The Cloud Computing Effectiveness In Enterprises

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Innovations are necessary to ride the inevitable tide of change. Most of enterprises are striving to reduce their computing cost through the means of virtualization. This demand of reducing the computing cost has led to the innovation of Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing offers better computing through improved utilization and reduced administration and infrastructure costs. Cloud Computing is the sum of Software as a Service (SaaS) and Utility Computing.

Cloud Computing is still at its infant stage and a very new technology for the enterprises. Therefore, most of the enterprises are not very confident to adopt it. This study will tackle the issue for enterprises in terms of cost and security. I will be discussing the benefits and drawbacks an enterprise can have while they adopt Cloud Computing in terms of Cost and Security.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network (typically the Internet).

Using software as a service (SAAS) in business model, users are provided access to application software and databases. The cloud providers manage the infrastructure and platforms on which the applications run. SaaS is sometimes also referred to as "on-demand software" and is usually priced on a pay-per-use basis. Generally subscription fee is used for pricing applications by Saas providers.

SaaS allows a business the potential to reduce IT operational costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the cloud provider. This will enable a business to reallocate IT operations to focus on other IT goals. In addition, the application is hosted centrally, so updates can be released without users having to reinstall new software. The drawback of SaaS is that the user stores their data on the cloud provider’s server. As a result, there could be unauthorized access to the data.

End users access cloud-based applications through a web browser or a light-weight desktop or mobile app while the business software and user's data are stored on servers at a remote location. Cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.

Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale similar to a utility (like the electricity grid) over a network. At the foundation of cloud computing is the broader concept of converged infrastructure and shared services.

Characteristics

Cloud computing exhibits the following key characteristics:

Agility improves with users' ability to re-provision technological infrastructure resources.

Application programming interface (API) accessibility to software that enables machines to interact with cloud software in the same way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. Cloud computing systems typically use REST-based APIs.

Cost is claimed to be reduced and in a public cloud delivery model capital expenditure is converted to operational expenditure.

Device and location independence enable users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their location or what device they are using (e.g., PC, mobile phone). As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and accessed via the Internet, users can connect from anywhere.

Virtualization technology allows servers and storage devices to be shared and utilization be increased. Applications can be easily migrated from one physical server to another.

Multitenancy enables sharing of resources and costs across a large pool of users thus allowing for:

Centralization of infrastructure in locations with lower costs (such as real estate, electricity, etc.)

Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer for highest possible load-levels)

Utilization and efficiency improvements for systems that are often only 10–20% utilized.

Reliability is improved if multiple redundant sites are used, which makes well-designed cloud computing suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery.

Scalability and elasticity via dynamic ("on-demand") provisioning of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near real-time, without users having to engineer for peak loads.

Performance is monitored, and consistent and loosely coupled architectures are constructed using web services as the system interface.

Security could improve due to centralization of data, increased security-focused resources, etc., but concerns can persist about loss of control over certain sensitive data, and the lack of security for stored kernels. Security is often as good as or better than other traditional systems, in part because providers are able to devote resources to solving security issues that many customers cannot afford. However, the complexity of security is greatly increased when data is distributed over a wider area or greater number of devices and in multi-tenant systems that are being shared by unrelated users. In addition, user access to security audit logs may be difficult or impossible. Private cloud installations are in part motivated by users' desire to retain control over the infrastructure and avoid losing control of information security.

Maintenance of cloud computing applications is easier, because they do not need to be installed on each user's computer and can be accessed from different places.

Architecture

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Cloud computing sample architecture

Cloud architecture, the systems architecture of the software systems involved in the delivery of cloud computing, typically involves multiple cloud components communicating with each other over a loose coupling mechanism such as a messaging queue. Elastic provision implies intelligence in the use of tight or loose coupling as applied to mechanisms such as these and others.

The Inter-cloud

The Inter-cloud is an interconnected global "cloud of clouds"[59][60] and an extension of the Internet "network of networks" on which it is based.[61][62][63]

Cloud engineering

Cloud engineering is the application of engineering disciplines to cloud computing. It brings a systematic approach to the high-level concerns of commercialisation, standardisation, and governance in conceiving, developing, operating and maintaining cloud computing systems. It is a multidisciplinary method encompassing contributions from diverse areas such as systems, software, web, performance, information, security, platform, risk, and quality engineering.

Types of public cloud computing:

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Software as a service (SaaS)

Storage as a service (STaaS)

Security as a service (SECaaS)

Data as a service (DaaS)

Database as a service (DBaaS)

Test environment as a service (TEaaS)

Desktop virtualization

API as a service (APIaaS)

Backend as a service (BaaS)

Service models

Cloud computing providers offer their services according to three fundamental models:Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS) where IaaS is the most basic and each higher model abstracts from the details of the lower models.

Cloud computing layers.png

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

In this most basic cloud service model, providers offer computers, as physical or more often as virtual machines, and other resources. The virtual machines are run as guests by a hypervisor, such as Xen or KVM. Management of pools of hypervisors by the cloud operational support system leads to the ability to scale to support a large number of virtual machines. Other resources in IaaS clouds include images in a virtual machine image library, raw (block) and file-based storage, firewalls, load balancers, IP addresses, virtual local area networks (VLANs), and software bundles. Amies, Alex, Sluiman, Harm; Tong IaaS cloud providers supply these resources on demand from their large pools installed in data centers. For wide area connectivity, the Internet can be used or—in carrier clouds -- dedicated virtual private networks can be configured.,QiangGuo (July 2012). "Infrastructure as a Service Cloud Concepts".

To deploy their applications, cloud users then install operating system images on the machines as well as their application software. In this model, it is the cloud user who is responsible for patching and maintaining the operating systems and application software. Cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis, that is, cost will reflect the amount of resources allocated and consumed. STaaS - STorageAs A Service. This service comes under IaaS, which manages all the storage services in cloud computing. There are many security issues in this service.

They are:

1. Data Integrity

2. Confidentiality

3. Reliability, etc.

IaaS refers not to a machine that does all the work, but simply to a facility given to businesses that offers users the leverage of extra storage space in servers and data centers.

Examples of IaaS include: Amazon CloudFormation

Platform as a service (PaaS)

In the PaaS model, cloud providers deliver a computing platform typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. With some PaaS offers, the underlying computer and storage resources scale automatically to match application demand such that cloud user does not have to allocate resources manually.

Examples of PaaS include: Amazon Elastic Beanstalk

Software as a service (SaaS)

In this model, cloud providers install and operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the software from cloud clients. The cloud users do not manage the cloud infrastructure and platform on which the application is running. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud user's own computers simplifying maintenance and support. What makes a cloud application different from other applications is its scalability. This can be achieved by cloning tasks onto multiple virtual machines at run-time to meet the changing work demand. Load balancers distribute the work over the set of virtual machines. This process is transparent to the cloud user who sees only a single access point. To accommodate a large number of cloud users, cloud applications can be multitenant, that is, any machine serves more than one cloud user organization. It is common to refer to special types of cloud based application software with a similar naming convention: desktop as a service, business process as a service, test environment as a service, communication as a service.

The pricing model for SaaS applications is typically a monthly or yearly flat fee per user, so price is scalable and adjustable if users are added or removed at any point.

Examples of SaaS include: Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365, and Onlive.

Cloud clients

Users access cloud computing using networked client devices, such as desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Some of these devices - cloud clients - rely on cloud computing for all or a majority of their applications so as to be essentially useless without it. Examples are thin clients and the browser-based Chromebook. Many cloud applications do not require specific software on the client and instead use a web browser to interact with the cloud application. With Ajax and HTML5 these Web user interfaces can achieve a similar or even better look and feel as native applications. Some cloud applications, however, support specific client software dedicated to these applications (e.g., virtual desktop clients and most email clients). Some legacy applications (line of business applications that until now have been prevalent in thin client Windows computing) are delivered via a screen-sharing technology.

Deployment models

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Cloud computing types

Public cloud

Public cloud applications, storage, and other resources are made available to the general public by a service provider. These services are free or offered on a pay-per-use model. Generally, public cloud service providers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft and Google own and operate the infrastructure and offer access only via Internet (direct connectivity is not offered).

Community cloud

Community cloud shares infrastructure between several organizations from a specific community with common concerns (security, compliance, jurisdiction, etc.), whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally. The costs are spread over fewer users than a public cloud (but more than a private cloud), so only some of the cost savings potential of cloud computing are realized.

Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together, offering the benefits of multiple deployment models.

By utilizing "hybrid cloud" architecture, companies and individuals are able to obtain degrees of fault tolerance combined with locally immediate usability without dependency on internet connectivity. Hybrid cloud architecture requires both on-premises resources and off-site (remote) server-based cloud infrastructure.

Hybrid clouds lack the flexibility, security and certainty of in-house applications. Hybrid cloud provides the flexibility of in house applications with the fault tolerance and scalability of cloud based services.

Private cloud

Private cloud is cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization, whether managed internally or by a third-party and hosted internally or externally.Undertaking a private cloud project requires a significant level and degree of engagement to virtualize the business environment, and it will require the organization to reevaluate decisions about existing resources. When it is done right, it can have a positive impact on a business, but every one of the steps in the project raises security issues that must be addressed in order to avoid serious vulnerabilities.

They have attracted criticism because users "still have to buy, build, and manage them" and thus do not benefit from less hands-on management, essentially "the economic model that makes cloud computing such an intriguing concept".

Chapter 2

Literature Survey

India Information Technology Report - Q2 2012

Publication info: India Information Technology Report (Second Quarter 2012)

Abstract:

India's potentially vast IT market appears set to continue a strong recovery in 2012 owing to a growing economy and healthy consumer sentiment. Computer shipments were up by around 16% in 2011, compared with 2010, and in 2012 growth should remain in double-digits, with notebooks the main PC market driver. The Indian addressable market for IT products and services is projected to increase from US$21.0bn in 2012 to US$42.2bn by 2016. New cloud computing offerings and increased competition in this segment should fuel further demand from end-users to utilize this technology. Having postponed IT projects during the economic slowdown, many Indian private and public sector organisations are now investing again in upgrading their IT infrastructure. The long-term potential of India's IT market is plain: less than 3% of people in India own a computer (about one-fifth of the level in China), meaning particular potential in the lower end product range.

However, realization of this long-term growth potential depends on fundamental drivers such as raising India'slow computer penetration, rising incomes, falling computer prices and the government's ambitions to connect the vast rural areas to the outside world. Industry Developments in 2011, local governments made a significant contribution to the IT market through procurements related to various ICT-programmes. The Gujarat government issued a tender for desktops, while the government of Karnataka announced a pilot programme to bring ICT education to 5,000 schools. Meanwhile, the government of Punjab selected virtual computers for 480computer labs across schools in the state, as part of an initiative called ICT Education Project for Punjab. The federal government's five-year e-government plan was assigned a nominal budget of INR23,000 crore through2011. The budget covered 26 core projects including agriculture, income tax, pensions, land records and passports. However, at the start of 2010, many of these projects had yet to be awarded, or even tendered. A key driver of informatization in the government sector is likely to be the e-ID card programme. It has been estimated that the total cost of the project could be at least INR1.5bn lakh crore.

INDIA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REPORTQ2 2012

Summary

Indian IT spending is expected to reach US$20.7bn in 2012, up 14%, with indications that organisations in key IT spending verticals such as telecoms and pharma plan to increase their spending. Despite a slight downwards revision of our forecast, India's potentially vast IT market appears set to continue a strong recovery in 2012 owing to a growing economy and healthy consumer sentiment. Realisation of the market's long-term potential depends on raising India's low computer penetration and the government's ambitions to connect the vast rural areas to the outside world.

Expenditure Projections

Computer hardware sales: US$8.8bn in 2011 to US$9.8bn in 2012, +12.0% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms downwardly revised due to weaker than expected sales in Q411 as a result of component shortages linked to the floods in Thailand

Software sales: US$2.2bn in 2011 to US$2.6n in 2012, +16% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms downwardly revised due to analyst modification and macroeconomic factors, but ERP spending will continue to trend upwards, with stronger demand for technology from the SMB segment.

IT Services sales: US$7.1bn in 2011 to US$8.3bn in 2012, +16.0% in US dollar terms. Forecast in US dollar terms downwardly revised due to analyst modification and macroeconomic factors, but a number of large projects are expected from government and from other key verticals.

Risk/Reward Ratings: India's score was 41.4 out of 100.0. India ranks ninth in our latest Asia BER table, ahead of Indonesia and Thailand but still behind both China and Vietnam. The country achieved a relatively high IT Market score of 49, reflecting the potential returns, but its overall rating was boosted by a Country Structure score of just 15, the lowest in the region.

Key Trends & Developments.

In 2012 there are expected to be strong growth opportunities in the next 200-400 smaller cities in

India, where vendors are expanding their retail and distribution presence. Around 45% of new PCs sold in the Indian market are now shipping outside the top 75 cities. The government's policy of providing tax breaks and subsidies for hardware manufacturers should help keep prices down and support growth.

Enablers and inhibitors of advanced information technologies adoption by SMEs

Kannabiran, G. Journal of Enterprise Information Managementhttp://search.proquest.com/assets/r10.0.1-0/core/spacer.gif25. 2http://search.proquest.com/assets/r10.0.1-0/core/spacer.gif (2012): 186-209.

Summary

Purpose - The auto ancillary industry in India has witnessed huge capacity expansion and modernization due to entry of foreign automobile manufacturers in the post liberalization era. In spite of potential benefits, the adoption of advanced IT among small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is low in India. There are several technological, economical and organizational factors that enable or inhibit the adoption of advanced IT. The primary objective of this research is to identify and evaluate the key factors that are enabling or inhibiting adoption of advanced IT in the Indian auto ancillary SMEs. Design/methodology/approach - In order to identify and evaluate the enablers and inhibitors, a detailed survey was carried out among registered Indian auto ancillary SMEs during 2010. Out of 584 registered SMEs, 110 owners/top managers of the SMEs responded to the survey. The data collected through the survey were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and multivariate regression to evaluate the influence of enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by the auto ancillary SMEs. Findings - The survey findings show that the level of advanced IT adoption in auto ancillaries is low with only 17 per cent of SMEs having adopted technologies. This study reveals that "perceived benefits" and "perceived competitive pressure" enable advanced IT adoption among auto ancillary SMEs in India. However, "lack of financial capacity", "small scale operation and "lack of in-house IT manpower" inhibit the adoption. It is also found that enablers such as "changes in business environment", "IT experience of CEO/owner" and "increased information linkage with OEM/customer" do not have any influence on the adoption. Similarly in the case of inhibitors, "lack of IT Infrastructure" and "lack of information security" do not have significant association with IT adoption. Despite the positive external IT environment and recognition of benefits, advanced IT adoption by SMEs in the auto ancillaries is limited by lack of financial capabilities and in-house IT human resources. Originality/value - This is one of the early papers that brings out the enablers and inhibitors of advanced IT adoption by auto ancillaries in India. Further, these factors are systematically analyzed to assess the relative importance with reference to the SMEs. The findings contribute to theory of IT adoption among SMEs, but more importantly to the SMEs in the auto ancillary, and policy makers and IT service providers who are likely to facilitate increased adoption.

SMEs push the cloud higher

Financial Express [New Delhi] 27 Sep 2010.

Summary

According to Gartner, worldwide cloud services revenue would surpass $56.3 billion of last year, a 21.3% increase over 2008 revenue of $46.4 billion. Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, an aggregator, developer, publisher and distributor of Bollywood and South-Asian entertainment content, runs about 80% of its websites and applications on the cloud.

Benefits for SMEs

There are 3.5 million SMEs in India and many of them are accelerating the growth of cloud computing technology because of its ability to cut costs and reduce the need for capital equipment-both hardware and software. "Indian companies are accelerating the adoption of cloud services and do not have to spend capital expenses on servers or datacentres. They get to turn capital expense to variable operating expense, which is a huge advantage for SMEs that either do not have a lot of capital or those who simply do not want to commit capital to infrastructure," says Regina Tan, spokesperson from Amazon Web Services. The company counts Hungama Digital Media, Red Bus, Market Simplified, 8K Miles, Rediff, Patni and Indiagames as its clients in the Indian market. Some of the large global companies that are already using Amazon Web Services cloud include: Nasdaq, NASA, Virgin Atlantic, among others.

Small businesses think big with Google

Juneja, Manjari. Express Computer (Dec 19, 2011).

Summary

V.K. Agarwal, President, FISME said, With Google search being the most preferred search service on both the desktop and mobiles in India, this initiative of offering free domain, dynamic website and promotional tools, brings unparalleled advantage for small businesses in India.

Google's recent initiative of 'India get Your Business Online', is tailor made for companies who do not have a Web presence. As the battle for online advertising pans out, Google is banking on more newer businesses coupled with increased broadband penetration to drive its growth in India.

The logic is simple- get them online and further leverage their 'AdWords' program that eventually adds to Google's revenues. A couple of years back, Google introduced Google Apps for Business- messaging and collaboration tools and according to company officials has 2,00,000 SMBs as its customers for these Cloud services.

Google's goal is to help these 500,000 small medium businesses in India to get online in next three years through this program, working with web hosting provider HostGator.

SME Demand Leads to Carrier Cloud Opportunities for Operators in India: Indian operators now offer SMEs services that allow for easier cloud access, says Heavy Reading Insider

PR Newswire [New York] 04 Apr 2012

Summary

While Indian operators are emerging from a voice-era led low-ARPU regime to higher-speed data services enabled by 3G/4G infrastructure, large investments in network and spectrum are at stake," says Sridhar Pai, research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report.

Hand in hand, a walk in the cloud: Start-ups with niche cloud-based applications are in turn drawing other start-ups as their first clients, creating rare synergies.

Khan, Taslima.Business Today (Jun 12, 2011).

Summary

They often involve complicated procedures as well, unsuited to a young company: having to pay upfront, for instance, installing servers and power backup. Using [SaaS], young companies can save at least 50-60 per cent of the cost of ownership of an on-premise software solution. "A talent management solution may typically cost over `25 lakh and take 12 to 18 months to implement," says Shyam Sunder, Chief Knowledge Officer at Ramco, a Chennai tech company that offers a cloud-based enterprise resource planning, or ERP, SaaS solution. "By then most of your talented people may have left you."

Apart from saving on costs, client start-ups also find the cloud vendors very useful for their hiring, project management and accounting tasks.

While cloud-based SaaS companies are empowering users to scale up, investors say their spread in the market will depend on the distinctiveness of these applications. At Springboard Ventures, who is currently screening eight start-ups with cloud applications, to choose one, cites the example of iDuple. com. It offers a package of a handheld device with a browser and all necessary web software required by an SME or start-up on the cloud. "That is the kind of differentiation needed," he says.

Chapter 3

About the project

3.1 Objective

Effectiveness of the use of cloud computing in SME’s in terms of cost and security.

Methodology Adopted

The methodology adopted mainly will deal with identifying the vendors that enables cloud computing and the operators that provide the cloud services.

Vendors that enable cloud infrastructure are:

Alactel Lucent

Cisco systems inc

HP

Huwei technologies

NEC corp

Nokia Siemens networks

Operators Profiled

Aircel Business solutions

Amazon web services

Reliance Globalcom

Sify Technologies

Tata communications

Tulip Telcom Ltd.

As any research requires data for the analysis , the data considered in this project falls under two categories which are:

Primary Data: - The objective is to identify what are the benefits and drawbacks of Cloud Computing, and the factors that shove the enterprises to shift to Cloud Computing technology. This will be done exploratory research. The essential variables of the subject, the phenomena, Cloud Computing, information systems in enterprises are:

Cost

Security

The data will be collected using questionnaire considering these two factors.

Secondary Data: - These data are generally the data which support the primary data and hold an important position in the analysis of the research. The secondary data includes information from the internet.