Cloud Computing And Software Services

Whether you're already in the cloud, or determining whether or not it makes sense for your organization, Cloud Computing and Software Services: Theory and Techniques provides the technical understanding needed to develop and maintain state-of-the-art cloud computing and software services. From basic concepts and recent research findings to fut

From small start-ups to major corporations, companies of all sizes have embraced cloud computing for the scalability, reliability, and cost benefits it can provide. It has even been said that cloud computing may have a greater effect on our lives than the PC and dot-com revolutions combined.Filled with comparative charts and decision trees, Impleme

The Cloud Computing and Services Science book comprises a collection of the best papers presented at the International Conference on Cloud Computing and Services Science (CLOSER), which was held in The Netherlands in May 2011. In netting papers from the conference researchers and experts from all over the world explore a wide-ranging variety of the emerging Cloud Computing platforms, models, applications and enabling technologies. Further, in several papers the authors exemplify essential links to Services Science as service development abstraction, service innovation, and service engineering, acknowledging the service-orientation in most current IT-driven structures in the Cloud. The Cloud Computing and Services Science book is organized around important dimensions of technology trends in the domain of cloud computing in relation to a broad scientific understanding of modern services emerging from services science. The papers of this book are inspired by scholarly and practical work on the latest advances related to cloud infrastructure, operations, security, services, and management through the global network. This book includes several features that will be helpful, interesting, and inspirational to students, researchers as well as practitioners. Professionals and decision makers working in this field will also benefit from this book

The broad scope of Cloud Computing is creating a technology, business, sociolo- cal, and economic renaissance. It delivers the promise of making services available quickly with rather little effort. Cloud Computing allows almost anyone, anywhere, at anytime to interact with these service offerings. Cloud Computing creates a unique opportunity for its users that allows anyone with an idea to have a chance to deliver it to a mass market base. As Cloud Computing continues to evolve and penetrate different industries, it is inevitable that the scope and definition of Cloud Computing becomes very subjective, based on providers’ and customers’ persp- tive of applications. For instance, Information Technology (IT) professionals p- ceive a Cloud as an unlimited, on-demand, flexible computing fabric that is always available to support their needs. Cloud users experience Cloud services as virtual, off-premise applications provided by Cloud service providers. To an end user, a p- vider offering a set of services or applications in the Cloud can manage these off- ings remotely. Despite these discrepancies, there is a general consensus that Cloud Computing includes technology that uses the Internet and collaborated servers to integrate data, applications, and computing resources. With proper Cloud access, such technology allows consumers and businesses to access their personal files on any computer without having to install special tools. Cloud Computing facilitates efficient operations and management of comp- ing technologies by federating storage, memory, processing, and bandwidth.

"True to form, Melvin Greer's futurist thinking provides new applicability to Software as a Service that identifies ways of reducing costs, creating greater efficiencies, and ultimately providing significant long-term value through business transformation. He continues to be on the cutting edge of merging business function evolution and technology innovation to increase customer satisfaction and return on investments." -Kevin Manuel-Scott, chairman and CEO, RONIN IT Services, LLC "Melvin Greer provides an excellent guide to the Cloud computing IT model with a solid overview of concepts, business aspects, technical implications, benefits, challenges, and trends. Definitely a 'must read' for IT managers and enterprise architects considering adoption of this flexible, beneficial business model within their organization." -John Magnuson, senior staff engineer, Lockheed Martin "This book offers the most comprehensive view of Cloud computing and SaaS on the market today. The author skillfully lays out a game plan for government and commercial entities alike looking to stay relevant in this burgeoning business paradigm." -Ken Brown, program account executive, IBM Federal Almost every business reaches a time when the fundamentals change. This time is referred to as a strategic inflection point. Adopting new technology or fighting the competition may not be enough when these critical moments arise. That's because inflection points build up force so quickly that organizations may have a hard time even putting a finger on what has changed. The way a firm responds could propel it to new heights or lead to its demise. Over the last few years, industry has begun developing a model of information technology known as Cloud computing, which includes Software as a Service. This new model has reached an inflection point and will give users the choice to purchase IT as a service, as a complement to, or as a replacement of the traditional IT software/hardware infrastructure purchase. It's time for businesses to transform how they approach advanced software and innovative business models so they can achieve real agility. If you are a decision maker involved with the deployment of information technology, then it's imperative that you understand Software as a Service Inflection Point.

Cloud computing continues to emerge as a subject of substantial industrial and academic interest. Although the meaning and scope of “cloud computing” continues to be debated, the current notion of clouds blurs the distinctions between grid services, web services, and data centers, among other areas. Clouds also bring considerations of lowering the cost for relatively bursty applications to the fore. Cloud Computing: Principles, Systems and Applications is an essential reference/guide that provides thorough and timely examination of the services, interfaces and types of applications that can be executed on cloud-based systems. The book identifies and highlights state-of-the-art techniques and methods for designing cloud systems, presents mechanisms and schemes for linking clouds to economic activities, and offers balanced coverage of all related technologies that collectively contribute towards the realization of cloud computing. With an emphasis on the conceptual and systemic links between cloud computing and other distributed computing approaches, this text also addresses the practical importance of efficiency, scalability, robustness and security as the four cornerstones of quality of service. Topics and features: explores the relationship of cloud computing to other distributed computing paradigms, namely peer-to-peer, grids, high performance computing and web services; presents the principles, techniques, protocols and algorithms that can be adapted from other distributed computing paradigms to the development of successful clouds; includes a Foreword by Professor Mark Baker of the University of Reading, UK; examines current cloud-practical applications and highlights early deployment experiences; elaborates the economic schemes needed for clouds to become viable business models. This book will serve as a comprehensive reference for researchers and students engaged in cloud computing. Professional system architects, technical managers, and IT consultants will also find this unique text a practical guide to the application and delivery of commercial cloud services. Prof. Nick Antonopoulos is Head of the School of Computing, University of Derby, UK. Dr. Lee Gillam is a Lecturer in the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey, UK.

Cloud computing is a buzz-word in today’s information technology (IT) that nobody can escape. But what is really behind it? There are many interpretations of this term, but no standardized or even uniform definition. Instead, as a result of the multi-faceted viewpoints and the diverse interests expressed by the various stakeholders, cloud computing is perceived as a rather fuzzy concept. With this book, the authors deliver an overview of cloud computing architecture, services, and applications. Their aim is to bring readers up to date on this technology and thus to provide a common basis for discussion, new research, and novel application scenarios. They first introduce the foundation of cloud computing with its basic technologies, such as virtualization and Web services. After that they discuss the cloud architecture and its service modules. The following chapters then cover selected commercial cloud offerings (including Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine) and management tools, and present current related open-source developments (including Hadoop, Eucalyptus, and Open CirrusTM). Next, economic considerations (cost and business models) are discussed, and an evaluation of the cloud market situation is given. Finally, the appendix contains some practical examples of how to use cloud resources or cloud applications, and a glossary provides concise definitions of key terms. The authors’ presentation does not require in-depth technical knowledge. It is equally intended as an introduction for students in software engineering, web technologies, or business development, for professional software developers or system architects, and for future-oriented decision-makers like top executives and managers.

Exploring the Cloud Computing (CC) commercial landscape as it matures; this book asserts that the key ingredient in sustaining the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model is subscription renewal. Chronicling the evolution and future trajectory of the CC concept, the authors examine the new paradigm it is creating for the distribution of computer software applications among business-to-business (B2B) clients. CC enabled SaaS has been fundamentally changing the revenue expectations and business model for the application software industry, and impacting on how SaaS providers pursue, acquire and retain B2B clients. Securing SaaS subscription renewal is critical to the survival and prosperity of this business as attrition can have a significant impact on the financial viability of SaaS businesses based on this model. Focusing on the B2B client and the SaaS industry dependency on renewal subscriptions delivered through the CC channel, the primary research presented in this book seeks to examine the key drivers behind the B2B SaaS subscription renewal decision and, in doing so, to explore the recurring revenue framework for the Cloud SaaS business.