By Karyn Scottney-Turbill
[KaZbAhMeDiA]
We are in the midst of a technical revolution and furthermore only in the early stages of what have already proven globally to be vast, radical transformations driven by innovations in digital technology. Cloud-based services are not entirely new however, as basic cloud computing structures, including applications like webmail have existed since 1995. Now these applications are part of the first two service layers of now highly complex cloud computing structures.
However the addition of Web 2.0 greatly enhanced these services and user interfaces and the Internet, now centred as a “universal tool of interactive communications” (Castells, 2000, p10). As a result, we are shifting “away from computer-centred technologies to network-diffused technologies” (Castells, 2000, p10), and significantly to enhanced, layered forms of ‘cloud’ computing.
Definition of Cloud Computing:
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” (NIST, 2013, p1).
[Published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology]
Characteristics of Cloud Computing:
As computing services, became cloud-based technologies, like electricity obtained from the national grid, software, hardware, online platforms, file sharing and storage facilities became available for purchase, with consumption metered and leased on a pay per use basis. Nowadays, the majority of users online use webmail services and software programs such as Microsoft Word and other “word processing applications whose functionality is located on the web” (Donohue, 2009, p1). Today billions of users across the globe have social media accounts, and also share and store data online and the software, applications and virtual server. The contemporary technology driving our online activities making such daily actions possible are the layered structures of cloud computing systems.
The core to cloud computing is “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources” (Metz, 2010, p1) such as applications, services, networks, servers and storage, and are accessible via the Internet. Such cloud-based technologies facilitate accessibility and convenience with on-demand access to networks and stored data. These are “rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (NIST, 2013, p1) through the outsourcing of software, hardware, networks and infrastructures to online clouds services and their providers.
Essentially, cloud computing consists of five core characteristics; On-demand self-service, Broad network access, Resource pooling, Rapid elasticity, Measured Service:
- On-demand self-service: This refers to outsourcing and networking software and services and thus the hardware powering such provisions. This allows users to “provision computing capabilities as needed… without requiring human interaction with each service’s provider (Metz, 2010, p1), such a server access and time and program applications, along with networking and storage.
- Broad network access: This feature promotes the various scales of requirements of users, allowing platforms and network access to be catered to a client’s needs, while also enabling users within a network to share programs, storage spaces and data (NIST, 2010, p2). The broad network access of cloud services, means they are widely accessible and compatible, functioning across numerous platforms and devices with network access, such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops and PDAs.
- Resource Pooling: Referring to the resources of ‘cloud’ providers and by nature, such computing provisions are “pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model” (Metz, 2010, p1-2) catered to the cloud’s functions and purpose and available to suit a user’s requirements. These include numerous “virtual resources with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand” (Metz, 2010, p1-2) along with different physical structural components, or hardware, which is contained in a providers data centre, or sever farm of a third party. Such pooled provider resources include storage drives and servers, network bandwidth, processing memory, virtual servers and online application based services.
- Rapid elasticity: This is the ability to scale up and scale down storage, user groups, services and individual user access.
- Measured Service: Automatically optimising storage, processes and bandwidth to control active user accounts, allowing this resource usage to be surveyed and subsequently controlled by both the user and the provider of the cloud computing system (NIST, 2013, p1).
Furthermore there are currently four deployment models for cloud computing. These all strikingly different in their networking and functionality include private clouds, public clouds, community clouds and hybrid clouds. Private clouds are the in-house architectural systems of particular organisations, which are cloud-based network structures implemented by businesses for their own internal operations. Some companies may choose to use a hybrid approach, with some processes kept on internal, private clouds, while moving other provisions to a public cloud. They may control their own data centres and servers for the storage and networking capabilities of various core operations, but may also require access to a greater shared pool of services and infrastructures to increase their functions and capabilities upon cloud-based systems.
Structural Layers of Cloud Computing:
Structurally speaking, cloud computing systems are made up of four specific forms of infrastructure and known as the ‘layers of service’ each with different capabilities and levels of user advantages and risks.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS):
Structurally speaking, cloud computing involves four ‘layers of service’; including three service platforms and the hardware, or four layer. The first layer and most familiar to users is the Software-as-a-Service layer (SaaS) and are regularly Google Apps, Facebook, YouTube and Netflix. This is the application layer and thus includes any applications you can access from the web, that doesn’t require access to a local server.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS):
The next layer is the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and includes lower-lever services of the cloud servers, such as the operating system, web server and computer language interpreter within a cloud service. The PaaS layer allows developers to build and customise the applications for the SaaS layer of service. The PaaS layer is often termed the ‘middleware’ and includes platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Google App Engine, Azure and Java. Allowing users to “to create, deploy and manage applications over the Web” (Capurro, 2013, p3) the PaaS layer provides the framework and storage capabilities for the SaaS layer.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS):
The third layer, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is the “Computation (VM) Storage (block)’ (Zhang, Cheng, Boutaba, 2010, p9) and consists of provisions of (virtual) servers that can be accessed on a pay as you go basis). Examples of IaaS layers are Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (Ec2), GoGrid and Flexiscale and provides access to storage, servers and networking services that are paid for as they are used, via the Internet. However, “in practice, cloud suppliers often provide additional services alongside IaaS offerings” thus the boundaries of these layers becomes ill-defined (Anderson, 2010, p1).
Data Centres:
The fourth layer is the central hardware that controls all three layers of service. At the core of all Cloud-based infrastructures are the physical servers, memory, disks, cables, CPU (Central Power Unit) and bandwidth. Houses in mammoth data centres on server farms around the globe, these are the drivers that power each layer of a cloud service.
Key Advantages of Cloud Computing:
With no up-front investment for users, using pay-as-you go models of service, in addition to the low operating costs, high scalability, ease of access, cloud computing models are significant as they are not only popular but revolutionary. The very nature of cloud computing makes these network-based sharing and filing services readily available, and free of the physical constraints of location and time. Moreover, with data, applications and storage space residing within a ‘cloud’ users, especially businesses and larger enterprises can minimise hardware, expenditure and in-house IT professionals. However there are two sides to the development of cloud-based technologies. On the one hand are such significant advantages that have revolutionised computing technologies, but on the other side the sinister risks and serious threats to users.
Assessing the Pitfalls and Risks of Cloud-Based Technologies
In addition to current and future ecological concerns are the ever growing uncertainties brought by endless technological developments and system upgrades, coupled with significant shifts of power and control specific to the development of cloud-based systems. These power shifts continue as network service provider’s fight for supremacy and market shares in a volatile digital landscape where the game and faces are constantly changing. The major competitors and leading developers of data Centre operators and cloud systems are major network names and include service providers, such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Ask.com. However the growth of their network-based cloud services, including search engines, online stores, news, product and entertainment sites and social media networks along with third party partnerships for data collecting, marketing and central data centre operations and infrastructures is not all positive. While their immeasurable popularity translates to new memberships and millions if not billions of dollars in company revenue, increasing their colossal market shares, and the subsequent growth and development of services, despite the overall volatility of the platforms, layers and infrastructures, the impact of these network giants on the earth, resources and atmosphere will make these companies infamous for many years to come.
For users, cloud computing services require various forms of identity markers, services that are remain network-based and independent of the individual’s computing hardware or media device, thus enabling “a single sign-on to thousands of online services” (Ceronin, 2012, p1) and access to the storage, memory and networking capabilities of the cloud’s data centre. While currently, “scalability, reliability, security, ease of deployment and ease of management for customers, [are] traded off against worries of trust, privacy, availability, performance, ownership and supplier persistence” more deep seeded concerns including serious security threats continue to be elevated by the very structure of cloud-based technologies and their rapid and incessant development (Sriram and Khajeh-Hosseini, 2010, p4).
Today consumers and businesses have altered standard practices, evolving models for communication and conduct for the heightened performance capabilities if cloud-based network systems. The widespread popularity and deployment of cloud computing and the amazing development of such services has evidently caused a technological revolution. However while industry and society evolve along with cloud computing technologies, unease specifically related to environmental impacts and future sustainability are in constant disrepute.
Furthermore, companies such as Google and Apple have the access and control of services, storage, structures and revenue, monopolising once separate layers and functions of standalone personal computers, servers and previous forms of information computing technologies which are now part of the resource pool accessed upon a cloud system. As the growth of cloud computing providers including social media networks and search engines continues at an increasingly rapid rate, the consequences and ongoing trade-offs for users, such as notions of security, privacy and basic consumer rights once fiercely protected are now traded in for the convenience, performance and scalability offered by network-based user interfaces, cloud computing systems and the data collecting and profiling capabilities created to utilise the endless data trail formed by a stream of information crystals, the constant, excessive by-product of all cloud-based activities. Thus cloud systems become the tool that drives thousands of tiny splinters of information to data mining and profiling companies, including governments, federal agencies and marketers without any restrictions or necessary consent.
Concluding Thoughts
Cloud computing while hugely advantageous, has advanced data collection, profiling and user surveillance tools, exacerbating digital privacy and security issues. For now amongst other issues, “the difficulty is developing a workable strategy for digital privacy and security” to ensure the current user risks are addressed and not spiral out of control (Notley, 2011, p1). Online activities leave a digital trail and along with cookies and IP addresses of the Internet sites accessed, users leave identifiable information with every online action. As concerning as this is, even more troubling is the fact that the majority of users have no idea how data is used, collected and possibly distorted. Unfortunately for now, “law badly trails technology, and the application of old law to new technology can be unpredictable” (WorldPrivacyForum, 2013, p3) and dangerous.
While there are obvious benefits and even security advantages derived from cloud computing technologies and their wide spread implementation these are outweighed by the security challenges they present. Furthermore data centres energy consumptions and cabling infrastructures must be addressed and developments in design to address environmental concerns and the overall sustainability of today’s infrastructures in the future is paramount. However security, privacy and design issues in today’s dynamic and constantly evolving digital environment are challenging. Thus the future sustainability of cloud computing technologies and the risks the present remain to be precarious issues for cloud system providers and users alike.
By Karyn Scottney-Turbill
KaZbAhMeDiA
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