CLOUDCOMPUTING

WORLD
Issue 1 August 2014

The cloud:
OpenStack builds
momentum

Understanding cloud
load balancing
Why planning should be central to your cloud adoption process

Journey to the cloud: challenges posed by security

Will Linux cause problems with load balancers?

Launch Partners
 ARE YOU ON
CLOUD NINE?

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after we saved them more than 19m.
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 CONTENTS
6
CCW News
All the key news in the world of cloud. CLOUDCOMPUTING
WORLD
Issue 1 August 2014

8 Understanding the need to reduce data centre PUE levels

Power issues in todays data centres The cloud:
its older than
you might think

12 How CRM changed cloud and cloud changed CRM

Moving business applications into the cloud
Understanding cloud
load balancing
Service prices differences under the microscope

16 Customer-defined data centres

Audiocast: total remote/cloud security becoming reality says veteran pen tester

Looking towards an open source cloud future - cost cutting without service reduction

Launch Partners

Redefining cloud service delivery

18 Removing the risk for data centre and enterprise IT

WhiteSpider develops a cloud solution for Parsons Brinckerhoff CLOUDCOMPUTING
WORLD
22 Cloud: the 60-year-old hot topic
Giving data centres a new perspective 26 St Thomas Place,
Cambridge Business Park, CB7 4EX

24 A well-balanced hybrid Cloud

Load balancing for a more robust cloud environment
Tel: +44 (0)1353 644081
info@cloudcomputingworld.co.uk
www.cloudcomputingworld.co.uk

26 OpenStack Builds Momentum

Understanding data centre software
LGN Media, a subsidiary of

30 Cloud Computing in an On-Demand World The Lead Generation Network Ltd

Why planning is essential when it comes to the cloud Publisher & Managing Director:
Ian Titchener

32
Editor: Steve Gold
Journey to the cloud: challenges posed by security Production Manager: Rachel Titchener
How the cloud brings challenges, as well as benefits Advertising Sales: Bob Handley
Reprographics by Bold Creative

34 Why planning should be central to your cloud adoption process

Breaking down the planning process into more manageable steps
The views expressed in the articles
and technical papers are those of
the authors and are not endorsed
by the publishers.

36 Security questions to ask your cloud provider The author and publisher, and its
officers and employees, do not
Reducing security risk with due diligence accept any liability for any errors
that may have occurred, or for any
reliance on their contents.

38 Understanding cloud disaster recovery services

How the cloud can make your IT systems more robust
All trademarks and brandnames
are respected within our publication.
However, the publishers accept

40
no responsibility for any inadvertent
Taking your first steps into the cloud misuse that may occur.

Strategies for adopting the cloud This publication is protected by

copyright 2013 and accordingly

44
must not be reproduced in any
Will Linux cause problems with load balancers? medium. All rights reserved.
How next-gen Linux containers could cause problems Cloud Computing World stories,
news, know-how?

46 Using OpenStack in an all-IP environment Please submit to

steve@lgnmedia.co.uk
Deutsche Telekom taps into the cloud

CLOUDCOMPUTING 3
 FOREWARD

Hello everyone,

What is the cloud to you?

Welcome to this, the first issue of Cloud Computing World, which
Im hoping will entertain and inform you on the highly topical
subject of cloud computing.

Is the cloud new?

It depends on who you speak to, but for me, the concept of the
cloud dates all the way back to 1986 when I purchased my first
portable mobile phone for the princely sum of 1,825.00. Plus VAT,
naturally.
That Cellnet handset cost me 25 a month for line rental, before I
even made a call. And in the event I was unable to answer the call
- for any reason - the call went to voicemail at a cost of 25 pence
per minute.

And where was the voicemail service?

In the cloud, distributed across one of three (of eight) Cellnet
mobile switches, with the voicemail promptly replicated between the
switches to allow me to dial in from anywhere in the UK where the
cellco had coverage - or via the PSTN, where calls were routed to the
Slough NOC (Network Operations Centre).

Can you tell I write about this stuff?

But I digress. That was my first experience with cloud services.
Today, some 28 years later, I have a wide variety of cloud services
that use on a regular basis, ranging from multiple email service
providers, cellular visual voicemail, Dropbox, Gmail and all the way
through to 200 gigabytes of business backup storage with data
mirrored across three data centres spread across Europe.
And thats before I talk about our Netflix, Roku and Spotify accounts
for use in the house and when out and about.
This is the modern persons use of the cloud. And its not just me
- you probably recognise many of these services yourself, as you
subscribe and use them on a regular basis.

But we have a long way to go before these cloud services are

mature. For starters, what happens when a given CSP goes bust?
And what happens if one CSP takes over another - how would the
services be merged? And would my business cloud data still be
stored in a European data centre? Or a US one? And what about the
Patriot Act where a US-owned but UK-based cloud service provider is
concerned?

Its these type of questions that Im hoping to answer in Cloud

Computing World - I hope you enjoy the new publication.

May all your IT problems be little ones.

Steve Gold
Editor - Cloud Computing World

4 CLOUDCOMPUTING
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 REGULARS
CCWNEWS
A
ttix5, the data protection software
specialist, has taken the wraps off
DynamicRestore, an instant cloud-
based disaster recovery platform. The new
service is billed as providing users with
immediate recoverability in the event of a
loss of critical servers and data.
According to Luv Duggal, Attix general
manager, DynamicRestore is guaranteed
to increase the efficiency and delivery of
business continuity and disaster recovery.
Lost servers or data, he says, can have
dramatic cost-implications for businesses
when they are not recovered to an
operational level in minimal time.
Even with this in mind, there is still a
large segment of the market that is unable
to buy expensive recovery solutions because
of the high level of investment involved.
What we have created, is a means of helping
small and medium enterprises around the
world employ world-class security, at the
SME price point - without sacrificing quality
for the end-user, or profitability for the
service provider, he explained.
CCW notes that DynamicRestore forms
part of the new Attix5 Dynamic product,
which includes the features of he companys
current Attix5 Pro platform, combined with
the new DynamicRestore technology.
www.attix5.com
H
ibernia Networks has added the Cork
Internet eXchange (CIX), the regional
data centre for Southwest Ireland,
as a new Point of Presence on its network.
The PoP allows Hibernia to further expand
its high capacity, international services
throughout Cork, Munster and the island of
Ireland.
Built in 2007 and open for business
in March 2008, CIX is a critical piece of
communications infrastructure for Cork and
Munster.
The facility is responsible for delivering
IP connectivity to thousands of businesses
and tens of thousands of homes from Kerry
to Waterford via large telcos and regional
ISPs.
According to Hibernia, CIX connects
upstream to an extensive list of fibre
providers and has a 30-metre telecoms mast
onsite, with a line of sight to Cork City and
Cork County.
6 CLOUDCOMPUTING
All the key news in the world of cloud.
Please dont forget to check out our Web
site at www.cloudcomputingworld.co.uk
for a regular weekly feed of relevant news
for cloud professionals.
CIX customers will gain access to
Hibernias Project Kelvin network. Project
Kelvin is an extensive submarine and
terrestrial cable deployment that directly
connects Northern Ireland to North America
and Europe.
The sub sea cable comes ashore at
Portrush, Northern Ireland and connects
to Hibernias terrestrial fibre optic ring
consisting of over a dozen Irish towns and
cities, providing local and global commerce
opportunities between the island of Ireland
and the rest of the world.
www.cix.ie
G
ridstore, the SDS (Software-Defined
Storage) provider of Windows
Servers and Hyper-V Gridstore, has
announced the integration of Gridstore 3
with Microsoft System Centre 2012, a move
it says will enable its delivery of the Cloud
Data Centre.
According to the firm, the integration
with System Centre allows for management
of all resources via a single console. This
central management, says Gridstore,
provides for better overall efficiency and
flexibility.
With System Centre Virtual Machine
Manager (SCVMM) integration, Gridstore is
billed as delivering policy-based provisioning
and orchestration of storage resources
at VM-level granularity including key
characteristics such as Quality of Service and
Data Protection Schemes.
System Centre integration will be
available by the end of Q3 - the company
says that all current and new customers
running Gridstore 3 can upgrade with no
disruption or hardware change.
www.gridstore.com
T
elstra has unannounced new cloud
infrastructure services in the US,
expanding on its offering already
available in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore
and Australia and strengthening its
global virtual private cloud solution for
multinational customers.
Martin Bishop, Telstras global lead of
network applications and services, said the
US extension - which will be located on the
East Coast - is in important milestone in the
CSPs on-going strategy to provide cloud
infrastructure services to support business
growth initiatives.
The new US node brings our total cloud
presence up to seven distinct locations
throughout the United States, Europe and
Asia Pacific and will enable customers
operating across multiple geographic
locations, including the US, to quickly and
efficiently realise the benefits of enterprise
cloud services on their global operations,
he said.
www.telstra.com
M
ore than one-third of IT security
pros are sending sensitive data
outside of their organisation
without encryption
Despite headline-making breaches that
have called attention to the importance
of data encryption, nearly 36 per cent of
IT security professionals admit to sending
sensitive data outside of their organisations
without using any form of encryption to
protect it.
The research, from Voltage Security,
took in responses from more than 200 IT
professionals towards encryption, big data
security and EU data privacy regulations.
The survey showed that almost half
of respondents indicated that they are
not de-identifying any data within their
organisations. The ability to de-identify
information, by employing standards based
encryption technologies such as FPE (Format
Preserving Encryption) is said to provide very
effective mechanisms to secure sensitive
data, as it is used and managed at the
personal and professional level.
Voltage says that discussions
surrounding data residency, lawful intercept
and protecting data from advanced threats
have been top of mind for many years.
While recent stories shine a spotlight on the
risks to data, including theft and extortion,
the need to both protect data from
inadvertent risk while ensuring the business
isnt constrained is a clear problem every
business needs to solve.
www.voltage.com
 DATACENTRES Power issues in todays data centres

UNDERSTANDINGTHENEEDTO
REDUCE DATA CENTRE PUE LEVELS Mark Adwas discusses some of the power
consumption challenges - and solutions to
those challenges - that face modern data centre
facilitators and managers.
By Mark Awdas, Engineering Manager, Cannon Technologies

Introduction
The rising price of energy - coupled with a rising
understanding amongst management of the
social responsibilities that companies have in
reducing their energy consumption footprint
- means that data centre owners, their clients
and managers have been revisiting power
consumption issues in a big way over the last few
years.
In parallel with this, the data centre industry
has developed a measure of how effectively
a data centre uses its energy. Known as the
PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) this measure
quantifies for what application and how much
energy is being used.
PUE is defined as the ratio of total amount of
energy used by a computer data centre facility to
the energy delivered to the computing equipment.
This is calculated by taking a measurement of
energy use at or near the facilitys utility meter.
We then measure the IT equipment load after
the power conversion, switching, and conditioning
processes are completed.

The Green Grid

According to The Green Grid (www.thegreengrid.
org) - an industry consortium active in developing
metrics and standards for the IT industry - the
most useful measurement point is at the output
of the computer room PDUs (Power Distribution
Units). This measurement should represent the
total power delivered to the server racks in the
data centre.
Data centre association the Uptime Institute
reports that a typical data centre has an average
PUE of 2.5 - this means that, for every 2.5 watts
in at the utility meter, only one watt is delivered
to the IT load. The Institute estimates that most
facilities can - using the latest (2014) technologies
- achieve a 1.6 PUE using the most efficient
equipment and best practice.
This ratio can usually be achieved in most
data centres using a relatively simple set of steps
to boost the power efficiency levels, and which
also have the advantage of generating a good InfoBurst
ROI (Return on Investment) as far as Capex Reduced power consumption in the data
(Capital Expenditure) is concerned. centre can help to reduce our reliance on
non-renewable energy sources
The steps that can be taken will include
the retirement of legacy hardware in order
to significantly reduce the power and cooling
requirements of the IT systems - and so create a
greener data centre.
Its worth remembering here that legacy
hardware - once it has been suitably `scrubbed
of stored data (where appropriate) - can often be
traded in with many vendors and their dealers.
PUE in practice
So how does PUE work in practice? Well, in a data
centre with a PUE of 2.5, supporting a 600W

8 CLOUDCOMPUTING

server actually requires the delivery of 1,500W to
the data centre as a whole.
Unfortunately, most organisations lack any
power-consumption metering which can break
down usage at a level that allows them to gauge
the results of their optimisation efforts. To help
solve this problem, efforts to monitor energy use
should start with the creation of a manufacturers
`power profile for each rack in an existing data
centre.
Each department with an IT facility - and
not just within a data centre itself - faces their
own separate challenges that can cloud (no pun
intended) the power consumption and efficiency
issue for the systems concerned.
For example, facilities staff can be struggling
with limits on rack and floor space, power
InfoBurst
Keeping cable and power blocks tidy
makes life easier for rack amendments
and other changes
DATACENTRES
availability, and kit, whilst IT staff will be try to
ensure they have sufficient processing power,
network bandwidth and storage capacity to
support their upcoming IT initiatives - as well as
ensuring sufficient redundancy to handle system
disruptions.
Although balancing the needs of these
two processes may sound relative easy, their
complexity is often compounded by the fact that
- in the past - facilities staff and IT professionals
have tended to treat their operational costs
separately, spreading their overall costs across
the organisations and making it difficult to assess
their full impact.
Because of the operational differences
that exist between facilities staff and their IT
colleagues, it is clear that optimising data centre
energy efficiency requires a high degree of careful
planning.
This is in addition to the deployment
of components such as power, cooling, and
networking systems that can meet both current
needs and also scale for future requirements - and
so minimise TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) issues,
both now and in the future.
The scalability issue is such that, when
data centres reach 85 to 90 per cent of their
power, cooling, space, and network capacity,
organisations must seriously consider either
expanding their existing data centre or building
a new one - this is, we have observed, a difficult
strategic decision that can have a major impact
on the companys bottom line.
Adopting a green strategy
The good news, however, is that adopting a
`green strategy can show how best practice
for capacity expansion can increase the energy
efficiency of a data centre - and also help to
increase density, reduce costs, and extend the life
expectancy of existing data centres.
In a green data centre, the mechanical,
electrical, and spatial elements (facilities) - as well
as servers, storage, and networks - are usually
designed for optimal energy efficiency and
minimal environmental impact.
The first step in energy-efficiency planning
involves measuring existing energy usage. Its
worth noting that the power system in a given
data centre is a critical element in the facilities
infrastructure, so knowing where that energy is
being used - and by which equipment - is essential
when creating, expanding, or optimising a data
centre.
As energy costs continue to rise, it is clear that
aligning the goals and requirements of business,
facilities, and IT departments will become more
critical to optimising overall energy use and
reducing the power costs in enterprise data
centres.
Following the strategies outlined in this
article - including the processes of monitoring
current energy usage, retiring idle servers, and
deploying energy-efficient virtualised servers - can
help enterprises take a major step toward the
realisation of a green data centre.
CLOUDCOMPUTING 9
 DATACENTRES
In many data centres, between 5 and 15
per cent of servers are no longer required and
can usually be turned off. The cost savings from
retiring these idle servers can be considerable
Average server performance has also
increased - todays servers are far more powerful
than those of a decade ago, and virtualisation
allows enterprises to take advantage of that
performance to consolidate multiple physical
servers onto a single virtualised server. It is worth
noting that server upgrades can also help in this
regard.
One of the pivotal moments in the evolution
of data centre efficiency was the introduction of
version 1.0 of the European Commissions `Code
of Conduct on Data Centres Energy Efficiency
(http://bit.ly/1luw7kK ) back in 2008.
In many ways the publishing of this code was
something of a wake-up call for the data centre
industry - and has helped to generate a better
industry understanding of the need to `go green
where data centres are involved.
The Green Grid, however, has not rested on
its laurels, as last year the IT/energy industry
association teamed up with ASHRAE - formerly
known as the American Society of Heating,
Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers and
which has re-positioned itself as a sustainability
association - to publish a review of the PUE
standard.
Entitled `PUE: A Comprehensive Examination
of the Metric, (http://bit.ly/1eo5o4E ) this is the
11th book in the Datacom Series of publications
from ASHRAEs Technical Committee 9.9.
10 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Mark discusses some of the power
consumption challenges - and solutions to
those challenges - that face modern data
centre facilitators and managers
Tuccillo, chairman of the board for The Green Grid
Association, said that data centres are complex
and operators better understand and improve the
below
Reducing energy requirements translate
to real cost savings on power bills
consumption for all types of data centres - is to
Its primary goal, says ASHRAE, is to provide
the data centre industry with unbiased and vendor
neutral data in an understandable and actionable
way.
At the time of the books publication, John
systems for which power and cooling remain key
issues facing IT organisations today
The Green Grid Associations PUE metric has
been instrumental in helping data centre owners
energy efficiency of their existing data centres,
as well as helping them make better decisions on
new data centre deployments, he explained.
Conclusions
As energy costs continue to rise, it is clear that
aligning the goals and requirements of business
- as well as facilities and IT departments - is
now critical to optimising energy usage and so
reducing power costs in enterprise data centres.
Our broad recommendations to help reduce
these costs - as well as optimising the power
closely monitor a centres current energy usage,
as well as retiring idle servers and deploying
energy-efficient virtualised servers wherever
possible.
Our observations also suggest that, if you
are involved in the management or operation of
data centres, then the PUE ratio will matter to
you. In view of this, you should also be looking
at reducing the power consumption of the data
centre and so improve your facilitys benchmark
along the way.
The human element in the data centre power
efficiency stakes should also not be ignored
- especially in todays facilities management
arena. Vendors and data centre staff should
always be able to advise clients on how to
reduce temperatures and energy usage using
technologies such as innovative hot- and cold-
aisle designs.
Since the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment
(CRC) obligations were enacted back in April 2010
(http://bit.ly/1luwLPb ), it should be clear that
vendors and data centre providers need to work
together in developing industry standards and
ratings that work.
Cannon Technologies believes that the data
centre industry - from the power suppliers all the
way to the rack makers - needs to work together
to improve efficiencies and so ensure that we are
all at the forefront of efficient and green data
centre operations.
www.cannontech.co.uk
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 CLOUDBUSINESSISSUES
HOWCRMCHANGED
CLOUDANDCLOUD
CHANGEDCRM
Introduction
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is
one of the forerunners of cloud technology and
remains one of the great success stories in the
space - and has been dramatically changed as
it has moved from an on network-led market, to
the verge of being dominated by cloud offerings.
The cloud is, of course, a heavily hyped term
in both the IT and business sector and has come
to cover a wide range of options as vendors have
jumped on the bandwagon, many cloud-washing
their old solutions to be able to use this hip new
term - for example many have simply put a Web
front end admin console or added Web update
portals to be able to claim they are cloud-enabled.
True cloud solutions outweigh these
pretenders and are truly changing the way IT is
digested and moving us from an IT domicile to a
business led agenda.
Traditionally, for example, customer and
12 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Moving business applications into the cloud
By Ian Moyse, Sales Director Workbooks, Eurocloud UK
Board Member and Cloud Industry Forum Governance
Board Member
Ian Moyse explains the close
relationship between the cloud
and business applications
InfoBurst
Customer Relationship Management in
the call centre - all smiles when things
are running smoothly
contact management solutions were on network
products from legacy vendors and remained a
limited market of DOS and early Windows based
solutions such as ACT, Goldmine, Maximiser,
Superoffice and the like.
These solutions provided the ability to share
information usually limited to organisation,
people, activities and notes and act as a company
shared database of clients and prospects.
Then along came Siebel (founded in 1993)
delivering a wider functional experience and
richer customer information and really termed
the market CRM. By the late 1990s Siebel had
become the dominant player, with a peak market
share in 2002 of 45 per cent.
Salesforce
In 1999 Salesforce was founded with a SaaS
(Software-as-a-Service) -only offering - and

remains so today - that rapidly started to disrupt
the status quo of vendors aforementioned and
has grown to now be one of the top 10 sized IT
vendors worldwide, proof positive that SaaS CRM
is both a lucrative space and one customers are
flocking to.
Alongside Salesforce a wide range of other
Cloud CRM providers have sprung up to disrupt,
replace and become heavy competitors to the
legacy providers.
The cloud enables these vendors to develop
quicker (3-4 release updates a year compared to a
typical 1 every 2-3 years with a software vendor),
reach further and wider (cloud vendors can
attain worldwide profile plus customers quickly
and affordably in comparison to the costly and
slow model to launch in the old software product
model).
They can also be more agile when it comes
function and flexibility (cloud models need far less
testing, support the required browsers and mobile
support and your away, compared to a product
based system having to work on a wide range of
operating systems and version and worry about
software incompatibilities, network and hardware
issues and a testing regime that can simply
never cope with the wide variety of customer on
network device environments).
The cloud enables CRM vendors (and others)
to innovate and compete on a global market, it
empowers a vendor such as Workbooks to deliver
a rich, intuitive Web-based system that can
compete fairly with vendors such as Salesforce,
something previously difficult to do in a product
world.
CLOUDBUSINESSISSUES
InfoBurst
CRM - if the IT is running smoothly,
everyone is happy...
Cloud customers rely less and less on brand
equity to make a decision and increasingly have
more choice available to them. For example a USA
business can find a UK cloud provider and turn on
the service, and use and be supported equally well
from the other side of the world.
SaaS-based CRM now contributes 50 per cent
of all new sales and is expected to reach 70 per
cent market penetration within a few years and
cloud CRM providers lead the way in winning
awards (Workbooks won CRM of the Year in 2014
and 2013 with most of the finalists being cloud
only vendors) and market CRM reports such as G2
Crowd showing the leading players all being cloud
based CRM offerings.
On-network CRM providers still have
customers, but in the majority are fighting to
retain their share, they are not experiencing the
growth and certainly not at the pace that cloud
CRM vendors are delivering.
Microsoft is the exception
Microsoft, of course, is the exception to this,
having to have an on network option alongside
its cloud CRM whilst it transitions its own business
market approach from being an on network
vendor to a cloud focused vendor - having realised
the market shift a few years back when Microsoft
moved 95 per cent-plus of all its development
quickly to focus on its cloud offerings.
Once the shift is complete and the market
accepts Microsoft fully as a cloud first vendor,
when will the step come where Microsoft joins the
throws vendors offering cloud CRM as their only
form factor option for their own advantage?
CLOUDCOMPUTING 13
 CLOUDBUSINESSISSUES
Cloud CRM was there right at the start,
displacing existing approaches and disrupting the
status quo of approaching business application
deployment methods and it has proven
consistently that this is increasingly the customers
preferred approach.
Cloud solutions are now designed work well
over slower links and transient connections,
making even remote customers who would have
previously found their bandwidth limiting, viable
users of the SaaS based CRM options available.
Increasingly also we have seem customers having
higher connection speeds and demanding more
mobile access from any device, anywhere at any
time (mostly from user demand and not led from
the business itself) all needs well suited to a cloud
based CRM solution. Legacy solutions still survive,
but the emphasis is on survive whilst cloud CRM is
termed as thriving.
We are now at the tipping point where cloud
is an everyday term - whilst many still do not
understand it or its nuances, seeing it only as
the Internet, few have not heard of it or seen
the branded marketing it is featured in, and
accelerated adoption has started.
The cloud is extremely disruptive - this is
nothing new to those who are familiar with Clayon
Christensens theory of disruptive innovation -
and those ignoring it in vendor land and supply
channels do so at their peril.
Many still dismiss the cloud, demanding on
network only, not for a logical reason, but normally
on an emotive basis, believing the Internet to be
insecure, and reasoning, therefore, that the cloud
will be.
This approach is not new and has affected the
adoption of new things across industries. Take
the motor car - when it was first introduced it was
deemed the devils work, with a man carrying a
red flag having to walk down the street in front of
each car and people were recorded as believing
that if you went in a car and it travelled at over
20 miles an hour it would rip the skin from the
human face.
Now, of course, we smirk at such things, but at
the time that was a very real belief and emotion
towards replacing a horse and cart with a car. We
are experiencing something similar with the cloud.
Ignoring the cloud
Ignoring cloud computing and the new form
factor underpinning it can be a dangerous
We are now at the tipping point where
cloud is an everyday term - whilst many still
do not understand it or its nuances, seeing
it only as the Internet
14 CLOUDCOMPUTING
tactic, enabling you to miss out on competitive
advantage, flexibility, cost savings, functional
benefit and greater resilience. Many examples
already exist of major brand name leaders not
recognising the change being driven by the cloud
in general and the rapid effect user acceptance
can have on changing the historical norm.
Take for example Blockbuster video once
a world leading brand, now gone, devastated by
the likes of Netflix and Lovefilm (Amazon) who
changed the delivery method for consumers
renting a movie from taking a video tape home, to
clicking and streaming your choice, which is faster,
quicker and cheaper.
The brand equity Blockbuster had was not
enough to overcome a new cloud based option
that customers chose to choose. Not because
of the cloud or because of disliking Blockbuster,
simply because someone made it better and
delivered something the customer preferred.
The same happened with Kodak as
photography rapidly went digital and online with
cloud based uploads and sharing replaced the
old format. The music industry with ITunes vs
bricks and Mortar music stores is going through
the same transition as are other markets. So
to undertake a belief that cloud will not affect
IT delivery and to not truly consider it fairly in
any business application or IT project is a naive
approach that may leave you and your business
out in the cold.
Conclusion
The cloud is not a be all and end all, it is not right
for every customer in every situation, just as the
horse and cart still having its place in certain
situations i.e. the right tool for the right job - but
it will be advantageous in the highest majority of
situations.
The technology sectors ability to change has
accelerated. Moores Law back in 1965 predicted
silicon power would double every two years. But
what its creator, Gordon E. Moore, couldnt have
predicted was the dramatic economies of scale
the cloud would eventually bring to all of our lives.
For one, it has helped lead to a drop in price
for essentials like computing power and storage
by making them more accessible. But also, its
enabled conveniences no one ever would have
imagined four or so decades ago.
The cloud has not only driven down costs,
but its helped increased our satisfaction with
and expectations of our Internet experience.
Its enabled mobility and delivered immense
computing power to anyone, anywhere at any
time.
Perhaps an update to Moores Law will
be formed to hypothesize that the number of
applications running the in the cloud will double
every two years; based on todays adoption and
consumption rates, however, its also possible we
could see it being represented as the computing
power available to an individual consumer - via
the cloud - doubling every two months.
www.workbooks.com
11 12 November 2014
RDS, Dublin

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and business organisations can see the latest solutions available and receive independent practical
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Utilising a combination of Case Studies, Panel What are the available options
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 DATACENTRES
CUSTOMER-DEFINED
DATA CENTRES
Introduction
The phrase Software Defined Data Centre has
been the mantra for those of us working to build
the next generation of data centres since it was
first coined at VMworld back in 2012. It means
that the provision and operation of the data
centre infrastructure is entirely automated by
software with minimal human intervention.
However a recent visit by the UK Home
Secretary Theresa May to officially open one of
our newly expanded data centres in Maidenhead,
Berkshire, has made me think we need a new
16 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Redefining cloud service delivery
The official opening of one of its newly-expanded
data centres by the UK Home Secretary prompts
Bill Strain to re-define cloud service delivery...
By Bill Strain, CTO, iomart
phrase to describe what were doing in our DCs. InfoBurst
Bill Strain shows the Home Secretary
It was the first time Mrs May had visited a data what a data centre looks like...
centre and she echoed the thoughts of many who
venture inside when she said: It is interesting to
see that the cloud has a physicality to it and isnt
just something up in the ether.
When a senior government minister is
genuinely intrigued by the physical infrastructure
that powers the delivery of cloud services we need
to listen.
Few ministers have been inside a data
centre, yet they are collectively responsible for

the G-Cloud framework, which was set up to
encourage the adoption of cloud services by the
public sector.
The whole G-Cloud initiative has been pushed
by the need to allow local authorities and other
public sector organisations to find easier ways to
procure services from companies like ourselves
on a pay-as-you-go basis instead of having to
endure lengthy and often-expensive procurement
processes. So it is vital that the people responsible
understand that the companies who own and
manage data centres are focused on giving them
fast and effective ways of getting the cloud
services they require.
The same goes for other senior decision
makers, few of them probably get the chance to
step inside so we need to illustrate how valuable
data centres are to the economy by explaining
what goes on in them in much simpler terms.
This applies to how we educated members of
the public, as much as it does to small business
owners, officials in local government, right up to
the CEOs of the biggest corporations. We need to
be focused on the customer.
The people who are increasingly using cloud
services do so because it adds value to what
they do. It might make their own jobs easier, for
instance allowing a busy IT department to backup
data quickly and securely without having to assign
staff to physically change and store tapes, or it
might allow them to deliver better products and
services to their own customers, for instance by
enabling accountants to use financial software
which they access via the internet to provide a
service to their clients.
Customer defined
After initial scepticism, the value of the on-
demand, pay-as-you-go cloud services model
is now being embraced by government and
enterprise business but it is also being driven
and changed by the needs of those same
organisations.
DATACENTRES
This makes me think that what we should
be talking about today is the Customer Defined
Data Centre (CDDC) rather than defining DCs by
the way they use software to set up the servers
and the network inside them.
The importance of the customer in the
delivery of our services should be at the forefront
of how we architect the physical infrastructure
that makes up the backbone of the cloud.
The innovative Cisco and Corning fibre
technology weve deployed in the data centre
the Home Secretary visited allows us to provision
automatically and dynamically through our
control panel, whatever services our customers
need, at any time, on any scale. The technology
has been designed with our end-users, our
customers, in mind, providing them with what
they need to do their work.
The challenge for us was to make sure that
each rack of servers that goes in the seven data
halls of the facility is capable of catering for every
network requirement, for all business groups,
encompassing both initial and rapid future
expansion as and when required.
There is of course a benefit to us - we no
longer have to physically plug wires into servers,
which therefore reduces our management burden
- but there is also huge benefit to the customer.
Conclusion
We are managing thousands of servers and the
high capacity networks that deliver the computing
power to support modern business in the age of
digital. No longer do companies have to make huge
capital investments in their own hardware on their
own premises, instead they invest in us and so we
need to have that same investment in them.
By talking about not just software defined but
Customer Defined Data Centres, I think we can
show that we are transforming our networks to
deliver the highest levels of agility, performance
and flexibility to drive the development of the new
world economy.

UK Home Secretary Theresa May opens new iomart data centre

The UK Home Secretary, The Rt Hon Theresa May MP, officially
opened a multi-million extension to a data centre, which is owned
and operated by iomart group in June of this year.
The Home Secretary was given a guided tour of the new
highly secure, state-of-the-art, 1500 square metre extension
to the data centre on the Clivemont Road industrial estate in
Maidenhead.
The Rt Hon Theresa May said: Data centres are an important
part of the global economy so Im delighted to open this new
facility for iomart. The technology on show is impressive and will
allow businesses to be better connected than ever.
iomart purchased the data centre as part of its acquisition of
Maidenhead-based web hosting company RapidSwitch in 2009.
This upgrade, says the firm, makes it one of the most
advanced data centres in the UK and showcases the first
major deployment of brand new technology from Cisco, which
allows network infrastructure and services to be automatically
provisioned and scaled for customers.
Angus MacSween, CEO of iomart, said: We are delighted that
The Home Secretary has officially opened our next generation
data centre and seen first-hand the technology involved in
creating the infrastructure needed to support the dynamic and
ever-changing web hosting and data storage needs of SME and
enterprise business.
Our data centres are the motorways of the future and this
facility enables us to provide flexible and bespoke services to our
customers and puts us at the heart of the next generation of
software defined data centre technology, he explained.
The new extension took 12 months to complete and has
capacity to hold up to 630 racks containing up to 30,000 physical
and as many as 500,000 virtual servers. It has been designed to
meet the needs of all the different hosting brands that make up
the iomart Group of companies.
www.iomart.com

CLOUDCOMPUTING 17
 CASESTUDY WhiteSpider develops a cloud solution for Parsons Brinckerhoff

REMOVINGTHERISKFOR
How cloud computing helped a
company with more than 150
offices around the world...

DATACENTREANDENTERPRISEIT

InfoBurst
How Parsons Brinckerhoff called on the
assistance of WhiteSpider to implement
a wide-scale cloud topology across its
many offices around the globe.

18 CLOUDCOMPUTING

Introduction
Parsons Brinckerhoff was suffering from a
problem common in many established enterprises
where the IT infrastructure had grown with
the company. The need to respond to growing
demands by adding new technologies resulted
in a piecemeal infrastructure with the associated
risks, inefficiencies and inflated costs.
The company had already started to work
on its DCCAMP (Data Centre Consolidation and
Migration Project) when it was introduced to
WhiteSpider.
Working alongside the clients IT team,
WhiteSpiders team of experts quickly identified
the major areas where improvements could be
made and applied its unique ea4 framework for
enterprise architecture to help the client achieve
its key objectives of reducing risk, consolidating
and simplifying its enterprise architecture and
cutting the overall costs of running its IT systems
whilst improving performance.
The result was a positive evolution from a
fragmented environment into a coherent, reliable,
scalable and future-proof architecture that
delivers greater performance at a fraction of the
operating cost.
The client in depth
Parsons Brinckerhoff is a global consulting firm
assisting public and private clients to plan,
develop, design, construct, operate and maintain
thousands of critical infrastructure projects around
the world.
Founded in New York City in 1885, Parsons
Brinckerhoff is a diverse company of 14,000
people in more than 150 offices on five
continents.
With a strong commitment to technical
excellence, a diverse workforce, and service to
its clients, the company is currently at work on
thousands of infrastructure projects throughout
the world, ranging from the mega-projects that
InfoBurst
The Palm Jumeirah - just one of many
locations for PBs cloud deployment.
Parsons Brinckerhoff is a company with over
130 years history and a federated structure.
CASESTUDY
define an entire region to smaller, more local
projects that keep a community humming.
The company offers skills and resources
in strategic consulting, planning, engineering,
program management, construction
management, and operations and maintenance.
It provides services for all modes of infrastructure,
including transportation, power, energy,
community development, water, mining and the
environment.
The challenge - and objectives
So inevitably its IT systems had evolved in a
haphazard fashion, responding to needs as they
arose in various parts of the business, with each
business unit choosing its own solutions and
standards.
The company had been having issues for
some time with power outages, makeshift server
room arrangements and legacy equipment, which
could no longer be maintained. Its systems were
under-utilised and difficult to manage.
However it was the arrival of Hurricane Sandy
in October 2012, and the near-disastrous flooding
of the primary data centre in Carlstadt, New
Jersey, that served to highlight the level of risk
that the company faced.
With increasing single point of failure events
and a site that was both unsuitable for future
development and nearing the end of its lease,
Hurricane Sandy was the final straw that brought
forward the companys plans for consolidation
and migration of its systems, with the aim of
creating a private cloud platform and a fully
maintained data centre, proofed against disasters
and with built-in resiliency.
Parsons Brinckerhoff therefore needed to
conduct a thorough review of all its systems
in order to create a truly robust, consolidated
architecture that would be resilient, easy-to-
CLOUDCOMPUTING 19
 CASESTUDY WhiteSpider develops a cloud solution for Parsons Brinckerhoff

manage and future-proof.

With little more than a year until the lease
on the existing data centre site expired, the
client looked to find a partner who could help
them manage this in the timescales available.
The company needed a partner with the
experience in large-scale migration projects,
plus the technological vision and expertise to
design, plan and implement a solution that would
deliver a good Return on Investment, excellent
performance and significant cost savings.

The solution - the DCCAMP project

Parsons Brinckerhoff had a disparate infrastructure
with many different systems in different business
units and a very dispersed estate across several
sites. WhiteSpider had to react quickly to review
and understand the objectives of the project,
including the key services, dependencies and
stakeholders, with first results needed within just
a few days.
Using its unique ea4 approach, providing
a framework for developing and implementing
enterprise architectures, WhiteSpider was able
to engage quickly with the client team and carry
out a high level audit of the service environment,
dependencies, locations and user footprint.
The information from the audit provided
valuable insight for WhiteSpider to plan clients
migration and transformation strategy, including
the size, type and location of a co-located data
centre provider. WhiteSpider also supported the
client in the procurement process, helping to
define objectives, core requirements and selection
criteria for the new data centre environment.
This included writing the RFP document and
helping to evaluate the proposals and choose
the right data centre provider and location.
WhiteSpider also used the knowledge gained from InfoBurst
The migration plan undertaken with
the audit to inform the process of designing a Hurricane Sandy of 2012 required WhiteSpider as part of its enterprise alignment
new, agile service delivery platform for the client, a move to a new colo data centre in services included consolidation of all systems,
based on the creation of its own private cloud Virginia... the new design and infrastructure in Parson
infrastructure. Brinckerhoffs HQ and the new data centre in
As part of this enterprise architecture Culpeper. It involved deploying new technology
process, WhiteSpider also helped to manage solutions and standards, a new virtualisation
the comparison of technologies for the new platform and storage platform, in order to create
architecture in a technology bake-off. a powerful private cloud environment for Parsons
Planning the migration involved several Brinckerhoff.
enterprise alignment steps in a staged migration One of the major gains was the reduction in
for the clients various sites, bringing all the the complexity of the system with five storage
companys IT systems and data centre facilities platforms reduced to one and a 70 per cent
into one consolidated infrastructure. This involved virtualisation of the system.
creating and implementing a consolidation and
migration plan for all systems across a number of About the ea4 Framework
sites. ea4 was developed out of the WhiteSpider
It included a new design and infrastructure teams desire to see technology used effectively
for the companys headquarters at One Penn in order to transform the way global enterprises
Plaza in New York, moving many of its servers and work. It does this by delivering enterprise
consolidating into a smaller space, rationalising standards through the four key elements of
technology to create a more coherent the ea4 framework and based on total vendor
infrastructure. independence.
In addition the client was able to vacate The first element of ea4 is `enterprise
its premises in Carlstadt and move to its new auditing, aimed at gathering an in-depth level
co-located data centre environment in Culpeper, of understanding of a customers organisation
Virginia, with economies of scale and the cost and its business requirements, as well as technical
advantages of co-location. knowledge on the operational environment.

20 CLOUDCOMPUTING

This is followed by a detailed plan and design,
the enterprise architecture element, engaging
with the business to understand the key business
objectives in relation to the IT infrastructure and
assets and developing a blueprint to design and
build a core foundation of processes and systems.
The third step is `enterprise alignment - once
the architectural designs are defined, they can be
implemented through a comprehensive portfolio
of services that maps across all aspects of IT
infrastructure.
In the fourth `enterprise assessment element,
WhiteSpider uses its experience in modelling,
capacity planning and performance management
to ensure that the network and applications are
tuned to deliver optimal performance and reduce
business risk.
One of the major gains here was the reduction
in the complexity of the system with five storage
platforms reduced to one and a 70 per cent
virtualisation of the system
The results
The DCCAMP project had a number of clear
objectives to help Parsons Brinckerhoff build a
robust and agile private cloud environment that
would provide high performance IT services for all
its business units globally now and into the future.
CASESTUDY
One of the major gains was the reduction
in the complexity of the system with five
storage platforms reduced to one and a 70
per cent virtualisation of the system
The project has already shown significant
gains in terms of reduced cost, improved
performance and greater manageability. From a
disjointed infrastructure, with significant risks and
areas of under-utilisation, the client now has a
new structured and streamlined architecture and
capabilities, already delivering benefits.
The infrastructure is based around a new and
risk-free data centre environment delivering a
private cloud-based environment.
The clients headquarters in One Penn Plaza
have been refurbished and the consolidation
of servers into the purpose-built ROBO Room
(Remote Office Branch Office) has meant that
costly real estate space has been freed for other
activities, whilst servers are housed in more
appropriate conditions with better cooling and
power supply.
Cooling requirement
Initial studies indicate that cooling requirements
have been reduced by 80 per cent, power
consumption reduced by two-thirds (66 per cent),
and the server room footprint is down from 108
sq meters to just 15 sq metres -a reduction in floor
space of 88 per cent, representing a cost saving,
at New York real estate prices, of $600,000 per
year.
The new infrastructure across the clients
sites has also improved connectivity and future-
proofed the network - with the expectation that
the current infrastructure will need little upgrading
in the next 3-5 years.
Resiliency has also been improved and
the overall performance available to users is
significantly greater, with the capability for up to
10 Gbps to the desk. In addition availability of
the new service environment has now reached
the desired five-nines on a 24/7/365 basis, due to
the elimination of risk, over subscription, device
failure and power outages, plus new maintenance
contracts around new technologies.
The new environment has been designed
and configured in line with industry best practice
and therefore it is more agile around service
delivery, easier to operate and manage, and
integrates seamlessly with legacy equipment and
components. As a result it is delivering substantial
cost savings, including the operating costs,
streamlined time to deliver new services, reduced
equipment footprint and maintenance costs.
www.whitespider.eu
CLOUDCOMPUTING 21
 DATACENTRES Giving data centres a new perspective

CLOUD:
THE 60-YEAR-OLD HOT TOPIC
Andrew Roughan discusses the nature of the cloud
and how data centres fit into a cloud-based feature...
By Andrew Roughan, Commercial Director at Infinity SDC

A short history of cloud Commercialised in the 1960s, cloud InfoBurst

For something that started in the 1950s, cloud
computing might seem to be late to the buzzword
party. In fact, that pervasive, omnipresent trend of
today is technically more than 60 years old.
In those days, of course, time-sharing allowed
multiple terminals to share the physical access
and CPU time on mainframes. But the vision for
cloud was already there: in the 1950s, scientist
Herb Grosch predicted that the world would
operate on dumb terminals powered by about 15
large data centres.
computing evolved through the early VPNs of The data centre: concentrated and
the 1990s, virtualisation and the dotcom bubble power hungry technology...
that fuelled Amazons rise to success, until the
point in 2008 when Gartner remarked that cloud
computing could shape the relationship among
consumers of IT services, those who use IT
services and those who sell them.
The research firm later observed that
businesses were switching from company-owned
hardware and software assets to per-use service-
based models so that the projected shift to

22 CLOUDCOMPUTING

computing... will result in dramatic growth in IT
products in some areas and significant reductions
in other areas.
More recently, in October 2013, Gartner
predicted that Cloud Computing would account
for the bulk of new IT spend by 2016. Cloud is
clearly reaching its apex.
Cloud confusion
The length of time that that the cloud has taken
to reach this point perhaps accounts for the
confusion that continues to surround it.
There is, for example, confusion about cloud
technology, confusion over IT infrastructure
development and now, with the illusion of
unbounded capacity in the cloud, confusion about
data centre options and their place in the IT
strategy.
Public, private, hybrid, on premise, co-located
- with so many options and approaches, many
mid-sized enterprises are finding it difficult to
understand the myriad data centre solutions on
the market. Many companies have commenced
their IT transformation journey, but the data
centre typically continues to be viewed simply
as real estate. No longer can there be a single
procurement approach. Multi-sourcing is here to
stay.
The data centre must become more than
that. At the heart of the transformation to the
cloud, it needs to become more relevant to the
enterprise in supporting the transition from basic
virtualisation to its latest stage of evolution:
software-defined data centres (SDDC). This
means understanding both the enterprise IT
revolution and the individual needs of each
business.
The goals for businesses moving to the cloud
tend to be similar: whether private, public, or
hybrid cloud, users seek to increase agility, boost
flexibility, reduce time to implement, enable
efficient international operations and reduce
costs. This does not mean that all companies can
be herded in the same direction; they wont take
the same journey in the IT transformation and will
have different needs.
A cloud by any other name
Some industries are more accepting of cloud than
others. At one end of the scale, the retail industry
tends to be very comfortable with the concept and
adoption of cloud and can articulate how it works
and its benefits.
At the other end of the scale, those driven
by strict regulatory standards charity-funded
research organisations and legal in particular
are extremely cautious about cloud. A huge
disconnect between the business and IT sides
of these industries means that to them, cloud is
public, out of their control and a security risk.
That being the case, the mere use of the cloud
word causes ripples even when looking to deploy
private clouds. More palatable to the lawyers,
partners and research leaders is terminology
such as utilising the benefits of automation and
orchestration in an on-premises environment.
DATACENTRES
Will your data centre flex like your IT?
Whichever path feels best suited to each business,
it needs to be agile, able to burst and ultimately
dynamic. As part of the journey to the cloud, CIOs
have typically deployed virtualisation to increase
the utilisation rates of their owned IT assets, while
also outsourcing to as-a-service providers to
reduce the overall size of the owned IT estate.
However, the virtualisation journey can be
unpredictable. At the start, companies expect an
overall reduction in their owned IT assets but find
it difficult to accurately predict by how much.
Whether in-house or outsourced there are
data centre costs that require a level of capacity
that is almost impossible to foresee and plan
for. In addition to the planning, there are times
when capacity needs to increase so that new IT
can be deployed before older assets are retired.
Often, and despite growth in data, the net IT
assets shrink as a result of these changes. This
can strand power and space capacity and create
unrecoverable costs.
Seasonal or campaign-based peaks, such as
retail holiday sales, midnight on New Years Day
for mobile operators and major charity events
such as Children in Need create what we in the
industry call demand peaks.
The data centre needs to have the provision
to cope but should be flexible enough that the
user isnt paying for that full capacity all the time
unnecessarily.
The next stage: software-defined data centres
As businesses continue along the IT journey,
milestones they reach include converged
infrastructure, private cloud andsoftware-defined
data centres (SDDC).
The owned IT assets will range from non-
virtualised legacy IT, to virtualised private cloud IT
and the management and support applications
that provide the augmentation, management and
security of the SDDC.
However, unable to predict the power
densities and resiliencies required for those IT
assets, planners face having to over-cater for an
unknown future.
This leaves the CIO with a specific issue to
contend with - how to manage the data centre
capacity to provide the right-sized private cloud
environment at each stage of the IT journey.
It is vital that CIOs consider the attributes
they need from a data centre as they continue
along their IT journey. For example, space
flexibility with no minimum commitment; the
ability to only pay for power used rather than the
maximum power capacity; or predictability of the
cost of change.
One thing is clear - a new breed of flexible
data centre must emerge to put the CIO back in
the driving seat of the outsourced data centre.
Ultimately, what these changes all provide the
CIO with is high levels of flexibility and agility.
www.infinitysdc.net
CLOUDCOMPUTING 23
 ENERGY CONSUMPTION Load balancing for a more robust cloud environment

AWELL-BALANCED
HYBRIDCLOUD
By Jason Dover, Director of Product Management,
KEMP Technologies

Jason Dover looks at why - and

how - organisations are adopting
the hybrid cloud and the
importance of good balancing

Introduction
Back in early 2007, I recall this opening statement
by an enthusiastic speaker at a tech conference:
Even though you might not realise it, over 95
per cent of you are already consumers of cloud
computing services.
This came just after the same speaker had
asked everyone to answer by a show of hands,
whether or not they were Yahoo and Gmail users.
Seven years on from this early evangelism at the
start of the cloud hype cycle and were at a point
where cloud computing is real.

The forming of the cloud

Interestingly, even though the mid-2000s marked
the beginning of cloud computing, the concepts
were born more than five decades ago.
Mainframe computing laid the groundwork
of pooled resources in a cloud-like infrastructure
shared by dispersed users in the 1950s; with the
vision of an interconnected globe with access
to easily scalable programs, resources and data,
regardless of location and without the bounds of
a rigid system infrastructure.
Even though the full potential of this vision
wasnt realised then, fast- forwarding to 2006,
brings us to a time where Amazon delivered a
resurgence of this notion with the development
of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and then Elastic
Compute Cloud (EC2).
This made possible the delivery of cloud-
based storage and compute for companies to
rapidly provision services without large capital
expenditures or a rigid system infrastructure.
This model has dramatically changed
computing and since then, Infrastructure-as-
a-Service (Iaas) and Software-as-a-Service
(SaaS) frameworks have multiplied by an order
of magnitude. IT decision makers now have a
plethora of options when it comes to leveraging
public cloud service offerings to augment their
overall IT delivery strategy.
Despite the advances and benefits in public
cloud computing, governance implications, InfoBurst
Load balancing - more than just a
economics, concerns over reliability and security balancing act...
for custom business critical applications has
staved off adoption of a public cloud-only model
by an overwhelming majority of organisations.
These limitations have proven to be a main
driving force for a hybrid approach to cloud
computing. Unfortunately, hybrid cloud is often
over-simplified as merely being an IT environment
that leverages public cloud infrastructure for some
applications and on-premise infrastructure for
others.
While this definition does start to paint a
picture and in the strictest sense is true, it misses
the mark of conveying the depth of the expected
outcome of building a hybrid cloud infrastructure
in the first place integration of heterogeneous
services both in front of and behind the corporate
firewall with such symmetry that each single
entity behaves as part a part of a bigger whole.

24 CLOUDCOMPUTING

Challenges
While this all sounds good, actual execution isnt
easy. Successful hybrid cloud implementation
assumes a well-architected private cloud as
opposed to simply a well-built traditional IT
infrastructure.
This means that adoption of hybrid cloud
starts with the transition from a traditional
on-premise environment to one that includes
concepts and supporting technologies that
enable functionality normally associated with
public cloud self-provisioning for application
owners, dynamic resource scaling, a charge back
model for lines of business, orchestration for
automating repeatable tasks and a high-visibility
management platform to monitor how and where
services get deployed.
Its the familiarity with the very nature of the
public cloud model that has fuelled the business
and technical requirements in the enterprise for
essentially, an IT-as-a-Service framework that
allows for agile self-service, provisioning and
consumption monitoring, while simplifying the
load on application owners. Because on-premise
legacy data centre environments were not built
with these principles in mind, transitioning can be
a challenge.
Hybrid cloud also opens the possibility for
workload overflow processing or cloud bursting so
that applications can bring up new instances as
needed in the public part of the hybrid cloud once
data centre capacity is reached.
Load balancing instances, among other
dynamic, virtualised network functions, is a core
enabler to make service assurance and optimised
delivery possible.
However, without application delivery
controller (ADC) technology running natively
in the cloud, virtualisation admins can find it
challenging to deterministically know where data
centre capacity exhausts and how much external
resources will need to be consumed in varying
scenarios for proper planning.
Additionally, applications actually built with
the capabilities to traverse public and private
cloud boundaries bring about the additional
challenges of ensuring that the underlying
data is in the right place at the right time, as
well as dealing with enforcement of the same
governance and security policies regardless of
where active instances are operating.
Where is it all heading?
Fortunately, these challenges are not
insurmountable. Cloud-focused security solutions
with the capability of propagating a unified set of
policies across cloud borders have come onto the
market.
Technology leaders such as VMware, Microsoft
and IBM have launched many new offerings to
help companies build better private clouds and
extend the benefits of a virtualised infrastructure
beyond the on-premise data centre. And finally,
advancements in application delivery technology
have made possible the use of complex traffic
steering algorithms across a fabric of private and
public clouds based on business rules that dictate
how company resources should be consumed.
These enablers all have driven the adoption of
a hybrid cloud strategy in the enterprise and the
outlook is positive.
Modern IT deliverys need for
increased agility, rapid provisioning
of innovative applications and
focus on quickest time to market
of applications coupled with the
current gap left by an all-in public
cloud model all mean one thing -
hybrid cloud is here to stay.
Cloud load balancing revealed
An Application Delivery Controller (ADC)
directly assists in the management of
client connections to enterprise and
web-based applications.
ADCs are normally deployed
behind firewalls and in front of
application servers and make networks
and applications more efficient by
managing the processing of traffic
shaping and distribution. The ADC
directs client access requests to the best
performing servers based on factors
such as concurrent connections, CPU
load and memory utilisation.
This makes sure that bottlenecks
do not occur to reduce performance;
and if a server or application fails,
the user is automatically re-routed to
another functioning server. This process
is seamless to the user and critical to
delivering an optimised and reliable
experience.
When it comes to the private,
public or hybrid clouds, ADCs ensure
the availability of applications while
maximising performance, regardless of
the user location or device.
In a hybrid-cloud environment,
traffic running at normal levels is
directed to dedicated, optimised
application servers.
However, when traffic spikes occur,
the load balancers will direct this spill
over to servers that can be located
on public cloud. In some hybrid cloud
environments, dependencies between
cloud and on-premise devices may also
exist.
The high availability of ADFS
Servers delivered through a load
balancer can provide guaranteed access
to on-premise Active Directory servers
for MS-Office365, for example.
Cloud balancing simply increases
the choices from where a given
application should be delivered
and can make application routing
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
decisions based on a wider range of
network as well as business variables,
such as the ability to meet a SLA or
the value of a transaction based on
a per user or customer basis. Other
criteria could include user location,
time of day, regulatory compliance,
energy consumption and contractual
obligations.
When it comes to load balancing
and traffic management across
public cloud providers, it is important
to consider some of the inherent
limitations.
For example, the built-in load
balancer provided in Microsoft Azure
does not offer Application Layer (Layer
7) visibility to provide the best level of
service to users. While basic Layer 4
balancing directs traffic based largely
on server response times, Layer 7
switching uses application-layer criteria
to determine where to send a request to
provide more granular control.
This leads to an improvement in
the utilisation of data and application
traffic management and at the same
time allows the virtual machines to
be used more effectively. It is possible
to deploy a third-party Layer 7 virtual
load balancer that runs directly on the
cloud platform rather than just directing
traffic to the cloud network.
Deploying a virtual ADC with an
application in the cloud ensures that
the organisation is able to monitor and
manage the health of the application
and make global routing decisions to
deliver optimum performance and
resilience. A virtual ADC can also provide
a platform for global load balancing
and DNS routing to enable internal
and external cloud implementations to
behave as if one single network.
www.kemptechnologies.com
CLOUDCOMPUTING 25
 SOFTWARE
OPENSTACK
BUILDS MOMENTUM
David Fishman explores the future of OpenStack
By David Fishman, Global Vice President, Mirantis
Introduction
In this Q&A, David Fishman, global VP of
marketing for commercial OpenStack distribution
vendor Mirantis looks at OpenStacks current
position and future developments
How has OpenStack got to where it is now?
Many companies have wanted to build a Google-
or Amazon-like infrastructure for their operations,
but didnt want to outsource for several important
business reasons. For example, they saw the value
of cloud infrastructure, but they felt that Amazon
could not guarantee data privacy and security,
or they had limited opportunities to tailor the
infrastructure to their specific needs, such as SLAs
(service level agreements).
26 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Understanding data centre software
InfoBurst
Open architecture makes life a whole
lot easier...
That `closed garden makes AWS analogous
to the Apple of the cloud; by contrast, OpenStack
is the equivalent of Android, helping organisations
tailor it to their specific needs, and avoid being
locked into a single vendors cloud solutions.
A range of software, hardware and service
companies have joined OpenStack. Whats in
it for them and for end-users?
For the end-user, the benefits of OpenStack are
rapid deployment, easier scalability of cloud
infrastructure, and importantly theres no vendor
lock-in because its open. It provides tremendous
flexibility, allowing customers to configure their
infrastructure exactly to their needs and to
integrate with existing systems.
 // Cloud Solutions // Business Continuity // Managed Service Provider

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IaaS and PaaS Providers
With SIRE alongside, you are free to get on with
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 SOFTWARE
We also recently benchmarked how quickly
private clouds could be provisioned using
OpenStack, and hit a rate of over 9,000 virtual
servers launched per hour for 8 hours in a multi
data centre set-up. The result was 75,000 virtual
machines running, which is the scale required by
the largest banks (such as Barclays), or mobile
telecom infrastructure (such as Ericsson).
For software, hardware and service
companies, they realise that their customers
increasingly want cloud infrastructures that enable
rapid change. That works in two ways.
First, the transparency and common
interfaces that span compute, network, and
storage, mean that companies can more easily
update and automate the software that serves
their customers, and improves the ROI on the
infrastructure.
Second, the common standards that
OpenStack enables means that vendors can
continuously compete for a piece of that
infrastructure, without being locked out by their
rivals.
It seems enterprise adoption has been a little
slow so far is this true?
Naturally, organisations have been approaching
cloud deployments with an element of caution,
but I believe momentum is building very quickly
now. For example, Ericsson has committed to
using Mirantis OpenStack as the foundation for
its telecoms networks, internal data centers and
cloud computing services for its customers.
Cisco recently announced its huge InterCloud
initiative will be OpenStack-based. Theres a great
deal of pent-up demand for faster, more agile
infrastructure.
Some argue there is a lack of clarity about
what OpenStack does. Do you agree?
One of the key points that needs to be
communicated about OpenStack is that its
more than justopen-source cloud software. Its
commoditising cloud infrastructure, so that cloud
deployments can become more vendor-agnostic,
with broader interoperability. The aim is to make
it easier for customers to build their cloud the way
they want, with the best tools for the job, and
adapt to marketplace opportunities over time.
One of the things that will help this is open-
sourcing OpenStack cloud certifications, to remove
the traditional software vendor ecosystem lock-in
that says we only certify this particular solution
with our software.
Open certifications which are supported
by over a dozen infrastructure vendors, including
VMware, NetApp and HP, as well as OpenStack
users such as Yahoo, Dreamhost and AT&T,
are making OpenStack the more buyer-friendly
ecosystem. This way, using the open certifications
approach, buyers can see for themselves using
publicly available dashboards which solutions
work best with each other.
28 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Understanding data centre software
What business model will accelerate adoption
of OpenStack?
Its openness and vendor-agnostic nature are the
keys to OpenStacks rapid adoption, and the fact
that OpenStack users are realising it can be used
to add more computing capacity in minutes, as
opposed to the several weeks or months that it
can take to buy and provision new hardware. Its
this that will drive OpenStacks momentum.
How should organisations use OpenStack for
the best results -- within a heterogeneous
environment?
One of the hallmarks of open source and
particularly so for OpenStack -- is the rapid pace
of innovation. For example, Mirantis has partnered
with VMware to make it possible to extend
VMware environments with OpenStack, so that
companies who have invested in ESX hypervisors
can benefit from using OpenStack for their IaaS,
and protect their innovation.
OpenStack has evolved, and continues to
evolve rapidly. The concerns that CIOs might
have had 18 months or two years back have been
addressed as commercially-supported OpenStack
distributions resolve the concerns about security,
scalability, support and so on, while still giving
customers all the benefits of openness and
interoperability.
Where do you see OpenStack going over the
next year or two?
OpenStack adoption will accelerate in the years
ahead, moving even faster than Linux did a few
years back. There are four key trends that are
driving OpenStack adoption.
First, the overwhelming majority of companies
building applications for strategic advantage
are using cloud as a platform; as a result, theyre
comfortable building applications that leverage
cloud resources rather than traditional servers.
Second, open source is no longer foreign and
mysterious. Most IT organizations know how to
use it and manage it effectively, and understand
the benefits it brings.
Third, the vast majority of infrastructure
vendors recognize that OpenStack accelerates
market adoption of new technologies, and as the
market shifts to cloud, they want a piece of that.
Finally, the ability of SaaS companies to offer
more compelling, information-driven value to their
customers is a lesson in competitive advantage.
Any organization that uses IT to innovate is
going to look for better, faster ways to make that
infrastructure more nimble, and more capable
attracting and keeping customers. The flexibility
and agility of OpenStack can play a central role in
achieving that competitive advantage.
www.mirantis.com
 ARE YOUR COLLEGUES AS
WELL-INFORMED AS YOU ARE?
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 OPINION Why planning is essential when it comes to the cloud

CLOUDCOMPUTINGINAN
ON-DEMANDWORLD
Amit Khanna looks how the architecture of cloud
can help businesses to scale more effectively and
with lower costs...
By Amit Khanna, Vice President - Technology, Virtusa

Introduction InfoBurst
Cloud computing - full of technology
Cloud computing is changing the IT landscape acronyms?
and redefining how software is being built,
deployed and managed. Enterprises have come
to a stage where they cannot ignore cloud
computing any longer, or the tangible benefits
that it can deliver.
As companies and employees demand more
flexibility from their IT, and lower costs, cloud

30 CLOUDCOMPUTING

usage will only increase. Yet what is it about cloud
that enables this? What are the cost benefits?
How do the economies of scale work?
Keeping cloud costs down
Firstly, it is worth noting that cloud computing is
not a single technology; it is in fact a computing
paradigm that combines many existing
technologies to provide distinct characteristics,
such as:
Multi-tenancy: Allows multiple application, users
and entities to share computing resources
Scale: Software can scale almost linearly by
leveraging shared resources
Elasticity: The resources used (compute and
networking) automatically adjust to the peaks
and troughs of the computing demands
On demand: The time taken to provision and
de-provision the resources is negligible
Pay as you go: No upfront infrastructure
investment required, pay as you use.
Each of these aspects of cloud computing
results in lower overall costs for enterprises. For
example, the fact that many clients share cloud
platforms means that cloud vendors are able to
realise much higher utilisations than they can
from using traditional models.
This higher utilisation of resources results
in cost savings, which can then be passed on to
clients.
Most businesses see a huge variance in their
computing requirements. Examples include high
demand during the office hours, or peak seasons,
such as holiday shopping etc.
Traditionally, these businesses had to plan
for investments in technology infrastructure and
solutions that would support the peak usage,
resulting in a lot of capacity lying un-utilised
during off-peak season.
Now, the elastic nature of the cloud allows
enterprises to scale in accordance with demand.
Excess capacity can be automatically released,
resulting in overall cost savings. Moreover, cloud
computing allows for this elasticity with little to no
manual intervention.
Most of the time discussions around cost in
cloud are heavily focused on operational aspects.
However, there are far more important cost
benefits of cloud computing, i.e. opportunity costs
and cost of failure:
Opportunity cost Cloud computing enables
enterprises to respond to business needs at a
much faster rate than traditional IT. For example,
if the business has an opportunity which involves
adding more capacity or opening up an office in a
new geography.
Cost of failure The fact that cloud computing
offers pay as you go models obviates the need for
heavy upfront capital expenditures for any new
products and services. This means enterprises can
not only bring these products to market faster, but
they can also experiment a lot more, as no heavy
additional investments are required.
OPINION
Supporting innovation
In addition to the cost savings implicit with
cloud computing, cloud computing provides
other benefits, such as: simplification and
standardisation of IT architectures from
the consumer stand point, consolidation of
infrastructure and application investments,
and increased virtualisation of the entire IT
landscape of an organisation. Here are some
of the direct and indirect ways in which cloud
computing technology can cause which benefits
organisations:
1. Levels the competitive landscape across
industries Cloud computing will have a
profound shift in how IT is consumed by both
enterprises and end consumers alike.
2. Accelerates convergence of technologies
Cloud technologies will increasingly be the
platform around which other technologies, such
as mobile and big data solutions, rely upon.
3. Creates a platform for innovation with cloud
computing providing a platform that can
potentially scale indefinitely, the focus shifts
from technology to business innovations.
4. Causes shift in enterprise IT buying patterns
Enterprises which have been traditionally
dependent on CIO organisation for IT solutions
will now have their business units consuming IT
solutions directly - thanks to the simplification
caused by cloud based consumption of
solutions.
So whats next?
Before plunging headlong to cloud adoption,
companies will have to do the required
groundwork and plan their adoption based on
their business needs.
It is important for enterprises to see the
big picture about the impact cloud computing
adoption will bring to their long term IT
infrastructure needs. This requires careful
planning, with all aspects clearly thought out
before taking the step towards cloud adoption.
Different organisations will have different
technology needs based on the markets they
operate in, their scale, and the competitive
scenario among others to consider. Today, the
focus for enterprises is not just to sell products
and services in the markets, but also how to create
value for their customers.
While adoption of cloud computing does
require companies to relinquishing control in
some ways, the opportunities that arise out
of performance improvement, reliability and
scalability override many of the concerns.
Cloud computing technology is set to
revolutionise the Information Technology
paradigm unalterably in the not so distant future.
These benefits will be propositions that will
ensure adoption of Cloud computing technology
to scale significantly higher than present levels in
the not so distant future.
www.virtusa.com
CLOUDCOMPUTING 31
 SECURITY
JOURNEYTOTHECLOUD:
CHALLENGESPOSEDBYSECURITY Phil Turner explains how to contain the security
challenges that the cloud creates...
By Phil Turner, Vice President of EMEA, Okta
Introduction
The cloud offers a host of benefits to
businesses, from control over applications
and ease of accessibility, to fast access and
openness. Yet, despite the clear benefits of
cloud-based services, security still remains a
barrier to cloud adoption.
According to Oktas research report - Identity
and Management in a Cloud and Mobile World
- data security risk is by far the most significant
concern around the use of cloud applications
within organisations, with 70 per cent of
respondents citing it as a concern.
But, in reality, most information is actually
more secure in the cloud than a lot of the costly
on premise infrastructures.
When it comes to cloud security, cloud
businesses have to build secure data centres that
are independently audited, adhere to standards -
such as Soc 2TypeII - and are used by hundreds
to thousands of tenants.
Add to this the reputational and business
damage that a cloud provider would suffer should
their data not be secure and its easy to see why
its in their vested interest to uphold high levels
of security.So why then are so many businesses
concerned about security in the cloud?
Why visibility is a problem
The real danger of cloud adoption arises from
the lack of visibility and control. While the cloud
provides employees with the freedom to choose,
control and manage their own applications,
businesses now have to contend with a whole
host of different device and applications, not all of
which are vetted by the IT department.
According to the report, one third (37 per
cent) of employees are believed to be accessing
a minimum of eight cloud applications a month,
without IT jurisdiction.
But in reality problems are likely to much
worse than estimated with only nine per cent of IT
decision makers highly confident that they have
32 CLOUDCOMPUTING
How the cloud brings challenges, as well as benefits
full visibility of all the applications being used
by their employees. As a result, its no surprise
that only six per cent are confident that cloud
applications are integrated into their existing
governance and IT security policies.
The issue of visibility also stretches beyond
the internal enterprise, with access to cloud
applications now encompassing suppliers,
consultants or contractors.
Indeed, 70 per cent of organisations use
portals comprised of multiple applications to
engage with partners, customers and other
external users, with nearly two-thirds (64 per cent)
needing third parties to access cloud apps at least
once a month.
By opening their virtual doors to partners and
suppliers and allowing them access to data and
information, businesses are also opening the door
to a number of risks.
Today, a supply chain can consist of tens,
or even hundreds, of different suppliers, each of
which provides businesses with another potential
point of failure, or entry point for a cybercriminal
to attack.
As well as the risk of malicious attacks, theres
the risk of counterfeit products entering the
supply chain or a loss of intellectual property
caused by data leakage, whether intentional or
accidental. Theres also the risk of ideas being
copied, particularly in innovative sectors such as
the high-tech, automotive and pharmaceutical
industries. In this new complex environment, what
can businesses do to ensure their sensitive data
remains protected?
Minimising the risk
There are a number of simple steps that
businesses can take in order to secure applications
and multiple access points. Rather than relying
solely on passwords to authenticate users,
multifactor authentication can ensure users are
who they say they are and reduce the risk of
unauthorised access.
 SECURITY
InfoBurst
Data extracts from Oktas rpeort:
Identityand Management in a Cloud D H
and Mobile World... A
E

C G

Integration with infrastructure and Full visibility by IT Department

covered by IT polices

A Not confident at all (2%) E Not confident at all (4%)

B Not particularly confident (20%) F Not particularly confident (33%)
Another way to safeguard applications is to C Somewhat confident (72%) G Somewhat confident (54%)
provide a single-access point to all applications, D Highly confident (6%) H Highly confident (9%)
such as a centralised portal. This enables
businesses to quickly and easily automate
all customer and partner user management
Journey to the cloud
functionality.
IAM (Identity and Access Management) has
Cost reduction
become an important tool for businesses looking
to regain control of their IT security, with 57
per cent believing the adoption of cloud-based
62%
services has made IAM more of a priority in recent
years. Creating / maintaining IT security
Services such as cloud-based IAM can not only
provide businesses with a better way to secure 60%
and control a magnitude more users, devices and
applications that span traditional company and
network boundaries, but let businesses see who Effecient resource utilisation
has access to applications and data, where they
are accessing it, and what they are doing with it. 47%
Conclusions: stand still or differentiate
The cloud is the next logical architecture to deliver Driving business growth / innovation
business applications at a massive scale and the
right cost model, but its clear that security is
42%
still seen as both a benefit and a barrier to cloud
adoption. Rather than shying away from the cloud Improving IT / business alignment
due to security concerns, businesses should look
towards cloud providers for support and help to 39%
alleviate any concerns around security, access and
control.
Companies can elect to stand still and Supporting new technologies (e.g. mobile, social, cloud)
bury their heads in the sand like an ostrich, or
differentiate themselves through new business 28%
models enabled by an agile cloud infrastructure.
To me, its down to people and that is the only Risk management, regulatory compliance
element I think that will truly hold back cloud
adoption. Security issues have always been
around and they have always been addressed
28%
for some people its a useful delay to stop the
inevitable change that is coming. Speedy ROI on projects

www.okta.com 20%

CLOUDCOMPUTING 33
 OPINION Breaking down the planning process into more manageable steps

WHYPLANNINGSHOULDBE
CENTRALTOYOURCLOUDADOPTIONPROCESS
Russell Cook explains how breaking down the
cloud planning process can make the task a lot
more manageable
By Russell Cook, Managing Director, SIRE Technology

InfoBurst
The cloud: an amalgam of many
different technologies...

Introduction - is perhaps best undertaken by breaking down

Unlike computers in the workplace, the evolution
of cloud computing has been quite rapid - instead
of the three decades of evolution we have seen
with PCs, cloud technology has evolved in just
a few short years to its current state of play: an
economic and highly flexible IT resource that can
be scaled up or down, as and when required.
For most organisations, however,
implementing a cloud platform in their business is
a little more complex than opting for an off-the-
peg set of office PCs and a server, and installing
the system over a weekend - it takes a fair bit of
planning, we have observed.
This planning - as with all good preparations
the process into a series of four easily-managed
steps, categorised as analysis, risk assessment, due
diligence and implementation.
The initial step, analysis, involves identifying
the benefits and risks to your organisations,
with benefits splitting into the financial aspects,
flexibility and scalability - and with risks breaking
down into the challenges of standardisation, the
uncertainty of flexible pricing, and licensing issues.
On the risk assessment front, managers need
to look closely at compliance issues very early on
in the planning process, covering topics such as
data protection, legal compliance issues - both
from a UK and a European perspective - and

34 CLOUDCOMPUTING
 SECURITY
understanding where your companys data is
going to be stored.
This is an important issue, we have observed,
as cloud service providers often duplicate their
data - your data - for resilience purposes, but do
not always tell their clients where these backup
copies are located.
This can be a problem on the compliance
front, as data stored in cloud resources outside of
the European Union can fall foul of data privacy
and security legislation.
And then there is the complex issue of
whether a US company is involved with the cloud
service provider in any way, as the US Patriot Act
requires all US companies and their subsidiaries
to allow the US government - and its agencies -
complete access to its data, including the cloud
files of its clients.
The due diligence step then involves
discussing the project with potential suppliers,
asking questions about the provision of support
services, who ultimately owns the data, what
layers of contracts with third parties exist, and
what lock-ins are imposed.
You should also be asking questions about
what will happen to your data when the contract SIREs services and knowledge real credence
is up and your data is transferred to another and allows the company to display its BCI
supplier, or what plans are in place in the event membership, as well as participating in some of
that the supplier goes out of business, for the organisations initiatives and campaigns.
whatever reason.
You may, for example, want to know what Conclusions
facilities exist for you to obtain direct physical There is a lot of talk about cloud computing and
access to your cloud data and what are the many SMEs may be wondering if this can really
logistics involved with completing a site visit and benefit them or is just for larger organisations?
removing data on suitable media, such as tape The answer, we have observed, is that,
cartridges or similar. yes, cloud computing is the next stage in the
It is also necessary at this stage to decide Internets evolution and, when managed
which type of cloud resource is the best for your correctly, provides the means through which
company - e.g. public, private or hybrid - and everything, from computing power to computing
which applications are provided by the cloud infrastructure, applications and business processes
vendor e.g. SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS can be delivered to your business as a service,
(Platform as a Service) and so on. wherever and whenever you need it.
The final stage - implementation - is arguably Our observations also show that the cloud
the easiest, as the deployment and test process, offers any organisation significant benefits,
followed by an effective pilot program and its including flexibility and business continuity,
evaluation should be a breeze - assuming the regardless of its size or the nature of its business.
earlier stage have been completed reliably. If effective planning and suitable allied
process are carried out, we have found that clients
Business continuity can enjoy the considerable cost savings that
One of most frequently overlooked aspects of accrue from a well-planned and implemented
the cloud planning process is that of business cloud process.
continuity (BC), an element that is often confused It is worth remembering that the economic
with disaster recovery. imperative behind the cloud can sometimes lure
BC involves planning for a worst-case scenario clients into believing that the lack of human
- and then stepping back to lesser scenarios, and interaction in automated cloud service provision
planning accordingly. can often reduce the selection process to a `lowest
We take BC issues very seriously here at SIRE, cost is best route
and in June of this year we joined the Business This is actually a false economy, as opting for
Continuity Institute (BCI), an organisation that the lowest cost service over the slightly less cheap
has established itself as the leading international may lead to extra costs in the longer term. Our
institute for business continuity and certification observations suggest that a premium economy
for both organisations and individuals keen to approach to buying in business cloud services is
be recognised for a professional approach to this often the better option in the longer term.
relatively new area of technology and business.
Being accepted as members of the BCI gives www.sire.co.uk

CLOUDCOMPUTING 35
 SECURITY
SECURITYQUESTIONS
TOASKYOUR
CLOUDPROVIDER
Introduction
The cloud is here and its only set to grow. This is
because its scalability and on-demand capacity
present the perfect medium to support businesses
and the need to be agile.
The benefits are many, ranging from the
ability to more effectively manage costs (which
makes the finance team happy) to not having to
worry about installing and maintaining hardware
in data centres that dont have enough space,
power or cooling (which keeps the IT team
happy).
Offloading the burden on to a cloud provider
that [says it will] take care of everything from
performance and storage to email is certainly an
attractive proposition.
However, this doesnt mean that these are
the only considerations to take into account when
undergoing a cloud project. Companies need to
do their due diligence and ensure that it is the
36 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Reducing security risk with due diligence
Stephen Coty explains some
of the questions you should
be asking your cloud service
provider...
By Stephen Coty, Chief Security Evangelist, Alert Logic
infoBurst
Securing the cloud - a complex process
that needs to be carried out correctly...
right choice for their business, just like any other
business decision.
Part of this has to be thinking about the scale
and type of information that will be placed in and
in transit within a cloud providers infrastructure.
Therefore, businesses that do take advantage of
cloud infrastructure must give importance to the
security of data that is put in the cloud careful
deliberation, whether they are about to make the
move to the cloud or even after.
This is for a number of reasons:
The same type of attacks typical to on-premise
data centre environments are moving to the
cloud What used to be historically on-premise
based attacks, such as malware, botnet and
brute force attacks, are now targeting cloud
environments.
A big driver for this is that businesses
are starting to deploy traditional enterprise

applications like ERP and VDI (Virtual Desktop
Infrastructure) in the cloud. Hackers that see this
happen run vulnerability scans and brute force
attacks, that attempt to siphon valuable company
data, in hopes of finding and taking advantage
of lax security policies in the cloud. Furthermore,
as more end user applications move to the cloud,
malware and botnet attacks follow suit.
The breadth and depth of attacks means that
threat diversity in the cloud is on the rise threat
diversity is basically a measurement of how many
different types of attacks exist and companies are
facing.
This year, threat diversity in the cloud
increased to rival that of on-premise data centres.
This means that companies need to be just as
vigilant with the same security sophistication in
the cloud that would normally apply to protect an
enterprises on-premise data centre.
The point solutions typically relied upon
to combat these threats are not enough To
gauge the effectiveness of security solutions,
such as anti-virus protection, in major public
clouds around the world, new patterns of attacks
and emerging threats were observed through a
honeypot project.
One particularly interesting and disturbing
observation was that 14 per cent of the malware
collected was considered undetectable by 51 of
the worlds top anti-virus vendors.
So, thats the cold, hard facts out of the way
and certainly not to say that businesses should
stop using the cloud- there are just way too many
benefits.
The good news is that there is a lot that
organisations can do to protect themselves in
the cloud; and the first step is to get educated on
what their businesses and applications require
from a compliance and security posture.
The following guide of what questions you
should be asking your service provider when it
comes to security in the cloud is a good starting
place. Make sure that the cloud service provider
can answer these questions confidently and
comprehensively so you feel confident that it
takes the security of your business critical data
seriously.
1. What is their data encryption strategy and
how is it implemented?
Encryption is the industry ideal for protecting
critical data by making it unreadable to
unauthorised parties. While there are many
considerations to give when it comes to
encryption, preferably, the cloud service provider
will be able to answer questions like who controls
the keys and what standard of encryption is used.
2. What is the hypervisor and provider
infrastructure-patching schedule?
As previously explained, malware and exploits
continue to rise, so it is important that the cloud
service provider patches and updates their
infrastructure on a regular and frequent basis.
This will minimise the threats to their customers
SECURITY
data by fixing any holes that malicious actors
can exploit to gain access to their systems.
3. How do you isolate and safeguard my data
from other customers?
Due to huge capacities, cloud providers will
undoubtedly (unless specified as private) house
data for more than one company (multi-tenancy).
Ask how they segment the data, what controls
they have in place to make sure data isnt
accidentally shared, and how those controls are
implemented.
4. How is user access monitored, modified and
documented?
Naturally, where security is concerned, it is vital
to know who is accessing the data so that it
remains uncompromised. It is also important
that separation of duties are in place so that the
service providers administrator does not have end-
to-end authority and control over your data.
5. What regulatory requirements does the
provider subscribe to?
There are a number of regulatory controls that a
cloud service provider can adhere to in order to
demonstrate best practice and compliance. If
you are putting cardholder information in the
cloud, for example, you will want to make sure
that the provider is PCI compliant. If it adheres to
industry standards, such as ISO27001, it is a good
indication that it takes security and the integrity
of your data seriously.
6. What is the providers back-up and disaster
recovery strategy?
This is often referred to as resiliency. Like most
services, occasional downtime is an inevitability.
Find out what the providers track record is in
availability and make sure there is transparency
into its infrastructure. It may very well be that
you will be responsible for your own back up of
information, so make sure the boundaries are
defined and each party knows its responsibilities.
The recent Code Spaces demise, for example,
could have been avoided if they had a separate
backup of their infrastructure: without it, they lost
everything.
7. What visibility will the provider offer your
organisation into security processes and
events affecting your data from both front
and backend of your instance?
These are just some of the questions that you
may want to be asking a cloud service provider
about the security of sensitive information
residing in the cloud..
Depending on the level of confidence and
completeness of the answers, they will help you
quickly judge how safe your data is with the cloud
service provider and how seriously they take the
security of the data that backs and fuels your
business.
www.alertlogic.com
CLOUDCOMPUTING 37
 INFRASTRUCTURE
UNDERSTANDING
CLOUDDISASTERRECOVERYSERVICES
Peter Godden looks at how virtualisation is
helping organisations strengthen their disaster
recovery positions.
By Peter Godden, Vice President of EMEA,
Zerto
Introduction
It seems by the stream of TV advertisements and
buzz in the technology press that cloud computing
is a methodology that can solve deeply intractable
problems in the data centre. However, many
organisations often adopt cloud to help solve one
initial issue, using the cloud as both a remedy
and a test bed to gain an understanding of the
potential. A survey last year at Amazon Web
Services Global Customer and Partner Conference
found around two thirds (60%) cited cost savings
and disaster recovery as the factors most heavily
driving cloud storage adoption.
However, the desire to use the cloud is
tempered by the practical realities and additional
fears. To quantify this position, Zerto conducted
a further survey which found cost and complexity
are both the biggest concerns with difficult
to manage coming in close third. Even the
companies that have a DR implementation, only
23% are confident their DR will work in the case
of a real emergency.
38 CLOUDCOMPUTING
How the cloud can make your IT systems more robust
InfoBurst
One of the fundamental problems with using Zertos technology: creating a powerful
the cloud for IT recovery is that current array- Disaster Recovery platform...
based replication techniques are not well suited
to the increasingly virtualised workloads that are
becoming more common, across the IT landscape.
Array-based replication products are provided
by the storage vendors and deployed as modules
inside the storage array. Examples include EMC
SRDF and NetApp SnapMirror. As such, they are
single-vendor solutions, compatible only with the
specific storage solution already in use.
Currently the most popular replication method
in use in organisations, array-based replication,
does not have the granularity that is needed in a
virtual environment or to replicate these virtual
environments into the cloud.
Mapping across
For example, mapping between virtual disks
and array volumes is complex and constantly
changing, creating management challenges and

additional storage overhead. Often, multiple
virtual machines reside on a single array volume,
or logical unit. An array-based solution will
replicate the entire volume even if only one virtual
machine in the volume needs to be replicated.
This under utilises the storage and results in what
is known as storage sprawl.
Because array-based replication lacks the
visibility and granularity to identify specific virtual
machines in different locations, organisations
tend to put all disks from an enterprise application
into a single storage logical unit, when in fact
there are operational advantages to splitting
them up over a number of logical units.
Array-based replication has several other
important disadvantages that limits its suitability
to a cloud based DR position. Essentially, it is
designed to replicate physical entities rather
than virtual entities. As a result, it doesnt
see the virtual machines and is oblivious
to configuration changes and due to their
dynamic nature, virtual environments have a
high rate of change.
As the starting position for a
successful cloud DR strategy, a
growing trend is to use hypervisor
based replication technology which
protects virtual machines (VMs) at
the virtual machine disk format file
level rather than at the LUN or storage
volume level, thus replication can be
done without the management and
TCO challenges associated with array-
based replication.
Because it is installed directly inside
the virtual infrastructure (as opposed
to on individual machines), Hypervisor
based replication is able to replicate
within the virtualisation layer itself,
so that each time the virtual machine
writes to its virtual disks, the write
command is captured, cloned, and sent
to the cloud recovery site. This is more
efficient, accurate, and responsive than
prior methods.
The Zerto 2.0 option
Whatever path enterprises chose in their application deployment,
Zerto provides a BC/DR solution that fits.
Zerto Virtual Replication is the only cloud-ready BC/DR
platform providing enterprise-class protection to applications
deployed in virtualised environments and private or public clouds.
The technology enables Disaster Recovery-as-a- Service
and true, cloud BC/DR for cloud service providers and enterprise
customers, respectively.
Enterprises can expand BC/DR support to include not just
the traditional data centre, but also smaller branch offices and
other sites through multi-site capabilities. Additionally, this lowers
barriers to entry for the enterprise to evaluate the cloud for other
applications in the environment, perhaps a tier 2 application.
The multi-tenancy features greatly increase efficiencies at
the disaster site, especially if there are geographically separate
production sites replicating over to the same disaster site.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Hypervisor replication
Hypervisor based replication is fully agnostic
to storage source and destination, natively
supporting all storage platforms and the
full breadth of capabilities made possible
by virtualisation, including high availability,
clustering, and the ability to locate and replicate
volumes in motion.
Hypervisor based replication technologies are
becoming standard in a virtualised environment,
but even with the technology there are still a
number of options that should be considered, as
although cloud is well suited to DR but it is not a
one hat fits all approach. It is helpful to define the
options as this helps to understand the benefits
and limitations of the different cloud based
approaches.
The first type of approach is a Private Cloud
where business continuity and disaster recovery
sits between two or more geographically separate
sites, all under the control of the enterprises IT
team and deployed as a private cloud.
This approach allows enterprises to create
a flexible and dynamic environment in which
their IT departments can scale and mobilise
applications depending on needs and resources at
any point in time by delivering IT infrastructures
across multiple geographical sites.
Taking this approach also helps enterprises
to evenly distribute production load between
multiple data centres and recovery sites. However,
this is more complicated to set-up and manage
and places more technical heavy lift on the
internal IT department.
Conclusions
The advent of virtualisation and the growth of
cloud computing offer a significant opportunity
to strengthen disaster recovery processes. With
the inclusion of hypervisor based replication
technologies and the benefits of private and
as-a-service options, the cost and complexity of
disaster recovery options is falling, offering the
economies of scale to drive down costs even
further.
One infrastructure, managed centrally through VMware
vCentre and vCloud Director, can now simplify management and
reduce operational costs.
CSPs (Cloud Service Providers) are able to attract new
customers by offering a cost-effective service that enables
customers to effectively evaluate the CSP without complete
dependency.
CSPs can make the price very attractive to enterprises as they
do not have to create a completely duplicate infrastructure with
matching hardware, software and networking. Additionally, they
do not have to have a widely specialised team and can focus on
what they have in their environment.
Finally, with true multi-tenancy, economies of scale can be
leveraged to further drive down costs for customers.
www.zerto.com
CLOUDCOMPUTING 39
 INFRASTRUCTURE Strategies for adopting the cloud

TAKINGYOURFIRST
Gordon Howes discusses the strategies
that companies need to adopt when
embracing the cloud...

STEPSINTOTHECLOUD By Gordon Howes, Director, VMhosts,

InfoBurst
Breaking down the cloud planning and
adoption process into small segments
can make life a lot simpler...

40 CLOUDCOMPUTING

Introduction
Anyone that is in the cloud industry knows that
cloud computing - and indeed hosted services -
are nothing new for businesses. Companies have
been adopting cloud technologies for many years
now, and cloud deployment is now often the first
choice when looking to roll out a new application
or service. With that said however, does the same
apply to companies of all sizes? Are smaller SME
companies well versed enough to know about the
benefits of hosted services?
The cloud can be a daunting topic for many
businesses; some will already know the benefits of
moving some of all of their services into the cloud,
however may not know who to turn to and what
the first steps required are to make it all happen.
Other companies may have little to no
knowledge of the technology and the process
involved - and will often find the whole topic very
confusing.
From connectivity to costs there are a number
of questions that businesses need to know the
answers to before they take their first step into the
world of cloud computing.
Many of them will be obvious to people
already leveraging the cloud, but for those that
arent in the know, they are questions that need
answering before a move to the cloud is viable.
There will undoubtedly be more questions in
addition to the following few, however as a cloud
provider, these are the most common ones asked
of us.
Isnt the cloud expensive?
This is often a common misconception. In
traditional IT purchasing a server or a piece
of hardware is being acquired for a particular
purpose. It may be a new piece of software that
needs a dedicated operating system to run on
InfoBurst
Treading a cloud tightrope - simply a
question of balance...
what it might be doing further along the line.
INFRASTRUCTURE
or maybe an upgrade to an existing application.
Whatever the reason when purchasing hardware
there is usually an element of hardware guesswork
involved that can lead to large up-front costs.
Many organisations dont have the time
or resource to run capacity plans for every
application or service. Typically, when an IT
department is considering purchasing a server
to perform a particular process, the company
is investing in hardware and software and will
usually have an expectation that it will need to
last around 3 to 5 years.
As it is unsure what the companys
requirements will actually be in 3-5 years time,
there has to be a bit of guess work - all be it an
educated guess.
If not enough hardware is specified then the
company will be purchasing expensive upgrades
before they know it. If over specified, then the
company has not made the best use of its large
up-front investment. More often than not for
fear of under specifying hardware requirements,
many IT departments would over-estimate the
hardware they needed, leaving the business with
a big up-front bill and a woefully under-utilised
server.
Cloud hosted services often work on a
monthly-based costing model with little or even
no up-front investment. The guesswork is taken
more or less out of the equation as hosted server
resources can be scaled up or down when the
business needs it. Resource is calculated on the
applications performance at that time, rather than
Cloud computing is a utility based computing
in the same way gas and electric are utility-
based energy resources. If more or less resource
is needed, the price can be scaled up and down
easily depending on the usage requirements.
CLOUDCOMPUTING 41
 INFRASTRUCTURE
By paying for cloud resources in this way,
businesses can more effectively budget for
their computing needs with minimum capital
expenditure outlay on day one.
How do I know Im ready for the cloud?
This can be looked at in one of two ways: Being
ready for the cloud from a physical point of view
or being ready for the cloud from a business point
of view.
With regards to physically being ready -
generally speaking, cloud is all about connectivity,
as long as you have relativity decent connectivity
from where you are connecting from, then
typically youll be fine.
Have a chat with a cloud service provider and
they will be able to advise you on how adequate
(or inadequate) your connectivity is for the
solution you are looking for.
Youll often be pleasantly surprised, there are
a huge amount of hosted services that work over
relativity slow connections.
Being ready for the cloud from a business
perspective can be a trickier one to answer. As the
term cloud is quite broad and can encompass a
variety of different services, there isnt a one size
fits all solution.
Take some time to audit your current
applications and processes, often if a problem has
been around for a long time, users may silently
accept that its just the way it is rather than
making a problem known.
It is quite often the case that businesses
think about moving services to the cloud when
the hardware becomes end of life and needs
replacing.
Instead of finding the capital expenditure
required to purchase new equipment, check to
see if the application or service would work in a
hosted model. As an example, services such as
email hosting, remote access and backup are all
extremely viable hosting options.
In fact many business have no idea they are
actually already making use of hosted services.
If youve ever used applications like Dropbox or
42 CLOUDCOMPUTING
InfoBurst
Planning your cloud component strategy
- not as easy as it first looks...
customers will go a long way to making an
Do I have to move all my systems into the
technology. This means it complements your
and problematic to run in house. By moving your
Will my company have to hire any cloud
www.vmhosts.co.uk
Strategies for adopting the cloud
Microsofts own Office 365 then you are already
making use of the technology.
What should I look for in a provider?
With a vast array of cloud providers out there, how
can you make an informative choice with whom
to choose as a hosting partner? Here are a few
options to help you make the best choice for your
business:
Check for any certifications or codes of
practice - by checking to see if a provider adheres
to any standards helps to set your mind at rest
that the provider has passed and is committed
to regulated guidelines. Typically this means that
they have process and procedures in place to help
protect your data and services.
Ask for a data centre tour - sometimes it can
help you to understand and trust the hosting
provider. By physically seeing where your data
is held, often goes a long way to trusting the
provider. Be aware of any companies that refuse a
tour unless a very good reason is given - they may
not be all that they seem.
Check for any testimonials or ask for
references - speaking to a providers existing
informed choice.
Ask if the provider has any disaster recovery or
business continuity plans of their own.
Check if the provider can offer any
geographically redundant high availability or
disaster recovery options - if they have ask them
what they are and how they work
cloud?
Not at all, although of course you are welcome
to do this if you want to and in some cases it
makes perfect sense, however cloud is an enabling
existing infrastructure and allows you to extend
your IT department by moving certain processes
to it.
A good example of this is backup and disaster
recovery services as these can be very expensive
backup to a cloud provider, you are immediately
making use of the cloud without moving any of
your companys servers to a hosted service.
experts?
Not at all - it is the responsibility of the
cloud provider to maintain and manage the
infrastructure the service is provided on, meaning
there is no requirement to employ or hire any
cloud experts. If you are a company that use
outsourced IT have a chat with them about any
migration plans for moving to the cloud.
Also ensure you check with the cloud provider
as well. Most of the time they will offer some free
migration advise, although any complex migration
may have a charge attached to it.
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 SOFTWARE
WILLLINUXCAUSEPROBLEMS
WITHLOADBALANCERS?
Introduction
Modern IT infrastructure needs to be highly
flexible as the strain on servers, sites and
databases grows and shrinks throughout the day.
Cloud infrastructure is meant to make
scaling simple by effectively outsourcing and
commoditising your computing capacity so that,
in theory, you can turn it on and off like a tap.
However, most approaches to provisioning
cloud servers are still based around the idea that
you have fixed-size server instances, offering you
infrastructure in large blocks that must each be
provisioned and then configured to work together.
This means your infrastructure scaling is less
like having a handy tap and more like working out
how many bottles of water youll need.
There are traditional approaches to ensure all
these individual instances work efficiently and in
unison (so that those bottles of water dont run
dry or go stagnant); one of the more popular tools
44 CLOUDCOMPUTING
How next-gen Linux containers could cause problems
Richard Davie discusses some of the current
challenges with cloud-based load balancer
technologies...
By Richard Davies, CEO, ElasticHosts
for cloud capacity management today is the load InfoBurst
balancer. In fact, load balancers are quite often Containers - can be filled, emptied at
will...
bought alongside your cloud infrastructure.
The load balancer sits in front of your servers
and directs traffic efficiently to your various cloud
server instances. To continue the analogy, it makes
sure everyone drinks their fill from the bottles
youve bought, using each bottle equally, and no
one is turned away thirsty.
Horizontal scaling
If your infrastructure undergoes more load than
you have instances to handle, then the load
balancer makes an API call to your cloud hosting
provider and more servers are bought and added
to the available instances in the cluster. Each
instance is a fixed size and you start more of
them, or shut some down, according to need. This
is known as horizontal scaling.
Existing virtualisation technology also allows

individual server instances to be scaled vertically
after a reboot. A single instance can be resized, on
reboot, to accommodate increased load.
This would be like going from a small bottle of
water to a 5-gallon demijohn when you know that
load will increase. However, frequently rebooting
a server is simply not an option in todays
world of constant availability, so most capacity
management is currently done by adding servers,
rather than resizing them.
However, there are many challenges with this
traditional horizontal scaling approach of running
multiple server instances behind a load balancer.
The current situation wherein extra servers
must be spun up to handle spikes in load means
greater complexity for those that have to manage
the infrastructure, greater costs in having to
scale up by an entire server at a time, and poor
performance when load changes suddenly and
extra servers cant be started quickly enough.
Since computing power is provisioned in
these large steps, but load varies dynamically and
continuously, it means enterprises are frequently
paying to keep extra resources on standby just
in case a load spike occurs. For example, if you
have an 8GB traditional cloud server, which is only
running 2GB of software at present, then you still
will be paying for 8GB of provisioned capacity.
Industry figures show that typical cloud servers
may have 50 per cent or more of expensive - but
idle - capacity on average over a full 24/7 period.
The latest developments in the Linux kernel
have presented an interesting alternative to this
approach. New capabilities of the Linux kernel,
specifically namespaces and control groups,
enabled the recent rise of containerisation for
Linux cloud servers in competition to traditional
virtualisation.
InfoBurst
Load balancing - think of the process as
tapping a series of containers...
over- or under-provisioning. Unlike traditional
will still require load-balanced clustering, but can
SOFTWARE
Container-based isolation
Container-based isolation, such as Linux
Containers (LXC), Docker and Elastic Containers,
mean that server resources can be fluidly
apportioned to match the load on the instance
as it happens, ensuring cost-efficiency by never
virtualisation, containerised Linux cloud servers
are not booted at a fixed size, but instead
individual servers grow and shrink dynamically
and automatically according to load while they
are running.
Naturally, there are certain provisos to this
new technology. Firstly, as it currently stands, a
Linux host can only run Linux-based cloud servers.
Also, the benefit of not needing a load balancer
at all is most relevant to servers, which scale with
the resources of a single large physical host server.
Very large systems that need to scale beyond this
also still benefit from vertical scaling of all of the
servers in that cluster.
Conclusions
Vertical scaling of containerised servers can
therefore handle varying load with no need to
pre-estimate requirements, write API calls or, in
most cases, to configure a cluster and provision
a load-balancer. Instead, enterprises simply pay
for the resources they use, as and when they use
them. Going back to our analogy, this means
you simply turn the tap on at the Linux hosts
reservoir of resources. This is a giant leap forward
in commoditising cloud computing and takes it
closer to true utilities such as gas, electricity and
water.
www.elastichosts.co.uk
CLOUDCOMPUTING 45
 CASESTUDY
USINGOPENSTACK
INAN
ALL-IPENVIRONMENT
Introduction
Deutsche Telekom is piloting TeraStream, an all-IP
network that delivers triple play and other services
from the cloud, as a model for next-generation
operator networks.
TeraStream also is a proving ground for
software-defined networking (SDN) and network
functions virtualisation (NFV), as Deutsche
Telekom looks to automate and orchestrate
cloud services to launch new revenue-generating
services and adapt to customer needs more
quickly.
Deutsche Telekom has partnered with A10
Networks to develop a carrier-grade, IPv4-
over-IPv6 `softwire solution as a virtualised
network function, enabling Deutsche Telekom to
differentiate and scale cloud services.
A10 Networks software-based and API-driven
architecture, commitment to open standards like
OpenStack, and a willingness to create innovative
solutions were key to helping Deutsche Telekom
develop what is widely regarded as one of the
most innovative service provider networks today.
The challenge
Build a new, elastically scalable model for the
core central-office data centre optimised for
performance, low latency and cost
Deliver IPv4 services to customers in a native
IPv6 network
Automatically provision IPv4 and other L4-7
services quickly and efficiently
Architect in compliance with core ETSI NFV
documents
Maintain prime directive of simplicity and
openness
The results
Increased business agility with virtual carrier-
grade networking service and pay-as-you-go
licensing based on A10 Networks cloud
services architecture
Differentiated services on a per-subscriber
basis
Reduced time-to-deploy IPv4 over IPv6
46 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Deutsche Telekom taps into the cloud
Axel Clauberg explains how
OpenStack has been the key to
a new all-IP triple play network
offering...
By Axel Clauberg, Vice President Aggregation,
Transport, IP and Fixed Access, Deutsche Telekom
softwire service with highly responsive
partners
Deutsche Telekom TeraStream Virtualises
IPv4 Services with vThunder CGN
Hyper-connected
Todays hyper-connected world has not been kind
to service providers. The demand for broadband
has exploded, as customers want always-on
connectivity for work and play, but dont want
to pay a premium for their growing bandwidth
consumption. In fact, fierce competition among
traditional telcos, cable operators and mobile
operators is driving ARPU (Average Revenue Per
User) lower and lower.
Capturing new market growth, such as over-
the-top (OTT) video and cloud services, requires
innovation and speed. Yet many service providers
are hampered by the complexity of their networks,
which drives up lead-time and cost, while their
more nimble competitors and OTT service
providers deliver services that are faster, cheaper
and better. Traditional service delivery times,
which require weeks or months to configure using
conventional networking technologies, are no
longer competitive.
Innovation and agility
Deutsche Telekom is on the vanguard of
this change. As a leader in next-generation
operator networks, Deutsche Telekom is piloting
TeraStream, an all-IP cloud-enabled network, at
Hrvatski Telekom in Croatia.
In TeraStream, Deutsche Telekom says it has
re-imagined the network to deliver all services,
including voice, IPTV and Internet access, as cloud
services that are provisioned on demand.
Deutsche Telekom has taken bold steps to
fundamentally change how it delivers new services
faster, at a lower cost and with a better user
experience. TeraStream is an integrated packet-
optical network that runs IPv6 in the core and is
built on an infrastructure cloud model.
TeraStream has drastically simplified network
architecture and embraces the concepts of

SDN (Software-Defined Networking) and NFV
(Network Functions Virtualisation), including
software appliances, COTS (Common-Off-The-
Shelf) hardware, and automated provisioning and
service orchestration.
We designed TeraStream as an architecture
that breaks many of the rules on the operator
side, said Axel Clauberg, Vice Present of
Aggregation, Transport, IP and Fixed Access at
Deutsche Telekom AG.
The attitude of things-were-always-done-
this-way doesnt exist here. We questioned all
layers and all protocols in todays network, and
asked how would you run an efficiently managed
IP network moving forward? We realised that
if we truly wanted to change our cost base, we
needed to change the mode, he explained.
TeraStream is an open multi-vendor network,
which allows for greater innovation and avoids
vendor lock-in.
It is really key for operators to build a
foundation based on an open platform, said
Clauberg. We dont want a dependency on a
single vendor in our critical infrastructure.
TeraStream uses OpenStack for cloud
orchestration, allowing it to control the compute,
storage and network resources in its data centers,
while empowering customers to provision
resources easily. TeraStream virtualises network
functions so they can be chained together to
create customized communications services
quickly and as needed.
Virtualising network functions
As an IPv6 network, TeraStream does not have
native support for IPv4. Yet it must still deliver IPv4
as a service to its customers to support legacy
applications.
There is an expectation that IPv4 traffic will
go down significantly by the end of the decade,
but well need to deliver that function for some
time, said Clauberg. Producing IPv4 as a service
is ideal, because we can react based on our
current load and we dont need to drastically
overprovision the way you might in a physical
appliance scenario.
The TeraStream team looked for a partner
that could drive a scalable, virtualised Softwire
encapsulation service in its data centres.
There are multiple ways to transport IPv4
traffic over IPv6, and the team considered
TeraStream is an open multi-vendor
network, which allows for greater innovation
and avoids vendor lock-in.
CASESTUDY
Figure 1:
TeraStream is a model for next-gen-
eration operator networks an IPv6
network thats built on an infrastructure
cloud model.
Mapping Address over Port (MAP) as well as
Lightweight 4 over 6 (LW4o6), an emerging IETF
standard thats an extension of Dual-Stack Lite
(DS-Lite). In DS-Lite, address translation is done at
the operator, while LW4o6 moves this translation
to the customer premise equipment.
The team decided that the LW4o6 approach
would scale more efficiently and allow tenants to
be managed individually.
The search for a virtualised Softwire solution
led the TeraStream team to A10 Networks.
We were looking for a partner who could
develop LW4o6 softwires and prove that it works,
said Clauberg. We felt there was common ground
with A10 Networks, he added.
A10 moved quickly to implement LW4o6
in its Thunder Series CGN, and TeraStream
deployed vThunder as a virtual service. With
vThunder, TeraStream has a high-performance,
highly transparent and scalable solution for its
customers, which is delivering a strong return on
investment.
The Thunder CGN product line is part of the
A10 aCloud Service Architecture, which enables
cloud operators to dynamically provision Layer
4-7 tenant services while improving agility and
reducing cost.
In addition, aCloud on-demand licensing helps
operators in providing cloud services consistent
with cloud consumption model. The aCloud
Services Architecture integrates with OpenStack,
SDN network fabrics and cloud orchestration
platforms, so operators can dynamically deliver
application and security services and policies per
tenant.
Automation through OpenStack and
integration with aCloud on-demand licensing
makes it possible to turn up new services for
customers as they are needed, and tear them
down once theyre no longer needed.
A10 tuned vThunder to use LW4o6 and deliver
CLOUDCOMPUTING 47
 CASESTUDY
optimal performance, scalability and automation,
which allows TeraStream scale elastically to
support more customers and to deliver a better
experience.
When you virtualise a network function
coming from hardware, there is a lot of potential
for optimisation and automation, said Clauberg.
A10 was very helpful to optimise the
performance so we could serve our customers
without burning hardware resources, he added.
Clauberg went on to say that IPv4-over-IPv6
Softwire is the first example of a high-volume,
data-plane-oriented network function that was
virtualised.
When people talk about NFV today, they are
focusing on the control plane, not the data plane.
But if we truly want to change our cost basis, we
have to look at virtualising network services also
touching the data plane, he explained.
A business model built for the cloud
TeraStream is taking advantage of A10s Pay-as-
You-Go licensing model so it can offer on-demand
cloud services to customers on a subscription
basis.
With the Pay-as-You Go licensing model,
TeraStream can offer and deliver IPv4 and other
advanced L4-7 networking tenant services with
automated metering, reporting, billing and
license management, as is necessary in a cloud
environment.
A10s pay-as-you-go licensing is key, said
Clauberg, adding that a flexible licensing scheme
is win-win, because it makes the vendor profitable
and it makes us profitable.
About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the worlds
leading integrated telecommunications
48 CLOUDCOMPUTING
Deutsche Telekom taps into the cloud
Figure 2: companies with over 142 million mobile
TeraStream is a proving ground for customers, 31 million fixed-network lines and over
network functions virtualisation. It uses
Lightweight 4o6 softwires to elastically
17 million broadband lines (as of December 31,
scale the delivery of IPv4 traffic to 2013).
customers. The group provides fixed-network, mobile
communications, Internet and IPTV products
and services for consumers, and ICT solutions
for business and corporate customers. The
CSP is present in around 50 countries and has
approximately 229,000 employees worldwide.
The group generated revenue of 60.1 billion
euros in the 2013 financial year - over half of it
outside Germany.
About A10 Networks
A10 Networks is a specialist in application
networking, providing a range of high-
performance application networking solutions
that accelerate and secure data centre
applications and networks of thousands of the
largest enterprise, service provider and hyper-scale
web providers around the world.
The companys products are built on our
proprietary Advanced Core Operating System
(ACOS), a platform of advanced networking
technologies, which is designed to deliver
substantially greater performance and security.
A10 Networks software based ACOS
architecture also provides the flexibility that
enables A10 Networks to offer additional products
to solve a growing array of networking and
security challenges arising from increased Internet
cloud and mobile computing.
www.a10networks.com
www.telekom.com
 CLOUDCOMPUTING
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