2012 Second International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies

A Survey Paper on Cloud Computing

Shyam Patidar Dheeraj Rane

Information Technology Department Information Technology Department
Medi-Caps Institute of Technology & Management Medi-Caps Institute of Technology & Management
Indore, India Indore, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Pritesh Jain
Information Technology Department
Medi-Caps Institute of Technology & Management
Indore, India
[email protected]

Abstract— Cloud computing is the biggest buzz in the computer The term Cloud Computing has been defined in many ways
world these days—maybe too big of a buzz. Cloud computing by analyst firms, academics, industry practitioners, and IT
means different things to different people. Cloud computing is companies. Table I shows how selected analyst firms define or
not a small, undeveloped branch of IT. Research firm IDC thinks describe Cloud Computing. Clouds are a large pool of easily
that cloud computing will reach $42 billion in 2012. You can do usable and accessible virtualized resources (such as hardware,
everything on cloud from running applications to storing data development platforms and/or services). These resources can
off-site. You can run entire operating systems on the cloud. This be dynamically reconfigured to adjust to a variable load (scale),
paper is for anyone who may have recently heard the term allowing also for an optimum resource utilization.
“cloud computing” for the first time and needs to know what it is
and how it helps them.

Keywords-Cloud Computing; Utility Computing ;Data Center; On-

Demand Computing;

I. INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing is everywhere. Pick up any tech magazine
or visit almost any IT website or blog and you’ll be sure to see
talk about cloud computing. The only problem is that not
everyone agrees on what it is. Ask ten different professionals
what cloud computing is, and you’ll get ten different answers.
And is cloud computing even worth all the hype? Some people
don’t think so. In fact, in 2008 Oracle CEO Larry Ellison
chastised the whole issue of cloud computing, saying that the
term was overused and being applied to everything in the
computer world. Berkeley RAD Lab defines Cloud Computing
as follows: Cloud Computing refers to both the applications
delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and
systems software in the datacenters that provide those services.
The services themselves have long been referred to as Software Figure 1. Cloud Computing
as a Service (SaaS). The datacenter hardware and software is Table I. Cloud Computing definitions by selected analyst firms
what we will call a Cloud. When a Cloud is made available in a
pay-as-you-go manner to the general public, we call it a Public Source Definition
Cloud; the service being sold is Utility Computing. We use the “A style of computing in which massively scalable IT-
term Private Cloud to refer to internal datacenters of a business Garter
related capabilities are provided “as a service” using
or other organization, not made available to the general public. Internet technologies to multiple external
Thus, Cloud Computing is the sum of SaaS and Utility customers”[12].
Computing, but does not include Private Clouds. People can be “An emerging IT development, deployment and
users or providers of SaaS, or users or providers of Utility IDC delivery model, enabling realtime delivery of products,
Computing [9] . services and solutions over the Internet (i.e., enabling

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DOI 10.1109/ACCT.2012.15
 cloud services)” [11]. concept most commonly used to describe a generic
“A service model that combines a general organizing
structure and components of Clouds is a 3-layered concept,
principle for IT delivery, infrastructure components, an which will be described in more detail in the next section.
The 451 architectural approach and an economic model –
Group basically, a confluence of grid computing, B. The Three Layers of Cloud Computing
virtualization, utility computing, hosting and software As the delivery of IT resources or capabilities as a service
as a service (SaaS)” (Fellows 2008) is an important characteristic of Cloud Computing, the three
“The idea of delivering personal (e.g., email, word architectural layers of Cloud Computing are (see fig. 2):
Merrill
processing, presentations.) and business productivity 1) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) : IaaS offerings are
applications (e.g., sales force automation, customer computing resources such as processing or storage which can
Lynch
service, accounting) from centralized servers” (Merrill be obtained as a service. Examples are Amazon Web Services
Lynch 2008)
with its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for processing and
Simple Storage Service (S3) for storage and Joyent who
provide a highly scalable on-demand infrastructure for running
This pool of resources is typically exploited by a pay-per- Web sites and rich Web applications[3]. PaaS and SaaS
use model in which guarantees are offered by the Infrastructure providers can draw upon IaaS offerings based on standardized
Provider by means of customized SLAs. interfaces. Instead of selling raw hardware infrastructure, IaaS
providers typically offer virtualised infrastructure as a service.
II. ARCHITECTURE AND COMPONENTS OF CLOUDS Foster et al. denote the level of raw hardware resources, such
as compute, storage and network resources, as the fabric
A. Overview of Existing Concepts for Cloud Structures layer[4]. Typically by virtualization, hardware level resources
and Components are abstracted and encapsulated and can thus be exposed to
It is possible to find a number of concepts for Cloud upper layer and end users through a standardized interface as
structures in literature. At first sight, these classifications unified resources[4] in the form of IaaS (see fig. 2).
appear to differ from each other to varying extent.
Eventually, however, they classify and describe the same
phenomenon and share a Menken provides a very detailed
concept consisting of 7 major components of Cloud
Computing, namely application, client, infrastructure,
platform, service, storage, and processing power [10].
Miller looks at “different ways a company can use cloud
computing to develop its own business applications”, and
distinguishes four types of Cloud service development,
namely Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Web
Services, and On-Demand Computing. On-Demand
Computing, as Miller notes, is also referred to as utility
computing[1]. Youseff et al. (2008) distinguish five layers
of Cloud Computing: Cloud application, Cloud software
environment, Cloud software infrastructure, software
Figure 2. The three layers of Cloud Computing: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS
kernel, and firmware/hardware. Forrester Research relate
the components of Clouds to markets and distinguish five
Cloud services markets. Two of them, Web-based services 2) Platform as a Service (PaaS): Platforms are an
and SaaS offerings, are reported to be known markets that abstraction layer between the software applications (SaaS) and
are delivered from the Cloud, whereas three cloud- the virtualized infrastructure (IaaS). PaaS offerings are
infrastructure-as-a-service markets are new: app- targeted at software developers. Developers can write their
components-as-a-service, software-platform-as-a-service, applications according to the specifications of a particular
and virtual-infrastructure-as-a-service. Finally, Reese platform without needing to worry about the underlying
considers SaaS as the term for “software in the cloud” and hardware infrastructure (IaaS). Developers upload their
distinguishes four Cloud Infrastructure Models, namely application code to a platform, which then typically manages
Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, Private the automatic upscaling when the usage of the application
Clouds, and a fourth model representing all aspects of the grows [5]. PaaS offerings can cover all phases of software
previous Cloud infrastructure models [2]. development or may be specialized around a specific area like
All of the concepts above are very detailed and are content management [3]. Examples are the Google App
influenced by the specific perspective on Clouds the Engine, which allows applications to be run on Google’s
respective authors take. Some of the concepts also involve infrastructure, and Salesforce’s Force.com platform. The PaaS
layer of a Cloud relies on the standardized interface of the
aspects as Private Clouds and have different levels of detail
IaaS layer that virtualizes the access to the available resources
for components that make up one logical entity. Given this,
and it provides standardized interfaces and a development
the concepts above do not provide a sufficiently generic
platform for the SaaS layer.
description of a Cloud structure and its components. The

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3) Software as a Service (SaaS): SaaS is software that is A. End consumers, who mainly use the services of
owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more the SaaS layer over a Web browser and basic offerings of
providers and that is offered in a pay-per-use manner [6]. SaaS the IaaS layer as for example storage for data resulting
is the most visible layer of Cloud Computing for end-users, from the usage of the SaaS layer.
because it is about the actual software applications that are
accessed and used. From the perspective of the user, obtaining B. Business customers that might access all three
software as a service is mainly motivated by cost advantages layers: the IaaS layer in order to enhance the own
due to the utility-based payment model, i.e. no up-front infrastructure with additional resources on demand, the
infrastructure investment. Well known examples for SaaS PaaS layer in order to be able to run own applications in a
offerings are Salesforce.com and Google Apps such as Google Cloud and eventually the SaaS layer in order to take
Mail and Google Docs and Spreadsheets. The typical user of a advantage of available applications offered as a service.
SaaS offering usually has neither knowledge nor control about
C. Developers and Independent Software Vendors
the underlying infrastructure [7], be it the software platform
(ISVs) that develop applications that are supposed to be
which the SaaS offering is based on (PaaS) or the actual
offered over the SaaS layer of a Cloud. Typically, they
hardware infrastructure (IaaS). However, these layers are very
directly access the PaaS layer, and through the PaaS layer
relevant for the SaaS provider because they are necessary and
can be outsourced. For example, a SaaS application can be ndirectly access the IaaS layer, and are present on the SaaS
layer with their application.
developed on an existing platform and run on infrastructure of
a third party. Obtaining platforms as well as infrastructure as a In general, for all different kinds of Cloud customers, a Cloud
service is attractive for SaaS providers as it can alleviate them offers the major opportunities known for X-as-a-Service
from heavy license or infrastructure investment costs and offerings. From the perspective of the user, the utility-based
keeps them flexible. It also allows them to focus on their core payment model is considered as one of the main benefits of
competencies. This is similar to the benefits that motivate Cloud Computing. There is no need for up-front infrastructure
SaaS users to obtain software as a service. According to investment: investment in software licenses and no risk of
market analysts, the growing openness of companies for SaaS unused but paid software licenses, and investment in hardware
and the high pressure to reduce IT costs are major drivers for a infrastructure and related maintenance and staff. Thus, capital
high demand and growth of SaaS, and by that also for Cloud expenditure is turned into operational expenditure. Users of a
Computing, in the next years. In August 2007, analyst firm Cloud service only use the volume of IT resources they
Gartner forecasted an average annual growth rate of actually need, and only pay for the volume of IT resources
worldwide SaaS revenue for enterprise application software of they actually use. At the same time, they take advantage of the
22.1% through 2011, reaching a According to market analysts, scalability and flexibility of a Cloud. Cloud Computing
the growing openness of companies for SaaS and the high enables easy and fast scaling of required computing resources
pressure to reduce IT costs are major drivers for a high on demand.
demand and growth of SaaS, and by that also for Cloud However, Cloud Computing has also several
Computing, in the next years. In August 2007, analyst firm disadvantages: Clouds serve many different customers. Thus,
Gartner forecasted an average annual growth rate of users of a Cloud service do not know who else’s job is running
worldwide SaaS revenue for enterprise application software of on the same server as their own ones [3]. A typical Cloud is
22.1% through 2011, reaching a $14.5 billion [8]. outside a company’s or other organization’s firewall. While
this may not play a major role for consumers, it can have
significant impact on a company’s decision to move use Cloud
III. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF CLOUD Services. The major risks of Cloud Computing are
COMPUTING Availability, Security , Performance , Data Confidentiality and
Cloud Computing concerns the delivery of IT capabilities as a Auditability , Data Lock-in , Hard to integrate with in-house
service on three levels: infrastructure (IaaS), platforms (PaaS), IT.
and software (SaaS). By providing interfaces on all three The user has to rely on the promise of the Cloud provider
levels, Clouds address different types of customers: with respect to reliability, performance and Quality of the
Service (QoS) of the infrastructure. The usage of Clouds is
associated also with higher security and privacy risks related
to data storage and management in two ways: first because of
the need to transfer data back and forth to a Cloud so that it
can be processed in a Cloud; second because data is stored on
an external infrastructure and the data owner relies on the
Cloud provider’s assurance that no unauthorized access takes
place. Furthermore, the usage of Clouds requires an upfront
investment in the integration of the own infrastructure and
applications with a Cloud. At present, there are no standards
for the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS interfaces. This makes the choice
of a Cloud provider and the investment in integration with

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Clouds risky. This can result in a strong log-in effect that is C. Hybrid Clouds
advantageous for the Cloud provider but disadvantageous for Hybrid Clouds combine Public and Private Clouds and allow
the users. Given the risks associated with the usage of Clouds, an organization to both run some applications on an internal
in each case a careful evaluation and comparison of the Cloud infrastructure and others in a Public Cloud [3] as shown
potential benefits and risks is necessary. Also, it needs to be in fig. 3. This way, companies can benefit from scalable IT
considered which data and processes are suitable to be used resources offered by external Cloud providers while keeping
for “Cloud sourcing” and which should better be not exposed specific applications or data inside the firewall. A mixed
to any organization outside the firewall. Cloud environment adds complexity regarding the distribution
of applications across different environments, monitoring of
the internal and external infrastructure involved, security and
IV. CLASSIFICATION OF CLOUDS privacy, and may therefore not be suited for applications
Clouds can generally be classified according to who the owner requiring complex databases or synchronization [3].
of the Cloud data centers is. A Cloud environment can
comprise either a single Cloud or multiple Clouds. Thus, it can
be distinguished between single-Cloud environments and V. CONCLUSION
multiple-Cloud environments. The following subsections Cloud computing is a new technology widely studied in recent
provide a classification of single-Cloud environments years. Now there are many cloud platforms both in industry
according to the Cloud data centre ownership and a and in academic circle. How to understand and use these
classification of multiple-Cloud environments according to platforms is a big issue. In this paper, we described the
which type of Clouds are combined (see fig. 3). definition, styles, characters of cloud computing and cloud
A. Private Clouds computing services. Though each cloud computing platform
Private Clouds refer to internal data centres of a company or has its own strength, one thing should be noticed is that no
other organization[9]. A Private Cloud is fully owned by a matter what kind of platform there is lots unsolved issues. For
single company who has total control over the applications run example, continuously high availability, Performance, Data
on the infrastructure, the place where they run, and the people Confidentiality and Auditability, Synchronization in different
or organizations using it --- simply over every aspect of the clusters in cloud platform, interoperation and standardization,
infrastructure [2][3]. A Private Cloud relies on virtualization the security of cloud platform. These issues mentioned above
of an organization’s existing infrastructure [2], leading to will be the research hotspot of cloud computing. There is no
benefits such as increased utilization. The key advantage of a doubt that cloud computing has a bright future.
Private Cloud is to gain all advantages of virtualization, while
retaining full control over the infrastructure .
B. Public Clouds
A Public Cloud is data centre hardware and software run by REFERENCES
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