Exploring the Cloud: What It Is, Where It’s Going, and Why It Matters A white paper presented by Enterprise Hosting
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the cloud in ions around in p o Defining The Cloud d n a s ded n u o The idea p m o c e s hav nology circle today’s tech umulus— rm a giant c fo to r e th o h the The National Institute of Standards and upon eac mblances in e s e it h w r, la u b lo g e Technology (NIST) defines cloud much like th capability g n ti u p m o c computing as “a model for enabling h the sky for whic d a ri y convenient, on-demand network access m here are is named. T to a shared pool of configurable ’s to the cloud theories as computing resources (e.g., networks, sks—so ability and ri s u , e c n a v servers, storage, applications, and rele egin one might b t a th t, c services) that can be rapidly fa many, in e b n a c d provisioned and released with minimal the clou to wonder if n a t a th n management effort or service provider any fashio positioned in ale. s a e k a m interaction.” to wishes, just organization So, very simply, cloud computing is a general paper was at this white th d in m in term for anything that involves delivering t is to It is with this is documen th f o e s o rp u hosted services over the Internet. (The name The p e developed. rs on what th e d a le s s e cloud computing was inspired by the cloud ay’s busin educate tod tters, and a m it y h symbol that's often used to represent the w , g ere it’s goin d cloud is, wh Internet in flowcharts and diagrams.) Cloud e the clou ation can us iz n a rg o id n a a p computing means that computing can be how als. We its critical go fy s ti a s to ly used as a service rather than a product. This effective implicity, e need for s th to n o ti n is possible because it has become coste particular att of n o ti a in lim e effective for companies (like Enterprise ge, and the “muddy” clear verbia lly a ti n te o p Hosting) to build data centers where uld rgon that co d n a , is marketing ja lly a computing and software can be provided e cloud re e of what th remotely and rented out, like a utility the messag offer. lly a ti n te o p service. what it can A cloud hosting service has distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting: 1. Organizations can pay for the use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed (e.g., processors by the month and storage by the month); 2. Computing resources are available on demand, thereby eliminating the need for users to plan ahead for provisioning;
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3. It is elastic—a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time (organizations can start small and increase resources only when there is an increase in demand); 4. The service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to highspeed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing. A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services. Cloud computing providers deliver applications via the Internet, which are accessed from web browsers and desktop and mobile apps, while the business software and data are stored on servers at a remote location. In a cloud computing system, there's a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The network of computers that make up the cloud handles it instead. Services are made available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms, typically lightweight web protocols. Therefore, hardware and software demands on the user's side decrease. The only thing the user's computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing system's interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud's network takes care of the rest.
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Benefits of The Cloud Why are more and more organizations moving to the cloud? There are some distinct advantages, including the ability to provision resources faster, increased application uptime, and increase/reduce provisioned resources according to demand. We’ve fleshed out each of these benefits a bit more, below.
Application Availability Many service providers utilize enterprise-class infrastructure running in fault-tolerance mode. This allows the customer to take advantage of better uptime statistics as its systems become more faulttolerant. This can be of significant benefit to an independent business, as that business may not be able to justify all of the investments it would need to make to duplicate its environment and deliver the fault tolerance that its applications require.
Fast Resource Provisioning With cloud, new resources can be brought online quickly. (Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.) This is because cloud offers a degree of self-service — meaning that a user can provision computing capabilities, such as server capacity and storage, as needed, without having to interact with an actual person.
Gaining Efficiencies While Maintaining Control Organizations today are realizing that investments made to the infrastructure (e.g., servers, storage, and resources to manage the infrastructure) tie up significant capital and do not produce equally significant cost benefits or operational efficiencies. By utilizing the cloud, organizations can still maintain control of their applications—which is the true strategic advantage of IT utilization for the business. With the cloud, benefits are realized from better automation and application capabilities that run on the existing infrastructure.
Automatic Backups Data is automatically backed up across multiple physical and logical environments, which means a customer can be assured of significantly enhanced data protection.
Pooled and Dynamically Assigned/ Reassigned Resources In a cloud environment, pooled computing resources serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model (whether different internal groups within one company or different organizations within a shared, public resource). This allows physical and virtual resources to be dynamically assigned and reassigned depending on demand. The consumer of the service generally has limited control over or knowledge of the exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location with higher abstraction — such as to create high-availability environments or to meet regulatory requirements around data location.
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Resource Elasticity Organizations can quickly and elastically provision resources in a cloud environment (in some cases automatically) in order to quickly scale up and down based on the pre-set policies and demands of an application. This helps an organization utilize its resources most efficiently, as it can rapidly decrease resources when they are no longer needed.
Rapid Response to Issues A cloud service provider has engineers on staff that can immediately resolve any IT issues or complications arising from the environment, which can result in quicker resolution of IT issues for organizations.
Nearly Maintenance Free A cloud solution is nearly maintenance free, since software updates are done automatically with no downtime or interruption to an organizations’ business.
Utility (“Pay-As-You-Go”) Pricing One key feature that has lead to the early adoption of public cloud computing is the utility pricing model. Similar to public utilities like gas and electricity, cloud consumers only pay for the resource they consume and only for the time it is utilized – and they don’t have any knowledge of where it is produced and what infrastructure is required to produce it. However, this is only applicable to a public cloud offering. Metering at a level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (such as storage, CPU usage, bandwidth, or active user accounts) will become more widespread over time as organizations learn the types of data that are most useful. This information can also be applied to capacity planning and other purposes.
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What The Cloud Is Not... There are some misconceptions about what cloud is not, as well, that may be worth noting.
Cloud Computing = Public The public cloud has been positioned as a breakthrough way to consume computing – similar to how one would use other utility models (e.g., electricity). Though the public cloud (or hybrid cloud) does offer a great way to deal with unpredictable workload demands and is a good way to get applications up and running and scaling quickly without spending much CAPEX, there are other options for organizations who are leery of a “public” solution (for a variety of reasons – compliance, regulations, etc.). For these organizations, a private cloud solution can satisfy the same needs and offer the same benefits – while allowing for the ability to maintain control.
Not the “End-All, Be-All” Not everyone uses a 100% cloud environment, nor should they. Real companies face much more complex computing infrastructures that still include self-hosted virtual machines and physical servers. And those on-premise machines aren’t going away. There are many, many companies operating mainframes, for example. Additionally, small- and medium-sized businesses may have legacy applications that must be run within a dedicated server environment. So, IT professionals are adding to their compute portfolio and require ever better tools for managing this increasing complexity. The good news is, the cloud offers substantial flexibility in that organizations can “dip their toes in” before fully committing to the cloud. For instance, a company can start with outsourcing a web application to the cloud, an Intranet, or even a document management platform (e.g., Microsoft Office is hosted in the cloud for only some of your users).
New Spin on the Traditional Model Cloud computing is truly changing the landscape of traditional computing. Terminology such as “hardwired,” “manual,” and “static” is changing to “automated,” “dynamic,” and “elastic” – proving that though computing functions are still being performed with cloud, they are being performed in an entirely new way. This new way demands adoption of new methods, approaches, and a paradigm shift in how one thinks about computing – taking one from a physical to a virtual mindset.
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Cloud Computing Architecture When talking about a cloud computing system, it's helpful to divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end. They connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back end is the "cloud" section of the system. The front end includes the client's computer and the application required to access the cloud computing system. Not all cloud computing systems have the same user interface. Services like Web-based e-mail programs leverage existing Web browsers like Internet Explorer or Firefox. Other systems have unique applications that provide network access to clients. On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the "cloud" of computing services. In theory, a cloud computing system could include practically any computer program you can imagine, from data processing to video games. Usually, each application will have its own dedicated server. A central server administers the system, monitoring traffic and client demands to ensure everything runs smoothly. It follows a set of rules called protocols and uses a special kind of software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other. Most of the time, servers don't run at full capacity. That means there's unused processing power going to waste. It's possible to fool a physical server into thinking it's actually multiple servers, each running with its own independent operating system. The technique is called server virtualization. By maximizing the output of individual servers, server virtualization reduces the need for more physical machines. When a cloud computing company has a lot of clients, there's likely to be a high demand for a lot of storage space. Some companies require hundreds of digital storage devices. Cloud computing systems need at least twice the number of storage devices it requires to keep all of its clients' information stored. That's because these devices, like all computers, occasionally break down. A cloud computing system must make a copy of all its clients' information and store it on other devices. The copies enable the central server to access backup machines to retrieve data that otherwise would be unreachable. Making copies of data as a backup is called redundancy.
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Cloud Computing Concerns Perhaps the biggest concerns about cloud computing are security and privacy. The idea of handing over important data to another company worries some people. Corporate executives might hesitate to take advantage of a cloud computing system because they can't keep their company's information under lock and key. The counterargument to this position is that the companies offering cloud computing services live and die by their reputations. It benefits these companies to have reliable security measures in place. Otherwise, the service provider would lose all of its clients. It's in their interest to employ the most advanced techniques to protect their clients' data. Also, it is important to note that reputable vendors adhere to strict privacy policies and sophisticated security measures, with data encryption being one example of this. Companies can choose to encrypt data before even storing it on a thirdparty provider’s servers. As a result, many cloud computing vendors offer greater data security and confidentiality than companies can themselves achieve through storing their data inhouse. Privacy is another matter. If a client can log in from any location to access data and applications, it's possible the client's privacy could be compromised. Cloud computing companies are finding ways to protect client privacy. One way is to use authentication techniques such as user names and passwords. Another is to employ an authorization format, whereby each user can access only the data and applications relevant to his or her job. Another factor to consider is the fact that reputable service providers are typically able to devote resources to solving security issues, where many customers cannot afford to do the same, internally.
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Leveraging The Cloud for Success A common perception about the cloud is that it requires an “all or nothing” approach. This tends to be an intimidating proposition for organizations, and rightly so. While it’s true that cloud computing implementation does represent a big leap from traditional computing (where applications are tied to physical servers), it doesn’t mean that you can’t use a phased approach or a utilize a hybrid mix of cloud and physical resources. An organization can “test out” a new application within the public cloud, and private clouds can be built in phases, as virtualization offers a logical first step. You can also use a mix of public and private clouds to satisfy specific application requirements (e.g., use the public cloud for some, private for others, or a combination of both for yet others). The cloud offers the flexibility of using different types of cloud, or a hybrid cloud/physical resource mix, to satisfy an organization’s varying goals. Additionally, it is important to evaluate potential cloud services providers to determine the optimal partner for your organization. There are numerous providers, but not all are equal when it comes to performance. Some factors to consider include:
❖ High Scalability – The provider should offer a high degree of scalability and be able to comfortably absorb dynamic changes in data traffic as well as accommodate increasing traffic.
❖ Easily Accessible Data – As a customer, you should be able to access and manipulate your data as needed and your provider should allow its customers to change server and bandwidth size according to demand.
❖ Stringent Security Measures – Your potential provider should ensure that your data is adequately protected. You should evaluate the provider’s security measures, ensure the servers are immune from hackers and unauthorized use, and verify that backups are provided to protect against unforeseen scenarios.
❖ Cost-Effectiveness – Your provider should offer the services you need at a competitive cost. Most reputable providers can clearly demonstrate the value of their solution. However, be wary of providers that offer unusually low prices, as the quality of the service could become an issue down the line, compromising your business position.
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❖ Reputation – You also want to ensure that your cloud computing provider has a solid industry reputation. This can be verified online through customer testimonials and case studies with past customers, as well as independent industry reviews. Cloud computing comes into focus when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software.
The Bottom Line But cloud computing isn’t just about realizing cost efficiencies. It’s also about using IT to drive innovation and rapidly respond to changes in the organization. Greater flexibility in the infrastructure encourages more creativity and experimentation, which in turn allows businesses to introduce new technologies and services more quickly and frequently. And that type of speed-to-market is truly the “holy grail” of what cloud can offer a business. Therefore, organizations would be wise to think carefully about their requirements, consider the tradeoffs, and plan accordingly .
Enterprise Hosting • http://www.enterprisehostinginc.com 678.317.9019 • 1055 Spring St NW • Atlanta, GA 30309
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