Cloud Computing Technology

Career in Cloud Computing Technology

In this topic, we are going to study about cloud computing technology. The word that the weathermen used commonly when delivering their daily reports has now entered the technology arena too. It’s the Cloud. If you ask about Cloud randomly to a hundred people you come across daily, they would stay it is some storage facility in a remote location which can also be accessed and managed remotely.

However, confining cloud to just remote storage would be narrowing its potential and not fully an understanding of the broader application of the revolutionary technology. In simple terms, cloud enables a company to remotely store data, software and technology platform and access it 24/7 accessing through the internet.

Cloud touches everyone

Just as the physical cloud is ubiquitous, cloud computing is also becoming more universal and usage not restricted to techies and scientists. If you are using shared email services such as Google, Yahoo, you are using the cloud, as the software and applications are not installed on your PC. If you are a Dropbox or Google Drive user, again you are part of a cloud architecture provided by the vendors. Similarly, social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are all daily use cloud computing applications hosted on the cloud.

As laymen, here are some of the most commonly used free tools that may be useful:

• Google Docs helps account holders to share documents and has real-time editing tools.
• Box.net allows users to extend their storage functionality. It can be linked to a social media account such as LinkedIn and computer accessories. It has fax connectors that connect the cloud to the physical machinery at home or in the office.
• Cloudshare: Allows setting up connectivity between two windows machines.
• Windows Livemesh helps users to remotely control Windows and Mac desktops. It helps synchronize files between computers and standardize bookmarks and favorites.

Advantages of Cloud Computing Technology

Cloud provides several advantages for the Cloud Computing Technology service provider, vendors, and companies who utilize the cloud services.

• Reduces server, installation costs: For companies which scale up their IT deployment, often increased costs of onsite installation of storage, maintenance and accessibility costs can be a huge burden on their already stretched financials. Using the Cloud enables user companies to reduce costs on storage, hardware costs, and related installation costs, maintenance costs among others.
• Reduces Software licensing, application costs: Central to computer systems are the software and platforms that enable services to be delivered to customers. For most small and medium enterprises opting for the Cloud Computing Technology can help considerably reduce software licensing costs, data storage and application software costs.
• Big Data Services: Big Data vendors, the revolutionary business-technology confluence that enables firms to better understand the market and devise appropriate strategies heavily depend on the cloud platform to provide affordable, accessible services to customers. It is like the pay-per-use model and the more talked about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS).
• Sharing of resources: As already outlined, a cloud is not just storage but pooling of available resources including storage, software, applications and databases which could be in different locations but accessible through the internet. Hence, the end user is not aware of the geographical location of the stored data, applications and resources.

Downers of Cloud Computing Technology

• No universal applicability: It could be useful in some scenarios but not across industries and verticals. Hence, a case-by-case study has to be done to find out the suitability of deploying cloud.
• Security risks: Many firms are still wary of the security risks involved in hosting data and applications on the cloud although vendors claim that is secure and safe. According to Jeff Fleece of Sungard Availability Services, cloud implementations fail due to lack of planning, understanding of clearly defined business objectives and cloud computing security. The conclusions are based on a survey of IT professionals.
• Difficulties in the financial industry: Worldwide financial services industry is growing at a rapid rate and hence a hot target for cloud computing services providers. However, the financial industry has been cautious, as it is believed cloud cannot be implemented in half-steps and there is no transition period for migrating to the cloud. This was the topic of discussion at a recent cloud business summit in New York according to Joe Mckendrick. The transition to the cloud-based financial system requires the organization to be prepared at multiple levels.

Cloud Computing opportunities

Several million new jobs are expected to be created in Cloud Computing Technology space as its adoption rises, according to industry analysts. David Linthicum, Cloud Computing Technology Partners quoting Forbes magazine said that there are 3384,878 of 3.9 mn jobs in Cloud Computing Technology in the United States currently with 384,478 of them in IT. The median salary in this industry is $90,950 and there are 18,239,258 jobs worldwide. China accounts for 40.8% of the demand for cloud computing professionals worldwide.
The demand is for IT professionals with specific cloud skills are IT admins with the know-how of cloud architecture, he noted.

Thanks to stronger growth rates in Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure, job openings are showing a corresponding rise among public cloud providers. Close behind are IBM, HP, Verizon, and CenturyLink when it comes to generating jobs in cloud platforms.

Cloud Certification programs

Naturally enough several cloud certification programs provided by industry are in huge demand some of which are generic but others are specific to their own platforms. The top certifications for Cloud Computing Technology providers are :

• VMware Certified Professional
• Certified Cloud Professional
• IBM Certified Solution-Architect- Cloud Computing Infrastructure
• Microsoft Azure Certifications
• AWS Certifications
• IBM Certified Solution Architect-Cloud Computing Architecture
• Google Cloud Platform Cloud Academy
• A number of free online courses are also available for those enthusiastic of Cloud Computing Technology.
• edX & UC Berkeley has programs that cover SaaS, Ruby on Rails, and enhancing performance using Javascript
• MIT OpenCourseWare provides all MIT course content as a web-based publication

Newer applications

Following below are some of the newer application listed.

E-learning

One of rapidly growing application for Cloud Computing Technology basics could be in e-learning space where service providers will be able to provide course material, audio, video files, live conferencing and collaboration tools and simulation practices across geographies. Moreover, content can be structured in the basic/foundation, intermediate and advanced levels to cope with the needs of the learner in terms of knowledge adoption and financial capabilities. E-learning can be much more affordable and accessible for a vast majority and there is no limit to the topics that can be handled in Cloud Computing Technology. SAP provides a Learning Hub program for its ERP software modules at a highly subsidized cost for the industry, students, and faculty. The Big Data platforms such as Hadoop learning programs are also becoming increasingly delivered online which is suitable for all categories of learners.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud utilizes both private and public clouds with the objective of performing distinct functions in the same company. The public and private cloud which work independently within an organization are integrated over an encrypted connection. Hybrid technology provides for portability of data and applications. The hybrid architecture enables privileged data to be hosted on the private cloud, it could be sensitive financial information, customer details or sales data. On the other hand, less security-sensitive and computational data is moved to the public cloud. This system is convenient to comply with regulatory and statutory issues.

Despite the several advantages that Hybrid cloud offers, it too suffers from issues related to security and privacy. There could also be transportation delays across a network and hence unsuitable for mission-critical operations.

Paas or Platform as a Service

After Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) has emerged as a hot favorite in the hybrid cloud era. It allows users to create software applications using tools that are provided by vendors.
PaaS provides an operating system, server-side scripting, database management, server software, support, storage, network access, tools for design and development apart from design and hosting.

Cloud hosting

Cloud hosting provides hosting on virtual servers and is not dependent on one server. In such a system, the website is hosted on a network of servers and not on a single server. The concept is based on a pay-per-use model.

Among its salient features are reliability, physical security, scalability and flexibility utility style costing and responsive load balancing.

The cloud computing architecture

It’s often easier to talk of cloud but how does the system work and what are the components or devices that go into the making of a cloud. Each vendor might say their cloud is the best in terms of cloud computing architecture and cloud computing resources but the fact is that no two clouds are the same.

Typically, cloud computing architecture is composed of servers, data centers, networked cables, and associated proprietary management systems.

Data Centres spread across locations typically have several servers supported by fiber links, dedicated generators and battery backup. IBM points out that all Soft Layer data centers feature one or more pods, each supporting up to 5000 servers. It has data centers across the globe that are connected through private, managed and public high-speed networks.

Typically there are three parts to a cloud computing architecture: Front end operated by clients or users, back-end containing the cloud computing storage, servers, hardware and power systems offered by cloud computing vendors and supporting high-speed network systems. Each application may have its own server although at any point of time some servers will be un-utilized. The administration of the system is usually by a central server which follows a set of protocols. It uses a special kind of software called middleware that allows networked computers to communicate with each other. To ensure that proper backup of client’s data, redundant servers are kept by service providers so that it can be relied on in emergency situations such as a server crash or hacking attempt.

Future

• According to IDG Enterprise Cloud Computing Study, enterprises will invest an average of $2.87 mn in cloud computing technologies in 2016.
• 25% of total IT budgets will be spent on cloud computing
• Majority of enterprises (90%) are relying on API for their cloud integration plans in 2016. Security remains a major issue to be addressed in Cloud Computing Technology according to the IDG survey that covered 962 respondents from the industry.
• In the Indian scenario, Gartner estimates the public cloud market is expected to treble to $1.9 bn (Rs 12,000 cr) by 2018. Initially, it was expected that small and medium enterprises would have the best adoption rates for a cloud. However, large enterprises are also seeing the benefits of Cloud Computing Technology with 65% adopting the new platform.

According to Venkatesh Swaminathan, Country Head, India, Novell, there are a few key reasons why the industry is embracing the cloud in a big way. The fierce competition has put time-to-market in the forefront that means organizations need to quickly respond to changing dynamics. The second requirement for industry is quickness in new product development and faster revenue generation. Hours not years are the new benchmark for a realization of return on investments (ROI) on a cloud, he said.

Compared to the software-based technology platform, open source platforms have been found to be scalable, allow continuous development and improvisation without major cost implications. In Big Data, Hadoop, the open source platform written on C and Java had already become popular for emulating. OpenStack Community in cloud platform is now witnessing an increasing number of vendors supporting the project.

Meanwhile, Exuberant Support for Data Services (ESDS) has received India’s first Cloud Computing Patent for its eNlight Cloud from the United States Patent & Trademark Office. Global average compute consumption in any organization is as low as 8% and in India 5%. eNight Cloud constantly monitors consumption of virtuous machines and assign computing resources in real time. This, in turn, will enable the cloud industry to move from a commodity model to utility model. ESDS feels 90% technology resources in the industry are lying utilized putting a huge financial burden on firms and hence scalable, affordable cloud computing is the need of the hour.

As competition is hotting up the cloud industry, several established players are planning massive price cuts to get an edge over others. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are among the majors who are going to cut prices that could have an impact on IBM and VMWare’s cloud business, analysts said.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide on Cloud Computing Technology. Here we have discussed the career, Downers, and Opportunities of Cloud Computing Technology. You may also look at the following articles to learn more –

1. Virtualization Techniques
2. Cloud Computing Benefits
3. Cloud Hosting Providers
4. Cloud Computing Application