Intro to Cloud Computing

Fred Stluka
Bristle Software, Inc.
Oct 29, 2009

fred@bristle.com

http://bristle.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/ / CC BY 2.0

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Who is Fred Stluka?

Founder/CEO of Bristle Software, Inc.
http://bristle.com
Java/Web/Ajax/SQL programmer
Agile
- Agile/Lean software development
- Not "rigidly agile"
- Agile (pay as you go) contracts
- Agile (bite-sized) learning
Mailing lists and Web sites
http://bristle.com/invite.htm
Cloud Computing Tips mailing list and Web page
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing?

"Next big thing" (Internet, Web, Cloud, ...)
Sharing large server computers
Information System Utility
- IT as a utility, like water, sewer, electric, phone, cable TV
Old technology
- 1970's: "mainframe", "time-sharing", "virtual machine"
- 1980's: "network", "LAN", "WAN", "Internet"
- 1990's: "World-Wide Web", "hosting service", "groupware"
- 2000's: "virtualization", "hypervisor"
- Add them together and add a jazzy name
- Technology is already mature
Why now? Broadband!
- Everyone has it, and it's not expensive
- Distance to CPU is irrelevant
- Distance to data is irrelevant
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#intro_to_cloud_computing

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Why Cloud Computing? (1/3)

Lower cost (economies of scale)
- Few large computers instead of many small ones
  - Less idle CPUs consuming electricity
  - Less heat generated, so less air conditioning cost
  - Less physical space
- Centralized IT staff and support equipment
  - File backups
  - Software upgrades/patches
  - Software configuration/policies
  - Hardware upgrades/repairs (RAM, disk, UPS)
  - Virus scanners, signature files
  - Security (firewalls, tripwire, logwatch)
  - Account creation/monitoring
  - Disk space quotas
You focus on business needs, not computer infrastructure
- Producing products
- Selling products
- Paying invoices
- Collecting payments
- Communicating (e-mail, shared docs and spreadsheets, etc.)

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Why Cloud Computing? (2/3)

Scalable
- Allocate more virtual servers as needed
- Instantly -- no purchasing and shipping delay
- Pay only for what you use
  - Don't pay to maintain peak capacity
  - Most IT resources world-wide are used less than 15%
Disaster Recovery
- Super thin client
  - Smart version of "dumb terminal"
  - Possibly no local hard drive
  - Viruses are not possible -- power off/on wipes it clean
  - No need for client computer backup
    - Computer dies, computer stolen, facility burns down?
      - No problem!
      - Plug in a new client computer
      - Connect to server via Web browser
      - Resume work immediately
- Robust server
  - Redundant data
  - Cloneable servers
  - Hot swap

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Why Cloud Computing? (3/3)

Mobile workers
- Work from any client computer (home, office, friend's house, Internet cafe, cell phone)
Collaborate
- Share files
- Concurrent editing, not mailing files back and forth
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#intro_to_cloud_computing

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Why Not Cloud Computing?

Lack of control
- Limited options offered by Cloud vendor
- Data security
  - Is the Cloud vendor trustworthy? Do your customers think so too?
  - Is the Cloud vendor competent to keep others out?
    - If not, how to explain to your customer w/o "Passing the buck" or "Pointing fingers"?
  - Is the line to the Cloud server secure?
- Resiliency (24x7, "5-nines")
  - Is the Cloud vendor competent to ensure it?
- Long-term viability
  - What if the Cloud vendor goes bankrupt?
  - Will data remain secure?
  - Will data be returned? In what format? Easily imported to another vendor?
- Beware vendor lock-in
  - Look for open standards
  - Look for "import" and especially "export"
  - Look for growing flexibility
  - Beware Microsoft-like companies
- More info:

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Where is Cloud Computing? (1/4)

Public Cloud
Private Cloud
Hybrid Cloud
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#public_private_hybrid

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Where is Cloud Computing? (2/4)

Public Cloud

http://www.flickr.com/photos/schristia/ / CC BY 2.0
- Outside of your building
- Accessible to public
- Any valid login has access
- Convenient
- Secure? Password-cracking, line sniffing, security exploits.

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Where is Cloud Computing? (3/4)

Private Cloud

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oimax/ / CC BY 2.0
- Same technology, same advantages
- Secure, not accessible to public security exploits
  - Large companies
    - In your building, behind your firewall, on your cloud servers
  - Small companies
    - Outside of your building
    - Secure comm lines (dedicated line, encryption, VPN, SSL)
    - Restricted set of client computers, IP addresses, etc.

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Where is Cloud Computing? (4/4)

Hybrid Cloud

http://www.flickr.com/photos/liberato/ / CC BY-SA 2.0
- Recent innovation
- Cloud with public and private parts
- Efficient communication between parts
  - Not routed to your building, through your firewall, and back out to the cloud
- More info:
  http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#public_private_hybrid

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

SaaS -- Software as a Service

Examples:
- Web e-mail
- Google Docs, Google Apps
- Salesforce.com
No install, software runs remotely
- Thin client, no hard drive
- No patching, upgrading, etc.
- No backups (disk crash, house fire, etc.)
- Power on computer, run browser, be productive
- Readonly boot drive
- No virus scanner
Access from anywhere (work, home, friend's house, Internet cafe)
- Share files, collaborate
Pro: convenience, ease of use, powerful apps
Con: inflexible usage models, no programming, vendor lock-in
- Most offer import/export
Ideal user: Computer user, not programmer or sys admin
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#saas_intro

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

PaaS -- Platform as a Service

Examples:
- Google App Engine (different from Google Apps)
- Force.com (platform underlying Salesforce.com)
SaaS for programmers, instead of users
- Fewer apps, more development tools
- No install, software runs remotely
  - Thin client, no hard drive
  - No patching, upgrading, etc.
  - No backups (disk crash, house fire, etc.)
  - Power on computer, run browser, be productive
  - Readonly boot drive
  - No virus scanner
Access from anywhere (work, home, friend's house, Internet cafe)
- Share files, collaborate
Pro: convenience, ease of use, powerful tools
Con: inflexible programming models, vendor lock-in
- More options added to Google App Engine:
  - Was: Python only
  - Now: Also JVM (Java, Groovy, JRuby, Scala, Clojure, AspectJ)
  - Now: BigTable, GQL only
  - Future: SQL?
Ideal user: Computer programmer, not sys admin
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#paas_intro

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

IaaS -- Infrastructure as a Service

Examples:
- Amazon Web Services, lots of others
Simulation of a server
- Just like a physical server w/o:
  - Hardware cost, electricity, Internet connection cost
- Install and configure yourself
- Hypervisor runs OSs, like OS runs programs (IBM VM)
- Less electricity/AC overall, sits idle less
- Allocated Disks, RAM, CPU
Apps/tools
- Standard apps/tools bundled with the OS
- Other standard apps/tools may be preconfigured
- Install/write your own apps/tools
Cons:
- Installs
- Patching, upgrading, etc.
- Security (tripwire, logwatch, virus scan)
- But, you can farm out all of these
Pros:
- Vendor does backups, data duplication, etc
- Access from anywhere (work, home, friend's house, Internet cafe)
  - Share files, collaborate
- Control: No unexpected buggy patches, version upgrades, etc.
- Portability!!!
  - Standard OS, standard admin skills
  - No GUI or binary installs, no point/click all day
  - Simply copy config files to a new server
Ideal user: Sys admin, who may be a programmer and/or user
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#iaas_intro

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

IaaS Use Cases

Large companies reducing total number of servers
- But, personally, I don't have hundreds of servers
VMWare, Parallels, etc. as way to run Windows in Mac OS X
- Might be useful sometimes, if I paid for the Windows license
So why did I bother?
- DSL modem resets
- Electricity/phone line outages
- Hardware updates (new UPS every couple years)
- Aging server -- major hardware upgrade looming
- Cost: $32/month vs $120/month just for DSL line
- Much bigger/better/faster
- Easily scalable
  - Client bidding a huge new contract
  - Scale as needed, within minutes, instead of buying max hardware just in case

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

New Possibilities

Stop all servers during off hours (and stop paying)
Spin up 100 more servers for holiday shopping weekend
Disposable server for an experiment
Training server -- easy to wipe
Cutting over from DEV to TEST to PROD
Was that file/userid already there?
- Fire up a new vanilla server for 10 cents and find out
- So cheap that employees will buy their own, like pencils
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#aws_intro

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

AWS -- Amazon Web Services

Paid service to create virtual Linux and Windows servers
Specific Amazon services:
- S3 -- Simple Storage Service
- EC2 -- Elastic Compute Cloud
  - EBS -- Elastic Block Store (maps EC2 to S3)
  - VPC -- Virtual Private Cloud
  - CloudWatch -- monitoring, metrics, reports
  - ELB -- Elastic Load Balancing
  - Auto Scaling -- Automatically allocate more resources
- RDS -- Relational DB Service
- SQS -- Simple Queue Service
Features
- Inexpensive
- Convenient
- Scalable
- New possibilities
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#aws_intro

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Getting Started at AWS

Steps:
1. Create AWS Accounts
2. Set Up Security
3. Launch an EC2 Server Instance
4. Login to the Instance
5. Set the hostname
6. Set an Elastic IP Address
7. Point the DNS at the IP Address
8. Relay Mail Through Another SMTP Server
9. Mount a Persistent EBS Volume
10. Configure the Server Instance
11. Move Files to the EBS Volume
12. Reserve an Instance to Save Money
13. Manage Your AWS Billing
More info:
http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm#aws_getting_started

Bristle Software Cloud Computing

Questions?

http://bristle.com/Tips/CloudComputing.htm
http://bristle.com/invite.htm
http://bristle.com
mailto:fred@bristle.com
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