Title : CLOUD COMPUTING

Date : Dec 14, 2021

Description :

Based on a News Article published in the ‘The Hindu’ on 13th December 2021 on Page Number 16

 

Useful for UPSC CSE Prelims and Mains (GS Paper III)

 

Original Article published in ‘The Hindu’:

 

Background:

 

• According to a forecast by the tech research and consulting firm Gartner, end-user expenditure on public cloud services in India is likely to expand by another 30% in 2022 due to a structural shift in the functioning of Indian businesses following the epidemic.
• This will be the fourth year in a row that the industry has grown by double digits.

 

What is Cloud Computing, and how does it work:

 

• The term "cloud computing" refers to the delivery of hosted services via the internet.
• It is a pool of shared resources like as networks, servers, storage, applications, and services that can be offered to the consumer instead of the consumer maintaining them on her own, which is expensive and time-consuming.
• The Internet is at the heart of this technology's development.

 

What distinguishes cloud computing from other types of computing:

 

• Attributes:

• On-demand — It is sold on a minute-by-minute or hour-by-hour basis.
• Elasticity means that a user can have as much or as little service as they choose at any particular time.
• The supplier manages everything - all the consumer needs is a computer and an internet connection.
• Data-intensive — Instead of calculation, the focus is on data.
• Scalability - When the size or volume of cloud computing is modified to fit a user need, it can continue to work well.

 

• Models of Deployment:

• Public cloud, private cloud, community cloud, and hybrid cloud are the four deployment methods for cloud services.

 

 

Models of Service:

 

• There are three types of cloud computing services:

 

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a type of cloud (IaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS) (PaaS)
• As a Service (SaaS) (SaaS)

 

What are some of the benefits of cloud computing:

 

• Less money spent on capital:
• Cloud computing services reduce IT requirements and physical storage, resulting in significant cost savings for small organisations.
• Because most cloud services are paid on a subscription basis, capital outlay is minimised.
• There are also fewer start-up costs with cloud computing because it is considerably faster and easier to deploy.

 

• Improved recovery from disasters:
• Disaster recovery, or retrieving data in the event of a hardware failure, can be made easier by moving company data to the cloud.

 

• Collaboration and flexibility have improved:
• Moving to the cloud opens up more potential for employee collaboration for many firms.
• Colleagues may easily sync and collaborate on papers, frequently simultaneously, and receive real-time updates.
• It allows members of the team to work from any location.
• Furthermore, the cloud centralises data, allowing the owner, staff, and clients to access company data from anywhere with an internet connection.

 

• Friendly to the environment:

 

• Cloud computing reduces a company's carbon footprint by more than 30% via reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions.
• Small businesses can save up to 90% on energy, which is a significant amount of money.

 

 

What are the drawbacks of using cloud computing:

 

• Access to the internet:
• Consistent internet access is critical for cloud-based services because if any of the cloud-based service providers loses connections, the company will be out of business until that connection is restored.
• Even the greatest servers fall down from time to time, so having a backup plan is essential.

 

• Costs of upkeep:
• While the initial or capital cost of a cloud-based server is low in comparison to traditional hosting, the cloud server requires the same monthly payment to maintain both servers and data.

 

• Security issues:
• Because when data is stored in the cloud, the company is relying on a third party to keep it safe, companies with highly sensitive data may require their own IT department to keep it secure.

 

What is the current state of cloud computing in India:

 

• In recent years, cloud computing has found applications in India, where it is employed in everyday activities such as social networking, email, online purchases, and large-scale MNC operations like as big data, Internet of Things (IoT), and so on.
• Cloud computing has enormous growth potential for Indian businesses and is opening up new doors. Retail, transportation, manufacturing, banking, education, and healthcare are among the industries that have begun to use cloud services.

 

What is the legal and regulatory framework in India for cloud computing:

 

• Because of its multifaceted nature, regulators must carefully scrutinise cloud computing.
• Due to concerns about cloud services such as data privacy, data protection, data ownership, multi-jurisdictional issues, data disclosure, and cross-border data flow, legal frameworks should be legislated.
• While the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885, the Civil Procedure Code of 1908, and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act of 1997 indirectly interact with this sector, the Information Technology (IT) Act of 2000 is more relevant for regulating it.
• The Information Technology Act of 2000 establishes penalties for data and privacy breaches. The Act is aimed at e-commerce and cybercrime in general, and it covers data protection and privacy.
• While the laws described above cover some legal aspects of cloud computing, they do not address the breadth of cloud computing services or the difficulties that arise from them.

 

 

What initiatives does the government have in the cloud computing space:

 

• E-governance:
• To revamp its e-governance project, the government has been experimenting with a cloud-based paradigm.
• In the near future, all e-governance platforms across the country, including State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), Data Centers, and so on, could be converted to cloud services.
• RTI: For more efficient performance, the government has used cloud services in the Right to Information (RTI) area.
• Meghraj/GI Cloud is the Government of India's cloud computing platform, which is used by central and state government departments and organisations. It is a Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology programme (MeitY).
• eGov App Store: The eGov App Store is a common platform at Meghraj for hosting and running applications (developed by government agencies or private players) that are easily customizable and configurable for reuse by different government agencies or departments at the federal and state levels without investing time or effort in their development.

 

• Sector of infrastructure:
• The Smart Cities initiative uses technology such as cloud computing to aid local development.
• Furthermore, the government has acknowledged the need of cloud-based service delivery for Digital India since it combines smart devices and infrastructure while processing enormous amounts of data in real time from many sources.

 

• Banking industry:
• With the use of technology, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been striving toward achieving 100 percent financial inclusion. The Reserve Bank of India has been using cloud-based technologies to provide banking services across India via core banking systems, particularly for cooperative banks.
• The use of cloud computing in the banking sector will result in shorter timeframes and a shift in cost from capital to operational expenditure, allowing banks to focus on their main business.
• The Indian Banking Community Cloud (IBCC) is the country's first community cloud programme.

 

• Sector of manufacturing:
• With the Make in India movement in full swing, cloud computing has become even more important for India's manufacturing industry.
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management), supply chain applications, data warehousing, information security, green IT, Human Machine Interface (HMI), and other applications of Cloud Computing in the manufacturing sector are just a few examples.

 

• Telecommunications industry:
• Deploying operations and business support systems on cloud platforms is a highly effective technique for addressing the telecom industry's many business and technological difficulties.
• Telecom firms can use cloud platforms to facilitate resource sharing, automation, monitoring, managing software upgrades, and optimising operations.

 

• SME's and start-ups:
• The minimal capital investment and rapid marketing time provided by cloud services foster entrepreneurship in the country, making it easier for start-ups and small-medium firms to start small and scale up as demand grows.
• MSMEs can save money by using cloud-based services instead of building their own IT infrastructure, thanks to the Digital MSME Scheme.

 

• Railways:
• RailCloud — India's railroads have introduced RailCloud, a cloud-based solution that will allow for speedier connectivity at a low cost.
• Nivaran's Grief Portal – It is the RailCloud's initial IT application. It is a place for serving and past railway personnel to resolve service-related issues.

• Health-care industry:
• The government's e-health vision includes adopting the Health Information Exchange (HIE) mechanism via a cloud platform. A secure electronic HIE allows stakeholders to accurately assess and communicate a patient's medical information.

 

• What are the barriers to cloud computing adoption in India:

 

• Infrastructure: India's data centre infrastructure is inadequate.
• Energy resource management: The cost of powering and cooling data centres accounts for 53% of overall operational costs. Not only must data centres cut their energy costs, but they must also adhere to regulatory rules and environmental norms.
• Server consolidation is a process that involves combining multiple servers into a single unit. A fundamental difficulty is achieving successful server consolidation (i.e., maximising the use of remote servers to reduce energy consumption) without impacting application performance.
• Platform management: Providing middleware capabilities for designing, deploying, integrating, and managing applications in multi-tenant, elastic, and scalable settings presents challenges.
• Maintaining security architecture: The correct cloud security architecture is essential for efficiently and quickly responding to security threats and lowering risks associated with commercial or government services.

 

Tags : IaaS, PaaS