Biometric Technology

267

5

An Introduction to

Biometrics in the Cloud

INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD COMPUTING

In this chapter, we cover a very important area where biometrics will

play a role again—cloud computing. Cloud computing has become a very

popular phrase in the twenty-rst century, especially to that of corporate

America. To many people, the only thing that is truly understood about it

is that it brings much lower, xed costs to a business owner at a predict-

able price. Also, it is popularly understood that an entire IT infrastructure

can be placed at the hands of a third party, known as the Internet service

provider (ISP).

However, truth be told, there is far more to cloud computing than

just the above. In fact, cloud computing is still a very nebulous concept.

Therefore, the goal of this last chapter is to dispel myths surrounding

cloud computing and provide the CIO with a strong background into it,

and above all, how biometrics can t into and play a role within the cloud-

computing infrastructure. Therefore, this last chapter will cover the fol-

lowing topics:

1. Basic concepts and terminology surrounding cloud computing

2. Benets of cloud computing

3. Challenges and risks of cloud computing

4. Functions and characteristics of cloud computing

5. Cloud-computing delivery models

6. Cloud-computing deployment models

BIOMETRIC TECHNOLOGY

268

7. Security threats posed to cloud computing

8. Important mechanisms of cloud computing

9. Cloud computing cost metrics and service quality mechanisms

10. An introduction to biometrics in the cloud

11. A detailed example of how biometrics in the cloud will look like

12. The advantages and the disadvantages of biometrics in the cloud

THE BASIC CONCEPTS AND TERMINOLOGY

SURROUNDING CLOUD COMPUTING

When one thinks of cloud computing, especially the business owner, peo-

ple get very excited. Why is this so? As alluded to in the introduction of

this chapter, it is the buzzword that is oating around today and will be

for quite some time to come. Many business owners feel that if they adopt

a cloud-computing infrastructure, they will be ahead of their competitors.

Although this may be true to a certain extent, the chances are that the

competition has already beaten them to the punch.

This is because, in theory at least, cloud computing can be cong-

ured and started with just a few clicks of the mouse and at the fraction

of the cost of owning an entire IT infrastructure. Before we go any

further into the components of cloud computing, what exactly is cloud

computing?

According to the National Institutes of Standards and Technology

(NIS), cloud computing can be dened as “a model for enabling ubiqui-

tous, convenient, hands on, on demand network access to a shared pool of

congurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, appli-

cations, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with

minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud

model is composed of ve essential characteristics, three service models,

and four deployment models” (Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology and

Architecture, Erl, T., 2013, Arcitura Education, p. 28).

This no doubt seems like a long and complicated denition; we now

provide a much more distilled denition of cloud computing: “cloud com-

puting is a specialized form of distributed computing that introduces

utilization models for remotely provisioning scalable and measured

resources” (Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology and Architecture, Erl, T.,

2013, Arcitura Education, p. 28) (an example of cloud computing can be

seen in the following gure).

AN INTRODUCTION TO BIOMETRICS IN THE CLOUD

269

SaaS

PaaS

IaaS

Client

Now, as we take both of these denitions, we nd that cloud com-

puting consists of a number of key components, which include the

following:

1. The cloud

2. The IT resource

3. On-premise

4. Scalability

THE CLOUD

As we progress through these major components, the rst one we look at

is the cloud itself. This component can be specically referred to as a “dis-

tinct IT environment that is designed for the purpose of remotely provi-

sioning scalable and measured IT resources” (Cloud Computing: Concepts,

Technology and Architecture, Erl, T., 2013, Arcitura Education, p. 28). As we

explore this component, the cloud is like a nebula in which various types

of computing resources can be accessed.

These resources include the entire gamut of computing applications,

which ranges from the database to the individual software packages that

service an entire small business, to accessing the le transfer protocol

server, to accessing your e-mail server, to even having the capability to

develop and create complex software applications, to accessing content