Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.

Question 1

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

What is the introduction?

Answer 1

• cloud computing represents fundamental change in way IT services are invented, developed, deployed, scaled, updated, maintained, paid for
• computing represents paradox:
  1) computing power nowadays considered as commodity as per-unit costs decreases
  2) computing becomes more pervasive within orga – more expensive than ever
• promise of cloud computing: deliver all functionality of existing IT services while dramatically reducing all upfront costs of computing

Question 2

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

What are the computing represents paradox?

Answer 2

1) computing power nowadays considered as commodity as per-unit costs decreases
2) computing becomes more pervasive within orga – more expensive than ever

Question 3

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

what ist the Convergence of two trends in IT within cloud computing?

Answer 3

Convergence of two trends in IT within cloud computing: a) IT efficiency: use of power of computers more efficiently through highly scalable hardware + software resources (+ possibility of green computing)

b) business agility: IT used as competitive tool through rapid deployment, parallel batch processing, use of compute-intensive business analytics & mobile interactive apps that respond in real time

Question 4

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

what ist the Formal definition of cloud computing?

Answer 4

Formal definition of cloud computing: informational technology service model where computing services are delivered on-demand to customers over network in self-service fashion, independent of device & location; users pay for service as operating expense = no initial capital expenditure

Question 5

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

what are the KEY ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTINg?

Answer 5

1) lowers cost of entry for smaller firms trying to benefit from compute-intensive business analytics + opportunity for third-world countries

2) almost immediate access to hardware resources with no upfront capital: leading to faster time to market in many businesses + adaptive infrastructure able to be shared by many users

3) can lower IT barriers to innovation

4) makes it easier for enterprises to scale their services: according to client demand

5) makes possible new classes of applications + delivers services that were not possible before:
(a) mobile interactive apps that are location-, environment-, context-aware & respond to real time info (eg weather app)
(b) parallel batch processing – allows to take huge amounts of processing power to analyse data for small period of time
(c) business analytics that can use vast amount

Question 6

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

CORE TECHNOLOGICAL CONCEPTS & TERMINOLOGY : What does Architecture for data warehousing mean?

Answer 6

Architecture for data warehousing: includes the component parts and the relationships among the parts
 Data sources, ETL software, data stores, data analysis tools & applications, users

Question 7

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

WHAT ARE THE THREE CORE TECHNOLOGICAL CONCEPTS SHAPING CLOUD COMPUTING?

Answer 7

Virtualisation, Multitenancy, Web Service

Question 8

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

THREE CORE TECHNOLOGICAL CONCEPTS SHAPING CLOUD COMPUTING: What is Visualisation?

Answer 8

Virtualisation: technology that hides the physical characteristics of computing platforms from users, instead presenting an abstract computing platform; can be configured on demand, maintained & replicated very easily

Question 9

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

THREE CORE TECHNOLOGICAL CONCEPTS SHAPING CLOUD COMPUTING: What is Multitenancy?

Answer 9

Multitenancy: concept in which single instance of an application software serves multiple clients

Question 10

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

THREE CORE TECHNOLOGICAL CONCEPTS SHAPING CLOUD COMPUTING: What is Web Service?

Answer 10

Web Service: software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network; help standardise interfaces between applications, making it easier for software client (web browser) to access server applications over a network

Question 11

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

What are the DELIVERY MODELS OF CLOUD COMPUTING?

Answer 11

Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Question 12

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DELIVERY MODELS OF CLOUD COMPUTING: What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Answer 12

Software as a Service (SaaS): application runs on the cloud, eliminating need to install and run application on client computer – enterprise-level apps (Salesforce, Netsuite, Googleapps) + personal applications (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter)

Question 13

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DELIVERY MODELS OF CLOUD COMPUTING: What is Platform as a Service (PaaS)?

Answer 13

Platform as a Service (PaaS): facilitates development and deployment of applications without cost & complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers (eg Google App engine, Amazon’s Relational Database Services)

Question 14

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DELIVERY MODELS OF CLOUD COMPUTING: What is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)?

Answer 14

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): storage and compute capabilities are offered as service (Amazon’s S3 storage service)

Question 15

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

WHAT ARE THE DEPLOYMENT MODELS WITHIN ORGANISATIONS?

Answer 15

public, privat, hybrid and Community Cloud

Question 16

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DEPLOYMENT MODELS WITHIN ORGANISATIONS: What is a Public Cloud?

Answer 16

Public cloud: available from third party service provider via internet; cost-effective way to deploy IT solutions; often used by small/medium sized businesses (Google Apps)

Question 17

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DEPLOYMENT MODELS WITHIN ORGANISATIONS: What is a Private cloud?

Answer 17

Private cloud: offers many benefits same as public (elastic, service based) but is managed within orga; greater control over cloud infrastructure; suitable for larger installations

Question 18

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DEPLOYMENT MODELS WITHIN ORGANISATIONS: What is a Community cloud?

Answer 18

Community cloud: controlled and used by group of organisations with shared interests (eg security requirements or common mission)

Question 19

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

DEPLOYMENT MODELS WITHIN ORGANISATIONS: What is a Hybrid cloud?

Answer 19

Hybrid cloud: combination of public & private cloud – non-critical info is outsourced to public cloud, while business-critical services and data are kept within control of organisation

Question 20

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

CLOUD COMPUTING – A SWOT ANALYSIS : What are the Strengths ?

Answer 20

1) ability to scale up services at short notice: obviates need for underutilised servers in anticipated of peak demand = allows to meet excess requirements without incurring high capital cost for rest of year

2) maintenance costs is made simpler: preset configuration of servers and virtual machines put in place with appropriate applications, security and data

3) allow orga to control where/how employees have excess to systems: all manged over interface

Question 21

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

CLOUD COMPUTING – A SWOT ANALYSIS : What are the WEAKNESSES ?

Answer 21

1) loss of physical control of data: unable to guarantee location of company’s information

2) missing commitment to quality of service and availability guarantees: risky for firms with mission-critical applications

Question 22

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

CLOUD COMPUTING – A SWOT ANALYSIS : What are the OPPORTUNITIES ?

Answer 22

OPPORTUNITIES
1) developing countries: potential to reap benefits of information technology without significant upfront investments (good example – Ethiopia class material managed centrally over teacher laptops)

2) small businesses: exploitation of high-end applications such as ERP software & business analytics that were unavailable before

3) mashups: web page/application that combines data from two or more external sources to create new service in originally unintended ways (eg use of cartographic data to add location information to real estate data)

4) green IT: CC allows firms not only to reduce IT infrastructure (cheaper to transport computing services than energy) + smarter use of energy

->in general: cloud computing has all characteristics of disruptive technology (lower-functionality that appeals to customers not served by current industry + quickly leapfrogs incumbents)

Question 23

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

CLOUD COMPUTING – A SWOT ANALYSIS : What are the THREATS?

Answer 23

THREATS
1) possibility of backlash from entrenched incumbents: IT departments (data security, policies + job security)

2) security, performance, reliability: lack of standards (improvement by developing standards from Foundations (EuroCloud) and individual providers

3) regulation at local, national, and international level

Question 24

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

Who are the stakeholders in cloud computing?

Answer 24

• stakeholders include not only providers + enablers & recipients of service but also regulators (discussed in section 7)

Question 25

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

Stakeholders in cloud computing: Who are the Consumers?

Answer 25

CONSUMERS
* consumers are subscribers – purchase use of system from providers on operational expense basis
* corporate users of cloud computing have active role in ensuring that cloud computing fulfils promise of revolutionising corporate computing  by liaising with industry groups & regulators

Question 26

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

Stakeholders in cloud computing: Who are the PROVIDERS ?

Answer 26

PROVIDERS
* providers will perform maintenance and upgrades on system + pricing
* providers have different competencies around different components (software, platform, infrastructure) that make up the cloud computing service

Question 27

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

Stakeholders in cloud computing: Who are the ENABLERS?

Answer 27

ENABLERS
Enablers: those organisations that sell products and services that facilitate the delivery, adoption & use of cloud computing
* are expected to build infrastructure for a hybrid system + provide monitoring software, platform migration software
* many of regular providers lack competency of interacting with customers and actual implementation  foresee big future for enablers

Question 28

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF REGULATION IN CLOUD COMPUTING ?

Answer 28

• the success of cloud computing will depend to large extent on how regulatory bodies (international and national) design laws to regulate it
• developing countries are at advantage: no existing computing infrastructure

Question 29

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

ROLE OF REGULATION IN CLOUD COMPUTING: What are country privacy laws?

Answer 29

• country privacy laws: companies are handing data to 3LP providers who store and process data in cloud anywhere in world – to which country’s privacy laws would be followed+ EU laws most strinct

Question 30

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

ROLE OF REGULATION IN CLOUD COMPUTING: What mean by attention to contracts ?

Answer 30

attention to contracts – rights and obligations: related to notifications of breaches in security, data transfers, creation of derivative works, change of control, access to data by law enforcement entities

Question 31

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

ROLE OF REGULATION IN CLOUD COMPUTING: What mean by need for an international regulatory body?

Answer 31

• need for an international regulatory body. With roles 1) formulating cross-border issues 2) consulting individual governments in formulating own cloud-related laws

Question 32

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

ROLE OF REGULATION IN CLOUD COMPUTING: What mean by needed regulation for monitoring & traceability of incidents ?

Answer 32

needed regulation for monitoring & traceability of incidents

Question 33

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

ROLE OF REGULATION IN CLOUD COMPUTING: What mean by government intervention at huge data centres?

Answer 33

government intervention at huge data centres: to ensure that sites are physically secure from terrorist attacks

Question 34

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

What are the Recommendations forbusiness professionals?

Answer 34

• not all applications are ripe for moving to cloud: general-purpose applictions (email, collaboration tech etc) are good candidates; standalone applications like CRM might be easy to deploy on cloud but difficult to migrate
• cloud computing more profitable for SMEs: 1) prices far better than what SMEs would pay for upfront investment in traditional IT 2) have less IS infrastructure to contend with = easier to move to cloud 3) less attitudinal issues
• large enterprises have more advantages from traditional computing operations: can still benefit from core technological compenents of cloud (eg visualisation) and would move to migration later after trying some ‘application projects’ recommended by their internal cloud committee (that also develops cloud strategy)
• importance of cloud computing will be measured not only in terms of cost savings but in terms of competitive advantage that it delivers
• best opportunities for cloud computing service providers: 1) small and medium segments of market (eg developing countries) – also allows to gain experience; short-term focus should lie in developing customer base, not in short-term profitability 2) handling heavy-duty computational work that would otherwise require huge investments
• cloud computing providers need to set standards that promote interoperatibility: maybe even share best practices to develop better products, promote lower prices + greater acceptability

Question 35

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

What are the Recommendations for researchers?

Answer 35

• division of research topics: 1) business issues (eg computing pricing strategy) 2) technology issues (eg security standards)

Question 36

(Article: Cloud Computing – The Business Perspective – Marston et al.)

What is the conclusion?

Answer 36

• general roadmap for cloud computing is still unclear but cloud computing will stay
• prediction of its future is difficult: especially due to fluid and uncertain environment that surrounds it