Disruptive technologies for smart cities - Cloud Computing

The article is a continuation of an article we published in June 2020 - “Disruptive Technologies for Smart Cities - Artificial Intelligence” for the presentation of the interim results of the ongoing Erasmus+ project Smart technologies by design (Smart by Design). The article is based on the materials produced by the project partners GAIA & DEUSTO.

Cloud Computing is a set of technologies that enables computational services over the network (usually the Internet). Namely, they are services accessible from any device connected to the network and allows access to applications, information and services without having to be installed on a hard drive. This type of technology enables the user to obtain total mobility as they can access their services, programmes and information from anywhere (Xhafa, F. et al., 2014).

There are many companies that offer “cloud” services ranging from storage of files to running of software programmes accessible over the network. Therefore, Cloud computing represents a significant change in how companies and public bodies process data, files and applications. It offers thousands of tools to users and it is a service which may be accessed by all in terms of cost as it is normally provided through licenses granted depending on the number of users in each company. It also has a high level of security provided by the service provider and allows to work in a team remotely. According to Forrester Research, the global cloud market has a compound annual growth rate of 22% and is expected to reach $146 billion by the end of 2017 and 236 billion by 2020.

Existing Platforms

• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
• Windows Azure
• Google App Engine 
• Red Hat Openshift
• IBM SmartCloud
• VM Cloud Suite
• Openstack
• Github
• Heroku
• Salesforce
• Success Factors
• Twilio

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Existing Standards

Cloud Computing is a relatively new technology and therefore there are several entities still developing standards and it is assumed that there is still a long way to go. Currently, there are two types of standards related to cloud computing: prescriptive (communications) and evaluative (systems quality) (Aguilar, P. et al., 2016).

In terms of ISO standards as of today the following exist (De Hert, P, et al., 2016):

• ISO 27018: best practices for the control of data protection for cloud computing services;
• ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002: information security management aimed at cloud service providers. As mentioned before, there are several entities working on this issue. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) establishes internet standards, which has so far created RFC 6208 that describe the media types for the Cloud Data Management interfaces. On the other hand, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) assigned its teams to work on standardisation and cloud security.

These work groups have henceforth published several recommendations:

• ITU-T Y.3501: reference framework for Cloud Computing
• ITU-T Y.3510: infrastructure requirements
• ITU-T Y.3520: resource management of end users
• ITU-T Y.3511: inter-network and infrastructure communication
• ITU-T X.1600: security framework for Cloud Computing
• ITU-T Y.ccdef: Cloud Computing - overview and vocabulary
• ITU-T Y.ccra: Cloud Computing reference architecture

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Key Applications

Cloud computing has many potential applications and the most relevant are:

• Storage: to be able to access and share information (Mega, Google Drive, Amazon Cloud Drive…)
• Version control: to manage software repository projects (GitHub, Kiln, Springloops…)
• CRM: to increase sales and strengthen customer relationships (Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, NetSuite CRM+, Maximizer CRM…)
• Email marketing: monitoring and sending email marketing campaigns (Constant contact, AWeber, eConnectMail…)
• Development environments: to create applications from any place (Cloud9 IDE, Codenvy, Koding…)
• Time management: manage work team time (Harvest, Toggl, DeskTime…)
• Project management: Clarizen, Genius Project, Daptiv…
• Help desk: Zendesk, Get Satisfaction, Desk.com...
• Usage metrics: (Flurry, Segment.io, FoxMetrics…)
• ​Application monitoring: appdynamics, Boundary, Compuware

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​Expected Evolution Over Time

Cloud Computing is already a reality with a lot of companies that have implemented this technology or are in the process of doing so. But this is expected to continue to grow until almost all companies need these services so that they can continue with their activities.

There are three areas where Cloud Computing will continue to develop in order to continue to grow and to take advantage of all its benefits and opportunities:

1. Geographical location: higher quality connectivity must be ensured in order to ensure more efficient services.
2. Economic situation: as some companies are still reluctant to take the step.
3. Security: efforts should be made to ensure that companies believe that their data is safe on the cloud and trust the services
   
   

Despite these three drawbacks that should be overcome, ever-increasing number of companies and users will opt for Cloud Computing for all the benefits it offers. Areas not yet exploited till now will be developed, as increase in bandwidth and supplier capabilities will enable them to do so, such as:

• Games: instead of running games on the local computer, information will be sent to the cloud, and will be executed there without the need for any type of installation.
• Mobile web: similar to applications for PCs that are now mostly being developed, it is assumed that solutions will also be there for mobile environments.
  
  ​With regard to companies, according to most subject matter experts, all of them will use hybrid clouds to provide solutions to their problems, that is to say, private clouds for critical or sensitive information and public clouds for more generic solutions or for information that has no special relevance. Cloud environments will require greater agility, flexibility and speed in the IT departments. Therefore, professionals will not be able to work individually, they will have to collaborate with peers and third parties.

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Standards 

There are many entities working on the standardisation of cloud computing. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is one among them which is working on this issue the most and has two new standards in draft phase:

1. The first presents a framework of reference for Cloud systems based on design of interoperable services and their integration;
   
2. The second presents a scenario of inter-operation between clouds offering transcoding and interoperability requirements affecting sending of multimedia content.

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Potential Applications

Until now, three types of cloud based services were offered: Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS), but henceforth, we will hear more of XaaS (Everything as a Service). Cloud computing involves a change in the processing of information and its management, enabling all types of companies to acquire features of larger firms.

Everything that until now required installation of expensive infrastructure only within the reach of a few, in the coming years will be accessible to all and will create new service models such as Big Data as a Service, Graphics as a Service, Desktop as a Service. As described before, specific applications will be created for the Gaming industry as well as for mobile devices.
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Author
KISMC
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Sources

• https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Public+Cloud+Services+Market+Will+Grow+Rapidly+To+236+Billion+In+2020/-/E-RES132004
• http://www.informatica-hoy.com.ar/internet/Que-es-Cloud-Computing.php
• https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Cloud_computing-es.svg/1200px-Cloud_computing-es.svg.png
• https://blogs.deusto.es/master-informatica/iso-27018-cloud-computing/
• http://www.itu.int/es/Pages/default.aspx
• https://www.ietf.org/
• Padilla Aguilar, J. J., & Pinzón Castellanos, J. (2016). Standards for Cloud Computing: state of the art and protocol analysis for various clouds. Magazine PUENTE Científica, 9(2). Source: http://puente.upbbga.edu.co/index.php/revistapuente/article/viewFile/202/152
• De Hert, P., Papakonstantinou, V., & Kamara, I. (2016). The cloud computing standard ISO/IEC 27018 through the lens of the EU legislation on data protection. Computer Law & Security Review, 32(1), 16-30.
• F. Xhafa and N. Bessis (eds.), Inter-cooperative Collective Intelligence: Techniques and Applications, Studies in Computational Intelligence 495, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-35016-0_2, _ Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.