SERVERS IN THE CLOUD
Servers are
the backbone of cloud computing. we will look at platform virtualization, a
technology used by cloud computing providers to offer servers to users and some
concepts that you will need to know when you begin utilizing cloud computing
servers.
What is Platform Virtualization
Platform
virtualization is a technology to abstract physical hardware resources of a
single server into a number of virtual computing environments, allowing
multiple operating systems to be installed into each of these environments.
The heart of
the virtual machine is the hypervisor. This is the software that sits
between the hardware and operating systems. Its main role is allocating system
resources. Each of these individual operating systems behaves as if it has the
resources of the whole server to itself.
Each of the three operating systems is in fact three different virtual machine image. Each of these machine images is a snapshot of an operating system, and these images are then loaded onto the virtual machine environment.
It is important to realize that you do not pay for an entire server. Instead, cloud providers provide you with a virtual machine image, one of many that is loaded on the virtual computing environment.
Features of Platform Virtualization
Through the features of platform virtualization, cloud computing service providers are able to offer servers that are cost-effective, rapidly deployable and scalable.
These features are namely,
- Increased server utilization: The average server in an enterprise data center without platform virtualization has a typical utilization of 5 to 10 percent. Even at peak loads, the maximum is around 20 percent.
- Removal of hardware dependencies: Cloud computing service providers and users no longer need to bother about hardware compatibility issues. They just need to focus their software applications and service-level agreements.
- Removal of software dependencies: With virtualization, there is no need to worry about device driver dependencies as they are handled by the virtual machine environment.
- Quick Deployment and Teardown: Virtualization makes it extremely easy to deploy a “server” – simply load the virtual machine image. It is also easy to tear down a machine image.
Cloud Architecture
Most cloud storage providers generally follow a three-layer architecture.
- The front end is in charge of the communication between the clients and the servers. There will be different APIs to access the actual storage. This layer is also about achieving results such as multi-tenancy, a term we will explain in the next chapter. In addition, it provides the means for different types of scalability through various methods.
- The storage logic layer handles a variety of features, and is in charge of certain administrative procedures such as ensuring a high level of availability and reliability for instance. It is also a form of security perimeter. Furthermore, it acts like a controller for cloud storage.
- The back-end focuses on the actual implementation of the physical storage of data with protocols such as the GFS (Google File System). It involves the use of various ways to increase storage efficiency and in a way to drive the infrastructure costs down
Cloud Storage Characteristics
- Multi-tenancy
which refers to the
ability for a single instance of services to serve multiple clients or tenants,
also applies to several different layers of the cloud storage stack and this
allows numerous clients to subscribe to the same cloud computing capabilities
while retaining privacy and security over their sensitive data.2. Automated Management
3. Consistency in performance around the globe
With cloud storage, there are 2 levels of geographical scalability. Firstly, the file is distributed around multiple servers in the region where your original data is stored at. Secondly, there are on-demand CDNs (content delivery networks).
4. Unique access methods
5. High Reliability
6. Replication
7. Reconstruction
8. Good cost-to-storage ratio
Cloud Storage Providers
1. Amazon Elastic Block System (EBS)
Amazon Elastic Block System, referred to as Amazon EBS, allows you to attach storage volumes ranging from 1GB to 1TB onto EC2 instances.
One of the most important feature that EBS has is its snapshot function. Snapshots, as the name implies lets you store the current status of the EBS, allowing you to restore data, or replicate the data easily.
New users are provided with 30GB of EBS storage, 2 million I/O and 1 GB of snapshot storage for each month for one year.
2. Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
Amazon Simple Storage Service, or more commonly known as S3, refers to a storage that Amazon provides for users. These storage are usually referred to as buckets. S3 allows you to store countless objects of each consisting up to 5TB in size.
For new users, they are given 5 GB of Amazon S3 storage, 20,000 Get Requests, 2,000 Put Requests, and 15GB of data transfer out each month for one year.
3. Amazon Import/Export2
Amazon Import/Export is a service that Amazon provides, where you may ship a storage device to the address they give you so that they can directly transfer the large amounts of data in your storage device into or out of S3 or EBS. Such a direct transfer is much faster than having to go through the internet, though it might cost more with regards to the shipping costs.
4. Amazon Storage Gateway
Amazon Storage Gateway is still under beta testing. However,
this feature allows you to shift data from your on-premises storage onto S3 to
ensure its availability and durability. To make things even more efficient,
these data are stored as EBS snapshots within S3, allowing you to easily
retrieve these snapshots with EBS replication and EC2 commands to attach the
EBS storage. The transfer speed can be further improved with AWS Direct Connect
where a private connection is established between you and AWS just for the
transfer of files.
Some popular Cloud Storage providers includes Microsoft Azure, JustCloud, zipCloud and livedrive.
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