An Introduction to Cloud Servers & Their Benefits

Part 1: Definitions
Theconceptofcloudcomputingappearsomnipresentinourmodernworldaswerelyonondemand computingtomanageourdigitallivesacrossmultipledevicesmobiles,tablets,laptopswhilstathome,inthe officeoronthemove.Thistrioofarticlesintroducesthekeycomponentincloudcomputing,theserversthat underpineachserviceandprovidethecomputingresource,aswellasdescribinghowtheyprovidesomeof cloudcomputing'smostnotablebenefits.

Definitions
CloudServers:Asmentionedabove,canbedefinedastheserversthatareusedtoprovidecomputing resourceforcloudcomputing.Inessencetheyareserverswhicharenetworkedtogethertoprovideasingle poolofcomputingpowerwhichcloudbasedservicescandrawresourcefrom. CloudComputing:Describesanycomputingservicewherebycomputingpowerisprovidedasaondemand serviceviaapublicnetworkusuallytheinternet.Broadlycloudservicescanbecategorisedusingthethree followingmodels: IaaSInfrastructureasaService: Pooledphysicalcloudserverandnetworkingresource(withoutanysoftwareplatforms).Instead oftheuserbeingprovidedwithasingledistinctphysicalserver,multiplesthereoforshares therein,theyareprovidedwiththeequivalentresourcesdiskspace,RAM,processingpower, bandwidthdrawnfromtheunderlyingcollectivecloudservers.TheseIaaSplatformscanthen beconfiguredandusedtoinstallthesoftware,frameworks,firmwareetc(e.g.,solutionstacks) neededtoprovideITservicesandbuildsoftwareapplications. PaaSPlatformasaService: Virtualisedsoftwareplatformsusingpooledcloudserversandnetworkresource.These servicesofferthecollectivephysicalresourcesofIaaStogetherwiththeabovementioned softwarebundlessothattheuserhasapreconfiguredplatformonwhichtheycanbuildtheirIT applications. SaaSSoftwareasaService: Cloudbasedapplicationsprovidedusingpooledcomputingresource.Thisisthemostfamiliar incarnationofcloudcomputingformostmembersofthepublicasitincludesanyapplication suchaswebbasedemail,cloudstorage,onlinegamingprovidedasaservice.The applicationsarebuiltandruninthecloudwithendusersaccessingthemviatheinternet,often withoutanysoftwaredownloadsnecessary.

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How Cloud Servers work

Traditionalcomputinginfrastructuremodelstendtorevolvearoundtheideaofsingleserverbeingusedfora particularITfunction(e.g.,hosting,softwareapplicationsetc),whetheritbethatthatserverisadedicated serveri.e.,forthesoleuseofthatclientorsharedacrossmultipleclients.Sharedserversmayhaveused theonesoftware/platforminstallationforalloftheirITfunctions/clientsortheymayhavedeliveredVirtual PrivateServers(VPS)whereeachclienthasdistinctoperatingenvironmentwhichtheycanconfigure. Cloudcomputingcandeliversimilarvirtualisedserverenvironmentsbuttheyuseresourcedrawnfromnotone, butamultitudeofindividualphysicalcloudserverswhicharenetworkedtogethertoprovidecombinedpoolof serverresource.Inasense,itusesaplatformthatcouldbeconsideredasaformofclusteredhostingwhereby theresourcedemandsofanindividualclientsITfunctionsarespreadacrossnumerousdistinctservers. However,withcloudhostingtheresourcepoolhasenoughcapacity,withsufficientservers,toprovideresource whichmultipleclientscantapintoastheyneedto. Withintheinfrastructureofcloudservices,cloudserversarenetworkedwithwhatarecalledhypervisorswhich areresponsibleformanagingtheresourceallocationofeachcloudserver.Inotherwordstheycontrolhow muchresourceispulledfromeachunderlyingcloudserverwhendemandsaremadeofthepoolofservers,as wellasmanagingthevirtualisedoperatingenvironmentswhichutilisethisresource.

Part 2: Scalability & Reliability

Having,inthefirstpartofthisarticle,describedwhatcloudserversareandhowtheyworkwithinthecontextof cloudcomputing,thefollowinginstalmentsgoontodiscusshowtheygeneratedsomeofthekeyfeaturesthat drivetheadoptionofthecloudatbothapersonalandenterpriselevel.Thisinstalmentcoversthetwo performancerelatedbenefitsofscalabilityandreliability.

Scalability
Bycombiningthecomputingpowerofasignificantnumberofcloudservers,cloudproviderscanofferservices whicharemassivelyscalableandhavenolimitingcapacities.Withhypervisorspullingresourcefromthe plethoraofunderlyingserversasandwhenneeded,cloudservicescanberesponsivetodemandsothat increasedrequestsfromaclientsparticularcloudservicecanbemetinstantaneouslywiththecomputing powerthatitneeds.Thereisnoissuewithfunctionsbeinglimitedbythecapacityofoneserverandtherefore clientshavingtoacquireandconfigureadditionalserverswhentherearerisesindemand.Whatsmore,with cloudservices,wheretheproducthasalreadybeprovisioned,theclientcansimplytapintotheservicewithout thecostsanddelaysoftheinitialserversetupthatwouldotherwisebeincurred. ForthoseclientswhoseITfunctionsaresusceptibletolargefluctuationsinuse,forexamplewebsiteswith varyingtrafficlevels,pooledcloudserverresourceremovesthechanceofservicefailurewhentherearespikes indemand.Additionally,ontheflipside,itremovestheneedtoinvestinhighcapacitysetupsascontingency forthesespikeswhichwouldgounusedforalargeproportionoftime.Indeed,iftheclientsdemandsfall,the resourcetheyuse(andpayfor)canalsoreduceaccordingly.

Reliability - Redundancy & Uptime

Asmentionedthehighnumberofcloudserversusedtoformacloudserviceofferingmeansthatservicesare lesslikelytobedisruptedwithperformanceissuesordowntimeduetospikesindemand.However,themodel alsoprotectsagainstsinglepointsoffailure.Ifoneservergoesofflineitwontdisrupttheservicetowhichitwas contributingresourcebecausethereareplentyotherserverstoseamlesslyprovidethatresourceinitsplace.In somecases,thephysicalserversarelocatedacrossdifferentdatacentresandevendifferentcountriessothat therecouldconceivablybeanextremefailurecausingadatacentretogoofflinewithoutthecloudservicebeing

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disrupted.Insomemodels,backupsarespecificallycreatedindifferentdatacentrestocombatthisrisk. Inadditiontounforeseenfailures,pooledserverresourcecanalsoallowmaintenanceforexample,patching ofoperatingsystemstobecarriedoutontheserversandnetworkswithoutanydisruptionordowntimeforthe cloudservice.Whatsmore,thatmaintenance,aswellasanyothersupportingactivitiesoptimisingthe performance,securityandstabilityofthecloudserverswillbeperformedbystaffwiththerelevantexpertise workingforeitherthecloudserviceproviderorthehostingprovider.Inotherwords,theenduserhasnoneedto investinacquiringthatexpertisethemselvesandcaninsteadfocusontheperformanceoftheendproduct.

Part 3: Cost & Deployment

Thefinalinstalmentofthistrioofarticleslooksatthefeaturesofthetwocloudserverdeploymentmodels, publicandprivate,aswellasdiscussinghowtheycandeliverrealcostsavingstotheircustomers.

Cost Efficiencies
Asmentionedpreviously,theresponsivescalabilityofpooledcloudserversmeansthatcloudservicescan offersignificantcostefficienciesfortheenduserthemostsalientofwhichisthattheclientneedonlypayfor whattheyuse.Withoutbeingboundbythefixedphysicalcapacitiesofsingleservers,clientsarenotrequiredto payupfrontforcapacitywhichtheymaynotmakeuseof,whetheritbetheirinitialoutlayorsubsequentsteps uptocaterforincreasesindemand.Inaddition,theyavoidthesetupcostswhichwouldotherwisebeincurred bybringingindividualserversonline.Insteadanysetupcostsgeneratedwhentheunderlyingcloudservers werebroughtonlineareoverheadsforthecloudproviderandaredilutedbyeconomiesofscalebeforehaving anyimpactontheirpricingmodel. Thisisparticularlythecaseasmanycloudservicesminimisetheeffortand expenseofspecificcloudserverandplatformconfigurationsbyofferingstandardisedservicesintowhichthe clienttaps. Lastly,cloudmodelsallowproviderstodoawaywithlongtermlockins.Withoutthelongertermoverheadsof bringingindividualserversonlineforindividualclientsandmaintainingthemthereisntthedependencyonthose clientsforareturnonthatinvestmentfromtheproviderspointofview.

Deployment
Therearetwocommondeploymentmodelsforcloudserviceswhichspantheservicelevelmodels(IaaS, PaaS,SaaS)describedinpartone: PublicCloud:andPrivateCloud. Perhapsthemostfamiliartogeneralpopulation,andalsothemostlikelytodeliversomeofthefeaturesand benefitsmentionedpreviously,isthetypicalpubliccloudmodel.Thismodelutilisesthelargenumberofpooled

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cloudserverslocatedindatacenters,toprovideaserviceovertheinternetwhichmembersofthepubliccan signupforandaccess.However,theexactlevelofresourceandthereforecapacity,scalabilityand redundancyunderpinningtheeachpubliccloudservicewilldependoneachprovider.Theunderlying infrastructure,includingservers,willbesharedacrossalloftheservicesenduserswhilstthepointsatwhich theservicecanbeaccessedareopentoanyone,anywhere,onanydeviceaslongastheyhaveaninternet connection.Consequently,oneofthemodelskeystrengths,itsaccessibility,leadstoitsmostprominent weakness,security. Serviceswhichneedtoimplementhigherlevelsofsecuritycaninsteaduseprivatecloudmodels.The architectureofprivatecloudscanvarybuttheyaredefinedbythefactthatthecloudisringfencedfortheuse ofoneclient.Serverscaneitherbelocatedinadatacenter,andaccessedvialeasedlinesortrustedprovider networks,orontheclientspremises,andaccessedbysecurelocalnetworkconnections.Theycanbe provisionedaseitherphysicalorvirtualservers,buttheyllneverbesharedacrossmultipleclients.Accessto theserversandthecloudservicewillalwaysbebehindtheclientsfirewalltoensurethatonlytrusteduserscan evenattempttouseit. Privateclouds,therefore,offergreaterlevelsofsecurity(dependingontheexactsetup),bututilisingsmaller poolsofserversmeansthattheycannotalwaysmatchtheeconomiesofscale,highcapacities,redundancy andresponsivescalabilityofpubliccloudmodels.Although,thesequalitiescanstillbeachievedmorereadily thanmoretraditionalfixedcapacityserverconfigurationsonlocalortrustednetworks.

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