INF1505 Chapter 14: Emerging Trends, Technologies, and Applications

On the technical level, signals from multiple readers can overlap, signals can be jammed or disrupted, and the tags are difficult to remove. Privacy and security issues include being able to read a tag’s contents after an item has left the store, tags being read without the customer’s knowledge, and tags with unique serial numbers being linked to credit card numbers.

Public cloud: With a public cloud, users connect with an off-site infrastructure over the Internet. Because the public cloud services and the infrastructure are shared by a large number of users, this option offers the highest cost savings and is the most popular of the four. However, it also carries higher security and privacy risks. Therefore, it is more suitable for organizations that need scalability (the ability to add or drop resources), do collaborative projects over the Web, and/or offer standard applications over the Web, such as e-mail. Public cloud computing requires the least amount of involvement by IT managers. Overall, security and reliability are the main concerns with this option. Examples of public cloud services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM Blue Cloud, Google AppEngine, and Windows Azure Services Platform. Private cloud: In a private cloud, the services and the infrastructure are run on a private network. Naturally, this option offers higher security and privacy than a public cloud. Because a participating organization purchases and maintains the software and infrastructure itself, this option offers less cost savings than a public cloud. It is recommended for organizations that operate on highly secure data. It is important to mention that some providers of public cloud services offer private versions of their public clouds. Also, some providers of private cloud services offer public versions of their private cloud. A private cloud achieves cost savings by integrating fragmented infrastructures, automating common data center tasks, and providing financial accuracy and responsibility. In addition, an organization gains a greater degree of automation through the standardization of previously custom-configured services into predefined infrastructure products offered in a controlled self-service manner. Major private cloud services are Eucalyptus, Elastra Enterprise Cloud Server, VMware Private-Cloud Architecture, and Microsoft Azure. Hybrid cloud: Organizations that operate on both private and public data may choose a hybrid cloud. This is a collection of at least one private and at least one public cloud. In a hybrid cloud environment, there are a variety of public and private options, with multiple providers. An organization may run its sensitive data on a private cloud and its public information on the public cloud (with less security and privacy). A hybrid cloud allows an organization to take advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness that a public cloud computing environment offers without exposing mission-critical applications and data to the outside world. However, this option may require multiple security platforms, and making sure that all systems communicate with each other in an efficient manner might be a challenge. Community cloud: With the community option, the cloud infrastructure is designed for exclusive use by a specific community of users from organizations that share common concerns (e.g., security requirements, policy, mission, and compliance considerations). This infrastructure may be owned, managed, and operated by one or more of the organizations in the community, a third party, or some combination; and the infrastructure may exist on or off premises. With this alternative, the costs are spread over fewer users than with a public cloud (but more than with a private cloud) to realize its full cost-saving potential.* Allocation of costs and responsibilities, governance, and the implementation of a tight security system are among the challenges that must be overcome when choosing this option.