CLOUD COMPUTING IN LIBRARIESBasic concepts and library applications

Library Services in the CloudAugust 2, 2012

Marshall BreedingIndependent Consult, Author, Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guideswww.librarytechnology.org/twitter.com/mbreeding

Summary Explore the use of cloud computing in a

library setting Practical examples for general business

automation Strategic library products offered

through cloud technologies

Cloud Computing for Libraries

Volume 11 in The Tech Set

Published by Neal-Schuman / ALA TechSource

ISBN: 781555707859

http://www.neal-schuman.com/ccl

Book Image Publication Info:

Cloud computing as marketing term

Cloud computing used very freely, tagged to almost any virtualized environment

Any arrangement where the library relies on some kind of remote hosting environment for major automation components

Includes almost any vendor-hosted product offering

Cloud computing – characteristics

Web-based Interfaces Externally hosted Pricing: subscription or utility Highly abstracted computing model Provisioned on demand Scaled according to variable needs Elastic – consumption of resources can

contract and expand according to demand

Fundamental technology shift Mainframe computing Client/Server Cloud Computing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrick/61952845/http://soacloudcomputing.blogspot.com/2008/10/cloud-computing.html

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2001/jw-1019-jxta.html

Gartner Hype Cycle 2009

Gartner Hype Cycle 2010

Gartner Hype Cycle 2011

Local Computing Traditional model Locally owned and managed Shifting from departmental to enterprise Departmental servers

co-located in central IT data centers

Increasingly virtualized

Virtualization The ability for multiple

computing images to simultaneously exist on one physical server

Physical hardware partitioned into multiple instances using virtual machine management tools such as VMware

Applicable to local, remote, and cloud models

Infrastructure-as-a-service Provisioning of Equipment Servers, storage

Virtual server provisioning Examples:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Rackspace Cloud www.rackspacecloud.com/

) EMC2 Atmos (www.atmosonline.com/)

Amazon EC2 Amazon Machine Instances (AMI)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Debian Fedora Ubuntu Linux Open Solaris Windows Server 2003/2008

Software-as-a-Service Complete software application, customized for

customer use Software delivered through cloud infrastructure,

data stored on cloud Eg: Salesforce.com—widely used business

infrastructure Multi-tenant: all organizations that use the

service share the same instance (codebase, hardware resources, etc) Often partitioned to separate some groups of

subscribers

Application service provider Legacy business applications hosted by software

vendor Standalone application on discrete or virtualized

hardware Staff and public clients accessed via the Internet Same user interfaces and functionality as if

installed locally Established as a deployment model in the 1990’s Can be implemented through Infrastructure-as-a

Service Individual instances of legacy system hosted in EC2

ASP vs SaaS

From: THINKstrategies: CIO’s Guide to Software-as-a-Service

Storage-as-a-Service Provisioned, on-demand storage Bundled to, or separate from other cloud

services

Cloud computing in action

Common Library Examples

Cloud computing trends for libraries Increased migration away from local

computing toward some form of remote / hosted / virtualized alternative

Cloud computing especially attractive to libraries with few technology support personnel

Adequate bandwidth will continue to be a limiting factor

Operation of a library’s Web site Fewer libraries choosing to operate their

Web sites on local servers Simple sites: Web hosting services Intermediate sites: Hosted CMS

Drupal consulting firm + hosting service Complex sites

Custom programming EC2 or other Infrastructure as a service

Mail and Calendaring Many libraries just use individual accounts on Gmail or similar

services A more sophisticated approach uses mail services from

Google, Microsoft, or others institutionally Google Apps for Businesses Microsoft Exchange Online

Same interface, but e-mail addresses carry the institutional domain name Free or low-cost for small organizations Professional levels for larger organizations

Supplemental services: No advertising Back-up and recovery services Service Level agreement

Document creation and collaboration

Google Docs / Google Drive Microsoft Office 365 Zoho.com

Concerns / Issues: Documents as official institutional records Backup and recovery process Private or Subject to FOIA?

Data in the cloud Storage as a service Informal / small-scale

Dropbox (2GB+) Microsoft Skydrive (7GB+) Mostly used as supplemental storage and for

sharing Institutional / Larger-scale

Local storage still dominant When using cloud storage for institutional data

Multiple tiers of backup with SLA DuraCloud, S3, many others

Platform-as-a-Platform as a Service

Virtualized computing environment for deployment of software

Application engine, no specific server provisioning

Examples: Google App Engine

SDKs for Java, Python Heroku: ruby platform Amazon Web Service

Library Specific platforms WorldShare Platform

Library automation through SaaS Almost all library automation products

offered through hosted options SaaS or ASP?

ILS Products offered as SaaS (mostly ASP)

SirsiDynix Symphony SirsiDynix Horizon Innovative Interfaces Millennium Ex Libris Aleph EOS International EOS.Web Evergreen – Equinox Software Koha – LibLime, ByWater, many others

internationally …many other examples …

Multi-tenant SaaS Serials Solutions

Summon Intota (Announced for 2012-13) 360 Search, 360 Link, KnowledgeWorks

Ex Libris Alma Primo Central

BiblioCommons OCLC WorldShare Management Services

Data as a service SaaS provides opportunity for highly shared data models WorldCat: one globally shared copy that serves all

libraries Primo Central: central index of articles maintained by Ex

Libris shared by all libraries implementing Primo / Primo Central Global Knowledgebase of e-journal holdings shared among

all customers of SFX Serials Solutions: KnowledgeWorks General opportunity to move away from library-by-

library metadata management to globally shared workflows

Platform as a Service OCLC WorldShare Platform

WorldShare Management Services WorldShare License Manager Library-created applications

Repositories in the cloud Dspace – institutional repository

application Fedora – generalized repository platform DuraSpace – organization now over both

Dspace and Fedora DuraCloud – shared, hosted repository

platform Pilot since 2009, production in early 2011 www.duraspace.org/duracloud.php

Caveats and concerns with SaaS Libraries must have adequate bandwidth

to support access to remote applications without latency

Quality of service agreements that guarantee performance and reliability factors

Configurability and customizability limitations

Access to API’s Ability to interoperate with 3rd party

applications Eg: Connect SaaS ILS with discovery

product from another vendor

Preserve your brand! Be sure that your services delivered

through your own URL Most cloud services support domain

aliases Accomplished through DNS configuration

Implemented by your network administrator

Create CNAME entry to redirect cloud service to a subdomain associated with your library:

S3.mylibrary.org = s3.amazonaws.com.

Cost implications Total cost of ownership Do all cost components result in increased or

decreased expense Personnel costs – need less technical administration Hardware – server hardware eliminated Software costs: subscription, license,

maintenance/support Indirect costs: energy costs associated with power and

cooling of servers in data center IaaS: balance elimination of hardware investments

for ongoing usage fees Especially attractive for development and prototyping

Risks and concerns Privacy of data

Policies, regulations, jurisdictions Ownership of data

Avoid vendor lock-in Integrity of Data

Backups and disaster recovery

Security issues Most providers implement stronger

safeguards beyond the capacity of local institutions

Virtual instances equally susceptible to poor security practices as local computing

Increased pressure Library automation vendors promoting

SaaS offerings Some companies already exclusively SaaS

Software pricing increasingly favorable to SaaS

Caveat Technologies promoted by companies

and organizations have a vested interest in their adoption

Critically assess viability of the technology and its appropriateness for your organization

Start with low-risk projects before making strategic commitments

Questions and Discussion