Module 2

Cloud Infrastructure Mechanisms

Cloud infrastructure mechanisms are foundational building blocks of cloud

environments that establish primary artifacts to form the basis of fundamental
cloud technology architecture.

The following cloud infrastructure mechanisms are described in this chapter:

• Logical Network Perimeter

• Virtual Server

• Cloud Storage Device

• Cloud Usage Monitor

• Resource Replication

 Logical Network Perimeter

Defined as the isolation of a network environment from the rest of a

communications network, the logical network perimeter establishes a virtual
network boundary that can encompass and isolate a group of related cloud-
based IT resources that may be physically distributed

Logical network perimeters are typically established via network devices that
supply and control the connectivity of a data center and are commonly deployed
as virtualized IT environments that include:

• Virtual Firewall – An IT resource that actively filters network traffic to and from
the isolated network while controlling its interactions with the Internet.

• Virtual Network – Usually acquired through VLANs, this IT resource isolates the
network environment within the data center infrastructure.
Virtual Server

A virtual server is a form of virtualization software that emulates a physical

server. Virtual servers are used by cloud providers to share the same physical
server with multiple cloud consumers by providing cloud consumers with
individual virtual server instances
 Cloud Storage Device

The cloud storage device mechanism represents storage devices that are

designed specifically for cloud-based provisioning. Instances of these devices
can be virtualized, similar to how physical servers can spawn virtual server
images. Cloud storage devices are commonly able to provide fixed-increment
capacity allocation in support of the pay-per-use mechanism. Cloud storage
devices can be exposed for remote access via cloud storage services.

NOTE
Cloud Storage Levels

Cloud storage device mechanisms provide common logical units of data storage,
such as:

• Files – Collections of data are grouped into files that are located in folders.

• Blocks – The lowest level of storage and the closest to the hardware, a block is
the smallest unit of data that is still individually accessible.

• Datasets – Sets of data are organized into a table-based, delimited, or record

format.

• Objects – Data and its associated metadata are organized as Web-based

resources.

Cloud Usage Monitor

The cloud usage monitor mechanism is a lightweight and autonomous software

program responsible for collecting and processing IT resource usage data.

NOTE
Monitoring Agent

A monitoring agent is an intermediary, event-driven program that exists as a

service agent and resides along existing communication paths to transparently
monitor and analyze dataflows (Figure 7.12). This type of cloud usage monitor is
commonly used to measure network traffic and message metrics.
Resource Agent

A resource agent is a processing module that collects usage data by having event-
driven interactions with specialized resource software This module is used to
monitor usage metrics based on pre-defined, observable events at the resource
software level, such as initiating, suspending, resuming, and vertical scaling.

Polling Agent

A polling agent is a processing module that collects cloud service usage data by
polling IT resources. This type of cloud service monitor is commonly used to
periodically monitor IT resource status, such as uptime and downtime .

Resource Replication

Defined as the creation of multiple instances of the same IT resource, replication

is typically performed when an IT resource’s availability and performance need
to be enhanced. Virtualization technology is used to implement the resource
replication mechanism to replicate cloud-based IT resources

Specialized Cloud Mechanisms

 A typical cloud technology architecture contains numerous moving parts to
address distinct usage requirements of IT resources and solutions. Each
mechanism covered in this chapter fulfills a specific runtime function in support
of one or more cloud characteristics.

The following specialized cloud mechanisms are described in this chapter:

• Automated Scaling Listener

• Load Balancer

• SLA Monitor

• Pay-Per-Use Monitor

• Audit Monitor

• Failover System

• Hypervisor

• Resource Cluster

• Multi-Device Broker

• State Management Database

Automated Scaling Listener

The automated scaling listener mechanism is a service agent that monitors and

tracks communications between cloud service consumers and cloud services for
dynamic scaling purposes. Automated scaling listeners are deployed within the
cloud, typically near the firewall, from where they automatically track workload
status information. Workloads can be determined by the volume of cloud
consumer-generated requests or via back-end processing demands triggered by
certain types of requests.

Load Balancer

A common approach to horizontal scaling is to balance a workload across two or

more IT resources to increase performance and capacity beyond what a single IT
 resource can provide. The load balancer mechanism is a runtime agent with logic
fundamentally based on this premise.

Asymmetric Distribution – larger workloads are issued to IT resources with higher

processing capacities

• Workload Prioritization – workloads are scheduled, queued, discarded, and

distributed workloads according to their priority levels

• Content-Aware Distribution – requests are distributed to different IT resources

as dictated by the request content

SLA Monitor

The SLA monitor mechanism is used to specifically observe the runtime

performance of cloud services to ensure that they are fulfilling the contractual
QoS requirements that are published in SLAs (Figure 8.7). The data collected by
the SLA monitor is processed by an SLA management system to be aggregated
into SLA reporting metrics. The system can proactively repair or failover cloud
services when exception conditions occur, such as when the SLA monitor reports
a cloud service as “down.”

Audit Monitor

The audit monitor mechanism is used to collect audit tracking data for networks

and IT resources in support of (or dictated by) regulatory and contractual
obligations.  depicts an audit monitor implemented as a monitoring agent that
intercepts “login” requests and stores the requestor’s security credentials, as
well as both failed and successful login attempts, in a log database for future
audit reporting purposes.

Failover System

The failover system mechanism is used to increase the reliability and availability

of IT resources by using established clustering technology to provide redundant
implementations. A failover system is configured to automatically switch over to
a redundant or standby IT resource instance whenever the currently active IT
resource becomes unavailable.
 Hypervisor

The hypervisor mechanism is a fundamental part of virtualization infrastructure

that is primarily used to generate virtual server instances of a physical server. A
hypervisor is generally limited to one physical server and can therefore only
create virtual images of that server Similarly, a hypervisor can only assign virtual
servers it generates to resource pools that reside on the same underlying
physical server. A hypervisor has limited virtual server management features,
such as increasing the virtual server’s capacity or shutting it down. The VIM
provides a range of features for administering multiple hypervisors across
physical servers.

Resource Cluster

Cloud-based IT resources that are geographically diverse can be logically

combined into groups to improve their allocation and use. The resource
cluster mechanism is used to group multiple IT resource instances so that they
can be operated as a single IT resource. This increases the combined computing
capacity, load balancing, and availability of the clustered IT resources.

Multi-Device Broker

An individual cloud service may need to be accessed by a range of cloud service

consumers differentiated by their hosting hardware devices and/or
communication requirements. To overcome incompatibilities between a cloud
service and a disparate cloud service consumer, mapping logic needs to be
created to transform (or convert) information that is exchanged at runtime.

State Management Database

A state management database is a storage device that is used to temporarily

persist state data for software programs. As an alternative to caching state data
in memory, software programs can off-load state data to the database in order
to reduce the amount of runtime memory they consume By doing so, the
software programs and the surrounding infrastructure are more scalable. State
management databases are commonly used by cloud services, especially those
involved in long-running runtime activities.