ISM-Unit-5

Cloud-Computing
Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network
access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks,
servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and
released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Cloud Enabling Technologies

Grid computing, utility computing, virtualization, and service-oriented

archi- tecture are enabling technologies of cloud computing.
n Grid computing is a form of distributed computing that enables the resources of
numerous heterogeneous computers in a network to work together on a single
task at the same time. Grid computing enables parallel computing and is best
for large workloads.
n Utility computing is a service-provisioning model in which a service pro-
vider makes computing resources available to customers, as required, and
charges them based on usage. This is analogous to other utility services, such
as electricity, where charges are based on the consumption.
n Virtualization is a technique that abstracts the physical characteristics of IT
resources from resource users. It enables the resources to be viewed and
managed as a pool and lets users create virtual resources from the pool.
Virtualization provides better flexibility for provisioning of IT resources
compared to provisioning in a non-virtualized environment. It helps
optimize resource utilization and delivering resources more efficiently.
n Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) provides a set of services that can com-
municate with each other. These services work together to perform some
activity or simply pass data among services.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

A computing infrastructure used for cloud services must have certain capabili-
ties or characteristics. According to NIST, the cloud infrastructure should have
five essential characteristics:
n On-demand self-service: A consumer can unilaterally provision computing
capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed, auto-
matically without requiring human interaction with each service provider. A
cloud service provider publishes a service catalogue, which contains
information about all cloud services available to consumers. The service
catalogue includes information about service attributes, prices, and request
processes. Consumers view the service catalogue via a web-based user
interface and use it to request for a service. Consumers can either lever- age
the “ready-to-use” services or change a few service parameters to customize
the services.
n Broad network access: Capabilities are available over the network and
accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heteroge-
neous thin or thick client platforms (for example, mobile phones, tablets,
laptops, and workstations).
n Resource pooling: The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve
multiple consumers using a multitenant model, with different physical and
virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to
consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that the
customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the
provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of
abstraction (for example, country, state, or data center). Examples of
resources include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.
nRapid elasticity: Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in
some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward com-
mensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for
provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any
quantity at any time.
Consumers can leverage rapid elasticity of the cloud when they have a
fluctuation in their IT resource requirements. For example, an organization
might require double the number of web and application servers for a specific
duration to accomplish a specific task. For the remaining period, they might
want to release idle server resources to cut down the expenses. The cloud
enables consumers to grow and shrink the demand for resources dynamically.
n Measured service: Cloud systems automatically control and optimize
resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstrac- tion
appropriate to the type of service (for example, storage, processing,
bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored,
controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and
consumer of the utilized service.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing offers the following key benefits:
n Reduced IT cost: Cloud services can be purchased based on pay-per-use or
subscription pricing. This reduces or eliminates the consumer’s IT capital
expenditure (CAPEX).
n Business agility: Cloud computing provides the capability to allocate
and scale computing capacity quickly. Cloud computing can reduce the time
required to provision and deploy new applications and services from months to
minutes. This enables businesses to respond more quickly to market
changes and reduce time-to-market.
n Flexible scaling: Cloud computing enables consumers to scale up, scale
down, scale out, or scale in the demand for computing resources easily.
Consumers can unilaterally and automatically scale computing resources
without any interaction with cloud service providers. The flexible service
provisioning capability of cloud computing often provides a sense of
unlimited scalability to the cloud service consumers.
n High availability: Cloud computing has the capability to ensure resource
availability at varying levels depending on the consumer’s policy and
priority. Redundant infrastructure components (servers, network paths, and
storage equipment, along with clustered software) enable fault toler- ance for
cloud deployments. These techniques can encompass multiple data centers
located in different geographic regions, which prevents data unavailability
due to regional failures.

Cloud Service Models

According to NIST, cloud service offerings are classified primarily into three
models: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Infrastructure-as-a-Service
The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage,
networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is
able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems
and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying
cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems and deployed
applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (for
example, host firewalls).
IaaS is the base layer of the cloud services stack (see Figure 13-1 [a]). It serves
as the foundation for both the SaaS and PaaS layers.
 (a) IaaS Model

Consumer's Resources Application

Database

OS

Provider's Resources Compute

Cloud
Storage

Network
(b) PaaS Model

Application Consumer's Resources

Database

OS

Cloud Compute

Storage Provider's Resources

Network

(c) SaaS Model

Application

Database

OS
Provider's Resources

Compute

Storage
Cloud

Network
 Figure 13-1: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is an example of IaaS that

provides scalable compute capacity, on-demand, in the cloud. It enables consum-
ers to leverage Amazon’s massive computing infrastructure with no up-front
capital investment.

Platform-as-a-Service
The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure
consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages,
libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not
manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, serv-
ers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications
and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.
(See Figure 13-1 [b]).
PaaS is also used as an application development environment, offered as a
service by the cloud service provider. The consumer may use these platforms
to code their applications and then deploy the applications on the cloud. Because
the workload to the deployed applications varies, the scalability of computing
resources is usually guaranteed by the computing platform, transparently. Google
App Engine and Microsoft Windows Azure Platform are examples of PaaS.

Software-as-a-Service
The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications
running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various
client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (for
example, web-based e-mail), or a program interface. The consumer does not
manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, serv-
ers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with
the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
(See Figure 13-1[c]).
In a SaaS model, applications, such as customer relationship management
(CRM), e-mail, and instant messaging (IM), are offered as a service by the cloud
service providers. The cloud service providers exclusively manage the required
computing infrastructure and software to support these services. The consumers
may be allowed to change a few application configuration settings to customize
the applications.
EMC Mozy is an example of SaaS. Consumers can leverage the Mozy console
to perform automatic, secured, online backup and recovery of their data with
ease. Salesforce.com is a provider of SaaS-based CRM applications, such as Sales
Cloud and Service Cloud.