Cloud ComputingBy

Ankita Mathur

What is cloud computing?

• Computing power ‘On demand’ to customers.

• History : 1960 John McCarthy predicted that someday computing will be organised as a public utility

• Grid computing -> Cloud computing

• Cloud computing: A set of technologies that allows computing applications and data to be exposed as a set of services from a pool of underlying resources.

Foundation of cloud computing

• Data centers (servers, storage, networking)

• Business applications and middleware

• Virtualization softwares

• Operating systems

‘Pay as you go’ basis

• Entire workload shifts to the cloud, so the local computers are not burdened with running hundreds of applications anymore

• All that a user needs is a system interface software, like a simple web browser to be run on their side

• MAJOR BENEFITS:• Scalability• Lower infrastructure cost• Better utilization

Trends in cloud computing

Accr. To IDC : By 2012 20% of the businesses will own no IT assets.

During the coming 10 years, data stored in various storage systems will increase by 44 times, with the current rate of growth. But it won’t be possible for enterprises to scale up their IT budgets and infrastructures at the same speed.

Saving in time : No planning and cost estimates for hardware required.

Cloud deployment models

Public cloud(Resources provided by a service provider :Email etc.)Benefits: Pay only for what you use and for the time you useNo need to worry about the underlying IT infrastructureNo security patches or updates to applyNo software upgradesBest option for SMEs

Hybrid cloud

Private cloud

Suited for a large organisation so that it can optimize its resource utilization as it has already heavily invested in IT infrastructure

Better information processing and flexibility.

Hybrid Cloud

Consists of internal/external service providers i.e. a mix of private and public clouds

Secure and critical applications can then be hosted on private cloud and rest not so important applications can be hosted on the public cloud

Example : Cloud burstingUsing private cloud for low traffics and moving to the public cloud for higher traffics and peak loads

Types of Cloud services

SaaS – Software as a Service(Most commonExamples: ERP, CRM, workflow systems, document management etc.)

IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service(An organisation is given control over different resources and applications : storage, networking components, hardware, services etc.)No need to manage the underlying cloud infrastructureMore like virtualized computing environmentExamples : Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Simple Storage Service

PaaS – Platform as a ServiceSet of software and product development tools

that allows developers to create applications on the provider’s platform

Application’s can run on the provider’s infrastructure

Cost effectivenessExample : Salesforce.com’s Force.com

Microsoft’s Azure

Cloud computing : how it works?

Cloud computing is creating a fundamental change in computer architecture, software and tools development, and of course, in the way we store, distribute and consume information.

only a different way to deliver computer resources, rather than a new technology

Internet-based computingComputers in the cloud are configured to work

together and the various applications use the collective computing power as if they are running on a single system.

Online Desktops

Before cloud computing, websites and server-based applications were executed on a specific system.

Why the rush to the cloud?

There are valid and significant business and IT reasons for the cloud computing paradigm shift. The fundamentals of outsourcing as a solution apply.

Reduced cost: Cloud computing can reduce both capital expense (CapEx) and operating expense (OpEx) costs because resources are only acquired when needed and are only paid for when used.

Refined usage of personnel: Using cloud computing frees valuable personnel allowing them to focus on delivering value rather than maintaining hardware and software.

Robust scalability: Cloud computing allows for immediate scaling, either up or down, at any time without long-term commitment.

Comparing self-hosting and cloud hosting

Almost 3 cents/hour for electricity alone not taking into account: labor, server hardware amortization, data-storage costs (replacing a failed disk), cooling costs, ISP costs, security costs (routers, firewalls, etc.), power backup costs (a UPS) and so on. Mark notes that he could have probably bought a newer more energy efficient server – but the required investment would not justify the savings.

The shocking part is that the recent price competition of cloud infrastructure (IaaS) and platform (PaaS) vendors took the current cloud servers costs to roughly the same order of costs. Here’s a quick survey of a few major cloud players:

Microsoft is rolling out their 5 cent/hour option (with additional further discounts if you pre-pay for reserved use – e.g. say you have a bunch of instances which you have running all the time and you are willing to pre-pay for the next few months).

Same thing with Amazon: minimal price (although for a slightly more limited version) is already in 2 cent for Linux / 3 cent for Windows instance area, with reserved/pre-paid option getting as low as 0.7 cents/Linux & 1.3 cents/Windows.

Rackspace pricing starts at 1.5 cents/hour for Linux, and 8 cents/hour for Windows.

Cloud Services

Eyeos.comBeta.cloudo.comJaycut.comMeebo.comPixlr.comAviary.comGoogle docsAmazon EC2 cloud

Creating your own private cloud

Cloud server and cloud controller node needed

Configuring virtual machinesUbuntu 10.04 OSUse either eucalyptus or make your own