Volume-04 ISSN: 2455-3085 (Online) Issue-01 RESEARCH REVIEW International Journal of Multidisciplinary January -2019 www.rrjournals.com [UGC Listed Journal] RRIJM 2015, All Rights Reserved 50 | P a g e Application of cloud computing in library management: innovation, opportunities and challenges Dr. Md. Gulnawaz Azam Assistant Librarian, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, Bihar (India) ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT Article History Published Online: 10 January 2019 Any computer application is platform dependent in some form. In its methodology, some of the basics are contained in which they behave differently in their own way. Cloud computing is also a similar kind of application based computer network, under which computer is connected in an extended form in an online method. It will be a major shift from the traditional way of library management service to more technical and user-oriented. The library is developing day by day as a data centre, where it requires a computer resource to operate smoothly. Cloud computing will eliminates the capital expense of buying those extra computer resources and setting up and running on-site data centre and regarding service view in library, it may be able to scale elastically. In cloud computing platform, the services run on a worldwide network of almost secure data centre, which are routinely upgraded to the most latest generation of fast, accurate, secure and efficient computer‟s software and hardware. This offers advantages over a traditional single centralized data centre or data server including reduced system idleness for application based services and more noteworthy economies of scale of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) resources in library. This paper examined the overall concept of cloud computing for library management and it opportunities in present scenario as demanding the library services from technology savvy users as well as its challenges before implement it in library services. Keywords API, Cloud Computing, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS * Corresponding Author Email: gulnawaz.azam[at]gmail.com 1. Introduction Traditionally, the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) devices are expensive in terms of their installation, configuration, manpower and in-house annual maintenance. In modern library management, the amount and variety of required hardware and software to run in own server are not easy task and need a subject expert in library to install, configure, debug, test, run , update as well as security measurement in respect of malfunction. These numerous challenge has been occurred everywhere in modern library where library initiates the automation. This may be called pre- cloud model of library automation. In cloud based model, the overall computer hardware, software and their working nature will now dramatically change and simply in cloud computing, the library data will be stored over the Internet instead of hard drive in library server. The cloud system is the future of Internet based service and in library management it will be dominated overall services of library. The present paper will be explored the significant of cloud computing in terms of applications use, opportunities regarding user services and challenges in respect of data management and retrieval over the Internet based platform worldwide. 2. What is cloud computing? The authentic definition of cloud computing is slightly ambiguous, reason is that the whole structure of communication technologies, Internet models, computer hardware connotations have been interpreted in a single cloud computing system. The giant e-commerce platform Amazon and colossal search engine Google have given a indigenous cloud computing implementation worldwide. If we will understand their cloud computing services, we can easily comprehend that “ a cloud computing is on-demand access to virtualized Information Technology (IT) resources that are housed outside of clientele data center, shared by others, simple to use, paid for via subscription and access over the web” However, above definition just articulate the overall structure of cloud computing in terms of its broadness. For example, what about the requirement that everything is provided “as a service over the Internet” If we think its expansiveness, a team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been defined in express way as “cloud computing is a type of computing that provides simple, on-demand access to pools of highly elastic computing resources. These resources are provides as a service over a network ( often the Internet), and are now possible due to a series of innovations across computing technologies, operations, and business models. Cloud enables the consumers of the technology to think of computing as effectively limitless, of minimal cost, and reliable, as well as not to concerned about how it is constructed, how it works, who operates it, or where it is located. i The above definition clearly articulates what anyone outside of computing really needs to know when trying to understand what to make of cloud, and how it may impact their own operations.