The Cloud And Virtual Environments

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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Introduction

Rapid Recovery is the ability to quickly recover using the latest in technology and procedures available. To do this there are many different technologies that need to work together. The Cloud is another name for the Internet but is referred to as more of a place that is safe and secure. Virtualization has been around for a few years now and has become highly regarded as the way to go to take advantage of software and hardware technology. Working to put these parts together to create a reliable, fast, and secure way for a company to recover from an incident is what I want to look at. People who work in the IT field know it is important to have redundancy, availability, and security for all of the important applications and company data. There are many ways to achieve these goals and each have advantages, problems to overcome, as well new concepts that will improve the way things are done. Companies need to be focused on what they do rather than the technology they use so when it comes to disaster recovery and business contingency planning it’s about what the company needs to survive. Rapid Recovery along with Virtual and Cloud computing are ways to help companies survive when things go wrong.

History

Moore’s Law is something any computer tech should know about or at least have heard about one time or another. In 1965 Gordon Moore made a prediction/ theory that have proved to be close to the truth. The prediction was every two years the number of transistors on an integrated circuit would double. In 1964 when the prediction was made the average chip had about 30 transistors. Fast forward to today (2012) and we have chips with 1.4 billion transistors (third generation core Intel i7). In 1975 Moore refined the prediction and it has become a benchmark for some companies. Many experts today feel that there will be an eventual "wall" that will stop this from continuing on but it’s still a decade off into the future.

Virtual Computing History:

IBM who is still known for mainframe computing first came up with the idea to create single user systems to keep the mainframe operating system from becoming too complex. In 1968 IBM came up with hypervisor, an operating system which allowed for multiple users to have their own Conversational Monitor System (CSM). In 1972 IBM introduced Virtualization technology commercially for mainframes. With the introduction of the hypervisor there were other benefits that helped programmers debug and test while being able to see the results in the virtual memory. VMware took IBM’s idea and tried to use it for desktop computers. The problem was in the hardware along with trying to work with the x86 operating systems made this difficult. In the 1990’s the x86 servers were considered inexpensive so corporations began using single system servers. Once the hardware on desktops started becoming more efficient and chip performance was able to run a Windows OS while only using 10% then making virtualization for desktops became feasible. It almost seems like we are returning to our roots by using virtualized systems for servers as well as desktop computing.

Cloud Computing History:

Much like the history of virtual computing the early concepts that has become cloud computing came from the mainframes and a process known as "time-sharing". Time-sharing would allow a single mainframe to be used by multiple users even though mainframes are not able to have multiple users. This concept of sharing the computer lead to the invention of virtualization now is being looked at in a different way. In the beginning of the Internet the idea was to share data and programs over the network to any location. At the beginning with ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) in 1969 the dream of hosting something like this was far from reality. Over the years the Internet was born and became more and more capable as features became more available to the public. By the 90’s the Internet was finally ready to support the traffic and bandwidth needed. The term "Cloud Computing" was coined by Ramnath Chellappa in 1997 (Prakash, 2012). From that point companies started taking advantage of the Internet and started offering the ability to host data and apps on the Internet.

Rapid Recovery History:

The concept of Rapid Recovery is to provide faster recovery times along with improved recovery points to a company that would be better than a hot-site. Traditionally there has been the hot-site that was designed for a fast recovery but it isn’t always feasible. A hot-site is a secondary location that is already to go with a network, computers, and all of the equipment and data backups needed to continue operations. This would mean that there is another location that is just sitting or is a clone of the actual work site and this is very expensive. A hot-site is needed for companies that need to have continuous operations but would still require a physical relocation of personal. Rapid Recovery allows for a faster recovery while protecting the critical business components and is tailor made to the company. There is an implied understanding that Rapid Recovery is a service that is given from a vendor to a company where cloud computing is used to house and host data and computing needs.

Highlights and Requirements

Looking at the discussion of Moore’s Law we can see that chips will become more capable over the years which will make CPU’s more powerful and more capable of handling computing power. With this set in motion the way for using Virtual Machines has become more and more plausible while making servers more efficient with their hardware resources. The trouble VMware had with trying to create hypervisor systems for desktops and servers in the past are no longer standing in the way. Corporations have also found going to virtual servers to be beneficial as more and more corporations try to show they are Green and trying to be more conservative.

Virtualization Technology works in layers. At the bottom is the hardware layer. This is the actual physical computer/ server. The Hardware needs to be able to support the additional layers which make up the OS layer, Virtualization layer, and the VM layer. This would require multi-core processors along with large amounts of RAM. The next layer is the OS layer, this is the host Operating System. In some servers the OS layer could be a virtual server OS known as a Hypervisor like VMware’s vSphere this is designed to install directly on the hardware layer. Hypervisors special hardware requirements and cannot be installed on any computer or server. Other options would be to have some other Operating system to host the next layer, the Virtualization layer. This layer consists of the virtualization software which allows for a single or multiple VM Virtual Machines to be installed and run. This will take the job of dividing up hardware resources to each VM along with assisting in network connections, hard drive and optical drive access, as well as input and output devices. The final layer is the VM layer. This is the actual virtual system. These can be powered on and powered off by the Virtualization layer software as well as be controlled through the installed OS.

Rapid Recovery is designed for companies that need fast recovery. A company that is able to recover from a disaster or incident is very important to companies with critical RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective). Rapid Recovery in a cloud environment allows for this to happen in mere minutes. Using Virtual systems requires someone with the knowledge of how to set them up as well as maintain them. Cloud computing is more hands off because it would be going through a vendor so there would be no need for specialized technicians or hardware requirements. Rapid Recovery would require the company to work with a consultant to determine what are the companies RTO and RPO needs.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Virtual Computing

Present day technology has taken what used to be rooms full of mainframes to today where that amount of computing power can be held in a small box known as a desktop or server. These desktops and servers are so powerful it is almost wasteful to use a single box for a single purpose. The advantage of using a virtual system is being able to use the processing power while still having dedicated systems for each task. Virtual operating systems can boot up faster than hosted operating systems because the hardware is already working so there is no need for the POST or BOIS to be used. Having each OS be independent allows for updates, changes, and reboots without effecting the other OS’s that are running. Setting up a server system in a virtual world only takes a few minutes verses the hours if not days it could take to setup a standalone server. Another advantage to virtual systems is the ability for advanced testing. Many companies use multiple servers with each one designated for different levels of testing. Having a safe place to test out new applications or reporting tools is very valuable and as they are developed they can continue to be testing in different stages till they have proven themselves and are used in the actual production servers. Malicious attacks can affect more than just one VM. It is possible that all of the VMs that are installed on a host system would be affected causing this to be a larger issue than it would be with just a single isolated server or computer. The host OS or system needs to be locked down with admin rights given out to only a few because admin rights would allow for changes to be made on each VM that is running on that system. All of the data and information would be unlocked and open to anyone with host admin rights.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has many advantages but also has security risks too. One advantage is scalability, this allows for a computer system to have the flexibility to grow or shrink as needed. There are no physical restrictions in the cloud where a server room could become crowded. Many people in IT security know it is a good thing to have data stored off-site, with cloud computing this is the way it works. Cloud computing also offers cost containment as well as measured service. There is the ability to monitor, control, and have reports on resource usage which in turn can add transparency. Vendors who offer cloud services also offer mirrored solutions that make recovery easier and offers resiliency to the services as well. In many ways Cloud computing seems like the perfect solution for a way to take care of your technological needs but it has many risks. Many people know when you are talking about the Cloud it is the Internet. So when you talk about hosting something on the Cloud they know it’s not some safe place apart from the internet like it sounds but it is on the Internet and if they can access this then what stops someone else from gaining access to it as well. Many people have concerns when it comes to trusting their data or computers systems to sit in some unknown location where they are limited in their ability to monitor them. The security risks are real and shouldn’t be ignored. One risk is the physical location of the servers that are hosting the data and computer systems. This is because different countries have different standards and laws so there is a chance that the company doesn’t have to meet the same standards and compliance because of these laws. So it is important to do your research on the company you want to hire first.

Rapid Recovery

There are many benefits in rapid recovery plans. Most offer professional help in creating Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans. Many of the benefits and issues of Rapid Recovery will be similar to cloud computing because they are very similar. There is the benefit of having storage off-site as well as being able to recover from any location. There is also the question of SLA (Service Level Agreement) which will define the needs of the company and what expectations are placed on the vendor in different solutions. The SLA can be a benefit as well as a problem depending on how much information is provided. If an SLA is not set up properly it could be a problem for the company because it could give the vendor a loop-hole to make the company wait for services that are needed. This is why it is important for the company to work with the vendor in defining the SLA.

The future of Rapid Recovery

Technology has been evolving on a daily basis allowing for people and companies to take advantage of new concepts. Through the networking and Internet there has been the ability to share in many ways. With each step in this evolution process companies have been looking for ways to use this technology and the Internet to help them be successful. With the improvement of hardware came the ability to create virtual computers. This allowed for a single computer/server to have multiple virtual operating systems running at the same time. This allows for each operating system to take advantage of the hardware abilities while keeping each service independent. Upgrades and improvements in networking and Internet security has allowed for many trusted services like VPN’s and cloud storage. It makes sense to me that now there is the ability to have cloud computing. Cloud computing is taking what we have learned from creating and working with virtual computing and just added another layer to it while continuing to strengthen and rely upon Internet and networking security protocols.

Looking to the future it seems to me that hardware will continue to improve, new software, apps, and operating systems will come along as well and the more this technology is used the better and more secure it will be made. I believe the benefits of Rapid Recovery with Virtual Systems and Cloud Computing are a very strong argument to employ them for any company or business. There will always be risks involved in making changes and trying something different. I find it interesting that the concepts behind these technologies are not new but have actually been proven over a long time. Mainframe computing has been an industry standard for many large corporations. Taking this into consideration it makes sense that giving it an updated purpose will give it new life with many companies taking advantage of it.

Analysis

Virtual computing and Cloud computing are very similar in their abilities and services that are offered. One advantage to Cloud computing is the off-hands approach as far as the company would be concerned. I think the biggest difference would depend on the company that is looking to use the technology. Would it be better for a company to use cloud services or do they already have a strong IT department as well as money invested in their own systems. I would think if a company has money invested in their own systems they might not want to strap it just to take advantage of the cloud computing. They still could take advantage of some of the services offered along with Rapid Recovery plans. On the other hand a company that is getting ready to make a big change, maybe they are looking to move to another building because they have out-grown the current office space. Looking to take advantage of cloud computing would help them with their move. Because it doesn’t matter where they are connecting from they could keep their old location while setting up a new location without needing to worry about losing data or stopping their own services.

Conclusion

I have learned a lot about virtualization, where it came from and where it is going. I was amazed that this is not really new technology or new concepts. I also know there are many companies that are using this technology already. Salesforce.com was the first to work with cloud computing. Amazon.com started offering services as well as Google and Microsoft. More and more hospitals are working to network together to share data so patents can get the best care as well as having their medical records be able to follow them around to where ever they go. The Military has taken advantage of Virtual systems and have been using them though the current conflicts/ war. When you are able to point out that there is a long history of success as well as find there are successful companies that use it on a day to day basis I feel more and more companies will be willing to take the risk and take part in the services available.