02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

Is the Sky the Limit with Cloud Computing?

Managed Services / SaaS / PaaS / IaaS
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Cloud computing is becoming wildly popular. But is it right for your company?

 

"Cloud computing" has become the latest new "buzz" in the IT world. Old technology is being positioned as "cloud-enabled," and new solutions are popping up as the vanguards of cloud computing. A cloud has been used as a metaphor for the Internet for as long as anyone can remember. However, when the word "computing" is added to "cloud," it takes on a whole new meaning.

 

In a very broad sense, cloud computing refers to the complete access of resources or computing outside of the local firewall. In a more narrow interpretation, however, cloud computing is the distribution of specific applications and services from dedicated Internet-based virtual servers.

 

Once you parse through the hype, there is indeed substantive value in hosted/cloud solutions (terms that are used interchangeably), specifically in converting a large capital expenditure (capex) into an easy-to-digest, monthly operational expense (opex). Cloud solutions eliminate the need to buy expensive hardware and software as well as the management overhead of maintaining these. Challenges of ensuring that the latest patches are applied, that disaster recovery mechanisms are in place, and that security infrastructure is in place are eliminated with cloud-based solutions.

 

The implications of this technology are significant. With the processing and distribution handled remotely, cloud computing levels the playing field for those companies that do not have the funds to constantly upgrade their network infrastructure to accommodate new technologies and applications. In technical terms at least, cloud computing is the great equalizer. Companies can leverage their existing hardware and network infrastructure rather than continue a constant hardware upgrading cycle.

Three Basic Types

There are three types of clouds you may hear about:

 

SaaS—Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software delivery method in which the cloud servers distribute specific applications or services to the client, typically through the client's Web browser. The applications can be distributed to hundreds or even thousands of clients simultaneously. This enables clients to access applications with limited licensing considerations, servers, and other hardware requirements. SaaS removes the need for a company to consider multiple installations, software updates, and other local administration requirements.

 

PaaS—Platform as a Service (PaaS), as the name suggests, is a method of distributing operating systems or platform applications over the Internet. These platforms are often used to run the SaaS. The client systems get not only the application from the cloud, but also the platform on which the application is run.

 

IaaS—Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) refers to the infrastructure used over the Internet, including storage, hardware, servers, and networking components. The owner of the cloud computing hardware owns and is responsible for updating and maintaining that equipment to ensure the delivery of applications over the Internet. The client pays for the right to use the equipment, usually on a pay-for-use basis.

The Cloud's Pros and Cons

Spending on IT cloud services is expected to grow almost threefold, reaching $42 billion by 2012. Cloud computing solutions are being driven by vendors' search for growth and revenues, the shortcoming of traditional approaches in capturing growth, and competitive pressures. In a survey conducted by IDC in 2008, it was found that there is a strong demand for IT cloud services when organizations face budget and IT staffing pressures. Businesses are evaluating these solutions for backup and recovery, long-term data retention, business continuity, and the latest trend—data availability.

 

However, the comfort level with cloud solutions is somewhere between a grudging acceptance of the cost benefits and a visceral non-acceptance of living off of somebody else's server. The central issue is the perceived loss of control with the company's data. Along with security concerns about data access and data availability, there are technical limitations in living completely in the cloud.

 

Now compare this with the problems of carrying your own data. More and more people use laptops, tablet PCs, and smartphones for business, and it's easy to have these devices stolen or misplaced. Just consider these key stats:

 

  • Personal information belonging to 26.5 million U.S. veterans was seized following the theft of the data from the home of a government employee, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • Thousands of criminals' details were lost on USB key 22.08.2008. It has emerged that a memory stick containing personal details of 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales has been lost.

 

An important question needs to be posed to business professionals: why carry your sensitive data on your computer? Rather, access it securely from a virtual file server that appears as a local drive on your computer. In the unfortunate event of device loss, you don't lose data or compromise confidential information since there is nothing "stored" locally.

 

Similarly, perhaps you've heard that email is insecure. Many of the protocols involved with the sending and receiving of email are not considered secure protocols, in the sense that they are vulnerable to eavesdropping. For instance, Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP), the protocol used to route email around the Internet, is typically implemented without any type of transport encryption.

 

Also, how many times have you wanted to email a large attachment—like a large photoshop file, a large CAD drawing, or a hefty video—but didn't do so because it exceeded your email provider's, or the recipient's, limits on attachment size or because it might max out the recipient's mailbox?

 

The foremost issue that businesses are concerned about is losing control of their data once it's outside the company's firewall. The importance of data security and privacy controls cannot be overemphasized. Encryption at the storage layer and encryption at the access layers are mandatory. Redundancy at the data storage layer that goes beyond RAID6 configuration and active mirroring should encompass secure data copies being maintained at more than one data center to protect against a network operations center (NOC) failure. Then there are compliance issues with managing and storing data, like SAS70 compliance, HIPAA compliance, etc.

 

Furthermore, the ability to have an "always" available local copy of the data in the cloud, essentially a "reverse backup," alleviates concerns about the data not being available if the service provider has some outage either in the software or hardware, or in the worst possible case, the service provider goes out of business. This, when coupled with Internet outage issues, either at the service provider end or at the customer end, can have a material impact to the business. In a recent survey conducted among small business owners, 99 percent of small business respondents validated that Internet outages can be detrimental to business. In fact, the survey showed that if the Internet was down for only one hour, over half (51 percent) would be moderately impacted and nearly a quarter of respondents (20 percent) severely impacted.

 

Latency issues are another significant challenge with cloud-based solutions . Businesses that deal with large files like CAD/CAM drawings, medical images, large design files, etc. will experience latency issues when living in the cloud because their access route is over the public Internet rather than over a dedicated connection to the service provider's data center. Switching from an on-premise application running over the LAN to the biggest WAN (the Internet) can therefore be an unsatisfactory user experience. This, therefore, calls for "hybrid" solutions that combine the cloud with an on-premise adjunct: the "local cloud." Solutions that can seamlessly merge the two worlds can truly help exploit the power of the cloud without the concerns of Internet outage, latency issues, and an always available local copy of the data. Interestingly, the same survey indicated that 66 percent of respondents said that offering hybrid solutions that connect online and offline was most important to gain small business owners' trust.

 

Complicating the acceptance of cloud-based solutions are technical limitations with desktop/server software designed to work on-premise. Some of these vendors either are already providing online versions of their software or are in the process of providing these to their customers. However, in most cases, there is a significant difference in features between the online and on-premise versions, with the latter being more comprehensive and, of course, being perceived as more secure. An interesting approach is to enable the traditional on-premise software to work locally but have it "cloud-enabled" for keeping the back-end data files in the cloud as a backup. This is where the "hybrid" cloud solutions are required.

 

Even if security for cloud solutions is made hack-proof, large companies with IT departments will never agree to live on third-party servers or data farms. However, the need to leverage the power of the cloud—secure access from anywhere—will lead to "private cloud" solutions. The distinction between a cloud solution and a private cloud solution will boil down to whose data center is running the software. Also, in case of the private cloud, there is no need for a multi-tenanted solution since there is only one tenant.

 

Needless to say, with teams getting more remote/distributed, IT budgets getting leaner, and bandwidth getting faster and cheaper, it makes sense to evaluate and adopt cloud solutions. For companies with no or low IT staff, these solutions reduce all hardware, software, and maintenance headaches, and even for larger businesses, they can improve the productivity of the existing IT staff. Well-designed cloud solutions should provide access to all kinds of desktop platforms (Windows, Macintosh, Linux) and mobile devices ranging from smartphones to netbooks.

Finding the Best Cloud Solution for Your Business

To help evaluate if the solution is right for you, you may ask the following questions:

  • What kind of security and privacy controls does the solution have?
  • Is it an integrated solution addressing the core business needs? For example, does it do just backup, or does it provides online file storage, file collaboration, and backup?
  • Is the solution completely cloud-based, or does it provide a "hybrid" solution, both cloud as well as local?
  • What kind of external audits/processes does the vendor undertake (SAS 70, etc.)?
  • Is there an upfront fee or a simple pay-as-you-use model?
  • Will the vendor whose solution you choose provide a transition plan in the unfortunate event that the vendor goes out of business?

There seems to be a pendulum swinging between a preference for local computing and centrally managed applications, services, and administration. Today's technologies with high-speed networks, low-cost disk storage, and enhanced protocols make it the perfect environment for cloud computing to really catch on and switch things well into the corner of centralized distribution and management. The ability to accommodate growth and leverage the existing network infrastructure will no doubt be too attractive for many companies to ignore. So it seems that for cloud computing, the sky is the limit.

 

Vineet Jain

Vineet Jain is the CEO and founder of Egnyte.

 

Egnyte provides an On-Demand File Server for small and mid-sized businesses to store and share all corporate data online. With Egnyte, businesses get a complete hosted file server, without the need to buy any hardware or incur ongoing maintenance costs. Businesses benefit greatly by using Egnyte's On-Demand File Server because they can have unlimited storage at a fraction of the cost of a traditional on-premise server.

 

In March 2009, Egnyte introduced a complementary solution to its existing On-Demand File Server—an on-premise Egnyte Local Cloud. Egnyte Local Cloud blends the benefits of the cloud with a local copy of data, providing the benefits of unlimited storage, secure access anywhere, easy file collaboration, built-in disaster recovery, fast access, off-line access, and the ability to run client/server applications locally.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: