IaaS

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Kett Potter

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Feb 17, 2010, 11:26:52 AM2/17/10
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Hi. I'm a third year Computer Engg student. This semester we've to deliver a seminar & I've chosen the topic of cloud computing esp. Infrastructure as a service. I was wondering if I could get a few pointers on what to include in my seminar.
Kett.

Securm

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Feb 17, 2010, 11:37:51 AM2/17/10
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I would start with the lack of governance and data protection when
storing customer sensitive information off site in the cloud....

ISO27001 is easily the best form of governance but only if it is done
for the correct reasons and only if it is done correctly.

Hope this helps?

Feel free to email me.

Adomas Svirskas

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Feb 17, 2010, 11:46:33 AM2/17/10
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Hi Kett,

I think it would make sense for you to explain the difference between the IaaS and other XaaS'es at first - quite often some people have problems to position IaaS correnctly in the whole cloud landscape.

Then you may want to look at the IaaS providers and explain what kind of services they offer. You can start with Amazon Cloud services - a typical example of IaaS and look around for more.

I remember presenting some very simple things about IaaS, PaaS, SaaS - http://goo.gl/D3Iz - and that was new for many people - 

Again, it depends on your audience and their level of knowledge - this should shape your presentation

Best regards,
Adomas

mehdi bentounsi

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Feb 17, 2010, 11:57:21 AM2/17/10
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Hi,

how to trust the SaaS vendors.

can they steal our confidential data?

have i means to control the use of my data in the clouds today?

how to solve this problem - privacy in SaaS?

thanks

Mehdi

2010/2/17 Securm <l...@securm.co.uk>
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Ricky Ho

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Feb 17, 2010, 12:09:40 PM2/17/10
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I think Amazon is to a pure IaaS play, it is a mix.

Amazon includes an IaaS stack (EC2, EBS) a PaaS stack (S3, SimpleDB, SQS, ElasticMapReduce) and a SaaS stack (Payment Service).
  1. Their IaaS stack includes infrastructure resource such as virtual machine, virtual mount disks, virtual network, load balancer, VPN, Databases.
  2. Their PaaS stack provides a set of distributed computing services including queuing, data storage, metadata, parallel batch processing,
  3. Their SaaS stack provides a set of high level services such as content delivery network, payment processing services, ecommerce fulfillment services.
I have a more detail description in Amazon's cloud technology stack at http://horicky.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazon-cloud-computing.html

Rgds,
Ricky
From: Adomas Svirskas <asvi...@gmail.com>
To: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 8:46:33 AM
Subject: Re: [ Cloud Computing ] IaaS

mij...@sbcglobal.net

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Feb 17, 2010, 12:44:21 PM2/17/10
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Exceptional and brilliant summary. Ricky, u are the best! One the most insightful contributions here ...
M

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

From: Ricky Ho <rickyp...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:09:40 -0800 (PST)

Rao Dronamraju

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Feb 17, 2010, 12:59:22 PM2/17/10
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Amazon is a IaaS stack, Just because Amazon provides SimpleDB, SQS & Elastic MapReduce it does not become a SaaS same with Payment Service

A traditional SaaS is one in which you would have (traditional) ERP, CRM, Collaboration, Messaging, Billing etc.

Even Amazon does not call its Simple DB, SQS etc, SaaS services.

Amazon’s S3 is an IaaS service not PaaS.

 

Azure is a PaaS/SaaS stack

 

Google & SalesForce.com is a PaaS/SaaS Stack

 

I do not see why Amazon’s “content delivery network, payment processing services, ecommerce fulfillment services” make it a SaaS at all.

They are basically support services for Amazon. None of them fit into traditional SaaS definition.

 

 

Pietrasanta, Mark

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Feb 17, 2010, 1:27:32 PM2/17/10
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I agree.  Amazon is squarely in the IaaS category.

 

But I would say Azure is more of a IaaS/PaaS stack, at least right now?  The AppFabric gets it into PaaS, but everything else is just like EC2 and is IaaS.

Adomas Svirskas

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Feb 17, 2010, 1:38:45 PM2/17/10
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I have to disagree with this, however this is not worth debating, after all other aspects of CC understanding matter more.

To my eyes, Amazon Cloud is neither PaaS nor SaaS.

Ricky Ho

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Feb 17, 2010, 2:01:26 PM2/17/10
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Love to hear different opinion, but let me give my reasoning behind.

1) IaaS
I define "Infrastructure Service" as the underlying machinery (virtualized machine and network) to run the application.  A key distinguishing criteria is application should be completely agnostic / unaware of this layer (no code change is needed and no specific API call is made).  Under this definition, EC2 falls into this category but not S3, SQS, SimpleDB.

2) PaaS
I define "platform service" as a set of core "non-domain-specific" services that is broadly required by all kinds of applications, "storage", "messaging", "index" are some typical examples.  A key distinguishing criteria is application is fully aware of their existence and invoke specific API to use these services.  Under this definition, SimpleDB, SQS, ElasticMR falls into the PaaS category

3) SaaS
I define "SaaS service" as a set of "domain-specific" services that is useful for a particular segment of industry.  And of course, application is fully aware of them and making specific API call to them.  So "Payment Service", "Content delivery", "Product Search" falls under the "SaaS" category

I realize that this is just my subjective way of classifying them but I think it is not unreasonable.  I'd love to hear other views of how they should be categorized.

Rgds,
Ricky
From: Rao Dronamraju <rao.dro...@sbcglobal.net>
To: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 9:59:22 AM

Subject: RE: [ Cloud Computing ] IaaS

Rao Dronamraju

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Feb 17, 2010, 1:37:16 PM2/17/10
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Yes, Azure is a IaaS/PaaS primarily….but I had seen somewhere that they have or had SharePoint available as a SaaS.

The reason it is a strong PaaS play is because of its strong integration with Visual Studio/.NET (development) environment.

 

Gaja Kannan

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Feb 17, 2010, 3:08:59 PM2/17/10
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I agree with Rao, when be says MS Azure, Google AppEngine are PaaS.  I disagree to compare them as SaaS.  Salesforce.com, Dynamics CRM are pure SaaS.
Gaja Kannan
www.gajakannan.com

rangerd

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Feb 17, 2010, 7:09:43 PM2/17/10
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Hi Ken,
I would recommend visiting the websites of the major providers of
IaaS. VMWare, Amazon EC2, Windows Azure, NetApp, and Cisco. They all
have loads of data on what they are doing and usually some papers,
videos, etc. Look at the differences between private and public IaaS.
Lots of companies are concerned with privacy and looking at hybrid
solutions. The government is a big adopter, because of shrinking
budgets. NASA has been a model that the other branches are trying to
model. A good area to research would be how to integrate current
infrastructure assets with what the "Cloud" providers offer. Good
luck.
Greg Doig

Pietrasanta, Mark

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Feb 17, 2010, 8:33:51 PM2/17/10
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Yes, completely agree (I think you originally said Azure was a PaaS/SaaS, not IaaS/PaaS).
 
SharePoint is both an extension of the .NET framework (PaaS), as well as some Document Management and other software services (SaaS).  In the .NET field, SharePoint is viewed much more as a platform/framework service than an application.
 
And offering SharePoint, tailored to an abstracted IaaS, that scales infinitely and transparently, is a *killer* service for Azure.  To be able to write .NET applications, using the extended SharePoint platform/framework, and not worry about infrastructure at all, is just an amazing proposition.
 
From: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com [cloud-c...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Rao Dronamraju [rao.dro...@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 1:37 PM

Pietrasanta, Mark

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Feb 17, 2010, 8:37:36 PM2/17/10
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Rao said (below) that Azure is a Paas/SaaS.  He since corrected himself, so I think we're all in agreement that Azure is much more IaaS/PaaS, perhaps with a little SaaS in SharePoint (whenever that's released).
 
From: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com [cloud-c...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gaja Kannan [gajapath...@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 3:08 PM

Ray Nugent

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Feb 17, 2010, 9:41:58 PM2/17/10
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It's more PaaS than it is IaaS but I don't know how to express the degree to which it is either yet.

From: Rao Dronamraju <rao.dro...@sbcglobal.net>
To: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 10:37:16 AM

Rao Dronamraju

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Feb 17, 2010, 7:31:42 PM2/17/10
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There is a very simple way to approach this without making it complicated.

 

Infact the definitions have originated out of existing data centers that people have practiced for years!.

 

What ever is infrastrcuture in the data center context if it can be accessed as a service, then it is IaaS.

SaaS is traditional applications accessed as service

PaaS is middlware and development (environments) platform(s) that are made available as a service.

Ricky Ho

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Feb 18, 2010, 10:27:53 AM2/18/10
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Knowing Amazon is a IaaS and Azure is a PaaS/SaaS and Salesforce is a SaaS, then what .... ? 

While seeing people make their vote, few has elaborated the underlying characteristics that convince them something is a IaaS, or PaaS, or SaaS.

Lets step back, does it really matter who belongs to what category ?  Are they simply a bunch of marketing buzzwords ?  I don't know the right answer.  Maybe we should ask some fundamental question:  "How does it affect me ?".

If someone comes to me and say:  "Here is a IaaS" (or PaaS, SaaS).  What kind of expectation should I have ?
"Me" can be a business user, system administrator, developer, architect, manager.

I think coming up such a matrix will be useful.

Rgds,
Ricky
From: "Pietrasanta, Mark" <Mark.Pie...@aquilent.com>
To: "cloud-c...@googlegroups.com" <cloud-c...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 5:37:36 PM

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Phil Cox

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Feb 18, 2010, 11:45:35 AM2/18/10
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I wrote a bit about this in some articles on searchsecurity.com. My basic thought is that these "definitions" help to provide a demarcation for a consumer to know where their ability to control the environment stops and where the providers starts. Thus they can ensure that contracts can be properly written to place responsibility with authority/ability to do something about it.

As an example, If you do not have the staff or desire to maintain base OS upgrades, then IaaS is not an option, SaaS and PaaS are. If you do not want to have to worry about (i.e., would rather pay someone else to be responsible for) base application security, then SaaS is the way to go, as IaaS and PaaS place the base app in your control.

So to answer your question: "What kind of expectations should I have?"
- IaaS: Provider liable/responsible for hypervisor/metal security, you have the rest
- PaaS: Provider liable/responsible for everything up to application, you have the app and above
- SaaS: You have to concern yourself with your "use" of the app, Provider is liable/responsible for everything else

These are general conclusion, and must be enforced contractually, but I think they are reasonable from an "understanding the difference" point of view.

Phil

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cloud-
> comp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ricky Ho
> Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 7:28 AM
> To: cloud-c...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [ Cloud Computing ] IaaS
>

Kett Potter

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Feb 19, 2010, 6:21:55 AM2/19/10
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Thanx a tonne Adomas. I guess the conversation that followed confused me a bit about IaaS & SaaS. But I'd rather not include any of that in my seminar. I think I'll also have to explain a bit about virtualization. How can I keep it short & simple considering it is such a vast issue?
Kett.

Jan Klincewicz

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Feb 19, 2010, 11:38:33 AM2/19/10
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@Kett:

Virtualization is a broad topic, and can be achieved in several ways.  The most typical, though uses a hypervisor, which allows many workloads (defined as instances of Operating System and applications) to run on a physical (host) server simulating the effect of multiple physical servers.  A hypervisor will mete out portions of physical compute resources (CPU, memory, storage and networking) to Virtual Machines which function pretty much identically to their physical counterparts.

Virtualization can also be achieved through running multiple ISOLATED instances of a single application on ONE instance of an Operating System, or dividing compute jobs (when applicable) to run over many single physical servers (more or less a GRID technique.)  Typical hypervisor solutions include VMware ESX (vSphere), Xen (and its various distributions) and Hyper-V from Microsoft.  These are Type-I hypervisors which run directly on bare-metal servers.  Type-II hypervisors require the service of an underlying OS to achieve the same goal, but of course inherit the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the OS on which they run (Virtual Box, VMware Server, MS Virtual Server, etc.)
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Kett Potter

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Feb 19, 2010, 11:09:39 PM2/19/10
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Thanx Jan. I found your bit of information very enlightening and have included parts of it in my seminar report. I've also included some benefits of virtualization for cloud computing viz.
Scaling, speed, flexibility, agility, breaking down software pricing and licensing, etc. Any more suggestions are welcome.
Kett.

Simon Oliver Schneider

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Feb 19, 2010, 2:13:13 PM2/19/10
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We just launched the 1st international "Cloud Security Challenge", part of our annual challenged hosted at London Business School that award over $500,000 every year to the most promising security technologies.

The Cloud Security Challenge is sponsored with $10,000 for the winner by HP Labs and mentorship by CapGemini and aims to find disruptive ideas and technologies that make cloud computing more secure. We are currently looking for entrants with great ideas and also your advice in what you think the biggest security threats are in cloud computing?

more info at: http://www.globalsecuritychallenge.com/


Jan Klincewicz

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Feb 20, 2010, 6:12:29 PM2/20/10
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One aspect that is infrequently mentioned is portability, which is still something of a weakness in virtualization WRT Cloud.  Though Virtual-to-Virtual conversions are similar to Physical to Virtual processes, many of the larger Cloud providers tend toward proprietary formats.   Though virtualization provides many of the benefits you describe, vendor lock-in remains an issue just as much as it does in the physical world.  Although the effort is not insurmountable, moving a VMware-based platform to a Xen-based on is non-trivial.

There are efforts underway (such as OVF) which attempt to make workloads more portable, there is more effort than just moving apps.  Network/CPU configurations etc. still require Cloud users to make a certain level of commitment to a provider.
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