Page 12 - DCAP609_CLOUD_COMPUTING

Unit 1: Introduction to Cloud Computing

Notes
!
Caution Security and confidentiality risk is involved. If the client has an unusual set of
confidentiality standards and that security must be a core competency of their own, cloud
may be a risk.

Did u know? Microsoft launched the Windows Azure Platform in February 2010, promising
“a wide range of Internet services that can be consumed from both on-premises
environments or the internet”.

1.2.5 Cloud Computing: The Next Step in Collaboration

With the growth of the Internet, there was no need to limit group collaboration to a single
enterprise’s network environment. Users from multiple locations within a corporation, and
from multiple organizations, desired to collaborate on projects that crossed company and
geographic boundaries. To do this, projects had to be housed in the “cloud” of the Internet, and
accessed from any Internet-enabled location.
The concept of cloud-based documents and services took wing with the development of large
server farms, such as those run by Google and other search companies. Google already had a
collection of servers that it used to power its massive search engine. Why not use that same
computing power to drive a collection of Web-based applications and, in the process, provide a
new level of Internet-based group collaboration?
That is exactly what happened, although Google was not the only company offering cloud
computing solutions. On the infrastructure side, IBM, Sun Systems, and other big iron providers
are offering the hardware necessary to build cloud networks. On the software side, dozens of
companies are developing cloud-based applications and storage services.
Today, people are using cloud services and storage to create, share, find, and organize information
of all different types. Tomorrow, this functionality will be available not only to computer users,
but to users of any device that connects to the Internet-mobile phones, portable music players,
even automobiles and home television sets.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

1. A network architecture in which each computer has equivalent capabilities and
responsibilities is called Peer-to-Peer computing.

2. With cloud computing, the software programs you use are stored on servers accessed via
the Internet and are not run from your personal computer.

3. Google hosts a cloud that consists of both small PCs and large servers.
4. Cloud computing has its ancestors both as client/server computing and peer-to-peer
distributed computing.
5. The P2P was also a decentralizing concept.

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 7