What Is Cloud computing

      

What is Cloud Computing?

Generally Cloud computing means storage internet services data through cloud.  Now a days the most part of the world’s get an access of the internet, the general term of  cloud computing for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. For example: youtube, facebook, ebay etc .

There is  private or public cloud. Public cloud sells services through Internet to it’s customer. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) In the current world most of the business run through internet where they has to hired some IT specialist and needs software however, cloud computing is help to reduce these cost. Private Cloud is like mostly personnel data services which supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Using of cloud computing for Private or public, is to provide their services to the user easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.

Services are divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet in flowchart s and diagrams.
 

Infrastructure-as-a-Service like Amazon Web Services provides virtual server instance API ) to start, stop, access and configure their virtual servers and storage. In the enterprise, cloud computing allows a company to pay for only as much capacity as is needed, and bring more online as soon as required. Because this pay-for-what-you-use model resembles the way electricity, fuel and water are consumed, it's sometimes referred to as utility computing.

Platform-as-a-service in the cloud is defined as a set of software and product development tools hosted on the provider's infrastructure. Developers create applications on the provider's platform over the Internet. PaaS providers may use APIs, website portals or gateway ware installed on the customer's computer. Force.com, (an outgrowth of Salesforce.com) and GoogleApps are examples of PaaS. Developers need to know that currently, there are not standards for interoperability or data portability in the cloud. Some providers will not allow software created by their customers to be moved off the provider's platform.

In the software-as-a-service cloud model, the vendor supplies the hardware infrastructure, the software product and interacts with the user through a front-end portal. SaaS is a very broad market. Services can be anything from Web-based email to inventory control and database processing. Because the service provider hosts both the application and the data, the end user is free to use the service from anywhere.(Margaret Rouse 2010)

Summery

Cloud computing can use from anywhere it is cheaper and more flexible because it is run by internet which needs computer even user can get access through mobile

               In the present era Gmail, hotmail, facebook, youtube are in the cloud. Business are renting the cloud services so they don’t worry about the  upgrade the software every time when change their version. A cloud provider can quickly add extra capacity or scale it back again when user need it. Business reducing the cost on It more than 50% after they get the services on cloud computing , somehow hardware and internet costs are dropping, sure, but supporting end users is still a significant cost. Moving to the cloud removes the cost of maintaining your own systems, but you still need to configure the generic cloud-based service to match your business’ unique needs, train your staff and help them find lost spreadsheets.

Reference

Stilgherrian. ( July 2010). What is cloud computing? Australian Financial Review .

Margaret Rouse. 2010. cloud computing. http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com. [Accessed December 2010].

summary:

It is a delivery of computing and storage capacity as a service to a heterogeneous community of end-recipients.It is very useful to every individual,small and big enterprises,companies and organisation.Cloud can be compute as Software as a service(SAAS),Platform as a service(PAAS) and Infrastructure as a service(IAAS).Also there are three types of clouds: Private,Public and Hybrid cloud.Nowadays use of cloud computing become so popular and easy that even it is being using in accounting and finance department.Any companies working with CPAs and other outside advisors regularly exchanges documents like invoice,purchase order etc with their suppliers or any related customers.With the help of cloud computing they can access the data and share it.This means companies are changing from on premises software to the cloud software or should say  SaaS.cloud computing services are easier to use and manage, more adaptable, and potentially less expensive than the traditional on-premises model for application deployment.There are some risks in the cloud clouding  which are still being work in process to be fixed.Companies like IBM,Amazon,Microsoft,Google they all are the service provider so because of so much technologies roaming all together in the cloud there are chances of some unpredictable risks.Besides this, there are also other risks like regulation and legislation and Regulatory compliance.As cloud computing is a technology that helps IT model to be an information-centric and information-rich organisation.Cloud computing will help IT teams to transition away from being primarily technologists to being more business aligned informationists.Cloud computing will make a good governance on information assets as well as high content quality to the IT teams.A good governance with high quality content will help organisation to increase the value of information assets.There are many things that IT organisations do which is making  making it harder to migrate to cloud computing, but the biggest failing looks like an inability to recognise that cloud computing will require IT organisational change management.Cloud computing can save a big money and time and it is this particular point that will drive its growth in future.

Introduction

This is where a data,software applications and computer processing powers are access from a cloud of online resources.It permits individual users to excess a data and application from any device as well as an organisation to reduce a capital cost by purchasing software and hardware as a utility service(Lamont, Judith. 2011).There are three ways to compute cloud :

1)SAAS: It is known as a software as a service.It allows users to run existing online applications.It is the easiest way to cloud compute where off the shelf applications are accessed over the Internet.The advantage of SAAS is that all applications are free or charged over subscription.SAAS application  is also accessible from any computer on internet and excellent collaborative working.(Lamont, Judith. 2011)

2)PAAS: It is known as platform as a service.It allows users to create their own cloud applications using supplier specific tools and languages..It provides environment and tools for creating new online applications.It allows users to create new online application very rapidly at lower costs.Such application may be used privately or publicly.It limits developers to provide languages and tools.There are a risk of vendor lock in as application built in one provider platform cannot be moved to another.(Lamont, Judith. 2011)

3)IAAS: It is known as infrastructure as a service.It allows users to run any applications they please on cloud hardware of their own choice.It allows existing applications to be run on a cloud's supplier hardware.The fundamental unit of Claud infrastructure is a server.A server can be a physical or virtual.(Lamont, Judith. 2011)

Types of cloud computing:

1)private cloud: It is a data centre dynmically provisioned and which  delivers services to the business.In private cloud data stays in a date centre which is always available.It is not provided to third parties and it makes intregation with other systems much easier.(sam johnston. 2009)

2)public cloud: It offers anything from simple personal storage to complex suites to entify its services.It consists of data centres owe by service providers to manage the infrastructure,service,network switches and storage systems and they sell the services to those service system providers.from a customer point of view it has got a price advantage over private cloud because the cost of infrastructure are shared among many users.everyone pays less than they would if they ran their own clouds.(sam johnston. 2009)

3)Hybrid cloud: It is a ability to connect users application data and services to a public cloud have them in operate and efficiently work amongst each other.By utilizing hybrid cloud architecture, companies and individuals are able to obtain degrees of fault tolerance combined with locally immediate usability without dependency on internet connectivity.(sam johnston. 2009)

Critical points to be discussed:

How cloud computing is useful to Accounting & Finance department?

There are some points to be discussed:

1)Location -independent access to the data: SaaS is a small but rapidly growing part of the applications software business.And with the help of  this modelWe can get the access to whatever we want and wherever we are from that means we can see dashboard ,reports  and see drill down information, and  also approval information in terms of financial applications.We just need internet connection and a computer to use it.Workflows don’t get stuck with us as an approver because we are traveling or out of the office.Also its very secure working within the application.There will no problem in VPN and remote access issues.(/blog.cloud9realtime.com)

There are major benefits for a multi-location business.There is no longer concerned about exchanging files through e-mail, telephone calls, or waiting until their computer is online another time.

2)Avoid of headaches and cost of running an In-House IT department: While using SaaS we will avoid management time and focusing on new customers, new products, new differentiation, than worrying about building an IT organisation just to run  in-house application.  we will avoid all that cost, all that hassle, things like capacity planning meetings, budgeting for IT, all that goes away.(Finance in the Cloud. 2009)

3)A world class IT operation far better than we can deliver internally: As SaaS is one of the world class vendor we can expect a premium IT service, far exceeding what we can contract for and deliver our self.cloud service providers make a living on up-time, so if the application is not there, they can’t sell it, and they can’t get paid.As it is world class IT operation it runs with 99.9% availability.(blog.cloud9realtime.com)

4)High return on investment: With the SaaS application we can get higher ROI.  This is in part due to the obvious IT cost avoidance.  Part of it is that SaaS applications are feature rich, written relatively recently with the knowledge of the past.  And part of it is more subtle costs that we don’t necessarily think about initially.Also SaaS application doesn't cost anything.Also there is no need of implementing a new version of the software every two to three years to get access to new features due to the change in underlying database version.Also all of the hidden costs will be disappeared.(Finance in the Cloud. 2009)

what are the cloud computing risk ?

Data security: In terms of data security  the risk in the cloud is the data is not secured.The data can be accessed by others.Also the data could be lost if it is corrupted.If it is corrupted than it will become very difficult to recover. Sensitive data processed outside the enterprise brings with it an inherent level of risk, because outsourced services bypass the physical, logical and personnel controls IT departments exert over in house programs. (prakash sri. 2011)

Regulatory compliance: Organisation must be and will be the responsible for the security and integrity of their own data, even when it is held by a service provider. The ability to demonstrate to auditors that their data is secure despite a lack of physical control over systems, hinges in part on educating them, and in part on providing them with the necessary visibility into all activity.(prakash sri. 2011)

System downtime: Well this is another risk in cloud computing.It is about traditional technology on premises.System downtime in any form is very distructive.Recently in NASA there was problem in technology well we can take example of a bank card transactions.we use electronic payments when we use card.But if the technology is down or i should say system is down than we can't use electronic payment.It happens due to too much of cloud technologies in the cloud or energy in the cloud makes network very slow.(prakash sri. 2011)

Privacy agreement and service legal agreement: We should have a suitable agreement with our service provider before commencing service.This will help in safeguard against certain risks and also outline the responsibilities of each party in the form of a service level agreement (SLA). we should understand the responsibilities of service provider before agreeing it.(prakash sri. 2011)

Geographical reasons: There can be the risks of regulation and legislation  when storing data.If an organisation or business uses an overseas service provider than they have to be aware of regulation and legislation of that particular place or area.(prakash sri. 2011)

How can Cloud Computing Influence on Business Alignment, Governance, and Content Quality?

At a moment around 60-70% of business are using different types of IT functions and resources to focus on their core business.It means cloud computing will very soon outsource IT that will lead organisations to shift their IT infrastructure to cloud.Business service and applications like business intelligence and dashboard application will have measurable benefits, are straightforward to implement, require agile and iterative development processes, are read-only applications, and are relatively low risk.(Richard Blahunka. 2011)

Applications like business intelligence and dashboard is very important to maintain information value and quality in IT.The IT department of organisation will try to shift managing hardware assets and data centre operations to managing its information assets as well as information architecture.All these assets and information will be properly aligned to the business strategy.(Richard Blahunka. 2011)

cloud computing is very important in terms of governance.Cloud computing will help to establish and maintain good governance of data, models, business rules, content, data, information, applications, system performance, usage, etc. The whole performance of any organisation are measured by business performance dashboard for its goals and objectives.It is very important to have a proper governance in the information assets .so here cloud computing plays an important role as it will protect and increase the value of those information assets.Also makes organisation flow steady with the likes of stewardship (content, business rules, business models, metrics, applications, etc),process monitoring and process controls,content security and privacy,master data management (MDM) and content standardization,cloud computing Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and managing and integrating emerging  IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS.(Richard Blahunka. 2011)

Content quality is also influenced by cloud computing.Any business decision or action are based on its business information.It depends its good quality information or bad.If its bad information or data than the overall value of organisation information assets will be reduced.In cloud computing such distructions are very less.There will be more importance of quality information to the IT department as information assets are aligned with business strategy.With the help of content value (data and other content as enterprise resources having measurable organisational value),actionable content ( reliability, accessibility, availability, timeliness) and certifiable content (consistency, completeness, accuracy, conformity) in cloud computing there will be proper guidance in content quality which is very important to add up the value to the organisation.(Richard Blahunka. 2011)

Why cloud computing forcing IT organisation to change in IT organisation management?

With so many big companies like microsoft,google,Amazon  in the corner cloud computing looks like a real architecture where  data center has a good chance of being connected to in the near future.If it happens than IT organisation has to change.companies will not get all the things from cloud computing they want if  IT organisation doesn't adopt the way they  work with business units.Too many IT organisations are just focused on pilots project or limited scope.There is no effective management structure in place to really deal with it.(Babcock, Charlie |. 2009.)

The IT organisation believes that cloud computing saves money but they don't have idea on management implication that associates with management model.As a result they suffer from a form of cloud fatigue that makes it difficult to appreciate all the nuances of the cloud computing model.So many of  them engage in the from of cloudwashing.It is clear that organisations need to work on managing services rather than managing devices.for example online Services that Help our SMB Work Better", rather than the management of servers, storage and network products and technologies.(Michael Vizard. 2011)

Also,IT workload into the cloud will require some different management approaches, and different IT skills, from what’s grown up in the traditional data centre. With all these combination of  technical, economic and cultural issues are forcing  IT organisational change.It's better to have IT leaders being  well advised to be the ones seen as driving those actual changes rather than being seen as simply letting that just happen to the IT department.(Michael Vizard. 2011)

How can cloud computing help business and organisation to save time and money?

There are some points to be discussed that will describe how cloud computing will save time and money of business and organisations.

1)Low labour costs: In public cloud ,It functions works as a provider and in private cloud,IT function increase their efficiency as management is more efficient in a virtualized environment.so basically both private and public cloud will work eachother to perform several tasks which will allow companies to free up some labours.It will help them in saving their labour costs.(Hoboken, NJ and New York City, NY (PRWEB. 2012)

2)Faster time to value: Companies can save their time when they purchase or install through clouds rather than wait for some time to get it.(Hoboken, NJ and New York City, NY (PRWEB. 2012)

3)Pay as you use: Cloud computing companies operate on a pay-as-you-use model, or in other words, a demand-only model. As a business availing of cloud computing services, you only pay for the services you require and use. This works out to be much cheaper than acquiring equipment you hardly use.(SOURYA . 2011)

4)Maintenance costs: Cloud computing also saves maintenance costs.There is somebody else who looks after IT infrastructure,provides support,technical support,backup and all other things related to the maintenance.(SOURYA . 2011)

5)simplify capital expense: When we buy  expensive equipment, that’s considered a capital expenditure, and a big one at that.when we depreciate it on the book it can be very difficult and headache.With cloud computing, this expense is spread across several operational cycles, becoming part of operational costs. As any corporate finance professional will tell you, this is a much better alternative. Factor in the time value of money, and the balance shifts even more towards cloud computing.It will make very easier for a lot of medium-sized businesses to manage their books(SOURYA . 2011).

Criticism:

There are some criticism of cloud computing of not allowing users any freedom and making them totally dependent on cloud computing provider.It may be due to the disrupt in the access of data . If we have to take a example than we can simply say like network outages, denial of service attacks against the service provider, and a major failure of the service provider infrastructure, even if data is securely stored in a cloud.Still there are some other issues  as    well regarding visibility and transportability due to the complex nature of cloud  and web service systems(Cloud computing. 2012).

Experts on the future of cloud computing and its services

According to the recent survey from some of the experts in cloud computing believes that in near future most people will access software applications and information through online and with the use of remote server networks.It is also predicted that most users will perform most computing and communicating activities through connections to servers operated by outside firms.As predicted some experts believes that In near future there will be a hybrid life where most of the peoples all over the world will work in Internet based applications such as Google Docs, and in applications run from smartphones where a spiring application developers will develop for smartphone vendors and companies that provide Internet-based applications but some experts still disagreed with that.According to survey there was a two thoughts on cloud computing expand .some believes that cloud computing will expand but the desktop  will  not die out also it will be used in new, improved ways in tandem with remote computing.There will  be continuing expand of cloud computing which will come to dominate information transactions because it will offer so  many advantages that allows users to have easy, instant, and individualized access to tools and information they need wherever they are, locatable from any networked device.Surveys also said that there will be some hurdles like service and compatibility which must be crossed before cloud computing gains more adopters.Beside this there will be the lack of broadband spectrum to handle the load if everyone is using the cloud,the variability of cost  and access in different parts of the world and the difficulties that lie ahead before they can reach the ideal of affordable access as well as intellectual property and privacy conflicts(The Future of Cloud Computing - Pew Research Center. 2012).

References:

Lamont, Judith. 2011. Cloud computing: It can work for you . [ONLINE] Available at:http://search.proquest.com/docview/1014027103accountid=136883. [Accessed 21 May 12].

sam johnston. 2009. CloudComputingTypes:PublicCloud,HybridCloud,PrivateCloud. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090306_computing_types_public_hybrid_private/. [Accessed 06 May 12].

http://blog.cloud9realtime.com/finance-and-accounting-benefits-from-cloud-computing/. 2012. Finance and Accounting Benefits from Cloud Computing. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.cloud9realtime.com/finance-and-accounting-benefits-from-cloud-computing/. [Accessed 24 May 12].

 Finance in the Cloud. 2009. Finance in the Cloud. [ONLINE] Available at:http://search.proquest.com/business/docview/210970955/136E4C61B745A27FA79/70?accountid=136883. [Accessed 23 May 12].

prakash sri. 2011. Risk management: Cloud computing considerations. [ONLINE] Available at:http://search.proquest.com/docview/894725517?accountid=136883. [Accessed 22 May 12].

Richard Blahunka. 2011. Cloud Computing’s Influence on Business Alignment, Governance, and Content Quality. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/new-concepts-in-business-intelligence/cloud-computings-influence-on-business-alignment-governance-and-content-quality.aspx. [Accessed 25 May 12].

 Michael Vizard. 2011. Cloud Computing Forces IT Organizational Change Management. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/vizard/cloud-computing-forces-it-organizational-change-management/?cs=47609. [Accessed 26 May 12].

Babcock, Charlie |. 2009. Cloud Computing Will Force The IT Organization To Change. [ONLINE] Available at: http://reports.informationweek.com/abstract/5/1694/Cloud-Computing/cloud-computing-will-force-the-it-organization-to-change.html. [Accessed 25 May 12].

SOURYA . 2011. How Cloud Computing Can Save You Money . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2011/01/how-cloud-computing-can-save-you-money/. [Accessed 27 May 12]

Hoboken, NJ and New York City, NY (PRWEB. 2012. New Article: How the Cloud Saves Money and Builds Business in 5 Key Ways. [ONLINE] Available at:http://prweb.com/releases/cloud/consultant/prweb9158998.htm. [Accessed 27 May 12]

Cloud computing. 2012. Cloud computing. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~madhurim/cloud%20computing.html. [Accessed 29 May 2012]. .

The Future of Cloud Computing - Pew Research Center. 2012. The Future of Cloud Computing - Pew Research Center. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/1623/future-cloud-computing-technology-experts. [Accessed 29 May 2012].

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sushanta shakya
ID:1001666

Experts Question Whether Google Can Adequately Protect Information in the Cloud

 Information that government agencies entrust to cloud computing services is of paramount concern to experts at SafeGov.org. Recent incidents suggest that Google does not exercise adequate control over certain aspects of its technology which may compromise the security of government information in Google cloud services. SafeGov.org experts Karen Evans, Richard Falkenrath, Jeff Gould and Douglas Miller call upon Google to take proactive steps to reassure government customers that its services will fully protect their information.

Cloud Computing Jobs

Specifically, these SafeGov.org experts think that Google should implement the following measures:
(1) Create an audit program to ensure that their government-specific privacy policies are effectively implemented by Google’s cloud products and service delivery organization. By publishing the audit program results, Google would show to Congressional oversight and the American taxpayers that they are meeting the terms and conditions of their federal government contracts.
(2) Publish the results of the audit program so that Federal, State and Local government customers and the American taxpayers can be confident that Google’s privacy policies are sophisticated enough to protect government information. Furthermore, the audit would give adequate assurances that Google is not monitoring or sharing sensitive government information without explicit consent.
With Google’s new privacy policies going into effect March 1, 2012 with no opt out control afforded any user, the stakes could not be higher. Immediate action should be taken. These SafeGov.org experts also call on all vendors active in the government cloud computing market to undertake the same commitments to information privacy and safety that they are asking of Google. These measures are the indispensable precondition for a healthy and rapidly growing market for cloud computing services used by governments of all levels.
About SafeGov.org:
SafeGov.org is an online forum for IT providers and leading industry experts dedicated to promoting trusted and responsible cloud computing solutions for the public sector. By fostering a more comprehensive understanding of cloud technologies, including their benefits, capabilities and limitations, SafeGov.org works to empower government users to make well-informed procurement choices from the growing universe of marketplace offerings.

REF:razavi (2012). Experts Question Whether Google Can Adequately Protect Information in the Cloud. [ONLINE] Available at: http://bizcloudnetwork.com/google-can-protect-information-in-the-cloud. [Last Accessed 28 may 2012].
By: Nabin Gautam
ID: 1040801.

Organizations View Cloud Computing as Key to Improved Data Protection

How do you plan to leverage the Cloud?

According to the survey commissioned by CA Technologies, more than half (55%) of U.S. organizations expect their use of the cloud to increase as part of their business continuity strategy over the next year. Canadian organizations are starting to make the switch but are less advanced than their American counterparts, with a quarter (23%) reporting they will use the cloud for data protection.
The survey, “Insights: Data Protection and the Cloud”, shows that data loss continues to be a huge problem for companies across North America. All of the 300 organizations surveyed across both the U.S. and Canada admitted to incidents in the last year which led to data or application loss. Despite the high levels of data being lost, only a quarter (26%) of U.S. and Canadian companies reported having an adequate data protection plan in place.
To combat this precarious situation, budgets are growing and strategies are evolving. Of the U.S. companies surveyed, almost half (49%) have increased their expenditure compared to last year, while only 14% have decreased it. This, together with the fact that organizations are beginning to appreciate that cloud resources can offer a solution to these requirements, should lead to fewer incidents of data loss.
About a third (36%) of organizations in the U.S. report having data stored in a public cloud, with more than three quarters (76%) storing data in a private cloud. In Canada, the cloud storage rate is lower, with 28% storing data in a public cloud and 45% using a private cloud.
Those using the cloud for data storage feel safe doing so. More than four out of five (84%) U.S. and Canadian organizations that have data residing in a private cloud are confident that it is adequately protected. The percentage of businesses assured of their data’s safety in the public cloud is also high at 73%.
“It is broadly acknowledged that cloud computing can offer many benefits to organizations that require more agile and cost-effective ways of delivering IT services,” said Bill Mann, senior vice president, Data Management, CA Technologies. “This survey reveals that one of those benefits is improved data protection—which remains a huge challenge in conventional, non-cloud environments.”
The study also highlighted the main triggers of data loss. The most common cause (76%) was IT system failures (encompassing network, storage, hardware and software failures) followed by employee or human error (41%) and external attacks on IT (35%).
When asked about the key barriers to better data protection and disaster recovery operations, businesses pointed to inadequate training of IT personnel (reported by 62% of U.S. organizations) and lack of budget (54%). Organizations in Canada also reported a lack of employee understanding of procedures in the DR plan (40%).
The study is a follow-up to a previous CA Technologies survey, “The Avoidable Cost of Downtime”, which found that the cost of outages to a company over a year is in the range of $160,000.

REF: Jason (2012). Organizations View Cloud Computing as Key to Improved Data Protection. [ONLINE] Available at: http://bizcloudnetwork.com/cloud-computing-data-protection. [Last Accessed MAY 16, 2012].
By: Nabin Gautam
ID:1040801

New data shows carbon reduction benefits of cloud computing

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Beyond the commonly cited benefits of cloud computing — such as cost savings and increased agility — cloud computing has the potential to significantly reduce the energy use and carbon footprint associated with running business applications. A new study by Microsoft, Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy shows that using Microsoft’s large-scale, efficient datacenters to run common business applications can dramatically reduce the per-user carbon footprints for small, medium and large sized companies compared to the onsite deployment of the identical software.

The study compared the energy use and carbon emissions per user for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM with their cloud-based equivalents: Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online.

The results: for large deployments, Microsoft’s cloud solutions can reduce energy use and carbon emissions by more than 30 percent when compared to their corresponding Microsoft business applications installed on-premise. The benefits are even more impressive for small deployments: Energy use and emissions can be reduced by more than 90 percent with a shared cloud service

By Nabin Gautam

ID:1040801.

Future directions for cloud computing in financial services

Financial services organizations are starting to use cloud computing technologies in a number of areas, in particular for mobile applications, innovation testing and micro-banking.

Mobile banking

All mobile clients can readily connect to publicly-available cloud services but it is often impractible to connect mobile clients directly into internal systems. So, mobile applications are provided by the cloud and then connect back into internal system. As a result, several financial services organisations such as banks, insurance industry are using cloud computing to offer mobile applications as a service to customers and partners like online banking. For example, Within the insurance industry, companies often want to give mobile applications to agents who will then be able to request quotes, get status updates and send in reports on accidents via a mobile interface.

New Service R&D

Financial services organisations are increasingly investing the computing power that cloud services offer for research and development and testing of new services prior to any attempt at going into production. Many IT managers were having issues with cloud computing because of the prospect of private and sensitive data being sent up to third-party cloud services. However, with the development of technologies enabling the tokenisation of data, any private information which are sent to the cloud service provider, can be replaced with a random token and then swapped back with the real data when retrieved. In this way, the private data is never sent to the cloud provider.

Micro banking

Nowadays even developing countries are adopting cloud computing whereby micro banks are running their entire business on cloud computing. In such greenfield scenarios where there has been limited prior investment in technology, it is obvious for micro banks to leverage cloud computing as opposed to making the capital expenditure on actual data centres.

References:

1. Cloud Standards Customer Council, http://www.cloudstandardscustomercouncil.org

2. Cloud Computing : Tips for Financial Industry, http://dcvizcayno.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/cloud-computing-tips-for-financial-industry/

 

Jyotsana K.C. Student Id: 1142600

Cloud Computing for Financial Industry

The financial industry is like any other industry in exploring the possibilities and benefits of cloud computing. However, some experts within the sector are calling for regulations to ensure organizations have the proper cloud security solutions in place to protect sensitive information. According to a recent Wall Street & Technology report, these wheels are already in motion. The industry news provider stated that the banking association BIDS, along with the Cloud Security Alliance and the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, have taken preliminary steps for drafting regulation standards. The industries have to consider information security and cloud computing with regulators analysing the acceptable behaviour.

For financial institutions, sooner would certainly be better, as these types of organizations are being encouraged to explore the use of the cloud. According to a separate Wall Street & Technology report, the technology can provide numerous benefits for banks and other financial services providers. For example, these organizations could utilize the cloud to improve customer relationship management, while also using virtual desktops to improve the efficiency of their computing processes, the earlier report stated. Even then, experts told the news provider that cloud use can’t go unchecked as data can be easily moved in the cloud and it’s imperative to know where it is at all times.

 As cloud computing becoming the buzzword in technology circles today. It is sometimes compared with the virtualization of computing power, applications and storage, thought of as a model to deploy pay-as-you-go web services or perceived to be similar to grid computing. Cloud computing shares characteristics with all of these technology paradigms, yet it has more to offer. Cloud computing adoption continues to gain momentum across a broad range of industries including financial services. Once organisations manage to filter through the noise surrounding the cloud, there are actually some very pragmatic ways in which the IT organisations of banks, insurers and similar institutions can leverage cloud computing to directly benefit their daily operations and most significantly, have an impact on the business bottom line. These gains can be achieved without incurring large capital expenditure or exposing sensitive business data.

References:

1. Cloud Standards Customer Council, http://www.cloudstandardscustomercouncil.org

2. Cloud Security Alliance, http://www.cloudsecurityalliance.org

Jyotsana K.C Student Id: 1142600