Challenges in Cloud Computing: Service Admin, APIs and Security

Grazed from CloudTimes. Author: Florence de Borja.

Business organizations are increasingly moving towards the cloud. However, there are still some obstacles to its widespread acceptance and ongoing development. While many are happy about how things are evolving in the cloud, there are also some missing pieces that must be taken into consideration.

For one, service administration is still far from being perfect. Cloud computing services must be managed by enforcing policies, offering service authentication, and allocating such services only to authorized users. There are very few cloud computing providers who can offer an acceptable service administration but majority of these suppliers have to step up in order for cloud computing implementation to be successful…

The supply of services is also connected to the administration of services. Cloud services must be allocated automatically through an Application Programming Interface (API). Present mechanisms and approaches are aplenty. Some cloud computing providers do manual provisioning wherein they restart their servers while some suppliers offer state of the art automatic provisioning. For cloud computing to be successful, a strategy must be in place in the area of provisioning of services.

Security is also a missing piece in cloud computing implementation. Cloud computing services must be provisioned securely with the ability to determine the users, the purpose of the service, as well as the manner of service accessibility. While majority of cloud computing vendors strive hard to provide a secure cloud, service level security is still remain a dream. Currently, only physical or virtual servers can be secured. Service identity management is still impossible. Cloud users as well as providers must be able to work hand-in-hand to attain service level security.

Cloud computing is still in its early stages and as such, there’s still a long way to go. Critics may be having a field day today but sooner or later, better cloud computing services can be offered which will provide utmost benefits to the public.