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Cloud Computing Overview

Andreea BUGA1
1

Computer Science Department, Johannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria

Abstract
The trends in IT domain and the involvement of computer programs in various areas in real life have led to the development of
different approaches for handling the information and the computational resources needed for processing data. Cloud computing is
one of the directions of the future of data storage, collaborative applications and efficient use of hardware capabilities. Even though
there are many powerful applications supported by the cloud, this domain can be improved from several points of view. We will
further look of a personal understanding of the cloud concept, popular applications that use cloud computing and whether they
respect cloud computing principles. Some of the explanations will be supported by deployment or service models.

Keywords: cloud computing, abstraction, virtualization

1. Introduction

(storage, computational effort). For some applications,


maintenance tax is also paid periodically.

Cloud computing is one of the latest business models that


gained a lot of popularity in the IT market. The appealing
characteristics that allow users to benefit of data storage,
computational abilities that one cannot usually afford on his
computer or to collaboratively work on documents are just
some of the attributes that put the cloud in the center of
everyones attention.

One of the key aspects of the cloud computing is the


accessibility. In order to facilitate the use of cloud services for
the users, most of the cloud applications can be accessed via
the Internet. This was taken into consideration due to the wide
spread of Internet. Nevertheless, some of the functionalities
of cloud applications can be used in offline mode.

Even though technical terms should have a clear


understanding, cloud computing has received different
interpretations and is regarded by users in various manners.
Many comparisons have been done with grid computing and
multiple similarities were noticed especially from the
computational point of view. However, cloud computing has
its particularities and in the following part we will try to
provide my personal point of view concerning the
understanding of this term.
In the following section we will define the characteristics that
make a software program a cloud computing application
Further on, we will analyze some of the daily applications that
we use and check whether they can be associated with the
cloud technology.
In the conclusion part we will try to analyze the impact of
cloud computing applications in our life and to see further
development and research in this area.

2. Personal
computing

understanding

of

Another key issue in delivering cloud applications is


portability. The evolution of gadgets on the IT market is a
factor that made programmers and IT suppliers orient towards
the development of applications that can be used from the
mobile phone, tablets. Most of the cloud applications can be
used directly from such gadgets and usually there are versions
of the applications that are addressed specifically for a certain
device. Research about cross platform applications is one of
the newest topics that came into attention and is concerned
with reusing specific parts of applications in different
versions for different platforms or operating systems.
Accessibility and portability led to applications that can be
run 24/7 and accessed from different locations. This has
contributed to a fast development of cloud computing in
different areas. However, improvement is done continuously
and there are many directions in which further development
can be conducted.

cloud

Cloud computing is a term referring to various computing


techniques that involve the communication between different
computers in real time using a network protocol. It is
strongly connected with the distribution of resources and
computational efforts on many computers or running an
application by many end users.

2.1. Important characteristics. What makes a


program a cloud computing application?
Based on the principle what you pay is what you have, some
of the cloud application require a tax for the used resources
which is proportional with the amount of consumed resources

In order to have a continuous access to the resources, there


must be some systems up and running. Data accessed by a
client, computational efforts are realized with the aid of
computers localized in different places all over the world. For
instance, data stored on the cloud in Austria may be stored in
Europe, but also a backup copy can be stored in North
America. The graphical interface displayed to the user is just
a connection between the end user and the real system
performing the actions (storing data, retrieving and
processing information). Resources involved in all these
activities are part of computers that are hidden from the user
and software applications are separated from the hardware
resources. The separation of layers is realized through the
virtualization, process in which some components that are
used by an application are hidden from the user, real
computer on which the application works.

Abstraction is implemented in such a way that data storage


locations are unknown, physical system are not specified and
administration of resources is managed by others.
The popularity and the performances registered by cloud
applications have triggered large scale reorientation from
local stored applications. The process of using shared
resources from the cloud and moving applications, resources
from local storage to cloud storage is called cloudification
and it is in the attention of developers. The direction given by
this process facilitates the action of making resources public
and easy to access. It also enhances the process of
globalization as resources can be easily shared all over the
world.
Some of the resources that users want to share must be
protected from external inference. For example, there may be
data used by banks for storing the email addresses of their
clients. Access to this information must be granted only to
authorized personnel from different cities or countries where
the bank has branches. In this case, resources are private and
cloud applications that bank employees use can be regarded
as private cloud application. Security has an important role in
the delivery of an efficient and optimum solution to the client.

3. Daily applications. Cloud computing or


stand alone programs?
Most of us are not aware of the amount of the resources from
the cloud that we use. We started sharing files for project with
team members via Dropbox, or using collaborative tools like
Google Docs for editing documents. We started using these
applications for different advantages that they bring with
them: easiness to access resources, file sharing and now the
process of using them comes by inertia.
We will analyze five of the most used applications and
services with which we interact almost daily and try to verify
if they respect the principles behind cloud computing.
Most of the people have used at least once the email service,
being it Gmail, YMail, Hotmail or other mail providers. All
the resources are stored in unknown location and the hardware
behind the application is abstracted from the software part.
Scalability is also important and for the different types of
accounts there is present also the principle of per pay use.
Another cloud characteristic that mail applications fulfill is the
accessibility; now, with the development of mobile device we
can access mail service everywhere. Security is one of the key
issues that are also handled by the mail service provider. We
will classify mail services as a cloud application.
A simplistic deployment model of the mail application is
shown in the following figure.

Figure 1. Mail application service model

Dropbox and Copy are examples of cloud applications used


for sharing resources. They permit users to store data on
unknown locations and to use abstract computer resources. For
exceeding different storage sizes, a pay per use policy is
also applied.
Google docs is one of the powerful cloud applications that
facilitates collaborative work in creating documents needed in
different occasions. Resources are stored in unknown location
and can be retrieved and edited in real time by several users.
Microsoft has aligned to this trend starting with Office 2010
Web Apps.
Moodle platform is an educational resource that allows both
students and teachers to share resources using an abstract
layers and virtualized computational resources.
Social networks are not left behind. Youtube is a video
streaming source which permits user to share and retrieve data
that is stored in unknown sources.
All these services follow the main characteristics of cloud
computing applications and are available to the users via the
Internet. Mail services, Dropbox/Copy, Google docs and
Youtube are part of public/internet clouds and can be used on
subscription, whereas Moodle is a private cloud application as
it may be used by members belonging to a certain institution.

4. Conclusions and future work


As we can notice, cloud applications are the direction to
which IT solutions are oriented. They must fulfill various
requirements and they must be easy accessible and secure so
that users can use them without any major risks. Cloud
computing facilitates the separation of the IT infrastructure
from the software part and it is a smart solution for reducing
costs in maintaining a wide hardware network.
Research is now oriented towards assuring a secure way of
using cloud resources and reducing the risks that may occur
when working with these applications. Communication
between different platforms is also important in further
evolution of cloud computing.

References
Khalil, I. (2013). Austria, Personal Communication on Special Topics
Cloud Computing Course, September, 2013
N. Leavitt (2009), Is Cloud Computing Really Ready for Prime Time?
Computer, vol. 42, issue 1, 2009, pp. 15 - 20
Voas, J., Zhang, J.,(2009). Cloud Computing: New Wine or Just a New
Bottle. Computer, vol. 11, issue 2 , 2009, pp 15- 17

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