Application of Cloud Computing In University Libraries

Cloud computing is a process that provides services on virtual machines that are allocated on the top of large physical machine pool. In Cloud Computing the information is permanently stored on the internet servers and it can be cached by the users temporarily. The name cloud computing has probably evolved from the cloud’s image which is used to represent the Internet or any large network environment. Nobody really cares much about what is in the cloud? Or what happens there? The only thing of concern is that the data sending and receiving from it can be done reliably. Cloud computing can be related to higher level abstraction of the cloud. Services have now taken over from the usual data pipes, routers and servers. The basic hardware and software are still the integral part but the high level service capabilities are available to build the application. In the background of these services are the data and the resources. The user’s main concern is not how the technology is implemented or what things are being used to manage this technology but the only concern is that how he can access it and what level of security is necessary to meet his requirements.

The cloud application is created using resources from more than one service and from more than One location. An application can be built using the resource from multiple services potentially and from multiple locations. To access the service you ought to know the end point, despite of the cloud providing you the available resource. It may also be termed as Software as a Service.There a grid of computer behind the service interface which provide the resources.

A particular computer consisting of homogeneous environment of hardware and software host the grid. Thus it becomes easy to support as well as to maintain. Once you start paying for the services and the resources utilized, well that’s utility computing.

Cloud computing is all about accessing services and resources that are along with present dynamically changing needs are needed to perform functions. A request is made to the cloud by the service developer or an application instead of any named resources or specific end point. Multiple infrastructures throughout multiple organization multiple organization are managed by what so ever goes in the cloud, hence it ties together one or more frame work that are overlaid on top of the infrastructure.

The cloud which is actually virtualization of resources that manages and maintain itself. So as to Keep hardware, operation system and networking in an orderly form there are provided people resources as well. But from the viewpoint of an application developer or a user, only the cloud is referenced. The Assimilator project provides a local cloud environment, it is actually a framework that in a local area network execute across a heterogeneous environment. In the works is the addition of a network overlay to start providing an infrastructure across the Internet to help achieve the goal of true cloud computing.

Imagine yourself as an executive in a large corporation. You are entrusted with the responsibilities which include to make sure that all of your employees are provided right

hardware and software they may need to do their jobs. Purchasing computers for everyone isn't enough -- you have to purchase various software or software licenses to provide employees all those tools they require. Whenever you have a new employment, you have to buy more of the software or see to it that your current software license allows another user. It's so hectic that you feel it tough to go to sleep on your huge pile of money every night.

Soon, there may be a substitute for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for every computer, you only need to load one application. That application shall allow workers to log into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs the user might need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it could result a change in the entire computer industry.

There’s a significant workload shift in a cloud computing system. When it comes to running application Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs is to able to run the cloud computing systems interface software, that can be as humble as a Web browser and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.

Characteristics :

i) Agility:                  

   On demand computing infrastructure

   On Linearly scalable – challenge

ii) Reliability and fault tolerance

On Self healing – Hot backups, etc

On SLA driven – Policies on how quickly requests are processed

iii) Multi-tenancy – Several customers share infrastructure, without compromising privacy

and security of each of the customer’s data

iv) Service-oriented – compose applications out of loosely coupled services. One service failure will not disrupt other services. Expose these services as API’s

v) Virtualized – decoupled from underlying hardware. Multiple applications can run in one Computer

vi) Data, Data, Data On Distributing, partitioning, security, and synchronization

4. Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing:

i) Customers cannot own the infrastructure they are using, they can only rent it or can pay as they use.

ii) The major advantage of cloud computing is its less price.

iii) The companies can invest on lower technology based products and can focus on investing their money on goods and services they specialize.

iv) Location and device independence can be achieved that enables the users to access systems from any device and any location.

v) Cost and resource sharing between the users provides efficient savings like performance, load balancing, and even locations.

vi) It is reliable and scalable.

vii) The major concern is data security.

vii) Improved resource utilization provides green and clean technology.

Application:

i) Clients to access their applications and data from anywhere and anytime.

ii) It can curtail the cost of hardware.

iii) Companies need of physical storage space can be reduced.

iv) Client has the advantage of processing power of the entire network.

v) Compute and storage cloud architectures and implementations

vi) Map-reduce and its generalizations

vii) Programming models and tools

viii) Novel data-intensive computing applications

ix) Data intensive scalable computing

x) Distributed data intensive computing

xi) Content distribution systems for large data

xii) Data management within and across data centers

Academic:

By cloud computing education institutes can open their technology infrastructures to business and industries for helping in research advancements. Also they can pace up with the ever growing resource and energy expenditure. Its reach can help the students to learn in different Ways, perform their projects, manage their massive workloads, and also helps them to understand new technology.

 The author of this article is Assistant Professor, Pioneer Institute, Indore