Read without ads and support Scribd by becoming a Scribd Premium Reader.
See Premium Plans
 
Cloud Computing
 
and the
 
Canadian Environment
Presented at the Global Government Cloud Computing Roundtable.Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,October 6.2009Jirka Danek, CTO at Public Works Government Services Canada
Opportunity:
 
Today there is a tremendous opportunity for Canada to position itself as a world leader inCloud Computing.
 
Rational:
 
Many public and private organizations are looking at Cloud Computing as a long-termsoftware and hardware service source and data storage solution.
 
Large organizations across Canada and abroad have started to embrace Cloud Computingand many are currently looking at location options adapted to their needs.
 
Due to its geographical characteristics, low-density population, IT expertise, qualityconstruction standards, legislative framework (including the
Privacy Act 
and the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)
and low-cost green energy, Canada isconsidered a prime location for Cloud Computing.
 
Major organizations in the Canadian IT industry, as well as the Government of Canada andthe provinces and territories, are beginning to realize Canada’s advantage and the benefits of positioning Canada as an economical and strategic choice for Cloud Computing.
 
 
There is a tremendous opportunity for Canada to position itself as a world leader in CloudComputing and to benefit from the economic, environmental and technological returns of thisnew public utility.
 
Background:
 
Cloud Computing refers to the use of Internet-based computer 
 
technology for a variety of services i.e., software, hardware, data, etc. It
 
incorporates different concepts including:
 
•
Software as a Service (SaaS) – a model of software deployment where an applicationis licensed for use as a service provided to customers on demand;
•
Web 2.0 – the second generation of web development and design, that aims tofacilitate communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaborationon the Web;
 
•
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS) – thedelivery of computer infrastructure as a service; and
 
•
Other recent technology trends which provide common business applications onlinethat are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on theservers.
 
The underlying concept dates back to 1960 when John McCarthy opined that "computationmay someday be organized as a public utility". The term
Cloud 
had already come intocommercial use in the early 1990s to refer to large ATM networks and by the turn of the 21stcentury, the term "Cloud Computing" had started to appear.
 
Amazon.com played a key role in the development of Cloud Computing by modernizing their data centres after the dot-com bubble and, having found that the new cloud architectureresulted in significant internal efficiency improvements, providing access to their systems byway of Amazon Web Services in 2002 on a utility computing basis.
 
In 2007, Google, IBM, and a number of universities embarked on a large scale CloudComputing research project to build data centers that students could tap into over the Internetto program and research remotely. Cloud Computing became a hot topic by mid-2008 andnumerous related events and conferences started to take place.
 
In June 2008, Jeffrey Hewitt, vice-president of research with Gartner Inc. concluded thatCanada's abundant and low-cost hydroelectric power, cooler ambient temperature, fibrecables network and proximity with the United States can help it take advantage of the growingCloud Computing trend to provide services and Web applications that are economically soundand environmentally friendly.
 
Hewitt also highlights that “the nurturing of a domestic Canadian server infrastructure toprovide web-based resource support could provide long-term growth prospects in terms of 
 
servers and the resulting content and services,
 
as well as could help to push this NorthAmerican country well beyond its current server installed base.”
 
The majority of Cloud Computing infrastructure as of 2009
 
consists of reliable servicesdelivered through data centers and built on servers with different levels of virtualizationtechnologies. The services are accessible anywhere in the world, with the Cloud appearing asa single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers.
 
Some countries are already embarking on the Cloud Computing journey. However, largecorporations and governments of all sizes state privacy protection and data security as themain concerns regarding implementation of data holding centres in Asia, Europe, Russia,Brazil and other countries that don’t have the legislative framework in place to adequatelysafeguard strategic information and assets.
 
Strategic Considerations:
 
Cloud Computing 
 
The Cloud Computing trend has intensified as businesses struggling in dismal economicconditions can reduce costs by using applications online as paid services instead of buying,installing and maintaining software on their own machines.
 
Through Cloud Computing, customers can minimize capital expenditure as infrastructure isowned by the provider and does not need to be purchased for one-time or infrequentintensive computing tasks.
 
Device and location independence enables users to access systems, regardless of their location or what device they are using.
 
Multi-tenancy enables sharing of resources and costs among a large pool of users, allowingfor:
•
Centralization of infrastructure in areas with lower costs (e.g., real estate, electricity,etc.)
•
Peak-load capacity increases (i.e., users need not engineer for highest possible load-levels)
•
Utilisation and efficiency improvements for systems (often utilized at only 10-20%).
 
•
On-demand allocation and de-allocation of CPU, storage and network bandwidth.
 
Reliability improves through the use of multiple redundant sites, which makes it suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery.
 
Scalability meets changing user demands quicklywithout users having to engineer for peak loads.Security typically improves in Cloud Computing due to the centralization of data,increasedsecurity-focused resources, and because providers are able to devote resources to solvingsecurity issues that many customers cannot afford.
Search
Search History:
Searching...
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
  • p.
    • Notes
    Load more