Issues in Cloud Computing: Disadvantages and Practical Examples

This assignment discusses the disadvantages of cloud computing services and provides practical examples of cloud crashes faced by organizations like Google and Amazon. It also offers recommendations on how to resolve these issues. The report highlights the importance of monitoring cloud elasticity, the challenges of measuring it, and the need for real-time data tracking. It also emphasizes the significance of planning for cloud failures, keeping experts or consultants for disaster recovery, and creating options for internal backup.

Running head: CLOUD COMPUTING
One Column Cloud Computing Technology
Abstract- Cloud computing technology has been one of the latest innovations and it had gained popularity among a
wide range of organizations. Organizations utilize the cloud computing services for various purposes, besides various
advantages, cloud computing services provide various disadvantages as well, the disadvantages of cloud computing
services have been mentioned in the assignment, it also discusses regarding various practical examples where
organizations like Google and Amazon had faced issues with cloud computing services. The report further provides some
recommendations on how the issues can be resolved.
I. INTRODUCTION
Cloud computing technologies have been around since 2010 and they are rapidly evolving. As the
technologies evolve, there is issues of hacking and disruption. Hacking is the process of entering a cyber-area and
changing information or accessing sensitive materials though the internet. This also affects user experiences and
also user data. Computing with the cloud includes shopping, academics, and business transactions and more
processes are being added as the technology develops Shopping is the number activity that is digital and cloud
computing stores credit cards and also personal information as well Cloud computing has to be elastic and able to
adapt to new uses and changes and “Elasticity has originally been defined in physics as a material property capturing
the capability of returning to its original state after a deformation. In economic theory, informally, elasticity denotes
the sensitivity of a dependent variable to changes in one or more other variables “( NR Herbst, S Kounev, RH
Reussner 2013).
Elasticity is the ability to stretch as system as well as expand the tolerances of said system. Cloud
computing is determined with its ability to handle several processes and be scaled according to the desired
operation. What resources are being used, the parameters, as well as scalability and security. Leakage of data
would be a gold mine for hackers being elastic allows for a stable secure processing of information in the cloud and
this is critical as shopping and business functions are now being digitized more than ever before. As more
information is being processed, there is the challenge of security and maintaining elasticity. When elastics break,
that means the material cracks and the weaknesses are fulfilled. The cloud would not snap or break so to speak but,
the elastic limit would allow for hackers to gain access to finances, medical, business, and other sensitive

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information in which they can use for their own purposes. Security is a major issue but, also user experience and
availability when it comes to cloud elasticity.
II. DISCUSSION
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on demand network access to a shared pool of
configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly
provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” (National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST), USA).”
This is important as having national standards for cloud computing and elasticity as data is used in many
applications. So much is digitalized and information is now shared more universally with the clouds. Clouds are
pretty much storage areas for data and they do not have storage limits much like a disk or a hard drive. However,
clouds are easily accessible and hacking is an issue as noted. With this, clouds are also characterized based on
services. Dr. Basem Suleiman in a presentation shares the services and characteristics of clouds.
“On-demand self-service • Computing capabilities, such as server and network storage, are provisioned as
needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider Broad network access •
Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by
heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms Resource pooling • The provider’s computing resources are pooled to
serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically
assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand and Rapid elasticity • Capabilities can be elastically
provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with
demand • To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be
appropriated in any quantity at any time. Measured service Cloud systems automatically control and optimize
resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g.,
storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts)” (Basem 2018).
The above list of cloud computing applications are exhausting. This technology is only set to expand as
time goes on. Medical records, business data, and video games are just the most common processes. Elasticity in
teh cloud can crash and in the case of video games, it can be inconvenient but, losing medical or business data can
have economic and monetary consequences. Also, access to sensitive information can also be used by adversaries
and other state actors and cause a security crisis. Elasticity is the process of managing the workload along with

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security processes and procedures. Also it includes not losing data during the processes and also being expanded to
get a higher load of information. Scaling is the process that aids in the elasticity of the resources within a specific
cloud. Scaling is the use of resources and allocation of resources based on the need and this includes increase
resources for a tasks or reducing it. Elasticity and scaling in this sense seems very similar but elasticity is the ability
to handle large information networks and scaling is the control of the resources to put the information or run the
programs in the clouds. Measurements can be an issues and there is no perfect program to do the measurements of
clouds and their elasticity. Research also is being done to fine tune the methods of modeling and measurements of
cloud elasticity.
Measurements of elasticity in the cloud are still being researched as well and measuring such elasticity can
help tweak systems and also adjust them to improve use experience as well as security protocols. Wei Ai,1 Kenli
Li,1 Shenglin Lan,1 Fan Zhang,2 Jing Mei,1 Keqin Li,1,3 and Rajkumar Buyya4 are in the process of researching a
new measurement for the elasticity in the cloud. They not more specifically that elasticity is “Broadly defining,
elasticity is the capability of delivering preconfigured and just-in-need virtual machines adaptively in a cloud
platform upon the fluctuation of the computing resources required. Practically it is determined by the time needed
from an under provisioning or overprovisioning state to a balanced resource provisioning state. ”Wei Ai,1 Kenli Li,1
Shenglin Lan,1 Fan Zhang,2 Jing Mei,1 Keqin Li,1,3 and Rajkumar Buyya4 (2016). At any time, a cloud must able
able to handle a varied level of constant processing and also a standby process as well depending on location and
nature of the data. This also includes accessing data at demand and also be able to handle a higher workload with
data uploading as well. A main ingredient for cloud elasticity is the ability to measure it and this process is ongoing.
III. ISSUES IN CLOUD
Cloud elasticity can fluctuate at any given time with the increasing use as businesses and consumers log on
the cloud. Having a real time data tracking system is critical in tracking elasticity in a system. As noted, knowing
the elasticity can be a challenge due to the lag of data and not having a current data tracking mechanism that is real
time. The cloud must be able to adapt to any changes to the workload as it is shared with hospitals, video gamers,
schools, and etc. Elasticity is the process of adjusting and keeping up with the workloads as necessary. A crashing
cloud is not a good deal when it comes to critical information processes. A crash as noted earlier would cause
economic and security threats as the protective coding and programs would be exposed. Monitoring the

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measurements helps the scalability processes. Knowing about lag can reduce loss of information for example during
medical procedures or a business deal can save lives and money. Also keep up elasticity reduces holes and hacking.
Cloud computing makes organization face numerous issues related to connectivity and downtime, security,
support and many more. Cloud computing makes an organization irrespective of its size to be dependent on the
reliability of the internet connection [1]. When the internet is offline, the departments working in the organization
become non-functional as well. If the cloud flexibility is not much and the internet service suffers from slow speeds
or outrages, it might create a serious threat for the organization. Besides this cloud computing might get crashed due
to various reasons. Data saved in cloud is accessible from anywhere by anyone who has the access to internet. In
case data breach takes place due to hacking through any negligence of a disgruntled staff or a week password or user
name, the business data might be compromised. Custom configuration cannot be done outside various machine types
that are provided by Platform as a Service providers. In case the solutions that are pre-defined does not fit into the
planned deployment, the deployment must be made such that it fits the solution.
A practical example of cloud crash includes the Google Cloud Crash which resulted in disrupting their
services like Spotify, Snapchat and some more. The cloud computing services of Google had been down in July,
2018, it resulted in shutting down various applications and website hosted on this particular platform. TimesLIVE
had also been effected along with some news websites like SowetanLIVE, BusinessLIVE, DispatchLIVE and
HeraldLIVE. Users of various applications were requested to stay logged in while they were attending the problem
[2]. The problem had occurred when a specific update was being functioned and the network suddenly hit a bug. An
automated failsafe software had been utilized that was responsible for detecting the problem and resolve it
automatically was also hit by the bug. The software was glitched and ended up sending incorrect technical data to
through the entire network, this forced the overall network to crash down. Google had undergone around 14
engineering changes and ensures that this sort of incident would not take place any more. The failure of cloud
computing elasticity was also a reason for this sort of crash.
One more example includes the huge internet outage caused by Amazon after a specific cloud data center
situated around East Coast had failed, it caused major issues for people across the planet. This cloud crash had
caused hundreds of applications and sites to become unavailable, some other websites showed broken images or
links, this left companies as well as users completely confused [3]. Amazon’s Simple Storage Service which is also
known as Amazon S3 faced a lot of difficulties in sending as well as receiving the data from clients, this continues

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for around 4 hours. Users had tweeted regarding the issues and complained about the outage that had been occurred,
users had been facing problems in accessing various sites, according to the web firm named similartech, around
150,000 sites were affected due to the outrage. Some services were completely shut down, numerous companies
faced troubles in functions like sharing files to web feeds and loading information that was stored in Simple Storage
Service of Amazon and many more. Amazon disclosed that the cloud services were affected due to a partial failure
that had occurred in a hosting platform, which had affected huge number of media outlets and internet services.
Some seriously impacted popular services are Splitwise, Trello, Medium and Sound cloud [4]. Some sites like
Mashable were not able to publish and sites like Verge were not able to post several images. Various users of Nest
smart thermostats were not allowed to connect to the application of the firm, Apple had reported several issues
regarding its service of music streaming, app store and some more. According to various experts, the problem had
been a major one for the reputation of Amazon. This had finally resulted in losing various loyal and honest
customers due to this onetime event. Customers reported that if the outrage can happen once there are chances that it
might happen again and customers as well as organizations might lose access to their important data.
III. SOLUTIONS
Utilization of cloud computing services helps organization all over the world with various benefits that ae impossible for
other technologies to provide, besides these there are numerous issues that are faced by numerous organizations which make
them vulnerable to data breach, data loss and website hacking and many more, various recommendations can be followed in
order avoid or prevent the vulnerabilities caused by bugs in cloud services, these recommendations are as follows
 Planning to fail: organizations must develop a specific detailed scenario of cloud breakdown, then they
must perform recovery run through, the risk mitigation strategies must be decided before implementing
or using cloud services [5]. Usually organizations commit a mistake my implementing the loud services
into their working principles first and they do plan regarding the mitigation strategies in case they face
any issues and hence they become vulnerable to threats like data breach and data loss. The organizations
must assume that they would face issues due to the cloud computing services and they must built and
architect for all the levels of failures that might occur in their system.
 Keeping experts: one of the attractions of cloud sourcing is the fact that the users do not require to
acquire and maintain internal knowledge of technologies which help in supporting as service solutions.

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In case an organization does not have in house capabilities or does not have expert within it, service
provider must be approached for providing the same [6]. Organizations can also hire consultants in order
to create various plans for the purpose of disaster recovery as well as for the business continuity. Even a
minimum investment in the third party would be helpful for the organization if it helps in negating a
potential disaster in an event of long outage.
 Creating options for internal backup: the outrage caused in the Amazon was a huge one and it lasted for a
long time, Amazon took around 2 days in order to locate as well as repair the issues at the data center
located in northern Virginia. But after that the U.S Tennis Association CIO along with Amazon Elastic
Cloud Compute (EC2) customers noticed that the application turned a little sluggish, then they migrated
the critical systems of USTA into their own server [7]. Hence according to the advice provided by
Bonfante it proved that various IT members should maintain various capabilities of internal contingency.
Usually organizations utilize cloud services in order to back up their data but if the organization stores
everything in cloud, it might be difficult or impossible for the organization to access their data when
outages or similar failures take place. When all the data is stored in cloud, the organization is at risk that
it might lose its data forever, this happens very often, the best recommendation to avoid this issue is to
arrange a backup for the mission-critical data to a specific local server. If this is done and the
organization faced an outage it would be able to retrieve its data, if not all but at least the most important
information would be retrieved [8]. Encryption of data before saving it to any server is an important step
that must be followed by an organization. The cloud services are safe in these cases, but there have been
cases when the opposite or unexpected has happened. In case sensitive data needs to be saved, encrypting
them first is the best option to so it.
 Reexamining sourcing strategy: various IT leaders had embraced the idea of multi- sourcing. This model
can result in making the cloud services very confusing. Suppose when more services are built on the
infrastructure of cloud computing, an isolated outage might have a specific domino effect, which might
crash numerous services on a complete application environment [9]. Putting a specific service integration
provider in the charge of a particular multi-sourced arrangement, would contribute in failure. The
organization must have its own group of staffs that belong to IT background and develop ideas regarding
the working principles of cloud.

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 Not to be cheap: most of the companies usually do not agree in having a cloud platform parallel to
another one, suppose in the case of Amazon’s failure, the organizations who were affected did not or
could not pay for running a parallel system in cloud, whereas a customer of Amazon’s Web Service,
Netflix reported that it had assumed that one of the data center of Amazon would go down. They had
taken advantage of the redundant cloud architecture of Amazon Web Services. Similarly, critical data
must be replicated across numerous availability zones and then back up at replicated regions; the active
servers must be distributes in a geographic manner and there must be abundant capacity for shifting
locations [10]. An example of this is Bizo that runs services in 2 zones of each of the 4 Amazon regions
that it uses. Once when the eastern regions had been to south, the company had redirected their traffic to
western region.
IV. Conclusion
From the above assignment, it can be concluded that cloud computing services are a part of latest
technology that promises numerous benefits, besides these there are numerous researches that still needs to
be carried out in the areas because there have been numerous concerns regarding the privacy and security
issues, these issues have not yet been answered by various experts and stills remains open. There have been
lot of investment and research in this area by the platforms like Google, Microsoft, Cisco and many more.
It has been assumed that not much time is left when cloud services would be utilized for most of the
organizations for numerous purposes including handling security as well as privacy issues. This assignment
discusses regarding various issues that are faced by organizations on implementing cloud services in their
working principles, some risks include security of data, security of users’ identity and many more. It further
mentions some practical examples of organizations like Amazon and Google that had under gone crashing
of cloud services along with various with the outcomes. The report then discusses regarding the
recommendations that can be utilized by organizations in order to increase the elasticity of cloud services
and result in using the services effectively for obtaining maximum benefit from the cloud services.
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