Cloudware Basics - Guide to Cloud Computing for Business and Technology Managers - page 269

and infrastructure nature, are continuing to mature, and the cost savings
are becoming particularly attractive in the current competitive economic cli-
mate. Another broader aim of cloud technology is to make supercomputing
available to the enterprises, in particular, and the public, in general.
Table 13.4 presents a comparison of cloud benefits for Small and Medium
enterprises (SMEs) and Large enterprises.
The major benefits of the cloud paradigm can be distilled to its inherent
flexibility and resiliency, the potential for reducing costs, availability of very
large amounts of centralized data storage, means to rapidly deploy comput-
ing resources, and scalability.
13.5.1 Flexibility and Resiliency
A major benefit of cloud computing is the flexibility, though cloud provid-
ers cannot provide infinite configuration and provisioning flexibility and
will seek to offer structured alternatives. They might offer a choice among
a number of computing and storage resource configurations at different
capabilities and costs, and the cloud customer will have to adjust his or her
requirements to fit one of those models.
The flexibility offered by cloud computing can be in terms of
• Automated provisioning of new services and technologies
• Acquiring increased resources on an as-needed basis
• Ability to focus on innovation instead of maintenance details
• Device independence
• Freedom from having to install software patches
• Freedom from concerns about updating servers
Resiliency is achieved through the availability of multiple redundant
resources and locations. As autonomic computing becomes more mature,
self-management and self-healing mechanisms can ensure the increased
reliability and robustness of cloud resources. Also, disaster recovery and
business continuity planning are inherent in using the provider's cloud com-
puting platforms.
13.5.2 Reduced Costs
Cloud computing offers reductions in system administration, provisioning
expenses, energy costs, software licensing fees, and hardware costs. The
cloud paradigm, in general, is a basis for cost savings because capability and
resources can be paid for incrementally without the need for large invest-
ments in computing infrastructure. This model is especially true for add-
ing storage costs for large database applications. Therefore, capital costs are
reduced and replaced by manageable, scalable operating expenses.