Lesson 3: Taxonomy of cloud computing

3.1. Introduction
In our previous class, we looked at cloud computing architecture and reference model. In this
lesson, we will discuss the taxonomy of cloud computing. We will look at various cloud services
and how to classify them based on their characteristics. We now know that cloud computing can
mean two things. Firstly, a virtualized pool of resources available on demand. Secondly, it can
mean running workloads remotely over the internet in a cloud provider’s data center.

3.2. Lesson objectives

By the end of this lesson, you be able to:
 Define taxonomy
 Describe various levels of cloud computing taxonomy
 Classify a give cloud service

3.3. Lesson structure

This lesson is structured as follows:
 Introduction
 Lesson objectives
 Lesson structure
 Cloud computing characteristics
 Taxonomy of cloud services
 Classifying services using the taxonomy
 Revision exercises
 Summary
 Suggested reading

3.4. Cloud computing characteristics

Based on NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definition of cloud computing,
we can identify five characteristics of cloud computing. NIST defines cloud computing as a
model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management
effort or service provider interaction. The characteristics of cloud computing are therefore:
a) On demand self-service: Cloud computing resources can be provisioned without human
interaction from the service provider. This means, a manufacturing organization can
provision additional computing resources as needed without going through the cloud service
provider.
b) Broad network access: The resources are available over the network and can be accessed by
diverse customer platforms. This means 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).
c) Multi-tenancy and resource pooling: Multi-tenancy means allows multiple customers to
share the same applications or the same physical infrastructure while retaining privacy and
security over their information. Resource pooling means 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.
 However, resource allocation must not impact performances of critical manufacturing
applications.
d) Rapid elasticity and scalability: Rapid elasticity implies that 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. Just-in-
time (JIT) service is the notion of requiring cloud elasticity either to provision more
resources in the cloud or less. On the other hand, scalability means that 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.
e) Measured services: 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.

3.5. Taxonomy of cloud services

A taxonomy is a particular classification arranged in a hierarchical structure. In this lesson we
look at taxonomy of cloud computing as a classification of the components of the cloud
computing domain into categories based on different aspects of this field. The taxonomy
classifies the characteristics of cloud computing in terms The taxonomy has hierarchical format.
The taxonomy levels are:
a. Main service category
b. License type
c. Intended user group
d. Payment system
e. Formal agreements
f. Security measures
g. Standardization efforts
Main service category: According to the business model adopted, clouds are usually classified
into three major categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
License type: Most cloud services use proprietary software and licenses. However, several cloud
computing providers make use of open-source software and platforms. License types also play a
role when offering infrastructure and platform-level services.
Intended user groups: People focused on the use of a particular technology or cloud service.
Some CCSs differentiate between corporate and private use. Most IaaS and PaaS offerings are
intended for companies, whereas SaaS offerings exist for corporations, private individuals or
both, such as the Google Apps. This does not imply, that services aimed at companies cannot be
purchased by individuals.
Security and privacy: These are important aspects, especially when important data resides on
the cloud’s servers. When handling personal data, certain regulations may apply. Due to the
absence of standards, cloud security, data privacy and ownership are approached differently by
each provider but generally, encryption and authentication should be used on all cloud services.
Payment systems: The cloud services are billed based on dynamic use rather than paying a fixed
monthly or yearly charge, the customer only pays for the resources consumed. The resources
could be the number of virtual instances, data storage amount, bandwidth, compute time and
resources (CPU or RAM) and transactions (for databases), as well as, combinations of these. The
most frequently used pricing model is pay-per-use, in which (resource) units or units per time are
associated with fixed price values.
Standardization: Refers to the use of technical standards, common APIs (Application
Programming Interface) and architectures. These standards can either be approved and
maintained by an organization such as ANSI or the ISO, or they can simply implement a
commonly-used or familiar interface. So far there are no defined standards, though this would be
beneficial to a cloud computing customers and service developers. Standards would increase
interoperability and allow possible customization, due to the technical transparency. Customers
are still tied to a provider and switching costs are high, due to the incompatibilities of the cloud
products.
Formal agreements: The most commonly used formal agreements are service level agreements
(SLA), which formally define which level of service the customer can expect and should address
latency and QoS (quality of service). Typically, SLAs include technical specifications of
measures, such as uptime or turn-around time. Most SLAs also state what compensation the
customer can expect in case of failure. Most cloud service providers use SLA agreements to
convince potential customers to use clouds.

3.6. Classifying services using the taxonomy

Given a service, we use the taxonomy levels discussed to classify the given service. The example
attempts to use taxonomy levels and Google Apps.
Level Characteristics
Service SaaS
License Proprietary
User group Corporate and private
Payment system Free for private use but $50 p.a. for corporate
Agreement SLA(service layer agreement)
Security HTTPS
Standards None

3.7. Revision exercise

a) Describe the five characteristics of cloud computing.
b) Classify the following cloud services using cloud computing taxonomy
i. Microsoft Azure
ii. Amazon EC2
3.8. Summary
In this lesson we have learnt about cloud computing taxonomy. We have also looked at the five
characteristics of cloud computing. We have also learnt how to use characteristics of a particular
cloud service and classify it using the taxonomy levels.

3.9. Suggested reading

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.460.3939&rep=rep1&type=pdf
https://studfile.net/preview/8208110/page:25/

https://studfile.net/preview/8208110/page:25/
https://www.controleng.com/articles/five-characteristics-of-cloud-computing/