Importance of cloud computing in the modern age

By DANIEL WAMBUGU on August 15, 2014

Cloud computing has been trending in the recent years due to the effective functionality that it provides. It has been adopted by many organizations and they are utilizing it to get most of their business activities operate with ease of manageability and also less maintenance. (Mell, 2011) defines Cloud computing “as the use of remote servers that are hosted on the internet and are used to store, manage and process data.” This operation is only done on the internet and not in personal computers or even on the servers. Users can create data on their personal computers then se the cloud as their storage. Also there are some software that one can use to process and manage that data.

Importance of cloud computing

The main reason, why cloud computing was introduced, is to share resources such as software and information over the network. In our case this network is the internet. The internet connects people globally and can be made into good use by the people sharing their resources over it. Cloud computing can be divided into public, private and hybrid. The private cloud is where an organization uses its own cloud,which is not shared with other organizations. The resources such as software are customized to only be used by that organization and can only be accessed by authorized personnel (Armbrust, 2010). Public cloud is open for public use and anyone in need of it with access to the internet can get into it and use the resources available. In most cases it provides software that doesn’t require one to buy their licenses. Hybrid cloud is the cloud that combines two or more clouds. It gives its users the advantage of have gotten access to a large variety of products. (Mell, 2011) claims that in order to successfully implement cloud computing organizations must move from Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) model to Operational Expenditure (OPEX) model. It’s because in the CAPEX model organizations use their resources to purchase fixed assets or even add value to those fixed assets.  It is the traditional way of operating in a business, but not the best. In the OPEX model an organization uses its finances to cater running costs of a product, a system or even a business as explained by (Lori, 2009). With OPEX there is improved manageability and less maintenance cost incurred by the organization. A business can choose to cater for what they use by using the pay as you go method where they pay for only what they have used or they can pay using the cloud pricing model where they are given unlimited access to the cloud. The cloud pricing model does not charge for the amount used but has fixed charge for the service of using cloud computing.

Cost for implementing cloud computing

It is evident that when utilizing cloud, the operation cost is reduced as explained by (Pearson, 2009). It is because the organization does not have to purchase expensive computers or invest heavily on data storage utilities  to store their data or even to run their software. For example, a large organization requires to keep track of what it has done for the last few years so that they can make financial decisions wisely. Hence, in most cases organizations have to purchase hard disks with very large storage space to store their information which can be very expensive. Online companies such as amazon offers software that can be used by the organization. The organization will buy or rent the software and it will install the application. The company that offers the software, will be required to always be maintain the software and also to customize it in order to serve the organization’s needs as explained by (Buyya, 2008). The business does not have to purchase all the software they need because there are some companies that offer free software that can be downloaded by the organizations that require them. The organization can procure the software from a public cloud and then customize it to serve their purpose.

Cloud computing and data security

Data is very secure when stored in the cloud. It is because the organization gives access based on who is to access their data and who should not. If the organization’s data are very private and the organization does not want anyone to access their data, then they can store it in a private cloud where no one can access their data. For security purposes, (Pearson, 2009) explains that anyone in the organization who wants to access the cloud, first enters a personal identification number (PIN) which allows one to gain access or get denied access to the organization’s files. In most cases when business storage system crashes due to fire, burglary or any other accident, organizations lose their data. (Pearson, 2009) says that when all the data is available in the cloud, the organization can restore and resume smoothly in no time. Sometimes data may get attacked by virus or worms and the data gets destroyed little by little. The cloud has the applications that scans all the data and removes any threat that could be in the data getting into the cloud as explained by (Lori, 2009). By this the software providers makes sure that their software is up to date, hence securing all the information. All organizations should embrace this technology to ensure that they avoid losses and also utilize all the resources to get the best output. Cloud computing is also considered the best when it comes to data security.

References

  • Armbrust, M. F. (2010). A view of cloud computing. Communication of the ACM.
  • Buyya, R. Y. (2008). Market-oriented cloud computing. International Conference.
  • Lori, M. (2009). data Security in the world of cloud computing. Computer and reliability societies.
  • Mell, P. &. (2011). The NIST defination of cloud computing.
  • Pearson, S. S. (2009). a privacy manager for cloud computing. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

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