Imagine a corporate data center. Say, it has 100+ servers, air conditioning, power backup, line conditioners – all paid for and owned by the company — and skilled personnel to keep the data center running. Say it costs the company $350,000 per month, or $11,666 per day, to keep the data center operational. Whether it is a weekday, weekend, or the night before Christmas, the company continues to incur a daily cost of $11,666 towards the infrastructure.
Now imagine your local utility company that provides power to your home. They have huge plants full of equipment that you never had to pay for. When nobody is home and all lights are off, your home consumes only the minimum power required to run the equipment that hums along perpetually. However, when the whole family is at dinner, the washer-dryer is spinning, TVs are running, your power consumption spikes significantly. If the entire family goes vacationing to the Bahamas for a week, your power consumption reduces to a trickle.
These two scenarios underscore the difference between traditional I.T. infrastructure and Cloud computing respectively. The following schematic is reproduced from Gartner.
A Cloud is a set of interconnected resources – such as, CPUs, memory, servers, hard disk storage, networking equipment, databases, firewall, anti-virus software, etc., and even applications software – on the Internet that is delivered and consumed as a service. Potentially, a Cloud can provide computational power, data storage, software applications, data access, disaster recovery and other resources, including the management of all of these, from a location on the Internet. The user can access all Cloud resources from anywhere in the world through a web-based browser, and is billed for the services he utilizes on a utility model – per use, or per consumption.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines a Cloud as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources… that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” ***
CHARACTERISTICS
Clouds are differentiated from traditional I.T. by at least the following distinctiveness.
- The Cloud delivers computational power as a service.
- The Cloud is hosted somewhere on the Internet, and is usually not physically present on premise.
- The Cloud is accessible from anywhere using a plain web browser from any machine, whether Windows, Linux, Android, iOS (Apple), AS/400, Mainframe or some other. Access is not restricted to any particular type of device. Liberating, huh?
- The resources are virtual. Unlike a dedicated hosted service, one cannot necessarily go to any particular Server in the data center and say “This is where my payroll application is running.” The cloud consists of a set of resources, and at any point in time a particular application is running somewhere in that cloud, and not on any particular pre-designated piece of hardware.
- There is nothing ever to buy. The user never incurs any capital expenditure in having to pay for equipment.
- There is nothing ever to discard or replace. The user is never burdened with the cost of obsolescence.
- The resources available to the user are elastic, because he can demand increasing resources as his needs increase, and he can release resources as his needs decrease. The user enjoys instant scalability and on-demand provisioning.
- The resources are used exclusively by the user, but when released by him, may be assigned to any other user.
- Multi-tenancy greatly reduces cost by sharing finite resources across multiple clients, thereby facilitating the handling of peak load without any capital investment. Multi-tenancy reduces cost and does not compromise exclusive use of resources or security.
- The user is billed for his usage of resources purely as a utility.
- The user is protected from the impact of fluctuating and unpredictable business demand. In fact, the user is greatly empowered by the ability to instantly scale up his computing infrastructure on demand and without any capital investment or captive equipment.
UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION (USP)
Cloud computing is:
- A great boost for start-up companies. Because a cash-strapped startup can now compete in computational power and computing capacity with the Big Boys.
- A source of great savings for established companies. Because with proper investment in Enterprise Public Clouds, they can save a bunch of money by taking advantage of the multi-tenancy economy of scale.
- Great for the economy. Because it start-up companies benefit AND established companies benefit, how can the economy not benefit?
- Great for the ecology. Because when (a) data centers hosting massive numbers of servers and other equipment, (b) cooling systems, (c) power conditioning units, (d) data center operators, and (e) associated support systems are consolidated, the result is less wastage of all resources. Additionally, it is easier to make data centers green than hundreds of companies green, and green data centers are, in fact, today’s viable reality.
ADVANTAGES
- Elasticity
- I.T. agility leading to business agility.
- No capital investment.
- Lower cost of ownership
- The user is protected from the impact of fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
- The user is greatly empowered by the ability to instantly scale up his computing infrastructure on demand and without any capital investment or captive equipment.
- Improved security due to centralization of data.
SERVICE MODELS
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
In this most basic cloud service model, cloud providers offer computers – as physical or more often as virtual machines –, raw (block) storage, firewalls, load balancers, and networks. IaaS providers supply these resources on demand from their large pools installed in data centers. Local area networks including IP addresses are part of the offer. For the wide area connectivity, the Internet can be used or – in carrier clouds – dedicated virtual private networks can be configured.
To deploy their applications, cloud users then install operating system images on the machines as well as their application software. In this model, it is the cloud user who is responsible for patching and maintaining the operating systems and application software. Cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis, that is, cost will reflect the amount of resources allocated and consumed.
Platform as a Service
In the PaaS model, cloud providers deliver a computing platform and/or solution stack typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. With some PaaS offers, the underlying compute and storage resources scale automatically to match application demand such that the cloud user does not have to allocate resources manually.
Platform as a service (PaaS) is a category of cloud computing services that provide a computing platform and a solution stack as a service. Along with SaaS and IaaS, it is a service model of cloud computing. In this model, the consumer creates the software using tools and libraries from the provider. The consumer also controls software deployment and configuration settings. The provider provides the networks, servers and storage.
[1] PaaS offerings facilitate the deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software and provisioning hosting capabilities.
[2] providing all of the facilities required to support the complete life cycle of building and delivering web applications and services entirely available from the Internet.
[3] Various types of PaaS vendor offerings could be extensive and will include a total application hosting, development, testing, and deployment environment, along with extensive integrated services that consist of scalability, maintenance, and versioning.
[4] PaaS offerings may include facilities for application design, application development, testing, deployment and hosting as well as application services such as team collaboration, web service integration and marshalling, database integration, security, scalability, storage, persistence, state management, application versioning, application instrumentation and developer community facilitation. These services may be provisioned as an integrated solution over the web.
Software as a Service
In this model, cloud providers install and operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the software from cloud clients. The cloud users do not manage the cloud infrastructure and platform on which the application is running. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud user’s own computers simplifying maintenance and support. What makes a cloud application different from other applications is its elasticity. This can be achieved by cloning tasks onto multiple virtual machines at run-time to meet the changing work demand. Load balancers distribute the work over the set of virtual machines. This process is transparent to the cloud user who sees only a single access point. To accommodate a large number of cloud users, cloud applications can be multitenant, that is, any machine serves more than one cloud user organization. It is common to refer to special types of cloud based application software with a similar naming convention: desktop as a service, business process as a service, Test Environment as a Service, communication as a service.
DEPLOYMENT MODELS
- Public Cloud
- Private Cloud
- Hybrid Cloud
ADVANCED CONCEPTS
- Cloud of Clouds
- The Intercloud
- The Hybrid Cloud
FOOTNOTE
*** Mell and Grance, “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing,” National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory. http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-computing
The Intel Xeon Processor 5500 series can double the capacity of each virtual server as compared to the previous versions. This series enables a greater flexibility in adapting to the needs of clients.
The result that comes with a virtualized server which is based on this series can be work intensive. And if you want virtualized solution hosted on Linux Server then you will get a guaranteed availability of server 99.95%.
Even though combining multiple servers from the same generation into the same virtualized server pool can extend failover, load balancing, and disaster recovery capability. It also helps to reduce hardware as well as operating costs by as much as 50% and energy costs by 80% so just imagine how much money you can save per year by using a virtualization environment.
In case of the dynamic cloud your virtual servers will be installed in the BODHost’s public cloud environment. This means that we have developed a professional service which is based on VMware server farm with several nodes. This move can be called as a migration of classic virtualization environment to a centralized managed cloud server virtualization.
In addition, it doesn’t matter whether you are just beginning to evaluate your options or you’ve already virtualized your IT infrastructure, the rapid evolutions in the virtualization technology is presenting a potential growth and large range of solutions with the new challenges so it is essential for you to stay in tune with the updates.
Do you have concerns about the security of a virtualized environment?
If you have any concerns about the security of the virtualized environment then let me tell you one thing, BODHost uses VMware and Microsoft’s Hyper-V to offer the best virtualization solutions with the most experienced support staff which is able to solve any critical application issue in a virtualized environment.
Actually isolation of physical servers is an important reason why the availability and security of applications running in a virtual environment is far more superior than applications which are running in a non-virtualized system.
The physical hardware and the host operating system enables the physical hardware to be virtualized and therefore service provider can run multiple operating systems. This technique makes it possible for physical hardware to be used very efficiently.
With our newly innovated enLight cloud hosting model, our goal is to become one of the global leaders in the cloud web hosting industry so that all sized organizations can get a cost effective solution with higher performance instead of expensive alternatives. And as the use of virtualization becomes more and more widespread so we are continually developing reliable data protection solutions that are both fast and easy to use.
There are many varieties among different cloud computing solutions and their infrastructure according to the supplier. However, in general, we can outline some basic similarities. In most cases, cloud computing is based on the following:
The components of cloud computing:
A distributed file system that spans multiple drives and multiple machines. It provides redundancy, high speed and reliability. The data is never stored in one place and when a unit fails, its place is taken automatically by another.
For the reader it is important to know that the user’s disk space is allocated on the distributed file system. Although this technology ensures high reliability for user files, it is more expensive than a standard solution without data replication.
Resource allocation algorithm. Cloud computing is a complex system for files distribution and relies heavily on strong algorithms for assigning the correct operation CPU, RAM and hard drive for users and the basic processes.
This is the resource accounting and there are two distinct options. The first use is strictly oriented where you have a limited number of units. These units can be connected to the CPU and / or memory usage. This generally covers the idea of utility computing. Overall this gives some flexibility, but it is more costly in the long term.
Here is a good example which will elaborate the reason when this platform should be preferred as an alternative. If you have a small website with low constant traffic and low resource usage. Although the point is that you expect high peaks, for example once a month. In this case, you only pay for the overuse of extra resources, means that you do not need to invest too much money for a dedicated hosting.
The second alternative is the ability to pre allocate. In this case, there are different levels of resources with predefined constants – dedicated CPU and memory. This still gives the flexibility to upgrade resources on demand, but it also allows the lowest price for the increased use of resources in the long term.
If you want to enjoy the innovative Cloud, we would like to provide you the best solution for Cloud hosting services. BODHost Cloud offers the best functionality / fair price in the market and Cloud packages are designed to suit all types of web projects.
The new innovations in the EMC company (subsidiary of VM) created the impression that VMware customers with the wishes of affordability will get the license at a lower price tag. The VMware licenses are expensive, they now needed more licenses for the same amount of hardware than before.
The present licensing model makes more sense than the older one. VMware’s rapid growth and increased profit ratio helps them to set new affordable pricing structure for the cloud hosting provision. In 2010 revenue of VM grew by 31%, which clearly indicates rise in its popularity.
VSphere 5 is still licensed per processor, complemented with a single right of use of virtualization-based on virtual memory or Pooled vRAM instead of the right to use the processor core. Pooled vRAM is the total amount of main memory that is available to all virtual machines in the environment of cloud computing.
Each vSphere 5 CPU license allows the buyer to use a certain amount of VRAM and free to distribute throughout the environment. Theoretically, a 12-core processor can be operated with a single enterprise license, if the virtual machine to make do with a total of 32 GB of RAM.
The Enterprise License Plus offers the largest pool of 48 GB of RAM. As we had expected the licenses to version 4 as per-CPU and CPU core are now combining the CPU core and vRAM in version 5 to determining the variable for budgeting. As a result, prices are lower per processor.
The high availability of VMware vSphere has been improved. The site recovery manager is an automated fail-over solution for data centers. In the new version 5 up to 75 virtual machines can be automatically restored. Those who are already used to working with virtual machines can feel the advantage of dynamic resource scheduler (DRS), which is now available for storage.
DRS locates the memory automatically on resource consumption at the optimum location, where the standard setting is not enough. It configures performance tests on a percentage utilization and set their own time. New storage space of a new VM will be created automatically on a preset profile.
A major problem of cloud computing is the fear of data loss and theft. The data security company has been severely hampered by new devices such as iPad, iPhone and more. So with these many different smart-phones and tablet computers the challenge to provide secure environment is much more difficult.
This issue VMware has already publicly discussed in recent years in the worldwide in-house exhibition at VMworld in Los Angeles and Copenhagen widely in different sessions and promised its own solutions.
As a result, the function group data security vShield 5 now allows to identify unprotected sensitive data, isolate environments with different security levels to each other and move with safety guidelines when moving data between applications and virtual systems or migrate into the public cloud hosting environment.
More and more organizations opting cloud platform due to attractive features, and should reach reach the evaluation of billion in near future. This shows a growth rate of cloud, which is more than any other hosting type in the IT industry. There are many companies that are engaged in enterprise solutions of management for cloud service providers. Companies developing new software that will transform the way people see cloud servers, because it gives them more control and flexibility, and scalability.
Cloud hosting management system has been perfected after extensive research and development. It allows hosting companies by offering them the opportunity to provide their customers with the control mechanism on their cloud servers. Now, hosting companies that benefit from these solutions may sell a set of computing, networking and data storage resources as one virtual enterprise to their customers. Thus, end users can now set an independent web hosting infrastructure, as a personalized virtual computer without worrying about all the capital costs or maintenance. In addition, all hosting providers can now respond to customer inquiries in a few short seconds, rather than the weeks to the whole process typically takes.
For years, companies have been looking for a product that makes them a competitive advantage over existing systems, and enterprise editions of Hyper-V and VMware cloud hosting management offers the perfection. It can provide comprehensive support to all hypervisors. There are several other features that makes this solution more powerful which consolidate its position as the leader of all web hosting solutions.
Companies using the Hyper-V and VMware solutions can now provide end users with technologies that allow them to automate the distribution of virtual infrastructures through the various data centers. Large companies can now implement virtual infrastructure management systems, hosting large applications in the shortest amount of time. And they can do so by making use of billing systems and infrastructure already in place. In addition, businesses that use Windows, Linux and Zimbra mail servers can enjoy extended control over their platforms.
In addition, the solution developed by these platforms can provide the affordable cloud hosting features for organizations of all sizes. Thus, all small, medium and large companies can take advantage of cloud options such as on-site management and the world-located facilities through the same user interface. Another remarkable feature of this solution is that it sets infrastructure provision beyond the economic consumption of computing resources, thereby saving costs for end users. By using these applications, service provider can offer virtual web hosting environment for all sized groups. The hosting company can be controlled, within limits set by the user, ensuring that physical infrastructure does not pose a risk.
The best part of using these platforms are that it is equally beneficial to existing and potential customers. Web host can provide the resources on demand for the installation of enterprise level applications into the cloud for customers. All matters of security and compliance are able to support applications in cloud environment, which helps users to control the deployment and movement of resources according to performance, utilization and data sensitivity.
Cloud server hosting users experience the higher performance of the servers. Cluster of network servers play the important role here, thus, as per the requirements users can easily increase CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, and Bandwidth. Virtual environment of Cloud is much better than virtual private servers and shared hosting, however, comparatively it is expensive, but on the other hand it is a much better option. Cloud hosting is gaining popularity at a rapid pace and it is being adopted by most of the organizations and government bodies around the world as well. The most important benefit of cloud server is that it reduces the issues of downtime to a great extent.
Cloud servers are fully managed by the service provider and they are responsible to provide any hosting solution, however, if you have an experience to manage cloud servers then you can also choose unmanaged cloud server hosting. User can also have an option for customized cloud web hosting, however, it can take anywhere starting from minutes too hours to execute the order.
This is an unique platform, which enables organizations to host multiple servers at more cost effectively and that is fully secured way and have many astonishing features. Cloud computing gives an ability to increase your business capacity on high peak, on the other hand its scalability and ease of transferring data from one server to another makes it more powerful. In addition, it also simplifies the downloading of a large number of software at the same time without disrupting the browsing experience to the users. Cloud servers support multiple coding scripts so that user can use both ASP and PHP files at the same time on Windows Cloud Web Server Hosting accounts, however, for Linux Cloud Web Hosting users can use open sources coding scripts.
Mostly global organizations that generate sales from the Internet, widely avail cloud web hosting platform for their business operations. Unlike other types of hosting platforms where resources are limited due the inability of servers to expand, cloud hosting facilitates the businesses to add to the required number of servers on the network. Even, customers in cloud need not worry about buying new equipment to meet the demands of Internet traffic, which has increased suddenly. Cloud is the best solution for any type of organization, whether it is small or large, cloud hosting packages can complete all the requirements of business. Cloud platforms are very flexible because it has no disrupting or slowing down issues and also there are no chances of hardware failure. Interchangeability is the key element of cloud computing, which against helps to provide redundant resource supply in case of any server failure.
Have you made up your mind to use the “Cloud Web Hosting” services and solutions? Or are thinking, weighing benefits and limitations? This article will help you make the right decision. We begin, of course, with the advantages.
Cloud Computing Advantages:
Cheap computers for the users : Users do not need to buy expensive computers with more memory and disk to use the program through a Web interface. There is also no need for CD and DVD drives, as all the information and programs are held in “the cloud”. Users can switch from conventional PCs and laptops to a more compact and convenient notebooks.
Increased performance custom computers : Since most of the programs and services are run remotely on the Internet, users’ computers with a smaller number of programs run faster and work. One good example is the anti-virus solution Cloud Antivirus, which allows you to scan data for viruses remotely on powerful servers and thus a factor of 2 reduces the load on the user’s computer.
Reduce costs and increase efficiency of IT infrastructure : Conventional server average company loaded on 10-15%. In some period there is a need for additional computing resources, in others, these expensive resources are idle. Using the required amount of computing resources in the cloud (eg, Amazon EC2), at any time, companies are reducing the cost of equipment and maintenance of up to 50%. In this case, repeatedly increased production flexibility in a constantly changing economic environment. If a sufficiently large company was concerned that valuable information will be stored and processed on the side for such a company can build its own “cloud” and enjoy all the benefits of infrastructure virtualization.
Fewer problems with the service : Since the physical servers with the introduction of Cloud Computing is becoming smaller, they become faster and easier to maintain. On the software side, the latter is installed, configured and updated in the cloud.
Less than the cost of buying software : Instead of purchasing software packages for each local user, the company bought the programs in the cloud. These programs will be used only by users that these programs are needed in the work. Moreover, the cost of programs designed to access the Internet, much lower than their counterparts for personal computers. If the programs are not often used, they can simply rent by the hour. Cost of updating the software and support in working order at all work dreams do nullified.
Constant updating of programs : At any time when a user runs a remote program, you can be sure that this program has the latest version – without the need for something to reinstall or upgrade fee.
The increase in available computing power : Compared with PC computing power available to the user “cloud” of computers, virtually limited only by the size of the cloud, ie the total number of remote servers. Users can run more complex tasks with a large number of necessary memory, storage space, if necessary. In other words, users may choose to easily and inexpensively with the supercomputer to work without any actual purchases.
Unlimited volume of stored data : Compared with an accessible place to store information on personal computer, storage in the cloud can flexibly and automatically adjust to user needs. When information is stored in the cloud, users can forget about the limitations imposed by conventional disc’s – “cloud” dimensions of billions of gigabytes of free space available.
Compatible with most operating systems : In Cloud Computing operating systems do not play any role. Unix users can share documents with users of Microsoft Windows and vice versa, without any problems. Access to programs and virtual machines are using a web browser or other means of access that are installed on any PC with any operating system.
Improved compatibility of document formats : If users use a single “cloud” software for creating and editing documents, they are simply incompatible versions and formats, as opposed to those who, for example, will receive a Word 2007 document and will not be able to read it on your computer with Word 2003 or OpenOffice. A good example of interoperability is an office suite Google Docs, which allows collaboration on documents, presentations and spreadsheets having at hand any computer with a Web browser.
Easy to work together groups of users : When you work with documents in the cloud is not necessary to send each other their versions or sequentially to edit them. Now users can be confident that they face the latest version of the document and any changes made by one user, immediately affects the other. Just imagine how 100 people simultaneously edit the layout of the book – work together in real time!
Ubiquitous access to the documents : If the documents are stored in the cloud, they can be available to users anytime and anywhere. There is no longer such thing as a forgotten files: if you have Internet – they are always there.
Always the latest and current version : In the “cloud” is always the latest and the most recent version of the program or document.
Availability of different devices : Community Cloud Computing have a much wider choice of devices to access documents and programs. Now you can choose between a conventional personal computers, notebooks, Internet tablets, PDAs, smartphone or netbook.
Friendliness to nature, economical consumption of its resources : Cloud Computing makes it possible not only to save on electricity, computing resources, physical space occupied by the servers, but also a reasonable approach to the use of natural resources. Information Processing Center, the same “cloud” can be placed in a cooler climate, users can replace the heavy, demanding computers and laptops for easy and cost netbooks. This saves not only power and place, but the materials from which everything is made.
Stability of data loss or theft of equipment : If the data is stored in the cloud, their copies are automatically distributed across multiple servers, possibly located on different continents. When theft or damage to personal computer is there, users do not lose valuable information that he also can get from any other computer. Someone might argue that backup to another PC or other storage media, for example, DVD disks or flash drives, also protect your data. But in the latter case we must consider two things. Firstly, a backup must be monitored and regularly carry it out. Secondly, these methods do not provide physical security, such as fire, theft and so forth. Remarkable case of a passenger who lost his computer with valuable information for an emergency landing the plane on a river. He had a copy of the data on the second computer, but the latter was in the luggage compartment of an airplane. The physical security of data, in our opinion, is even more relevant when one considers the illegal seizure of computers for various services, offices of raider attacks, poor fire safety and other completely unforeseen circumstances.
Limitations:
Permanent Internet Connection : Cloud Computing always requires an Internet connection. Some of the “cloud” software loaded on your local computer and used at a time when the Internet is unavailable. In other cases, if no Internet access – no jobs, programs, documents. This is probably the strongest argument against Cloud Computing. But be honest, it is now a modern man to do without the services available on the Internet? Also, do not get along, both with and without mobile phones, payment cards and more. Many have even one day can not live without e-mail. Therefore, considering the development of the modern world, the Internet will be available at all times and wherever you are, such as electricity and water.
Does not work with slow Internet access : Many of the “cloud” programs require a good Internet connection with high bandwidth. If you are an owner of a 56K modem, you are so much “lucky”. Today, all the rarer and older connection lines for Internet access speeds are constantly increasing, and prices – fall.
Programs may run slower than on the local computer : Some of the programs in which you want to transfer a significant amount of information that will run on your computer faster not only because of the speed limits access to the Internet, but also because of the congestion on remote servers and problems on the path between the user and the “cloud”.
Not all programs or their properties are available remotely : If you compare programs for local use, and their “cloud” counterparts, the latter still lose in functionality. For example, Google Docs spreadsheet have far fewer features and functions than Microsoft Excel.
Data security can be threatened : Here, the key word is “may.” It all depends on who provides the “cloud” services. If this someone securely encrypts your data, always make backup copies of them, more than a year working in the market of such services and has a good reputation, the threat to data security can never happen.
If your data in the cloud are lost they are lost forever : It is a fact. But losing the data in the cloud is much more complicated than the local computer.
Despite the fact that the number of advantages exceed the limitations, in every situation they are of great importance, or, conversely, have no meaning. Everyone chooses by their own, and we hope that you will make for yourselves the right choice.