Chapter 6: The Cloud

Ch. 6

Summary

Like anything else the Cloud has both positive and negative aspects. The Cloud is supported by four types of networks. Standardized protocols are in place to allow easy connection between networks. May organizations use Cloud services to improve the speed and organization of their services.

Topics and Details

Q6-1: Why Is the Cloud the Future for Most Organizations?

-          Cloud:  pooled computer resources leased over the internet

-          Elastic: leased computing resources can be inc./dec. dynamically/programmatically in short time

-          Pooled: diff. orgs. use the same hardware, cloud vendors allocate virtual to physical hardware when customer needs inc./dec.; cloud vendors and electrical utilities benefit from economies of scale

-          Over the Internet: computer industry set a standard for requesting/receiving services over the internet, enables computers that never “met” to deliver and process content to users on PCs, IPads, Google phones, and Xboxes.

-          Cloud Negatives: loss of control/dependent on vendor, don’t know where your data is located, how many copies are available, security of your data from competitors

Q6-2: What Technology Supports the Cloud?

-          Network: comp. collection that comm. w/one another over transmission lines or wireless,

-           4 basic types: personal area (PAN) -devices connected around 1 person, local area (LAN) -comps. connected to one site, wide area (WAN) -comp. connected between 2+ sites, and internets -networks of networks, connects LANs, Wans, other internets

-          Intranet: exclusive private internet within an org.

-          Protocol: set of rules and data structures for organizing comm.

-          Small Office or Home Office (SOHO): typical LAN- less than 12 comp. and printers

-          IEEE 802.3 protocol: used for wired LAN connections

-          Ethernet: protocol standard specifies hardware characteristics, I.e. What wire carries which signal

-          10/100/1000 Ethernet: PC support, products conform to 802.3 specs, allows transmission rates 10, 100, 1000 Mgbs

-          IEEE 802.11 protocol: used for wireless LAN connections, several versions, speed up to 1.3 Gbps, most users don’t have internet connection fast enough to take advantage of it

-          Internet service provider (ISP): provides Internet Address, serves as a gateway to internet, ISPs pay for internet i.e. AT&T, Comcast

-          Digital Subscriber line (DSL): operate on the same lines as voice telephones without interfering with service

-          WAN wireless: another way to connect comp., mobile device, other comm. devices

Q6-3 How Does the Cloud Work?

-          Hop: moving from one network to another

-          Packet: the form your message takes when traveling across the internet

-          Carriers: Sprint, AT&T, Verizon

-          Peering: agreement between companies to not charge access fees and exchange traffic freely

-          Net Neutrality: all data treated equally

-          ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers): Public agency that controls IP address assignments

-          IPv4: common IP address format, 4-decimal dotted notation, IPv6: longer format

-          Three-tier architecture: 3 tier design of user comps. and servers, almost all web apps use

o   User tier: comps., phones, mobile devices that have web page browser capabilities

o   Server tier: comps. that run web servers and process app programs

o   Database tier: comps. that run DBMS that process requests to receive/store data

-          Commerce server: app. program running on server tier

-          Service-oriented architecture (SOA): design philosophy- all interactions among computing devices are defined as services in a formal, standardized way

-          TCP/IP architecture: basic Internet structure governed by protocols, 5 layers: one or more protocols defined at each layer. I.e. http, https, smtp, ftp

Q6-4 How Do Organizations Use the Cloud?

-          Software as a service (SaaS): provides hardware infrastructure, operating system, and app. programs, i.e. Salesforce.com, iCloud, Office365

-          Platform as a service (PaaS): vendors provide hosted comps, an operating system, and possibly a DBMS, i.e. Microsoft Azure, Oracle On Demand

-          Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): cloud hosting of a bare server comp./data storage, i.e. Amazon EC2, Amazon S3

-          Content delivery networks (CDN): Hardware and software system that stores user data in geographical locations worldwide, makes data available upon request

Q6-5 How Can Falcon Security Use the Cloud?

SaaS needs little investment in hardware and software, but need to transfer existing data, create new data, develop procedures, and train users. PaaS leases hardware and operating systems in the cloud from the cloud vendor. Some cloud vendors include DBMS products in their PaaS services.

Q6-6 How Can Organizations Use Cloud Services Securely?

-          Virtual private network (VPN): uses the internet to create the appearance of private, secure connections

-          Tunnel: a virtual, private pathway over a public/shared network from client to the server, encryption codes to secure messages

Q6-7 2026? : Cloud services will become faster, more secure, easier to use, and cheaper.

Three Things I learned

1) Falcon Security is an organization that is often used in business textbook examples. I was surprised to have seen it in so many books since I didn’t see it as a well-known organization like Google or Microsoft.

2) There are benefits in using Content Delivery Networks. There is a decrease in load-time and a reduce load on origin server. The network has an increase in reliability, especially it provides protection from DOS attacks. It’s better for mobile users because it has reduced delivery costs and is a pay-as-you-go so there’s no extra costs.

3) Web services and the cloud use four standards: Web Services Description Language, SOAP, Extensible Markup Language, and JavaScript Objective Notation. WSDL is a standard for describing the services, inputs and outputs, and other data supported by a Web service. SOAP is the protocol for requesting Web services and for sending responses to Web service requests. XML is used for transmitting documents. It contains metadata to validate the format and completeness of the documents. JSON is another markup language but it contains little metadata and prefers to transmit volumes of data between servers and browsers.