An Introduction to Cloud Computing

An Introduction to Cloud Computing Rohit Sarabhai India Software Labs, IBM India rsarabhai@in.ibm.com

Agenda • Introduction • Cloud computing services • Principles of openness • Where we go from here • Resources

Before the Web • If you wanted to sell things to the public, you needed a storefront • Massive cost in real estate, fixtures, maintenance, shrinkage • Prohibitive cost to entry

What if … • You could have hundreds of millions of storefronts worldwide? • Without real estate • Without fixtures • Without maintenance • Without shrinkage • With [relatively] zero cost to entry • The Web changed everything

Before the cloud • If you wanted to start an enterprise, you needed an IT shop • Massive costs in hardware, software, power, administrative staff • Prohibitive cost to entry

What if … • You could have unlimited computing resources? • All the processing power you want • All the data storage you want • Data mining whenever you want • Cloud computing will be the biggest change to our industry since the rise of the Internet

Cloud characteristics • Rapid elasticity • You can go from 5 servers to 50 or from 50 servers to 5 • Measured service • You pay for what you use • On-demand self-service • You get elasticity automatically • Ubiquitous network access • You can access the cloud from anywhere • Location-independent resource pooling • You work with virtual machines that could be hosted anywhere Source: NIST Working Definition of Cloud Computing

You’re on the cloud already • If you use Flickr or Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter or Backpack or [insert hundreds of other sites here], you’re using the cloud • Cloud is a metaphor for the internet

A selection of cloud components • Software as a Service • Utility Computing • Web Services • Platform as a Service • Managed Service Providers • Service Commerce Platforms • Internet Integration Source: InfoWorld

Cloud services • There are four basic things people are doing in the cloud: • Machines in the cloud • Storage in the cloud • Databases in the cloud • Applications in the cloud • In addition to these four basics, cloud providers offer other services such as message queues and data mining • All of these things are lumped into the generic term “cloud computing”

Machines in the cloud • Many cloud providers allow you to create a Virtual Machine (VM) and deploy it in the cloud • Your VM images are stored in cloud storage • You can create as many images as you need • You can automatically start and stop running instances of those images as needed • This is the simplest way to get started in the cloud, particularly if you’ve been using virtualization already

Storage in the cloud • Most cloud storage systems are designed as distributed, redundant systems • Your data are stored on more than one disk in more than one place • If one part of the system goes down, the rest of the system keeps going • “There should never be a single point of failure” is a stated design goal • But you can’t think of cloud storage as just another hard drive

Databases in the cloud • Cloud databases have similar design points • Datasets are distributed for reliability • Some cloud databases support schemas, some don’t • Some cloud databases support joins, most don’t • Some cloud databases are relational, almost all aren’t • Some cloud databases are transactional, some aren’t

Other services in the cloud • A number of vendors provide message queuing services in the cloud • Some queuing services don’t let you peek a message, for example • Cloud data mining services use techniques such as Hadoop / MapReduce to analyze massive data sets • Techniques that required supercomputers, large data centers and significant funds a few years ago can now be done for a few hundred pounds • New businesses and business models will emerge based on the cost of data mining being reduced by several orders of magnitude

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud aws.amazon.com/ec2 • What is Amazon EC2? • Popular Uses for Amazon EC2

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud running IBM • Run many of the proven IBM platform technologies by the hour as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) • IBM DB2 • IBM Informix • IBM Lotus Content Management • IBM Mashup Center • IBM WebSphere Application Server • IBM WebSphere sMash • … aws.amazon.com/ibm

Cloud implementation types

Private Cloud Client owned and managed. Access limited to client and its partner network. Drives efficiency, standardization and best practices while retaining greater customization and control. Public Cloud Service provider owned and managed. Access by subscription. Delivers select set of standardized business process, application and/or infrastructure services on a flexible pay per use basis. Cloud computing • Customization • Efficiency • Security and Privacy • Availability • Standardization • Capital preservation • Flexibility • Time to deploy

Cloud Computing Center at Wuxi • The municipality of Wuxi, was working to accelerate China’s transformation to a service economy • IBM engaged the municipal government to develop a virtual data center linking several companies in a “software park” • The public cloud implementation, China's first commercial cloud, enabled by IBM technology and services will: • Promote growth of software start-ups across China • Accelerate development and test cycles • Offer secure, network-isolated environments • Deliver Backup and Restore asset protection capabilities

Cloud Computing in Agriculture • Example from University of Melbourne • Experimental farm using irrigation automation • Irrigating short-term (minutes to hours) • Predict micro-climate for coming week • Predict market in coming months • Interconnection of real-data with climate prediction • Results are promising • Orchid saw 300% increase in profitability • Dairy farm saw 70% increase in profitability • Local commercial dairy farm saw 70% increase in profitability

Cloud services • Machines in the cloud • Can I move my VM elsewhere? • Storage in the cloud • Can I move my data elsewhere? • Databases in the cloud • Can I move my data elsewhere? • Applications in the cloud • Can I run my application elsewhere?

Vendor lock-in • If there’s a new technology, any talented programmer will want to use it • Maybe the shiny new thing is appropriate for what we’re doing • Maybe not • We’re probably going to use it anyway • The challenge is to walk the line between using the newest, coolest thing and avoiding vendor lock-in

The Open Cloud Manifesto • A statement of principles for openness in cloud computing • More than 300 supporters and growing • Join the “Open Cloud Manifesto” group • Visit opencloudmanifesto.org

The principles in action • The Cloud Computing Use Cases Google group has a white paper of common use cases • Join us at groups.google.com/ group/cloud-computing-use-cases • Version 2 of the paper is available at bit.ly/1FXRAH

Issues with the Internet • “It’s not secure.” • “I don’t want to lose control of my infrastructure.” • “I don’t know how reliable it is.” • “I don’t know if my partners are going to use it.” • All of these were important, legitimate issues • With VPNs and other technology, the industry solved these problems

Issues with the cloud • “It’s not secure.” • “I don’t want to lose control of my infrastructure.” • “I don’t know how reliable it is.” • “I don’t know if my partners are going to use it.” • All of these are important, legitimate issues • We’ve got some work to do, but the massive economic incentives mean someone will find a way to solve these problems

Key questions to ask • Will cloud computing help create and deliver innovative business and consumer services to achieve greater competitive differentiation? • Can cloud computing help to quickly achieve goals for IT optimization, cost savings and faster time to market? • Is competitive advantage gained by using cloud computing?

developerWorks Cloud computing resources developerWorks Cloud space • Provides a single place to get access to videos, forums and many other resources around cloud computing. • Links to development AMIs, demos and supporting collateral. • Links to other IBM cloud resources and IBM SaaS Partner Program www.ibm.com/developerworks/spaces/cloud • developerWorks technical content about Cloud computing • Cloud computing downloads on developerWorks http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/cloud.html • developerWorks Technical Library: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/search/searchResults.jsp?searchType=1&searchSite=dW&searchScope=dW&query=cloud+computing&Search=Search • IBM EC2 AMI Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/downloads/faq-ec2/faq-ec2.html

IBM Academic Initiative IBM Academic Initiative mission is to work closely with colleges and universities that have interest in supporting open standards, seek to use open source and IBM technologies for teaching purposes, to better educate millions of students for a more competitive IT workforce. ibm.com/academicinitiative

An Introduction to Cloud Computing