Cloud Computing Now and in the Future P a g e | 1

Running head: Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Now and in the Future
Marcus Thomas
INF103: Computer Literacy (PTE1431C)
Instructor: Erteza Abdullah
09/01/2014






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I think cloud computing is a great idea both for the individual user and businesses alike.
John Manley, director of HP's Automated Infrastructure Lab, argues that software will become
divorced from hardware, with more and more technologies consumed as a service: Cloud
computing is the final means by which computing becomes invisible, he says (Duncan, 2013).
What is Cloud Computing? What does it have to do with the average user? How does cloud
computing benefit business, individuals, and society? Is the cloud safe to use with so many
invasions of privacy? Cloud computing has both advantages and disadvantages to using its
system. I will be going into detail on what these are, and compare my research findings to give
satisfactory answers to these questions. In addition I will draw up a conclusion of my own
thoughts and predictions about where cloud computing is headed.
For people who are not familiar with cloud computing, it is the practice that involves
usage of network servers that are remotely located. Users can access the remote servers via the
Internet to manage, store and process relevant data, rather than on the personal computer of a
local server. Cloud computing is integrating itself as a way to store and access data from
smartphones, tablet computers, laptops, and desktops. And, it is not just data that resides in the
cloud, but even applications can exist there (Bowles, 2013). More and more business startups
are using the cloud from the ground up to simplify their business strategy. Many businesses are
using cloud computing that usually turns out to be cheaper, faster and easy to maintain. Now, not
only businesses but regular Internet users are also using cloud computing services such as
Google Docs, Dropbox and more to access their files whenever and wherever they want.
Cloud computing has accelerated with the wide use of the Internet services as well as
development of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Many people carry their
portable devices when not on their desk and easily access their documents, media and pictures on
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cloud storage via the Internet. With the development in technology market, experts are also
worried about the increased security needs for cloud computing (Passary, 2014).
Using cloud services can save users and businesses money and space. Tightened budgets
and a precarious global economic environment are prompting companies around the world to
turn to cloud computing as an alternative to investing in more hardware and software. Their
interest is underpinned by employees who already use cloud services to meet their personal and
work needs (Choi, 2013). The cloud computing market is expected to expand by 44 percent
annually from now until 2016, when it is forecast to account for more than 60 percent of all
traffic at global data centers. By 2016, global data center traffic is expected to reach 6.6
zettabytes, a nearly four-fold increase from 1.8 zettabytes in 2011, with cloud traffic representing
4.3 zettabytes (64 percent), compared to 683 exabytes (39 percent) in 2011 (Choi, 2013). Like
any new technology advancement, cloud computing also creates disruptive possibilities and
potential risks. The fact that cloud computing involves the aggregation of computing power, and
more importantly, information, has become a source of increasing concern (weforum.org).
Now that we have a solid idea of how cloud computing works lets consider the
advantages and dis-advantages of using this system. Starting with advantages from the textbook,
it brings out that having the OS in the cloud will give the user a super quick boot in seconds
rather than minutes. Chromebook is a good example of a computer that is trying to crossover as
it uses Googles cloud for some of its storage. Another advantage of cloud computing is that it
would make computer viruses and malware almost nonexistent. The virus protection would take
place at the cloud level, and would not be the responsibility of the individual user (Bowles,
2013). The user would have access to their information anywhere they have a device and internet
connection, and the cloud acts as a backup. By using the cloud to run software a user wont have
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to install or update programs it would be the responsibility of the provider, goodbye driver
searching. The last one it mentions as an advantage is collaboration in the cloud, sharing files
and ideas in real time.
As brought out in the article Mobile Cloud Computing: State of the Art and Outlook an
advantage of cloud computing that customers are able to use less hardware while drawing from a
large shared pool of resources while appearing individual. When extended to mobile devices,
cloud computing provides access to services that would otherwise be limited by mobile device
constraints (Christensen, 2009). Mobile devices, especially smart phones, are becoming
increasingly powerful and feature-rich due to hardware and software advances and the
integration of sensor functionality, making it feasible to perform resource-intensive tasks using
the pooled and shared resources of the smart phones themselves, which in turn can reduce the
need to offload computing tasks to the cloud (pooling of resources locally), as well as providing
new opportunities to use the increasingly ubiquitous smart phones themselves as a cloud
computing resource (sharing of resources), an idea that was first proposed by McKnight et al.
(2004), who called it the wireless grid, and described it as an ad hoc sharing of resources such as
screen, signal and microphone on edge devices such as PDA's, laptops and mobile phones
(Wijngaert and Bouwman, 2009).
The deployment models define mobile cloud computing in terms of the audience with
which mobile resources are shared and pooled, which can change on the fly due to relocating
mobile devices, assuming that direct device-to-device connections are possible. End-users can
therefore use a private mobile cloud at home, use public mobile clouds while traveling to work
and switch to an office community mobile cloud while at work (Mobile Cloud Computing,
2013).
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Now lets consider the dis-advantages of cloud computing. The textbook brings out that
even though some programs and software can run smoothly through the cloud other programs
that are graphic intensive such as games need user end hardware to run properly. Privacy is a
huge issue, since the user does not have complete control on who sees the data. Some servers for
a cloud system are even overseas in other countries that have different privacy laws than our
own. The cloud is great if you are always somewhere where there is an internet connection. But
if you do not have Internet access, your computer is worthless, and you are unable to access
your data. Although the Web follows us almost everywhere we go these days, it is not
everywhere that we want it to be, and sometimes access is a problem. It would be very
inconvenient if we could not use our computers in such cases (Bowles, 2013). The last dis-
advantage it brings out is the scenario in which the cloud itself goes down. This has happened a
few times, most notably Amazons cloud back in 2012.
Privacy and security breaches are not done just by hackers. Malicious employees at the
cloud computing provider, vulnerabilities in the technology to separate shared resources, data
loss or leakage, the hijacking of online accounts, interception of data sent via the internet and
unsecured application programming interfaces (API's) which facilitate the interaction between
cloud computing services (Cloud Security Alliance, 2010). More security-related incidents are
inevitable. Therefore, companies will make systemic adjustments. To this end, new cloud
technologies, including hybrid cloud and multi-availability zones, should be utilized. A hybrid
cloud combines features of a private cloud environment- scalability and cost-effectiveness-with
security and control. During periods of peak usage, the private cloud handles the most important
data. Social game firm Zynga, a major customer of Amazon's public cloud, shifted to a hybrid
cloud due to a surging number of users and a series of service setbacks. One last dis-advantage is
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that the cloud user is dependent on their network provider; the connection can slow due to
bottlenecking, coverage, and latency issues (Choi, 2013)
Moving on to discuss the cloud system itself into more detail and what it means for the
clouds future and our use of it. The deployment models define mobile cloud computing in terms
of the audience with which mobile resources are shared and pooled, which can change on the fly
due to relocating mobile devices, assuming that direct device-to-device connections are possible.
End-users can therefore use a private mobile cloud at home, use public mobile clouds while
traveling to work and switch to an office community mobile cloud while at work. By contrast,
non-mobile deployment models consist of datacenters that have been set up for more stable user
groups independent of their location. Conceptually, these on the fly changes in mobile sharing
audiences show similarities to mobile resource sharing concepts such as personal networks
(Niemegeers and Groot, 2002).
M2M (machine to machine) connections can be looked upon as part of the mobile
network. Mobile SaaS (Software as a Service) would then involve mobile applications or
services that run on local and context-aware mobile devices. In principal, these are all mobile
value services. However, thanks to resource pooling and sharing, new added value services
become possible. In part these services are end-users services, and in part they are enabled by
M2M resources. Mobile SaaS for end-users could involve a group of people wanting to play a
card game using their mobile devices. Only one device has the card game installed. The host
device pushes a private card deck to each individual device, displaying it via the web browser.
Other examples are music sharing, video sharing, information sharing, etc. In a similar way,
context-aware services can be considered a mobile SaaS (Mobile Cloud Computing, 2013).
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Cloud services are in effect that allow more than one person to share a phone while each
having their own phone number. Made for economically disadvantaged people who cannot
afford their own phone, this service moves personal data like phone numbers to the cloud, which
can be accessed online (Choi, 2013). A trusted context, which positively influences people's
willingness to share, is more difficult to establish when sharing audiences change on the fly,
lacking the comparatively predictable datacenter deployment environments from the likes of
Microsoft or Google. A possible solution is for a mediating party to establish which devices and
users are trusted, pooled and shared and to which circle - private, community, public - these
trusted resources belong, with the type of cloud services varying accordingly (Mobile Cloud
Computing, 2013).
Programs that use a lot of data and power are being hosted in the cloud, freeing up
resources and enabling devices to become more efficient. Next generation commercial devices
will be ultra-small, flexible, wearable devices. For example a Google Glass wearer can access
Internet searches, video recording, video chatting, real time mapping and real time interpretation
with a voice command. This ability to handle all functions on a device that is smaller than a
smartphone reflects Google's decision to limit internal functions and rely on the cloud (Choi,
2013). Yahoo Japan in 2012 developed a cloud-based smartphone application called The road I
came from which records the user's movements in real time. Log data collected in the cloud is
analyzed and users can manage a designed lifestyle that reflects their tastes and habits.
Furthermore, with only an Internet connected device, work can be performed by connecting to
the cloud anytime, anywhere, creating my own workspace or smart work. Inadequate storage
space, the Achilles heel of mobile office work, is being solved by the cloud, leading to a rapid
increase in the number of offsite workers. In 2010, the global mobile workforce surpassed 1
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billion, and by 2015 it will increase to 1.3 billion, accounting for 37.2 percent of all workers
(Choi, 2013).
By having the cloud system think of what is required at any given moment software
could take on traits currently found in social-media applications like Facebook, and Instagram.
Programs will simply use hardware and software according to their needs. In other words, the
infrastructure and software of a datacenter will mold itself around the task required, rather than
the other way around. Developers will no longer need to worry about provisioning storage, a
server and a switch, all of this will happen automatically. The twinned technologies of abstracted
software and commodified hardware should combine to make datacenters function much more
like ecosystems, with over-arching system ruling equipment via software, with hardware
controlled from a single point, but growing and shrinking according to workloads (Clark, 2012).
Unfortunately larger bandwidth is required in order to make leaps and bounds, which is why
Google and others are finding alternatives such as drones.
My future prediction based on my research is that there will be 4 or 5 major players in the
cloud support market and maybe a dozen smaller companies offering cloud storage. I think there
will be a consolidation of services from big players like Google and Amazon. When we finally
get better connectivity as in other countries I think that even 3D gaming will be possible in
conjunction with high end processors. Already 3D games are taking up less space on mobile
devices like tablets and are part cloud oriented. Ive seen full computers the size of a cable box
with a few usb ports for a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. I believe this trend will continue as the
cloud continues to develop its usefulness. The idea to share your network connection with others
for free or by charging is interesting. Before cloud computing really took off, I remember there
were bums that provided Wi-Fi by having an internet device on their person that you could use
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for a small fee. Now that devices require more bandwidth with increasing media rich technology,
and new capabilities I think a similar avenue may be taken to widen the nets coverage area.
Cisco a major development company has an interesting idea to take cloud computing to
the next level in our everyday lives and call it fog computing. They are using the cloud to
connect many small devices such as appliances, cars, street lights and every other piece of our
material culture. And by using the feedback information given from the device they can make
decisions, for instance the user is in a car accident so an emergency operator is notified.
Technology really is amazing, and with advancements in cloud computing and perhaps
some fog computing the future is taking shape right before our eyes. The research findings
provide some surprising and useful insights into what current and potential users see as the most
important benefits of cloud technologies; and what users, providers, and policy-makers fear may
disrupt the adoption of cloud services and thus potentially diminish their value (weforum.org).
Even though cloud computing comes with security risk it all depends on the provider and the
security they insure. I believe it is worth getting setup for both personal and business use because
its only going to get better.






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References:
Christensen, J.H. (2009), "Using RESTful web-services and cloud computing to create next
generation mobile applications"
McKnight, L.W., Howison, J. and Bradner, S. (2004), "Wireless grids - distributed resource
sharing by mobile, nomadic, and fixed devices", IEEE Internet Computing, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 24-
31, doi: 10.1109/mic.2004.14.
Wijngaert, L.v.d. and Bouwman, H. (2009), "Would you share? Predicting the potential use of a
new technology", Telematics and Informatics, Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 85-102, doi:
10.1016/j.tele.2008.01.002.
Cloud Security Alliance (2010), "Top threats to cloud computing V1.0", available at: CSA web
site: www.cloudsecurityalliance.org/topthreats/csathreats.v1.0.pdf
Niemegeers, I.G. and Groot, S.M.H.D. (2002), "From personal area networks to personal
networks: a user oriented approach", Wireless Personal Communications: An International
Journal, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 175-86, doi: 10.1023/a:1019912421877.
Bowles, M. D. (2013). Introduction to Digital Literacy. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education,
Inc.
World Journal of Computer Application and Technology 1(3): 89-101, 2013
http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/wjcat.2013.010305
Cloud computing is the future but not if security problems persist, Tech Times, By Sumit
Passary, 2014
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CHOI, E. (2013). How Cloud Computing is Revolutionizing the Future. SERI Quarterly, 6(3),
104-109.
Exploring the Future of Cloud Computing: Riding the Next Wave of Technology-Driven
Transformation, The World Economic Forum, 2010. weforum.org
Dihal, S., Bouwman, H., de Reuver, M., Warnier, M., & Carlsson, C. (2013). Mobile cloud
computing: state of the art and outlook. Info, 15(1), 4-16. doi:10.1108/14636691311296174
ZDNet, Article Title: Cloud computing: 10 ways it will change by 2020, By Jack Clark for Cloud
Watch | July 31, 2012