Cloud Hosting Checklist

Grazed from PowerRetail.  Author: Macquarie Telecom.

Cloud computing is a revolution in how computing power is delivered to business. Cloud computing is where IT is delivered as a service. Instead of installing and managing an IT infrastructure on your own premises, it’s transparently provided by third parties across the internet. Cloud computing has been made possible by very large scale data centres connected to high speed, low cost broadband networks. With cloud computing, you can have 24/7 secure access to more business applications, on more devices, wherever you are–and you only pay for what you use…

Cloud computing can be divided into three distinct components:

• Infrastructure as a Service/IaaS: This is the ‘power station’ at the core of all cloud models. Computer resources such as servers (or individual server components such as CPUs), storage and networks.
• Platform as a Service/PaaS: This builds on the power of IAAS–to make it easier to collaborate and develop software. PAAS includes platform elements required to build and run an application, such as development languages, application servers and management tools.
• Software as a Service/SaaS: This is the ‘icing on the cake’–fully serviced software, running on fully serviced infrastructure. SaaS includes bespoke software applications, generally web based, for consumer or business functions such as CRM or email.

Clouds Explained

Cloud can be classified in terms of who owns and manages the cloud computing services. There are three main deployment models:

• Private Cloud: Your cloud runs on infrastructure that is both physically and virtually dedicated for your organisation alone. Your private cloud can reside on your own premises, in a dedicated co-location rack in a data centre, or on managed dedicated servers. Private clouds can best support compliance to specific regulations, but lack the flexibility of other cloud models.
• Public Cloud: Your cloud runs on a shared virtual infrastructure, in a secure remote data centre, with managed resources and services delivered over the internet. You can add or remove resources, scaling when necessary for your business needs and only pay for what you use. Public clouds offer the highest flexibility through their ability to expand and contract when needed without having to invest in peak capacity requirements.
• Hybrid Cloud: Hybrid Clouds utilise both the public and private cloud models by connecting both over a network. A typical hybrid cloud consists of a private cloud running core application and database servers, “bursting” into a public cloud when pre-defined capacity thresholds are exceeded. Hybrid clouds offer a combination of compliance and flexibility.

Private, Public or Hybrid–Which One?

• Private Cloud: For organisations that require the rapid scalability and operating efficiency of the public cloud but the reliability, security and power of a dedicated resource with guaranteed uptime are best suited to the private cloud. It’s for organisations that are looking to save costs by consolidating a large number of servers and better utilising hardware. However, the private cloud isn’t suitable for business on tight budgets as it does carry a premium for using dedicated hardware, yet it does give businesses more control over their data and resources so they can manage the infrastructure while still taking advantage of the benefits of cloud computing.

•  Public Cloud: The public cloud is most suited to businesses that don’t want to be tied into a complex contract and are ultimately looking for straight-forward hosting with the minimum investment. Public clouds still offer businesses the ability to scale quickly which is especially appealing to applications or websites who have unpredictable traffic or seasonal bursts. Businesses that choose this type of cloud offering need to be aware that Service Level Guarantees are not those of dedicated hosting solutions, and the security profile may equally not be adequate for sensitive data and applications. However, the shared nature of public cloud hosting makes it very cost effective for young or cost conscious businesses. Software development organisations are a specific kind of company likely to utilise public clouds as virtual servers are ideal for the testing and development of applications and User Acceptable Testing (UAT). The pay-as-you-go nature of this cloud model plus the ability to create to cloud servers as needed, makes it very appealing.

• Hybrid Hosting: When it comes to cloud solutions, one size does not fit all requirements. Companies are able to utilise public and private clouds as components of their enterprise infrastructure, alongside dedicated servers, both hosted and on-site. Through this ‘hybrid hosting’ architecture, companies are able to leverage and combine the benefits that each of the hosting models can deliver. For example, companies can deploy applications on a server designed to meet their predictable application needs and then deploy web services on a cloud server to meet burstable periodic usage. Companies can improve their business continuity plans without the typically prohibitive sunken costs required to permanently replicate every one of the physical servers. Instead, they can replicate server images and data to the cloud from either co-located, managed or cloud servers within a third party’s data centre or their own.

Does your current cloud solution meet your business requirements?