Cloud Computing
25 August 2013
Abstract
By now most of us in Information Technology (IT) have heard the term “Cloud Computing”. In my own words, Cloud Computing is the future of IT, combining capabilities of virtualization, distributed computing, utility computing, and networking. Cloud Computing provides consumers and businesses with software and services while reducing footprint and overhead. Along with the great deal of flexibility provided, one of the most important aspects of Cloud Computing is the reduced total cost of ownership. In this paper we will assess how Ericsson benefitted from Amazon Web Services (AWS) in terms of cost reduction, automated software updates, remote access, and on-demand availability. We will evaluate the scalability, dependability, manageability, and adaptability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Services (Amazon S3), and RightScale. After which we will examine the security concerns for cloud-based services and make suggestions to cope with these concerns. Finally, we will assess possible scalability, reliability, and cost issues associated with cloud computing, and make suggestions to overcome each of these issues.
Immediately Ericsson has taken advantage of the Amazon infrastructure, due to the fact that is was already in place. This is a benefit of cloud computing which provides cost savings to the business customer. The use of Amazon provided resources already available allows Ericsson to have an advantage instantly. Minimized cost is a very important factor when it comes to business and business development. Cloud computing allows for use of the Internet as the platform in which you develop and integrate software. Therefore, a business is able to maximize the use of its resources, lessening potential expenses in all areas. (Robinson, 2008) Ericsson has the capability to deploy data and updates near real time, due to the fact that AWS allows scalability. These services were distributed services, available data center locations in the U.S., Europe, Singapore, and Japan. The choice of Amazon Web Services (AWS) was a great choice because AWS was the most integrated public cloud provider in the RightScale Cloud Management Platform. AWS provides a suite of services as I see it. These services consist of, but are not limited to, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Services, and RightScale. The first service, Amazon EC2, provides scalability on demand almost. The “requirements creep” is something that we all will experience in IT. What we think we will need and what we need, almost always tends to be different. The requirements in IT grow or creep upward due to the nature of the business, hence the term “requirements creep’! This capability also gives a user the ability to manage server instances in minutes. Quick, convenient and easy access management is dream for any administrator on any system. Along with this capability we also have Amazon S3. Amazon S3 provides storage on the internet. It allows an administrator to store, manage and retrieve their data at their convenience. As long as an administrator, developer, or programmer has access to the internet, they can usually access data. The key focus of this particular service is to increase scalability to ensure developers operate at optimum levels. It allows for compatibility, functionality and operability through protocol and application layers. These services, as with most cloud computing, offers a pay for what you need or use option. (Amazon Web Services, 2012) The last service in this suite of services we will call it, is RightScale. RightScale was developed to be a acts as the conduit between applications and the cloud. It allows a business or consumer to roll out business-critical applications across public, private, and hybrid