Cloud computing: The next step in the internet evolution.

Why “next step” while cloud computing is already used by some of the biggest companies, like Google or Amazon, in the world? According to most of the people who made researches on that subject, there is still no exact definition for cloud computing. However, I will retain this one: “Clouds are a large pool of easily usable and accessible virtualized resources” [1].

Moreover, we must be agreed that cloud computing is still not a perfect solution. Of course, in theory, it is a revolution. But there are a lot of issues that make cloud computing extremely scalable but sensitive at this time.

First of all let’s know what are the main advantages provided by cloud computing. As we know, today’s companies are becoming bigger and bigger, and more and more have to manage their database with many distinct data centers. In that case, cloud computing is probably the most efficient way to overcome to this issue. Actually, cloud computing allows low prices, easy maintenance and space economy [2].

But there are a lot of obstacles that make cloud computing not perfect and sometimes dangerous. Particularly about what we call “public cloud computing”. As data is shared between users, it has a harmful effect on privacy, confidentiality and security because, in some ways, everything is accessible for everyone. Moreover as every user is connected to the same servers, there could have latency problems or software licenses issues due to the fact that those users should use the same one [3].

To conclude, I think cloud computing will inevitably rise during the next years because it seems obvious that it’s the best way to provides efficient solutions in many computing domains.

References:

[1] Vaquero, Rodero-Merino, Caceres, Lindner. A break in the clouds: Towards a cloud definition. 2008.

[2] Robert L. Grossman, University of Illinois at Chicago and Open Data Group. The case for cloud computing.2009.

[3] Armbrust, Fox, Griffith, Joseph, et al, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences University of California at Berkeley. Above the clouds: a Berkeley view of cloud computing. 2009.