1. Cloud Computing ApplicationCloud Computing Application
in HK & Chinain HK & China
Francis NgFrancis Ng
Cluster Technology LimitedCluster Technology Limited

2. AGENDA

Some History

Why AMZN provides Public Cloud Service?

Biz model used by IBM and AMZN

Cluster Technology Limited

Background

Client Descriptions

Business Case: Bank of China
AGENDA

3. Some History

Problem with Grid Computing / Parallel Computing
 High admin cost
 Difficult to use from lay users perspective
 Users still have to be aware of the physical hardware layer - #
of nodes, etc.

Cloud Computing
 Users are transparent to the physical hardware through
hardware virtualization
 It scale-in / scale-out based on pre-defined usage criteria.
Administration cost is decreased.
 IT resources are better utilized.

4. Cloud Computing Structure
Virtualization
Physical Hardware
Workloads
Cloud services - Request Driven Provisioning
Innovation
Enablement
Software
Development
Web 2.0 Data
Intensive
Processing
Scalable
Transaction
Processing
Virtual
Storage
Virtual
Application
Server
Virtual
Application
Server
Virtual
Application
Server
Virtual
Networks
Virtual
Servers
Monitoring
SLA
Capacity Planning
Dynamic
Scheduling
SSrc: IBM Cloud Computingrc: IBM Cloud Computing 發中心發中心

5. Cost Structure of Public Cloud Service
• 2 Points to Note:
Initial fixed cost is switched from users to service providers
As users become increasingly rely on server access, it is cheaper
for users to implement their own IT infrastructure
Cost Structure of Public Cloud and
Traditional IT Expense
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
No. of Users
ITExpense($)
Traditional Cloud
FixedCost

6. Why AMZN provides Public Cloud Services?

From service providers’ viewpoints, it has high initial
fixed cost, so why are they still doing it?

The players are: Google, Amazon, IBM
 They have already built a hugh IT infrastructure to handle their
peak load.
 Internally, AMZN want to utilize their IT resources to save their
IT expenditure
 Cloud Service solves their own problem. And they could take
advantage of their existing IT infrastructure by make business
use of it
=> Public Cloud Services is born

7. Business Model on Cloud Services 1/2

Public Cloud
 Software as a Service (SaaS) – charge by app. usage/no. of
accounts

Google App for Enterprises

Saleforce.com
 Platform as a Service (PaaS) – charge by partnership with
system integrators, app. developed on the platform

Google App Engine

Windows Azure Platform (include SQL services, sharePoint services,
Dynamics CRM)

Amazon SimpleDB
 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – charge by usage (eg.
Bandwidth, amount of data accessed/month)

Amazon S3, Amazon EC2

8. Business Model on Cloud Services 2/2

Private Cloud
 Offer solutions of hardware setup, software installation,
consultation for corporates, data-centers
 Turnover rate is fast
 All major cloud service providers are entering and offering
solutions in this area
 Reasons include better data privacy, backup policy could be
controlled by corporations

Future: Public Cloud + Private Cloud => Hybrid Cloud

9. About ClusterTech

CLUSTERTECH was founded in 2000.

CLUSTERTECH headquarters in the Hong Kong Science Park

CLUSTERTECH has 70 professional staffs with advanced degrees (16
Ph.D.s) in science and engineering and reputable clients in financial and
government sectors.

CLUSTERTECH is a one-stop provider offering high performance computing
and business intelligence solutions, through in-house developed CPE, CGE,
and CHESS platforms.

10. Client Lists
HSBC
 Different artificial intelligence modelling techniques were developed to
forecast capital flows and market directions in foreign exchange.
Hong Kong Observatory
 Provided consulting and software implementation on its numerical weather
forecast platforms
Ping An Insurance
 Provided data cleansing and mining solution to Ping An Insurance on their
insurance customer database

11. Business Case: Bank of China

Problem and Requirements:
 Fast access on market data
 High computational job, lots of batch processing
 Required system stability and high availability
 Scale-up and scale-out with minimal admin cost

A customized solution with Clouds Architecture:
 Take advantage of our expertise in parallel computing
 Users do not see the physical hardware layers, only “the
cloud”
 Empowers client with scalable software (SaaS) and
infrastructure (IaaS)

12. Overall Cloud Applications

13. Application I: Low Latency Market Data Service
e.g. Reuters, Bloomberg, HKEX…

14. Application II: Computational Service

15. Application III: Parallel Monte Carlo Sim.

16. Application IV: Middle Office Data Backup

17. Business Case Summary

A customized solution with clouds architecture:
 Software

Low latency market data access

An excel module to assign job for parallel monte carlo simulation on the
cloud for fair pricing
 Infrastructure

Users could assign computational intensive jobs to the cloud

Users could take advantage of database stored in the cloud for safe
storage

18. END OF
PRESENTATION
Email: phng@clustertech.com
Tel: (852) 2655 6158
Units 211-213, Lakeside 1, No 8 Science Park West Avenue,
Hong Kong Science Park, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong.