MIS Section 1: Cloud Computing

What are the benefits to users from cloud computing?

- Increased Efficiency Reduce firm's assets that can stay idle and depreciate over time (reduced capital investment) Reduce IT maintenance and upgrade costs Free firm's IT resources for core competency tasks - Rapid access to resources/ rapid deployment on platforms - Scalability- adjust resource consumption on a per-need basis

What are the benefits to vendors from offering cloud computing?

- Instantly deploy bug fixes and product enhancements to all users - Accessibility To anyone w/ an internet connection - potentially larger customer base - For Saas, reduced costs w/ Development across diff platforms Software piracy Distribution

What is SaaS? For this service model, what are the resources the cloud vendor will provide/manage? What basic question is it essentially addressing for a cloud user? Know that the cloud user will usually not manage or control the cloud infrastructure, operating systems, and even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific configuration settings.

- SaaS: Software as a Service - "I want access to the software app via my thin client interface (e.g. Web browser) The capability provided to the customer is to use the provider's apps running on a cloud infrastructure (not necessarily maintained by the provider of the app) The apps are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser - The customer Does NOT manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, OS, storage or even individual app capabilities, w/ the possible exception of limited user-specific app configuration settings - Examples: Email- Yahoo Mail, Gmail Office apps- google apps Entertainment- Amazon cloud player Enterprise Software Applications: Netsuite (ERP), Microsoft Online Services (corporate email, CRM), SalesForce (CRM), Aravo (SCM), ZOHO (Productivity/business apps)

What are the barriers to cloud computing adoption?

- barriers for users -security -availability -Total cost of ownership -locked in --> switching costs - interoperability w/ your own systems -less flexibility in

Suppose now your company wants to adopt an enterprise software application (e.g., CRM, ERP) and you have two options - buying some packaged enterprise software or using software-as-a-service model (i.e. getting on-demand enterprise software). What are the benefits of buying the packaged one and what are the benefits of getting the on-demand one? Understand how the size of your organization affects your choice.

- packaged software: Pay large sum up front, pay very little later - on- demand software: Total cost of ownership may be higher over time Scalability (can add more, or less)

What is IaaS? For this service model, what are the resources the cloud vendor will provide/manage and what are the resources the cloud user will have a control? What basic question is it essentially addressing for a cloud user? Know that Amazon is the pioneer to officially offer IaaS to the public and Rackspace is also gaining an increasing market share of IaaS.

-IaaS- Infrastructure as a Service - "I need a server" (raw processing power and/or storage) -The capability provided to the customers is to rent processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources from the provider where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software -The customer Does NOT manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure But DOES have control over OS, deployed apps, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g. host firewalls) -AWS (Amazon Web Services)- Pioneers. 1st official public cloud service offering HP, Dell, IBM also offer IaaS Netflix uses AWS for this! NASDAQ Market Replay

What are the essential characteristics of cloud computing?

-On-demand self-service A consumer can be provided with computing capabilities when needed, usually w/out requiring human interaction w/ service provider -Broad network access -Resource pooling Multi-tenancy model- (multiple users sharing one resource) the resources are dynamically assigned and re-assigned according to consumer demand Location independence- customers generally have little to no knowledge over the exact location of the hardware supporting the provided resources -Measured service Resource usage can be monitored, measured (according to various metrics), controlled/optimized, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer -Rapid Elasticity (scalability) Resources can be rapidly and elastically provisioned to quickly scale out when needed To the consumer these resources appear unlimited and can be purchased in almost any quantity at any point in time

What is PaaS? For this service model, what are the resources the cloud vendor will provide/manage and what are the resources the cloud user will have a control? What basic question is it essentially addressing for a cloud user? Know that Windows Azure, force.com, and Google app engine are all examples of PaaS vendor.

-PaaS- Platform as a Service -"I have developed or acquired an app, I need a place to run it" -The capability provided to the customer is to deploy onto the provider's (owned or contracted) cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired apps built using programming languages and tools supported by the provider -The customer Does NOT manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, OS, or storage DOES have control over the deployed apps -Examples: Force.com, Google app engine, Microsoft Azure

When you decide if you want to get service from a particular cloud vendor, why should you consider the long-term viability of the cloud vendor?

-challenges in switching to cloud-based offerings -Software development costs (learning, search for new info) -Pay-as-you-go model- revenue spread out over time Packaged software- revenue is front-loaded -Identify new revenue models -Form new sales force -Very challenging for small IT vendors! (see google docs for more)

Be able to decide the correct service model (among IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) if given a scenario.

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What is cloud computing?

is a model for enabling on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g. servers, storage, applications) that can be rapidly provisioned with minimal service provider interaction.