Do Clouds Really Work

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Many people are confused on what cloud computing is, especially as the term can be used to mean almost anything. Roughly, it describes highly scalable computing resources provided as an external service via the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. The main appeal of cloud computing is that customers only use what they need and only pay for what they actually use. Resources are available to be accessed from the cloud at any time and from any location via the internet. There’s no need to worry about how things are being maintained behind the scenes, simply purchase the required IT service as any other utility. Because of this, cloud computing is also been called utility computing, or ‘IT on demand’.

The idea behind cloud computing is simple, scale the application by deploying it on a large grid of commodity hardware boxes. Each box has exactly the same system installed and behaves like all other boxes. The load balancer forwards a request to any one box and it is processed in a stateless manner, meaning the request is followed by an immediate response and no state is held by the system. The beauty of the cloud is in its scalability, can scaled by simply adding more boxes.

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Fig: 1 Basic Compute Cloud

In the figure 1, the basic compute cloud consists of three basic elements: a web server/application layer, a distributed storage layer and a distributed queue layer. Each one of these layers is a cloud itself, meaning that boxes are all identical and perform the same function. In the simplest scenario, the web tier is the same as the bits in the LAMP stack. The web server can still be Apache and it can be running PHP code - the application. The fundamentally different bit is the database, which is no longer MySQL, but instead a distributed storage system likes Amazon S3, Amazon SimpleDB, or Amazon Dynamo. The queue piece is optional, but it is needed in cases when real-time handling is impossible or not necessary.

The real advantage of the cloud is its ability to support on demand business computing. An application written to run on the cloud can scale from 1,000 users to 10,000 and then to 1,00,00,000 just by expanding the number of boxes. From a business perspective this is very attractive because it is easy to calculate growth and scalability costs.

Cloud computing can be visualized as a pyramid consisting of three sections as shown in figure 2.

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Fig 2: Cloud Computing Pyramid

Cloud Application: This is the apex of the cloud pyramid, where applications are run and interacted with via a web browser, hosted desktop or remote client. A hallmark of commercial cloud computing applications is that users never need to purchase expensive software licenses themselves. Instead, the cost is incorporated into the subscription fee. A cloud application eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, thus removing the burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation and support.

Cloud Platform: The middle layer of the cloud pyramid provides a computing platform or framework as a service. A cloud computing platform dynamically provisions, configures, reconfigures and de-provisions servers as needed to cope with increases or decreases in demand. In reality it is a distributed computing model, where many services pull together to deliver an application or infrastructure request.

Cloud Infrastructure: The foundation of the cloud pyramid is the delivery of IT infrastructure through virtualization. Virtualization allows the splitting of a single physical piece of hardware into independent, self governed environments, which can be scaled in terms of CPU, RAM, Disk and other elements. The infrastructure includes servers, networks and other hardware appliances delivered as either Infrastructure "Web Services", "collection of servers" or "cloud centres". These are then interlinked with others for resilience and additional capacity.

Do Clouds Really Work?

The best example is Google. The king of the web is reigning with a farm of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of boxes. To race along with the web, Google constantly increases the size of its cloud, incorporating new web sites and expanding its index.

Of course, Google isn't the only one operating in a cloud. All major web players including Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! and Facebook are running some sort of massive computing cloud. Amazon in particular has been perfecting the art for the past fifteen years. Obviously, it is not an accident that Amazon is making a major bet and launching into the web services infrastructure vertical. They believe that clouds will be the future of computing, that they can make a business out of it and that they can do it better than you can do it on your own.

Amazon is at the forefront of making massively parallel, web scale compute services available to the world. Free from the need to solve the scalability problems, startups are able to focus on the specific problems that their product or service is trying to solve. All of this is happening while the cost of hardware, bandwidth and services overall keep dropping.

Cloud computing can be seen as a collection of resources such as, computing power, memory, storage capacity, applications and managed services, delivered as a service over the Internet or over a private network connection. The key benefits of cloud computing are:

Pay-as-you-go billing.

Sometimes called "utility billing," paying monthly for the resources needed, as an operating expense.

Scalability.

Can add resources as needed and also can scale back down when the resources are no longer required.

Flexibility.

Cloud computing adjusts to our growing business. Add resources quickly, reconfigures the application, or deploy new software without upfront capital outlay. Often, changes that took days or weeks with physical servers can be done in minutes.

Efficiency.

Focus on resources on the core business, not putting out the latest IT fire. Reduce time-to-market for new applications.

Cost-Effectiveness.

Avoid purchasing, installing and maintaining hardware that depreciates and largely sits idle. Eliminate the need to hire, train and manage a skilled 24x7 IT staff.

1.2 Value of Cloud Computing

So much about Cloud today zooms right down to the level of "virtualized compute resources" and "dynamic scalability". There were many attempts to map out what more Cloud computing can potentially deliver in the context of other approaches to consuming IT infrastructure resources.

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Fig: 3 Value of Cloud computing

Figure 3 shows the value and elements of cloud computing. There are seven elements such as i) utility computing, ii) elastic resource capacity, iii) virtualized resources, iv) management automation, v) self service provisioning, vi) third party ownership and vii) managed operations. All these values fall into three "value types": economic, architectural and strategic.

The economic value of Cloud is largely about being able to align the timing and size of the investments you make with the value you receive, variously referred to as "pay as you go" & "pay as you grow".

The architectural value of Cloud is about having an simple, consistent abstract environment presented to developers that hides a lot of complexity, making it much quicker and easier to develop and deploy applications.

The strategic value of Cloud might be easily conflated with the economic value. Cloud platforms help us to focus on what makes the organization more effective and different and leave all the other stuff to a third party that is dedicated to doing a great job for a competitive price. This is about focus and it’s also about avoiding having to train people to do things that fundamentally don’t add value to the organization.

Most customers aren't familiar with the true cost of providing a reliable computing service, which includes redundant server and networking technology, power costs, data center costs, etc. so that if they actually tried to provide their own service, the cost would be significantly higher than their estimates.  But managed co-located servers, which include most of those costs, are still usually less expensive than cloud computing.  So why do customers sign up for the cloud?  The answer is services.  The cloud, by separating enterprises from their servers and offers secured access to the servers. This allows cloud providers or third parties to bundle the computing with value-added services starting with simple management and going all the way up to full outsourced IT operations.

This combination of scalable computing and services are what truly lowers the technological and cost barriers to entry in the web-facing application market.  The biggest savings comes in the form of reduced capital (from utility billing) and staffing investments (due to sharing the wide variety of skill sets with other customers) needed to reach enterprise-class service delivery standards necessary to run a SaaS business.  This is truly the breakthrough that Cloud computing offers, allowing anyone with an idea and a little programming skill to operate a commercially viable website.  It also means that there will be a host of other cloud providers other than the Big Three providing both computing and services with unique offerings tailored to meet a wide variety of needs.

There are numerous services that can be delivered through cloud computing, taking advantage of the distributed cloud model. Here are some brief descriptions of a few of the most popular cloud-based IT solutions:

Hosted Desktops

Hosted desktops remove the need for traditional desktop PCs in the office environment and reduce the cost of providing the services that are needed. A hosted desktop looks and behaves like a regular desktop PC, but the software and data accessed by customers are housed in remote, highly secure data centres, rather than on their own machines. Users can simply access their hosted desktops via an internet connection from anywhere in the world, using either an existing PC or laptop or for maximum cost efficiency, a specialized device called a thin client.

Hosted Email

As more organizations look for a secure, reliable email solution that will not cost more, they are increasingly turning to hosted Microsoft Exchange® email plans. Email is stored centrally on managed servers which provides redundancy and fast connectivity from any location. This allows users to access their email, calendar, contacts and shared files by a variety of means, including Outlook®, Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) and Outlook Web Access (OWA).

Hosted Telephony (VOIP)

VOIP (Voice Over IP) is a means of carrying phone calls and services across digital internet networks. A hosted VOIP system replaces expensive phone systems, installation, handsets, BT lines and numbers with a simple, cost-efficient alternative that is available to use on a monthly subscription basis. Typically, a pre-configured handset just needs to be plugged into the broadband or office network to allow us to access features such as voicemail, IVR and more.

Cloud Storage

Cloud storage is growing in popularity due to the benefits it provides, such as simple, CapEx-free costs, anywhere access and the removal of the burden of in-house maintenance and management. It is basically the delivery of data storage as a service from a third party provider, with access via the internet and billing calculated on capacity used in a certain period (e.g. per month).

Dynamic Servers

Dynamic servers are the next generation of server environment, replacing the dedicated server concept. A provider like ThinkGrid gives its customers access to resources that look and feel exactly like a dedicated server but that are fully scalable.

There are many reasons why organizations of all sizes and types are adopting this model of IT. It provides a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Ultimately, it can save companies a considerable amount of money. Some reasons are listed below:

Removal / reduction of capital expenditure

Customers can avoid spending large amounts of capital on purchasing and installing their IT infrastructure or applications by moving to the cloud model. Cloud computing offers a simple operational expense that is easier to budget for month-by-month and prevents money being wasted on depreciating assets.

Reduced administration costs

IT solutions can be deployed extremely quickly and managed, maintained, patched and upgraded remotely by the service provider. Technical support is provided round the clock by reputable providers for no extra charge, reducing the burden on IT staff. IT giant IBM has pointed out that cloud computing allows organizations to streamline procurement processes and eliminates the need to duplicate certain computer administrative skills related to setup, configuration and support.

Improved resource utilization

Combining resources into large clouds reduces costs and maximizes utilization by delivering resources only when they are needed. Businesses needn’t worry about over-provisioning for a service whose use does not meet their predictions, or under-provisioning for one that becomes unexpectedly popular. Moving more and more applications, infrastructure and even support into the cloud can free up precious time, effort and budgets to concentrate on the real job of exploiting technology to improve the mission of the company.

Scalability on demand

Scalability and flexibility are highly valuable advantages offered by cloud computing, allowing customers to react quickly to changing IT needs, adding or subtracting capacity and users as and when required and responding to real rather than projected requirements.

Quick and easy implementation

Without the need to purchase hardware, software licenses or implementation services, a company can get its cloud-computing arrangement off the ground in minutes.

Anywhere Access

Cloud-based IT services enable us to access the applications and data securely from any location via an internet connection. It’s easier to collaborate too, with both the application and the data stored in the cloud, multiple users can work together on the same project, share calendars and contacts etc.

1.3 Cloud Dos and Don’ts

Cloud computing is ready for transforming how off shoring company does business. The cloud computing in offshore outsourcing services expected to increase gradually over time. The impact of the change in cloud on the offshore outsourcing services depends on the definition of outsourcing. Going by the trends, change in cloud on business process outsourcing companies is inevitable and its impact on the same is unavoidable. Cloud computing will help to shift the focus to delivery of business process outsourcing services rather than delivery of IT solutions, which in turn, provides new business process service lines and models for both customers and global service providers. Cloud computing is the mechanism in which global call center operations can be integrated and deployed. As every technology lacks in some place, below is some do's and don’ts of cloud computing.

Don't Be Reactive

Many businesspeople who want to save money fast are tempted to throw out the data center and put all computing into a public cloud. Although this might sound good for a few hours, it isn't a thoughtful approach. You need to do homework first. For example, do you have compliance issues to consider? What is the difference in cost between a public, private, hybrid, or even a traditional data center? You need to make sure that all the possible impacts have been considered before you get into the action.

Do Consider the Cloud a Financial Issue

You might start looking at some approaches to the cloud that sound really good. But before you jump in, do some calculations. How large is your company? What's the nature of your computing environment? How many applications do you support? How much does your current environment cost? How much spare capacity do you have in your data center? Are there applications that can cost effectively be moved to Software as a Service model? Before you do anything, follow the money.

Don't Go It Alone

Although some companies have the sophistication to build their own clouds, they're the exception. Most companies need help, so don't go into this alone. An entire industry is just waiting out there to help you. Don't ignore it, but get help. Consult with systems integrators, technology companies and other consultants who have solid experience with best practices.

Do Think about Your Architecture

Just because you're thinking about moving into the cloud doesn't mean architecture is no longer important. In fact, it's more important than ever. You'll probably have business services that are designed for reuse that should be stored in a private or public cloud that need to be designed for reuse.

Don't Neglect Governance

If you don't pay attention to compliance and governance, you're putting your company at risk. For example, some industries require that you store data in a very specific way. Some countries require that your customer data never stored outside of its territory. You still have to comply with government regulations. These issues don't disappear into a cloud.

Don't Forget about Business Process

Start with the business process that you want to automate with your cloud initiatives. No matter which form of cloud you're considering, process is the building block. If you haven't figured out how business processes will be managed in this new distributed world, your business could be at risk.

Do Make Security the Centerpiece of Your Strategy

It's easy to get caught up in the mix-and-match euphoria and forget about the nitty-gritty issues. Pay close attention to the security implications of moving to the cloud. You still need a well-planned security strategy.

Don't Forget about Service Management

It's easy to make the assumption that if something is in the cloud, you don't have to worry about managing it. This isn't true. It's your responsibility to keep track of any service you have put into either a public or a private cloud.

Do Start with a Pilot Project

Cloud computing will be around for a long time, so get experience now. Start with a pilot project. For example, you might want to start with a Software as a Service platform. You might use a public cloud for testing a new application before it goes into production. This gives you a feeling for what it means to give up this level of control.

Don't Apply the Cloud to Everything

Don't get carried away. Not everything belongs in a cloud. For example, your data center might have a large, complex and customized application used by a dozen people. It's critical to your business. You have no economic or business reason to move that application to the cloud.

Do your homework so you have guidelines to help you to determine if an application or a function belongs in the data center, a public cloud, or a private cloud.

Cloud Computing: Legal dos and don’ts

Cloud computing is the delivery of information technology services (Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a Service) over the internet without the need for businesses to purchase or install software or run their own application and data servers. Although this service allows businesses to benefit from massive economies of scale and lower the costs, it presents some interesting legal issues, such as: i) the risk of concluding contracts inadvertently, ii) the risk of data protection compliance, iii) the risk of intellectual property infringement, iv) intellectual property indemnity, v) use of open source software and vi) jurisdiction and governing law.

1.4 Overview of Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the early and also the most successful implementations of the Public Cloud. Amazon initially started offering a Cloud based Message Queuing service called Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS). They eventually added services like Mechanical Turk, Simple Storage Service (S3), Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), A CDN service called CloudFront, a flexible and distributed database service called SimpleDB. Amazon recently announced the availability of MySQL in the Cloud through a service called Relational Data Service (RDS) .

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Fig: 4 Amazon Web Services

Figure 4 shows the infrastructure of Amazon web services. AWS consists of 3 layers, i) layer 1 contains physical infrastructure , ii) layer 2 contains the cores of AWS such as a) Simple DB, b) RDS, c) EC2, d) S3, e) SQS, f) Cloud Front and iii) layer 3 is the place where users write applications to use the AWS cores. AWS cores are briefly explained below.

Simple Storage Service (S3)

Amazon’s Simple Storage Service or S3 is a great way to store data on the Cloud that can be accessed by any application with access to the internet. S3 can store any arbitrary data as objects accompanied by metadata. These objects can be organized into buckets. Every bucket and object has a set of permissions defined in the Access Control List (ACL). S3 can also be treated as a virtual file system to provide persistence storage capabilities to applications.

Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2)

In simple terms, EC2 is hiring a server running at a remote location. These servers are actually Virtual Machine images running on top of Amazon’s powerful data centers. Amazon calls these virtualized server instances as Amazon Machine Images or AMI. These instances come in different sizes that you can choose from. Because of the dynamic capability of launching multiple instances of the same AMIs to scale up and terminating them to scale down, it is called Elastic Compute Cloud.

Simple Message Queue (SQS)

SQS is the message queue on the Cloud. It supports programmatic sending of messages via web service applications as a way to communicate over the internet. Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) is a popular way of ensuring that the messages are delivered once and only once. Moving that infrastructure to the web by yourself is expensive and hard to maintain. SQS gives you this capability on-demand and through the pay-by-use model. SQL is accessible through REST and SOAP based API.

CloudFront

When your web application is targeting the global users, it makes sense to serve the static content through a server that is closer to the user. One of the solutions based on this principle is called Content Delivery Network (CDN). CloudFront is CDN as a service. Amazon is leveraging its data center presence across the globe by serving content through these edge locations. CloudFront utilizes S3 by replicating the buckets across multiple edge servers. Amazon charges you only for the data that is served through CloudFront and there is no requirement for upfront payment.

SimpleDB

If S3 offers storage for arbitrary binary data, SimpleDB is a flexible way to store Name/Value pairs on the Cloud. This dramatically reduces the overhead of maintaining a relational database continuously. SimpleDB is accessed through REST and HTTP calls and can be easily consumed by any client that can parse a HTTP response. Many Web 2.0 applications built using AJAX, Flash and Silverlight can easily access data from SimpleDB. It is the only service from Amazon that is free up to a specific threshold.

Relational Database Service (RDS)

Amazon RDS offers relational database on the Cloud. It is based on the popular MySQL database. When you are moving a traditional Line of Business application to the Cloud and want to maintain high fidelity with the existing systems, you can choose RDS. The advantage of RDS is that you do not install, configure, manage and maintain the DB server. You only consume it and Amazon takes care of the rest. Routine operations like patching the server and backing up the databases are taken care and you only consume the service. RDS is priced on Pay-as-you-go model and there is no upfront investment required. It is accessible through the REST and SOAP based API.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer IT infrastructure services to businesses in the form of web services, now commonly known as cloud computing. Today, Amazon Web Services provides a highly reliable, scalable, low-cost infrastructure platform in the cloud that powers hundreds of thousands of businesses in 190 countries around the world. With data center locations in the U.S., Europe, Brazil, Singapore and Japan, customers across all industries are taking advantage of the following benefits:

Low Cost

AWS offers low, pay-as-you-go pricing with no up-front expenses or long-term commitments.

Agility and Instant Elasticity

AWS provides a massive global cloud infrastructure that allows you to quickly innovate, experiment and iterate.

Open and Flexible

AWS is a language and operating system agnostic platform. You choose the development platform or programming model that makes the most sense for your business.

Secure

AWS is a secure, durable technology platform with industry-recognized certifications and audits.

Amazon offers the core capabilities to run a complete web application or a Line of Business application as "Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)". AWS is truly the platform of the platforms. You can choose an OS, App server and the programming language of your choice. AWS SDK (Software Development Kit) and API is available for most of the popular languages including Java, .NET, Python and Ruby.