Cloud Computing Challenges in A General Perspective: Journal of Computing and Management Studies ISSN 2516-2047

Journal of computing and management studies ISSN 2516-2047. Issue 1. Volume 3.
January 2019
Cloud Computing Challenges in a General Perspective

Ngo Yang Chong
University of Warwick
Coventry, United Kingdom
Email. n.chong.2@warwick.ac.uk
Abstract this paper can be utilized to

Cloud computing has been growing acquire an understanding of cloud
rapidly since Amazon brought this computing and its applications in
idea to the public. Cloud computing different sectors.
is a model for enabling convenient,
on-demand network access to a 1. Introduction
shared pool of configurable It is easy to link with the data
computing resources that can be privacy problem when thinking of
rapidly provisioned and released cloud computing. Actually, there
with minimal management effort or are different kinds of issues and
service provider interaction. From challenges during the adoption of
the survey conducted by cloud such as, security, availability,
RightScale, 96% of the integrating with in-house IT and
respondents from different the ability to customize (Dillon, Wu
organizations have adopted cloud in and Chang, 2010). Investigating the
various ways. Indeed, cloud threats and challenges and
computing brings huge advantage understanding all these problems
to the firm, but moving to the are vital to a successful
cloud computing is not an easy task. deployment of cloud computing.
The contribution of this work is to Currently, the major research
present an overview of cloud about cloud computing issue
computing. Research findings of focused on the security problem.
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There are lacking threats and business efficiency while there are
challenges in the deployment of some major drawbacks that affect
cloud under a general perspective. the adoption of cloud.
During the past few years, the The security issue is undoubtedly
security concern is the major the most critical challenges in
challenge that affect the adoption cloud computing as there is no
of cloud computing. In 2018, companies can bear the data loss
security, cloud spending, expertise and privacy issues related to
and control are the major confidential information on cloud
challenges that faced by the (Dillon, Wu and Chang, 2010).
organisations (RightSclae, 2018). However, since companies become
The challenges were no longer only more familiar and experienced with
stressed on the technical issue cloud, the concern over the
which is the security, but also in a security problem has been reduced
management perspective such as and raised the concern on other
control, expertise and cloud deployment issues such as, cloud
spending. An et al. (2016) spending, lack of expertise, and
suggested that each cloud governance (RightScale, 2018a).
deployment model provides This work focuses on the overview
different level of control, of cloud computing. Rest of this
management and flexibility. Thus, paper has been organized as
each model will have its unique follows. In section, 2 related works
deployment threats and challenges. is presented which is followed by
As most of the companies are using discussion and analysis in section 3
on-demand service especially cloud whilst conclusions and future work
to improve business performance are presented in section 4.
and efficiency, under the internet
ecosystem, ensuring a smooth
implementation of cloud computing 2. Related Work
is essential.Cloud computing has a There are three standard
lot of advantages to enhance architecture for cloud computing.

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According to Mell and Grance application-hosting environment

(2009), the three architectures (Mell and Grance,2009).
are Software as a Service (SaaS),
Platform as a Service (PaaS) and
This is the simplest form to adopt
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
cloud computing which is an on-
These three architectures imply
demand service that user just
different level of control over the
need to pay in a monthly or yearly
cloud service. In Figure 1, it shows
basis to use the cloud service.
the level of control of different
Users can gain the access to the
network architectures. The right
database and software while the
three columns represent the cloud
providers manage the
computing structure which the
infrastructure and platform to run
SaaS has the least control over
the application. This architecture
the IT system and the remaining
is suitable for non-critical business
two have a greater control
function as SaaS has limited users’
progressively. The capability
control and customization.
provided to the consumer is to
deploy onto the cloud
infrastructure consumer-created The capability provided to the
or acquired applications created consumer is to deploy onto the
using programming languages, cloud infrastructure consumer-
libraries, services, and tools created or acquired applications
supported by the provider. The created using programming
consumer does not manage or languages and tools supported by
control the underlying cloud the provider. The consumer does
infrastructure including network, not manage or control the
servers, operating systems, or underlying cloud infrastructure
storage, but has control over the including network, servers,
deployed applications and possibly operating systems, or storage, but
configuration settings for the has control over the deployed
applications and possibly

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application hosting environment of virtual machines while the

configurations. This architecture providers provide the network
offers the user an environment to infrastructure and scale the
develop its own application. The services up and down according to
provider mainly provides the the users’ requirements. There are
computing platform for users to total four deployment models of
develop and run their own software. cloud computing. They are private
It is suitable for software or cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud
application development firms and community cloud. Each of the
(Mell and Grance, 2009). models imply different form of
network structure in the use of
cloud computing.
According to the definition from
Mell and Grance (2009): “The
capability provided to the According to the definition from
consumer is to provision processing, Mell and Grance (2009) “The cloud
storage, networks, and other infrastructure is operated solely
fundamental computing resources for an organization. It may be
where the consumer is able to managed by the organization or a
deploy and run arbitrary software, third party and may exist on
which can include operating premise or off premise.” Private
systems and applications. The cloud requires a significant
consumer does not manage or physical footprint inside the
control the underlying cloud organisation. The organisation has
infrastructure but has control over more control over the cloud
operating systems, storage, service, but it requires more cost
deployed applications, and possibly to manage the cloud and thus do
limited control of select not benefit from less hands-on
networking components.” This is management.
the most flexible form of the
three architectures. It is mainly
for the users to run large numbers
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According to the definition from benefits from the shared

Mell and Grance (2009) “The cloud infrastructure.
infrastructure is made available to
the general public or a large
Mell and Grance (2009) “The cloud
industry group and is owned by an
infrastructure is a composition of
organization selling cloud services.”
two or more clouds (private,
Public cloud is opened for public
community, or public) that remain
use. It can be accessed all over the
unique entities but are bound
world through the internet. The
together by standardized or
security issue has been aroused
proprietary technology that
because it is opened for public
enables data and application
connection and exposed to a lot
portability (e.g., cloud bursting for
more threats than a private cloud.
load-balancing between clouds).”
Hybrid cloud balances the
application of different
deployment models and gives the
Mell and Grance (2009) The cloud
flexibility and scalability to the
infrastructure is shared by several
organisation.
organizations and supports a
specific community that has
shared concerns (e.g., mission,
3. Analysis and Discussion
security requirements, policy, and
Cloud computing has a series of
compliance considerations). It may
specific characteristics to enable
be managed by the organizations
the remote provisioning of scalable
or a third party and may exist on
and measured IT resources to be
premise or off premise.”
effective. Before the breakout of
Community cloud is exclusive for a
cloud computing, grid computing is
specific community of consumers.
a similar technology which offers
Several organisations can share
shared computation and storage
the resources and information
over long distances but the it is
through the community cloud and
application-oriented and did not

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lead to a software environment Puttini, 2013; Moghaddam et al.,

that grew further its community 2015; Gong et al., 2010; Zhang,
(Armbrustet al, 2010). Cheng and Boutaba, 2010). The
cloud architecture is based on the
service level that the users
3.1. Characteristics of cloud required which are SaaS, PaaS and
computing IaaS according to the Service
There are different views on the Level Agreement (SLA) accepted
characteristics of cloud computing by both parties (Zhang, Cheng and
and the NIST proposed 5 Boutaba, 2010). It is a Service

characteristics that are on- Oriented Architecture (SOA)
demand self-service, broad which differentiate from Grid
network access, resource pooling, Computing that cloud computing
rapid elasticity and measured provides more accessibility and
service. Among those abstraction than grid computing
characteristics proposed by (Gong et al., 2010). Although cloud
different researchers, it can be computing is providing computing
categorized into 4 groups. They capabilities to the company, it is
are service-oriented characteristic, regarded as service instead of
technical characteristic, economic physical products, therefore,
characteristic and user experience service-oriented is a key
characteristic. characteristic of cloud computing.
3.1. 1.Service-oriented 3.1.2. Technical characteristic

characteristic There are mainly four places where
Cloud computing is an on-demand fault may occur in cloud computing:
self-service which the users only provider-inner, provider across,
consume their computing provider-user and user-across
capabilities when they required (Gong et al., 2010). If one of the
(Mahmood, 2011; Erl, Mahmood and places becomes deficient, the

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processing will be handed over to as multiple tenants share the same

another redundant implementation IT resources which lead to
automatically (Erl, Mahmood and relatively high-risk networking
Puttini, 2013). Due to the environment.
resiliency of cloud computing to
redundant IT capabilities across
multiple cloud or within same cloud, Apart from resource pooling, the
it increases the reliability and elasticity is also a key
availability of the company. It has characteristic that lead to the
a strong fault tolerance to popularity of cloud computing.
maintain the business sustainability Elasticity is the ability of the
for cloud computing usage. service providers to scale IT
resources in response to the
consumers’ requirement (Mell and
3.1.3. Economic characteristic Grance, 2009; Erl, Mahmood and
Puttini, 2013). The pricing of the
Resource pooling allows cloud
service will be charged according
providers to pool IT resources to
to the actual resources that the
several tenants at the same time
users consumed, therefore, there
by assign and reassign the
will be proportional cost benefit
resources according to demand of
and reduced investment for
cloud consumer dynamically (Hill et
customers. Elasticity has been
al., 2013; Erl, Mahmood and Puttini,
regarded as an extremely
2013). Cloud service provider can
important concept of cloud
maximise the resource utilization
computing and the core
in order to have the economics of
justification for the adoption of
scale and lower the cost such as
cloud computing (Hill et al.,2013;
power consumption and cooling
Erl, Mahmood and Puttini, 2013;
(Zhang, Cheng and Bouaba, 2010).
Gong et al., 2010).
The resource pooling
characteristic also exposes the
security issue of cloud computing
3.1.4. Ease of use characteristic
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Cloud providers offer an 3.2. Roles in cloud service

application program interface (API)
There are mainly four roles in
for the users to manage and
cloud service which are cloud
monitor the cloud service. The
provider, cloud consumer, cloud
APIs are simple and easy to use to
enabler and cloud regulator.
control IT resources over the
internet (Gong et al. 2010). Cloud
providers also provide the 3.2.1. Cloud provider
measured usage through the API in
The company that provides and
order to keep track the usage of
owns cloud-based IT resources is
the IT resources as well as the
the cloud provider (Marston et al.,
monitoring and reporting (Erl,
2011). Amazon Web Service (AWS)
Mahmood and Puttini, 2013). In
is the leading cloud provider in the
addition, cloud service is able to
world and followed by Microsoft
access widely through the internet
Azure and Google Cloud
connection. It is accessible for any
(RightScale, 2018b). As a cloud
devices such as, mobile phone,
provider, an organization is
tablet and computer. All these
responsible for the maintenance,
reduce the information technology
deployment and upgrade of cloud
overhead and provide the
services to consumers (Eri,
convenience to the end users.
Mahmood and Puttini, 2013). The
Cloud computing has created its provided service should be agreed
unique business environment that is upon the SLA.
different from the traditional
computing economics. Unlike the
traditional computing set up only 3.2.2. Cloud consumer
has consumers and providers,
Cloud consumer is the user of the
there are more roles in cloud
cloud service provided by the cloud
computing to develop “Cloud
provider and has a formal contract
economics”.
or agreement with the provider to
use IT resources through cloud
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computing (Erl, Mahmood and services, the enablers will become

Puttini, 2013; Marston et al., 2011). important in this case and foresee
An organization or a human can be an increasingly important role in
the cloud consumer who use cloud cloud business chain (Marston et
system as an operational purpose. al., 2011). For example, RightScale,
Using the cloud computing on a Corestack and Vordel act as an
regular basis and effectively enabler in cloud business chain.
reduce the stress for the internal
IT departments as they spend less
time on managing and developing 3.2.4. Cloud service regulator
the system (Marston et al.,2011). The above stakeholders represent
They are billed according to the different parts of the cloud
duration of services that have business chain. The role of
been provisioned for instance, the regulator which is a government
CPU power used, the storage space body or an international
used, and the network bandwidth organization to monitor and
used (Gajbhiye and Shrivastva, evaluate of the cloud’s security,
2014). privacy and performance (Erl,
Mahmood and Puttini, 2013;
Marston et al., 2011). This role is
becoming more and more important
3.2.3. Cloud service enablers because of the data leakage issue
over the internet. Cloud service
Cloud service enablers are the
holds a huge amount of data that it
medium between cloud consumer
is not only the business data, but
and provider that sell products and
also the personal information of
services of cloud service to
customers or even national privacy
facilitate the delivery and adoption
data. As a result, General Data
(Marston et al., 2011). Since the
Protection Regulation (GDPR) was
cloud providers do not necessarily
introduced in 2016 especially for
have the competencies to interact
cloud providers that control huge
with organization to sell their
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amount of data to follow specific et al., 2011). There is a Hypervisor

regulations to protect data privacy. or Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)
between the physical hardware and
the emulated system to provide
3.3. Technologies operating system and users
There are several technologies application (Gajbhiye and
behind cloud computing which Shrivastva, 2014). Hence, multiple
enabled the cloud platform to gain virtualisation machine can be
its unique characteristics and running concurrently on the same
paved the way to become a physical machine and providing IT
disruptive technology in business capabilities to several users at the
environment. Virtualization, Web same time (Buyyaet al., 2008). This
Service and Multitenancy are the is the vital technology for cloud
key enabling technologies to computing to provide the
establish cloud computing. flexibility and scalability of its
service which is quite hard to
achieve in non-virtualised
3.3.1 Virtualisation environment (Gajbhiye and
Shrivastva, 2014). In addition, the
Virtualisation is extremely
physical machine can allocate the
important in cloud computing as
processing power to different
most of the IT resources have
virtual machines leverage the
been virtualized for consumers.
resources and assigning resources
Virtualisation is the simulation of
dynamically to maximise the use of
physical resources into virtual or
IT resources (Buyyaet al., 2008).
abstract resources (Hill et al.,
Most types of the IT resources
2013; Gajbhiye and Shrivastva,
can be virtualised including servers,
2014; Buyyaet al., 2008). The
storage, network and even power
emulated IT resources behave as a
(Erl, Mahmood and Puttini, 2013).
normal independent system while
Although virtualisation has been
the users may not discover they
introduced a long time ago back in
are using a virtual system (Marston
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1960s by IBM, it became popular standardisation of interface

because of the commercialisation between applications (Marston et
of IT resources by cloud al., 2011). Therefore, web service
computing and the concept of is also a key technology that
sharing economy. enables cloud computing to better
communicate between the service
providers and consumers.
3.3.2. Web service
Web service is defined as “a

3.3.3. Multitenancy
software system designed to
support interoperable machine-to- Multitenancy enables multiple
machine interaction over a network” users or tenants to access the
by the W3C. The World Wide Web same application simultaneously and
(WWW) is the system of the design of cloud multitenancy
interlinked IT resources in cloud must distinguish between
that are accessed through the customers to ensure they do not
Web server (Hill et al., 2013; Erl, have access to data and
Mahmood and Puttini, 2013). The configuration information of the
web service is communicated others (Fiaidhiet al., 2012; Erl,
through Hypertext Transfer Mahmood and Puttini, 2013;
Protocol (HTTP) and the web pages Marston et al., 2010). Multitenancy
are written using Hyper Text can be achieved through three
Markup Language (HTML) with approaches which are virtualisation,
eXtensibleMarkup Language (XML). using a database and physical
The web service uses the XML separation (Fiaidhiet al., 2012).
technology through the HTTP for Virtualisation has been discussed
exchanging information between in the previous section and physical
client and server. The web service separation is rarely used because
can be found in all kinds of cloud- it needs to give every tenant a
based architecture because of the dedicated physical resource.
high accessibility and the Therefore, using the database to

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achieve multitenancy is the most ‘Reviews on Security Issues

common practice in cloud and Challenges in Cloud
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Journal of computing and management studies ISSN 2516-2047. Issue 1. Volume 3.