Cloud Computing makes computer infrastructure and services available "on-

need" basis. The computing infrastructure could include hard disk, development
platform, database, computing power or complete software applications. To
access these resources from the cloud vendors, organizations do not need to
make any large scale capital expenditures. Organization need to "pay per use"
i.e. organization need to pay only as much for the computing infrastructure as
they use. The billing model of cloud computing is similar to the electricity
payment that we do on the basis of usage. In the description below vendor is
used for cloud computing service provide and organization is used for user of
cloud computing services.

Cloud Computing has the following characteristics:

A. Availability of large computing infrastructure on need basis: Cloud vendors

provide appearance of infinite computing infrastructure availability. This is
available to organizations on need basis. This ensures that organizations
do not need to set up servers for their peak requirements. As an example
consider the official Wimbledon site. The site gets extremely high traffic in
the two weeks when the championship happens. For this two weeks
period this site will have high server usage. For rest of the year the site will
need to only pay for the reduced usage. In general organizations do not
need to bear the cost of computing infrastructure for their peak loads. The
usage of computing resources can be increased or reduced on need
basis, is called elastic computing.

B. Cloud computing uses a "pay-per-use" billing model. Cloud billing model

are very different when compared to traditional IT billing techniques.
Typical billing models include per user billing, per GB billing or per-use
billing (i.e. an organization is billed on each usage of the computing
service).

C. Cloud computing typically does not involve long-term commitment to use

the computing infrastructure. The vendor does not enforce long-term
usage of services.

D. Cloud computing does not involve any significant capital expenditure for
the organization. Unlike traditional IT infrastructure, in cloud computing
organizations just use the computing services without procuring it. In some
sense cloud computing involves renting the computing resources instead
 of buying them. As the figure below displays, unlike traditional computing
model, Cloud computing requires no capital expenditure to acquire initial
computing resources. The figure below is from cloud computing wiki.

E. Since the cloud computing vendor provides services over the web, these
are available from any location.
F. Cloud computing can be ordered online without detailed formal contracts.

Cloud computing provides a level-playing field for smaller organizations. It allows

smaller organization access to computing infrastructure without making any
significant initial investment.

Many experts believe that cloud computing will lead to increased

commoditization of computing resources.

Origin of term

Cloud traditionally depicts the internet. Since cloud computing is built using
internet, hence the name.

Examples of Cloud Computing applications

Hotmail.com was launched in 1996, It is widely considered as the first cloud

computing application. The data is stored at the vendor servers, and users could
pay incrementally to increase disk space usage. Many other services have
emerged in the last decade that allows users to store information (or perform
processing) without paying any upfront charges. These are typically consumer
oriented services. Twitter, myspace, Wikipedia, youtube, facebook, linkedin,
Google docs and blogger all have the characteristics explained above and are
examples of cloud computing. Companies that provide Hosting services for
diskspace storage, images, emails are all examples of cloud computing

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, was the first successful example of providing

software as a service in the business to business domain. Salesforce is a CRM
tool for sales executives providing features like managing customer details,
running promotions etc.

Google and Microsoft provide development platforms that can be accessed with
"pay-per-use" billing model. All these services are examples of Cloud computing.

Amazon.com was one of the first vendors to provide storage space and
computing resources following the cloud computing model.

Types of cloud computing

Cloud computing is typically classified in two ways:

1. Location of the cloud computing

2. Type of services offered

Location of the cloud

Cloud computing is typically classified in the following three ways:

1. Public cloud: In Public cloud the computing infrastructure is hosted by the

cloud vendor at the vendor’s premises. The customer has no visibility and
control over where the computing infrastructure is hosted. The computing
infrastructure is shared between any organizations.

2. Private cloud: The computing infrastructure is dedicated to a particular

organization and not shared with other organizations. Some experts
consider that private clouds are not real examples of cloud computing.
Private clouds are more expensive and more secure when compared to
public clouds.

Private clouds are of two types: On-premise private clouds and externally
hosted private clouds. Externally hosted private clouds are also
exclusively used by one organization, but are hosted by a third party
specializing in cloud infrastructure. Externally hosted private clouds are
cheaper than On-premise private clouds.
 3. Hybrid cloud Organizations may host critical applications on private
clouds and applications with relatively less security concerns on the public
cloud. The usage of both private and public clouds together is called
hybrid cloud. A related term is Cloud Bursting. In Cloud bursting
organization use their own computing infrastructure for normal usage, but
access the cloud for high/peak load requirements. This ensures that a
sudden increase in computing requirement is handled gracefully.

4. Community cloud involves sharing of computing infrastructure in

between organizations of the same community. For example all
Government organizations within the state of California may share
computing infrastructure on the cloud to manage data related to citizens
residing in California.

Classification based upon service provided

Based upon the services offered, clouds are classified in the following ways:

1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) involves offering hardware related

services using the principles of cloud computing. These could include
some kind of storage services (database or disk storage) or virtual
servers. Leading vendors that provide Infrastructure as a service
are Amazon EC2, Amazon S3,Rackspace Cloud Servers and Flexiscale.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) involves offering a development platform on

the cloud. Platforms provided by different vendors are typically not
compatible. Typical players in PaaS are Google’s Application
Engine, Microsofts Azure, Salesforce.com’s force.com .

3. Software as a service (SaaS) includes a complete software offering on the

cloud. Users can access a software application hosted by the cloud
vendor on pay-per-use basis. This is a well-established sector. The
pioneer in this field has been Salesforce.coms offering in the online
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) space. Other examples are
online email providers like Googles gmail and Microsofts hotmail, Google
docs and Microsofts online version of office called BPOS (Business
Productivity Online Standard Suite).
The above classification is well accepted in the industry. David
Linthicum describes a more granular classification on the basis of service
provided. These are listed below:

1. Storage-as-a-service
2. Database-as-a-service
3. Information-as-a-service
4. Process-as-a-service
5. Application-as-a-service
6. Platform-as-a-service
7. Integration-as-a-service
8. Security-as-a-service
9. Management/Governance-as-a-service
10. Testing-as-a-service
11. Infrastructure-as-a-service
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency under the purview of US Department of Commerce. NIST is
responsible for defining standards in Science and Technology. The Computer Security Division of NISD has provided a formal definition of
Cloud computing. This definition is considered an industry standard. The definition is present at http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/cloud-
computing/. The same definition is included here as a reference. NISTs definition of cloud computing is the most commonly used definition
of cloud computing.

The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing

Authors: Peter Mell and Tim Grance
Version 15, 10-7-09

National Institute of Standards and Technology, Information Technology Laboratory

Note 1: Cloud computing is still an evolving paradigm. Its definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks, and benefits will be
refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors. These definitions, attributes, and characteristics will evolve and change over
time.

Note 2: The cloud computing industry represents a large ecosystem of many models, vendors, and market niches. This definition attempts
to encompass all of the various cloud approaches.

Definition of Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources
(e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort
or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service
models, and four deployment models.

Essential Characteristics:

• On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network
storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service’s provider.
• Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote
use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).
• Resource pooling. The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with
different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense
of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided
resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of
resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.
• Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out and
rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and
can be purchased in any quantity at any time.
 • Measured Service. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some
level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts).
Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the
utilized service.

Service Models:

• Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a
cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web
browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including
network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited
user-specific application configuration settings.
• Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure
consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The
consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or
storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
• Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks,
and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include
operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has
control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components
(e.g., host firewalls).

Deployment Models:

• Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization. It may be managed by the organization or a third
party and may exist on premise or off premise.
• Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has
shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It may be managed by the
organizations or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.
• Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an
organization selling cloud services.
• Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique
entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g.,
cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds).

Note: Cloud software takes full advantage of the cloud paradigm by being service oriented with a focus on statelessness, low coupling,
modularity, and semantic interoperability.

Free cloud computing applications

There are a large number of interesting cloud computing applications that are completely free. In these Software as a Service (SaaS)
applications processing happens on the data centers hosted by these organizations. Unlike standard desktop applications, no processing
happens on the desktops. Here we take a look at the cloud computing applications that are available for free. The sites have been
categorized into the following types

1. Photo editing software

2. Online file storage
3. Twitter related applications
4. Digital Video
5. Creating your image album
6. Photo editing software
7. Anti-virus applications on the web
8. Editing documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints
9. Finding your way on a map
10. e-commerce software
11. Miscellaneous applications
Photo editing software

Picnik is a popular free online photo editing software. It has features like cropping, resizing and rotation of images, addition of special
effects. A premium version of Picnik with advanced features is available for $24.95 a year.
Pixlr is a free online photo editing software. Pixlr combines image design and paint tools with photo editing and adjustment features. It lets
users edit brightness/contrast, and has the ability to crop and layer photos. Even though Pixlr has many complex features, the software is
relatively simple to use.

Online file storage

MediaFire is a leading online file storage site. MediaFire may be used to host, share any files including documents, images, presentations,
videos. The interface is easy to use. The free version of MediaFire includes unlimited disk space and unlimited uploads/downloads. The
only limit in the free version is on the file size - the maximum file size allowed is 200 MB. The files may be organized into folders.

Megaupload is another popular file storage site. The feature set is similar to mediafire. There is a limit of 200 GB disk space and 2 GB limit
on file size in the free account. There is also a waiting time of 25 secs before each download begins in the free version. The premium
version has none of the above limitations in addition to better download speed and unlimited disk speed. The charges for premium version
is $9.99 per month.

hotfile offers a free version of online file sharing application with a maximum file size of 400Mb. Monthly charges for premium version are $9
per month. The premium version includes higher speed on downloads, unlimited parallel downloads and downloading without waiting time
and advertising.

4Shared is yet another popular online file sharing software. The free version provides a maximum file download size of 200MB and over all
disk space of 10 GB. Premium version provides 100GB of disk space, and a maximum file size of 5GB.

Other popular online file sharing applications are Rapidshare, depositfiles,Yourfilehost, zshare, NowDownloadAll, easy-
share, Imgur and Uploading.

Twitter related applications

bit.ly converts any URL into a unique short URL. When a user visits the newURL, bit.ly redirects the browser to the real web site. Bit.ly has
parternered with Twitter, to allow twitter users to use shortened URLs. This has led to exponential growth of bit.ly URLs. As an example the
URL for thecloudtutorial is http://bit.ly/4siQfX .

Twitpic is an application that allows user to upload pictures to be linked from twitter. It uses twitters login, creates shorterened URLs, that
can be invoked from twitters microblogging.

Digital Video

Hulu offers videos online for free. Users can download popular movies, TV shows and documentaries and view them on the browser. Hulu
allows websites to embed content on their web sites also. Hulu is a joint venture of NBC Universal, Fox Entertainment Group and ABC Inc.
At present Hulu's contents can only be viewed in the USA. Other popular online video sites
are youtube, WatchMoviesOnline,break.com and Google Video.

Creating your image album

A large number of wonderful sites are available for hosting images on the web. The best ones
are flickr, Fotolog, photobucket, webshots, imagebam and ziddu. . These sites allow users to organize images into albums, tag them and
create slideshows.

Anti-virus applications on the web

Cloud Antivirus is an anti virus application on the cloud by a Spanish company Panda Security. It provides functionality to keep virus away
from a clean system and also detect and fix a system infested with malware. PC World rates it as the best free anti-virus software. The
antivirus can be downloaded onto the machine. The locally installed Cloud Anitvirus sends information about files to the data center on the
cloud which checks for malware in the files.

Editing documents, spreadsheets and powerpoints

SlideRocket is an online application that allows users to create presentation. The free version has a disk space storage of 250 MB. It allows
importing of PowerPoint presentations. Since it is a web based application, the presentations can be accessed from any location.The free
version does not allow users to edit presentations offline.

writeboard is an online free document editor from 37signals. Multiple users can edit the same document, and versions of documents are
saved. Writeboard allows users to compare different versions of documents. One limitation of WriteBoard is that it does not support
importing Word files.

Slideshare allows users to upload presentations. The site has a huge repository of presentations and is a leading source of free
presentations on the web. Documents are available on virtally any topic that one may be able to think off.
 Finding your way on a map

Another area where web applications became popular in Web 1.0 was finding directions on the web. The leading sites
are mapquest, Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. These have provided million of people maps and directions and helped people get to their
destinations over the last decade.

Miscellaneous free Software as a Service applications

XE provides foreign exchange tools and services online. Functionality provided includes trading currency and checking exchange rates.

One of the first usages of free software as service applications is checking the status of letters and packages. United States Postal
Service, UPS and Fedex all provide free online tracking of packages.

Comparison of organizations providing Storage Space on the Web

There are many companies providing free online storage. These Storage-as-a-Service providers have very similar feature set. These
companies provide an easy to use online interface to upload or download files from a user’s desktop to the servers on the cloud. Typical
usage of these sites is to take a backup of files and data. Other usages are hosting images, videos or large files and making them available
from web sites.

All these sites follow a freemium business model. They provide a basic online account that typically has limited disk storage and/or a limit
on individual file size. A less restrictive storage scheme is available for paying members. This is a very competitive space with no clear
leader. There are as many as 11 sites that provide free online storage, among the top 500 most popular sites. This is as per alexa traffic
statistics as on Dec 2009.

Table below gives comparison of free offering of Storage-as-a-Service providers

Free Storage as a Service

Vendor File Size Storage Size Waiting time Advertising
RapidShare 200 MB Unlimited Yes Yes
MediaFire 200 MB Unlimited nil Yes
MegaUpload 2 GB 200 GB 25 sec Yes
Hotfile 400 MB Unlimited 30 sec No
4Shared 500 MB 10 GB Yes Yes
DepositFiles 2 GB Unlimited 60 sec Yes
YourFileHost 25 MB ? Yes Yes
Zshare 1 GB ? 20 sec Yes
easy-share 200 MB Unlimited Yes Yes
Imgur 10 MB Unlimited No Yes
Uploading 1 GB Unlimited Yes Yes

There are other constraints of the free version. Some of the important ones are explained below.

Constraint of free storage as a service providers

Vendor name Limitations
Rapidshare Files not accessed within three months are deleted
MediaFire No URL is provided to access the files directly from a website
Hotfiles 30 minutes waiting time between two downloads. Files not accessed within 90 days are deleted
4Shared In the free version, files not accessed for 30 days are deleted
Uploading Deletes files that are not downloaded after six months in the free version
Imgur Files more than 1MB are compressed. Files not accessed within three months are deleted
Premium account allows users to download statistics, rename or organize your files into folders or set your file
Easy-share
properties
Yourfilehost Deletes files that are not downloaded in fourteen days
Depositfiles Deletes files that are not downloaded in thirty days
 Table below gives comparison of basic premium version offering of Storage-as-a-Service providers. Imgur and yourfilehost only have a free
version.

Premium version of Storage providers

Vendor File Size Storage Size Waiting time Price
RapidShare 2 GB Unlimited nil 6.99 Euro
MediaFire 2 GB Unlimited nil $6.97
MegaUpload Unlimited Unlimited nil $9.99
Hotfile 400 MB Unlimited nil $9
4shared 5 GB 100 GB nil $9.95
depositfiles 2 GB Unlimited nil $10.95
Zshare 2 GB ? nil No
Easy-share 1 GB Unlimited Yes $11.95
Uploading 2 GB Unlimited nil $9.95

An important criteria in selecting a provider for storage space on web is the download speed. However it is difficult for thecloudtutorial to do
this comparison, as the download speed is dependent on many factors. Users will need to select couple of vendors based upon information
provided above, and then choose one based upon performance.

Comparison of Online image storage providers

There are a large number of companies that provide the ability to upload/share/view images on the web. These organizations provide free
online image storage. These sites use freemium business model. The free version of these products typically has some restrictions on size
of images. Typical features of online image storage provided by these sites include:

a. Host images and videos

b. Images hosted at these sites may be accessed from blogs and websites
c. Organizing photos into albums, tagging photos
d. Searching images based upon a tag
e. Provide web services API to perform operations on images stored in the web site
f. Setting access control on images
g. Providing comments on images

In this article, thecloudtutorial has reviews of six leading online image storage sites.

1. Flickr (owned by Yahoo)

2. Fotolog
3. Photobucket (owned by Fox interactive media)
4. Webshots (owned by American Greetings)
5. Imagebam
6. Ziddu

A comparison of free version of these sites is included below.

Free Image Storage provider

Vendor Storage Size Video Advertising
Flickr 100 MB per month; 10MB per image 2 videos Yes
Fotolog One image per day n/a Yes
PhotoBucket 500 MB; 1MB per image Less than 5 minutes per video Yes
Webshots 100 images per month 10 videos per month Yes
Imagebam 3MB per image n/a Yes
Ziddu 200 MB n/a Yes

Flickr, owned by yahoo, is the most popular site for storing images online. In addition to restriction on space for monthly upload, user can
access only a maximum of 200 photos in the photostream. The disk space restriction of 100MB per month cannot be increased by deleting
images.

Photobucket has monthly bandwidth limit of 10GB on data transfer traffic. Ziddu does not have a premium version.
 The table below provides a comparison of the premium version of online image storage providers.

Comparison of Premium Image Storage provider

Vendor Storage Size Video Charges
Flickr Unlimited; 20MB per photo. Unlimited no of videos; Limit of 90 seconds max, 500MB per video. $24.95 annually
Fotolog Six images per day n/a $2.75 for two weeks
Photobucket Unlimited; 20MB per image 10 minutes per video & 300MB $24.95 annually
Webshots 500 images per month 50 videos per month $19.99 annually
Imagebam 3MB file size limit n/a €9.95 annually

Technologies related to cloud computing

Cloud computing typically has characteristics of all these technologies:

a. Grid computing
b. Virtualization
c. Utility Computing
d. Autonomic Computing

A quick overview of these technologies is given here.

Grid Computing
Grid Computing involves a network of computers that are utilized together to gain large supercomputing type computing resources. Using
this network of computers large and complex computing operations can be performed. In grid computing these network of computers may
be present in different locations.

A famous Grid Computing project is Folding@Home. The project involves utilizing unused computing powers of thousands of computers to
perform a complex scientific problem. The goal of the project is "to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases".

Virtualization
Virtualization introduces a layer between Hardware and operating system. During the sixties mainframe started supporting many users
using virtual machines. These virtual machines simulated behavior of an operating system for each user. VMWare launched a product
called VMware Workstation in 1999 that allows multiple operating systems to run on personal computers.

The virtualization forms the foundation of cloud technology. Using virtualization, users can access servers or storage without knowing
specific server or storage details. The virtualization layer will execute user request for computing resources by accessing appropriate
resources.

Typically server utilization in data centers can be as low as 10%. Virtualization can help in significantly improving server utilization.

Utility Computing
Utility Computing defines a "pay-per-use" model for using computing services. In utility computing, billing model of computing resources is
similar to how utilities like electricity are traditionally billed. When we procure electricity from a vendor, the initial cost required is minimal.
Based upon the usage of electricity, electricity companies bills the customer (typically monthly). In utility computing billing is done using a
similar protocol.

Various billing models are being explored. A few common ones are:

1. Billing per user count. As an example if an organization of 100 people uses Google's gmail or Microsoft Live as their internal
email system with email residing on servers in the cloud, Google/Microsoft may bill the organization on per user basis.
2. Billing per Gigabyte. If an organization is using Amazon to host their data on the cloud, Amazon may bill the organization on the
disk space usage.
3. Billing per hour/day. As an example a user may pay for usage of virtual servers by time utilized in hours.

In reality pricing on cloud computing can be very complex. As an example pricing of Amazon S3 as on November 2009 is explained below.
Amazon charges for using US S3 are divided into three parts - storage charges, data transfer charges and charges for number of requests.
These charges are summed together to compute the total billing.
S3 storage charges
US server Europe server
First 50 TB / month $0.150 per GB $0.180 per GB
next 50 TB / month $0.140 per GB $0.170 per GB
next 400 TB /month $0.130 per GB $0.160 per GB
over 500 TB / month $0.120 per GB $0.150 per GB

Data transfer charges are further divided into data transfer input and data transfer output. Data transfer rate for incoming data $0.100 per
GB. Data transfer rate for outputing data is explained in the table below.

S3 data transfer out charges

US server Europe server
First 10 TB / month $0.170 per GB $0.170 per GB
next 40 TB / month $0.130 per GB $0.130 per GB
next 100 TB /month $0.110 per GB $0.110 per GB
over 150 TB / month $0.100 per GB $0.100 per GB

S3 charges for requests made

US server Europe server
Per 1,000 PUT, COPY, POST, or LIST requests $0.01 $0.012
Per 10,000 other requests $0.01 $0.012

Utility computing helps in reducing initial investment. As the computing requirements for an individual or an organization changes, the billing
changes accordingly, without incurring any additional cost. If the usage has reduced, then billing will also reduce accordingly.

Autonomic computing
Autonomic computing is an initiative started by IBM in 2001. Autonomic means “self-managing” computers. In Autonomic computing,
computers can automatically correct themselves without human intervention. As an example consider is a network of computers running a
set of programs. When there is a hardware failure on one of the computers on the network, the programs running on that computer are
“transferred” to other computers in the network. This is an example of “self-correction” or autonomic computing. The analogy typically used
is that of human biological systems. Our biological systems take action in self-correcting mode without our explicit knowledge. In the same
way the goal of autonomic computing is for computing infrastructure to self-correct itself in unforeseen situations.

NASA Creates a New NEBULA: Cloud Computing Project

by NA NCY A T KI NS O N on JUNE 4, 2009

Cloud computing devices. Credit: HTMLRemix.com

NASA has developed a new cloud computing project based on open source components that provides high

capacity computing, storage, and networking. Called NEBULA, the spaceagency said the cloud project could be

used in support of space missions, as well as for education, public outreach and input, and collaborations. NASA

said NEBULA is a more open Web strategy designed to give the public greater participation in the space program.

Currently, the NEBULA cloud is being used to host a website, Nebula.nasa.gov.

On that site, NASA says the “fully-integrated nature of the NEBULA components provides for extremely rapid

development of policy-compliant and secure web applications, fosters and encourages code reuse, and improves

the coherence and cohesiveness of NASA’s collaborative web applications.” It integrates open source components

into a seamless, self-service platform.

“Built from the ground up around principles of transparency and public collaboration, Nebula is also an open

source project,” according to NASA.

NASA describes Nebula as a combination of infrastructure, platform, and software as a service, and the space

agency has created an IT architecture in support of that. An article inInformation Week says the components

include the Eucalyptus software developed at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Lustre file system

deployed on 64-bit storage nodes, the Django Web application framework, the SOLR indexing and search engine,

and an integrated development environment. Nebula will be compatible with Amazon Web Services, which means

AWS-compatible tools will work with it and Nebula virtual servers can run on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud.

In a paper written by Chris Kemp, CIO of NASA’s Ames Research Center Kemp of NASA Ames, he says NEBULA

could be used for an overhaul of NASA’s many websites, consolidating into a “single facility” with a Web

application framework that would include templates for user-generated blogs, wikis, and other content.

Kemp wrote that such an approach would support the public’s desire to be more actively engaged with NASA and

its space missions.

Sources: NEBULA, Information Week

For the 3rd installment of our webinar recap series, we dive into what the future holds for cloud computing. In

particular, will look at the role of platform-as-a-service in the broader cloud ecosystem. In particular, will 2010 be
“the year of PaaS?” Read on for more about why platform-level services will be hot in 2010, and who we felt would

be the big winners this year as the focus shifts from the infrastructure to the platform

2010: The Year of Platform as a Service

Michael: 2010 is going to be the year of the platform layer. If we look back at the predictions in 2008 going into

2009, people were getting excited about cloud. People were talking very much about virtualization. People were

talking very much about renting resources and tying them all together.

That was great, and we saw that come together in 2009, a lot of excitement out of Amazon and VMware with their

various solutions for public and private clouds. A lot of users are coming. When we talk to our customers and

various users around the country, I hear a lot of application developers come and say, “But wait how do I tie all of

this together? What tools are there for me to take advantage of this new paradigm?” That’s really the core of this

prediction.

Cloud computing is transforming business and IT at a rapid pace, and the Telecom industry is uniquely positioned

to make it the center of their future compute initiatives and new customer offerings. Companies can rely on Red

Hat to provide an extensive ecosystem of cloud technologies and services in order to enable large scale

deployments for either private or public clouds.

Cloud computing is more than just technology — it touches all aspects of a business. Only by marrying the

technical, business and legal dynamics of cloud computing across a robust ecosystem will Telcos be able to

achieve the reduced cost, operational efficiencies and new service offerings at the scale that can be delivered by

open source technologies and cloud.

Key issues reviewed in the presentation:

• existing and emerging technologies

• business challenges involved in implementing a cloud
• the importance of bridging the interoperability challenges to integrate on-premise and external clouds
• seamless application orchestration across public and private clouds
• requirements and strategies for building a robust and scalable open cloud ecosystem
• addressing security concerns

Content delivery network — A system consisting of multiple computers that contain copies of data, which are

located in different places on the network so clients can access the copy closest to them.
Cloud

A metaphor for a global network, first used in reference to the telephone network and now commonly used to

represent the Internet.

Cloud broker

An entity that creates and maintains relationships with multiple cloud service providers. It acts as a liaison between

cloud services customers and cloud service providers, selecting the best provider for each customer and

monitoring the services.

Cloud operating system

A computer operating system that is specially designed to run in a provider’s datacenter and be delivered to the

user over the Internet or another network. Windows Azure is an example of a cloud operating system or “cloud

layer” that runs on Windows Server 2008. The term is also sometimes used to refer to cloud-based client operating

systems such as Google’s Chrome OS.

Cloud Oriented Architecture

A term coined by Jeff Barr at Amazon Web Services to describe an architecture where applications act as services

in the cloud and serve other applications in the cloud environment.

Cloud portability

The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another. See also Vendor lock-in.

Cloud provider

A company that provides cloud-based platform, infrastructure, application, or storage services to other

organizations and/or individuals, usually for a fee.

Cloud storage

A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the Internet or another network to an offsite

storage system maintained by a third party.

Cloudsourcing

Replacing traditional IT services with cloud services.

Cloudstorming

Connecting multiple cloud computing environments.

Cloudware
Software that enables creating, deploying, running, or managing applications in the cloud.

Cluster

A group of linked computers that work together as if they were a single computer, for high availability and/or load

balancing.

Consumption-based pricing model

A pricing model whereby the service provider charges its customers based on the amount of the service the

customer consumes, rather than a time-based fee. For example, a cloud storage provider might charge per

gigabyte of information stored. See also Subscription-based pricing model.

Customer self-service

A feature that allows customers to provision, manage, and terminate services themselves, without involving the

service provider, via a Web interface or programmatic calls to service APIs.

Disruptive technology

A term used in the business world to describe innovations that improve products or services in unexpected ways

and change both the way things are done and the market. Cloud computing is often referred to as a disruptive

technology because it has the potential to completely change the way IT services are procured, deployed, and

maintained.

Elastic computing

The ability to dynamically provision and de-provision processing, memory, and storage resources to meet

demands of peak usage without worrying about capacity planning and engineering for peak usage.
External cloud

Public or private cloud services that are provided by a third party outside the organization.

Google App Engine

A service that enables developers to create and run Web applications on Google’s infrastructure and share their

applications via a pay-as-you-go, consumption-based plan with no setup costs or recurring fees.

Google Apps

Google’s SaaS offering that includes an office productivity suite, email, and document sharing, as well as Gmail,

Google Talk for instant messaging, Google Calendar and Google Docs, spreadsheets, and presentations.

HaaS

Hardware as a service; see IaaS.

Hosted application
instantempo instantempo on FB instantempo on TW instantempo on YT case prefabbricate loan calculator

An Internet-based or Web-based application software program that runs on a remote server and can be accessed

via an Internet-connected PC or thin client. See also SaaS.

Hybrid cloud

A networking environment that includes multiple integrated internal and/or external providers.

IaaS

Infrastructure as a service — Cloud infrastructure services, whereby a virtualized environment is delivered as a

service over the Internet by the provider. The infrastructure can include servers, network equipment, and software.

IBM Smart Business

IBM’s cloud solutions, which include IBM Smart Business Test Cloud, IBM Smart Analytics Cloud, IBM Smart

Business Storage Cloud, IBM Information Archive, IBM Lotus Live, and IBM LotusLive iNotes.
Internal cloud

A type of private cloud whose services are provided by an IT department to those in its own organization.

Mashup

A Web-based application that combines data and/or functionality from multiple sources.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft cloud services that provide the platform as a service (see PaaS), allowing developers to create cloud

applications and services.

Middleware

Software that sits between applications and operating systems, consisting of a set of services that enable

interoperability in support of distributed architectures by passing data between applications. So, for example, the

data in one database can be accessed through another database.

On-demand service

A model by which a customer can purchase cloud services as needed; for instance, if customers need to utilize

additional servers for the duration of a project, they can do so and then drop back to the previous level after the

project is completed.

PaaS

Platform as a service — Cloud platform services, whereby the computing platform (operating system and

associated services) is delivered as a service over the Internet by the provider.

Pay as you go

A cost model for cloud services that encompasses both subscription-based and consumption-based models, in

contrast to traditional IT cost model that requires up-front capital expenditures for hardware and software.
Private cloud

Services offered over the Internet or over a private internal network to only select users, not available to the

general public.

Public cloud

Services offered over the public Internet and available to anyone who wants to purchase the service.

SaaS

Software as a service — Cloud application services, whereby applications are delivered over the Internet by the

provider, so that the applications don’t have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer’s computers.

SaaS providers were previously referred to as ASP (application service providers).

Salesforce.com

An online SaaS company that is best known for delivering customer relationship management (CRM) software to

companies over the Internet.

Service migration

The act of moving from one cloud service or vendor to another.

Service provider

The company or organization that provides a public or private cloud service.

SLA

Service level agreement — A contractual agreement by which a service provider defines the level of service,

responsibilities, priorities, and guarantees regarding availability, performance, and other aspects of the service.

Subscription-based pricing model

A pricing model that lets customers pay a fee to use the service for a particular time period, often used for SaaS

services. See also Consumption-based pricing model.

Utility computing

Online computing or storage sold as a metered commercial service in a way similar to a public utility

Vendor lock-in

Dependency on the particular cloud vendor and difficulty moving from one cloud vendor to another due to lack of

standardized protocols, APIs, data structures (schema), and service models.

Vertical cloud

A cloud computing environment that is optimized for use in a particular industry, such as health care or financial

services.

Virtual private data center

Resources grouped according to specific business objectives.

VPC

Virtual private cloud — A private cloud that exists within a shared or public cloud, e.g., the Amazon VPC that

allows Amazon EC2 to connect to legacy infrastructure on an IPsec VPN.

Windows Live Services

Microsoft’s cloud-based consumer applications, which include Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Photo Gallery,

Windows Live Calendar, Windows Live Events, Windows Live Skydrive, Windows Live Spaces, Windows Live

Messenger, Windows Live Writer, and Windows Live for Mobile.