Cloud Computing

Larry GottschalkComputer Science Faculty

Metropolitan State University

Definition

• The movement of computing from the desktop and corporate servers to computing services (on a myriad of hosts/servers).

• Striking similarity to service bureaus and time-sharing systems of 40 years ago.

• Biggest difference: now is internet connections, instead of dedicated phone lines.

Analogous to Elec Utility

• Billed for services used• Separate bill from each utility used• Visibility to infrastructure costs (unlike now

with x employees, y servers used for both development AND operations)

• “on demand computing” says it all

Drivers

• Cost to maintain applications on desktops, departmental and enterprise servers is astronomical, and not getting better.

• Distraction of IT staff by doing maintenance• Service level management also is outsourced.• Reliability (service level can be contract item)• Cost: 18% lower; electric power 16% less• Abililty to experiment with one or two apps

Cloud Architecture

• Large server farms• Linked by high-bandwidth connections• Carefully managed, highly tuned.

Cloud Major Players

• The usual heavy hitters have entered:– Oracle– IBM– Yahoo– Amazon– Google– Microsoft– Qwest, and other phone companies

Terminology• Cloud Computing also referred to as:– On demand computing– Software as a service– The Internet as platform

• (First two phrases worked back in time sharing days also.)

• Virtualization:– Location of service hidden behind generic URL– Variable number of servers running your app(s)• Done with high speed links within server farms

Different Offerings

• The next four slides list discrete market offerings of Cloud Computing:– Infrastructure as a service (Most important)– Software as a service (2nd most important– Desktop productivity tools into the cloud(minor)– “dumb terminals” serviced by cloud (minor)

CC: Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS)

• This is the time-share of 40 years ago. You can move your corporate apps to the Cloud.

• The Cloud provider is responsible for uptime, and for restarting apps when they crash.

• Enterprise gains dynamic scalability (if have contracted for it)

• Enterprise gets locked into vendor APIs– API== “Application Programming Interface”

CC: Software as a Service (SAAS)

• Second most important segment• Useful applications:– Customer contact tracking– Market research– Engineering applications– ERPs– Industry specific apps in • Petroleum, Engineering, Medicine, Transportation

CC: Desktop productivity tools into the cloud

• Minor segment• Desktop productivity becomes remote service:– Google docs– Buzzword (bought by Adobe)– Photoshop Express

CC: “dumb terminals” serviced by cloud

• Minor segment• Some (10%?) of PCs will have no OS nor even

browser. Simply a boot program to download and start the server apps.

• Examples of dumb-terminal emulation s/w:– eyeOS system– AIR (formerly Apollo) from Adobe– Open-Laszlo, an open-source project

Restraints to adoption

• Disruptive• Price appears as line item CEO can criticize• CIO’s desire to build empire• Lots of re-packaging without innovation,

which is masked by excessive hyped marketing

Other restraints to adoption• Privacy: can leaks of data be prevented?• Security: will data ever be lost? (no FDIC for data)• Reliability: can level of service guarantees be met? • Ownership issues– If you terminate subscription and you discover

you need a document, can you get it?– Can you really ever delete a document?– If gov’t subpoenas your data, will you even be

told, and ever be told whether data was surrendered or not.

What does future hold?

• Possible• Probable• Desirable

Possible

• Worst case: there are one or two disasters written up widely, causing pulling back by clients.

• Bad case: huge cost of outsourcing becomes better understood

• Good case: 40 to 60% of Enterprise Computing gets outsourced

• Best case: Enterprise computer centers wither.

Probable

• Innovation will continue, with massive value for customers

• Market may get overheated with everyone jumping in, and customers oversold

• In lead now are Google, Amazon, VMWare, Citrix, Microsoft, HP, and IBM.

• Innovators at this time are Google, Amazon, and VMWare.

Desirable

• Cloud computing is seen as alternative to in-house processing. Each firm strikes a balance between the two depending on its own values.– Ownership of data– Ability to determine own destiny– Desire to get out from under maintenance.

• Example: Target.com vis-à-vis Amazon.

Lots of new entrants

• The startsups will or are becoming IPOs• McAfee and Verizon teaming up• Cisco/EMC joint venture (large storage)• Compuware (application monitoring)• Rackspace• Cetrom/ASCIIgroup joint venture (CaaS)• IBM SmarterPlanet

DOD

• RACE (Rapid Access Computing Environment)Claims 99.99% availability (53 minutes down / year)

Discussion questions

• What industries or market segments will become adopters beyond just the mission critical apps?– Large firms? Medium firms?

• What are effects on vendors to IT:– Server market– Large storage market