VULNERABILITIES IN UTILISING THE TECHNIQUE OF CLOUD COMPUTING - PAPER
The current paper refers to the facts and data related to the survey that is made on the various issues related to networking in the segment of cloud computing. The analyst in its current report focused on various threats, security issues, issues related to networking infrastructure and various other factors that may arise to the organization that is utilizing the technique of cloud computing in its current processing. Primarily analyst discussed the meaning of cloud computing in relation to its scope and trends in the current organizational market. On the later part of the work, researcher discussed the various models that are pertinent to cloud computing. These models are sub-classified into the segment of infrastructure, platform, software and network by the analyst in the current assignment. Before discussing the various networking issues researcher also focused on the cloud computing architecture to make a detail understanding over the research. Lastly and most importantly there is a reference to various issues that are related to the networking aspect of cloud computing is been mentioned. Also, there is a detailed discussion of the challenges that is been found in implanting the techniques of cloud computing in the business organization for the greater part.
ABOUT CLOUD COMPUTING
Cloud Computing is an embryonic technology which is based on Internet and enables access to pool of configured system- resources and services which can be used with the minimum management methods over Internet. It depends on resource- sharing for the achievement of coherence. The use of cloud computing can reduce the expenditure on the infrastructure, maintenance and other such issues for the IT companies. The various advantages of cloud computing is as follows:
- Audio-video streaming.
- Data analyzing for pattern & prediction making.
- Storage, backing up & data-recovery.
- Creation of new applications & services.
- Blogs & host websites.
EMERGENCE OF CLOUD COMPUTING
The elementary perception for cloud computing which is accessing the resources for computing was projected in 1966. The development in the various streams of computer science laid the foundation for cloud computing. Amazon in 2002, initiated Amazon Web Services, "AWS", followed by Simple Storage Service & Elastic Compute Cloud in 2006. At present, Amazon has various clients like Zynga, Netflix, Pfizer which are very renowned. An important role has also been Google & Microsoft, which have offered services based on cloud computing in the success of cloud computing. Google App Engine was launched in the year 2008. In 2009, Microsoft launched marketable version of Azure that provided for development at the datacenters of Microsoft, "Microsoft 2011-b". As an emergent marketplace, Cloud Computing has seen continuous changes in its acceptability. There have been distinguished views of different industries. Amazon's initial entrance in Cloud Company was considered to be risky by the industrial analysts. The initial acceptance of Cloud Computing was sluggish & restrained. It has been a highly debatable subject over the years. Oracle's CEO had once considered it a mere relabeling of the existing services and products. Today, Oracle advertises itself as major provider for cloud, example being "Oracle-2010". After years of ups and downs, Cloud Computing has become a legitimate technology.
CLOUD COMPUTING MODELS
The various services provided by Cloud- Computing include Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a service (SaaS), Network as a Service (NaaS). The above mentioned cloud computing models have various requirements that are to be considered, design and security issues. Three services Software as a service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service are called as Service Model for Cloud Computing (Foster, et. al., 2008).
1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) : Software & hardware components are essential computing resources. They are the necessity of all the computing infrastructures. IaaS provides these essential services to the users of cloud end. The end users can hire these services at level which they desire. User pays for the resources used by him. IaaS provides operating middleware & computing infrastructure. Virtualization of resources is the important concept behind IaaS. Some of the components of IaaS are
- Computer Hardware,
- Cloud Software,
- Network & Internet Connectivity,
- Utility Computing,
- Service Level Agreements.
- Platform Virtualization
a. Service Level Agreements. : The Service Level Agreements aim at laying down the terms & conditions of the contract between the service provider and the customers for reaching the final conclusion. Quality of Services is also an essential component of Service Level Agreements and needs proper definition (Dinh, et. al., 2013).
b. Utility Computing: Utility computing includes storage, computation, bandwidth connection and other such resources. The main aim is to minimize the optimization costs and provide the resources for the end users and charge correct costs for usage. It allows for enhancement of system.
c. Cloud Software: Used for the integration of various components of cloud- infrastructure and their synchronization.
d. Platform Virtualization: Virtualization is associated with providing number of virtual systems on single system. It reduces the maintenance for the hardware. It reduces complications and increases scalability of the resources of cloud.
e. Network & Internet Connectivity: The various components of cloud- infrastructure are connected by LAN and after that are connected to one another through Internet connectivity with high speed.
f. Computer Hardware: Hardware includes Central Processing Unit, Storage & network connectivity components (Tsai, et. al., 2010).
2. Software as a service: It is the top layer in cloud computing. The users in the particular segment utilize the integrated services that are been provided by the various operators of cloud. The key features of SaaS are availability, scalability, data managed by providers, reusability, customizability, and pay per use.
a. Reusability: It refers to using the elements of the software for creation of added applications. The prime fundamental is using different internet based services.
b. Data Managed by Provider : SaaS provides for licensed applications for usage of customers. It is service providers' responsibility to manage the data and installation of services on their server. If the reliability functions and the security of the data is not provided by the service providers, the services may become doubtful and their utilization becomes lower.
c. Services Customizability: It means that the services can be changed by the consumers on the basis of their requirements. It is essential that customizability is ensured so that the requirements of different users are ensured (Tsai, et. al., 2010).
d. Availability: Saas Services in Cloud Computing can be easily accessed by the consumer through usage of Web browser & Internet Service. If services of Saas are not there, no functions of SaaS can be accessed by the customers (Subashini & Kavitha, 2011).
e. Scalability: Scalability of the cloud is of vital importance. It decides the flexibility of the system or the software. It indicates the growth ratio for the software usage. It is service provider's responsibility to increase the capacity of the resources so that requests of customers are fulfilled.
f. Pay per Usage: It is of importance that if a customer wishes to use service, he gets connected to cloud and leave that service after usage. He then has to pay as per the usage of the service.
3. Platform-as-a-service: It provides for development platform for users so that the users can develop & maintain their apps. As PaaS provides for the development environment & platform, all the supporting materials which include the programming environment, infrastructure, development tools, etc. have to be provided by the cloud provider. Following are 3 types of stakeholders of PaaS :
a. Paas Hoster: Responsible for the deployment of infrastructure of hardware through Iaas, necessary for accomplishments of demands of users (Tsai, et. al., 2010).
b. PaaS Provider : Responsibility is to provide the development platform for the developers so that the work can be done on development of web applications without knowledge of servers and applications of Front End.
c. PaaS User : Developer who develops the applications is considered to be PaaS user. Developer should have utility based on the browser to work on the platform. They will pay for the "Services" based on the usage (Dinh, et. al., 2013).
CLOUD COMPUTING ARCHIETECTURE
The cloud computing architecture in the particular research study refers to components & the other sub-components of cloud which constitutes the overall basic structure of the system and that can be basically divided among 2 components namely front end architecture and the back end architecture. The either ends are connected through a Network, usually Internet. Other components like Cloud Resources, Middleware, etc. are also part of architecture of the cloud computing.
1. Front End: Front end in cloud computing system is the side unmistakable to the customer. It generally incorporates applications and interfaces which important to get to stages of the cloud are registering. Distinctive cloud or distributed computing frameworks have diverse UIs (Tsai, et. al., 2010). For e-mail program, web browsers which include Chrome, Firefox, Inter Explorer, etc. are needed.
2. Back End: Back End is the cloud, the side that is utilized by Service Provider. It comprises of assets important to give the distributed computing administrations. It contains virtual machines, colossal information stockpiling, security component, arrangement models, servers, administrations, and so on. This framework incorporates diverse PC programs. Every application in the framework is overseen by a devoted server which is its own.
It is Back End's responsibility to provide for traffic controls, built in security mechanism, and protocols. Server employs protocols which are termed middleware. These help the connected devices in communication. A central server is used for managing complete Cloud Computing System. The server monitors traffic, makes each end function in a smooth manner, without disruption. The procedure is taken after with settled arrangement of standards named Protocols. Middleware is an uncommon arrangement of programming that is utilized for performing forms. It interfaces the arranged PCs to each other. Contingent upon the request of customers, satisfactory space for capacity is given by specialist co-op of Client Computing. The specialist organization of Cloud Computing has limit with respect to 2 times the storage room which is required by customer. This aides in keeping a duplicate of information of customer in secured state amid breakdown of the framework (Tsai, et. al., 2010).
Vulnerabilities in utilising the technique of cloud computing
If an organization is accepting to work out its hardware and software needs to be fulfilled through the utilization of cloud computing networking then there are various issues that might be faced by them. One of the major issues is security in the process of cloud computing. It is very difficult to give a proper definition of security in general terms; at the concept of security has a different meaning for the different organization (Zhang, et. al., 2010).
The basic meaning of security has been defined in terms of the integrity of the database, its confidentiality and timeliness of availability when required. There are various threats and vulnerabilities to keep the data related to the organization over or networking channel (Takabi, et. al., 2010). There is always a possible scope of data loss and leakage.
Networking issues related to cloud computing in terms of both technical and non-technical aspects can be better visualized while understanding and discussing some instances related to the particular concept (Dillon, et. al., 2010). These are as follows-
The concept of confidentiality - Networking confidentiality in terms of cloud computing means keeping the data safe on the cloud computing path while using the overall technique of encryptions, access controls and abide the complete structure under the purview of laws and regulations (Armbrust, et. al., 2010).
The concept of integrity - Utilizing the control mechanism cloud Service Provider can develop a high degree of confidence in making its service utilized by the various organizations across the globe. This is done by putting in place various robust systems that can control the various threats and reduce the vulnerabilities to acceptable organizational appetite. Systems should be designed in such a way that it could put a check over both accidental and non accidental external business risk.
The concept of availability - Availability section of cloud computing refers to a situation which requires high-level Service Deliverability by the clouds service vendor in order to assure the timeliness of data retrieval that is been uploaded on the cloud on an earlier stage (Krutz & Vines, 2010). The cloud computing vendor must develop its capacity and well-defined architecture in terms of both networking and storage capacity in order to fulfil the service level agreements with the clients.
The concept of accountability - The cloud computing vendor is accountable for the safety of the data that is being restored by the clients on its cloud. The concept of accounting it is totally dependent upon the level of agreement and nature of services that are been rendered by the vendor to its client.
The concept of privacy - Major clients are not using the technique of cloud computing as they seem to like putting the data on networking route might hurt their private and secret data. Though proper encryptions are been done to gain the trust but certain issues which are been witnessed in past affect its popularity. Embedding legal laws and compliance to the service level agreements might curb the risk of privacy to a great extent.
There are various issues related to security and safety in terms of networking of cloud computing. This can be both due to the technical and non-technical aspect. Primarily these security vulnerabilities are basically classified into the segment of security at the traditional level and data control at the third party level. There might be a situation of loss of sensitive data various organization are not trusting this segment while identifying the various security vulnerabilities (Buyya, et. al., 2009). The concept of cloud is still not building is its trust among the cloud Service vendors and business clients due to various security issues and threats witnessed in past in the particular segment.
Negative issues in putting the data stored through networking over the cloud
The performance of cloud is totally dependent upon the quality of the network. Lower network strength on either of client's hand from the side of vendor will affect the serviceability of cloud. Real-time access is highly required as part of network services in order to ensure visibility of applications bandwidth on 24 by 7 basis. Slight impact on the network will create downtime of the client database. Proper traffic management through distributed network cards is highly required in order to fulfil the service level agreements with the client. Various challenges in relation to the networking aspect of cloud computing technique are been discussed as follows -
Restrictions in fulfilment of clients demand - As a service provided by the cloud vendor are generally scalable that is it can be decreased or increased as per the requirements of the client, there is a great difficulty in predicting the nature of requirement and ascertaining the actual needs (Armbrust, et. al., 2010). This creates difficulties for the client if there is non-serviceability issues arise from the hand of cloud service vendor.
Hidden service charges - Sometimes there is a situation wherein cloud Service Provider charges extra amount for the Peak period service. This might create an extra burden to the client while incurring the network cost on a higher side. Sometimes it is been visualized that for a small additional service cloud Service Provider charges the amount which is much higher than the cost incurred for setting up its own infrastructure.
Issues related to security - Wherever there is transfer or storage of data exists over and networking Path there is an enhancement of vulnerabilities of external threat and risk. Sometimes it is been seen that data encrypted on the cloud computing tools are been decoded by the external malicious paths which might affect the integrity of database (Youseff, et. al., 2008).
Interoperability issues in the networking path of cloud computing - Interoperability make sense that data coding utilized by a certain Cloud Computing vendor while encrypting of database or applications might be different from another Cloud Computing vendor. This creates difficulties for the client when it export or imports the database to another system due to the utilization of different platforms (Armbrust, et. al., 2010).
Unexpected behaviour of cloud computing networking - Sometimes the Cloud Service vendor do not meet the requirements as per the agreement made at the initial level. This is due to fluctuation in certain demands which create problem to the vendor in meeting out serviceability.
In Concluded..
In the above assignment which is related to network challenges in the technique of cloud computing analyst referred to the concept of the particular aspect at an initial level of the research. Along with the emergence of cloud computing, its brief history is been discussed by the analyst. The researcher also placed a great emphasis on the various model's data been related to the cloud computing networking. These models created in-depth research and supported the study in creating an overall understanding of the cloud computing networking aspect. Towards the later part of the theory, there is a short reference in regards to architecture and structuring of the particular segment. Towards the later part of the above report there is mentioning of various vulnerabilities of risk that are been associated with the organisation while utilising the technique of cloud computing over a networking route. Lastly the researcher referred about various challenges in relation to the networking aspect of cloud computing technique in the detailed aspect.