BUS 120D - Topic 4: Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing?

Computing power through remote servers managed by a cloud provider.

Benefits of cloud computing:

Scalability, agility, reliability, cost-benefit

Scalability

Ability to increase or decrease resources as needed

Cost-benefit

Potentially lower upfront investment and pay-as-you-go pricing models

What are the different cloud deployment models?

Public, Private, Hybrid Cloud

Public Cloud

Infrastructure and services are owned and operated by a third-party cloud provider and shared among multiple organizations

Private Cloud

Infrastructure is dedicated to a single organization (managed in-house or a cloud provider. More control but more expensive.

Hybrid Cloud

A combination of public and private

What are the main cloud service models?

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Software as a Service (SaaS)

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

Provides fundamental computing infrastructure — storage, networks, and operating systems — over the internet.

Users control operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and networking components.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Provides a platform for customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the infrastructure.

Includes operating systems, programming language, database systems, and web servers.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

Provides a cloud-based software delivery model for users and organizations to subscribe to rather than buying and installing on computers.

What are key risks associated with adopting cloud computing?

Security and privacy, availability and performance, Vendor permanence in the market, Compliance

Security and privacy (Risks)

Data breaches, unauthorized access, and compliance with data privacy regulations when data is stored by a third party

Availability and performance (Risks)

Reliance on the cloud’s provider’s infrastructure and network connectivity which can impact service time and performance

Vendor Permanence in the Market (Risks)

Risk of a cloud’s provider going out of business or significantly changing their service offerings, leading to migration challenges

Compliance (Risks)

Ensuring compliance with industry-specific and legal regulations when using cloud services, responsibilities are often shared between the organization and cloud provider

Auditing for cloud environments can be:

Division of responsibility, integrity and accuracy of financial data, access controls to prevent unauthorized access, data governance to ensure data privacy, audit trails to monitor activity and incidents, contractual agreements such as service level agreements (SLAs)

The SEC does not allow public companies to hire cloud services

• True

• False

False

The cloud service that delegates most of the responsibility of the cloud provider is PaaS

• True

• False

False

If a company uses an AIS hosted in the cloud by the developer (SAP, Oracle, Xero), the cloud services offered is IaaS

• True

• False

False

Public companies using cloud services can choose any type of cloud service they want

• True

• False

True

If a company installs its own AIS in the cloud of a provider, and the cloud service includes everything except the application, then the type of cloud service is PaaS

• True

• False

True

Companies may choose to hose all their applications in premises (in-house) and not use a cloud provider

• True

• False

True

IaaS stands for Information as a Service

• True

• False

False

In SaaS, the service provider has more responsibility over the system than the client

• True

• False

True