Monthly Archives: July 2013

Challenges Sky-Airline Will Face When Implementing Cloud computing

According to (Smith, 2013), both large and small enterprises are increasingly finding cloud a likable solution within their stringent organizational policies as a cost effective option to innovative ideas development and actualization. The popularized idea of cloud as proposed by the CIO of Sky-High Airlines Amelia Earhart has seen rush of implementing virtualization amongst other CIOs which has increased its complexities amongst the solutions it offers. The arisen challenges in cloud implementation are mostly due to “the haste without proper analysis of one’s situations and requirements beforehand” (Smith, 2013). The key business and technical issues confronting organizations when implementing cloud computing are;

 

Data security and Manageability: This becomes more challenging if an organization involves multiple vendors since the organization’s assets and data is being interface from a third-party; thus, ensuring data security and privacy are of utmost importance to prevent hacking.

 

Data portability:  An organization smooth transition to cloud can seriously jeopardize by data portability because of the essentiality to have control over one’s data even when in the cloud and not just locked in with service providers.

 

Cloud set-up Selection: Successful cloud implementation depends on the most appropriate chosen cloud set-up of the three types available – private, public and hybrid therefore, Set-up choice may be challenging as one type may be advantageous in cost while the other in security.

 

Political and legal guidance: Adherence to governmental and internal regulations are requirements to implementing cloud services, However, cloud governance is still taking shape; thus, the existing political policies “may prove flawed and insufficient” while internal policies “may prove too stringent and inflexible” (Smith, 2013).

Source: Smith, C. (2013). Chanlenges of implementing Cloud Computing. Retrieved July 9, 2013, from http://www.psfbuzz.org.uk/2013/01/challenges-of-implementing-cloud-computing/~.UdVqxTBBmxU

Business Must Transmit To Cloud Computing Because of The Following Reasons

Business Must Transmit To Cloud Computing Because of The Following Reasons

While many of these factors are key criteria for selecting cloud solutions, they usually don’t align with the bigger picture that C-level executives must consider when adding new IT solutions.The issue of success or failure in moving your company data, IT storage, servers or software to the cloud is often driven by technical issues, including performance, bandwidth, security and total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) considerations.

Important Fact About Airlines And Their Transmission Into The Cloud

ImageAirlines willing to transmit to a cloud based booking system will have the advantage of being ahead of their competitors in the market world. because cloud base system deals with payment as you use the service.  Airline using the Amadeus Community Cloud benefit directly from a variable cost model allowing them to pay for what they consume. At the same time, Amadeus runs a transaction business model so airlines’ IT costs are in line with their business volume and therefore revenues. Furthermore, the pooling of IT resources in the data centre, in conjunction with virtualisation, means that IT costs are reduced, when compared to each airline attempting to construct its own data processing facility. Increased flexibility can also be achieved – by delivering software, data processing and IT as a service, Amadeus can in tandem service its customers quickly; effectively connecting and migrating them. Amadeus’ Community Cloud also means that in-house airline IT teams can concentrate on their own strategic initiatives and importantly, benefit from scalability – being able to access additional computing power on request, is of great importance to airlines.

source: Cloud, Community and Collaboration: Airline Benefits of Using the Amadeus Community Cloud. (msciseoshevire2002.wordpress.com)

Data Security Issues In Cloud Computing

The key driving force in many small, medium and large sized companies is Cloud computing and it has many cloud users seeking the services of cloud computing, the one question that remain their major concern is the security of their data in the cloud.

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Data management, data privacy and security are concerns for every cloud user, and the cloud provider too. With more and more companies looking into cloud computing, understanding cloud data security issues is important. Every cloud service(s) seeker either individual or a company should be bold enough to ask the right questions to the cloud provider before hosting their data or applications on the cloud.

Source: http://www.bubblews.com/news/630357-data-security-issues-in-cloud-computing

7 Dumb Cloud Computing Myths

Cloud Mythbusting: Security Stinkers, Cost Clunkers, And More

As I leaf through the pages of my cloud scrapbook, I’m struck by how much valuable ink has been wasted repeating charges about cloud computing that just aren’t true. Each year, sure as clockwork, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison tries to come up with a new putdown of the multi-tenant cloud during Oracle OpenWorld, like throwing mud against the wall to see if it sticks. Each year, the results are the same — splat and slide, gravity beats FUD.

Let’s start with security myths. I’ve long been interested in the supposed lack of security in the cloud and concluded that cloud operations are more secure than those of the average data center. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of gaps and loopholes when it comes to sending your data over the Internet to cloud servers; any exposure to the public Internet contains its own hazards.

Data movement to the cloud is not a layup. But the standard of operations at Amazon Web Services, Terremark, Rackspace, Savvis and others is high enough that you can be assured of best practices on a more consistent basis than in many enterprise data centers. These centers are also going to be irresistible targets, and eventually an isolated breach will occur. Achieving security in the cloud is a journey that’s just gotten underway.

I’ve also heard many critics say there’s no definition of cloud computing, because there isn’t really anything new to define. In fact, there is the NIST definition, but I’m inclined to say it’s more description than definition.

The heart of cloud computing revolves around a new pattern of distributing computing power, not a new technology. In this new pattern, the end user has much more control than he used to over a powerful, remote server owned by somebody else. That control can extend up to the point where he achieves programmatic control over the server, if desired. Getting that control while engaging in one of the lowest-cost forms of computing is the heart of the cloud, an emerging relationship between the end user and publicly accessible data services.

The myths that are most difficult to bust are the ones involving cloud costs. There are many circumstances where monitoring cloud usage gets away from IT managers. They lose track of what employees have spun up; at the end of the month IT is presented with a big, surprising bill.

Before any cost comparison can be made, the cloud customer needs to know what specific operations in his own data center cost–a major research project. Some IT organizations do not have a true measure of total data center cost.

Explore my list of the top seven cloud myths that continue to bedevil prospective cloud users. Then weigh in with your opinion by leaving a comment.

Amazon’s Invasion of the CIA Is a Seismic Shift in Cloud Computing

The rumors are true. Amazon is providing cloud services to the CIA. But what’s most intriguing about the multi-million-dollar deal is not what Amazon is doing, but how the company is doing it — and what that means for the future of that thing called cloud computing.

Word of the deal broke in mid-March by way of a publication called FCW, which reported that the king of cloud computing had inked a contract with the Central Intelligence Agency to provide cloud services over the next decade. Amazon finally confirmed the deal, if not the price tag, last week after rival IBM filed a formal protest over the pact.

The deal was big news across the web. Amazon, pundits said, had stepped up its effort to challenge old-school giants like IBM in an area the old guard had long dominated federal contracting. The chorus of voices swelled Friday when the General Accounting Office responded to IBM’s protest with a ruling that said the CIA chose Amazon over Big Blue due to a “superior technical solution.” But Amazon’s CIA contract is important for far bigger reasons, and marks a much bigger shift than most people realize.

You see, the GAO ruling on the matter reveals that the contract involves Amazon building cloud services inside CIA data centers. “The contractor generally was to provide a copy of its existing public cloud (modified where necessary) to be installed on government premises,” the GAO ruling explains. That may seem like a small thing, but in the world of cloud computing, it’s a seismic event.

For years, cloud computing has been defined by sharp contrast in philosophy. New-age companies like Amazon and Google said computing power should be offered over the internet, much like electricity is offered over the grid. This, they said, was cloud computing. But old-school companies like IBM and HP — companies threatened by this new way of doing things — urged businesses to duplicate cloud computing services like Amazon EC2 and Google Compute Engine inside private data centers, arguing that this provided greater security and privacy. You could still have cloud computing, the old guard said, without the public internet.

Amazon, in particular, scoffed at this notion of the “private cloud.” Behind such voices as Andy Jassy, the head of the company’s Amazon Web Services business, and AWS chief technology officer Werner Vogels, the web giant made a point of telling the world a private cloud was not a cloud — that a cloud, by definition, was delivered to everyone, across the public internet.

Yes, some of this was just semantics, an effort to grab hold of a marketing term — cloud — that has become vitally important in the computing world. But underneath the bluster, Amazon and IBM truly held contrasting views. IBM was willing to build you a service inside your own data center. Amazon was not.

Until now.

Amazon declined to discuss its contract with the CIA. But in typically fashion, it did provide a canned statement, arguing that the CIA contract does not represent that big of change for the company. Amazon already offers cloud services, known as GovCloud and FinQloud, designed specifically for government agencies and financial institutions. “We can tell you that GovCloud and FinQloud are examples of ‘community clouds’ where we are delivering members-only implementations of AWS to groups of organizations who share specific requirements,” the statement reads.

But GovCloud and FinQloud reside inside Amazon data centers. The CIA deal is something different. The GAO’s makes it clear that building cloud services inside CIA data centers is part of the pact, and a source familiar with Amazon’s thinking confirms this represents a significant change in strategy for the web giant.

Amazon has been hugely successful offering its public cloud services to developers and startups — by one estimate, AWS now runs as much as one percent of the internet — but it’s now looking for ways to expand its cloud business into much larger operations, the so-called “enterprise” and government agencies such as the CIA. The company already has told us it is building a network of partners that will help it sell services into traditional enterprises, and now, it has crossed another line, agreeing to embrace what was once a dirty term at the Seattle company: “the private cloud.”

The truth of the matter is that many enterprises and government agencies still question the privacy and security of public cloud services. “This level of control is very important in regulated industries: financial services and healthcare,” says Michael R. Overly, a lawyer with the international firm Foley & Lardner LLP. And it appears that Amazon is now willing to accommodate these concerns.

To be sure, a government intelligence agency such as the CIA is an extreme case, but rumors have long indicated that Amazon is building similar private services for others, including large companies, and with the recent revelations that the NSA, another intelligence agency, is now lifting data from public web services, concerns over security and privacy online may only increase.

Some might accuse Amazon of hypocrisy. As recently as December, when we visited AWS headquarters in Seattle, AWS head Andy Jassy reiterated that the company was opposed to the so-called private cloud — that the public cloud was vastly superior in every way. But with its CIA deal, Amazon is simply following the money. According to FCW, the CIA contract is worth $600 million to Amazon over the next ten years. And ultimately, that’s worth a little egg on the face.

Additional reporting by Robert McMillian

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