Strategies for Implementing Cloud Computing Programs
The process of implementing cloud computing programs is detailed mainly because of the several steps that the interested parties need to go through in the course of undertaking the project. As such, all entities should consider employing strategies that are in line with their ventures. The next section highlights some of the policies that are far-reaching in ensuring a successful implementation of cloud computing programs.
Planning. Planning is particularly imperative because it provides the interested parties with the opportunity to analyze and re-evaluate their ability to handle the key steps of the implementation process contentedly. This includes forecasting on the entire process and the parties who will be involved in procuring all the needed hardware and software as well as the mechanism of going about the installation process. Similarly, planning entails forecasting on how the installed software, equipment, and the backup systems will be tested. Also, plan is far-reaching given that it enables the interested parties to understand the alternatives at its disposal, the scope of technology and the business model.
Ensuring the Availability of Personnel. Given the number of cloud installation programs that are currently going on as well as the planned ones, it is essential to take note of the fact that there may be lack of enough expertise and talent to handle all of them. In that regard, it is imperative for organizations to ensure that they have key cloud computing experts at their disposal. Interested entities should, therefore, consider not only recruiting, but also training and retaining available staff. This should include engineers, architects, and developers. This routinely provides an upper hand and goes a long way in ensuring that the installation and management process is well under control, mainly because of the sensitivity of work involved in cloud programming [7].
Security of Data. As highlighted in the introduction, cloud computing involves the process of using servers in an isolated location instead of installations within a given locality. The process of transitioning into the remote servers may be quite challenging, particularly because the process of installing cloud-computing programs is gradual. As such, it is of great significance for the entity involved to ensure that the process of transitioning to the remote servers is free of hitches. This includes establishing a framework for evaluating thereby eliminating the risks and liabilities that may be associated with the transitioning process. In that regard, it is important to ensure that security is managed properly in the course of the transition. This comes in handy in ensuring that only the right people can access the information contained within the cloud program.
Risks behind Implementing Cloud Computing Strategies. Cloud computing programs have routinely been celebrated as the savior of IT, predominantly because it makes it easy for several organizations to manage bulky data without any difficulty. Nonetheless, recent events have pointed towards the fact that cloud computing may not be as perfect as it was earlier expected. This section aims to shed more light on some of the risks that have often been associated with the installation of cloud computing programs [8].
Shared Access. Multitenancy, which refers to the aspect of unrelated clients sharing the same storage and memory facilities is one of the most disturbing concerns associated with cloud computing. This is particularly because a client’s private data may lead to a different user, an event that amounts to an invasion of privacy. In like manner, this concern is worrying because in some situations the clients who acquire information that is not theirs may be tempted to take up a different identity that is not theirs. The aspect of shared access has in the recent past also resulted in multitenant exploitation, which is the aspect of exhausting user resources that belong to a different client.
Cyber-attacks. Another troubling concern that comes with cloud computing programs is cyber-attacks. It is often known that the storage of data within the internet puts the users at a huge risk of cyber-attacks. In fact, cloud computing worsens the situation, for a significant amount of data is often stored within its storage space, hence making many people vulnerable. It is presumed that just as security measures and other technological aspects become refined, do cyber-attacks. This is proved by the fact that in as much as cloud companies often get security concerns right; the hackers often become more creative and even hack personal accounts [9].
Government Intrusion. Government intrusion is one of the most recent concerns that cloud users have to put up with. This is mainly because quite often governments are forced to invade the privacy of their citizens and other organizations for national security reasons.
Lack of Cloud Standardization. Another major concern associated with cloud programming is the lack of standardization. This is mainly because there are no set guiding principles that govern the cloud programming, a fact that makes it possible for other cloud providers to have superior cloud systems. Additionally, the fact that different sectors of the economy deal in various fields and have diverse expectations makes it challenging for a cloud provider to know the extent of the safety of their cloud program
MATERIAL & METHODS
In carrying out this research, “Investigations were based on in-depth review of existing literature and other secondary information sources to synthesizing the current state of knowledge on the key aspects being investigated. Cloud computing being a wide area of research and having relatively few literature and publications available, keywords such as Cloud computing, security threats, cloud services, internet privacy and data control.” were used to search in online databases for any useful information on the topic.
The CSU digital library, Google Scholar, and ProQuest were among the major research databases that were explored for relevant information on Near Field Communication
Results
In the traditional computing practices, a system administrator or IT manager would be charged with the duty of ensuring that every employee has appropriate hardware or software that they require to carry out their day-to-day activities. The role goes past purchase of computers for everybody. The system administrator has to acquire the necessary software and software licenses for the employees to have all that they need. The arrival of a new employee would prompt for a need for purchase of new software and to establish whether the present software license is permissive of an additional user [35].
Cloud computing introduces a practice aimed at having just a single application loaded and eliminating the need to install suite software for all organization-owned computers. Such an application permits employees to be logged into a set of Web-based services that host the programs or data needed by the employees for the routine operations
By definition, cloud computing refers to an attempt to store and access programs or data over the web other than your computer hard drive or have the hard drive-stored data synchronized certain information that is resident in the web [11].
Different businesses resort to different cloud services. Businesses are at liberty to choose SaaS, PaaS or IaaS. In SaaS, A business will make subscriptions for all applications accessed over the internet. In PaaS, business is involved in the creation of a custom application intended for use by everyone in the company and IaaS; the business provides a backbone to be let out to other companies [34].
After the extensive study on the respective subject, it has been witnessed that the security aspects of cloud computing have not been addressed to a great extent. Sternstein and Boulton explained some cloud computing security standards and pointed out that it is still a developing domain since the security standards have only been formulated in the mid of the last year. According to a recent study quoted by Help Net Security, 40% of the executives do not prefer the adoption of cloud computing in their organizations due to the security and privacy concerns related to it. The study had a sample of 834 executives who were chosen from 21 countries. An extensive survey of this nature revealed an alarming number regarding their inhibitions in adopting cloud computing. Mostly all the executives agreed that the technology provided better performance and efficiency than enterprise data centers but hesitated with its deployment due to privacy and security issues [12]. The need of the hour to make the technology more accepted among the masses is to introduce greater security measures in the concept and ensure that all the service providers are following the cloud computing security standards.
It has been found that cloud computing service providers have already implemented the encryption of the clients’ data for greater security. Many clients might use the default encryption scheme under the assumption that it would provide them extreme protection from decrypting attempts [33]. However, if an intruder cracks the code of the encrypted data, then the intellectual assets of all the organizations can be put at great risk. Security tokens should be used for the generation of the personalized encryption code; these tokens should be possessed by few of the chosen representatives of the organization who have the authority to access the data on the clouds. These tokens would be programmed to display a new code at every cycle, but all the tokens would be programmed to display the identical code since it is required to be accessed by all the representatives. The interval for the alteration of the code can be programmed as 24 hours since any less alteration interval might prove to be a hindrance in the performance level. Thus, the code will be changed every day and data can be encrypted with a new scheme every day. This will give the companies greater level of control over the security of their intellectual assets and win their trust over the innovative technology [13].
Biometric authentication systems are one of the most reliable forms of authentication in the modern world. They promote convenience as well as uniqueness. A biometric approach should be adapted by cloud computing providers that would enhance the identification process and introduce more security. The fingerprints of the authorized personnel should be registered in the enrollment phase of the authentication and later used as a template for matching purposes in the verification phase [32]. Such authentication will be useful when the user wishes to access the file server, database of the organization, etc.
Discussion
Cloud computing service providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft invest great capital in buying the resources, rather than the user. Concerning cloud computing, Tim stated an analogy: “why to buy the taxi when you can use it.” These services can be used from anywhere in the world via the web. The level of scalability is almost unlimited in cloud computing. Therefore, it will never cease to cater to any demand of the user. This aspect fulfills the criterion of the efficiency since companies can offer uninterrupted service without reduced instances of crash or overload of request [31]. Service providers can offer their service effectively in both, typical and atypical business conditions, by acquiring as much computing power as required. Amazon S3 is the preferred cloud solution to be implemented by the US-based shoe manufacturing company. Amazon S3 is a cloud storage service provided by Amazon. It has a simple web-service interface that allows storage and retrieval of any amount of data, at any instance from anywhere in the world. It provides users with highly scalable solutions, reliability, security, and efficiency. The service is especially important for web developers or organizations who want to develop their applications because it is designed to simplify web-scale computing. Other than storage and development, Amazon S3 provides data transfer service such as AWS Govcloud Region for USA government. The recommendation for Amazon is based on compliance with export control rules and regulation compliance and security and performance guarantees [14]. The pricing model for Amazon’s S3 is paid as you use. The prices are computed on a monthly basis based on the services provided and the location of S3 bucket. It attracts no minimum fee, hence a favorable option for many organizations. Gateway security is offered in three choices: Gateway-Stored volumes, Gateway-Cached Volumes and Gateway-Virtual Tape Library [30].
One of the most important considerations that apply to the shoe-manufacturing company is import and export security. AWS provides a simple but robust Import/Export security framework. If there is a requirement to transfer large amounts of data across different geographic locations, AWS transfers data directly to the desired location using its high-speed Import/Export internal network. AWS Import/Export requires the user to authenticate the storage device using a digital signature and a unique job identifier [15].
Ethics in the use Cloud Computing
Remote electronic data storage on the internet is called cloud computing. Data are stored on the large servers and can be located anywhere. Data are maintained by vendors investing in hardware and software. The said services are paid for to the vendors monthly by the firm. The firm prefers it because it saves them considerably besides enhancing the efficiency of the firm. The issues that are being raised pertain to its privacy, security and its control [29].
The American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Ethics took the initiative and published an issue paper in September 2010 highlighting Client Confidentiality and Lawyers’ Use of cloud computing technology. It also raised concerns regarding access to confidential client information, its storage on servers in the country providing inadequate legal protections; policy issue regarding data ownership; inadequacies regarding back up data; insufficiency on data encryption; policy issues to notify customers on security breaches.
Legal Cloud Computing Association (LCCA) established in December 2010 has been assigned the task to facilitate and adopt cloud computing technology within the legal and ethical framework. The LCCA has now come forward recommending law firms to protect confidential client information in the following manner. Law firms should know fully about vendor’s security practices, its encryption protocols, storage procedures and for any likely security breach. Law firms should also know about the persons who have access to the provider’s data storage system and also whether or not those persons are subject to confidentiality obligations. Lawyer firms should take steps to ensuring that any data uploaded to the cloud remain their sole and exclusive property. They should also find out from the storage provider if they have established any server outside the U.S because then laws applicable there will be different [16].
The potential benefits for law firms in using cloud computing are many. Law firms get huge savings in real estate, IT-set up cost; personnel needed to manage IT systems by outsourcing their needs to the third party at a fraction of the cost and without any time delay as far as the internet is working. These services are available 24 hours a day and all days in a year. If the law firms try to establish all this in-house, their cost of creating infrastructure and in operations will be exorbitant [28].
When law firms resort to cloud computing, it simply means that their all confidential client information is no more housed within company premises but it is now placed somewhere in cyberspace, which by no means law firm may ever even identify and that is precisely here the crux of the issue is [17].
In the present state of the highly competitive arena, when the bottom line is equally important, there is no surprise that even after knowing the drawback of cloud computing, law firms are forced to go for it. Just before the advent of internet and electronic gadgets, a few years back, most of the law firms outsourced their copying needs of papers to commercial photocopying companies outside their premises. It is obvious that the photocopying company’s operations are neither in clients’ nor law firm’s control. They are bound by the only contractual agreement of confidentiality, industry practice, and this continued successfully for years [27].
Recently, on the Rules of Professional Conduct, Arizona State Bar Committee issued an opinion on December 9, 2009, that whether a law firm can make use of online storage and retrieval for them and their client. It stated to observe necessary precautions to safeguard the confidentiality of the information; however, it did not address the issues of client consent, or supervision that were raised by ethics committees [26].
The fact is that so far no ruling has prohibited law firms to move to cloud computing. At this juncture, it can be argued that ethical lawyers need to thoroughly scrutinize the operations of the provider to ensure the security and confidentiality aspects to safeguard their clients [18].
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing provides a series of advantages to an end user and businesses of varied sizes. Described under this section are some positions that cloud computing offers from the perspective of a company and the end users.
Cost Efficiency. Cost efficiency in the cloud environment is attained by eliminating the investment needed for standalone servers and software. By embracing the capabilities of the cloud, organizations are relieved of licensing fees while eliminating overhead charges and costs that are brought about by data storage, management, and software updates. Generally, cloud services are available at cheaper rates in comparison with the conventional approaches can greatly reduce the overall expenditure on IT. The cloud environment has further been made appealing through the introduction of scalable and convenient charging models like pay-as-you-go. Through its elimination of capital expenses, cloud computing is better positioned to help organizations to become more technical or analytical while increasing the cash flow [19].
Environmental Friendliness. Cloud services are basically better placed to save energy if compared with a common IT infrastructure and the involved computation requires few resources. For instance, if an organization finds a way to avoid the use of servers, the IT infrastructure is likely to scale down, and this consumes less power leaving resources freed up. The mode of cloud operation is that the consumed resources will always be what the system truly needs [25].
Convenience and Constant Availability. Public cloud service providers can avail their utilities regardless of the location of the end users. This mode of service provision enables users to access information with ease and is accommodative of varying user needs. Furthermore, service uptime more often than not guaranteed thus assuring constant resource availability to the end users. It is a common practice witnessing cloud vendors use several servers to attain maximum redundancy to be able to automatically spawn alternative instances in cases of system failures [20].
Data Back Up and Recovery. Cloud computing makes data backup and recovery rather simple because the data is often resident in the cloud other than the physical hard drive. A number of the cloud service providers avail flexible and reliable backup and recovery solutions. There are instances when the cloud itself assumes the role of backup repository for data that resides in the local computers.
Performance and Scalability. A cloud instance would be subjected to automatic deployment only if required. Consequently, the user just makes payments for the required applications or data storage. An attribute associated with a cloud service is the possibility to have the cloud scaled to meet the varying demands for IT systems. To attain good performance, cloud systems use distributed architectures offering high computation speeds. Also, the duty to make sure that excellent running of end-user services is left in the hands of the provider [21].
Drawbacks of Cloud Computing.
In spite of the numerous benefits surrounding the cloud paradigm, there are drawbacks to using the cloud tools, and some of the drawbacks are:
Reliance on Providers. A resolution for the cloud services comes with an implicit reliance on a provider. It is often challenging and at some moments impossible to shift between different providers after rolling up with them. Users wishing to switch between service providers will find the movement of data from an old to a new provider somewhat cumbersome and painful. Hence, they might be forced to stick to a single provider even if they are uncomfortable with the offered services [22].
Security Issues. A company will issue private information and data the moment it leverages the remote cloud-based infrastructures. The issued information could contain confidential and sensitive data. Management, protection, and retention of such sensitive information will then be left to the cloud service providers hence the reliability of the cloud service provider turns to be very crucial. Therefore, companies seeking cloud services ought to know the risk of their operation being put in jeopardy before a decision to issue private data or information to the providers. For the selfsame reason, it would not be strange finding the end users oppose a request to have their data surrendered to a third party unless there is an assurance of data protection against all authorized uses. Also, cloud-related solutions are mostly exposed over the web making them vulnerable targets of hackers and malicious users. There is never a security guarantee for anything featuring over the internet for even the more prominent players are victims of security breaches and attacks. The interdependency of different system parts makes the situation worse since compromise of a single machine storing data can make personal information be leaked to an entire world [24].
Limited Flexibility and Control. Because a service or application runs on a remotely located third party virtual environment, users or organizations have restricted control over the execution and operation of both software and hardware. Also, the remote software under use is normally deficient in the features found in the locally running applications [23].
Latency issues. In a cloud environment, latency is used to refer to the time taken for a computer to interact with a cloud-based server. A user has to be informed about latency because the needed utilities are no longer stored inside the personal machine. Latency could be a big issue in cloud services though this depends on cloud server location, service quality and the user’s geographical proximity to the server location.
Conclusions:
Cloud computing is an increasing revolution in the IT sector. However, the paradigm is faced by some drawbacks as well as benefits, so this calls for users to strike a wise balance between the two sides. Whereas the use of the cloud services can present companies with a series of benefits and help get a notch higher regarding technology, it should be understood that confident IT-based decision or resolutions to adopt the cloud services could be misguided. Thus, it is recommended that a whole process of due diligence be carried out during the vendor assessment stage of implementation of a cloud service. In case of need, the persons involved should seek counsel from independent parties to ensure that the product or service offering is in harmony with the business needs. Cloud computing is unquestionably one of the revolutionary advancements in the world of technology. The fact that cloud computing makes it easy to store, manage and process data is an added advantage given that most of the organizations always have to deal with big data. Any organization that is intent on implementing cloud computing should, therefore, consider going about a comprehensive planning process, for that ensures that all aspects of the implementation process are taken into consideration. Over and above, organizations should ascertain that they put all the necessary systems in place, for that guarantees that some of the concerns highlighted above, such as the invasion of privacy are averted.
Cloud Computing refers to hosting businesses and other business-related services online. The services could be accessed via the internet and are also described as “Cloud” The user interfaces with the Cloud application through web browsers. However, it is not a must that everybody owns websites to be able to utilize the online resources to fulfill personal and economic obligations. It is prudent and obvious to note that numerous benefits associated with Cloud computing improved flexibility and scalability hence reducing production costs which are quite attractive in business. In addition to that, there are still more to be desired to enhance interest in Cloud Computing which is meant to turn the business perception that people have to physically attend to their businesses to achieve a milestone. Many of the risks associated with solutions to common problems hindering business industry and the global development [1].
Large organizations have always had the capital to purchase numerous servers, software, etc. to support their businesses. It is the medium and small sized organizations that have struggled in this regard. Earlier, the only alternate that was available for such companies was to maintain their IT infrastructure on someone else’s premises, but now things have changed. It was a thing of the past when great investments were required to launch a business or service on the internet.
Cloud computing provides developers with online availability of their computing needs to save them from any heavy initial investments for the IT infrastructure. The service is paid off in the same manner as the electricity grid, i.e. the payment equals the amount of consumption of the services. Cloud computing is a concept that has been desired by developers for a long period. Large investments are not required by the developer to launch a service or product since all the computing capability requirements are available online. Cloud computing is known as the availability of application services, software, platforms, etc. that would provide the basis of any desired service on the web. The computing capability for different applications, software, etc that is availed from the internet as a service, is referred to as a ‘cloud’ [2].
Armbrust explained that the private cloud is referred to as to the internal clouds of an organization that are not permitted to be used except the owner of the cloud i.e. the respective organization, whereas, cloud computing is referred to as the ‘public cloud’ since it is available for use by any individual who might need instantaneous computing capability. This innovative concept has even leaped the performance level of data centers to a new level and has reduced costs for independent developers and organizations.
Developers use cloud computing as a platform to run their applications or even develop them from scratch without investing in the acquisition of the required operating system or server hardware. Another name that is used for this concept is ‘Infrastructure as a Service’ (IaaS); it includes the dynamic usage of CPUs, virtual servers, network, storage, systems software, etc. Software as a service (SaaS) is another type of cloud computing that provides access to software to users on their need basis while the software runs on the vendor’s side of the data centers. The conventional mode of using the software requires the installation of the software on the user’s computer, but this latest technology requires no such installation. Since many decades, internet users have been availing the service of uploading their documents and pictures on the internet by different services like Flickr, Snapfish, etc.; this concept has enabled the people to save their data ‘on the cloud.’ The latest concept of cloud computing is far more usable, scalable and efficient for individual developers and organizations [3].
Before the evolution of cloud computing, organizations relied on a conventional form of data centers which were owned and maintained by the organizations themselves. The ownership and thus maintenance of the data centers proved to be a major source of expenditure for the business owners. There was no provision of scalability in the traditional enterprise data centers. They constituted of limited capacity and bandwidth. The eventual increase in the size of the data and computing needs required further investments in the infrastructure. Although the increased number of servers or other requirements might only be useful for a limited period but had to be purchased to fulfill the needs of the business, for example, an online shopping website might face increased traffic during December due to the holidays shopping. The increment in servers and data centers would prove to be a source of greater revenues and quality service during the days of heavy traffic but served as overhead for the organization for the rest of the year. The ‘on-premise’ data centers proved to be very costly due to their nonalignment with the requirement of scalability [4].
The on-premise data centers proved to satisfy the typical business conditions but fell short during the atypical ones unless greater data centers were provided. At times, the sudden rush of requests also crashed the servers due to which the service could be shut down and interrupted for the clients. Cloud News Desk described the conventional data centers and explained that organizations had full control over their data but were even liable for all disasters themselves. The infrastructure and data could not be shared with anyone and had limited number of members with its respective access rights.
Enterprise owned IT infrastructure had to be updated with the latest patches and versions to continue providing the latest functions and operations. This often meant greater investments since all new versions are not free of cost. A competent maintenance team was required to manage the systems and deploy effective security measures for its protection. Multiple management tools were adapted by the organization for the smooth functioning of different applications and services. The management and maintenance of such an extensive infrastructure created complex job descriptions for the employees. It is due to the constant maintenance and required updates that the management greatly focused on the performance level of the IT infrastructure rather than on their respective business. The conventional data centers did not offer mobility since the data physically resided in the premises of the organization. The data was not available on the web which restricted its usage and accessibility
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