Cloud computing is a generic term for anything that delivers hosted services on a networks. Cloud computing consists of two main sections – the front end and the back end, connected to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The front end consists of user computers (client) and the back end is called the “cloud” which includes storage, processing, servers and other similar services. Typically, cloud services are sold on demand, by either the minute or hour. Services can also be tailored so that users can have as little or as much of a service they require at a given point of time. By using cloud computing, users can avoid capital expenditure on hardware, software, and services where they pay a provider only for what they use.
A central server monitors traffic and client demands to ensure a smooth operation. The server follows a set of protocols and uses special software called middleware. Middleware allows networked computers to communicate with each other. If a cloud computing company has a large number of clients, then the data storage requirements are increased significantly. The increase in data capacity is required for redundancy, where copies of client data are stored at various locations as backup to mitigate against data loss.
With appropriate middleware, a cloud computing system could execute any programs a standard computer can run. The advantages of using a cloud-based system would result in clients being able to access their applications and data from location and at any time by connecting using a computer linked to the internet. Secondly, by using computers on a remote location, the costs of using hardware on client computers is reduced significantly. Additionally, using remote hardware eliminates the requirement of having expensive software installed on client computers.
Cloud services can be classified as public or private. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the internet. A private cloud, on the other hand, is a private network that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses a public cloud to create a private cloud service, the resultant cloud is called a virtual public cloud or hybrid cloud.
Services offered by cloud computing can be classified into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, and Software-as-a-Service. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provides virtual servers with unique IP addresses and blocks of storage on demand. Users benefit from an API from which they can control their servers. As customers can pay for exactly the amount of service they use, like for electricity or water, this service is also called utility computing. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a set of software and development tools hosted on the provider's servers. Developers can create applications using the provider's APIs but platform interoperability standards are yet to be developed. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the most well known category. In SaaS, the provider allows the customer only to use its applications. The software interacts with the user through a user interface. These applications can be anything from web-based email, to applications such as Twitter or Facebook.
Concerns regarding cloud computing include privacy and security. Since the data is not in the same physical location, and handled by an outside agent, security of this data is paramount. Additionally, since public clouds are accessible through the internet, a user’s privacy might be breached if safeguards are not present. The above concerns can be mitigated thought strong encryption, passwords, and access controls.
Article by Nicholas Alphonso; Knitlogix Technology Consultant from Perth, Australia
Linkedin Profile of Nicholas Alphonso
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Cloud Computing - Computing slowly moving to the "pay as you go" era.
Data centres in its current form may not exist for much longer into the future. Data is moving to the cloud. The kind of computing that the Google, Amazon, Facebook, and others have become synonymous with will come to common data centre realm soon.
Today, IT managers add capacity, fault tolerance, fail over, load balancing, and other data centre features much painstakingly for storage scalability and performance in an incessant manner. Just when they begin to feel that they have enough capacity and performance built in to their systems, that they have made their data centre future proof, there is a new need on the performance or expandability front.
Cloud computing will make it much less painful to manage, scale and develop a reliable, high performance platform without running a single data centre. Cloud computing is often compared to electrical utility where one pays for what he uses and when he uses. Gartner predicts that by "2012, 80 percent of Fortune 1000 enterprises will be paying for some cloud computing services, and 30 percent will be paying for cloud computing infrastructure services."
Amazon.com is a perfect example for the future of cloud computing. They have now come to offer computing power over the web to would be customers. "Since early 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided companies of all sizes with an infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. With AWS you can requisition computing power, storage, and other services–gaining access to a suite of elastic IT infrastructure services as your business demands them."
Cloud computing offers significant cost savings for IT functions that are large-scale as well as small scale. Other advantages include management and scalability.
Six layers within the cloud computing are cloud clients, services, application, platform, storage, and infrastructure. Example of cloud computing that’s already out there include Google Docs, the MS Office competitor and Slide Rocket (for great online presentations). Cloud computing relates to Web 2.0 and which is utilised by sites such as Salesforce.com (the famed CRM on the web).
While we have examples of Google Docs for SaaS (Software as a service) model, we have Amazon.com web services in HaaS (Hardware as a service) as example where we can actually purchase computing power already.
"Gartner’s named Amazon, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Microsoft, and IBM as vendors that are leading the charge towards computing in the cloud."
Whatever said and done, at the moment Cloud Computing is hardly more than a buzz word and much more has to happen for it to get into the serious main stream business. It can be expected that in the next five years or so, we will get into more serious use of cloud computing. Those who adopt this technology now can be termed as visionary though we can expect a lot of opposition from traditional data centre managers who might be fearful for their career as cloud gathers to take it away.
So, the future where we stop worrying about our server being up, may not be far away. It is already here, we just have to figure out what we are going to do with it.
External References for you.
Gartner, Google discuss future of cloud computing
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/112339,gartner-google-discuss-future-of-cloud-computing.aspx
Amazon Web Services.
http://aws.amazon.com/
What is Cloud Computing? - Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PNuQHUiV3Q
Explaining Cloud Computing - Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg
By T. P. Gopinath, Director - e-Business
Today, IT managers add capacity, fault tolerance, fail over, load balancing, and other data centre features much painstakingly for storage scalability and performance in an incessant manner. Just when they begin to feel that they have enough capacity and performance built in to their systems, that they have made their data centre future proof, there is a new need on the performance or expandability front.
Cloud computing will make it much less painful to manage, scale and develop a reliable, high performance platform without running a single data centre. Cloud computing is often compared to electrical utility where one pays for what he uses and when he uses. Gartner predicts that by "2012, 80 percent of Fortune 1000 enterprises will be paying for some cloud computing services, and 30 percent will be paying for cloud computing infrastructure services."
Amazon.com is a perfect example for the future of cloud computing. They have now come to offer computing power over the web to would be customers. "Since early 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has provided companies of all sizes with an infrastructure web services platform in the cloud. With AWS you can requisition computing power, storage, and other services–gaining access to a suite of elastic IT infrastructure services as your business demands them."
Cloud computing offers significant cost savings for IT functions that are large-scale as well as small scale. Other advantages include management and scalability.
Six layers within the cloud computing are cloud clients, services, application, platform, storage, and infrastructure. Example of cloud computing that’s already out there include Google Docs, the MS Office competitor and Slide Rocket (for great online presentations). Cloud computing relates to Web 2.0 and which is utilised by sites such as Salesforce.com (the famed CRM on the web).
While we have examples of Google Docs for SaaS (Software as a service) model, we have Amazon.com web services in HaaS (Hardware as a service) as example where we can actually purchase computing power already.
"Gartner’s named Amazon, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Microsoft, and IBM as vendors that are leading the charge towards computing in the cloud."
Whatever said and done, at the moment Cloud Computing is hardly more than a buzz word and much more has to happen for it to get into the serious main stream business. It can be expected that in the next five years or so, we will get into more serious use of cloud computing. Those who adopt this technology now can be termed as visionary though we can expect a lot of opposition from traditional data centre managers who might be fearful for their career as cloud gathers to take it away.
So, the future where we stop worrying about our server being up, may not be far away. It is already here, we just have to figure out what we are going to do with it.
External References for you.
Gartner, Google discuss future of cloud computing
http://www.itnews.com.au/News/112339,gartner-google-discuss-future-of-cloud-computing.aspx
Amazon Web Services.
http://aws.amazon.com/
What is Cloud Computing? - Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PNuQHUiV3Q
Explaining Cloud Computing - Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg
By T. P. Gopinath, Director - e-Business
Saturday, July 4, 2009
3PAR Utility Storage and iSCSI
iSCSI is a technology which is much cheaper and easier to deploy compared to fibre channel. However, the iSCSI has never attained respectable deployment levels for storage as Fiber channel. That was mainly due to its poor performance vs Fibre. When it came to performance, iSCSI often lagged.
But, iSCSI over 10G Ethernet is expected to change the game altogether. iSCSI over 10G Ethernet will begin to get major levels of deployment within the next few years. Tide is turning for iSCSI with the fibre based technology taking a back seat.
Cost is one of the main factors that attract or repel corporates to a new technology. On the cost front, there is no technology to beat iSCSI. Apart from the cost, ease of supporting an iSCSI infrastructure compared to a fibre channel, is also a driving force. While fibre needs costly components and expensive tech support specialists, iSCSI can be handled relatively easily because it makes use of the ubiquitous Ethernet network.
Trends in the IT infrastructure is by all means towards virtualisation. Virtualisation of servers and even desktops of late, is driving the need for more and more storage. It does not hurt to take the iSCSI route for corporates as long as it serves the purpose and does it cheap.
Even though the support and interest in iSCSI is fast developing, we can not expect the fibre technology to vanish anytime soon. Fibre will remain entrenched in corporate data centres' storage technology, for years to come. However we can expect more and more new entrants into storage infrastructure building as well as many existing data centres, to experiment with iSCSI and iSCSI over 10G as it matures.
3PAR, as part of their main product line-up of Inserv storage servers, makes it easy for its customers to benefit from iSCSI. Inserv products extend support to both Fibre and IP based SANs enabling the customer to make use of both technologies on a case by case basis.
It is a beauty to connect your storage array with the server using a built in gigabit controller instead of requiring to depend upon costly HBAs, its associated drivers, and additional configuration. This improves the speed at which server deployments and storage allotments become possible. iSCSI controllers can be added to 3PAR Inserv storage arrays seamlessly and non disruptively.
While discussing iSCSI, it becomes imperative to discuss TCP offloading too.
"TCP Offload Engine or TOE is a technology used in network interface cards to offload processing of the entire TCP/IP stack to the network controller". It becomes a remarkable way to free the load on the CPU which normally has the responsibility to handle the processing overhead coming from these high speed adapters.
TCP offload is primarily used by high-speed network interfaces, such as gigabit Ethernet and 10 gigabit Ethernet, where processing overhead of the network stack remains a concern.
In a more practical level, TOE refers to the network card itself. iSCSI protocol load the CPUs heavily due to the heavy TCPIP processing. TOE goes a long way in reducing that load.
3PAR's iSCSI utility storage is nicely priced and available for Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, and Microsoft Windows. The price includes installation, training, and three years support.
External Links:
3PAR Utility Computing
10 Gigabit Ethernet - Wikipiedia page.
By T. P. Gopinath, Director - e-Business
But, iSCSI over 10G Ethernet is expected to change the game altogether. iSCSI over 10G Ethernet will begin to get major levels of deployment within the next few years. Tide is turning for iSCSI with the fibre based technology taking a back seat.
Cost is one of the main factors that attract or repel corporates to a new technology. On the cost front, there is no technology to beat iSCSI. Apart from the cost, ease of supporting an iSCSI infrastructure compared to a fibre channel, is also a driving force. While fibre needs costly components and expensive tech support specialists, iSCSI can be handled relatively easily because it makes use of the ubiquitous Ethernet network.
Trends in the IT infrastructure is by all means towards virtualisation. Virtualisation of servers and even desktops of late, is driving the need for more and more storage. It does not hurt to take the iSCSI route for corporates as long as it serves the purpose and does it cheap.
Even though the support and interest in iSCSI is fast developing, we can not expect the fibre technology to vanish anytime soon. Fibre will remain entrenched in corporate data centres' storage technology, for years to come. However we can expect more and more new entrants into storage infrastructure building as well as many existing data centres, to experiment with iSCSI and iSCSI over 10G as it matures.
3PAR, as part of their main product line-up of Inserv storage servers, makes it easy for its customers to benefit from iSCSI. Inserv products extend support to both Fibre and IP based SANs enabling the customer to make use of both technologies on a case by case basis.
It is a beauty to connect your storage array with the server using a built in gigabit controller instead of requiring to depend upon costly HBAs, its associated drivers, and additional configuration. This improves the speed at which server deployments and storage allotments become possible. iSCSI controllers can be added to 3PAR Inserv storage arrays seamlessly and non disruptively.
While discussing iSCSI, it becomes imperative to discuss TCP offloading too.
"TCP Offload Engine or TOE is a technology used in network interface cards to offload processing of the entire TCP/IP stack to the network controller". It becomes a remarkable way to free the load on the CPU which normally has the responsibility to handle the processing overhead coming from these high speed adapters.
TCP offload is primarily used by high-speed network interfaces, such as gigabit Ethernet and 10 gigabit Ethernet, where processing overhead of the network stack remains a concern.
In a more practical level, TOE refers to the network card itself. iSCSI protocol load the CPUs heavily due to the heavy TCPIP processing. TOE goes a long way in reducing that load.
3PAR's iSCSI utility storage is nicely priced and available for Red Hat Linux, SUSE Linux, and Microsoft Windows. The price includes installation, training, and three years support.
External Links:
3PAR Utility Computing
10 Gigabit Ethernet - Wikipiedia page.
By T. P. Gopinath, Director - e-Business
Sunday, June 28, 2009
3PAR Thin Copy Desktop with VMWare's VDI.
3PAR Thin Copy Desktop with VMWare's VDI.
Thin clients are not alone. They have the company of VDIs now. Fat OS is not any more needed. Latest that the corporates like is, VDIs or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. In VDI, you run your PC out of a powerful server located in your organisations data center. This server boasts running tens and sometimes hundreds of desktop OS's virtually.
VDI makes managing, administering, and maintaining desktops much easier than traditional desktops. It helps focus on the data center rather than having to look after a large number of PCs deployed across the campus. From the users perspective, he gets nothing less than a full capability desktop except for the fact that he does his authentication into a PC sitting virtually in the data centre. The user uses a thin client based desktop to achieve this task.
With Cloud computing dominating the news and Microsoft itself thinking what to do with windows in future, it makes lot of sense to virtualise PC and provide a user with only a thin desktop to connect to his / her PC sitting in the data center.
Desktop virtualisation makes sure that user gets a natural looking desktop while also utilising a thin client. While VDI allows the users to install software themselves, they are also able to connect to their desktop from other locations without being limited to their desk. The product that enables such virtualisation of the desktop comes from several manufacturers. Citrix Xen Desktop, Sun VDI, and VDI Works are some examples.
A major part of the successful VDI implementation is a strategic, reliable, and a high performance storage subsystem. This is where a powerful product from the utility computing leader 3PAR comes into picture.
Through a four step process such as the following, 3PAR Thin Copy Desktop makes the storage component of the VMWare's VDI highly robust.
These steps involve creating a golden image of OS, applications using VM template, provisioning VM-hosted boot images with thin copy Desktop Script, Provisioning a thin volume for storing user data.
3PAR's Thin copy Desktop makes it easy to host a new user within seconds. This takes out a long waiting time traditional for preparation and setting up of a new PC. 3PAR product complements VMWare's VDI with its highly acclaimed expertise in handling storage. Organisations want it easy and reliable for starting off a new employee. VMWare's product combined with 3PAR's expertise on utility storage make it abundantly easy for the IT department.
One concern for a server hosting a large number of virtual desktops is how it affects the network latency as these PCs are simultaneously booted by the staff as they begin their work day. However, 3PAR solution ensures that the additional bandwidth needs of the PCS are very less compared to the golden boot image by ensuring that the bandwidth use is optimum through the Thin Copy Desktop solution.
3PAR's Thin Copy Desktop solution makes deploying the VMWare VDI a breeze through numerous enhancements in the storage provisioning and performance areas. This solution in combination with VMWare's VDI will go a long way in helping the corporate achieve their Desktop virtualisation goal.
External Links:
3PAR Introduces Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI
Desktop virtualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VDI Overview - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - VMware
By T. P. Gopinath - Director, e-Business
Thin clients are not alone. They have the company of VDIs now. Fat OS is not any more needed. Latest that the corporates like is, VDIs or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. In VDI, you run your PC out of a powerful server located in your organisations data center. This server boasts running tens and sometimes hundreds of desktop OS's virtually.
VDI makes managing, administering, and maintaining desktops much easier than traditional desktops. It helps focus on the data center rather than having to look after a large number of PCs deployed across the campus. From the users perspective, he gets nothing less than a full capability desktop except for the fact that he does his authentication into a PC sitting virtually in the data centre. The user uses a thin client based desktop to achieve this task.
With Cloud computing dominating the news and Microsoft itself thinking what to do with windows in future, it makes lot of sense to virtualise PC and provide a user with only a thin desktop to connect to his / her PC sitting in the data center.
Desktop virtualisation makes sure that user gets a natural looking desktop while also utilising a thin client. While VDI allows the users to install software themselves, they are also able to connect to their desktop from other locations without being limited to their desk. The product that enables such virtualisation of the desktop comes from several manufacturers. Citrix Xen Desktop, Sun VDI, and VDI Works are some examples.
A major part of the successful VDI implementation is a strategic, reliable, and a high performance storage subsystem. This is where a powerful product from the utility computing leader 3PAR comes into picture.
Through a four step process such as the following, 3PAR Thin Copy Desktop makes the storage component of the VMWare's VDI highly robust.
These steps involve creating a golden image of OS, applications using VM template, provisioning VM-hosted boot images with thin copy Desktop Script, Provisioning a thin volume for storing user data.
3PAR's Thin copy Desktop makes it easy to host a new user within seconds. This takes out a long waiting time traditional for preparation and setting up of a new PC. 3PAR product complements VMWare's VDI with its highly acclaimed expertise in handling storage. Organisations want it easy and reliable for starting off a new employee. VMWare's product combined with 3PAR's expertise on utility storage make it abundantly easy for the IT department.
One concern for a server hosting a large number of virtual desktops is how it affects the network latency as these PCs are simultaneously booted by the staff as they begin their work day. However, 3PAR solution ensures that the additional bandwidth needs of the PCS are very less compared to the golden boot image by ensuring that the bandwidth use is optimum through the Thin Copy Desktop solution.
3PAR's Thin Copy Desktop solution makes deploying the VMWare VDI a breeze through numerous enhancements in the storage provisioning and performance areas. This solution in combination with VMWare's VDI will go a long way in helping the corporate achieve their Desktop virtualisation goal.
External Links:
3PAR Introduces Thin Copy Desktop for VMware VDI
Desktop virtualization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
VDI Overview - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - VMware
By T. P. Gopinath - Director, e-Business
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
