Cloud Computing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Cloud Computing - Research Paper Example For this analysis, focus would be on the public cloud where software and hardware systems are hosted in the remote data center of the provider as opposed to private cloud where the software and hardware systems are hosted in the enterprise of the customer. Thus, instead of having local servers and computers in the consumer’s premises, the provider provides a remote data center from which end users access the cloud through web browsers or mobile applications (Rountree & Castrillo, 2013). These cloud application providers seek to provide similar or better service as if the software programs were locally installed in the end-users’ computers. The capital investment involved in setting up a cloud would be mainly on the data center. This cost would be borne by the cloud provider who acquires all physical computing resources including networks, storage, servers and hosting infrastructure. On the other hand, the operation costs would be passed on to the users. The equipment an d assets in the data center belong to the service provide while the user would enter into a contract with the provider on a monthly or annual basis. Additionally, this cloud provider manages the computing infrastructure meant to provide the cloud services and runs the cloud software which provides the required services. The provider takes up the responsibility of deploying, configuring, maintaining and updating the way software applications operate on cloud infrastructure so as to meet the expected service provision levels. Therefore, the cloud provider would be expected to design, develop, procure, install, test, deploy, provide and manage the IT resources in cloud computing. Raj (2013) observes that this shift of capital demanding model to an operating expense model transfers material risk from the service user to the provider. DEPLOYMENT MODELS Organizational requirements on the services to be accessed from the cloud and the control needed varies greatly. Therefore, different ser vice models have been used to implement the cloud environment. During the early stages in the development of cloud computing, there were only two categorizations, private and public cloud according to Hollwarth (2012). These two shared specific characteristics. However, these categories were extended to cover forms like the hybrid cloud and even a more specialized model known as community cloud. Private cloud Private cloud infrastructure is solely operated for an organization made up of multiple consumers. According to Mell and Grance (2011), the ownership, management and operation of this cloud could be vested in the organization, an appointed third party or a combination of these. It could be hosted on or off premises. Accessibility would be through local area network, LAN or wide area network, WAN (Raj, 2013). This implies that the organization substantially holds control of the data center thus improves on privacy and security issues. Nonetheless, Hollwarth (2012) observes that private clouds could fail to be fully utilized as compared to public clouds and as such could fail to operate efficiently. Additionally, undertaking the control of security of the cloud could come with higher cost implications as opposed to public clouds. Community cloud Shared by various organizations, community cloud is exclusively provisioned for use by a specific consumer community sharing similar concerns such as compliance considerations, policy,