Cloud

An introduction to the economics of the Windows Azure Ubiquitous Cloud Computing Platform and security obstacles in the cloud:

Author: Arun Kumar Thiagarajan (athiagar@andrew.cmu.edu)

“Every kid coming out of Harvard, every kid coming out of school now thinks he can be the next Mark Zuckerberg, and with these new technologies like cloud computing, he actually has a shot.”

Marc Andreessen, Board Member of Facebook

[ABSTRACT]

This white paper gives an insight on the economics of the Windows Azure Ubiquitous Cloud computing platform from Microsoft. It discusses about different economies of scale, possibilities and obstacles for Cloud users. It also gives a basic insight on the “Total Cost of Ownership” concept and distinguishes between public and private cloud benefits. In conclusion, it discusses about the biggest obstacle of cloud computing (according to the economics) i.e. “Security in the cloud” according to a CIO survey by Gartner and describes to showcase what Microsoft as a cloud computing provider is doing to ensure better security, privacy and safety on the cloud for its early cloud adopters.

What is Cloud Computing?

“Cloud Computing” was the word coined to describe distributed computing over a real time communication network like the Internet. It is a non-traditional computing model for businesses to adopt IT without upfront investment and with low Total Cost of Ownership. Cloud computing has the following characteristics:

1. Shared Infrastructure: It is a virtualized software model which makes use of shared physical infrastructure, storage and networking capabilities. It makes the most use out of a number of users using the available infrastructure.

2. Dynamic Provisioning: It is always based on current demand requirements. A company can opt for the amount of services they require and pay only for those specific services. This dynamic provisioning also needs to be done while...