Cloud computing

Technology Challenges

• Scalability

• Elasticity

• Performance Unpredictability

• Reliability & Availability

• Security

• Compliance

• Multi-tenancy

Scalability: It is the ability of a computer application or product (hardware or software) to continue

to function well when it (or its context) is changed in size or volume to meet a user need. Typically,
the rescaling is to a larger size or volume. The rescaling can be of the product itself (for example, a
line of computer systems of different sizes in terms of storage, RAM etc). Scalability challenge can be
faced by high traffic i.e. the applications may have high response time or it can be in terms of large
amount of storage where the application like facebook may produce 1TB of data per day. For
example, many web sites have high traffic such as Facebook

Elasticity: The degree to which a system is able to adapt to workload changes by provisioning and
de-provisioning resources in an autonomic manner, such that at each point in time the available
resources match the current demand as closely as possible. Elasticity aims at matching the amount
of resource allocated to a service with the amount of resource it actually requires, avoiding over- or
under-provisioning. The challenge faced here is how to scale up and down quickly, to avoid this
problem resource allocation and workload algorithms are required.

Performance Unpredictability: Any enterprises adopting cloud computing services certainly expect
the kind of improved performance that an elastic computing environment should provide. But cloud
services are not perfect. Through limitations such as still-evolving technologies and the confines of
bandwidth, questions about performance are sure to arise in even the most efficient, well-designed
cloud environment

Reliability & Availability: Reliability can be defined as the probability that a system will produce
correct outputs. i.e. the data accessed from cloud should be reliable. A reliable system does not
silently continue and deliver results that include uncorrected corrupted data. The service should be
available whenever required i.e. the server should be always up and running to provide the
requested data. Factors affecting reliability and availability is high number of components

Security: Cloud security refers to a broad set of policies, technologies, and controls deployed to
protect data, applications, and the associated infrastructure of cloud computing. It is a sub domain
of computer security, network security, and, more broadly, information security. When an
organization elects to store data or host applications on the public cloud, it loses its ability to have
physical access to the servers hosting its information. As a result, potentially sensitive data is at risk
from insider attacks. According to a recent Cloud Security Alliance Report, insider attacks are the
biggest threat in cloud computing. Therefore, Cloud Service providers must ensure that thorough
background checks are conducted for employees who have physical access to the servers in the data
center. Additionally, data centers must be frequently monitored for suspicious activity. For example
-Sony incident, hacker used Amazon to hack Sony web site.

Compliance: Cloud compliance issues arise as soon as you make use of cloud storage or backup
services. By moving data from your internal storage to someone else's you are forced to examine
closely, how that data will be kept so that you remain compliant with laws and industry regulations.
For example, health care industry –requires health care compliance administrator.

Multi-tenancy: The term multitenancy in cloud refers to a software architecture in which a single
instance of software runs on a server and serves multiple tenants. A tenant is a group of users who
share a common access with specific privileges to the software instance.