CLOUD PLATFORMS IN INDUSTRY

Cloud computing applications develops by leveraging platforms and

frameworks. Various types of services are provided from the bare
metal infrastructure to customize-able applications serving specific
purposes.

AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS)

AWS provides different wide-ranging clouds IaaS services, which

ranges from virtual compute, storage, and networking to complete
computing stacks. AWS is well known for its storage and compute on
demand services, named as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple
Storage Service (S3). EC2 offers customizable virtual hardware to the
end user which can be utilize as the base infrastructure for deploying
computing systems on the cloud. It is likely to choose from a large
variety of virtual hardware configurations including GPU and cluster
instances. Either the AWS console, which is a wide-ranged Web portal
for retrieving AWS services, or the web services API available for
several programming language is used to deploy the EC2 instances.
EC2 also offers the capability of saving an explicit running instance as
image, thus allowing users to create their own templates for deploying
system. S3 stores these templates and delivers persistent storage on
demand. S3 is well ordered into buckets which contain objects that are
stored in binary form and can be grow with attributes. End users can
store objects of any size, from basic file to full disk images and have
them retrieval from anywhere. In addition, EC2 and S3, a wide range
of services can be leveraged to build virtual computing system

1|Page
including: networking support, caching system, DNS, database
support, and others.

GOOGLE APPENGINE

Google AppEngine is a scalable runtime environment frequently

dedicated to executing web applications. These utilize benefits of the
large computing infrastructure of Google to dynamically scale as per
the demand. AppEngine offers both a secure execution environment
and a collection of which simplifies the development if scalable and
high-performance Web applications. These services include: in-
memory caching, scalable data store, job queues, messaging, and corn
tasks. Developers and Engineers can build and test applications on
their own systems by using the AppEngine SDK, which replicates the
production runtime environment, and helps test and profile
applications. On completion of development, Developers can easily
move their applications to AppEngine, set quotas to containing the cost
generated, and make it available to the world. Currently, the
supported programming languages are Python, Java, and Go.

MICROSOFT AZURE

Microsoft Azure is a Cloud operating system and a platform in which

user can develop the applications in the cloud. Generally, a scalable
runtime environment for web applications and distributed applications
is provided. Application in Azure are organized around the fact of roles,
which identify a distribution unit for applications and express the
application’s logic. Azure provides a set of additional services that

2|Page
complement application execution such as support for storage,
networking, caching, content delivery, and others.

3|Page
Cloud Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Scientific Applications
– Health care Analysis in the Cloud
– Biology
• Geo Science
• Business and Consumer Applications
• Productivity
• Social Networking
• Media Applications
• Multiplayer online gaming

1
Cloud Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud computing has gained huge popularity in

industry due to its ability to host applications whose
services can be delivered to consumers rapidly at
minimal cost.

• This chapter discusses various application case

studies detailing their architecture and how they
leveraged various Cloud technologies.

2
Cloud Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Applications from a range of domains from scientific

to engineering, gaming, to social networking are
considered.

3
Scientific Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Scientific applications are a sector that is increasingly

using Cloud computing systems and technologies.

• The immediate benefit seen by researchers and

academics is the potentially infinite availability of
computing resources and storage at sustainable
prices if compared to a complete in-house
deployment.

4
Scientific Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud computing systems meet the needs of different

types of applications in the scientific domain: HPC
(High Performance Computing) applications, HTC
(High Throughput Computing) applications, and data-
intensive applications.

• The opportunity for using Cloud resources is even

more appealing since minimal changes need to be
done to existing applications in order to leverage
Cloud resources. 5
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Healthcare is a domain where computer technology

has found several and diverse applications: from
supporting the business functions to assisting
scientists in developing solutions to cure diseases.

• An important application is the use of Cloud

technologies for supporting doctors in providing more
effective diagnostic processes.

6
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• In particular, we discuss electrocardiogram (ECG)

data analysis on the Cloud.

7
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The capillary development of Internet connectivity and

its accessibility from any device at any time has made
Cloud technologies an attractive option for developing
health-monitoring systems.

• Electrocardiogram (ECG) data analysis and

monitoring constitutes a case study that naturally fits
in this scenario. ECG is the electrical manifestation of
the contractile activity of the heart’s myocardium.
8
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• This activity produces a specific waveform that is

repeated overtime and that represents the heartbeat.

• The analysis of the shape of the waveform is used to

identify arrhythmias and it is the most common way
for detecting heart diseases.

9
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud computing technologies allow the remote

monitoring of a patient’s heartbeat data, its analysis in
minimum time, and the notification of first-aid
personnel and doctors should this data reveal
potentially dangerous conditions.

10
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• This way a patient at risk can be constantly monitored

without going to hospital for ECG analysis. At the
same time, doctors and first-aid personnel can
instantly be notified with cases that require their
attention.

11
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

User
Large
ECG Sensor Number

Embedded Bluetooth
1 Enabled
Data Communication &

User Requests
User Requests
Processor Module

ECG Sensor Module

SaaS
User Requests
Bluetooth connectivity

ECG Data Analysis as

2 a Service

Dynamically Scalable

PaaS
4 Runtime Security
(QoS-based scaling of Runtime
3 computing resources)

Wireless / Mobile 3G Network

IaaS

6 5

12
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Even though remote ECG monitoring does not

necessarily require Cloud technologies, Cloud
computing introduces opportunities that would be
otherwise hardly achievable.

13
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The first advantage is the elasticity of the Cloud

infrastructure that can grow and shrink according to
the requests served. As a result, doctors and hospitals
do not have to invest in large computing
infrastructures designed after capacity planning, thus
making a more effective use of budgets. The second
advantage is ubiquity.

14
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud computing technologies have now become

easily accessible and promise to deliver systems with
minimum or no downtime. Computing systems hosted
in the Cloud are accessible from any Internet device
through simple interfaces (such as SOAP and REST
based web services).

15
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• This makes not only these systems ubiquitous but

they can also be easily integrated with other systems
maintained in the hospital’s premises. Lastly, cost
savings constitute another reason.

16
Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud services are priced on a pay-per-use basis and

with volume prices in case of large numbers of service
requests. These two models provide a set of flexible
options that can be used to price the service, thus
actually charging costs based on effective use rather
than capital costs.

17
Biology : Protein Structure Prediction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Applications in biology often require high computing

capabilities and often operate on large datasets that
cause extensive I/O operations.

• Because of these requirements, they have often made

extensive use of supercomputing and cluster
computing infrastructures. Similar capabilities can be
leveraged on-demand by using Cloud computing
technologies in a more dynamic fashion thus opening
new opportunities for bioinformatics applications. 18
Biology : Protein Structure Prediction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Protein structure prediction is a computationally

intensive task fundamental for different types of
research in the life sciences.

19
Biology : Protein Structure Prediction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Among these is the design of new drugs for the

treatment of diseases. The geometrical structure of a
protein cannot be directly inferred from the sequence
of genes that compose its structure, but it is the result
of complex computations aimed at identifying the
structure that minimizes the required energy.

20
Biology : Protein Structure Prediction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• This task requires the investigation of a space with a

massive number of states, and consequently creating
a large number of computations for each of these
states.

21
Biology : Protein Structure Prediction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The computational power required for protein

structure prediction can now be acquired on demand,
without owning a cluster or doing all the bureaucracy
for getting access to parallel and distributed
computing facilities. Cloud computing grants the
access to such capacity on a pay-per-use basis.

22
Biology : Protein Structure Prediction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

Jeeva Portal

Aneka

Task Graph

A A : BLAST
B : Create Data Vector
Initial Phase
B C : HH Classifier
D : SS Classifier
E : TT Classifier
Classification F : HS Classifier
Phase
C D E F G H G : ST Classifier
H : TH Classifier

I : Predict Final Secondary

Final Phase
I Structure
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2014 23
Biology: Gene Expression Data Analysis for
Cancer Diagnosis Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Gene expression profiling is the measurement of the

expression levels of thousands of genes at once. It is
used to understand the biological processes that are
triggered by the treatment at a cellular level.

• Together with protein structure prediction, this activity

is a fundamental component of drug design since it
allows scientists to identify the effects of a specific
treatment.
24
Biology: Gene Expression Data Analysis for
Cancer Diagnosis Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Another important application of gene expression

profiling is cancer diagnosis and treatment. Cancer is
a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth
and proliferation.

• This behavior occurs because of genes regulating the

cell growth mutate. This means that all the cancerous
cells contain mutated genes.

25
Biology: Gene Expression Data Analysis for
Cancer Diagnosis Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• In this context, gene expression profiling is utilized to

provide a more accurate classification of tumors.

• The classification of gene expression data samples

into distinct classes is a challenging task.

• The dimensionality of typical gene expression data

sets ranges from several thousands to over ten
thousands genes. However, only small sample sizes
are typically available for analysis.
26
Unit 5 : Objectives Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

After completing this unit you should be able to

• Cloud Applications
• Scientific Applications
• Healthcare : ECG Analysis in the Cloud
• Biology : Protein Structure Prediction
• GeoScience : Satellite Image Processing
• Business and Consumer Applications
• Productivity
• Cloud Desktops : EyeOS and XIOS/3
• Social Networking
• Media Applications
• Multiplayer Online Gaming
• Summary
27
Business and Consumer Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The business and consumer sector is the one that

probably benefits the most from Cloud computing
technologies.

• On the one hand the opportunity of transforming

capital cost into operational costs makes Clouds an
attractive option for all enterprises that are IT centric.

28
Business and Consumer Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• On the other hand, the sense of ubiquity that Cloud

offers for accessing data and services makes it
interesting for end users as well.

29
Business and Consumer Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Moreover, the elastic nature of Cloud technologies

does not require huge upfront investments, thus
allowing new ideas to be quickly translated into
products and services that can comfortably grow with
the demand.

30
Business and Consumer Applications Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The combination of all these elements has made

Cloud computing the preferred technology for a wide
range of applications: from CRM and ERP systems to
productivity and social networking applications

31
CRM and ERP Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications are
market segments that are flourishing in the Cloud,
with CRM applications being more mature than ERP
implementations.

32
CRM and ERP Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud CRM applications constitute a great

opportunity for small enterprises and start-ups to
have a fully functional CRM software without large
upfront costs and by paying subscriptions.

33
CRM and ERP Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Moreover, customer relationship management is not

an activity that requires specific needs and it can be
easily moved to the Cloud. Such a characteristic,
together with the possibility of having access to your
business and customer data from everywhere and
any device, has fostered the spread of Cloud CRM
applications. ERP solutions on the Cloud are less
mature and have to compete with well-established in-
house solutions. 34
CRM and ERP Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• ERP systems integrate several aspects of an

enterprise: finance and accounting, human resources,
manufacturing, supply chain management, project
management, and customer relationship
management.

35
SalesForce.com Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Salesforce.com is probably the most popular and

developed CRM solutions available today. As of today
more than 100 thousands customers have chosen
Safesforce.com to implement their CRM solutions.

• The application provides customizable CRM solutions

that can be integrated with additional features
developed by third parties. Salesforce.com is based
on the Force.com Cloud development platform.
36
SalesForce.com Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• This represents the scalable and high-performance

middleware executing all the operations of all
Salesforce.com applications.

37
SalesForce.com Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

Force.com Platform

User-base 1: Metadata Cache

Application 1
Bulk Processing
Engine

Metadata Multitenant-aware
Pivot
Tables Query Optimiser
Tables
(UDD)
Runtime Application
Generator
Data Tables
Full-text Search
Shared Database Engine

User-base 2: COMMON TENANT- Indexes

APPLICATI OBJECTS
Application 2 ON
SPECIFIC (TABLES)
SCREENS
SCREENS

Virtual Application Components

User-base 3:
Application 3
38
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the solution implemented

by Microsoft for customer relationship management.
Dynamics CRM is available either for installation on
the enterprise’s premises or as an online solution
priced with a monthly per user subscription.

• The system is completely hosted in Microsoft’s data

center across the world and offers to customers a
99.9% SLA, with bonus credits in case the system
does not fulfill the agreement. 39
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Each CRM instance is deployed on a separate

database, and the application provides users with
facilities for marketing, sales, and advanced customer
relationship management.

• Dynamics CRM Online features can be accessed

either through a web browser interface or
programmatically by means of SOAP and RESTful
web services.
40
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• This allows Dynamics CRM to be easily integrated

with both other Microsoft products and line of
business applications.

41
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Dynamics CRM can be extended by developing plug-

ins that allow implementing specific behaviors
triggered on the occurrence of given events.
Dynamics CRM can also leverage the capability of
Windows Azure for the development and integration of
new features.

42
NetSuite Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• NetSuite provides a collection of applications that help

customers manage every aspect of the business
enterprise. Its offering is divided in three major
products: NetSuite Global ERP, NetSuite Global
CRM+, and NetSuite Global Ecommerce. Moreover,
an all-in-one solution integrates all the three products
together: NetSuite One World.

43
NetSuite Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The services delivered by the company are powered

by two large datacenters on the opposite coasts (east
and west coasts) of the United States connected by
redundant links. This allows NetSuite to guarantee
99.5% of uptime to its customers.

44
NetSuite Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Besides the pre-packaged solutions, NetSuite also

provides and infrastructure and a development
environment for implementing customized
applications. The NetSuite Business Operating
System (NS-BOS) is a complete stack of technologies
for building Software-as-a-Service business
applications that leverage the capabilities of NetSuite
products.

45
NetSuite Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• On top of the SaaS infrastructure, the NetSuite

Business Suite components offer accounting, ERP,
CRM, and e-commerce capabilities. An online
development environment, SuiteFlex, allows
integrating such capabilities into new web
applications, which are then packaged for distribution
by SuiteBundler.

46
NetSuite Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The entire infrastructure is hosted in the NetSuite

datacenters, which provide the warranties about the
application uptime and availability.

47