Green Computing

Green computing is a contemporary research topic to address climate and energy challenges. In this chapter, the authors envision the duality of green computing with technological trends in other fields of computing such as High Performance Computing (HPC) and cloud computing on one hand and economy and business on the other hand. For instance, in order to provide electricity for large-scale cloud infrastructures and to reach exascale computing, we need huge amounts of energy. Thus, green computing is a challenge for the future of cloud computing and HPC. Alternatively, clouds and HPC provide solutions for green computing and climate change. In this chapter, the authors discuss this proposition by looking at the technology in detail.

Cloud in Science

Cloud computing technologies and service models are attractive to scientific computing users due to the ability to get on-demand access to resources as well as the ability to control the software environment. Scientific computing researchers and resource providers servicing these users are considering the impact of new models and technologies. SaaS solutions like Globus Online and IaaS solutions such as Nimbus Infrastructure and OpenNebula accelerate the discovery of science by helping scientists to conduct advanced and large-scale science. This chapter describes how cloud is helping researchers to accelerate scientific discovery by transforming manual and difficult tasks into the cloud.

Standardization

The importance of cloud computing standards is the same as the World Wide Web standardization. There are plenty of prevalent standards around cloud computing that make different aspects of cloud computing possible. Standardization is a key answer and solution to the main question in this book (i.e., whether cloud computing will survive and remain on IT trends track or not). Standardization will bring interoperability, integration, and portability to the cloud computing landscape. With these three features, the main elements of IT (i.e., computation and data) can move from one cloud provider to another. Therefore, it eliminates vendor lock-in that is one of the barriers in cloud adoption. In addition, cloud interoperability will minimize cloud fragmentation. We need interoperability and portability to achieve cloud federation and to build hybrid cloud. In addition, there is still no de facto standard for moving workloads or data among different clouds. Cloud standardization needs to be addressed at various layers of a cloud infrastructure such as: virtual machine format, data, interface, context, and identity layers. This chapter reviews the emerging standards from the perspective of various organizations and standard bodies.

Service Delivery Models and Deployment Options

In this chapter, the authors consider cloud computing as a core topic and various models emerging around it such as its services and delivery models, its economic aspects, applications, usages, challenges, and so on. Cloud computing covers a range of delivery and service models. In this chapter, cloud service delivery models (i.e., Software-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service and Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and cloud deployment models (private cloud, community cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud) are described. The right service delivery and deployment option have to be chosen for an organization’s cloud application, according to organizational needs.

The Enabling Technologies for Cloud Computing

This chapter explores emerging technologies centered around cloud computing. From the technological point of view, cloud computing was born as a result of the emergence and the convergence of contemporary technologies. This chapter regards technological aspects of cloud. In the software area, Virtualization Technology and Web Services; in the hardware area, shared compute components (i.e., multicore processors); in networking, security, network virtualization, Virtual Private Network (VPN), virtual firewalls, and network overlay are the promising technologies for the future complex computing infrastructures. In this chapter, the authors review these technologies and describe how they contribute to the anatomy and the characteristics of cloud computing. These technologies constitute the building blocks of cloud computing technologies and infrastructures.

Economics of Cloud Computing

Economic benefits of cloud adoption are the main drivers and motivations of making cloud as ubiquitous an IT paradigm as it is becoming. The authors believe cloud computing has the potential to transform a large part of the IT industry; this large transformation of IT has big impact on the economy of IT and the global economy. Public cloud computing can avoid capital expenditures because no hardware, software, or network devices need to be purchased. Cloud usage is billed on actual use only and is therefore treated more as an expense. In turn, usage-based billing lowers the barrier to entry because the upfront costs are minimal. In this chapter, the authors describe the business and economics aspects of cloud computing. They then discuss why cloud computing could be economically beneficial by enumerating its characteristics and giving a few examples. This chapter addresses when and how these economic benefits appear.

Cloud Computing and Big Data

This chapter aims at exploring the intersection of cloud computing with big data. The big data analysis, mining, and privacy concerns are discussed. First, this chapter deals with the software framework, MapReduce™ that is commonly used for performing Big Data Analysis in the clouds. In addition, some of the most used techniques for performing Big Data Mining are detailed. For instance, Clustering, Co-Clustering, and Association Rules are described in detail. In particular, the k-center problem is described while with reference to the association rules beyond the basic definitions, the Apriori Algorithm is outlined and illustrated by some numerical examples. These techniques are also described with reference to their versions based on MapReduce. Finally, the description of some real applications conclude the chapter.

Cloud Computing and Healthcare

This chapter discusses the adoption of cloud computing in healthcare. First, the advantages are explored; then, the disadvantages, such as data security issues that still limit the diffusion of cloud computing in this sector, are also explored. In addition, the Vitaever® Cloud product, developed by the Italian company Nethical S.r.l., is detailed and presented as a case study with reference to homecare. Finally, the intersection of cloud computing with mobile technologies for providing advanced healthcare services is investigated.

Cloud in Enterprises and Manufacturing

Cloud computing has the potential to transform a large part of industry and manufacturing. This large transformation will have a big impact on the global economy and business in almost all industries. Industries will produce innovative products and services through this transformation enabled by cloud computing. Cloud computing is well suited to support business processes in any supply chain of manufacturing. With the help of new technologies, manufacturing processes can be done faster than before. A group of collaborators in a manufacturing sector could share their work, collaborate, and communicate through distributed infrastructure and services. In this chapter, the current trend and practice of cloud computing in industry and manufacturing sectors are presented. Then, by exploring the role of cloud computing in industry, the authors envision how cloud computing in these areas will evolve in the future.

A General Purpose and Hyperspecialization Model of Future Computing

In this chapter, the authors describe cloud computing from different angles. They clear up some misconceptions and ambiguities about it to reach a common understanding of the topic. Then, they enumerate cloud attributes and its essential characteristics. The authors consider cloud computing as a core topic and various things emerging around it such as its services and delivery models, its economic aspects, applications, usages, challenges, and so on. Cloud computing is a focal technological point for various technologies and shares its characteristics and features with them. Cloud is a dual technology for many emerging technologies such as Internet of Things, Smart Grid, Smart City, Green Computing, and Home Networking. On the other hand, cloud complements the growth and the development of these technologies. At the end, the authors explore these complementary technologies.