Cloud Computing

What is “in the   Cloud”?

·         Accessing and using online services including software and applications rather than purchasing or installing software and hardware

·         Access is available not only via a desktop computer or laptop but with any type of device which can tap into the internet

·         Infrastructure, platforms, data and even hardware is available in the cloud.

Cloud Models:

SaaS	·         Software as a Service ·         End user accesses applications and software in the cloud ·         Most often used model
PaaS	·         Platform as a Service ·         Infrastructure or environment ·         Enables end user ability to build applications and buil upon pre-existing applications within that environment
IaaS	·         Infrastructure as a Service ·         Virtualization in the cloud ·         Servers, storage, operating systems, data centers, delivery networks, databases

 Cloud Deployment:

Community

·        Infrastructure is shared between multiple organizations from a specificcommunity ·         Often has same concerns such as compliance or security ·         Can be managed and hosted internally or by a 3rd party

Public

·         Infrastructure provisioned by cloud provider for open use by the general public ·         May be owned, managed or supported by educational institution, government, company or combination

Private

·         Infrastructure provisioned solely for a single organization, ·         Can be managed internally or by a third party and hosted internally or externally

Hybrid

·         Infrastructure is a combination of two or more clouds ·         Often unique entities bound together ·         Offers benefits of multiple deployment models

Windows Server 2012 now runs in Amazon's cloud:

Administrators can take advantage of improved management features using PowerShell

Enterprises can now run Windows Server 2012 on the Amazon Web Services cloud, and take advantage of improved management features and new versions of IIS and the .Net framework.

AWS isn't the only provider whose cloud can run Microsoft's new server operating system. The OS can already be installed on Microsoft's own Azure cloud and Rackspace also offers a number of different configurations on its platform.

The operating system is available in AWS data centers around the world, and enterprises can choose between 31 Windows Server 2012 virtual images. They support 19 different languages and have been prepackaged with SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, Tom Rizzo, general manager for the Windows team at AWS,

Windows Server 2012 became generally available in September, and includes the Internet Information Services (IIS) 8.0 web server, version 4.5 of the .Net framework and improved management using PowerShell.

With Windows PowerShell 3.0 administrators can for the first time handle any management task using the command line interface, and in the process save time by automating more and more tasks, according to Microsoft.

Enterprises can also use Windows Server 2012 with Elastic Beanstalk, which AWS is pitching as an easier way to deploy and manage applications.

Developers upload their ASP.NET applications to the AWS cloud, and Elastic Beanstalk automatically takes care of deployment details such as capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling and application health monitoring, according to the company.

Elastic Beanstalk is still being beta tested.

Windows Server 2012 is also included in the so-called free tier of AWS services, which allows new customers to run the OS and other services for free for up to a year. Enterprises can start evaluating Windows Server 2012 and then move to a production environment when they are ready, according to Rizzo.

Running Windows Server on the AWS cloud costs from $0.02 per hour with the company's on-demand pricing.

Previously, AWS users could choose between Windows Server 2003 R2, 2008 and 2008 R2. They are still available alongside Windows Server 2012

Public Cloud Computing Market is set to gain  US$5.8 billion by 2015, raising the annual growth rate of 39%  among 2012 and 2015 :

Andrew Milroy, the Vice president, information and communication technology practice, Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific, said the industry cloud-driven transformation is one of the first obvious effect of such kind of technology.

He also said, “Different consumers and businesses depend on devices like tablets and smartphones and ICT (the information technology industry) is now being transformed by cloud computing because it helps to a greater extent.”

“Platform-as-a-service model (PaaS) is the reason of misunderstandings in the cloud computing industry because PaaS vendors are looking for the ways to draw developres attention to their platforms. “Force.com has some advantages over the other platforms as it entered the market very early,” Mr. Milroy said.

Nevertheless, supported by major vendors (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, VMWare and IBM), new platforms had come online during the last 18 months.

He added: “Several platforms are expected to dominate because a lot of applications are developed on each.”

Pranabesh Nath, Asia Pacific ICT practice industry manager, said there was still a problem of privacy and security of data in the cloud, and it was a question of trust. Service providers are making efforts to alleviate some of concerns, offering corporations hybrid and private clouds.

Nitin Bhat, senior vice president of ICT practice, said the growth of popularity in using smartphones and tablets would pave the way for consumer social networking and mobile cloud, and also continue to gain in momentum.

“Fixed broadband would come back as the promised availability and speed becoming more omnipresent in more Asia-Pacific countries,” said Mr. Bhat.

While cloud services help to make IT costs lower, like increased flexibility, many companies decided to move to the Cloud computing.

According to the IDG Enterprise survey, 71% of companies want to increase their costs on cloud computing in 2012 in order to save more costs.

But it dos not result in cost saving. The proper steps should be taken to move company’s applications to the Cloud effectively and to avoid spending more than has planned before.

We would like to give you some advices how to spend less money on cloud services:

Watch out for hidden costs.

Beyond the basic fixed fee the company managers important to be aware of the full costs of a cloud computing before agreeing to the Cloud contract with the cloud services vendor. For example, organizations should know if and what the cloud provider charges for:

• Growth or decline of service’s levels;
• Customization and configuration;
• Termination of an agreement;
• Backups;
• Data transfers, and
• Support and maintenance.

Before making serious moves to the cloud services, businesses should also to understand an amount of the cost they may have to spend on internal upgrades.

 Centrally manage cloud provisioning.

Businesses should better have a clear-cut cloud services process with a team or one person to manage it. The cause in purchasing and managing of the IT process, because IT employees are the ones who can clearly to purchase exactly what your company needs and to install software and equipment. It’s easier for IT to control spending, to perceive how much is being spend on tech-related elements. Using cloud computing, departments can provide services themselves, with no any input from IT.

 Minimize – and plan for – outages.

The biggest concern most companies have about usage cloud computing is probably reliability. If IT services declines, even for a shot time, a company can loses a lot of money.

That’s why it is better to pay more attention to the reliability that you can expect from your cloud providers after signing up your contract. Organizations should understand that the Cloud agreement has penalties for the vendor in case of availability guarantees aren’t meant and redundancies are in place.

Negotiate better agreement terms.

Typically vendors are friendly while cloud services contracts. The University of London research found that companies become better at negotiating of a contract with cloud providers. According to the customers and cloud vendors interviews, many clients have been able to push for contract terms for decreasing their costs or avoiding some cloud services risks.

The most negotiated items:

• Up-time guarantees and availability;
• Protection against service changes without client acceptance;
• Disposition of rights;
• Remedies for issues such as security threats and down time;
• Security and privacy protections, etc.

Right size of your cloud services.

Cloud services can help businesses to save money by spending only for needs. Instead on a lot of spending on upgrades companies should be aware how much company will use, they can pay for only used storage. Many analysts advice starting out small with a cloud service and grow as necessary rather than over-provisioning at the beginning.