Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
C
LOUD
C
OMPUTING
:
M
AKING
H
EADWAY WITH THE
S
CIENTIFIC
C
OMMUNITY
Nabil Sultan
Faculty of Business and Computer Science, Liverpool Hope University,
United Kingdom
A
BSTRACT
Cloud computing is an emerging new computing paradigm designed to deliver
numerous computing services in ways that have not been experienced before. It is
increasingly being viewed as a utility-oriented computing service. There are even
speculations that it has the potential to be the 5th utility (after water, electricity, gas and
telephony). This computing service is underpinned by a number of existing technologies
such as the Internet, virtualization, grid computing and Web services. The flexibility of
this computing service approach and its provision in a pay-as-you-go way have opened
many possibilities for organizations, of all types, that did not exist before. Among those
organizations are those engaged in scientific research. A number of cloud computing
services are now emerging to cater for the scientific community, with a potential to bring
substantial cost-saving and efficiency advantages. This chapter will highlight those issues
and also analyze some of the limitations that are currently associated with this computing
service modality.
Keywords
: Cloud Computing, Web Services, Virtualization, Virtual Machines (VMs), Grid
Computing, High Performance Computing (HPC), Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs).
I.
I
NTRODUCTION
The provision of software as a service (SaaS) is not a new computing practice. In fact, it
predates the emergence of computers themselves. In the 1930s some companies (such as
IBM) specialized in producing electric accounting machines based on punch-cards and were
