Introduction
“In this new world, with smartphones and tablets and cloud computing, things are moving around fast.”-Hector Ruiz. The above quote by a former CEO speaks a volume of the significance of the cloud computing technology in the digital world. As Shadi has stated, " In its basic sense, cloud computing is a client -server architecture composed by large and power-consuming data centers designed to support the elasticity and scalability required by consumers" (p.24). A cloud pictogram is used to illustrate cloud computing, and there are three different types of clouds i.e. the public, private, and the hybrid. The service model of cloud computing comes in three different categories i.e. Software–as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure –as-a-Service (IaaS). Of these, SaaS is used most by small and mid-scale enterprises. As the technology is the most popular one currently, it is interesting to explore the same in terms of application, advantages, and disadvantages.
Body
As Mahmood has stated, “Cloud computing is fast gaining popularity as the preferred way of accessing computing resources (infrastructure and services) over the internet for an enterprise” (p.88). In fact, cloud computing has plenty of admirers across the world. It is now used widely in a range of industries like healthcare, IT, telecommunication, automobile, retail, education, and hospitality. This wide usage is obviously because of the innumerable advantages offered by Cloud computing like reduction in capital cost, increased computing power and data safety, quick software updates, reduced software cost, improved performance, unlimited storage, easy sharing of files, and many more. Apart from these, the technology is also used for storage of big data as conventional data storage is inadequate to efficiently store such a massive data. The affordability of smartphones and cloud computing has also now given rise to a new field of technology known as Mobile Cloud Computing which is getting popular day by day. As every coin has its two sides, cloud computing too has its own set of disadvantages. According to Furht and Escalante, “Companies are still concerned about security when using cloud computing. Customers are worried about the vulnerability to attacks, when information and critical IT resources are outside the firewall” (p.17-18). There is a lot of confusion about data portability because cloud computing still lacks standardization for the same. In case a user is not satisfied with the service of the cloud service provider, migration of data to another cloud platform may not become a possibility.
Conclusion
Works Cited
Shadi, A. Cloud Computing Advancements in Design, Implementation, and Technologies, United States of America: IGI Global, 2012.Print.
Miller, M. CLOUD COMPUTING: Web-Based Applications That Change the Way You Work and Collaborate Online, United States of America: Que Publishing, 2009. Print.
Mahmood, Z. (Ed.). Cloud Computing: Methods and Practical Approaches, London: Springer Science & Business Media, 2013. Print.
Furht, B and Escalante, A. (Eds.) HANDBOOK OF CLOUD COMPUTING, USA: Springer Science & Business Media, 2010.Print.
Grandinetti, L, Pisacane, O and Sheikhalishahi, M. Pervasive Cloud Computing Technologies: Future Outlooks and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, United States of America: IGI Global, 2014. Print.
