Cloud Computing Organizer PDF

# POPULAR PUBLICATIONS ## MODULE 1 ### Multiple Choice Type Questions 1. What is Cloud Foundry? [WBUT 2014] a) a factory that produces cloud components b) VMware-led open source PaaS c) an industry wide PaaS initiative d) VMware-led closed source PaaS **Answer:** (b) 2. Which of the following isn't...

# POPULAR PUBLICATIONS ## MODULE 1 ### Multiple Choice Type Questions 1. What is Cloud Foundry? [WBUT 2014] a) a factory that produces cloud components b) VMware-led open source PaaS c) an industry wide PaaS initiative d) VMware-led closed source PaaS **Answer:** (b) 2. Which of the following isn't an advantage of cloud? [WBUT 2014] a) no worries about running out of storage b) easier to maintain a cloud network c) immediate access to computing resources d) paying only for what you use **Answer:** (b) 3. What feature does not belong in a private cloud? [WBUT 2014] a) metered billing b) self-service portal c) dial-home support d) rapid elasticity **Answer:** (b) 4. What is private cloud? [WBUT 2014, 2018] a) a standard cloud service offered via the Internet b) a cloud architecture maintained within an enterprise data center c) a cloud service inaccessible to anyone but the cultural elite d) none of these **Answer:** (c) 5. Which of the following factors should a company consider before implementing cloud computing systems? [WBUT 2015, 2017] a) user satisfaction b) potential cost reduction c) information sensitivity d) all of these **Answer:** (d) 6. Which of the following can cloud computing replace? [WBUT 2015, 2017] a) corporate data centers b) expensive computer hardware c) costly software upgrade d) all of these **Answer:** (d) 7. Which of the following widely used services is built on cloud-computing technology? [WBUT 2015, 2017] a) Gmail b) Twitter c) YouTube d) all of these **Answer:** (d) ## CLOUD COMPUTING 8. Which of the following programming language did Google include for development around App Engine? [WBUT 2015] a) C++ b) Java c) SQL d) Visual Basic **Answer:** (c) 9. Which are valid dimensions of cloud cube? [WBUT 2016] a) Service, Deployment b) Ownership, Sourcing c) Security Boundary, Portability d) Physical Location of the data, Platform **Answer:** (d) 10. What are the technologies that played a vital role in cloud computing? [WBUT 2016] a) Mainframe b) Utility Computing, Grid Computing, API c) Web 2.0, Virtualization, Service oriented Computing d) Database, Super computers **Answer:** (b) 11. An example of high performance cluster file system is [WBUT 2016] a) vMotion b) VMFS c) DVS d) NTFS **Answer:** (b) 12. Which one of the following options is true with respect to cloud computing? [WBUT 2016] a) Hardware should be composable b) Software should be composable c) Both Hardware and Software should be composable d) Both Hardware and Software are not required to be composable **Answer:** (d) 13. Which of these companies is not yet a leader in cloud computing? [WBUT 2017] a) Google b) Amazon c) Blackboard d) Microsoft **Answer:** (c) 14. What does CAAS stand for? [WBUT 2018] a) Computing as a service b) Compliance as a service c) Connection as a service d) None of these **Answer:** (d) 15. Which of the following is essential concept related to Cloud? [WBUT 2018] a) Reliability b) Productivity c) Abstraction d) All of the mentioned **Answer:** (c) 16. Which of the following is a Virtual Machine Technology now owned by Oracle that can be various operating systems? [WBUT 2018] a) V machines b) VirtualBox c) Thought Police d) none of the mentioned **Answer:** (b) ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 17. Which of the following is provided by Identity as a Service? [WBUT 2018] a) Identity governance b) Provisioning c) Risk and event monitoring d) All of the mentioned **Answer:** (d) ### Short & Long Answer Type Questions 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing? [WBUT 2014] **Answer:** **Advantages:** - **Easy implementation:** Cloud hosting allows businesses to retain the same applications and business processes without having to deal with the backend technicalities. Readily manageable by the Internet, a cloud infrastructure can be accessed by enterprises easily and quickly. - **Accessibility:** Access your data anywhere, anytime. An Internet cloud infrastructure maximizes enterprise productivity and efficiency by ensuring your application is always accessible. This allows for easy collaboration and sharing among users in multiple locations. - **No hardware required:** Since everything will be hosted in the cloud, a physical storage center is no longer needed. However, a backup could be worth looking into in the event of a disaster that could leave your company's productivity stagnant. - **Cost per head:** Overhead technology costs are kept at a minimum with cloud hosting. services, enabling businesses to use the extra time and resources for improving the company infrastructure. - **Flexibility for growth:** The cloud is easily scalable so companies can add or subtract resources based on their needs. As companies grow, their system will grow with them. - **Efficient recovery:** Cloud computing delivers faster and more accurate retrievals of applications and data. With less downtime, it is the most efficient recovery plan. **Disadvantages:** - **No longer in control:** When moving services to the cloud, the company is handing over the data and information. For companies who have an in-house IT staff, they will be unable to handle issues on their own. - **May not get all the features:** Not all cloud services are the same. Some cloud provider tend to offer limited versions and enable the most popular features only, so one may not receive every feature or customization he or she wants. Before signing up, companies must make sure that they know what their cloud service provider offers. - **Dependency and vendor lock-in:** One of the major disadvantages of cloud computing is the implicit dependency on the provider. This is what the industry calls "vendor lock-in" since it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to migrate from a provider once the company has rolled with him. If a user wishes to switch to some other provider, then it can be really painful and cumbersome to transfer huge data from the old provider to the new one. ## CLOUD COMPUTING 2. How does cloud computing differ from grid computation and pervasive computation? [WBUT 2014] **Answer:** - **Cloud computing** refers to a client server architecture where typically the servers (called "the cloud") reside remotely and are accessed via the Internet, typically the servers (called "the cloud") reside remotely and are accessed via the Internet. Applications like word processors that have traditionally run locally or on a server and accessed via a dumb terminal are instead run on the remote servers and never leave the user's web browser. The same goes for services, such as file storage. Often, the serves are run by a third party and host a set of applications for a variety of clients. One example is Google Docs. Microsoft and Amazon have similar offerings, as do many others. - **Grid computing** refers to a distributed computing architecture where a set of networked computers ("the grid", typically PCs) are utilized en masse for large computational tasks. typically ones that are embarrassingly parallel. For example, a bank might use such a network to price all their holdings each night. From the point of view of the application doing the calculations, it's just submitting a large number of independent jobs to the grid. and receives the results back. The grid infrastructure handles forwarding each job to a computer, balancing loads, etc. - **Pervasive computing:** Pervasive means ubiquitous which means "existing everywhere". Through the concept, computing is made to appear everywhere and anywhere. In contrast to desktop computing, ubiquitous computing can occur using any device, in any location, and in any format. A user interacts with the computer, which can exist in many different forms, including laptop computers, tablets and terminals in everyday objects such as a fridge or even a pair of glasses. Pervasive computing goes past the arena of desktops so that virtually any device, from apparel to kitchen appliances, could be embedded with microchips, connecting these devices to a boundless network of other gadgets. 3. What is the difference between scalability and elasticity? [WBUT 2014] **Answer:** In **cloud computing**, **scalability** is the ability on the part of software or hardware to continue to function at a high level of performance, even when the workflow volume increases. In addition to functioning well, the scaled up application should be able to take full advantage of the resources that its new environment offers. For example, if an application is scaled from a smaller operating system to a larger one should be able to handle a larger workload and offer better performance as the resources become available. Scalability usually refers to adding resources and performance. On the other hand, **elasticity** generally means the opposite - scaling down capacity or resources as they are no longer needed. In both cases, there is one common theme: adaptability. A cloud service that is both scalable and elastic is an adaptable solution. An adaptable cloud environment is one that allows the IT department to expand or contract capacity as needed in response to an ever changing business environment ## OR ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 4. Explain NIST model with diagram. [WBUT 2014] ## OR ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS ### Write about NIST Model. **Answer:** The United States government is a major consumer of computer services and, therefore, one of the major users of cloud computing networks. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a set of working definitions (http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc) that separate cloud computing into service models and deployment models. Those models and their relationship to essential characteristics of cloud computing are shown in the Figure below. | Deployment models | Community | Hybrid | Private | Public | | ---------------------- | ---------- | ------ | ------- | ------ | | Service models | IaaS | PaaS | SaaS | SaaS | | Service attributes | Broad network access | Measured access | On-demand self-service | Rapid elasticity | | Resource pooling | | | | | ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 5. What are the behavioral factors relating to cloud adoption? [WBUT 2014] **Answer:** A number of intrinsic properties of cloud computing create cognitive biases in people that are obstacles to cloud adoption and are worth mentioning. This goes for users as well as organizations. Harper Collins (2008) explores how people often make choices that are inconsistent based on expediency or human nature. Joe Weinman has expanded on these ideas and some others to formulate ten more 'laws' for cloud computing adoption based on human behavior. The '10 laws of Behavioral Cloudonomics' are summarized below. 1. People are risk averse and loss averse. 2. People have a flat-rate bias. 3. People have the need to control their environment and remain anonymous. 4. People fear change. 5. People value what they own more than what they are given. 6. People favor the status quo and invest accordingly. 7. People discount future risk and favor instant gratification. 8. People favor things that are free. 9. People have the need for status. 10. People are incapacitated by choice. ## CLOUD COMPUTING 6. a) Explain Jericho Forum's Cloud Cube model with diagram. **Answer:** The Jericho Forum has identified four criteria to differentiate cloud formations from each other and the manner of their provision. The Cloud Cube Model effectively summarizes these four dimensions: - **Internal/External**. - **Proprietary/Open**. - **Perimeterised/De-perimeterized Architectures**. - **Insourced/Outsourced**. The Cloud Cube Model is as follows: | External | Internal | | -------- | -------- | | Outsourced | Insourced | | De-perimeterised | Perimeterised | | Proprietary | Open | The Cloud Cube Model: - **Internal/External**: This dimension defines the physical location of the data; where does the cloud form exist - inside or outside organization boundaries? If the cloud form is within the organization's physical boundaries, then it is internal. If it is outside the organization's physical boundaries, then it is external. It's important to note that the assumption that internal is necessarily more secure than external is false. The most secure usage model is the effective use of both internal and external cloud forms. - **Proprietary/Open**: This dimension defines the state of ownership of the cloud technology, services, interfaces, etc. It indicates the degree of interoperability, as well as enabling data/application transportability between an organization's own systems and other cloud forms and the ability to withdraw the data from a cloud form, or to move it to another without constraint. This dimension indicates any constraints on being able to share apps. "Proprietary" suggests that the organization providing the service is keeping the means of provision under its ownership. By contrast, "open" clouds use technology that is not proprietary, which means that there are likely to be more suppliers, and the organization is not as constrained in terms of ability to share data and collaborate with selected parties. Experts suggest that open clouds most effectively enhance collaboration between multiple organizations. - **Perimeterised/De-perimeterised Architectures**: "Perimeterised" suggest a system that continues to operate within the traditional IT perimeter, often characterized by "network firewalls." This approach is known to inhibit collaboration. Operating within such areas means extending an organization's perimeter into the external cloud computing domain via a VPN and operating the virtual server in its own IP domain. The organization uses its own directory services to control access. Once the computing task is complete, the perimeter is withdrawn to its original, traditional position. "De-perimeterised" suggests that the system perimeter is designed following the principles outlined in the Jericho Forum's Commandments and Collaboration Oriented Architectures Framework. De-perimeterised areas in the Cloud Cube Model use both internal and external domains, but the collaboration or sharing of data should not be seen as internal or external. Rather, it is controlled by and limited to the parties that the using organizations select. - **Insourced/Outsourced**: This dimension has two states in each of the eight cloud forms. It responds to the question: who does the business want running the clouds? "Outsourced" means that the service is provided by a third party. Insourced means that the service is provided by the own staff under its control. These states describe the party managing the delivery of the cloud service(s) used by the organization. b) Briefly explain deployment models for cloud Cube model with diagram. **Answer:** | External | Internal | | -------- | -------- | | Outsourced | Insourced | | De-perimeterised | Perimeterised | | Proprietary | Open | The Jericho Forum is an international independent group of information security leaders who have contributed their input as to how to collaborate securely in the clouds. The Jericho Cloud Cube Model represents multidimensional elements of cloud computing, framing not only cloud use cases, but also how they are deployed and used. ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 7. What is laaS? ## OR ### Explain what is meant by Identity as a service. ## OR ### Write about identity as a service? ## OR ### Mention the characteristics of laas. ## OR ### Explain modern implementation of SaaS using SOA components. ## OR ### Describe through a schematic diagram and necessary explanations how XML and SOA are used to implement an Open SaaS environment. **Answer:** - **Infrastructure as a Service (laaS)** is a cloud computing service model in which hardware is virtualized in the cloud. In this particular model, the service vendor owns the equipment: servers, storage, network infrastructure, and so forth. The developer creates virtual hardware on which to develop applications and services. The developer interacts with the laaS model to create virtual private servers, virtual private storage, virtual private networks, and so on, and then populates these virtual systems with the applications and services it needs to complete its solution. In laaS, the virtualized resources are mapped to real systems. When the client interacts with an laaS service and requests resources from the virtual systems, those requests are redirected to the real servers that do the actual work. - **Workload**: The fundamental unit of virtualized client in an laaS deployment is called a workload. A workload simulates the ability of a certain type of real or physical server to do an amount of work. In addition to throughput, a workload has certain other attributes such as Disk I/Os measured in Input/Output Per Second IOPS, the amount of RAM consumed under load in MB, network throughput and latency, and so forth. In a hosted application environment, a client's application runs on a dedicated server inside a server rack or perhaps as a standalone server in a room full of servers. In cloud computing, a provisioned server called an instance is reserved by a customer, and the necessary amount of computing resources needed to achieve that type of physical server is allocated to the client's needs. The diagram below shows how three virtual private server instances are partitioned in an laaS stack. The three workloads require three different sizes of computers: small, medium, and large. A client would reserve a machine equivalent required to run each of these workloads. The laaS infrastructure runs these server instances in the data center that the service offers, drawing from a pool of virtualized machines, RAID storage, and network interface capacity. These three layers are expressions of physical systems that are partitioned as logical units. LUNs, the cloud interconnect layer, and the virtual application software layer are logical constructs. LUNs are logical storage containers, the cloud interconnect layer is a virtual network layer that is assigned IP addresses from the laaS network pool, and the virtual application software layer contains software that runs on the physical VM instance(s) that have been partitioned from physical assets on the laaS private cloud.  - **Identity as a Service (IdaaS)** is typically packaged as a subscription-based and remotely managed service, with an infrastructure that's hosted and maintained by a third-party service provider in the cloud. The service itself offers authentication, user validation, oversight, and management of user privileges and access controls for corporate systems. The cloud provider may also offer to host software applications on a subscription basis, and to allow subscribers access to specific applications or virtual desktops, based on their job titles and access rights within a company's network hierarchy. - **User authentication through Single Sign-on (SSO)** which is an identification mechanism which many organizations put in place, for convenience and efficiency. It requires user to be validated by only once, at the network perimeter, and if they are successfully validated by the system, they can then go on to have access to whichever of the enterprise's resources, applications, and network privileges that they've been authorized to use. - **Adaptive multi-factor authentication** is a type of resource authorization and validation mechanism which requires users to submit multiple identifiers (such as passwords, PIN numbers, smart cards, digital tokens, or biometric characteristics), before they can gain access to more than one system. Multi-factor authentication is more secure than systems which rely on a single identifier, such as a password or PIN. - **OpenID 2.0 (http://openid.net/)** is the standard associated with creating an identity and having a third-party service authenticate the use of that digital identity. It is the key to creating Single Sign-On (SSO) systems. Some cloud service providers have adopted OpenID as a service, and its use is growing. OpenID doesn't specify the means for authentication of an identity, and it is up to the particular system how the authentication process is executed. Authentication can be by a Challenge and Response Protocol (CHAP), through a physical smart card, or using a flying finger or evil eye through a biometric measurement. In OpenIDL, the authentication procedure has the following steps: 1. The end-user uses a program like a browser that is called a user agent to enter an OpenID identifier, which is in the form of a URL or XRI. An OpenID might take the form of name.openid.provider.org. 2. The OpenID is presented to a service that provides access to the resource that is desired. 3. An entity called a relaying party queries the OpenID identity provider to authenticate the veracity of the OpenID credentials. 4. The authentication is sent back to the relaying party from the identity provider and access is either provided or denied. - **The second protocol used to present identity-based claims in cloud computing is a set of authorization markup languages that create files in the form of being XACML and SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language; http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tehome.php?wgabbrev=security) is gaining growing acceptance among cloud service providers. It is a standard of OASIS and an XML standard for passing authentication and authorization between an identity provider and the service provider. SAML is a complimentary mechanism to OpenID and is used to create SSO systems.** - **An open standard called OAuth (http://oauth.net/) provides a token service that can be used to present validated access to resources. OAuth is similar to OpenID, but provides a different mechanism for shared access. The use of OAuth tokens allows clients to present credentials that contain no account information (userID or password) to a cloud service. The token comes with a defined period after which it can no longer be used. Several important cloud service providers have begun to make OAuth APIs available based on the OAuth 2.0 standard, most notably Facebook's Graph API and the Google Data API.** - **Software as a Service (SaaS) is also known as application services. This service is most commonly used for business in cloud computing. SaaS uses web application and these applications are managed by the third party vendor and its interface is accessed on the client's side. SaaS makes all things easy for clients because it eliminates the installation of operating system and run application on computers. Everything will be managed by the vendors: application, data, middleware, runtime, operating system and infrastructure.** ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 8. What is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and what are the main characteristics of a SaaS solution? ## OR ### Describe through a schematic diagram and necessary explanations how XML and SOA are used to implement an Open SaaS environment. **Answer:** - **The most complete cloud computing service model is one in which the computing hardware and software, as well as the solution itself, are provided by a vendor as a complete service offering. It is referred to as the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. SaaS provides the complete infrastructure, software, and solution stack as the service offering. Software as a Service (SaaS) may be succinctly described as software that is deployed on a hosted service and can be accessed globally over the Internet, most often in a browser. Every computer user is familiar with SaaS systems, which are either replacements or substitutes for locally installed software.** - **Examples of SaaS software for end-users are Google Gmail and Calendar, QuickBooks Online, Zoho Office Suite, and others that are equally well known. SaaS applications come in all shapes and sizes, and include custom software such as billing and invoicing systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, Help Desk applications, Human Resource (HR) solutions, as well as myriad online versions of familiar applications. Many people believe that SaaS software is not customizable, and in many SaaS applications this is indeed the case. However, many other SaaS solutions expose Application Programming Interfaces (API) to developers to allow them to create custom composite applications. These APIs may alter the security model used, the data schema, workflow characteristics, and other fundamental features of the service's expression as experienced by the user.** - **Examples of an SaaS platform with an exposed API are Salesforce.com and Quicken.com. So SaaS does not necessarily mean that the software is static or monolithic.** A modern implement of SaaS using an Enterprise Service Bus and architected with SOA components.  - **A considerable amount of SaaS software is based on open source software. When open source software is used in a SaaS, it is referred to as Open SaaS. The advantages of using open source software are that systems are much cheaper to deploy because one doesn't have to purchase the operating system or software, there is less vendor lock-in, and applications are more portable. The popularity of open source software, from Linux to APACHE, MySQL, and Perl (the LAMP platform) on the Internet, and the number of people who are trained in open source software make Open SaaS an attractive proposition. The impact of Open SaaS will likely translate into better profitability for the companies that deploy open source software in the cloud, resulting in lower development costs and more robust solutions.** ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 9. What is Identity-as a Service (IdaaS), and what are its core functions? Describe how user identity is authenticated and resource authorization is enforced in a typical IdaaS scenario. **Answer:** - **Identity as a Service or IdaaS is typically packaged as a subscription-based and remotely managed service, with an infrastructure that's hosted and maintained by a third-party service provider in the cloud.** - **The service itself offers authentication, user validation, oversight, and management of user privileges and access controls for corporate systems. The cloud provider may also offer to host software applications on a subscription basis, and to allow subscribers access to specific applications or virtual desktops, based on their job titles and access rights within a company's network hierarchy.** - **User authentication through Single Sign-on (SSO)** which is an identification mechanism which many organizations put in place, for convenience and efficiency. It requires user to be validated by only once, at the network perimeter, and if they are successfully validated by the system, they can then go on to have access to whichever of the enterprise's resources, applications, and network privileges that they've been authorized to use. - **Adaptive multi-factor authentication** is a type of resource authorization and validation mechanism which requires users to submit multiple identifiers (such as passwords, PIN numbers, smart cards, digital tokens, or biometric characteristics), before they can gain access to more than one system. Multi-factor authentication is more secure than systems which rely on a single identifier, such as a password or PIN. - **OpenID 2.0 (http://openid.net/)** is the standard associated with creating an identity and having a third-party service authenticate the use of that digital identity. It is the key to creating Single Sign-On (SSO) systems. Some cloud service providers have adopted OpenID as a service, and its use is growing. OpenID doesn't specify the means for authentication of an identity, and it is up to the particular system how the authentication process is executed. Authentication can be by a Challenge and Response Protocol (CHAP), through a physical smart card, or using a flying finger or evil eye through a biometric measurement. In OpenIDL, the authentication procedure has the following steps: 1. The end-user uses a program like a browser that is called a user agent to enter an OpenID identifier, which is in the form of a URL or XRI. An OpenID might take the form of name.openid.provider.org. 2. The OpenID is presented to a service that provides access to the resource that is desired. 3. An entity called a relaying party queries the OpenID identity provider to authenticate the veracity of the OpenID credentials. 4. The authentication is sent back to the relaying party from the identity provider and access is either provided or denied. - **The second protocol used to present identity-based claims in cloud computing is a set of authorization markup languages that create files in the form of being XACML and SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language; http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tehome.php?wgabbrev=security) is gaining growing acceptance among cloud service providers. It is a standard of OASIS and an XML standard for passing authentication and authorization between an identity provider and the service provider. SAML is a complimentary mechanism to OpenID and is used to create SSO systems.** - **An open standard called OAuth (http://oauth.net/) provides a token service that can be used to present validated access to resources. OAuth is similar to OpenID, but provides a different mechanism for shared access. The use of OAuth tokens allows clients to present credentials that contain no account information (userID or password) to a cloud service. The token comes with a defined period after which it can no longer be used. Several important cloud service providers have begun to make OAuth APIs available based on the OAuth 2.0 standard, most notably Facebook's Graph API and the Google Data API.** ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 10. a) Write short notes on the following a) Amazon EC2 b) Google API c) SQL Azure **Answer:** - **Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)** is a virtual server platform that allows users to create and run virtual machines on Amazon's server farm. With EC2, users can launch and run server instances called Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) running different operating systems such as Red Hat Linux and Windows on servers that have different performance profiles. One can add or subtract virtual servers elastically as needed, cluster, replicate, and load balance servers; and locate these different servers in different data centers or "zones" throughout the world to provide fault tolerance. The term elastic refers to the ability to size the capacity quickly as needed. - **Google API** is a great set of developer's tools. These tools make programmers able to perform operations using google API and living within their development framework. Google API provides a way to use its features easily. You can use its maps api, google feeds api, google search api and google friends connect which is very useful tools for any site. Google's APIs can be categorized as belonging to the following categories: - **Ads and AdSense**: These APIs allow Google's advertising services to be integrated into Web applications. The most commonly used services in this category are AdWords, AdSense, and Google Analytics. - **AJAX**: The Google AJAX APIs provide a means to add content such as RSS feeds, maps, search boxes, and other information sources by including a snippet of JavaScript into your code. - **Browser**: Google has several APIs related to building browser-based applications, including four for the Chrome browser. This category includes the Google Cloud Print API, the Installable Web Apps API for creating installation packages, the Google Web Toolkit for building AJAX applications using Java, and V8, which is a high-performance JavaScript engine. - **Data**: The Data APIs are those that exchange data with a variety of Google services. The list of Google Data APIs includes Google Apps, Google Analytics, Blogger, Base, Book, Calendar, Code Search, Google Earth, Google Spreadsheets, Google Notebook, and Web Albums. - **Geo**: A number of APIs exist to give location-specific information hooking into maps and geo-specific databases. Some of the more popular APIs in this category include Google Earth, Directions, JavaScripts Maps, Maps API for Flash, and Static Maps. - **Search**: The search APIs leverage Google's core competency and its central service. APIs such as Google AJAX Search, Book Search, Code Search, Custom Search, and Webmaster Tools Data APIs allow developers to include Google searches in their applications and web sites. - **Social**: Many Google APIs are used for information exchange and communication tools. They support applications such as Gmail, Calendar, and others, and they provide a set of foundation services. The popular social APIs are Blogger Data, Calendar, Contacts, OpenSocial, Picasa, and YouTube. Two programming language environments that are compatible with Google API are Java and .NET. - **SQL Azure** is a cloud database service offered by Microsoft. It is a fully managed service based on Microsoft SQL Server and is accessible through a variety of tools including a web interface, SQL Server Management Studio and other tools. ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 11. What is virtualization and why has it gained prominence in the context of Cloud Computing? What are the major components and the characteristics of a virtualized environment? Explain with suitable examples. **Answer:** - **Without virtualization, cloud computing would leave the data unstable, uncontrolled and unsafe. It is an important and probably an inseparable element of cloud computing services. Virtualization allows us to consolidate multiple physical components so that they can be managed at one place. With the help of virtualization, organizations have a better visibility and also a greater control of their infrastructure making security management simpler for the cloud.** - **It is due to virtualization that the cloud computing services are so cost-effective. Moreover, it is also responsible for the simplicity of delivering services by providing a platform for optimizing complex IT resources.** - **Virtualization** is using computer resources to imitate other computer resources or whole computers. It separates resources and services from the underlying physical delivery environment. - **Virtualization has three characteristics that make it ideal for cloud computing:** - **Partitioning:** In virtualization, many applications and operating systems (OSes) are supported in a single physical system by partitioning (separating) the available resources. - **Isolation:** Each virtual machine is isolated from its host physical system and other virtualized machines. Because of this isolation, if one virtual-instance crashes, it doesn't affect the other virtual machines. In addition, data isn't shared between one virtual container and another. - **Encapsulation:** A virtual machine can be represented (and even stored) as a single file, so you can identify it easily based on the service it provides. In essence, the encapsulated process could be a business service. This encapsulated virtual machine can be presented to an application as a complete entity. Therefore, encapsulation can protect each application so that it doesn't interfere with another application. - **Efficient use of IT resources:** Cloud data storage services let you optimize your resources/capacity based on your needs. Whenever you need more capacity, you can easily leverage the cloud provider's infrastructure. - **Easily migrate and balance workload:** When your workloads vary greatly (mostly happens with websites), the cloud computing environments can reactively add more capacity in anticipation of the need. ## POPULAR PUBLICATIONS 12. Write short notes on any three of the following: a) Amazon AWS b) Cloud Cube Model of Cloud Computing c) Google GWT d) Microsoft SQL Azure e) Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). **Answer:** - **Amazon AWS** is one of the largest cloud providers in the world. It offers a wide range of services, including computing, storage, networking, database, analytics, machine learning, and more. - **Cloud Cube Model of Cloud Computing** is a framework that can be used to classify and compare different types of cloud deployments. The model is based on four dimensions: - **Internal/External**: This dimension defines the physical location of the data; where does the cloud form exist - inside or outside organization boundaries? If the cloud form is within the organization's physical boundaries, then it is internal. If it is outside the organization's physical boundaries, then it is external. It's important to note that the assumption that internal is necessarily more secure than external is false. The most secure usage model is the effective use of both internal and external cloud forms. - **Proprietary/Open**: This dimension defines the state of ownership of the cloud technology, services, interfaces, etc. It indicates the degree of interoperability, as well as enabling data/application transportability between an organization's own systems and other cloud forms and the ability to withdraw the data from a cloud form, or to move it to another without constraint. This dimension indicates any constraints on being able to share apps. "Proprietary" suggests that the organization providing the service is keeping the means of provision under its ownership. By contrast, "open" clouds use technology that is not proprietary, which means that there are likely to be more suppliers, and the organization is not as constrained in terms of ability to share data and collaborate with selected parties. Experts suggest that open clouds most effectively enhance collaboration between multiple organizations. - **Perimeterised/De-perimeterised Architectures**: "Perimeterised" suggest a system that continues to operate within the traditional IT perimeter, often characterized by "network firewalls." This approach is known to inhibit collaboration. Operating within such areas means extending an organization's perimeter into the external cloud computing domain via a VPN and operating the virtual server in its own IP domain. The organization uses its own directory services to control access. Once the computing task is complete, the perimeter is withdrawn to its original, traditional position. "De-perimeterised" suggests that the system perimeter is designed following the principles outlined in the Jericho Forum's Commandments and Collaboration Oriented Architectures Framework. De-perimeterised areas in the Cloud Cube Model use both internal and external domains, but the collaboration or sharing of data should not be seen as internal or external. Rather, it is controlled by and limited to the parties that the using organizations select. - **Insourced/Outsourced**: This dimension has two states in each of the eight cloud forms. It responds to the question: