The current state of cloud computing and future challenges
Cloud computing is transforming enterprise IT infrastructure, bringing increased flexibility, cost savings and efficiency.
Learn how the cloud works, why so many businesses are making the switch, and the basic concepts and challenges ahead.
What is cloud computing? A quick review
Cloud computing is a method of providing IT resources such as servers and databases over the Internet.
Unlike traditional on-premise infrastructure, it does not require the construction and maintenance of your own data centre, and you can use as much computing power and storage as you need, when you need it. This increases your flexibility and allows you to respond quickly to business changes while also reducing costs.
Cloud computing has the following models depending on how the services are provided:
- IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): Providing hardware and infrastructure
- PaaS (Platform as a Service): Provides a platform for running applications
- SaaS (Software as a Service): Providing software
Major cloud vendors and their characteristics
We will explain the cloud vendors that are widely used in Japan and their respective features.
A. AWS (Amazon Web Services)
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is the most popular and widely used cloud computing company in the world. It has a strong partner ecosystem and offers solutions specialized for various industries.
1. A wide variety of services covering all fields
AWS offers hundreds of cloud services, covering a wide range of services including computing, storage, databases, artificial intelligence (AI), and IoT, making it possible to meet the needs of businesses of all sectors and scales.
2. Robust and global service deployment
With data centers distributed around the world, we provide high availability and reliability. We have regions in many areas, so you can choose one based on geographical proximity.
3. Strong community
We have a large and active developer community that shares success stories and best practices across industries, allowing developers and businesses to learn from each other and build effective solutions.
B. Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure has the advantage of seamless integration with Microsoft products, and is the second most widely used service worldwide after AWS. It also has a strong partner ecosystem and offers a wide range of industry-specific solutions.
1. Integrated Enterprise Solutions
Azure offers seamless integration with Microsoft enterprise software, improving interoperability with existing Microsoft products and services and easing your cloud migration journey.
2. Hybrid Cloud Support
We excel at integrating with on-premise environments, allowing us to build hybrid cloud solutions, which is key for businesses that want to move business processes and data to the cloud while keeping some on-premise.
3. Wide range of AI and data services
We provide powerful AI (artificial intelligence) and data services, enabling you to take advantage of advanced technologies such as machine learning, big data analysis, and IoT.
C. GCP (Google Cloud Platform)
Although GCP (Google Cloud Platform) does not have as large a market share as the aforementioned services, it has strengths especially in data processing and machine learning.
1. Powerful data processing and machine learning
We offer a wide range of services that utilize Google’s data processing engine and machine learning platform to support data-driven applications and businesses.
2. Strengthening our global network
Google has a powerful global network that provides fast, secure communications, meaning users of its cloud services can expect low latency and high performance.
3. Multi-cloud and open ecosystem
It supports multi-cloud, so you can smoothly integrate and use with different cloud providers. It also actively contributes to the open source community, and through its support for the Kubernetes project, it is helping to build an open cloud ecosystem.
Challenges in Cloud Computing: Delays and Unreliability
As cloud utilization continues to expand, challenges unique to the cloud architecture are becoming apparent.
1. Impact of expanding Internet usage
As internet usage continues to expand, network latency has become a major concern, especially as cloud services become more commonly used, resulting in slower speeds and less reliability.
Even in these circumstances, companies need to ensure high performance and improve reliability by reviewing and upgrading their network designs.
2. Impact of enriched content
As content and services become more diverse and complex, insufficient capacity on the content provider side can lead to delays and service outages.
Future challenges anticipated in cloud computing
It is expected that the use of cloud computing will continue to expand in the future, but with this trend comes new challenges. The following issues are likely to become apparent in the future.
By proactively addressing these issues, we will be able to effectively leverage cloud computing in a more secure and sustainable manner.
1. Strengthening Cloud Security
Strengthening security has always been a key business issue, and its importance is no less important in cloud computing.
The promotion of cloud utilization often involves changes to network configurations, and as cyber-attack threats continue to grow more diverse and complex, security measures also need to be continually updated.
If you neglect to update your security measures appropriately, not only will you increase the risk of ever-evolving cyber attacks, but you will also experience reduced network performance and convenience, making it difficult to enjoy the benefits of the cloud.
2. Support for multi-cloud
Businesses rarely use a single cloud provider, but rather use multiple providers in tandem or in conjunction with each other for disaster recovery and convenience. As the number of cloud providers increases, the diversity becomes a liability, making effective management difficult.
a. Complexity of centralized management
When using multiple cloud providers, it is common to use different dashboards and management tools for each. This means that various settings such as policies must be managed and maintained separately for each provider, making it necessary to consider efficient management methods.
b. Centralized security management
As mentioned above, strengthening security is also important in cloud computing. However, approaches to security measures often differ from provider to provider, so security policies must be established taking this into account.
Furthermore, unifying the authentication process will not only improve security measures, but will also have the benefit of improving convenience.
c. Data integration and movement
Moving and integrating data between different cloud environments often causes problems in terms of data integrity and performance. In order to ensure data portability without sacrificing convenience, it is important to build a mechanism for seamless integration across providers.
summary
Cloud computing is transforming the IT infrastructure of companies, and while it holds great potential for improving efficiency, in order to maximize its benefits, various challenges must be addressed.
We have been handling various services developed and provided by Akamai, a pioneer in CDN and web security, for many years and have provided these services to many customers.
Akamai has recently begun offering cloud computing services, taking advantage of the high-speed delivery technologies it has developed, such as CDN services. If you are interested, please feel free to contact us.