IT professionals are concerned with the loss of control and security related to cloud computing. Private Clouds provide a handle for overcoming these challenges. As more of today’s businesses contemplate the need for ever increased investment in their IT departments, some aspects becomes clear: the need for effective ROI, increased security and more control of their resources, both internal and external. It is the loss of control and security which keeps many enterprises IT professionals awake with concern for the safety and administration of their growing computing needs. Private cloud computing is a new set of technologies and services available to help address, and ultimately eliminate the worries and concerns of your IT folks. From a public cloud perspective, most service providers are unable to relinquish the type and level of controls necessary to make network administrators satisfied with pushing proprietary data into the public domain. Even with the tightest security encryptions, concern for the flow and destination of applications, data, access have prevented large numbers of businesses from exploring the capabilities of cloud computing. However, with private cloud computing, control is brought back in-house to your IT admins along with heightened security and the ability to flow data precisely where it needs to go, either to destinations on your internal networks or along secure external channels. In order for businesses to cross the chasm from internal IT silos to the power and economy of cloud computing, they’ll need to take 3 steps: – Consolidate and Virtualize their applications: server, storage and network operations. – Automate and Optimize their virtual operations. – Enable federated access to resources on other public and private cloud operations. Vast majorities of IT budgets are spent on upgrading obsolete hardware. With new and improved computers, routers, switches, etc. constantly coming onto the market, the five years to obsolescence occurs quickly. With ROI and profitability, when it happens, taking at least a year and a half or longer, keeping the infrastructure up to date and in place can be a challenge for the bottom line. By consolidating operations, moving applications onto fewer sever sets and then creating virtual access to the resources, IT professionals are on track towards enabling their operations for private cloud computing. It is important for the enterprise that they are not simply tossing away resources which may have useful life in them. By enabling the consolidation of current assets, they are able to maximize investment in their current set up. As they see demand increase for more storage, application and network interactions, they are able to move into the second stage of the transition. By optimizing their operations, be it the freedom to increase hardware as needed, or provisioning applications and storage on demand the second stage is set. The enterprise now has the ability to increase hardware and provisioning when they need it. Whether set to automatically replicate services on demand or simply wrest control of decision making from cloud providers to the internal IT staff, virtual operations allow for the critical ability to make internal decisions for the betterment of the organization. With control and security firmly in place, when additional resources are needed, federated access is the way to scale operations to virtual infinite levels. The industry is still developing the protocols and universal security measures that will elevate trust levels. It is imperative that service providers continue to work together in order to enable interactivity. When your business needs to have access to on demand scaling of their web operations or research and development capabilities, being able to have unrestricted, pay as you go, federated access to deeper private clouds will allow you to compete at the highest levels. Your bottom line will also be affected by competitive service pricing and your company’s ability to ensure secure access and delivery of data and application interface. The migration from all internal IT departments towards some form of cloud computing is well on its way. Sandy Winslow is a writer on a variety of topics, including IT professionals struggling with loss of control and security challenges. Incorporating a private cloud system is the easiest way IT professionals can insure their system is safe and that they have full control.
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them. Cloud computing is a method of delivering hosted services — Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – over the Internet in a fast, cost-effective way. The technology has gained popularity in a weakened economy as enterprises seek ways to save money, but as always, this emerging technology presents certain risks, and it could open an organization to security vulnerabilities and threats. The concept generally incorporates combinations of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) , platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) . Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers. Cloud computing can be confused with Grid computing which is a form of distributed computing whereby a ‘super and virtual computer’ is composed of a cluster of networked, loosely-coupled computers, acting in concert to perform very large tasks and Utility computing – the packaging of computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility such as electricity Characteristics Cloud computing customers do not generally own the physical infrastructure serving as host to the software platform in question. Instead, they avoid capital expenditure by renting usage from a third-party provider. They consume resources as a service and pay only for resources that they use. Many cloud-computing offerings employ the utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional utility services (such as electricity) are consumed, while others bill on a subscription basis. Sharing “perishable and intangible” computing power among multiple tenants can improve utilization rates, as servers are not unnecessarily left idle (which can reduce costs significantly while increasing the speed of application development). A side effect of this approach is that overall computer usage rises dramatically, as customers do not have to engineer for peak load limits. Additionally, “increased high-speed bandwidth” makes it possible to receive the same response times from centralized infrastructure at other sites. Companies Vmware, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are some of the major cloud computing service providers. Cloud services are being adopted by individual users through large enterprises including vmware, General Electric and Procter & Gamble. Cloud computing types Public cloud Public cloud or external cloud describes cloud computing in the traditional mainstream sense, whereby resources are dynamically provisioned on a fine-grained, self-service basis over the Internet, via web applications/web services, from an off-site third-party provider who shares resources and bills on a fine-grained utility computing basis. Hybrid cloud A hybrid cloud environment consisting of multiple internal and/or external providers “will be typical for most enterprises”. Private cloud Private cloud and internal cloud are neologisms that some vendors have recently used to describe offerings that emulate cloud computing on private networks. These (typically virtualization automation) products claim to “deliver some benefits of cloud computing without the pitfalls”, capitalising on data security, corporate governance, and reliability concerns. They have been criticised on the basis that users “still have to buy, build, and manage them” and as such do not benefit from lower up-front capital costs and less hands-on management, essentially “[lacking] the economic model that makes cloud computing such an intriguing concept”. Cloud Computing and Security Issues The benefits of virtualization and cloud computing are transforming the way we look at IT outsourcing for development, testing, and production. Existing skills, processes, and projects seem to translate naturally to a virtualized environment, and few obstacles seem to impede the adoption of the cloud model for production. Practitioners and the media alike have touted the potential security issues of virtualization. The cloud brings with it a layer of additional security considerations, in terms of both technology and process. This layer of additional security isn’t necessarily scary or complicated. But right now, trust in the security of cloud computing is the number one impediment to its growth. This article takes a look at the cloud from various points of view. I will compare real-world examples to look at security implications of the Cloud, and show how they integrate with traditional security processes. V.Venkatesa Kumar.
This article briefly explains what cloud computing is & does, examines the facts that underlie the hyperbole & considers the benefits it can bring to organisations. Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Web. These services are broadly divided in to these categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). A cloud service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer & Web access). A cloud can be private or public. Public Cloud – A public cloud sells services to somebody on the Web. Private Cloud – A private cloud is a proprietary network or a knowledge middle that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider makes use of public cloud resources to generate their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Advantages of Cloud Computing Services: Businesses can have enormous infrastructure without having to implement and administer it directly. It permits accessibility to multiple data centers anywhere on the globe. Companies can add additional service as and when needed from the vendor without having to pay for additional hardware. It reduces energy costs for running hardware and cooling as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions and conserving energy. It results in improved resource utilization. There is a big push for these services by several big companies. Several large universities have also been busy with large scale cloud computing research projects. The bottom line: It is a simple idea, but it can have a huge impact on your business.
Cloud computing is the new IT trend that is grabbing the industry magazine headlines, and although it is being positively embraced by many users, some are needlessly worried about security issues. Bringing together the three major trends of virtualisation, utility computing and software as a service (SaaS), cloud computing is still regarded with a degree of suspicion by some. However, as both the US and UK governments utilise the technology they at least have no doubts over its use. It is the combination of the three component parts of cloud computing that make it particularly appealing to users as they need little or no knowledge of the technology needed to operate it. First used to describe large ATM networks in the early 1990s, when used in the computing context ‘Cloud’ is describing the internet and the way that resources are used across its entirety. It involves the provision of services to users who don’t have to worry about any of the technical issues surrounding the service. Because resources can be pulled from across the internet it means that cloud computing solutions are entirely scalable and peak loads are easily accommodated. That allows users to go about their business without having to worry about allocation of CPU, storage or network bandwidth. The shared hosting infrastructure model in regular use today is limited by the physical constraints of the available hardware, usually at one bottleneck point, such as single server. However, cloud hosting has no such restrictions as it utilises the processing power of a series of servers in real time. A user of cloud hosting simply purchases as much processing capacity as they require from a resource that is virtually inexhaustible and therefore provides a seamless service regardless of peaks and troughs in visitor numbers. Intelligent systems simply ensure that load-balancing is applied across a series of servers, adding or removing them from the cluster as required providing an invisible transition for customers. The technology underpinning the infrastructure enables small and medium–sized enterprises to utilise web hosting architecture in a way that was only available a large corporate IT department a few years ago. Cloud technology is now utilised by major corporations and governments throughout the world. It is certainly no fad, and despite myths about its lack of security is almost as robust as any traditional system; it is dependent upon the quality of the software and operator. There are also varying types of cloud, such as an on-premise cloud or a virtual private cloud, which are as secure as the system operator wishes them to be as it is in a private environment. However you would be constrained to your pre-configured environment. Adam Singleton writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.
TARRYTOWN, NY–(Marketwire – November 2, 2009) – Westcon Group, Inc., the leading specialty distributor in networking, convergence, security and mobility, today announced that its Comstor Worldwide organization will distribute the groundbreaking Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) solutions to qualified channel partners around the world. Comstor will deliver the Cisco UCS solutions to mid-market-oriented Cisco channel partners, supporting them through its solutions programs and advanced training opportunities. Cisco’s new UCS platform offers many operational benefits, especially for mid-market companies looking to decrease their IT hardware footprints and power consumption. Cisco UCS integrates network, computational, storage access and virtualization elements into a single cohesive system — resulting in simplified system management, higher performance and greater availability. Bill Corbin, executive vice president, Comstor Worldwide, commented: “Cisco’s UCS is another example of how Cisco is driving opportunity in the channel by introducing disruptive technologies. The Unified Computing System, which integrates seamlessly into existing data center environments, has already proven to deliver tangible business benefits while lowering operational costs. Comstor Worldwide has the global infrastructure and networking knowledge to fully support Cisco’s ambitious undertaking — which we fully expect will result in market opportunities in the virtualization and data center markets.” Dave O’Callaghan, vice president of distribution, worldwide channels at Cisco, commented: “As one of our global distribution partners, Comstor has an important role to play in the successful rollout and adoption of our virtualization and data center technologies. Our mutual channel partners will benefit as Comstor Worldwide aligns its global operational infrastructure and becomes a proactive ambassador of Cisco Unified Computer System solutions.” “We recognize that virtualization and unified computing technology represent the next frontier in data center efficiency,” said Patrick Vardeman, vice president and general manager of Houston-based Accudata Systems, Inc. “As a distributor, Comstor has always been an early adopter and an enabler for our business. They have the reach, infrastructure, knowledge and established best practices to help us capitalize on the very real market opportunity that the Cisco UCS infrastructure represents.” Comstor Worldwide will be introducing robust programs and services offerings around Cisco’s UCS solution platform over the coming weeks and is currently developing sophisticated global training centers to accelerate regional market penetration. Cisco-focused resellers looking for more information on UCS should contact their local Comstor sales representative. About Westcon Group Westcon Group, Inc. is the leading specialty distributor in networking, security, mobility and convergence for leading technology vendors, including Cisco, Nortel and Avaya, Inc. Through its Westcon, Comstor and Voda One business practices, Westcon Group sells products and services to resellers, systems integrators and service providers. Westcon Group has particular expertise in the convergence of voice, data and video applications and technologies, including voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, security for networking and communications systems, remote access, Internet and e-business, virtual private networks, videoconferencing and wireless connectivity. For more information, visit www.westcongroup.com.
