The cloud has proved to be of much value to the IT industry. However, most analysts are of the opinion that it can be a double-edged sword too.
The cloud ranges from the on-demand availability of enterprise-class infrastructure through IaaS, SaaS and PaaS. Writing applications for the cloud is not as easy as it seems and requires sophisticated control and knowledge about traditional application architectures. Some aspects of programming which made sense before the cloud era now do not make sense. There are a few programming problems in the cloud which, if not understood well, might lead to disastrous results.
The cloud application development is public in nature and enterprises are adopting semantics privately for more storage and applications to be consumed by internal users of an organization. One must have a robust framework in place for an internal and external cloud. One can avoid cloud blunders for providing a strong foundation for all those involved in managing cloud applications.
Use of traditional application architectures: Traditional application architectures are incompatible with the cloud. The cloud can be used to host them and even inherit the qualities of deployment and management value. There is fantastic elastic capacity in the cloud. To create apps for the cloud, it is essential that pre-cloud application architectures are arranged with fixed servers and a tough configuration. It is important to leverage a dynamic infrastructure environment and high availability. Most cloud platforms are shared in nature and virtual. They might lack reliability sometimes. Traditional development practices come with more rigidity in their approach and expectations and hence it is not feasible for working around them.
Excessive costing involved due incorrect architecture decisions: In the development of non-cloud applications, if the written code is inefficient and the architectural patterns denote a costly infrastructure, customers would have to spend much more. While developing for the cloud,one needs to be responsible for operating the cloud application for customers. Inefficiency is a strict no-no since it will have a direct impact on the overall costing. A number of companies have cloud business which is worth hundreds of millions due to the right architectural decisions which included cloud as a single instance, multi-tenancy architecture. The cloud is not inherently cheaper than any of the traditional datacenters but the overall flexibility as well as the pricing structure uses innovation to be cost-effective.
Relies on human sense rather than automated workflows: Cloud apps allows one to tap into incredible flexibility. But the flexibility is extended to human sense as in the real world but that does not make any sense in a virtual world. All fundamental operating workflows including provisioning new business units, change of price-points and modifications of entitlements along with application upgrades need to be automated. Critical workflows of high importance need true interoperability. Manually driven operating work flows are sure to set up inefficient standards leaving the cloud's value on the table and increasing disadvantages.
Ignorance of operational lock-in risk: Cloud offerings usually consist of a holistic stack. The APIs and infrastructure patterns follow a certain route and adequate attention needs to be paid to lock-in risk. Making an R&D decision about the cloud stack to use is quite different to operating and hosting environment. One can also choose between public or private cloud computing technology in different approaches. But the lock-in risk needs to be taken care of.
Cloud computing applications can execute and run all sorts of applications if the architecture is strong enough. Moreover it offers a large number of benefits for the average user.
The cloud computing applications can do anything with the right middleware and even run all the programs which a normal computer could usually run. Custom programs, processing solutions, ERP for organizations, almost anything designed for a specific company can be run through a cloud computing system.
But is it really required that another computer system has to run programs and even store critical data. Here is why cloud computing works big time:
Clients can access their applications and critical data even if they are roaming. Any computer which is Internet-linked and runs well can serve as an access point to the company data. Data is not restricted to a single hard drive or a single computer or even a single internal network.
Cloud computing services helps in bringing hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems not required hardware systems which are complex and cost a moon. The fastest computer is not required with the fastest memory since the cloud system can help here. An inexpensive computer terminal would do the trick. The terminal can consist of monitor, keyboard and mouse and just enough to run the middleware. Most information would be stored in the remote computer.
Cloud computing systems gives its clients access to nearly every computer application that you would need. There is absolutely no requirement of software licenses for every employee. A metered fee to the cloud computing company can give you organization-wide access.
There is now absolutely no need to buy physical space and store servers and databases since Cloud computing gives the option of data storage on other hardware removing the need for physical space.
No need for IT support since the provider will take care of these things. Streamlined hardware would in fact have lesser problems than a network of operating systems and machines.
If the cloud computing system's back end includes a grid computing system, then the client has access and advantage of the entire processing power offered by the provider. It is difficult for individual computers to complete tasks assigned by scientists and engineers since the requirement of processing power is huge. On a grid computing system, one can scale up on resources and the cloud system would release the processing power of all available computers on the back end which would help the data to be processed in a trice.
People worry about cloud computing due to two factors: security and privacy. Handing over data and security to a third party appears problematic for some and many executives might hesitate to take advantage offered by a cloud system just because they are apprehensive of keeping company's information under some relatively less secure lock and key.
It benefits a company to take security measures . Cloud computing companies offer advanced techniques for clients' data security. For safeguarding privacy is difficult. Client's privacy could be compromised if data is accessed anywhere. Cloud computing companies are always in the lookout of safeguarding client privacy. Authentication techniques such as user names and passwords are used considerably and even role-based access is provided.
The cloud is one of the major aspects which are propelling cost savings for thousands of big companies. Here is why the cloud has become important for everyone.
As the battles between operating systems and web development technologies rages on, there is another battle being waged which is between legacy computing vs. cloud computing.
Legacy computing consists of programs which are installed on a hard drive or a local server. Cloud Computing refers to all types of software services and platforms which have a base online. Emails are examples of cloud computing, some access mails through their installed programs while others use e-mail services directly online. Cloud computing services are used by many businesses everywhere.
Cloud computing services and its development is a cost-effective way to store and maintain databases and those who are into sales will find it efficient too. A platform on the cloud is helpful for everyone who can access data and procedures and can put it into one central location. Information can be organized in different departments for an organization-wide collaboration.
Cloud computing services are never installed on a particular computer. Services delivered when needed through the cloud, is known as SaaS (software as a service).Here the software is accessed online and the option provides storage, database creation, and a plethora of business-related services.
Cloud Computing Application Development solutions are less expensive than any software which are purchased off-the-shelf thus becoming a popular choice among many businesses who want to cut down on IT infrastructure. Pricing is done mostly on per-user basis which helps businesses to just pay a flat fee for the people who are actually using it. Time and money can be saved while going for an upgrade too cloud computing application development services are upgraded by those who are providing it so everyone using the service is already on the upgraded platform.
Cloud Computing Technology is prevalent nowadays since users have complete access to their information online whenever they need it. Cloud computing offers incredible ROI options and can be extremely cost-effective if used in an optimum manner.
The fear of losing data is one disadvantage of cloud computing which is felt by most businesses and hence have not resorted to online storage or database. When changes are made, they happen in real time in the cloud. There is absolutely no reason to worry if a computer crashes since the information is stored in the cloud. No need for daily backup is required either since security is maintained always. Information is just a password-click away only.
Cloud computing means a lot for many businesses since employees are endowed with the capability for doing things better and faster. Through collaboration, work is completed faster and information can be traced quickly as required. Custom solutions can be built depending on the wants of every business need and there are various options for cloud add-ons which work effectively. Most common software applications need to be placed in the cloud.
If any business is facing problems and there is a need to upgrade the present IT infrastructure, it is better to opt for cloud computing instead of making an upfront investment in legacy computing. Cloud computing has proved its success for many businesses.
Statelessness, server failure, and changing platforms are bound to confuse new developers who are venturing into cloud web apps development.
Cloud computing involves accessibility of different products and services on hosted servers and has certainly been part of the current IT trends. The number of cloud web apps developed in recent times has been quite high but this also brings a huge responsibility on the part of the developers.
Cloud deployments have helped out developers to not worry about infrastructure issues but they need to set themselves. These include changes in how developers work with databases, an emphasis on stateless applications, and dealing with different frameworks.
Different types of software are likely to be instrumental in providing that an application needs in the near future. Using APIs, most developers are writing apps specifically for the cloud and they are bound to buy more resources from the cloud provider.
Developers have to design their systems as per the redundancy factor and now commodity machines are being utilized in the cloud. One has to design applications that can be run on the cloud for redundancy since machines are going to fail, soon!
Building for the cloud is akin to designing stateless applications since there is no such concept of a local disk in the cloud nor there is any registry. The best and easiest kinds of applications are usually stateless. The interesting apps have a state which is connected to databases which store some state including user info. But different parts of the app like the Web front end are stateless.
Additionally, different parts of an application might be spread out in a cloud. Storage might be in Amazon S3 and the presentation layer might be on Facebook. Previously, everybody had all components of their system in one storage system.
Cloud platforms and cloud web apps can help. In some cases, scaling is implemented for a restricted combination of applications automatically while sometimes design patterns are used to horizontally scale applications. Amazon.com EC2 for example, can provide Multiple Availability Zones which only large companies could scale to do this previously.
The presence of abstraction and statelessness has various database implications in the cloud. For example, the Azure storage engine does utilize a standard relational database and hence standard apps do not matter anymore.
The problem with cloud platforms like Azure is that there's no guarantee that the data would be in a particular location or datacenter since stored procedures aren't relevant in any context due to the stateless nature of the platform. Even the Azure storage engine is different than the latest SQL Data Services which is the cloud-based version of SQL Server. Developers need to be clear and careful while writing cloud web apps. Azure stores data like a blob while SQL server stores data in a relational table.
It is not a problem with Windows Azure but there are many other cloud platforms which cause a whole lot of problems. Even the Google App Engine involves a developer who uploads code and then the database is split up. Since the process is automated, developers would like to follow a certain model which developers need to follow though it differs drastically from a traditional SQL model.
SaaS and cloud computing technologies walk hand in hand. The cloud has been loaded with web apps ever since the recession when companies opted for the low-cost solution for the IT infrastructure.
SaaS (Software as a Service) had almost met its doom in 2001 but it crawled back into contention due to the need of companies to combat with high-cost IT infrastructure. SaaS was revolutionary when it came in, but the expectations were too huge to be fulfilled. SaaS has now managed to smother other new technologies and has several versions in the form of Infrastructure as a service and Platform as a service. SaaS has considerably regained its stature since the dot com bubble burst and has grown in recent years.
SaaS web apps started out as point solutions and the first players in the market included UpShot and SalesNet. These solutions provided services related to specific business needs but did not have a huge customer following even though the idea was new and useful. The features were limited and the resources were limited too at their disposal. The competitors who started out offering SaaS solutions offered better features after the dot com bubble while the originators lost their place of importance and eventually vanished into thin air.
Feasibility of cloud computing and SaaS
The feasibility of cloud computing services has always been undetermined since it is difficult to quantify the benefits as well as its utility in any business context. Business requirements have always mentioned the need for low cost but efficient infrastructure but with no solid and structured cloud computing solution in place, it was difficult for businesses to opt for cloud computing. SaaS proved to be an efficient mode of delivery but it is important to know that the IT setup has evolved well over the years and the security measures are better than they were, years before.
Nowadays, there are businesses that are not wary of offshore software testing because of the fantastic setup of offshore service providers. Most are willing to outsource their non-core IT tasks to offshore locations. The cloud has made it possible to save time and money and set up virtual offices to get their tasks done.
Importance of Cloud computing and SaaS web apps
Cloud computing solutions are great for small businesses since they are scalable according to the needs. Additionally, they can even handle the immense workload at cheap monthly prices.
SaaS has grown to several heights and now has become mission-critical too. It has transitioned well from being a unit silo process to a full-fledged enterprise mode of delivery and the SaaS web apps are used for mission-critical purposes related to ERP solutions.
Cloud computing services consumed from external service providers have taken a huge chunk of the total services offered, according to a Gartner report. The cloud market is preferred today by many with the advent of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure capitalizing on the surge of interest in people for cloud computing. Many organizations have expressed their desired to get into cloud computing by allocating a part of their IT budget for the same. Many of them plan to allocate budget for cloud computing in the near future.
RSS Feed