The Server Show #14 – Matthew, A Intro To The Cloud

http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf

What does that mean in layman’s terms?
To explain it easier, lets break down the essential charastics.

Essential Charastics:
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 provider.
Broad Network Access     I would define this as Software Defined Networking. Software that emulates Routers, Switches, Firewalls and Load balancers.
Resource Pooling     The ability to take resources and allocate a pool of resources to multiple tenants (i.e. Multiple Customers), that are physical and virtual machines independant. This allows for dynamic allocation of resources based on customer needs. This ties back into the On-Demand Self Service model by allowing customers to dictate how much resources they can consume or are willing to pay, to consume.
Measured Service     Cloud systems automatically optimize resource management by metering and exposing this metered data in API. Let’s talk scale and rapid elasticity…
Rapid Elasticity     I saved the best for last. The ability to rapidly provision services to scale inward or outward based on need. This is where cloud REALLY shines. Each piece above feeds into this. Let’s talk use cases!

If you are running a system internal to your enterprise, from a managed service provider or a combination of the two you are technically running a cloud deployment model. There are three cloud deployment models; Private (all internal to the enterprise), Public (all in AWS or Rackspace…) or Hybrid (mix of both).

Let’s talk the service model:
For me, the service models build on itself. You first started with IaaS, then we wanted to deploy our webapps faster… then we decided why not just take control from the local machine entirely… This was not the entire progression in that order but that’s how I see the model.

IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service. The ability to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. Common examples Amazon EC2, OpenStack, Digital Ocean and many more.

PaaS – Platform as a Service. A curated deployment of a development platform. This is designed for developers to start working on building apps without having to start from scratch. Common examples are: pre-configured Tomcat, Django, Rails, and Red Hat OpenShift.

SaaS – Software as a Service. This is a program or software suite that runs wholly outside of your computer and stores your resources for you, “in-the-cloud”. Common examples: Gmail, Google Docs, Sales Force, Insperity Health Insurance.

Lesser well known.

DBaaS – Database as a Service. Running a multi-tenant database. Oracle is the leader in this space and 12c made this a big focus.

LBaaS – Load Balancer as a Service.

IdaaS – Identity Management as a Service

Who are the actors in the cloud space?
Amazon Web Services
Rackspace
Microsoft Azura
Digital Ocean
Google Compute
VMware vCloud Director (Mostly Private Cloud)

Why should I care?

I think it’s important for us, arborator of technology, to understand cloud and what it means. Cloud computing can solve many problems but it doesn’t solve every problem. Moving to the cloud requires a lot of effort on everyone’s part to make it happen.

Next time… tools in cloud space… maybe?