KAUNAS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, ARTS AND HUMANITIES

Vilius Stankevičius and Matas Petronis

Best Cloud Computing Services

Project paper

Supervisor
Mikas Binkis

KAUNAS, 2018

Table of Contents
Introduction 2

What is cloud computing? 3

History of cloud computing 4

How cloud computing works 5

Uses of cloud computing 6

Advantages and disadvantages cloud computing 8

Privacy concerns 10

Main providers of cloud computing 10

Best Cloud Computing Services 11

Conclusion 12

Introduction
Modern world of today is depended a lot from computers. Many things people do, like
watching a movie, having a conference call or looking for information is done through
computers and the internet. The latter has enabled the sharing of information thousands
of kilometers apart and gave birth to a new concept of computing - cloud computing.
The following paper will take a look at this technology and give explanations of it’s history,
how it works, it’s uses and advantages or disadvantages of its use. Also, the main providers
of cloud computing will be analyzed along.

What is cloud computing?

First of all, how would a cloud computing service be described? Cloud computing, often
referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources —
everything from applications to data centers — over the internet on a pay-for-use basis
(IBM, n.d.). To put it simply, it’s the process of using processing power of another
computer through the internet for personal use.

Diagram 1. Cloud Deployment Models. (Arron Fu, 2017)

As we can see from the diagram, cloud computing can be divided into three groups:
public, private, community or hybrid cloud system. Each of the have a different purpose,
like for example public cloud which is shared by several organizations with a community
that may share goals or concerns. Private cloud exist solely by an organization which
either manages the service itself, or has it managed by a third party. Finally, hybrid clouds.
They combine public and private offerings to allow information exchange and even
application compatibility across many different and disparate cloud service offerings.
(NARGA, 2018 ). Finally, community cloud provides computing solution to a limited
number of individuals or organizations that is governed, managed and secured commonly
by all the participating organizations or a third party managed service provider
(Technopedia, n.d.).

History of cloud computing

1955 saw John McCarthy, who originally coined the term “artificial intelligence,” created
a theory of sharing computing time among an entire group of users. (ECPI University, n.d.)
Getting the most out of computing time was an important consideration in the 1950s
because it could cost upwards of several million dollars.Small companies couldn’t afford
to use computers, making moving to the type of automation enjoyed by larger companies
impossible. McCarthy’s theory of “time-sharing” would be essential in helping get the
most out of the computing time available, as well as making computing time available to
smaller companies that couldn’t afford to buy their own mainframes.

In 1963, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), presented MIT with
$2 million for Project MAC. The funding included a requirement for MIT to develop
technology allowing for a “computer to be used by two or more people, simultaneously.”
(Keith D. Foote, 2017)
In its early stages, the Cloud was used to express the empty space between the end user
and the provider. In 1997, Professor Ramnath Chellapa of Emory University defined Cloud
Computing as the new “computing paradigm, where the boundaries of computing will be
determined by economic rationale, rather than technical limits alone.” This somewhat
ponderous description rings true in describing the Cloud’s evolution (Keith D. Foote,
2017).

The Cloud gained popularity as companies gained a better understanding of its services
and usefulness. In 1999, Salesforce became a popular example of using Cloud Computing.
They used it to pioneer the idea of using the Internet to deliver software programs to the
end users. The program (or application) could be accessed and downloaded by anyone
with Internet access. For example, Businesses could purchase the software in an on-
demand, cost-effective manner, without leaving the office.
In 2002, Amazon introduced its web-based retail services. It was the first major business
to think of using only 10% of their capacity (which was commonplace at the time) as a
problem to be solved. The Cloud Computing Infrastructure Model gave them the flexibility
to use their computer’s capacity much more efficiently. Soon after, other large
organizations followed their example.

In 2006, Amazon launched Amazon Web Services, which offers online services to other
websites, or clients. One of Amazon Web Services’ sites, called Amazon Mechanical Turk,
provided a variety of Cloud-based services including storage, computation and “human
intelligence.” Another of Amazon Web Services’ sites is the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2),
allowing individuals to rent virtual computers and use their own programs and
applications. These are some of the first examples of the beginning of cloud computing.

How cloud computing works

To understand how cloud architecture works, the cloud has to be divided into different
layers. These layers are the front-end and the back-end layers (W3schools, n.d.). Front-
end layer is the part of the cloud which users can interact with. For example, when one
logs in to his or hers Gmail account, one sees the user interface where everything works
on event-driven buttons and graphics. Similarly, a software also runs in the front end of
the cloud. Again, the back-end comprises of hardware as well as software that delivers
the back-end data from the database to the front end.

The back-end is connected to each other through a virtual network or internet. Other than
that, there are few more components such as Middleware, cloud resources, etc. that
includes the cloud computing architecture. The backend is used by service providers that
include various servers, computers, virtual machines & data storage facilities that are
combined to form the cloud technology. Its dedicated server handles each application in
the system. The front end includes the cloud computing system or network that is used
for accessing the cloud computing system. The cloud computing systems' interface varies
from cloud to cloud.

Cloud uses a network layer to connect different devices to provide access to resources
that are residing in the centralized data centre of the cloud. Cloud technology users can
use the data centre through company's network or internet facilities. Various advantages
are provided by this technology; as users can access cloud from anywhere at any time,
but the network bandwidth should have to be more. This technology not only facilitates
desktop and laptop users but the mobile users can also access their business systems
based on their demand.

Uses of cloud computing

With the power that it has access to, Cloud computing has a range of possible functions
it can perform for any individual. According to Eztalks, cloud computing is used in the
following ways:

IaaS and PaaS

Companies are increasingly using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to save on charge of
investing to obtain an IT infrastructure, maintain as well as manage it. Organizations are
quite keen on enhancing the speed of development on ready to use platforms for
installation of applications.

Private Cloud and Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid clouds allow for the testing of application workloads. Furthermore, hybrid clouds
have the skill to enhance during times of incomplete peak usage. This is better than
hosting big infrastructure that is rarely of use.

Development and Test

The use of cloud computing is the most ideal in a development and test environment.
This encompasses securing a financial plan via physical assets for setting up manpower,
important time and your environment.
File Storage
This is undoubtedly one of the major areas where cloud computing is used. Cloud
computing facilitates the easy storage, access and even retrieval of files.

Backup
The use cloud computing has significantly simplified backing up of important data. This
is because it is an easy operation and is not time-consuming. People easily store items in
the cloud and still access them. It is beneficial because it does not run out of space to
backup media.

Back up that is cloud based is a very powerful solution because automatic scheduling is
possible. Storage of information is in a remote and secure location. The stored files are
always available and it is impossible to exceed storage capacity.

Growth Planning
This is a unique use of cloud computing. Businesses can use cloud computing to plan for
growth without an expensive upfront investment. This is facilitated by file sharing, cloud
management systems and data analytics.

Disaster Recovery
Small business experience great difficulty when it comes to disaster recovery, this has
caused many to go out if business following important data loss in a disaster. This is a
critical instance where cloud computing is used as it can host important data for
organizations to protect them in the case of an eventuality.
Disaster recovery with cloud computing is much more effective, cheaper and faster
compared to the traditional disaster recovery sites that were characterized by high costs,
rigid procedures and fixed assets.
Big Data Analytics
When cloud computing is leveraged, an important aspect that is offered is that it becomes
possible to tap into huge quantities of data that is both structured as well as unstructured.
This allows them to strategically target both marketing and advertising campaigns to a
specific population segment.

Advantages and disadvantages cloud computing

While cloud computing is indeed useful and bring plenty of positive features, there are
still some problems that can arise from its usage. Here are some of the pros and cons of
cloud computing, according to “LevelCloud”:

Pro: Cost Savings

Perhaps, the most significant cloud computing benefit is in terms of IT cost savings.With
cloud computing, you can save substantial capital costs with zero in-house server storage
and application requirements. The lack of on-premises infrastructure also removes their
associated operational costs in the form of power, air conditioning and administration
costs. You pay for what is used and disengage whenever you like - there is no invested IT
capital to worry about.

Pro: Reliability
With a managed service platform, cloud computing is much more reliable and consistent
than in-house IT infrastructure. Most providers offer a Service Level Agreement which
guarantees 24/7/365 and 99.99% availability. An organization can benefit from a massive
pool of redundant IT resources, as well as quick failover mechanism - if a server fails,
hosted applications and services can easily be transited to any of the available servers.

Con: Downtime
As cloud service providers take care of a number of clients each day, they can become
overwhelmed and may even come up against technical outages. This can lead to your
business processes being temporarily suspended. Additionally, if your internet connection
is offline, you will not be able to access any of your applications, server or data from the
cloud.

Con: Security
Although cloud service providers implement the best security standards and industry
certifications, storing data and important files on external service providers always opens
up risks. Using cloud-powered technologies means you need to provide your service
provider with access to important business data. The ease in procuring and accessing
cloud services can also give nefarious users the ability to scan, identify and exploit
loopholes and vulnerabilities within a system.

Con: Limited Control

Since the cloud infrastructure is entirely owned, managed and monitored by the service
provider, it transfers minimal control over to the customer. The customer can only control
and manage the applications, data and services operated on top of that, not the backend
infrastructure itself. Key administrative tasks such as server shell access, updating and
firmware management may not be passed to the customer or end user.

Privacy concerns
It is widely accepted today, that when someone is surfing the internet, some of the
personal data can be traced and saved by various companies for better selling of
advertisements. However, with the usage of cloud computing services, the user trusts his
entire data like photos or even classified information, which also can be used for potential
damaging effect. There is also a security concern: some data may be stolen and help for
ransom.

Main providers of cloud computing

World wide there are a lot of companies, which provide the infrastructure and cloud
computing capabilities. The largest companies of which, are Amazon, Microsoft, IBM,
Google, Alibaba and others (see table 1).

Company Revenue, 2018

Microsoft commercial cloud 21,2 billion dollars

Amazon Web Services 20,4 billion dollars

 IBM 10,3 billion dollars

Oracle 6,08 billion dollars

Google Cloud Platform/G Suite 4 billion dollars

Alibaba 2,2 billion dollars

Table 1. Main providers by 2018 revenue (L. Dignan, 2018)

Best Cloud Computing Services

According “Techradar”, the best provider of cloud computing is Rackspace Cloud. They
provide great public and private cloud platforms and excellent customer support. The
only issue with this provider is that they provide little documentation, which may harm
new customers set up. Second on the list is IBM Cloud. IT provides reasonably priced
cloud services and is fully customizable with pre-configured tools for better setup.
Drawbacks include a slow load time when loading pages. Third on the list is Amazon Web
Services. They provide great customization and provide a free trial to test out the platform.
However,customer support issues like taking a long time for a response to a question may
damage the desirability of the provider. Finally, there is Microsoft Azure. Thanks to its
compatibility with both Windows and Linux it is bound to make cross platform users
happy, while 12 month free trial is a good way to test the platform. However, the big price
of usage may dissuade businesses, especially small ones, form using this pservice.

Conclusion
To clunclude, it can be said, that cloud computing is going to play more and more of a
prominent role in the life of businesses and people in the future. It provides redundant
storage and ability to access it around the world. It allows people to share documents and
photos and it may soon allow for outsourcing high powered and demanding computing
tasks to the cloud, which means people and businesses will be able to save money on
expensive hardware. However, concerns over safety from hackers and privacy are bound
to be as prominent if not more with the increasing role of cloud computing services.

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