Five characteristics of

cloud computing
Cloud computing's characteristics and benefits include on-
demand self-service, broad network access, and being very
elastic and scalable.
BY GORAN NOVKOVIC AUGUST 11, 2017
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As cloud computing services mature both commercially and technologically, it will be easier
for companies to maximize the potential benefits. Knowing what cloud computing is and
what it does, however, is just as important. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing as it is known today through five
particular characteristics.

Editor’s note: Control Engineering has seen recent surge online interest in this article and
would like to offer it again to those interested in cloud computing.

1. On-demand self-service
Cloud computing resources can be provisioned without human interaction from the
service provider. In other words, a manufacturing organization can provision additional
computing resources as needed without going through the cloud service provider. This
can be a storage space, virtual machine instances, database instances, and so on.

Manufacturing organizations can use a web self-service portal as an interface to access

their cloud accounts to see their cloud services, their usage, and also to provision and de-
provision services as they need to.

2. Broad network access

Cloud computing resources are available over the network and can be accessed by diverse
customer platforms. It other words, cloud services are available over a network—ideally
high broadband communication link—such as the internet, or in the case of a private clouds
it could be a local area network (LAN).

Network bandwidth and latency are very important aspects of cloud computing and broad
network access, because they relate to the quality of service (QoS) on the network. This is
particularly important for serving time sensitive manufacturing applications.
3. Multi-tenancy and resource pooling
Cloud computing resources are designed to support a multi-tenant model. Multi-tenancy
allows multiple customers to share the same applications or the same physical
infrastructure while retaining privacy and security over their information. It’s similar to people
living in an apartment building, sharing the same building infrastructure but they still have
their own apartments and privacy within that infrastructure. That is how cloud multi-tenancy
works.

Resource pooling means that multiple customers are serviced from the same physical
resources. Providers’ resource pool should be very large and flexible enough to service
multiple client requirements and to provide for economy of scale. When it comes to
resource pooling, resource allocation must not impact performances of critical
manufacturing applications.

4. Rapid elasticity and scalability

One of the great things about cloud computing is the ability to quickly provision resources in
the cloud as manufacturing organizations need them. And then to remove them when they
don’t need them. Cloud computing resources can scale up or down rapidly and, in some
cases, automatically, in response to business demands. It is a key feature of cloud
computing. The usage, capacity, and therefore cost, can be scaled up or down with no
additional contract or penalties.

Elasticity is a landmark of cloud computing and it implies that manufacturing organizations

can rapidly provision and de-provision any of the cloud computing resources. Rapid
provisioning and de-provisioning might apply to storage or virtual machines or customer
applications.

With cloud computing scalability, there is less capital expenditure on the cloud customer
side. This is because as the cloud customer needs additional computing resources, they
can simply provision them as needed, and they are available right away. Scalability is more
planned and gradual. For instance, scalability means that manufacturing organizations are
gradually planning for more capacity and of course the cloud can handle that scaling up or
scaling down.

Just-in-time (JIT) service is the notion of requiring cloud elasticity either to provision more
resources in the cloud or less. For example, if a manufacturing organization all of a sudden
needs more computing power to perform some kind of complex calculation, this would be
cloud elasticity that would be a just-in-time service. On the other hand, if the manufacturing
organization needs to provision human-machine interface (HMI) tags in the database for a
manufacturing project, that is not really just-in-time service, it is planned ahead of time. So it
is more on the scalability side than elasticity.

Another feature available for rapid elasticity and scalability in the cloud is related to testing
of manufacturing applications. If a manufacturing organization needs, for example, a
few virtual machines to test a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system
before they roll it out in production, they can have it up and running in minutes instead of
physically ordering and waiting for hardware to be shipped.
In terms of the bottom line, when manufacturing organizations need to test something in the
cloud, they are paying for what they use as they use it. As long as they remember to de-
provision it, they will no longer be paying for it. There is no capital expense here for
computer resources. Manufacturing organizations are using the cloud provider’s investment
in cloud computing resources instead. This is really useful for testing smart manufacturing
solutions.

5. Measured service
Cloud computing resources usage is metered and manufacturing organizations pay
accordingly for what they have used. Resource utilization can be optimized by leveraging
charge-per-use capabilities. This means that cloud resource usage—whether virtual server
instances that are running or storage in the cloud—gets monitored, measured and reported
by the cloud service provider. The cost model is based on “pay for what you use”—
the payment is variable based on the actual consumption by the manufacturing
organization.

Goran Novkovic, MESA International. This article originally appeared on MESA

International’s blog. MESA International is a CFE Media content partner. Edited by Chris
Vavra, production editor, CFE Media, [email protected].

Original content can be found at blog.mesa.org.

The Essential Characteristics of Cloud Computing are:

 On-demand self service

 Multi-tenancy and resource pooling
 Broad network access
 Rapid elasticity and scalability
 Resource pooling
 Measured and reporting service
 Automation
 Resilience
 Large Network Access
 Work from any location
 Comfortable payment structure
 Service Excellence
 Easy maintenance
 Flexibility
 Economical and Security
  Availability

Let’s discuss them in detail:

On-demand self-service
Cloud computing delivers on-demand service. It provides the feature
of monitoring server uptime with computing capabilities to the end-
users. Cloud computing provides pre-defined network storage that
enables the end-users to monitor their computing capabilities. Cloud
computing works on a self-service model.

They help end-users to make better decisions as they know how to

use cloud computing services.

Multi-tenancy and resource pooling

One of the most important features of cloud technology is multi-
tenancy. It can be defined as the software architecture that enables
the single program instance to provide services to multiple end-users.
This feature enables the usage of the same computing resources by
multiple customers.

Broad network access

Cloud computing is achieved through standard computing
mechanisms, and this feature helps promote heterogeneous thick and
thin client platforms.

Examples of such platforms comprise mobile phones, laptops,

dedicated workstations, and tablets. The capabilities are delivered
across multiple networks. Cloud computing, therefore, helps break
barriers and boundaries as they function across multiple geographies.

Rapid elasticity and scalability

The cloud computing capabilities can be released elastically. It
enables you to scale the cloud computing services inward and
outward, and it helps to be commensurate with the dynamic demand
posted by the end-users.

Resource pooling
Cloud computing delivers affordable resource pooling solutions. With
resource pooling, organizations can reduce substantial computing
costs, and it helps in the dynamic pooling of resources that enable
them to deliver computing services to several consumers.

Measured and reporting service

Cloud systems offer the metering capability to monitor, control, and
optimize the usage of cloud resources. This feature can be defined as
a measured service.

The metering capability is placed at some level of the abstraction of

applicable services. Therefore, this feature enables transparency for
both the provider of service and the consumer.

Automation
Through automation, IT teams and developers maintain and modify
cloud services. When cloud infrastructure is in place, it ensures
minimum interaction from humans. All the configurations are installed
to ensure the monitoring and maintenance of cloud computing
services, and such configurations are mostly automated. Therefore,
automation in cloud computing facilitates the faster expansion of cloud
services.

Resilience
Cloud computing delivers continuous server uptime, and hence it
offers resilient services. It offers the capability to recover from any
service interruption. The cloud service provider also develops
strategies that boost disaster management, achieved by maintaining
backup cloud nodes.

Large Network Access

Cloud computing is so versatile that it enables its users to access
cloud services. These fundamental characteristics of Cloud
Computing also enable them to upload data to the cloud from
anywhere. For this, you need to have a decent internet connection
and a robust device that helps make a connection to the cloud.

Work from any location

Cloud computing promotes the feature of remote working. It helps the
end-user function, work, or deliver remote services from any location.
Users are therefore able to access company data even on their
smartphones or through laptops. It also enables users to connect with
one another quickly.

Comfortable payment structure

Cloud computing offers a flexible payment structure that plays an
important role in the cost-cutting of organizations. Pricing varies based
on the features and functionalities chosen by a customer.

The payment options provided by the cloud service providers to the

end-users are very simple and streamlined, which aides them in
saving on substantial costs and time.

Service Excellence
Cloud computing delivers end-users with a wide range of services.
The cloud service providers share end users’ service level
agreements with their clients.

It also provides documentation on how they would achieve continuous

availability and bandwidth of their clients’ services.

Easy maintenance
Easy maintenance is one of the critical features of cloud computing.
The client is never involved in maintenance-related services. Its
managed by the cloud computing provider. The maintenance services
are so well planned that the downtime remains significantly low.
Moreover, the cloud undergoes regular updates that help in capability
optimization.

Flexibility
The end-users benefit from the flexibility offered by the cloud services
when they host data in the dedicated cloud. This ensures that the end-
users can do away from traditional hosting techniques wherein they
had to change or switch the service providers more frequently.

Economical and Security

This feature is one of the key aspects of cloud computing. It helps the
big organizations to save a substantial amount on IT-related
expenditure. You need to pay a small fee to the third-party providers
to ensure that the cloud space is adequately administered and
maintained. This also helps in boosting security in exchange for a
nominal fee.

Availability
Cloud computing offers highly resilient services, and the cloud
services are available for 24 x7 duration if the cloud resource faces
downtime, the system recovers and starts within no time.

While the cloud service makes a recovery, information stored in

servers, networks, and databases remains to be secured. Since cloud
services can be accessed from any geographical location, their
services remain available most of the time.