Cloud Computing: Advantages and Disadvantages

The internet is a window that has allowed us to have connection in the cloud computing advantage and disadvantages. Learn about the main advantages and disadvantages that exist in the cloud, a computing storage system

Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages

Currently, organizations are in need of allocating human and technological material resources to be able to meet their needs related to computer infrastructure and the development of applications that benefit said organization. That is why the traditional model of Information Technology has been implemented in these organizations.

Normally, this destination of resources mentioned before, does not suppose a greater additional expense in the final balance of the production of the organization, even when most of the areas of the company require attention from the technical service. The most common tasks involved in providing this internal service are the implementation, configuration, maintenance and updating of the projects that are developed.

For example, in services such as electricity, drinking water supply or telephone service, it is the provider who assumes all responsibility for generating, organizing and managing the resources and personnel necessary for the client to receive this service. Therefore, the client only pays for the use that he consumes of said service. Of course, the provider must consider all the expenses involved in being able to provide the service in an optimal way, in order to be able to charge accordingly.

In this same sense, the possibility of implementing Internet services and resources that have this same modality is proposed, that is, where the provider provides everything required and the user only pays for the service he consumes.

In other words, it would be the sole responsibility of the supplier to ensure that the necessary computer equipment is acquired, to carry out the required preventive and corrective maintenance, to update the applications or operating systems, and any other task that must be carried out to guarantee the service.

As can be seen, it is an interesting work idea for organizations, which is why different companies are turning their eyes towards technology called cloud computing. This technology would reduce the time spent on simple activities and would benefit personnel working in information technology areas, since they could focus their attention on those activities with the greatest impact on the organization's business processes.

Given these benefits, many companies are adopting this concept at a significant speed, which then translates into an increase in the birth of companies that provide services through cloud computing technology, as it is a totally viable alternative.

Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages in the cloud can be considered as a paradigm that allows computing services to be offered through the Internet. For example, if a customer requires a resource such as memory, storage space, higher processing, specific or more up-to-date software, or access to certain databases, the provider can provide this service over the Internet.

The bases that have allowed cloud computing to grow have been that it has been possible to commercialize and standardize technologies, there has been a growth and virtualization of software architectures to be service-oriented and, fundamentally, the increase that has had the reliability of Internet business solutions.

According to the article Gartner Says Cloud Computing Will Be As Influential As E-business, written by Daryl Plummer's Gartner analyst Christy Pettey, it indicates that these three previous bases generate a discontinuity that will develop a new form of relationship between users that use Information Technology services and those who offer them. In essence, this will mean that users will focus on the service that the provider provides rather than how the elements needed to receive the service are implemented or hosted.

The advantages of cloud computing

Some of the advantages of cloud computing are: 

cost reduction

It is possibly the most striking and obvious advantage of cloud computing technology. Given that all the responsibility for the implementation of the architecture, equipment and its maintenance, personnel and even the infrastructure necessary to offer the service falls on the provider, the user or client no longer assumes these responsibilities and therefore costs to have the benefit. Additionally, only the resources used within the various services are paid. 

Increases competitiveness

Because it is no longer necessary to purchase expensive equipment, it allows small businesses to have access to the latest technologies only by paying for the different resources they have consumed. This would level small or any type of organization to be able to compete under the same conditions with large companies in the area of ​​Information Technology. Therefore, the balance of competitiveness would be tilted not by the one with the most computing resources, but by the one that uses them with a better strategy. 

Availability

It is very possible that this service may have a fault at some point, so it is common for providers to develop redundant systems to guarantee the constant availability of services to customers. These redundant systems are necessary for providers as they are required to ensure that the customer can always have the service when required. 

Let us remember that one of the fundamental bases of this technology is precisely reliability, if the provider cannot guarantee the constant availability of its service for the client, it would no longer be profitable for the latter to continue paying even when it is cheaper, since it would not be a stable system.

Abstraction of the technical part

Since the responsibility of implementing, maintaining, configuring or updating the equipment necessary to receive the services falls on the provider, cloud computing provides ease and comfort to the client since they do not have to worry about these responsibilities.

Access from any geographical point

One of the advantages that cloud computing provides is that the client will be able to access the necessary services from any geographical point on the planet that has an Internet connection. 

In general, access is done from a web browser, so it is not necessary to download a specific application, or have any extraordinary device, simply having a computer or any mobile device will be enough to be able to enjoy the service. 

This provides an advantage for those workers who must make a trip, since their operations or tasks will not be interrupted. 

Scalability

The update of the computer on the go, the application is running or the resources that are being used does not fall on the client but on the provider. Precisely for this reason, in order to be competitive, the supplier must guarantee that all its computer equipment is in optimal conditions, including updating software and equipment.

Whether or not these updates are actually carried out are transparent to clients, since the applications and resources used must be constantly available even when an update process is being carried out. For this reason, redundant systems are again justified, since some computations can be updated while the others continue to provide the service so that no interruption is necessary.

Even when these updates are transparent to the client, they should not be underestimated, since they will be necessary to provide a quality service, which allows the provider to position itself at a high level of competitiveness compared to other companies that offer the same service. .

Concentration of efforts in business processes

Since all these responsibilities, as mentioned above, fall on the supplier, the client can then focus their efforts and resources on strategic processes that guarantee transcendence and impact on the businesses that involve their organization.

Disadvantages

Once we have reviewed the advantages offered by cloud computing, we will proceed to point out some of its disadvantages. 

Privacy

One of the delicate or sensitive points of cloud computing technology corresponds to the protection and confidentiality of the information of the organizations, since these will be stored in the servers of the service provider. 

That is why, once again, reference is made to the reliability that the provider must generate and guarantee to its clients, including the protection of data even when they are not necessarily confidential. 

Availability

It is known that this feature was considered an advantage, but if the availability were to fail, it would mean a huge disadvantage for the provider, who must guarantee the constant availability of the service. 

This availability can fail due to lack of a redundancy system or because the system failed. For this reason, the provider must ensure that it has a good backup or redundancy system to ensure the continuous provision of the service.

The availability that the provider can ensure will be a crucial factor for the client to determine if their service is profitable and of quality or not.

Lack of control over resources

The client would lose total control over the total resources and even over his information when it is uploaded to the cloud, this means that he loses control over the security systems and protection of his data. This is due to the fact that these responsibilities fall on the supplier, since he is in charge of establishing the distribution of resources and the systems for safeguarding customer information.

Dependence

In order to enjoy the service, the client must always depend on a point with an internet connection and the conditions established by the service provider.

Therefore, if the client finds himself in a remote place where he does not have internet access, he will not be able to continue doing his work. or being a service provider for some circumstance must interrupt its operation momentarily, the client will depend on the time it takes for the provider to restore the service to be able to resume its tasks again. 

Integration

It is not always easy or practical to integrate the resources that are offered in cloud computing infrastructures with systems developed in a conventional way. For this reason, it is important that the client takes this into account so that he can determine how viable a cloud-based solution would be for him to implement within his organization.

Cloud computing can be divided into three levels according to the function of the services offered by the provider. We will start by describing them from the innermost level to the outermost level.

Cloud computing advantage and disadvantages: Limitations

Cloud computing currently has some limitations that have prevented its massive expansion, these limitations are:

Data loss/leakage

Attributing the responsibility to the provider to store the organization's information has been a reason for mistrust for them. Certainly, storing data in the cloud can offer numerous advantages, but it can also be compromised in various ways. 

At the time of uploading the information to the cloud, there is a risk that this may be modified or deleted, which would be a huge problem if there is no backup or backup, and they can even be disconnected from the client or users. unauthorized users can access it if you do not have an appropriate protection system. 

Difficulty assessing the reliability of suppliers

It is difficult for new companies that wish to be providers of these services to be considered reliable, and even for companies that have been in the market for some time as providers, they must assure the client that their company is reliable.

The client not only takes into account the main manager of these companies but must trust each of the employees who participate in its operations.

Due to this, service providers must ensure that they carry out the correct human resources procedures, internal policies and fairly robust information and network security systems.

Strength of authentication mechanisms

One of the most important focuses that limit customers from risking using this technology is due to the weakness that the authentication mechanisms can present, making it very easy for virtual attackers to access the customer's account and virtual machine. . 

Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas – Infrastructure as a Service) 

Infrastructure as a service is a type of provisioning, where organizations rely on the equipment and tools necessary to support internal operations.

This infrastructure includes data storage, hardware that meets the necessary requirements to support the software and applications, servers, and all the components that are involved in the networks.

Infrastructure as a service can also be referred to as IaaS, or as HaaS, which comes from the diminutive Hardware as a Service.

The main advantage of an infrastructure as a service is the transfer of the problems and responsibilities related to the administration of this infrastructure to the service provider.

In addition, it allows, normally, all the technologies that apply cloud computing to reduce costs, since the client only has to pay only for the resources consumed. Also, infrastructures as a service can provide scalability in the updating of software, applications, storage expansion and other automatically and transparently for the consumer.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) 

Cloud computing, advantages and disadvantages, has had a fairly rapid growth, which is why it has been required to include platforms that allow the creation and execution of personalized applications. This model is called Platform as a Service or PaaS, from its English diminutive of Platform as a Service.

Platform-as-a-Service applications are also known as web-based on-demand or SaaS solutions.

The provider must not only guarantee to optimize its hardware equipment in order to always have the necessary system requirements to update its Infrastructure, but it must also guarantee a software update. 

The provider, in addition to solving problems in the hardware infrastructure, also takes care of the software. The client who makes use of this type of solution does not need to install, configure or maintain operating systems, databases and application servers since all this is provided under this platform.

If the services between Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service are compared, it is undeniable that the PaaS service offers better solutions to the problems.

This is because infrastructure as a service has many limitations that are related to the execution environment.

Some of these limitations may be the type of system, the programming language, the database manager, among others.

Today, large companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, Google, iTunes and YouTube apply this model and facilitate the possibility of accessing new capabilities and markets through the Internet. Platforms as services typically offer a faster setup and provide a cost advantage relative to the benefit for application development.

Types of PaaS

There are different types of platforms as a service, so it can be classified as public, private and hybrid.

Platforms as a service were initially intended to be applied in public clouds before expanding to private platforms and hybrid platforms. 

Public platforms as a service are derived from software as a service. In fact, platforms as utilities are positioned between software as a service and infrastructure as a service. 

Likewise, private platforms as services are commonly downloaded and installed from a company's local infrastructure or from a public cloud. When the software is installed on more than one machine, the private platform as a service organizes the database components and application on just one platform for storage.

And lastly, a hybrid platform is typically a single deployment of a mix of mixed deployments of the platforms as public services and platforms as private services. 

For example, IBM Bluemix can be mentioned which is presented as a single integrated cloud platform through public, dedicated and on-premises deployment models.

Software as a Service (SaaS – Software as a Service)

Software as a service or SaaS diminutive summary in English Software as a Service, is the best known in cloud computing. This service consists of a Software distribution model that has the ability to provide its customers with access through the Internet. 

In this way, once again the providers are in charge of the configurations, maintenance of the applications or their implementation, which implies that the client does not have to worry about this.

All the applications that are distributed through a software as a service model can be used by any company regardless of its size or geographical position. 

This service seeks to provide the software for those clients who wish to cover their organization's processes with it. 

Software as a service can be described as the application that is consumed through the Internet, where it is usually accessed through a browser. The payment that corresponds to the consumption of this service applies the same logic of the services mentioned above. Some examples of Software as Services are Salesforce, Zoho, and Google App. 

Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages: Conclusions

Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages as in any other technology has had a gradual but significant growth. Just as the cloud computing

Certainly, even though cloud computing advantages and disadvantages is a model that has been available for several years, there is still a need for cloud computing to be fully absorbed as the preferred choice of organizations. Of course, organizations will accept this technology according to the size of each one.

For example, for medium and small businesses have begun to accept and use solutions based on cloud computing. Instead, large organizations apply these solutions according to their particular needs.

From the point of view of the other end of the service, there are the clients who enjoy the benefits of this technology. Customers have managed to improve in most cases, because cloud computing has provided different options to carry out their activities.

In fact, cloud computing allows collaboration between other users because the provider can enable the option of feedback between users.

This technology allows access to software, storage, applications and other resources only requiring access to an internet point, allowing small organizations to have equal conditions to large companies.