Cloud Computing Architecture

9.1 1
Chapter 4 - Cloud Computing Architecture Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

After completing this unit you should be able to understand

• Cloud reference model
• Architecture of following service models
– Iaas
– Paas
– Saas
• Types of Clouds and their structure
• Economics of the cloud
• open challenges of cloud computing

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Introduction Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The term Cloud computing is a wide umbrella encompassing many different

things; lately it has become a buzzword easily misused to revamp existing
technologies and ideas for the public.
• Utility-oriented Data Centers are the first outcome of Cloud computing and
they serve as the infrastructure through which the services are implemented
and delivered.
• Any Cloud service, whether it is virtual hardware, development platform, or
application software, relies on a distributed infrastructure owned by the
provider or rented from a third party.
• As it can be noticed from the previous definition, the characterization of a
Cloud is quite general: it can be implemented by using a datacenter, a
collection of clusters, or a heterogeneous distributed system composed by
desktop PC, workstations, and servers.
– Cloud computing is a utility oriented and Internet centric way of delivering IT services on
demand. These services cover the entire computing stack: from the hardware infrastructure
packaged as a set of virtual machines to software services such as development platforms
and distributed applications.

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Cloud Reference Model Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Cloud computing supports any IT service that can be consumed as a utility and it is
delivered through the network, most likely the Internet. Such characterization
includes quite different aspects: infrastructure, development platforms, application
and services.
Pure SaaS

Cloud Applications
SaaS

User
Applications Social Computing, Enterprise ISV, Scientific Computing, CDNs

Cloud Programming Environment and Tools

PaaS
Pure PaaS

Autonomic Cloud Economy

User-level Web 2.0, Mashups, Concurrent and Distributed Programming,

Adaptive Management
Middleware
Workflows , Libraries, Scripting

Cloud Hosting Platforms

IaaS

QoS Negotiation, Admission Control, Pricing, SLA Management,

IaaS (M)

Monitoring, Execution Management, Metering, Accounting

Core
Middleware
Virtual Machine (VM), VM Management and Deployment

Cloud Resources
System
Infrastructure

Fig-4.1- Cloud Computing Architecture

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Architecture Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• It is possible to organize all the concrete realizations of Cloud computing into a layered view
covering the entire stack (see Figure in last slide ): from the hardware appliances to software
systems.
• Cloud resources are harnessed to offer “computing/horse power” required for providing
services.
• Often, this layer is implemented by using a datacenter in which hundreds and thousands of
nodes are stacked together. Cloud infrastructure can be in heterogeneous nature as variety of
resources such as clusters and even networked PCs can be used to build it.
• Moreover, database systems and other storage services can also be part of the infrastructure.
• The physical infrastructure is managed by the core middleware whose objectives are to provide
an appropriate runtime environment for applications and to utilize resources at best.
• At the bottom of the stack, virtualization technologies are used to guarantee runtime
environment customization, application isolation, sandboxing, and quality of service.
• Hardware virtualization is the most commonly used at this level. Hypervisors manage the pool
of resources and expose the distributed infrastructure as a collection of virtual machines.
• By using virtual machine technology it is possible to finely partition the hardware resources
such as CPU, memory, and also virtualize specific devices, thus meeting the requirement of
users and applications.

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Architecture Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The combination of Cloud hosting platforms and resources is generally classified as

a Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution.
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service solutions are suitable for designing the system
infrastructure but provide limited services to build applications.
• Such service is provided by Cloud programming environments and tools, which form
a new layer for offering to users a development platform for applications.
• The range of tools include web based interfaces, command line tools, and
frameworks for concurrent and distributed programming.
• In this scenario, users develop their applications specifically for the Cloud by using
the API exposed at the user-level middleware. For this reason, this approach is also
known as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), because the service offered to the user is a
development platform rather than an infrastructure.
• PaaS solutions generally include the infrastructure as well, that is bundled as part of
the service provided to users. In case of Pure PaaS only the user level middleware
is offered and it has to be complemented with a virtual or physical infrastructure.
• The top layer of the reference model depicted in Figure in previous slide contains
services delivered at application level. These are mostly referred as Software-as-a-
Service (SaaS).
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Architecture Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• In most of the cases these are web based applications that rely on the Cloud to provide
service to end users.
• The horse power of the Cloud provided by IaaS and PaaS solutions allows independent
software vendors to deliver their application services over the Internet.
• Other applications belonging to this layer are those strongly leveraging the Internet for
their core functionalities that rely on the Cloud to sustain a larger number of users; this is
the case of gaming portals and in general social networking web sites.
• As a vision, any service offered in the Cloud computing style, should be able to
adaptively change and expose an autonomic behavior; in particular for its availability and
performance.
• The reference model described in Figure in last slide also introduces the concept of
everything as a Service (XaaS). This is one of the most important elements of Cloud
computing: Cloud services from different providers can be composed together in order to
provide a completely integrated solution covering all the computing stack of a system.
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers can offer the bare metal in terms of virtual machines
where Platform-as-a-Service solutions are deployed.
• Table 4.1 in next slide summarizes the characteristics of the three major categories used
to classify Cloud computing solutions.

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Cloud Computing Services Classification Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

Table-4.1: Cloud Computing Services Classification

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Infrastructure / Hardware as a Service Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• Figure 4.2 provides an overall view of the
components forming an Infrastructure-as-
a-Service solution.
• It is possible to distinguish three principal
layers: the physical infrastructure, the
software management infrastructure, and
the user interface.
• At the top layer the user interface provides
access to the services exposed by the
software management infrastructure. Such
interface is generally based on Web 2.0
technologies: web services, RESTful APIs,
and mash-ups.
• The core features of an Infrastructure-as-
a-Service solution are implemented in the
infrastructure management software layer.
• In particular, the management of the
virtual machines is the most important
function performed by this layer. A central
role is played by the scheduler, which is in-
charge of allocating the execution of virtual Fig-4.2-iaas
machine instances.

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Infrastructure / Hardware as a Service Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• A central role is played by the scheduler, which is in-charge of allocating the

execution of virtual machine instances. The scheduler interacts with the other
components performing different tasks:
– The pricing / billing component takes care of the cost of executing each virtual machine instance and
maintains data that will be used to charge the user.
– The monitoring component tracks the execution of each virtual machine instance and maintains data
required for reporting and analyzing the performance of the system.
– The reservation component stores the information of all the virtual machine instances that have been
executed or that will be executed in the future.
– The VM repository component provides a catalog of virtual machine images that users can use to create
virtual instances.
– A VM pool manager component is responsible of keeping track of all the live instances.
• The bottom layer is constituted by the physical infrastructure on top of which the
management layer operates.
• At the bottom of the scale it is also possible to consider a heterogeneous
environment where different types of resources can be aggregated: PCs,
workstations, and clusters.
• In case of complete IaaS solutions all the three levels are offered as service. This is
generally the case of Public Clouds vendors, such as Amazon, GoGrid, Joyent,
Rightscale,
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Platform as a Service Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions
provide a development and deployment
platform for running applications in the Cloud.
• They constitute the middleware on top of
which applications are built. A general
overview of the features characterizing the
PaaS approach is given in Figure 4.3.
• Application management is the core
functionality of the middleware. PaaS
implementations provide applications with a
runtime environment and do not expose any
service for managing the underlying
infrastructure.
• They automate the process of deploying
applications to the infrastructure, configuring
applications components, provisioning and
configuring supporting technologies such as
load balancers and databases, and managing
system change based on policies set by the
user.
• From a user point of view, the core
middleware exposes interfaces that allow
programming and deploying applications on Fig-4.3-paas
the Cloud.

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Platform as a Service Offering Classification Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

Table: Platform as a Service Offering Classification

Table-4.2: Platform as a Service Offering Classification

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Essential characteristics of Platform-as-a-Service
solution Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Runtime framework. It represents the “software stack” of the PaaS model and the
most intuitive aspect that comes to the mind of people when referring to Platform-as-
a-Service solutions. The runtime framework executes end-user code according to
the policies set by the user and the provider.
• Abstraction. PaaS solutions are distinguished by the higher level of abstraction that
they provide. PaaS the focus is on the applications the Cloud must support.
• Automation. PaaS environment automate the process of deploying applications to
the infrastructure, scaling them by provisioning additional resources when needed.
• Cloud services. PaaS offerings provide developers and architects with services and
APIs helping them to simplify the creation and delivery of elastic and highly available
Cloud applications.
• The Platform-as-a-Service approach, when bundled with a underlying IaaS
solutions, helps even small startup companies to quickly offer to customers
integrated solutions on a hosted platform, at a very minimal cost. These
opportunities make the PaaS offering a viable option targeting different market
segments.

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Software as a Service Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a software delivery model providing access to applications
through the Internet as a web-based service.
• The SaaS model is appealing for applications serving a wide range of users and that can be
adapted to specific needs with little further customization.
• This requirement characterizes Software-as-a-Service as a “one-to-many” software delivery
model where an application is shared across multiple users.
• “In the software as a service model, the application, or service, is deployed from a centralized
data center across a network – Internet, Intranet, LAN, or VPN – providing access and use on
a recurring fee basis. Users “rent”, “subscribe to”, “are assigned”, or “are granted access to”
the applications from a central provider. Business models vary according to the level to which
the software is streamlined, to lower price and increase efficiency, or value-added through
customization to further improve digitized business processes.”
• The analysis carried out by SIIA was mainly oriented to cover Application Service Providers
(ASPs) and all their variations, which capture the concept of software applications consumed
as a service in a broader sense. ASPs already had some of the core characteristics of SaaS:
– The product sold to customer is application access.
– The application is centrally managed.
– The service delivered is one-to-many.
– The service delivered is an integrated solution delivered on the contract, which means provided as
promised.

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Types of Clouds Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Clouds constitute the primary outcome of Cloud computing. They are a type of
parallel and distributed system harnessing physical and virtual computers presented
as a unified computing resource.
• Clouds build the infrastructure on top of which services are implemented and
delivered to customers. Such an infrastructure can be of different types and provides
useful information about the nature and the services offered by the Cloud.
• Public Clouds: the Cloud is open to the wide public;
• Private Clouds: the Cloud is implemented within the private premises of an institution
and generally made accessible to the members of the institution or a subset of them;
• Hybrid or Heterogeneous Clouds: the Cloud is a combination of the two previous
solution and most likely identifies a Private Cloud that has been augmented with
resources or services hosted in a Public Cloud;
• Community Clouds: the Cloud is characterized by a multi-administrative domain,
involving different deployment models (public, private, and hybrid), and it is
specifically designed to address the needs of a specific industry.
• Almost all the implementations of Clouds can be classified in this categorization.

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Public Clouds Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Public Clouds constitute the first expression of Cloud computing. They are a
realization of the canonical view of Cloud computing where the services offered are
made available to anyone, from anywhere, and at any time through the Internet.
• From a structural point of view they are a distributed system, most likely constituted
by one or more datacenters connected together, on top of which the specific
services offered by the Cloud are implemented.
• Any customer can easily sign-in with the Cloud provider, enter his/her credential and
billing details, and use the services offered.
• A fundamental characteristic of Public Clouds is multi-tenancy. A Public Cloud is
meant to serve a multitude of users and not a single customer. Any customer
requires its virtual computing environment that is separated, and most likely isolated,
from the other users. This is a fundamental requirement to provide an effective
monitoring of user activities, guarantee the desired performance and the other
Quality of Service attributes negotiated with users.
• A Public Cloud can offer any kind of service: infrastructure, platform, or applications.
For example, Amazon EC2 is a Public Cloud providing infrastructure as a service,
Google AppEngine is a Public Cloud providing an application development platform
as a service, and Salesforce.com is a Public Cloud providing software as a service.

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Private Clouds Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• Private Clouds are virtual distributed systems
that rely on a private infrastructure and
provide internal users with dynamic
provisioning of computing resources.
• Differently from Public Clouds, instead of a
pay-as-you-go model, there could be other
schemes in place, which take into account the
usage of the Cloud and proportionally bill the
different departments or sections of the
enterprise.
• Private Clouds have the advantage of
keeping in house the core business
operations by relying on the existing IT
infrastructure and reducing the burden of
maintaining it once the Cloud has been set
up.
• From an architectural point of view Private
Clouds can be implemented on more
heterogeneous hardware
• The physical layer is complemented with
infrastructure management software (i.e. IaaS Fig-4.4-Private Clouds Hardware and Software Stack
(M), or a PaaS solution, according to the
service delivered to the users of the Cloud.

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Hybrid Clouds Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• hybrid solution is an interesting opportunity
for taking advantage of both of the two worlds.
This led to the development and the diffusion
of Hybrid Clouds.
• Hybrid Clouds allow exploiting existing IT
infrastructures, maintaining sensitive
information within the premises, and naturally
growing and shrinking by provisioning
external resources and releasing them when
needed.
• it is a heterogeneous distributed system
resulting from a Private Cloud that integrates
additional services or resources from one or
more Public Clouds. For this reason they are
also called Heterogeneous Clouds.
• As depicted in the diagram, dynamic
provisioning is a fundamental component in
this scenario: Hybrid Clouds address
scalability issues by leveraging external
resources for exceeding capacity demand.
These resources or services are temporarily
leased for the time required and then
released. This practice is also known as Fig-4.5- Hybrid / Heterogeneous Cloud Overview
Cloud-bursting

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Community Clouds Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• Community Clouds are distributed system
constituted by integrating the services of
different Clouds to address the specific
needs of an industry, a community, or a
business sector.
• The NIST characterizes Community
Clouds as follows:
– “The 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.”
• From an architectural point of view, a
Community Cloud is most likely
implemented over multiple administrative
domains. This means that different
organizations such as government bodies,
private enterprises, research organization,
and even public virtual infrastructure Fig-4.6- Community Cloud
providers, contribute with their resources
to build the Cloud infrastructure.
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Economics of the Cloud Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• The main drivers of Cloud computing are: economy of scale and simplicity of
software delivery and its operation. In fact, the biggest benefit of this phenomenon is
financial: the pay-as-you-go model offered by Cloud providers. In particular, Cloud
computing allows:
– reducing the capital costs associated to the IT infrastructure;
– eliminating the depreciation or lifetime costs associated with IT capital assets
– replacing software licensing with subscriptions
– cutting down the maintenance and administrative costs of IT resources

• A capital cost is the cost occurred in purchasing an asset that is useful in the
production of goods or the rendering of services.
• The amount of cost savings that Cloud computing can introduce within an enterprise
is related to the specific scenario in which Cloud services are used and how they
contribute to generate a profit for the enterprise.
• In the case of a small startup starting its business it is possible to completely
leverage the Cloud for many aspects such as:
– IT infrastructure;
– Software development;
– CRM and ERP;
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Open Challenges Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Being in its infancy, Cloud computing still presents a lot of challenges for the
industry and the academia.
• the most important ones are:
• Cloud Definition
– One of the most comprehensive formalization is noted in the National Institute of Standards
and Technologies (NIST) working definition of Cloud computing [43]. It characterizes Cloud
computing as: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid
elasticity, and measured service; classifies services as: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS; and
categorizes deployment models as: public, private, community, and hybrid Clouds. The view
is inline with our discussion and it shared by many IT practitioners and academics.
– These characterizations and taxonomies reflect what is meant by Cloud computing at
present time, but being in its infancy the phenomenon is constantly evolving and the same
will happen to the attempts to capture the real nature of Cloud computing.
• Cloud Interoperability and Standards
• Scalability and Fault Tolerance
• Security, Trust, and Privacy
• Organizational Aspects

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Review questions Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems
• What does the acronym XaaS stand for?
• What are the fundamental components introduced in the Cloud Reference Model?
• What does Infrastructure-as-a-Service refer to?
• Which are the basic components of an IaaS based solution for Cloud computing?
• Provide some examples of IaaS implementations.
• What are the main characteristics of a Platform-as-a-Service solution?
• Describe the different categories of options available in PaaS market.
• What does the acronym SaaS mean? How does it relate to Cloud computing?
• Give the name of some popular Software-as-a-Service solutions?
• Classify the different types of Clouds.
• Give an example of Public Cloud.
• Which is the most common scenario for a Private Cloud?
• What kind of needs is addressed by Heterogeneous Clouds?
• Describe the fundamental features of the economic and business model behind Cloud
computing.
• How does Cloud computing help to reduce the time to market for applications and to cut down
capital expenses?
• List some of the challenges in Cloud computing.
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Conclusions Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

In this chapter the following things are discussed

• Cloud reference model
• Architecture of following service models
– Iaas
– Paas
– Saas
• Types of Clouds and their structure
• Economics of the cloud
• open challenges of cloud computing

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References Manjrasoft
IBM Power Systems

• Rajkumar Buyya, Christian Vecchiola, and Thamarai Selvi,

Mastering Cloud Computing, McGraw Hill, ISBN-13: 978-1-
25-902995-0, New Delhi, India, 2013.
– Chapter 4- Cloud Computing Architecture
• Section 4.1 to 4.5
– This chapter slides text is compiled by:
• Dr. Sounak Paul, BIT Mesra, Deoghar, India

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