applications and high-end networks of server computers. Abstract This keynote paper: presents a 21st century vision of computing; identifies various computing paradigms promising to deliver the vision of computing utilities; defines Cloud computing and provides the architecturefor creating market-oriented Clouds by leveraging technologies such as VMs; provides thoughts on market-based resource management strategies that encompass both customer-driven service management and computational risk management to sustain SLAoriented resource allocation; presents some representative Cloud platforms especially those developed in industries along with our current work towards realising market-oriented resource allocation of Clouds by leveraging the 3rd generation Aneka enterprise Grid technology; reveals our early thoughts on interconnecting Clouds for dynamically creating an atmospheric computing environment along with pointers to future community research; and concludes with the need for convergence of competing IT paradigms for delivering our 21st century vision. 1. Introduction With the advancement of the modern human society, basic essential services are commonly provided suchthat everyone can easily obtain access to them. Today, utility services, such as water, electricity, gas, and telephony are deemed necessary for fulfilling daily life routines. These utility services are accessed so frequently that they need to be available whenever the consumer requires them at any time. Consumers are then able to pay service providers based on their usage of these utility services.

In 1969, Leonard Kleinrock [1], one of the chief scientists of the original Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) project which seeded the Internet, said: As of now, computer networks are still in their infancy, but as they grow up and become sophisticated, we will probably see the spread of computer utilities which, like present electric and telephone utilities, will service individual homes and offices across the country. This vision of the computing utility based on the service provisioning model anticipates the massive transformation of the entire computing industry in the 21st century where by computing services will be readily available on demand, like other utility services available in todays society. Similarly, computing service users (consumers) need to pay providers only when they access computing services. In addition, consumers no longer need to invest heavily or encounter difficulties in building and maintaining complex IT infrastructure. Software practitioners are facing numerous new challenges toward creating software for millions of consumers to use as a service rather than to run on their individual computers. Over the years, new computing paradigms have been proposed and adopted, with the emergence of technological advances such as multicore processors and networked computing environments, to edge closer toward achieving this grand vision. As shown in Figure 1, these new computing paradigms include cluster computing, Grid computing, P2P computing, service computing, market-oriented computing, and most recently Cloud computing. All these paradigms promise to provide certain attributes or capabilities in order to realize the possibly 1 trillion dollars worth of the utility/pervasive computing industry as quoted by Sun Microsystems cofounder Bill Joy [2]. Computing services need to be highly reliable, scalable, and autonomic to support ubiquitous access, dynamic discovery and composability. In particular, consumers can determine the required service level through Quality of Service (QoS) parameters and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Of all these computing paradigms, the two most promising ones appear to be Grid computing and Cloud computing.

Types of Cloud Computing Service providers create cloud computing systems to serve common business or research needs. Examples of cloud computing services include: virtual IT - configure and utilize remote, third-party servers as extensions to a company's local IT network

software - utilize commercial software applications, or develop and remotely host custom built applications

network storage - back up or archive data across the Internet to a provider without needing to know the physical location of storage Cloud computing systems all generally are designed for scalability to support large numbers of customers and surges in demand.

Examples of Cloud Computing Services These examples illustrate the different types of cloud computing services available today: Amazon EC2 - virtual IT Google App Engine - application hosting Google Apps - software as a service Apple MobileMe - network storage Some providers offer cloud computing services for free while others require a paid subscription.

Cloud Computing Pros and Cons Service providers are responsible for installing and maintaining core technology within the cloud. Some customers prefer this model because it limits their own manageability burden. However, customers cannot

directly control system stability in this model and are highly dependent on the provider instead. Cloud computing systems are normally designed to closely track all system resources, which enables providers to charge customers according to the resources each consumes. Some customers will prefer this so-called metered billing approach to save money, while others will prefer a flat-rate subscription to ensure predictable monthly or yearly costs. Using a cloud computing environment generally requires you to send data over the Internet and store it on a third-party system. The privacy and security risks associated with this model must be weighed against alternatives.

5 Examples of Cloud Computing Email on the go

Email communication now plays a central role in most of our busy lives. Thats fine if you dont go out much but if you travel a lot, this may cause problems. Unless you carry a mobile WiFi-

enabled laptop with you everywhere you go or use push email on your cellphone, having an email client sitting on your computer at home means that while out and about you risk spending time outside of the communication loop. This is one area where the cloud finds its most frequent and useful application. Online email has been offered by all the big names (such as Microsoft, Yahoo and of course Google) for a number of years and I have tried a lot of different services. Wherever in the world I have found myself, my emails have (almost) always been made available to me. The easiest and most convenient for me is GoogleMail, although each has its pros and cons. Of course, using webmail makes you a slave to an internet connection. The first thing you do when you find yourself in a new or unfamiliar location is to try and locate an internet caf or public library to launch your secure portable browser and check your emails. Privacy concerns are never far from the surface either, especially when stories of passwords to private accounts being leaked online hit the headlines. How much of your life have you given away during email exchanges? And then theres the issue of possible data loss, which nicely leads onto the next incarnation of cloud computing. No need for local data storage

Data stored on your home or business computer suffers from many of the same restrictions as email

and, as with email, the cloud offers a solution. Storing your MP3s, video, photos and documents online instead of at home gives you the freedom to access them wherever you can find the means to get online. True, you will undoubtedly be putting your life out there and with that comes all the security and privacy baggage that also plague webmail. Most, if not all, online storage facilities have safeguards in place to ensure that you, and only you, can get to your files but even so. We all risk losing important files, memories and such like if we suffer from hard drive failure and storing such things away from a temperamental computer system no doubt seems like an ideal solution but where do we turn if the unthinkable happens and our chosen cloud filing cabinet suffers data loss or suddenly closes down? Examples of online storage services include Humyo, ZumoDrive, Microsofts SkyDrive, S3 from Amazon, amongst others. Many offer both free and paid for storage and backup solutions. Are you a collaborator?

On occasion you may find yourself in need of the opinion of your peers. Downloading files onto flash memory, emailing documents to friends or family or colleagues or sending submissions by snail mail is so last century. Last year Google launched a service that allowed groups of people to work on the same document, idea or proposal in real time or whenever convenient to each participant. Using Google Waveyou can create a document and then invite others to

comment, amend, offer opinion, or otherwise join in with the creation of the final draft. Similar to instant messaging but offering much more scope it can take a project that might have taken weeks or even months to complete using other methods and potentially see it through to completion in mere minutes or hours. Google is not alone in producing online collaboration tools but it is the only one I have used myself. Other examples include Spicebird, Mikogo, Stixy and Vyew to name but a few. Working in a virtual office

Yet again Googles online suite of office applications is probably the best known but by no means the only solution on offer. Rather than having a system and space hogging suite of applications like a word processor, a spreadsheet creator and a presentation or publishing platform sitting on your computer, you could opt to work online instead. Accessibility, potential for collaboration and perhaps even online storage are just some of the benefits of satisfying your office suite needs by working online. Examples of online suites on offer include Ajax13, ThinkFree and MicrosoftsOffice Live. Need extra processing power?

For the dedicated cloud enthusiast, something like Amazons EC2 virtual computing environment might be the answer to all your needs. Rather than purchasing servers, software, network

equipment and so on, users would buy into a fully outsourced set of online services instead. Most cloud environments on offer can customize the kind of service provided to exactly suit the needs of the user. If you need more processing power from time to time, a cloud-based infrastructure, being scalable, negates the need for up-front investment in client-owned resources. Other service providers include the open source AbiCloud, Elastichosts and NASAs Nebula platform. So there you have it, five examples of computing in the cloud. When presenting these examples I have tried to balance the many advantages of working exclusively online with some of the disadvantages. Those interested in further reading are encouraged to head over to a piece listing the main advantages in XML Journal, the pros and cons on IT Governance and a detailed article on ZDNet by Cath Everett.

How Cloud Computing Works Let's say you're an executive at a large corporation. Your particular responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buyingcomputers for everyone isn't enough -- you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they require. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It's so stressful that you find it difficult to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.

Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you'd only have to load one application. That application would allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything frome-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's calledcloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry. In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest. There's a good chance you've already used some form of cloud computing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail

service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you've had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of running an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn't exist on your computer -it's on the service's computer cloud. Cloud Computing Architecture When talking about a cloud computing system, it's helpful to divide it into two sections: the front end and theback end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system. The front end includes the client's computer (or computer network) and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Not all cloud computing systems have the same user interface. Services like Web-basede-mail programs leverage existing Web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other systems have unique applications that provide network access to clients. On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the "cloud" of computing services. In theory, a cloud computing system could include practically any computer program you can imagine, from data processing to video games. Usually, each application will have its own dedicated server. A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other.

If a cloud computing company has a lot of clients, there's likely to be a high demand for a lot of storage space. Some companies require hundreds of digital storage devices. Cloud computing systems need at least twice the number of storage devices it requires to keep all its clients' information stored. That's because these devices, like all computers, occasionally break down. A cloud computing system must make a copy of all its clients' information and store it on other devices. The copies enable the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. Making copies of data as a backup is called redundancy.

Cloud Computing Applications The applications of cloud computing are practically limitless. With the right middleware, a cloud computing system could execute all the programs a normalcomputer could run. Potentially, everything from generic word processing software to customized computer programs designed for a specific company could work on a cloud computing system. Why would anyone want to rely on another computer system to run programs and store data? Here are just a few reasons: Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere at any time. They could access the cloud computing system using any computer linked to the Internet. Data wouldn't be confined to a hard drive on one user's computer or even a corporation's internal network. It could bring hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems would reduce the need for advanced hardware on the client side. You wouldn't need to buy the fastest computer with the most memory, because the cloud system would take care of those needs for you. Instead, you could buy an inexpensive computer terminal. The terminal could include a monitor, input devices like a keyboardand mouse and just enough processing power to run the middleware necessary to connect to the cloud system. You wouldn't need a large hard drive because you'd store all your information on a remote computer. Corporations that rely on computers have to make sure they have the right software in place to achieve goals. Cloud computing systems give these organizations company-wide access to computer applications. The companies don't have to buy a set of software or software licenses for every employee. Instead, the company could pay a metered fee to a cloud computing company. Servers and digital storage devices take up space. Some companies rent physical space to store servers and databases

because they don't have it available on site. Cloud computing gives these companies the option of storing data on someone else's hardware, removing the need for physical space on the front end. Corporations might save money on IT support. Streamlined hardware would, in theory, have fewer problems than a network of heterogeneous machines and operating systems. If the cloud computing system's back end is a grid computing system, then the client could take advantage of the entire network's processing power. Often, scientists and researchers work with calculations so complex that it would take years for individual computers to complete them. On a grid computing system, the client could send the calculation to the cloud for processing. The cloud system would tap into the processing power of all available computers on the back end, significantly speeding up the calculation. Conclusion In today's global competitive market, companies must innovate and get the most from its resources to succeed. This requires enabling its employees, business partners, and users with the platforms and collaboration tools that promote innovation. Cloud computing infrastructures are next generation platforms that can provide tremendous value to companies of any size. They can help companies achieve more efficient use of their IT hardware and software investments and provide a means to accelerate the adoption of innovations. Cloud computing increases profitability by improving resource utilization.