Question

Complete a 2-3-page paper with an abstract and conclusion (plus cover sheet and reference page) that discusses:

1. How does a cloud based storage service differ from Software as a Service (SaaS)?

2. Give a brief overview of the following types of cloud based storage (Public, Private, Hybrid and Mobile).

3. What are the disadvantages and advantages to using cloud based storage?

4. What are the availability, performance, and security considerations?

Specific questions or items to address:

1. How does a cloud based storage service differ from Software as a Service (SaaS)?

2. Give a brief overview of the following types of cloud based storage (Public, Private, Hybrid and Mobile).

3. What are the disadvantages and advantages to using cloud based storage?

4. What are the availability, performance, and security considerations?

Answer 1

1)

Differences between cloud services and SAAS:

1. with the cloud services a user is able to customize and manage an application on the server that is hosted remotely by a third party like AWS. you are given access to your data on those servers via the internet.

SAAS has the following things:

•Software/Interface

  SaaSprovides the users a complete software application or the user interface to the application itself.

•Outsourced Management

The cloud service provider manages the underlying cloud infrastructure including servers, network, operating systems, storage, and application software, and the user is unaware of the underlying architecture of the cloud.

•Thin client interfaces

  Applications are provided to the user through a thin client interface (e.g., a browser). SaaSapplications are platform-independent and can be accessed from various client devices such as workstations, laptop, tablets, and smartphones, running different operating systems.

•Ubiquitous Access

Since the cloud service provider manages both the application and data, the users are able to access the applications from anywhere.

With SaaS, the user no longer has to maintain either the physical servers or the cloud-based software application. Instead, you pay a subscription to access an already developed software application via a web browser. You don’t have the responsibility of maintaining the software. You lose some control over the management and customization of the application.

2. nChannel is a good example of both a cloud computing and SaaS application. nChannel provides a cloud-based integration software that connects retail systems like eCommerce, ERP and POS systems that helps merchants with order management, inventory synchronization, and product information management by integrating their ERP, POS, eCommerce, and marketplace systems.

How we deliver this cloud application to customers is a SaaS model.

This application we built can be accessed via the internet by our customers, but we maintain, manage, secure, and process our customers’ data that is kept on remote servers as the “cloud.” We don’t maintain the physical servers themselves. We just maintain the application that is run on them, which we call nChannel’s retail integration software.

To access this cloud-based software, our customers pay a monthly subscription rate. Multiple users can use it and access it via any web browser. We’re in charge of maintaining the application and processing your data.

As you can see, cloud computing and SaaS are two different ideas, but they work with each other to bring easy-to-access, cost-effective software applications to all types of end-users.

2) Public, Private, hybrid and mobile cloud:

public cloud:

i) Open for use by the general public

•Exist beyond the firewall, fully hosted and managed by the vendor
•Individuals, corporations and others
•Amazon's Web Services and Google AppEngine are examples

ii) Offers startups and SMB’s quick setup, scalability, flexibility, and automated management. Pay as you go, model, helps startups to start small and go big

iii) Reliability concerns hinder the adoption of cloud

•Amazon S3 services were down for 6 hours

iv) Large scale infrastructure available on a rental basis

•Operating System virtualization (e.g. Xen, KVM) provides CPU isolation
•“Roll-your-own” network provisioning provides network isolation
•Locally specific storage abstractions

v) Fully customer self-service

•Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are advertized
•Requests are accepted and resources granted via web services
•Customers access resources remotely via the Interne

vi) Accountability is e-commerce based

•Web-based transaction
•“Pay-as-you-go” and flat-rate subscription
•Customer service, refunds, etc.

private cloud

•Within the boundaries(firewall) of the organization
->All advantages of public cloud with one major difference
->Reduce operation costs
•Has to be managed by the enterprise
•Fine-grained control over resources
•More secure as they are internal to the organization
•Schedule and reshuffle resources based on business demands
•Ideal for apps related to tight security and regulatory concerns
•Development requires hardware investments and in-house expertise
•The cost could be prohibitive and cost might exceed public clouds

Hybrid Cloud:

• The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, public or community) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds)

  

Mobile cloud:

Mobile cloud storage allows users to store and manage files, photos, music, and videos from their mobile devices (laptops, tablets, and smartphones). Many new mobile phones come with preloaded and configured cloud storage that can be used to back up the device’s files. iOS devices use iCloud, Apple’s mobile cloud storage service.

Android-operating devices use Google Drive, while Samsung Galaxy has a partnership with Dropbox. We compared the features of iCloud vs Dropbox,

03)   What are the disadvantages and advantages of using cloud-based storage?

Advantages:

i) cost:

Companies and individuals using cloud-based services are more likely to cut back on operating costs than those who still use in-house hosting solutions or external hard drives. Furthermore, according to the recent online polls on cloud storage, the average cost of one gigabyte of storage space is around 3 cents.

Consider migrating your data to a third-party cloud storage service to avoid cluttering and to ease operations.

ii) Accessibility

As we mentioned in our introductory remarks, you can access all files, folder, photos, and videos in the cloud from anywhere in the world. Of course, provided you have the necessary credentials and internet access.

iii)  Recovery:

One of the greatest advantages of using cloud storage is that you’ll always have a backup solution in case something goes wrong. If something happens to the files on a computer, you can always access the cloud and retrieve any data that may have been damaged or lost.

iv) Syncing

If you’ve committed any changes to one or more files, the cloud will automatically sync the changes across all affiliated devices.

v) Increased Security

Most cloud storage providers tend to add extra layers of security protocols. They do this in order to prevent your files and folders from either ending up in the wrong hands or from being lost.

Disadvantages:

i)  Dependent on Internet Connection

Since cloud-based solutions depend on the speed of your Internet upload and download speed, having a low latency can impede you from accessing the data in real-time. Also, there are still many areas around the globe where you can’t connect to the Internet.

ii) Costs

For a corporation or a small business, cloud storage services are sound solutions. However, for home devices, these costs may be too high to handle.

iii) Hard Drives

Although the goal of cloud-based services is to minimize our dependency on physical storage devices, a large number of business cloud storage services require the presence of a physical hard drive as well.

iv) Customer Support

Customer support is not one of the stronger points of cloud storage vendors. Cloud storage providers usually instruct clients to take a closer look at the FAQ or follow online forums.

v) Privacy issues

After migrating the data to a third-party cloud storage provider, there is a bit of an issue concerning who owns the information. Is it the company, as a client, or the cloud storage provider?

04) What are the availability, performance, and security considerations:

Performance: Performance in cloud storage that uses shared IO exclusively, is still a puzzle for IT professionals. In the case of solid-state drives, improving performance becomes easier. Private clouds have ample flexibility in balancing performance between networking, compute and storage.

Availability: As the data will be stored in the cloud servers the data can be accessed at any time. but when the cloud server gets down then we can't access at that time this is one of the major problems.

Security: Security is undoubtedly the most important concern associated with cloud storage. Disk-based encryption is inappropriate, but the real problem is that servers are not yet equipped to encrypt at line speed. Hopefully, the industry will be able to short out this issue in the coming years.