Emerging Utility and Cloud Computing Models
Ivan I. Ivanov
Empire State College, State University of New York
Long Island Center, Hauppauge, NY 11788, U.S.A.
ivan.ivanov@esc.edu
Abstract. This paper explores emerging opportunities and challenges for end-
users and corporations with the shift in the geography of computing services
and applications. Recent trends in consolidated Enterprise Information
Technology solutions have proven to enhance business efficiency when
significant fractions of local computing activities are migrating away from end-
user computers and enterprise servers. Data, Information Systems and
Enterprise Applications are being removed from desktop PCs and departmental
servers and are being integrated and packaged on the Web into “the computing
cloud.” The shift from locally installed and maintained programs and systems to
hosted services in “the compute cloud” affects the entire computational
ecosystem, from the CIO to the end-user, software developer, systems analyst,
and IT/IS vendor. We may need to take a fresh look at Thomas Watson’s
pivotal statement from 1943 “I think there’s a world market for maybe five
computers.” There are several distinct innovations towards emerging
centralized computational mega-structures such as:
Grid computing infrastructure, middleware and application services
Virtualization for more transparent scaling of complex systems
Utility Computing services and models
Dynamic Resources and Computing in the Cloud.
Growingly companies seem to achieve business advantage from the recent IT
transformations and different forms of Cloud or Utility Computing services.
Conversely, many issues remain: how well do the new models protect our
investments, business specific challenges, innovations, privacy, and information
security?
Keywords. Utility Computing, Cloud Computing, Internal-, External-, Private-,
Community-, Public Cloud, Cloud Software as a Service, Cloud Platform as a
Service, Cloud Infrastructure as a Service.
1 Introduction
The past decade has witnessed important Information Technology (IT) advances and
shifts in geography of computing services, applications and capabilities. The IT
transformations and changes stimulate business adaptations and social adjustments to
a great extend.
The economic difficulties in 2000s, the cost-effective strength of the Internet, and
some new technological advances have made businesses more vigilant and more
demanding about the return of their IT investments [6]. The economic and social
Ivanov I.
Emerging Utility and Cloud Computing Models.
DOI: 10.5220/0004463100480056
In Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Enter prise Systems and Technology (I-WEST 2009), pages 48-56
ISBN: 978-989-674-015-3
Copyright
c
2009 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
motivation for efficient consolidated IT solutions such as utility or cloud computing is
steadily increasing. Insightful businesses and IT organizations are grasping the ideas,
discerning what the emerging technology and models are and how they can use them
to create a competitive advantage. Any delays in understanding and adapting
novelties might lead to dramatic changes or collapses. One of the many examples
from the first decade of the century is with the retail book industry - it was slow in
adapting to the Internet and E-commerce opportunities and got “Amazoned.”
Fig. 1. Internet evolving into Cloud [1].
The magnitude of the Internet revolution broadens with the advancement of the
infrastructure, operations and available services though the global network.
According to Delic and Walker [1], the evolution of the Internet infrastructure and
associated activities (Fig. 1) is heading in the Third Generation – The Cloud Services.
There is a new wave of interest in “Externalization of IT” --anything as a service
(including Software as a Service - SaaS, Infrastructure as a Service - IaaS, Platform as
a Service - PaaS), On-Demand, Utility and Cloud Computing, Outsourcing-- and
many businesses are exploring any alternatives that would allow them to reduce IT
operating costs while improving and intensifying information resources. Growing
companies appear to achieve business advantage from the recent IT transformations,
different forms and delivery models of Utility or Cloud Computing services.
New Utility and Cloud computing services are changing the ways we think of IT,
from economics of delivery mode to process and usage models. Many organizations
look to the cloud as a potential cost-savings boon by moving internally hosted IT
services to external providers. Other IT organizations view the Cloud as a potential
disaster recovery plan or as on-demand elastic capacity to boost business continuity
and operating service levels. The shift from locally installed and maintained programs
and systems to hosted services in “the compute cloud” affects the entire
computational ecosystem, from the CIO to the end-user, software developer, systems
analyst, and IT/IS vendor. We may need to take a fresh look at Thomas Watson’s
pivotal statement from 1943 “I think there’s a world market for maybe five
computers.”
Just as it was with that new-fangled ''Internet'' mania few decades ago, the Cloud
and the technologies of Cloud Computing suffer from confusion and hype [2].
Multiple proprietary related definitions, competing vendors and alliances, undefined
risks, new business models’ obscure utility and cloud computing services are slowing
down adoption. Although there is tremendous interest in the “Externalization of IT”
services, most organizations are approaching it cautiously until they have a more
complete picture of the risks involved.
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Beyond important economic aspects of the emerging utility and cloud computing
models, I assume the business sector and society at large will see benefits and
opportunities in a global scale of utilizing those services. In this paper, I will describe
some of these new business oriented systems and models in more detail.
2 The Evolution of Computing Mega-Structures
As the demand of faster and more powerful computing structures increases, and as the
number and variety of applications and services progressively elevates, the need for
more capable and dynamic computing environments increases, too. According to the
IBM Corporation White Paper “Seeding the Cloud,” the evolution toward Cloud
Computing started in the late 1980s with the concepts of grid computing [4].
Grid computing specifically refers to leveraging massive number of computers in
parallel to solve particular problems, or to run specific applications. The key element
of Grid computing is that computers, or nodes, in a grid are able to act independently
without centralized control, handling requests as they are made and scheduling others.
Grid computing is the underlying technology for utility computing. In a long term,
grid computing is heading towards a convergence of utility computing from the
pricing and delivery prospective, and Web services-based integration and virtualized
technologies to enable multiple, networked computers to be managed as one [13].
Amongst vendors developing and exploiting grid concepts are HP with HP Adaptive
Enterprise Initiative, Sun Microsystems Network One, IBM’s On-Demand
Computing, and Oracle Grid Computing.
In the late 1990s, with virtualization of systems, servers and applications, the
model has expanded to higher level of abstraction – a virtual platform, including
storage and network resources, and subsequently virtual applications, which have no
specific underlying infrastructure. Utility computing has offered clusters as virtual
platforms for computing with a metered business model [4]. The utility computing
uniquely integrates storage, applications, computing power and network infrastructure
as a foundation for business adjustable IT services. It offers companies and private
users an access to hosted computing services, scalable and portable business
applications through a utility-like, pay-on-demand service over the Internet network.
In the ultimate utility computing models, organizations will be able to acquire as
much IT services as they need, whenever and wherever they need them [7].
Fig. 2. Evolution toward Cloud Computing [4].
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Lately, software as a service (SaaS) has elevated the level of virtualization to
applications. The SaaS model has been developed to overcome common enterprise
challenges to meet fluctuating demands on IT resources efficiently. Whether referred
to a SaaS, utility computing, or hosted services, the idea is basically the same: instead
of buying, installing and supporting expensive packaged enterprise applications or
systems, users can access and utilize “externalized” applications over the network and
pay a fixed subscription fee, or an actual usage fee [14].
The concept of cloud computing has evolved from the concepts of grid, utility and
SaaS. In reference to IEEE Computer Society definition cloud computing “is a
paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and
cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centers, table
computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, etc.” Cloud computing is an
emerging model through which users can gain access to their applications and
systems from anywhere, at any time, through their connected devices. These
applications and services reside in massively scalable data centers, structured in
public or private clouds, where compute resources can be dynamically provisioned
and shared to achieve significant economics of scale. The strength of the cloud
computing model is its infrastructure management, enabled by the maturity and
progress of virtualization technology to manage and better utilize the underlying
resources through automatic provisioning, re-imaging, workload balancing,
monitoring, change request handling, and dynamic and automated security and
resiliency platform [4].
3 Cloud Computing Characteristics and Models
Cloud computing is still an evolving model and definitions, underlying technologies,
issues, risks, and benefits have been developed in vigorous debates by the providers,
public and private sector users. There are neither standards nor agreed definitions
related to the Cloud computing. The most illustrative description of what the cloud is
comes from Kevin Marks, of Google "The idea of cloud computing comes from the
early days of the Internet, where we drew the network as a cloud. We didn't care
where the messages went --they came in one side and out the other-- and we didn't
have to worry about the network … the cloud hid it from us."
According to Wyatt Kash, editor in chief for Government Computer News, “A
group of leading standards development organizations are working jointly to foster
common standards for cloud computing and storage, beginning with the launch a new
site called cloud-standards.org.” The organizations joining in the collaborative effort
include the Cloud Security Alliance, the Distributed Management Task Force, the
Open Grid Forum, the Storage Networking Industry Association and the Open Cloud
Consortium, with other groups expected to participate. The Clouds Standards
Coordination working group plans to focus its efforts on identifying current and
emerging practices and products supporting cloud computing. In addition, it expects
to help rationalize cloud computing security, deployment and data-exchange formats,
taxonomies and reference models, storage standards and service-level agreements [8].
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3.1 Cloud Computing Definitions and Characteristics
The National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S.A. has drafted a definition
of Cloud computing to serve as a starting point for government agencies and to
maintain the implementers and providers on the same track.
According Peter Mell and Tim Grance from NIST “Cloud computing is a model
for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable
computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that
can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service
provider interaction. As the cloud computing industry represents a large ecosystem of
many models, vendors, and market niches, this definition attempts to encompass all of
the various cloud approaches. This cloud model promotes availability and is
composed of five essential characteristics, three delivery models, and four
deployment models” [5].
In relation to NIST definition the five key cloud Characteristics are [9]:
On-demand self-service - a consumer can unilaterally provision computing
capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed
automatically without requiring human interaction with service’s provider.
Ubiquitous network access - capabilities are available over the network and
accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous
thin or thick client platforms.
Location independent resource pooling - the provider’s computing resources
are pooled to serve all consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different
physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned
according to consumer demand. The customer generally has no control or
knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able
to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or
datacenter). Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory,
network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
Rapid elasticity - capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned to
quickly scale up and rapidly released to quickly scale down. To the
consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be
infinite and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.
Measured Service - cloud systems automatically control and optimize
resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction
appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and
active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and
reported providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the
utilized service.
3.2 Cloud Computing Delivery and Deployment Models
NIST team has defined three Delivery Models based on the variety of services
requested by the consumer and supported by the provider. Delivery Model
Architecture – see Figure 3, must be deployed on top of cloud infrastructure that
incorporates the listed above key characteristics [9]:
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Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) - the capability provided to the consumer
is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure and
accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as
a Web browser. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying
cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even
individual application capabilities.
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) - the capability provided to the
consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created
applications using programming languages and tools supported by the
provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud
infrastructure, but the consumer has control over the deployed applications
and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - the capability provided to the
consumer is to rent processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental
computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary
software, which can include operating systems and applications. The
consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but
has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and
possibly select networking components.
Fig. 3. Delivery Model Architectures [9].
In the same NIST document, Peter Mell and Tim Grance have described four
Deployment Models specified in two types of clouds: internal or external, depending
on where the clouds reside – within or outside of organization’s network security
parameters:
Private cloud - the cloud infrastructure is owned or leased by a single
organization and is operated solely for that organization.
Community cloud - the cloud infrastructure is shared by several
organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns.
Public cloud - the cloud infrastructure is owned by an organization selling
cloud services to the general public or to a large industry group.
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Hybrid cloud - the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more
clouds (internal, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are
bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data
and application portability.
The NIST drafted definition, characteristics and models are in compliance with
currently well positioned platforms such as VMware's vSphere and the open source
Eucalyptus software. Similarity and matching descriptions related to types of clouds
and delivery models appear with VMware Cloud Business Types, see Figure 4, and
NIST defined above models [9].
Fig. 4. VMware vSphere and vCenter on and off premise clouds [15].
4 Utilizing the Cloud to Tackle Limitations
A growing number of investors and consumers are exploring cloud options and
opportunities while Amazon, Google, Oracle, SUN Microsystems, VMware already
have appealing offerings and leading companies in the sector such as Microsoft, HP
and IBM are investing billions in this initiative. According to leading vendors’ and
implementers’ the new mega-trend - Cloud computing, has become a bona fide
enterprise solution when users want to avoid dealing with infrastructure and
configuration management. It works well as a consumer service such as SaaS, Web
and DB hosting, email, and offsite PCs backup. On the developer side, it lends itself
to Web applications design, content delivery, and building online systems and
applications where scale, performance, and selection of infrastructure and software
environment aren’t critical. The provider or the service partners’ ecosystem are in
complete control of the infrastructure, the platform and the services.
Grid and Utility computing users, conversely, are more inclined to install,
arrange, scale and manage online services using the provider’s resources being in
most cases in full control of the infrastructure and applications. There is immense
variety in possible and actual configurations of technologies and infrastructure to
support utility and grid computing models. According to Alfredo Mendoza [10], well
established and proven technologies like virtualization, advanced application
accounting, and dynamic partitioning, that have long existed in mainframes and now
are available on newer server architectures in combination with grid computing, web
services and hyper-threading technologies are contributing to create grid
infrastructures and promote the utility model. The two models fit well where the
implementers need to control geographic distribution, scalable compute resources,
bandwidth, and performance in order to manage the user experience as the
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applications are in their own data center. Analyzing the three concepts – grid, utility
and cloud computing, their evolution and differences listed above, the final argument
actually is: outsourcing IT operations to providers or purchasing your own IT assets.
All three models have proved, in many cases, better and more efficient ways of
delivering enterprise IT services, but the final decision may well come down to how
confident the user feels about the utility or cloud computing provider. When planning
the shift to the clouds there are different options depending on what you want to put
there and for how long. Although vendor offers similar services, while moving your
computing applications away from your own premises, they might apply quite
different pricing models and SLAs. Users have to take into account the current needs,
potential growth and ability to change the SLA with forms and cloud services that suit
the company best. In her review of recent cloud services, Jarina D’Auria from CIO
magazine describes Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) as an environment to
run computing resources while keeping the control over the data in the user’s hands
and emphasizing pay-per use model. The new Google App Engine allows you to build
your own virtual application to run Web applications on Google’s servers and features
include dynamic Web serving, automatic scaling and load balancing, storage sorting,
APIs for authenticating users and different pricing scales. The VMware vSphere 4 and
vCloud initiative are providing the capability to move physical infrastructures and
broader application capability on and off premise via hundreds of cloud services
providers. By moving all physical data centers, companies not only save computing
and operation costs but also have one silo for storage and resource management ,
based on vMotion management tools, VMsafe security APIs and data recovery
systems [11].
Applying any of the available cloud services, the users will have, in most cases,
unlimited computing resources, elastic infrastructure and more opportunities for new
applications at a price they are able to pay and with no upfront costs. Strategizing the
company final solution it might be most appropriate to build a specific hybrid model
incorporating internal private cloud for the most sensitive data and critical
applications and to outsource into public or community clouds some less decisive
systems and routine applications. Evolving the internal IT infrastructure toward a
cloud-like model for supporting the most sensitive and critical business operation at
lower risk and higher security will enhance and facilitate the integration with outside
applications running into external clouds [12]. In many industries such approach
would decrease the risk of total outsourcing and the company will better control its
information assets. Amongst higher educational institutions most of them keep and
control in their own data centers students’ records and financial systems while widely
utilized educational services from external providers such as on-line course delivering
environment (ANGEL, Blackboard), student consulting and supporting services as
Smarthinking, email and e-collaborative tools from Google (Google Apps), or back
up and archive services from Amazon (S3) or other vendors.
5 Conclusions
The shift to cloud computing will shake the $3.4 trillion global tech industry, and as
the marker researchers Gartner expects the 3.8% shrinking this year will not affect
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portables, wireless networks and cloud computing over the next few years. Gartner
predicts the market for cloud computing services will triple from $46.6 billion last
year to 150.1 billion in 2013 [3].
Ultimately, cloud computing is hovering to make a real impact on businesses of all
sizes and society at large. It gives to smaller businesses a chance to utilize resources
and services previously only IT leading companies could afford. According Vivek
Kundra, Federal CIO "The cloud will do for government what the Internet did in the
'90s … I believe it's the future … It's a fundamental change to the way our
government operates by moving to the cloud. Rather than owning the infrastructure,
we can save millions … It's moving technology leaders away from just owning assets,
deploying assets and maintaining assets to fundamentally changing the way services
are delivered.“
As any change this new mega-trend in IT industry and services may take a while
for building users’ confidence, but like any major concept, it always starts off slowly,
but once businesses and society realize the advantages of cloud computing, it will
pick up pace rapidly.
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