Cloud Foundations Chapters 1 through 3

What are 3 features of Cloud Storage?

1) Based on a highly virtualized infrastructure. 2) Acts as a single entity despite the fact that the infrastructure would most likely be geographically scattered. 3) Uses version copies, which makes it highly durable.

In addition to the cost reduction provided by using cloud computing, what are 3 other major benefits?

1) Efficiencies of scale 2) Mobility of hosting. 3) Facilitate green initiatives aimed at reducing the carbon footprint or power consumption.

What are 3 features of a Storage Area Network, or SAN?

1) Makes storage devices, typically disk arrays, accessible to servers throughout the network. 2) Utilizes a high-speed network, such as Fibre Channel (FC) through host bus adapter (HBA), to connect computer data storage. 3) Makes available several devices and ports, but restricts access for each connected system to a subset of devices/ports.

What are 5 characteristics of cloud computing, regardless of the forms that they are delivered in?

1) Managed by the provider 2) Flexible resource management 3) Network accessible 4) Sustainable 5) Managed through self-service on demand.

Give an example of Vendor Lock-in.

A Keurig coffeemaker, which can make coffee using only its proprietary single-serving packs.

What type of cloud service are Google Apps?

A PaaS application development platform.

What is a storage area network, or SAN?

A computer network which provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage. It makes storage devices, typically disk arrays, accessible to servers throughout the network.

How does a business use a private cloud?

A local private cloud resident upon hardware located in local data centers and running cloud infrastructure software allows organizations to take advantage of the self-service resource allocation and consumption metering for cost recovery billing models. The cloud software provides a standard platform for application development and availability even when the hardware remains heterogeneous in make and model.

What is Grid Computing?

A precursor to cloud computing. It is a form of parallel or distributed computing used by a super virtual computer that consists of many networked, loosely coupled computers acting together to perform large tasks. It is the easiest application architecture to migrate into the cloud.

What does Cloudonomics provide?

A rigorous foundation based on statistics, calculus, trigonometry, system dynamics, economics, and computational complexity theory, to leverage the cloud.

How can cloud computing improve response time for client websites?

A single call center could be used around the clock to support users within the local time zone, or a cloud service could transfer its operations to cloud hosting sites based on time of day to provide the lowest latency to consumers in other time zones.

What is an Economic Denial of Sustainability Attack, or EDoS?

An attack in which the attacker takes advantage of use-based cloud pricing models to drive up an organization's usage costs to unsustainable levels.

Describe server virtualization.

An organization has one or more data centers that get all of their server resources from one virtualized server sitting on a separate hardware machine. That one machine, running software such as Hyper-V or Vmware, contains the virtualized server that can be moved to a different machine if needed due to tech refreshes, disasters, etc.

What is considered Big Data?

Any data set that cannot be processed in a reasonable amount of time due to its size or complexity.

Who uses services provided by PaaS service providers?

Application developers.

What is Cloud Bursting?

Automatic failover to public cloud services when local resources are insufficient.

How does cloud computing affect data storage?

Because an organization no longer needs to worry about where data is located or what hardware resources are available on a particular server, focus can be turned to business uses of technology rather than on technology itself.

What is the tech refresh benefit of virtualization?

Because cloud hosting providers use virtualization to expand capacity and to provision new services, automated deployment speeds capacity expansion and tech refresh operations.

How does the high performance computing model benefit cloud computing?

By allowing more resources to be dedicated to an application than are present on its host server alone.

How can cloud computing help with large-scale data processing needs?

By providing high-performance computing power on demand for data-intensive analytics and modeling, allowing thousands of CPU cores to be made available without an organization having to maintain a multimillion-dollar supercomputing data center

How does cloud computing use high performance computing techniques, or HPC?

By separating individual procedures into multiple simultaneous processes that are sent out to individual computers, which then complete their portion of the final result. Individual results are combined later to provide the complete final result.

As the roles of IT change with the implementation of cloud-based services, what are 6 expected roles that will be needed to manage organizational use of cloud services?

Capacity planners, Network operation center staff, Vendor management staff, Support desk, Cloud architects, and Cloud service managers.

Describe cloud bursting.

Cloud bursting is a hybrid cloud implementation where local private cloud resources are used in support of an application until a spike in demand exceeds local resource limits, at which point the app "bursts" out of the private cloud into designated public cloud resources to manage the overrun.

How does cloud computing affect resources?

Cloud computing allows the allocation of resources to be adjusted as needed, creating a hardware-independent framework for future growth and development.

How does cloud computing help during periods of lower activity?

Cloud computing can automatically reduce resource allocations during off-peak periods.

How is a Capacity planner different that a traditional data center capacity planner?

Cloud planners must understand the performance data and operational thresholds necessary for business services and understand the key assets necessary to meet rising demands. Capacity planners will need to understand the cost associated with resource allocations within the cloud service agreements in order to work with chargeback and cost recovery financial managers.

Give 3 examples of database services that are based in the cloud.

Database as a Service (DBaaS), Data Mining as a Service (DMaaS), and Data Warehousing as a Service (DWaaS).

Describe a Storage Area Network, or SAN.

Dedicated network that provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage. It is used to make storage devices, such as disk arrays and tape libraries

What will cloud architects have to know to support the cloud computing environment?

Detailed knowledge of the layers necessary for private, hybrid, and public cloud integration. This position will require an understanding of networking and cloud infrastructural software platforms as well as an understanding of business functions that will be migrated into the cloud. They will also need an understanding of virtualization, interoperable connections, and database sharing or parallelization.

What are Model Scope Modifiers?

Different versions of cloud computing that are very specifically customized based on the specific scenario that meets the business needs of the organization.

Who uses services provided by SaaS service providers?

End users.

Describe distributed virtualization.

Extending the virtualization to include distributed resources using technologies that can transfer operations between automated systems.

Who uses services provided by IaaS service providers?

Familiar elements from traditional settings such as networking and storage and other architectural elements of interest to system administrators and enterprise planners.

Describe Network Attached Storage, or NAS.

File-level data storage that is connected to a network of heterogeneous computer systems. Manufactured as a computer appliance and used for specialized purposes.

What is cloud computing?

Flexible self-service, network-accessible computing resource pools that can be allocated to meet demand.

Give 3 examples of providers that offer PaaS services.

Google app engine, WindowsAzure, and Rackspace.

Give 5 examples of providers that offer SaaS services.

Google apps, Office365, ZOHO, SalesForce, and Aviary.

What was a pre-cursor to cloud computing?

Grid computing.

What is Infrastructure as a Service sometimes referred to as?

Hardware as a Service (HaaS) to reflect its function in providing on-demand hardware-equivalent resources such as storage and network interconnectivity to its clients, who then may provision these resources to meet an organization's particular needs.

What granular data control does hybrid computing offer to an organization?

Hybrid clouds allow organizations to retain total control over data resources that are critical, sensitive or transformative to their business operations while transferring less-sensitive operations to more efficient public cloud service providers

What does the As A Service pyramid look like?

IaaS is at the bottom, followed by PaaS, with SaaS at the top. Each layer uses the services of the layer beneath it, which is why IaaS uses the largest portion of the pyramid at the bottom, since everything is based on infrastructure.

How is SOA used by distributed virtualization?

Interoperation of application component services through service-oriented architectural (SOA) integration.

How does cloud computing affect technical refresh issues?

Issues of technical refresh are no longer based on hardware life cycles but instead are handled by the cloud provider.

What does extended metadata do?

It allows for thorough abstraction of physical storage devices and the whole underlying storage fabric from the end user or cloud tenant.

What is the benefit of multilatency?

It allows system resources to be fully utilized before another server is brought online, further reducing operating costs and data center cooling requirements.

What is the benefit of PaaS?

It expands an organization's capability to customize application development in the cloud by providing access to cloud program development tools and development environments.

What does the opposite of the As a Service pyramid look like?

It is the inverted version of the As A Service pyramid, where the upside down pyramid starts with many users using SaaS, followed by Application Developers using PaaS, and finally a small number of System Administrators using IaaS.

What does a cloud-like symbol do?

It is used in a network diagram for reducing the entire network into points of entry and exit.

Give 2 examples of Big Data.

Long-term weather forecasting, or analysis of economic trends across the entire stock market.

Give an example of how a PaaS provider can use its traditional technologies.

Microsoft's Visual Studio templates allow choosing MicrosoftAzure as one of the available template options.

What will a cloud service manager do?

More a financial manager than a purely technical professional, he will be responsible for financial management, including pricing, service levels, and service classes that will factor into cloud hosting contracts and billing policies for cloud resource consumption. This role will be involved in service retirement or renewal of hosted services, ordering and request procedures, and tracking for the total cost of cloud ownership.

What is multilatency?

Multitenancy refers to a particular hosting server sharing workloads from multiple clients or services, which are separated only by access policies configured on the cloud server software. Attacks on one service could overwhelm resources available to an unrelated service if multitenancy planning is not imposed to isolate key services.

How will the role of Network operations center personnel change due to cloud computing?

NOC staff will have to develop new strategies for monitoring and managing cloud resources.

What is a Thick Client?

Often termed as a workstation, it is an access device that has powerful CPUs, local application storage, and display and input device connections. Thick clients can run applications locally, accessing remote cloud services as needed.

How does cloud computing defend against Denial of Service attacks?

Organizations can configure resource limits so that an attacker cannot generate uncontrollable costs by adding more bots into the attack.

Give an example of how an organization could create customized cloud service implementation to meet their specific needs.

Organizations may choose to host private, community, or parts of hybrid clouds either on site or outsourced to a hosting provider. This differs from a public cloud in that access remains limited to the appropriate category (private, community, or hybrid) even though the equipment is located beyond the organization's data center.

What do organization's typically consider when deciding on a PaaS provider?

Organizations will typically select a PaaS vendor whose suite of languages aligns with existing application development human resources in house to ease adoption of new PaaS software and migration of existing services into the cloud.

Can PaaS use existing traditional technologies?

Platform as a Service cloud options are coupled to a particular vendor's technologies, languages, and other features. This is similar to the way that many application development environments are linked to a standard set of tools that their developers will use to create deployable software in traditional enterprise networks.

What are the 4 models of cloud deployments?

Private cloud, Community cloud, Hybrid cloud, and Public cloud.

What is a reason why an organization might use a private cloud instead of a public or hybrid cloud?

Private clouds are often selected when external mandates such as regulations and legislative requirements require a high degree of access accountability, control, and governance.

Describe community clouds.

Provisioned for use by a group of related organizations with shared concerns, such as a group of governmental or educational institutions that choose to share a common cloud of services not available to the general public.

Describe a private cloud.

Provisioned for use by a single user or group of users within an organization, the private cloud is owned, managed, and operated by the organization. Private clouds reside on a private network owned or managed by the organization itself.

Describe public clouds.

Provisioned for use the general public, public cloud services represent the most thoroughly virtualized cloud infrastructural design, removing data center information resources partially or completely. Public clouds reside on hosting data center resources and are accessed via the public Internet.

Describe hybrid clouds.

Provisioned using components of private, community, or public clouds, the hybrid cloud provides access to two or more infrastructures bridged by standardized technologies or proprietary cloud services.

How can SaaS be used to save money when accessed by remote employees?

Remote employees do not require leased space, dedicated equipment, and costly environmental control in expensive central office facilities.

Can SaaS services by customized?

SaaS alternatives are prebuilt and cannot be changed beyond personalization and configuration settings by the consumer.

What are 3 general business advantages to using SaaS?

SaaS applications support additional business processes, such as disaster recovery and business continuity, remote workplace assignment, and collaboration between siloed organizational components or with partners external to the organization

What are the 5 steps to go from traditional data centers to a fully virtualized cloud environment?

Server virtualization, Distributed virtualization, Private clouds, Hybrid clouds, and Public clouds.

What are the 3 As A Service, or aaS categories recognized by NIST?

Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

What are SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and XaaS?

Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service, and Everything as a Service.

How will cloud computing affect support desk staff?

Support staff will need to develop greater understanding of networking to identify the source of cloud access issues for remote services.

What are the advantages of using SaaS?

The end user only needs a web browser to access the service, and the business does not have to provide software updates, licensing, etc. End users are given access to their cloud software based on their role in the organization, so if their role changes, they simply need to be given updated access permissions.

What are the 4 deployment models and the 3 standard service models that NIST Special Publication 800-145 recognizes?

The four deployment models are public, community, hybrid, and private. The three standard service models are SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.

What is Database Profiling?

The potential for unanticipated or undesirable data modification increases with the volume of processed data, requiring database and data analysis to support the integrity aspect of data security. Some DBaaS cloud services have a built-in database profiling tool that can review big data sets and data to identify predictable issues that may arise.

What is an outsourced private cloud?

The same as an onsite private cloud, only the organizations data is privately hosted offsite, freeing them from the staffing and tech refresh responsibilities of hosting the cloud in their own data center.

What is a cloud computing stack?

The term cloud computing stack refers to the integration of all three primary cloud service models defined by NIST - Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

What does Greening a data center mean?

The use of environmental cooling by transferring operations to cooler locations rather than requiring ever-larger refrigerated air systems to meet summer heat increases, reducing an organization's environmental footprint.

How does a business use a hybrid cloud?

They can bridge local private clouds with other cloud offerings to create hybrid clouds, extending their resource pool beyond the systems present in local data centers. This allows their services to develop greater capacity for response to peak loads and unanticipated demands.

What role will vendor management staff fill with regard to cloud computing?

They will negotiate service-level contracts and then update or extend them to meet changes in service-level requirements over time. This group of staff will also need financial management skills to aid in chargeback and cost-recovery billing based on service resource consumption.

How is the cloud interconnected?

Through standard APIs and XML web service interfaces.

What is one reason why an organization might choose to not use a public cloud.

Transparent redirection of public cloud services to data centers in variable locations presents concerns for organizations with regulatory or legislative mandates demanding data accountability and governance.

How is automatic load management used by distributed virtualization?

Utilities that can migrate virtualized server instances from one host to another based on total resource load.

What is Vendor Lock-in?

Vendor lock-in and proprietary lock-in both refer to the condition in which an organization finds itself relying on a proprietary technology base that restricts future migration to alternative solutions without significant costs for transition of supportive technologies. Organizations seeking agility must be careful to manage vendor lock-in constraints in long-range planning.

How is SAN used by distributed virtualization?

Virtualization of data storage across distributed storage area network (SAN) infrastructures.

What is a Web Service?

Web services implement software-to-software interoperability using the XML language and the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) standard.

What is just in time inventory management, or JIT?

When a user places an order on a single website where availability is verified before the order is placed, and then the application alerts the warehouse to prepare the item for shipping, the shipper is notified for a pickup, and the accounting software handles payment transactions.

What is Sharding?

When cloud-based database services can break up a large data set into a number of sub-data sets to be distributed across hosting servers to improve performance and data throughput for very large business applications.

How does the automatic management of resources happen in the cloud?

When demand nears capacity, the cloud hosting software identifies a need and responds by adding resources up to an organization's contractual limits or limits configured in the management software. This protects application availability while also ensuring that attacks will not overrun an organization's budget.

What is distributed application design?

When one computer hosts an application while others hold the data and perform secondary tasks.

Give 4 examples of providers that offer IaaS services.

WindowsAzure, Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Engine, and DropBox.

How is IT staffing affected by the use of public cloud computing?

With externally provided public cloud environments, the data center continues to empty and IT expands as a business component with a smaller dedicated server support staff required for daily operations.

Name 5 types of clients that can take advantage of cloud computing.

Workstations, thin clients, mobile clients, servers, and other cloud services.

Give examples of XaaS, or Everything as a Service options that are available in cloud computing.

XaaS includes SaaS, PaaS and IaaS as well as many other cloud service models such as Business Processes as a Service (BPaaS), Communication as a Service (CaaS), Monitoring as a Service (MaaS), and many others.