Chapter 6
The Cloud
Jason C. H. Chen, Ph.D.
Professor of MIS
School of Business Administration
Gonzaga University
Spokane, WA 99258
chen@gonzaga.edu
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Study Questions
Q1: Why is the cloud the future for most
organizations?
Q2: What network technology supports the cloud?
Q3: How does the cloud work?
Q4: How do organizations use the cloud?
Q5: How can AllRoad Parts use the cloud?
Q6: How can organizations use cloud services
securely?
Q7: 2025?
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Q1: Why Is the Cloud the Future for
Most Organizations?
• The Cloud
– Elastic leasing of pooled computer resources via
Internet
• Elastic
• Leased computing resources, dynamically
increased/decreased, programmatically,
organizations only pay for resources actually used
• Flexibility for unpredictable demand while
limiting financial risks
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Pooled
• Cloud resources pooled
• Many organizations share same physical hardware
through virtualization
• Benefit from economies of scale
• Average cost of production decreases as size of
operation increases
• Major cloud vendors operate enormous data centers
(Web farms)
On markets the consumers usually “_____" the goods or
information they demand for their needs, while the offerers or
suppliers “_____" them toward the consumers.
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Cloud
Computing
Services
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Three main Categories of Cloud Computing Services
• __________ as a service (SaaS) is a software licensing and
delivery model in which software is licensed on a
subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes
referred to as "on-demand software“
• _________ as a service (PaaS) is a category of cloud
computing services that provides a platform allowing
customers to develop, run, and manage web applications
without the complexity of building and maintaining the
infrastructure typically associated with developing and
launching an app
• _____________ as a Service (IaaS) is a form of cloud
computing that provides virtualized computing resources
over the Internet.
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Q4: How Do Organizations Use the Cloud?
Three Fundamental Cloud Types
Fig 6-16 Three Fundamental Cloud Types
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Why Now?
• Time-sharing vendors sold slices of computer
time on a use-fee basis since 1960s
• Cloud-based hosting advantages
• Cheap processors, essentially free data
communication and data storage
• Instantaneous creation of new virtual machine
environments
• Internet-based standards enable cloud-hosting
vendors to provide flexible, standardized
processing capabilities
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When Does the Cloud Not Make Sense?
• When law or standard industry practice
require physical control or possession
of the data.
• Financial institution might be legally
required to maintain physical control
over its data.
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http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/?fromSearch=true
3m17s
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Topics in Networks
• Three popular networks
– LAN
• Local Area Network
– MAN
• Metropolitan Area Network
– WAN
• Wide Area Network
– Internet
• WAN is the focus for this chapter
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Q2: What Network Technology
Supports the Cloud?
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LAN Protocol
• IEEE 802.3
• Wired LAN
• 10/100/1000
Mbps
• Ethernet
• IEEE 802.11
– Wireless LAN
– 802.11n
– Up to 600 Mbps
– Bluetooth
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• 802.11ac - speeds up to
1.3 Gbps
• Bluetooth
–For transmitting data
short distances
–Connect computer,
keyboard, mouse,
printer, smartphones,
automobile
entertainment systems
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FileZilla: Protocols Supporting File Transmission (FTP)
SSH File Transfer Protocol (also Secure File Transfer Protocol, or SFTP) is a
network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management
over any reliable data stream. It was designed by the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) as an extension of the Secure Shell protocol (SSH) version 2.0 to
provide secure file transfer capabilities
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Abbreviations Used for Communications
and Computer Memory Speeds
• Communications equipment, k = 1,000, not 1,024 as
for computer memory
• M = 1,000,000, not 1,024 × 1,024;
• G = 1,000,000,000, not 1,024 × 1,024 × 1,024. Thus,
100 Mbps =100,000,000 bits per second
• Communications speeds expressed in bits; however,
computer memory sizes expressed in _____
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What are the components of a LAN?
MAC and IP addresses will be discussed in the next section.
A switch is a specialpurpose computer
that receives and
transmits messages to
computers in the
LAN.
Media access control (MAC)
address serves as a unique
identifier for each NIC on a
LAN.
Fig 6 (extra): Local Area Network (LAN)
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A media access control
(MAC) address (physical
addresses) serves as a unique
identifier for each NIC
(Network Interface Card) on
a LAN.
Wireless Connections:
What Are the Components of a LAN?
• IEEE 802.11 wireless
protocol uses wireless NICs
(WNIC) to connect devices to
networks similar to how
wired NICs operate.
• Figure depicts a combination
of NICs and WNICs on a
LAN.
• Access points (AP) use
802.3 protocol to
communicate with a switch
and 802.11 protocol to send
and receive wireless traffic.
LAN with Wireless
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Connecting to the Internet
• Connecting personal computers to an ISP requires that digital
signals coming out of the computer are converted to analog
signals. Analog signals coming into a personal computer must
be converted to digital signals.
Comparison of digital and analog signals.
digital signal (0/1)
analog signal (wavy)
Fig 6-Extra Analog Versus Digital Signals
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What are the alternatives for a WAN?
How Does the Cloud Work?
Modems are used to convert the signals back and forth as shown in the figure below.
You are in Spokane
digital signal
analog signal
The cloud
resides in the
Internet
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Fig 6-Extra Personal Computer Internet Access and
Fig 6-7 Using the Internet for a Hotel Reservation
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Network Addresses: MAC and IP
• MAC addresses
 Physical addresses
 Each NIC (Network Interface Controller) card given an
address by manufacturer
 Address only shared within network or segment
• IP addresses
 ________ addresses
 Written as series of dotted decimals
192.68.2.28
 Not permanently associated with hardware device
Can be reassigned as necessary
 Assignment controlled by ICANN (Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers)
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Public IP Addresses and Domain Names
 IPv4
• Four decimal dotted notation ==> 165.193.123.253
 URL - ________ _______ ______
• User-friendly document Web address
• Internet address using a protocol, such as http:// or ftp://
 Domain name
•
Worldwide-unique name affiliated with a public IP
address
• URL: http://www.example.net/home.html
Top-level domain name: net
Second-level domain name: example
Host name: www
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What Is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)?
Web service
• Encapsulated software service provided anywhere over the
Internet
• No department needs knowledge of who works in another
department, or how it accomplishes its work.
• Each department free to change personnel task assignments,
change processes for performing its services
• Service description documents how to use service, and
publishes description using Web Service Description
Language (WSDL)
• Used by SAP, Oracle ERP
The cloud would be impossible without a design
philosophy of ________.
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SOA Analogy: Approval Request
Interactions Among Three Departments
Using SOA principles, each
department would formally define
the services that it provides.
For the Credit Department:
• CheckCustomerCredit
• ApproveCustomerCredit
For the Inventory Department:
• Each department formally states data
it expects to receive with request and
data it promises to return in response.
• Every interaction is done exactly same
way
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• VerifyInventoryAmount
• AllocateInventory
• ReleaseAllocatedInventory
Fig 6-12 Approval Request Interactions
Among Three Departments
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What Processing Occurs on a Typical Web Server?
• Almost all e-commerce applications use the threetier architecture, which is an arrangement of user
computers and servers into three categories, or tiers
(see Fig. 6-10).
– User tier:
consists of computers, phones, and other devices that have
browsers that request and process web pages.
– (Web)Server tier:
consists of computers that run Web servers and process
application programs.
– Database tier:
consists of computers that run a DBMS that processes
requests to retrieve and store data.
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SOA Principles Applied to Three-tier Architecture
What is the main
advantage?
User Tier
Services
• ObtainPartData
• ObtainPartImages
• ObtainPartQuantityO
nHand
• OrderPart
• JavaScript written to
invoke these services
correctly.
Fig 6-13 SOA Principles Applied to Three-Tier Architecture
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Q6: How Can Organizations Use Cloud
Services Securely?
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) create the appearance of
private point-to-point connections by using tunnels to create
virtual, private pathways over the Internet.
• Figure below shows connections a VPN uses.
The cloud
resides in the
Internet
Fig. 6-20 Remote Access Using VPN: Actual Connections
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Why Do Organizations Use Virtual Private Networks?

This figure shows how a WAN uses three different VPN
tunnels to connect geographically separated users.
Secure but costly !!!
The cloud
resides in the
Internet
Fig 6-Extra: WAN Using VPN
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Using Web Services Internally
What is the
difference
between this
and the next
one?
Fig 6-19 Web Services Principles Applied to Inventory Applications
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Private Cloud for Inventory and Other Applications
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Private Cloud for Inventory and Other Applications
User Tier
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Q7: 2025
•
•
•
•
•
Cloud services faster, more secure, easier to use, cheaper
Fewer organizations set up own computing infrastructure
More pooling of servers across organizations
More economies of scale achieved by cloud vendors
Individuals, small businesses, large organizations readily
obtain elastic resources at very low cost
• Everything will be connected to everything else, with
most data stored in the cloud
• Large server farms employing few employees reduces
number of small companies that install and maintain inhouse email exchanges and other servers, and jobs.
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Q7: 2025 (cont'd)
• Cheap, elastic cloud services enable new small startup
 Enable organizations to develop more information systems,
cheaply, quickly, and increase demand for employees who
know how to use and manage information systems
• New categories of work
• Mobile systems will be standard
• More remote action systems
–
–
–
–
–
Telediagnosis
Telesurgery
Telelaw enforcement
Drones and other military equipment
Live remote digital broadcasting
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• END of CHAPTER 1
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