Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to both the applications delivered as services over the internet and the hardware and systems software in the data centers that provide those services. Cloud computing services have long been referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS). From a hardware stand point and pricing point of view, three aspects are new in cloud computing. 1) The appearance of infinite computing resources available on demand, quickly enough to eliminate the need for cloud computing users to plan ahead for provisioning. 2) The elimination of an up-front commitment by cloud users which allows companies to start small and increase in storage resources only when there is a need. 3) The ability to pay for use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed and release them when needed. This allows for rewarding conservation by letting machines and storage go when they are no longer useful.

The construction and operation of extremely large-scale, commodity-computer data centers at low-cost locations was the key component of cloud computing. Other necessities that need to decrease in cost are electricity, network bandwidth, operations, software and hardware available at these very large economies of scale. There are 10 obstacles and opportunities for cloud computing to grow. These consist of: availability/business continuity (use multiple cloud providers), data lock-in ( standardize APIs), data confidentiality and auditability (deploy encryption, VLANsm firewalls), data transfer bottlenecks (FedExing disks, higher BW switches), performance unpredictability (improved VM support, flash memory, gang schedule VMs), scalable storage (invent scalable store), bugs in large distributed systems (invent debugger that relies on distributed VMs), scaling quickly (invent auto-scalar that relies on ML, snapshots for conservation), reputation fate sharing ( offer reputation-guarding services like those for email), software licensing (pay for use licenses). Cloud computing will continue to grow tremendously, so developers should take it into account of what techniques can be discovered and worked upon.

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Backup and Archive

Cloud computing has been taking over the traditional backup fast and still gives consumers availability of their data. This week’s blog is on a novel about NASA and their usage of cloud computing. In 2010, NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project became their first mission to incorporate a public cloud into its daily mission-critical operations. NASA goal has been to obtain as much durability as possible with minimal cost. Their goal is also to significantly reduce cost compared to traditional backup solutions while enhancing the durability and availability of their data. One of the primary reasons organizations approach the cloud is because of the variable pricing models. Compliance, privacy and integrity of the data are also considered high priority requirements. NASA backup process to the cloud, along with the variable cost model of cloud storage, provides   a compelling alternative to the traditional backup processes IT systems used.

The cloud data transfer client can support speeds that exceed common data backup strategies such as using an external hard drive or DVD archiving. The seamless integration of archiving, compressing and encryption, along with unlimited storage adds to the convenience of cloud storage. The automated auditing ensures that backups are reliable and up to date and when recovery is needed, data can be restored in a very short amount of time. NASA software is modular they are currently only employing Amazon S3 as the backup data store. Their cloud computing setup runs on very modest machines with very few tweaks in compression and encryption parameters. 

Novel: https://blackboard.ncat.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-2060041-dt-content-rid-6615846_2/courses/ITT_305002.201510/BackupMERData.pdf

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the networking cloud. It is designed to make web-scale cloud computing easier for developers. Every application needs services and Amazon EC2 provides many. It can provide services for any application size whether it’s big or small. EC2 services also allows for your application services to be resized if the application grows overtime.  Amazon allows you to obtain your information fast and inexpensively. The benefit of this is that you won’t have to worry about having storage onsite and taking up space. You simply choose the instances that you want, the operating system and the storage quantity that you need.  Amazon has many instance types designed for the different use cases. These instances can be optimized for CPU, Memory, storage and GPU to give you the right performance and pricing for your task. They also have a variety of pricing options to help every business. EC2 gives you root control over your instances to modify them the way you want. Now let’s talk about why EC2 is reliable.

The EC2 service runs within Amazon’s proven network infrastructure and data centers. The service level agreement commitment is 99.95% availability. EC2 also works in coincidence with Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) with an IP (Internet Protocol) range that you desire. VPC allows you to control inbound and outbound network access to and from your domain. The EC2 instance Purchasing Option such as; On-demand instances, reserved instances and spot instances gives you financial benefits of Amazon’s scale. Amazon EC2 is certainly a top notch storage provider as big name applications use them. Netflix uses the service as well as AutoDesk, NASA/JPL , Animoto, Recovery.gov, bankinter and many more. To learn more about Amazon EC2 and their other services click here.