Deconstructing Cloud Concepts
Cloud computing is a method of providing a set of shared computing resources that includes applications, computing, storage, networking, development, and deployment platforms as well as business processes. Cloud computing turns traditional siloed computing assets into shared pools of resources that are based on an underlying Internet foundation. Cloud computing makes these resources easier to use by providing standardization and automation. Standardization is the implementation of services using a consistent approach supported by a set of consistent interfaces. Likewise, a cloud requires that processes are implemented through the use of automation. Automation is a process that’s triggered based on business rules, resource availability, and security demands. Automation is required to support a self-service provisioning model. To promote efficiency, automation can ensure that after a provisioned service is no longer needed, it can be returned to the resource pool. This type of automation based on rules can help with capacity planning and overall workload management.
Equally important is that the cloud provides a new economic model of computing. Instead of purchasing, managing, and maintaining a self-contained, traditional data center — a specialized environment where a variety of different computing resources are managed — a business is able to transform computing into a more streamlined computing environment that better serves changing computing requirements. If a company has already invested in a data center to support a line of business applications, it can transform that data center into a more targeted environment. If the company wants to provide a flexible self-service resource environment on its premises, it can create what’s called a private cloud. Likewise, a company can use sophisticated services available from a third-party public cloud provider (either applications or platforms) to extend and enhance the environment.
Most businesses today are already using some kind of cloud service — even if they don’t think of it as a cloud. For example, any company that uses ADP for payroll service is using a cloud-based service. A company may use online data backup or storage services that live in a commercial cloud. If employees use Google’s Gmail service, they are using a cloud service. Many companies are discovering that having customer relationship management (CRM) available as a service is a better way to support the sales team than the traditional on-premises software options.
You should be getting the idea that cloud computing means that everything — from compute power to computing infrastructure, and from applications and business processes to personal collaboration — can be delivered to you as a service. To be operational in the real world, the cloud must be implemented with common standardized processes and automation.
Clouds come in different versions, depending on your needs. There are two primary deployment models of cloud: public and private. Most organizations will use a combination of private computing resources (data centers and private clouds) and public services, where some of the services existing in these environments touch each other — which is what we call a hybrid cloud environment.
The public cloud
The public cloud is a set of hardware, networking, storage, services, applications, and interfaces owned and operated by a third party for use by other companies or individuals. These commercial providers create a highly scalable data center that hides the details of the underlying infrastructure from the consumer. Public clouds are viable because they typically manage relatively repetitive or straightforward workloads. For example, electronic mail is a very simple application. Therefore, a cloud provider can optimize the environment so that it is best suited to support a large number of customers, even if they save many messages. Likewise, public cloud providers offering storage or computing services will optimize their computing hardware and software to support these specific types of workloads. In contrast, the typical data center supports so many different applications and so many different workloads that it cannot be optimized easily.
The private cloud
A private cloud is a set of hardware, networking, storage, services, applications, and interfaces owned and operated by an organization for the use of its employees, partners, and customers. A private cloud can be created and managed by a third party for the exclusive use of one enterprise. The private cloud is a highly controlled environment not open for public consumption. Thus, a private cloud sits behind a firewall. The private cloud is highly automated with a focus on governance, security, and compliance. Automation replaces more manual processes of managing IT services to support customers. In this way, business rules and processes can be implemented inside software so that the environment becomes more predictable and manageable.
The hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud is a combination of a private cloud combined with the use of public cloud services where one or several touch points are between the environments. The goal is to create a well-managed hybrid cloud management environment that can combine services and data from a variety of cloud models to create a unified, automated, and well-managed computing environment. In reality, it will be a number of years before the full range of services becomes the norm. Components of this hybrid management approach are available today, but these are the early days. For a good understanding of this management model, we recommend you read Chapter 4 about hybrid cloud management. Many companies in the market are working on this model because it will solve critical problems. Why is this necessary? A company might use the private cloud as a way to support changing needs of the application development team within various departments where developers need to constantly build new experimental applications or create new value to meet emerging business needs. A private cloud provides a flexible environment with a higher level of security than would be available in a public cloud. The same company might also use public services ranging from compute, storage, platform, and application services to augment and strengthen their changing business needs.
Combining public services with private clouds and the data center as a hybrid is the new definition of corporate computing. Not all companies that use some public and some private cloud services have a hybrid cloud. Rather, a hybrid cloud is an environment where the private and public services are used together to create value. In the following circumstances, a cloud is not hybrid:
If a few developers in a company use a public cloud service to prototype a new application that is completely disconnected from the private cloud or the data center, the company does not have a hybrid environment.
If a company is using a SaaS application for a project but there is no movement of data from that application into the company’s data center, the environment is not hybrid.
A cloud is hybrid in the following situations:
If a company uses a public development platform that sends data to a private cloud or a data center–based application, the cloud is hybrid.
When a company leverages a number of SaaS applications and moves data between private or data center resources, the cloud is hybrid.
When a business process is designed as a service so that it can connect with environments as though they were a single environment, the cloud is hybrid.