1. What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a model for enabling 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. CloudStack
adheres to this model of computing.
CloudStack is an orchestration layer that combines
virtualized servers, networking and storage to coordinate these
resources and deliver cloud computing.
2. Five Characteristics of a Cloud Computing Environment
• 1. On-demand self-service -A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server
time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each
service’s provider.
• 2. Broad network access - Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard
mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile
phones, laptops, and PDAs).
• 3. Resource pooling - The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a
multi-tenant 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 (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of resources include
storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
• 4. Rapid elasticity -Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to
quickly scale out, and rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilities available for
provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.
• 5. Measured Service - Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a
metering capability1 at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service
(e.g., 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.
3. Service Models
USER CLOUD a.k.a. SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE
Single application, multi-tenancy, network-based, one-to-many delivery of
applications, all users have same access to features.
Examples: Salesforce.com, Google Docs, Red Hat Network/RHEL
DEVELOPMENT CLOUD a.k.a. PLATFORM-AS-A-SERVICE
Application developer model, Application deployed to an elastic service that
autoscales, low administrative overhead. No concept of virtual machines or
operating system. Code it and deploy it.
Examples: Google AppEngine, Windows Azure, Rackspace Site, Red Hat
Makara
SYSTEMS CLOUD a.k.a INFRASTRUCTURE-AS-A-SERVICE
Servers and storage are made available in a scalable way over a network.
Examples: EC2,Rackspace
CloudFiles, OpenStack, CloudStack, Eucalyptus, Ubuntu Enterprise
Cloud, OpenNebula
4. Deployment Models
Private cloud
The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization. It may be managed by the
organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.
Public cloud
The cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is
owned by an organization selling cloud services.
Hybrid cloud
The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public)
that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology
that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between
clouds).
Community cloud
The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community
that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance
considerations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third party and may exist on
premise or off premise.
7. Core Features:
• Multi-Tenant cloud computing platform
• Compatible with Commodity or Enterprise Components
• Broad Hypervisor Support (Xenserver, KVM, VMware vSphere)
• Scalable Architecture (manage thousands of hosts and virtual machine guests)
• High Availability configurations to provide automatic fail-over for virtual machines
• Easy-to-Use AJAX-enabled web interface
• Configurable to deploy public, private and hybrid clouds
• Virtual Networking to segment network traffic into VLANs
• Robust API
• Amazon EC2 Compatibility layer
• Written in Java for proven reliability
• Ability to define service level definitions with specific resource footprints
• Open Source, available under the GPL version 3
8. New Features 3.0
• Organize Users and Resources by Projects – users can group themselves into
projects so they can collaborate and share virtual resources. CloudStack
tracks usage per project as well as per user, so the usage can be billed to either a
user account or a project.
• Support for Citrix Netscaler – Citrix NetScaler(MPX, VPX, SDX) is now supported as
an external network element for load balancing in zones that use advanced
networking (also called advanced zones). Set up an external load balancer when
you want to provide load balancing through means other than CloudStack’s
provided virtual router.
• LDAP User Authentication – you can use an external LDAP server such as
Microsoft Active Directory or ApacheDS for end-user authentication. Just map
CloudStack accounts to the corresponding LDAP accounts using a query filter.
• VM Storage Migration - CloudStack administrator can move a virtual machine’s
root disk volume or any additional data disk from one storage pool to another in
the same zone.
• OpenStack Swift for Secondary Storage - In previous versions of CloudStack, NFS
storage is supported for secondary storage. In CloudStack 3.0, OpenStack Object
Storage (Swift,http://swift.openstack.org) is also supported for secondary storage.
9. How other companies are using cloud services
http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/#app
AWS products
http://aws.amazon.com/products/
Rackspace cloud services
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/
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