The Need for Standardisation in Cloud Computing - The Issues

The second instalment in this couplet of articles looks at some of the issues that the standardisation of cloud computing, including the European Commission's potential initiative, will aim to tackle and clarify in order to drive the adoption of cloud computing forward, particularly within its ripest markets, such as amongst SMEs.

Control Over Data & Security
Arguably the primary area for concern for prospective cloud computing clients is that of data handling. In other words knowing and controlling where your data - personal details if you are a personal consumer, or client data etc for businesses - is stored (geographically and technologically) and how secure it is in that location. For on-site private clouds, for example, this is less of a concern, but where a client is signing up to a public cloud service, based upon shared server resources and public network connections, they may not fully understand, nevermind influence, where their data lives.

The cloud computing model means that a client’s data can ultimately be stored across national boundaries, across continents even and that raises many issues around the varying jurisdictions under which that data exists. It can lead to conflicts between the differing jurisdictions under which cloud providers operate and under which the data they control is stored. As an illustration of this, data held by US cloud providers must be supplied to the US government on request under the US’s Patriot Act, even when that data is physically hosted in another country. Consequently, as a UK resident signing up to a Microsoft Live account for example, a consumer may not in fact realise that their personal details, and who has access to them, are governed by US laws, despite understanding that Microsoft is a US based company. In many other scenarios, private and commercial users of cloud services may not be confident of the nationality of the provider in the first place, never mind the jurisdictions and legislation that govern their data.

Not only may this lack of transparency lead to concerns over who has access to and jurisdiction over data but it may also raise questions about what security measures are applied to safeguard that data against those who shouldn’t have access to it in any case, and against any kind of intentional corruption of that data. Security vulnerabilities can of course sit at many points in the cloud model but client perception and awareness of those at source - at server/data centre level - can be far less clear than of those at the access points with which the client interacts.

Interoperability
Presently, the primary driver for standardisation across the industry, whether amongst clients who feel they have a grasp of their data handling processes or not, is that of interoperability - that is being able to switch their IT functions from one provider’s platform to another compatible platform. The current cloud market raises many questions in this area for organisations: if it moves some of its functions to one cloud provider will it then be locked into that provider for its associated functions; can it integrate functions hosted with other providers; will this carry prohibitive costs; can it switch workloads between different cloud services seamlessly; will it be able to migrate away from its chosen provider if a more preferable solution comes along? From a commercial point of view these are some of the most pressing questions when choosing a cloud provider and so there is gathering momentum across the industry, not just in Europe, to establish open standards which free consumers to treat their cloud computing services more like the utility computing that the cloud has long promised to deliver. In other words, allowing clients to tap into different provider’s services as and when they need them, without lock-ins and without barriers.

There are many other aspects of a cloud proposition, in relation to performance, uptime, storage space etc, that clients can have difficulty understanding and comparing like for like. All of these issues demand clear and standardised SLAs to come into play in order to define the language and metrics in which information can be presented to clients. Form a client’s point of view, however, the key is to seek out reputable cloud providers, enquire about interoperability physical hosting locations, use recommendations from clients with established relationships where possible and steer well clear of ambiguities.

To find out more about accessing secure and transparent cloud based sevices across the EU you can check out this pan-European operator of virtual data centres.

The Need for Standardisation in Cloud Computing - Introduction

To many observers, cloud computing may appear to be spreading like wildfire with both enterprise and personal users jumping at the chance to take advantage of the cost effectiveness, scalability and flexibility that it offers. However, there is a strong debate amongst industry experts, and beyond, as to whether this uptake, however rapid, has been severely tempered by a lack of trust and understanding around cloud services from prospective clients.

The debate stems from the thought that there is a perceived lack of transparency caused by the multi-server approach to the creation of cloud platforms and the differing propositions put forward by individual cloud providers; and that this in turn is obscuring client understanding of what it is exactly that they are choosing to sign up to.

Moreover, it is argued that some of the markets that would benefit most from cloud adoption are made up of the same clients that are more predisposed to be reluctant to take on the perceived risk of signing up to cloud services. As a generalisation, large scale enterprises are perhaps more likely to possess the budgets to either host private cloud services internally or engage with third party providers to define exactly what they getting from their service, whilst private users perhaps only engage with the cloud at a lower level where they don’t have the inclination to analyse the performance and security issues at play. However, in between, SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) are likely to be better informed as to both the benefits and risks of cloud computing platforms, but won’t necessarily have the budgets to bring IT functions in-house or employ dedicated professionals with the expertise themselves to procure the most suitable services. In other words, the likelihood is that SMEs are more reliant on third party suppliers, aware of the non-specific risks of each proposition but unable to control the specific vulnerabilities of the cloud.

Standardisation

Many propose that, as has been the case in many markets that have preceded cloud computing, the answer to client wariness is standardisation with the aim of delivering transparencies. In other words, create a market where a client can shop between multiple providers and judge their security levels, data handling, performance and service stability on comparable metrics.

One of the main driving forces behind standardisation in the European cloud computing market is the European Commission (the executive arm of the European Union) who are keen to implement a new set of standards across the 27 constituent members of the EU. The intention of these standards, alongside updated data protection rules, is to allow the consistent delivery of cloud services spanning national borders within the union - much like the commission has delivered with economic migration. Together they aim to build client trust that their data is handled and stored within the same legal frameworks whether it is physically hosted in Holland or the UK, for example. The policies would see the introduction of a certification scheme whereby cloud providers across the EU would be certified if they were shown to conform to the commission's standards on data handling, interoperability and security.

Perhaps at the crux of what the commission's policy would seek to clean up, however, is the topic of SLAs or Service Level Agreements. These are the documents that outline what it is exactly that the client is signing up for and what services they can expect from their cloud provider when they hand over their money. Standardising SLAs is key to building trust in the cloud computing market because it introduces the transparency for cloud clients when they are analysing their options. The subjects covered by SLAs are explored further in the second part of the article.

To find out more about accessing secure and transparent cloud based sevices across the EU you can check out this operator of pan-European virtual data centres.

An Introduction to Cloud Servers & Their Benefits - Part 3: Cost & Deployment

The final instalment of this trio of articles looks at the features of the two cloud server deployment models, public and private, as well as discussing how they can deliver real cost savings to their customers.

Cost Efficiencies
As mentioned previously, the responsive scalability of pooled cloud servers means that cloud services can offer significant cost efficiencies for the end user - the most salient of which is that the client need only pay for what they use. Without being bound by the fixed physical capacities of single servers, clients are not required to pay up front for capacity which they may not make use of, whether it be their initial outlay or subsequent steps up to cater for increases in demand. In addition, they avoid the set up costs which would otherwise be incurred by bringing individual servers online. Instead any set up costs generated when the underlying cloud servers were brought online are overheads for the cloud provider and are diluted by economies of scale before having any impact on their pricing model.? This is particularly the case as many cloud services minimise the effort and expense of specific cloud server and platform configurations by offering standardised services into which the client taps.

Lastly, cloud models allow providers to do away with long term lock-ins. Without the longer term overheads of bringing individual servers online for individual clients and maintaining them there isn’t the dependency on those clients for a return on that investment from the provider’s point of view.

Deployment
There are two common deployment models for cloud services which span the service level models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) described in part one: ?Public Cloud:and Private Cloud.

Perhaps the most familiar to general population, and also the most likely to deliver some of the features and benefits mentioned previously, is the typical public cloud model. This model utilises the large number of pooled cloud servers located in data centers, to provide a service over the internet which members of the public can sign up for and access. However, the exact level of resource - and therefore capacity, scalability and redundancy - underpinning the each public cloud service will depend on each provider. The underlying infrastructure, including servers, will be shared across all of the service’s end users whilst the points at which the service can be accessed are open to anyone, anywhere, on any device as long as they have an internet connection. Consequently, one of the model’s key strengths, its accessibility, leads to its most prominent weakness, security.

Services which need to implement higher levels of security can instead use private cloud models. The architecture of private clouds can vary but they are defined by the fact that the cloud is ring-fenced for the use of one client. Servers can either be located in a data center, and accessed via leased lines or trusted provider networks, or on the client’s premises, and accessed by secure local network connections. They can be provisioned as either physical or virtual servers, but they’ll never be shared across multiple clients. Access to the servers and the cloud service will always be behind the client’s firewall to ensure that only trusted users can even attempt to use it.

Private clouds, therefore, offer greater levels of security (depending on the exact set up), but utilising smaller pools of servers means that they cannot always match the economies of scale, high capacities, redundancy and responsive scalability of public cloud models. Although, these qualities can still be achieved more readily than more traditional fixed capacity server configurations on local or trusted networks.

For more information and insight on cloud computing, cloud servers and other related services you can visit this cloud infrastructure provider’s site.

An Introduction to Cloud Servers & Their Benefits - Part 2: Scalability & Reliability

Having, in the first part of this article, described what cloud servers are and how they work within the context of cloud computing, the following instalments go on to discuss how they generated some of the key features that drive the adoption of the cloud at both a personal and enterprise level. This instalment covers the two performance related benefits of scalability and reliability.

Scalability
By combining the computing power of a significant number of cloud servers, cloud providers can offer services which are massively scalable and have no limiting capacities. With hypervisors pulling resource from the plethora of underlying servers as and when needed, cloud services can be responsive to demand so that increased requests from a client’s particular cloud service can be met instantaneously with the computing power that it needs. There is no issue with functions being limited by the capacity of one server and therefore clients having to acquire and configure additional servers when there are rises in demand. What’s more, with cloud services, where the product has already be provisioned, the client can simply tap into the service without the costs and delays of the initial server set up that would otherwise be incurred.

For those clients whose IT functions are susceptible to large fluctuations in use, for example websites with varying traffic levels, pooled cloud server resource removes the chance of service failure when there are spikes in demand. Additionally, on the flip side, it removes the need to invest in high capacity setups - as contingency for these spikes - which would go unused for a large proportion of time. Indeed, if the client’s demands fall, the resource they use (and pay for) can also reduce accordingly.

Reliability - Redundancy & Uptime
As mentioned the high number of cloud servers used to form a cloud service offering means that services are less likely to be disrupted with performance issues or downtime due to spikes in demand. However, the model also protects against single points of failure. If one server goes offline it won’t disrupt the service to which it was contributing resource because there are plenty other servers to seamlessly provide that resource in its place. In some cases, the physical servers are located across different data centres and even different countries so that there could conceivably be an extreme failure causing a data centre to go offline without the cloud service being disrupted. In some models, back ups are specifically created in different data centres to combat this risk.

In addition to unforeseen failures, pooled server resource can also allow maintenance - for example, patching of operating systems - to be carried out on the servers and networks without any disruption or downtime for the cloud service. What’s more, that maintenance, as well as any other supporting activities optimising the performance, security and stability of the cloud servers will be performed by staff with the relevant expertise working for either the cloud service provider or the hosting provider. In other words, the end user has no need to invest in acquiring that expertise themselves and can instead focus on the performance of the end product.

For more information and insight on cloud computing, cloud servers and other related services you can check out this blog from a cloud industry insider

An Introduction to Cloud Servers & Their Benefits - Part 1: Definitions

The concept of cloud computing appears omnipresent in our modern world as we rely on on-demand computing to manage our digital lives across multiple devices - mobiles, tablets, laptops - whilst at home, in the office or on the move. This trio of articles introduces the key component in cloud computing, the servers that underpin each service and provide the computing resource, as well as describing how they provide some of cloud computing's most notable benefits.

Definitions
Cloud Servers: As mentioned above, can be defined as the servers that are used to provide computing resource for cloud computing. In essence they are servers which are networked together to provide a single pool of computing power which cloud based services can draw resource from.

Cloud Computing: Describes any computing service whereby computing power is provided as a on-demand service via a public network - usually the internet. Broadly cloud services can be categorised using the three following models:

• IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service:
  
  • Pooled physical cloud server and networking resource (without any software platforms). Instead of the user being provided with a single distinct physical server, multiples thereof or shares therein, they are provided with the equivalent resources - disk space, RAM, processing power, bandwidth - drawn from the underlying collective cloud servers. These IaaS platforms can then be configured and used to install the software, frameworks, firmware etc (e.g., solution stacks) needed to provide IT services and build software applications.
• PaaS – Platform as a Service:
  
  • Virtualised software platforms using pooled cloud servers and network resource. These services offer the collective physical resources of IaaS together with the above-mentioned software bundles so that the user has a preconfigured platform on which they can build their IT applications.
• SaaS – Software as a Service:
  
  • Cloud based applications provided using pooled computing resource. This is the most familiar incarnation of cloud computing for most members of the public as it includes any application - such as web based email, cloud storage, online gaming - provided as a service. The applications are built and run in the cloud with end users accessing them via the internet, often without any software downloads necessary.

How Cloud Servers Work
Traditional computing infrastructure models tend to revolve around the idea of single server being used for a particular IT function (e.g., hosting, software applications etc), whether it be that that server is a dedicated server - i.e., for the sole use of that client - or shared across multiple clients. Shared servers may have used the one software/platform installation for all of their IT functions/clients or they may have delivered Virtual Private Servers (VPS) where each client has distinct operating environment which they can configure.

Cloud computing can deliver similar virtualised server environments but they use resource drawn from not one, but a multitude of individual physical cloud servers which are networked together to provide combined pool of server resource. In a sense, it uses a platform that could be considered as a form of clustered hosting whereby the resource demands of an individual client’s IT functions are spread across numerous distinct servers. However, with cloud hosting the resource pool has enough capacity, with sufficient servers, to provide resource which multiple clients can tap into as they need to.

Within the infrastructure of cloud services, cloud servers are networked with what are called hypervisors which are responsible for managing the resource allocation of each cloud server. In other words they control how much resource is pulled from each underlying cloud server when demands are made of the pool of servers, as well as managing the virtualised operating environments which utilise this resource.

For more information and insight on cloud computing, cloud servers and other related services you can check out this blog all about cloud servers and hosting

Security Challenges Faced by Cloud Hosting - Handling Data

The final part of this article looks at how and where data is stored or handled and the issues that arise in cloud computing through the process of creating multiple instances of data across multiple server platforms. Cloud computing relies on this mechanism for many of its key benefits but, by doing so, invites further challenges for data security.

Data Protection
Data collection and storage is usually bound by legislation or regulation which varies depending on the jurisdiction under which a service falls. Most prominent regulations, however (e.g., those in the US and Europe) share certain principles in common that demand, for example, that data is collected with the subject’s permission, with their full understanding of what the data will be used for, only if the data is relevant to the stated purpose, only for that stated purpose, with transparency and with accountability. For the subject of the data this should mean that they consent to the service provider collecting data relating to them, they know what data that is, who has access to it and why, as well as how to access it themselves if they want to.

It is therefore paramount for IT service providers, who have stewardship of any data, that they are able to identify where data is stored within those services that they provide, how to access it and whether it is secure. However, the abstraction of cloud services in particular can cause challenges for those who utilise them to store or process data because they cannot necessarily guarantee where this data is at any given time. The physical location and guardianship can be obscured, with data hosting sometimes crossing different sites, geographical boundaries and even jurisdictions.

In such cases where private information is involved, the answer often lies with private clouds employing on-site hosting as mentioned in earlier parts of this article, but there is often a trade off with some of the other benefits of cloud which are discussed below.

Multiple Data Instances
Two of cloud computing’s biggest selling points are that of redundancy and scalability. These are often achieved by utilising multiple servers to provide the underlying computing resource, with, therefore, the data within a cloud service being ultimately stored across these numerous servers. Moreover, cloud structures will also create multiple instances of data across these servers to provide a further layer of redundancy protection. However, the more servers that data is shared across, the greater the risk that this data may be susceptible to security vulnerabilities on one of those servers (e.g., malware, hacks); whilst the more instances there are of a piece of data, the greater the risk (by definition) that that data may be accessed and used by unauthorised users. Essentially, data in one place needs to be protected once, data stored in a 100 places, will need to be protected 100 times.

What’s more, as each server and platform is likely to be shared, particularly in the public cloud model, each data instance may be subject to another security threat introduced, inadvertently or otherwise by the 3rd party users who share the resources. In a private cloud, however, this threat is reduced as the cloud resource exists behind the one organisation's firewall and fewer instances of the data are created in the first place (fewer servers to pool). Consequently there is always a degree of trade off between introducing security risk and the level of redundancy and scalability built into a system (although of course redundancy can prevent data loss in itself). Private clouds may be more secure but with smaller pool of resource they cannot match the levels of redundancy and scalability offered by the vast capacities of public clouds.

Security Challenges Faced by Cloud Hosting - Building in Security

English: This image describes a technology architecture about Private Cloud. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As mentioned in part one of this article there are multiple stages at which information stored through cloud hosting platforms must be protected against data loss and unauthorised access. The first step is to secure the physical elements of a cloud hosting platform as described, however, the additional steps involve architectural and software based security measures to protect not only the platforms on which the data is stored, but also the data in transit and the subsequent points of access that allow valid users to interact with the data.

Public Cloud Models
Cloud offerings, including cloud hosting, can be broadly categorised, in terms of the way they are deployed (regardless of whether they are Infrastructure, Platform or Software as a Service), as either being Public Cloud, Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud (a combination of the two). Much of the distinction between public and private clouds revolves around levels of security and privacy rather than technical specifications. As the name suggests, public clouds use points of access which are accessible on public networks (e.g., the internet), public networks to transfer information and shared clustered cloud servers to store information. Essentially anyone can ‘knock on the door’ of the cloud service, attempt to intercept its information in transit and potentially share its server resources. The services, should of course be protected by end point authentication, data encryption and anti-virus/firewall measures on the server platform to keep data secure but they are exposed to ‘attack’ at almost every point in their architecture. It is therefore important that consumers of such services are aware of what risks each service carries and what the provider puts in place to safeguard their customers’ data.

Private Cloud
For organisations dealing with highly sensitive data, however, they may demand more restrictions on who can attempt to access the cloud service, the networks it utilises and the sharing of cloud servers. In particular, some organisations will be governed by regulation which demands that they retain control of data for which they are ultimately responsible.

Private clouds may employ differing architectures, but they are defined by providing the aforementioned security measures. Servers can be located on an organisation’s own premises or within a data centre facility but they will be ringfenced for the use of that sole client; whether it be with physical hardware separation or virtualised separation between server clusters, an organisation’s cloud platform will be behind their own firewall. What’s more, to protect data in transit, and to prevent untrusted users from accessing the cloud, private clouds can again use either physical or virtualised separation from public shared networks. For example, an organisation can utilise local area network (LAN) connections to access a cloud which hosted on internal on-site servers or a physically distinct leased line when connecting to servers in a remote location. Alternatively, technologies such as MPLS (Multi-Label Switching Protocol) can be used to provide organisations with trusted network connections, controlled by individual providers, across public network infrastructure. The latter can provide more flexibility and allow the organisation to benefit to a greater extent from the scalability that cloud hosting providers can provide.

Hybrid Cloud
A hybrid cloud combines elements of public and private clouds and so can provide the security that organizations require for their sensitive and private data whilst allowing them to access cost efficient scalability in the public cloud for their non-sensitive operations. For example, an organization may store all of their protected client data in systems and databases hosted on site in a private cloud as required by regulation but pull computing resource from a public cloud for their brochureware website’s hosting platform.

Data Centre Expertise
The previous part of this article mentioned the benefits of a data center location in terms of the physical maintenance of servers preventing data loss. Similarly it is worth noting that both public clouds and private clouds which utilise a third party data center location for their server hosting (whilst introducing vulnerabilities in data transfer) can benefit from on-site expertise in the maintenance of software and anti-virus measures, including for example patching, to optimise both the preservation and security of data.

Security Challenges Faced by Cloud Hosting - Physical Security

Data Center (Photo credit: bandarji)

The following two posts explore the topic of cloud hosting and the challenges it faces in providing secure data environments for enterprise consumers. In addition, it discusses the measures taken to combat these challenges, whether they be physical risks to hosting platforms or cybercrime.

The Need for Secure Data
The concept of security in all aspects of computing can be said to fall into two areas, the preservation of data and the control of data. The first of these concerns is the ability to ensure that data is not lost or corrupted, whether it be sensitive (i.e., private) or not. Data preservation may be essential for the effective operations of a business, for example, to be able to contact suppliers/clients or monitor and analyse business performance (business intelligence). In many cases firms are required to preserve data for periods of time by regulatory bodies in order to provide audit trails on their activities and where data is deemed personal, sensitive or private in relation to customers, suppliers or employees, firms will also be required by data protection laws to maintain that data.

The second issue pertains to the risk of sensitive data being seen by those who should not have access to it. Again data protection laws govern firms when it comes to only obtaining personal data with an individual’s permission and then ensuring that they control who has access, restricting unwarranted access. In addition however, firms will invariably want to keep their own business operations private as well to prevent competitors gaining an advantage on them.

All IT infrastructure needs to confront these security issues whether it be personal or enterprise level computing and this has been a particular challenge for cloud computing in general, including cloud based hosting.

The Vulnerabilities
Cloud computing services ultimately require networks of physical servers to create the pool of computing resource from which clients can access their computing as a service, which means that all cloud resources always have some form of physical location. In addition, cloud services rely on a point at which the end users can access them, often publicly available on the internet as well as of course a public network such as the internet to transfer the data used by the service. These three elements to a typical public cloud service each have their own vulnerabilities in terms of the protection and preservation of data.

Physical Security
In terms of the physical infrastructure used to build a cloud service, many of the security challenges are the same as those faced by any other hosting platform. To keep data secure, providers first need to keep the infrastructure secure and running, and the data centres where cloud servers are housed take great measures to these ends. In terms of access, they ensure that the facilities themselves are secured against unauthorised personnel by using tools such as biometrics, security cameras, guards and limited access to individual server suites. This not only controls the risk of intentional sabotage or physical hacks but also the risk of accidental damage caused by one engineer affecting another organisation’s servers, for example.

Furthermore, servers and network infrastructures are protected against physical damage using advanced fire protections systems and environmental controls such as temperature management. Controlling the temperature inside data centres is one of the primary expenses of a data centre provider due to the vast amount of heat generated by working servers. The aim of the exercise is to ensure that servers can run at their optimal temperatures but if left unchecked the damage caused could take cloud servers offline completely. Data centres employ techniques such as chiller units, ventilation and water cooling to keep temperature regulated and servers running smoothly.

Cloud servers and their networks also benefit from the general expertise of data centre providers to keep the hardware maintained and up to date, ensuring that the chances of other hardware failures are reduced. As with alternative hosting solutions which locate servers in data centres, such as colocation, dedicated hosting and VPS (virtual private servers), this expertise may be accessed at a fraction of the cost it would take for a businesses to deploy in-house.

However, these physical security measures are only the first step. The second part of this post explores the efforts taken to keep cloud hosting software operating smoothly and prevent data from falling into the wrong hands.

Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting - Part 4: Security

Having compared cloud with traditional dedicated hosting solutions on their respective costs and performance issues in the preceding posts in this series, the final instalment provides further analysis of the two in regard to security issues.

Security

For many private and enterprise customers, security is the primary area of concern when making the switch from traditional localised computing to cloud computing solutions, particularly when it comes to the topic of hosting. Businesses that require high levels of security to be applied to their hosting platforms have traditionally flocked to dedicated hosting solutions, to avoid the vulnerabilities introduced by sharing servers with other companies or business functions. These enterprise customers have since been somewhat reticent to make the switch to cloud (despite the efficiencies mentioned previously).

Dedicated Server Security

Dedicated servers have, by design, features which are conducive to high levels of security in that they are individual platforms on discrete servers which are operated for single purposes - i.e., they do not share disk space or computing power with other services or businesses. This distinction leads to a number of security benefits in terms of both protecting access to hosted data and the preservation of that data. To achieve these twin aims, the risk of hackers or malware accessing the data and/or corrupting it is minimised; by not having any other functions/companies sharing the hosting platform it reduces the number of possible points of entry/access and therefore the number of security vulnerabilities on the server. What’s more, a business sharing a host server would have no control over the effectiveness of the measures taken to secure these vulnerabilities if they are sharing the server with third party businesses. The dedicated model also removes the competing demands placed on the physical computing capabilities of the server by other hosting platforms/solutions stacks/businesses’ IT projects, meaning that there is less risk of server or network failures leading to the unavailability or loss of data.

Cloud Hosting Security

Cloud Hosting platforms therefore need to re-address these issues as they fundamentally rely on the concept of shared or pooled computing resource. Public cloud models will struggle to offer the same protection as a dedicated platform because they not only share physical hosting infrastructure across multiple virtualised hosting platforms for disparate customers, but have further vulnerabilities in that the access points to such services are across public networks - in other words anyone can ‘knock on the door’ and any information being transferred between access point and server is at risk of being intercepted. Furthermore, one organisation who is a consumer of the service has no influence or control over the trustworthiness of others who may have signed up to share these pooled resources.


If you want to find out more about the respective benefits of cloud and dedicated hosting platforms then you can check out this blog from Interoute’s Matt Finnie.

Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting - Part 3: Enterprise Focus

SOMF Cloud Computing Model (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The third post in this series looks at some of the pros and cons of dedicated and cloud hosting solutions when it comes to providing the services that enterprise customers actually demand. Much focus in the industry has in the past been concentrated on the technical capabilities of the respective platforms but the key to adoption across enterprise is how that technology sates business requirements.

Customer Experience
A traditional weakness of cloud computing, and perhaps a consequence of its on-demand access model is the area of SLAs and targeting enterprise consumers’ needs effectively. The utility style of the service means that consumers have to some extent fitted their computing needs to the cloud services available rather than vice versa in order to benefit from the economies of scale and reduced costs. After all, the service is to a large extent defined and packaged up by the provider with the consumer tapping into it as and when they need it.

Dedicated platforms have, in the past, outperformed cloud in this area with the ability to provide customisation and control over individual servers and the use of more suitable SLAs on better defines services. Businesses have been able to take their IT requirements to a provider of dedicated hosting and build the platform around it (cost permitting) leading to a more bespoke set up.

However, there is now a concerted effort within the cloud sector to provide better targeted enterprise applications with in-built flexibility, scalability and security as well as SLAs which accurately reflect the performance of these services and the needs of enterprise. An example of this move away from a one-size-fits all model is the development of the idea of cloud application stores where organisations can purchase the components they need individually to construct a cloud package which is tailored to their business needs. In other words, providers create and define individual components but customers configure their overall bespoke service using these elements.

Choice
The benefits mentioned above and in the preceding posts in relation to the cloud result in arguably the key long term driver for enterprise adoption of cloud hosting and cloud computing in general, that of choice. Ultimately, the flexibility of the model means that anything is theoretically possible for an enterprise customer if they have the budget and their provider has the resources.

The same can be said about traditional dedicated platforms (at a greater cost) but the scalability issues encountered by businesses using dedicated servers are, as stated, negated with cloud hosting by the removal of the concept of capacity. As mentioned previously dedicated platforms can be used to provide a bespoke hosting solution for enterprise customers at any level but once the platform is established any further changes to it may require time and expense. With cloud hosting, if a business wishes to try a particular project or campaign as a short term venture they can so with minimal lead time, pay-as-you-go costing, and responsive scaling, thus reducing these costs and the resulting risks of the venture.

Part 4 of this series of posts goes on to focus in more detail on the topic of security and how the two hosting solutions compare.

If you want to find out more about the respective benefits of cloud and dedicated hosting platforms then you can check out this blog on IaaS.

Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting - Part 2: Performance

The second instalment of this series of posts looking at how cloud hosting platforms match up to traditional dedicated hosting platforms focusses on a number of issues which businesses look for in a package, including reliability, flexibility and responsiveness.

Responsiveness
For both the provider and the consumer there are considerable differences between cloud and dedicated in the time in which the services can be up and running. As mentioned previously, dedicated hosting platforms require considerable input from the provider, often in consultation with the client to understand the business requirements, quote for a service and then set up and provision that platform (one of the reasons for providers seeking a fixed term lock in to ensure return on that invested time).

However, cloud hosting does not require the latter of these processes. Once the level of resources required by a business customer has been defined a quote can be calculated much quicker, because the resource is already in place, and the set-up time is much reduced - in some cases almost instant - as the configuration needed to provide the final service is reduced. Consequently, dedicated hosting platforms may take weeks to provision whereas cloud hosting platforms can be provisioned in a matter of minutes or hours.

What’s more, when extra resource is required from a cloud hosting platform this again can often be provided and scaled in no time at all without the need for further server set-ups regardless of the demand. Instead already configured pooled computer resource can be tapped into as it is required. Dedicated platforms on the other hand may require the installation of further hardware and solution stacks, for example, when the capacity of the existing set-up has been exceeded, and so the time lag that that entails.

Reliability
Each hosting platform has its own plus-points in the area of reliability and, conversely, it own issues on which it may be bettered. Cloud computing fundamentally relies on the premise of pooled computing resource and so redundancy is built into the core model. Whether it be within a public or private cloud, the physical liability for the hosting platform will be spread across numerous servers and so the risk of hardware/solution stack issues causing downtime is greatly spread and reduced. If one server goes offline, the hosting service will be maintained without interruption on the remaining servers. What’s more, if the hosting service utilises services from disparate data centres it can also negate the risk of localised failures (e.g., power cuts) causing downtime.

However, for a consumer the cloud model can involve ambiguities as to the stability and reliability of the underlying physical resources and the hosting provider themselves if they do not plump for a trusted provider with known network capabilities. The cloud moniker is easy and popular to apply to computing services without the necessary resources to ensure high reliability and performance and so the level of service experienced across providers can vary greatly.

Dedicated platforms however, benefit from reduced risk of failures in the first place as the server’s resources are not shared with other business’s functions and therefore are not at risk from their potential security vulnerabilities (see Part 3) or from these functions draining shared resources (bandwidth, disk space etc). The flip side of this is that any failures may take the entire server offline, although dedicated services will employ back up systems (often tape back ups which are low maintenance) to ensure that functions can be restored as quickly as possible if failures do occur - albeit not necessarily seamlessly as with cloud platforms.

If you want to find out more about the respective benefits of cloud and dedicated hosting platforms then you can check out this blog on cloud hosting.

Cloud vs Dedicated Hosting - Part 1: Cost

The following trilogy of articles investigates the benefits and drawbacks of cloud hosting in comparison to the more traditional ‘all singing, all dancing’ hosting solutions of dedicated servers. It aims to discuss why enterprise consumers in particular are so tempted to migrate to the cloud as well as the barriers that often prevent them taking the leap.

Cost
The first great migration to cloud computing was centred on its most obvious benefit in comparison to traditional computing, that of cost efficiencies. Cloud hosting, more specifically, is no different and offers a number of cost savings for enterprise which are missing from traditional dedicated platforms. Although dedicated servers can offer a good number of services which are much desired, in particular by enterprise consumers, the physical investment in them comes at a certain cost.

The Cost of Dedicated Servers
A dedicated server may be completely ‘at the disposal’ of that one customer and, as such, may provide numerous security and performance benefits (as listed further on in series of posts) but maximum efficiency, in terms of the cost of the platforms versus the resource used, can only be realised if the platform is running at full capacity. If not, the consumer will inevitably be paying for capacity which they are getting any use from, because the cost of such platforms is met upfront. Essentially, customers are paying for physical capacity and it is then up to them to make use of it. Furthermore, if they need to increase resources (disk space, processing power etc) beyond current capacity, it requires upfront investment into the next ‘step up’, including the unused capacity that comes with that, as well as any reconfiguration and set up work that is required.

The Cost of Cloud Hosting
Conversely, the cloud computing model, including cloud hosting, revolves around the concept of tapping into pooled computing resource on demand. In other words a consumer can access the resource they need as and when they need it, and, moreover, only pay for what they use. It can operate in a fashion akin to a household utility such as water or electricity where the consumer is plugged into the public service and is then charged for what they consume. The capacity of the shared resource is vast and so there is no stepping up from one fixed capacity to another and no additional setup costs therefore involved. In practice, if a business wants to try a new venture they need only invest in the resource they require whilst they require it, without taking on damaging longer term costs.

What’s more, the costs incurred by the the maintenance of the underlying infrastructure (i.e., the pooled computing resource) can be diluted by economies of scale where there is no need for bespoke environments to be created for each consumer. This saving is perhaps less significant with cloud hosting on IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) than other cloud services such as SaaS (Software as a Service) because there are less opportunities to standardise elements of the service, although it still returns sizeable savings compared to traditional localised computing environments.

Finally, cloud platforms are less likely to involve lock-ins to long term contracts. This is largely caused by the fact that there isn't the need for a cloud provider to invest so much upfront in the creation and configuration of the cloud platform and consequently seek a return on that investment over a fixed term. Without this need for set up each time a platform is provisioned, cloud hosting services, like other cloud services can be simply turned on or off for the customer as and when needed.

Part 2 of this article investigates some of the performance comparisons between cloud hosting and dedicated servers.

If you want to find out more about the respective benefits of cloud and dedicated hosting platforms then you can visit a provider of dedicated and cloud hosting.

The Classifications of Cloud Computing

Although hype and conjecture has surrounded the concept of cloud computing for a long time now it is more than just a buzz term. With the increased uptake in portable devices such as smartphones, tablets and even laptops in the private consumer sector, as well as the resultant shift to home based work, business on the move and the use of personal devices in the workplace, the need for centralised, virtualised computing resources has surged in the last couple of years. In fact many of us use some form of cloud computing every day without really acknowledging it, whether it be webmail or online gaming.

What is Cloud Computing
In a very general sense, cloud computing describes any scenario where the user (the cloud client) is accessing computing resource from a virtualised environment (the cloud) via an internet connection. It can be though of in contrast to use of computing resource on the user’s local machine, local network or defined physical machines on other networks. Cloud services generally work by providers pooling together extensive physical resources (e.g., multiple servers across multiple data centers) to create a service which users can tap into as and when they need it (i.e., on demand) without the need to install anything locally, hardware or software.

Where a service is chargeable they can be offered on a pay as you go basis where the user only pays for what they actually consume, much like a utility like electricity where consumers can tap into the national grid (analogous to the internet) and pay simply for what they use.

There are a variety of different services that can be propositioned under the cloud computing umbrella term and that meet the above definitions, but they are broadly classified into three camps, depending on the provisioning of hardware and software resource.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Usually shortened to IaaS, this classification of cloud computing incorporates services which offer virtualised physical computing resource, that is, resource such as server space, bandwidth, networking.

Salient examples of IaaS offerings include cloud hosting where websites are hosted on virtual server partitions which draw physical resource from a pool of multiple servers across multiple data centers. This idea can offer specific advantages such as

cost effective scaleability - hardware resource can be accessed on demand so that the client only pays for what they use and they are not retricted by capacity
reliability - there is no single point of server failure as data is also duplicated (backed up) across multiple servers. If one server fails, the web site will not go offline

The areas of IaaS and cloud hosting can also include the concept of Virtual Data Centers (VDC) where a virtualised network of servers or computers is made available to the user instead of simply server space.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS describes a proposition which includes the software that is required to create an operating environment which can be used by the client to create their own applications. In other words PaaS will include tools such as a solution stack - operating system, server-side scripting environment, database support etc - in addition to the pooled computing hardware resource as detailed above. Cloud clients often have control over what tools are installed within their platforms, sometimes from a restricted list, and how they are configured but all the building blocks are supplied by the provider.

Cloud Hosting can again be used as an example of PaaS as many of the packages on the market will provide the user with, not just the virtual server, but the entire platform such as the solution stack that is required to build and host a website. Other examples of PaaS include test and development environments for software builds. As with SaaS below, these services offer their clients greater opportunities for collaboration and location independence when they are being used to build applications.

Software as a Service (SaaS)
This is probably the most familiar form of cloud computing to most consumers. It describes an offering where the service being accessed via the internet is an application or a software service. It is an area that many of the big software and internet companies such as Microsoft, Google and Apple are flourishing in as we all seem to be following the trend, moving away from locally installed (and sometimes incompatible) software to applications that are being run in the cloud, accessed through an internet browser.

Obvious examples of SaaS include Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365 (which can integrate with the traditional installation of the software), but this class of cloud computing also encompasses other services such as webmail and online gaming which are accessed entirely online.

There are a number of cloud computing categories which fall within SaaS and follow the same naming convention such as Desktop as a Service (or Virtual Desktops, where a virtual version of a computer’s desktop is stored and accessed in the cloud) and Test Environment as a Cloud (TEaaS, involving a central hosted test environment for the testing of software).

Key drivers behind the growth in SaaS are the facts that cloud based applications can be used from any physical location as long as there is an internet connection (ADSL or 3G for example) and across any device running any operating system. This independence from geographical and technological constraints allows personal users and workers to not only work on applications and files in any scenario but to collaborate on and share these services with few restrictions.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

Purchasing Options for Web Hosting - Reseller & Cloud

Multiple racks of servers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you are still looking to rent hosting resources rather than invest in your own in-house IT to get your website up and running there are further channels which can provide alternatives to buying physical service space directly from a hosting provider and which have particular appeal to smaller scale clients.

Resellers
For those still looking to rent server space there is the additional option of using a hosting reseller rather than buying directly from the hosting provider. A reseller will buy up hosting resource, disk space and bandwidth wholesale and then sell on hosting packages to individual clients by dividing up these resources. They can add a layer of support to their offering if they are specialist resellers and some will include their own branded control panels to allow clients to configure their hosting platforms.

There are specialist reseller companies in the market, but there are also many organisations that either sell hosting as an add-on to another service, such as digital media companies who build or maintain web sites, or that need to buy their own hosting resource and find it economical to buy wholesale and then resell the excess that they don’t use to counterbalance their own costs.

The hosting packages on offer from resellers can incorporate both shared or dedicated hosting platforms as resellers can either sell on a certain amount of shared disk space or complete individual servers. The most common reseller packages, however, involve shared hosting and in particular Virtual Private Servers (VPS) where the shared servers use virtual partitions to create distinct operating environments.

Reseller packages can be particularly beneficial for clients that do not have the expertise or resource to work with their underlying service provider in maintaining their platform. They can, depending on the package, have no need to be involved, direct or indirectly, in maintaining any of the hardware and infrastructure themselves. The reseller can effectively act as a conduit between the client and the service provider, either working alongside them to resolve any issues that crop up on behalf of the client, or acting as a middle man with whom the client may find easier to deal than the underlying service provider, especially if the client isn’t overly confident with their own technical awareness. For those who do get more involved, the packaging of reseller hosting can be less esoteric and easier for private and small business users to understand making use, for example, of simple control panel interfaces for configuration changes.

In addition, the reseller-support dynamic works well where the reseller is involved in other elements of a client’s digital package, such as the aforementioned digital agency who would build and maintain a site and then liaise with the hosting provider to manage the hosting of the site as part of a more holistic and joined up approach.

The twin drawbacks of reseller hosting, however, are that it can introduce an added layer of cost and, for those who do have the technical awareness, the middle man is simply another level of communication when support is required. Instead, tech savvy clients in particular, may prefer to deal directly with service provider to resolve issues more expeditiously.

Cloud Hosting
A newer alternative to the more traditional idea of renting a portion of a server is the idea of renting space within a cloud of hosting resource. This service relies on the hosting provider pooling the physical resources they have - disk space, bandwidth etc - and offering consumers a virtualized platform within this virtualized pool of computing resource on which to host their site. The consumer does not rent space on, or the entirety of, a single physical server therefore, and instead their site will in reality be drawing resource from a network of multiple physical servers. The environments in which their hosting platforms exist will be distinct in a virtual sense rather than a physical one, by employing virtual partitions (similar to VPS). Consumers can even go one step further and rent an entire network of virtual servers to form a Virtual Data Center (VDC) to satisfy any of their web hosting or broader business hosting needs.

Hosting in the cloud sits within the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) band of cloud services and its dynamics mean that hosting resource is sold more like a utility which can be tapped into as and when it is needed. The virtualized hosting platforms can be scaled to suit the demand for resources because they are freed of physical constraints and the consumer need only pay for the resource that they need as and when they use it; negating the wasted capacity that could otherwise result from either in-house hosting or rented disk space (especially dedicated servers). What’s more, the economies of scale that the hosting provider generates by running large scale data center resources can be passed down to the consumer meaning that cloud hosting can also be a cost effective way for the consumer to access the particular levels of resource that they need.

Whatever your budget, the technical demands of your website, your expertise and your expectations there is likely to be a hosting option on the market that suits. Ultimately, hosting packages will vary from one provider to the next but it is still important to be aware of the different routes that you can go down and the options you’ll find when you get there.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

Purchasing Options for Web Hosting - Renting Direct

A typical server "rack", commonly seen in colocation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Every website needs to be hosted somewhere and so every business or private individual who is looking to claim one small corner of the world wide web for themselves will have to get to grips with the idea of web hosting and find their way through the many options that will be available to them. The following three part article outlines a few of the paths that prospective web site owners can take to get their site online.

Buying Direct Hosting Service Providers
The first and perhaps most obvious option available to consumers is to pay a hosting provider to host their site for them. As the bare minimum in this type of package the client is paying the service provider for rent of the hardware that they need to display their site to the world. In practice this hardware will consist of space on a physical server and its connectivity to the internet within a data centre environment. It will also therefore be accompanied by the physical infrastructure required to keep the server running smoothly and safely including cooling systems, tight building security and protection from physical damage such as fire.

Most hosting packages where the client is renting server (or disk) space within a data centre will additionally include the setting up and use of the software environments that the site needs to run successfully. The client should be able to choose between packages that offer the right combination of features the hosting environment needs such as Linux vs Windows operating systems, email servers, FTP access, the relevant database support and scripting software compatibility (PHP, Perl, ASP.NET etc).

Many such packages will extend to offering ongoing support which can vary from one provider to the next, and one package to the next, in what it will cover. Levels of support can range from fully managed hosting packages, where they will likely offer a 24/7 support telephone line, full monitoring of uptime/performance and advise on configuration changes etc, to self-managed packages where the client is supplied with a control panel to monitor and configure the hosting platform themselves.

Consumers are able to choose from dedicated hosting packages where a web site is hosted on its own distinct physical server with its own hardware and software resources, such as connectivity and operating systems, in order to benefit from high performance capability and stability. Alternatively there are an array of shared hosting packages on the market which use the same hardware to house more than one site. These packages can include Virtual Private Servers where the hardware (the servers) may be shared but the sites sit within distinct software partitions that allow the service provider and the client to individually configure the software partition. As a general rule of thumb the more dedicated resources that your hosting platform has, whether it be dedicated hardware or dedicated software partitions, the greater the cost of the platform but in exchange the better the performance, security and scalability.

When choosing your hosting package directly from the service provider there is more likelihood of being able to find, possibly in consultation with the provider, the appropriate hosting services for your requirement, particularly if your site requires specific or high performance.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012

What Is Cloud Hosting?

SOMF Cloud Computing Model (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IT professionals and private consumers of technology alike will no doubt be aware of the term cloud computing. A term and a concept that appears to be consuming everything in its path as the future of the IT industry. The following article looks at one incarnation of the technology that offers great potential for enterprise, that of cloud hosting.

Cloud Computing
The concept of cloud computing is one that manifests itself in many ways and covers a broad array of applications and functions. In its simplest sense it refers to end users accessing computing resources they need from a cloud, i.e., a shared pool of IT resources from a remote location made available through the internet. Cloud services are characterised by the fact that they do not require data to be stored on, software installed on, or configuration and preferences to be set on end users’ devices. Instead users access resources that are maintained and managed in remote centralised locations by a specialist provider. They are therefore free of physical, geographical and technological constraints and can access the same cloud service wherever they are, across any device - mobile, desktop or tablet - as long as they have an internet connection.

The concept can also be thought of, and indeed referred to, as utility computing. The fact that computing resources, be it hardware or software (see below), are available as a service that can be tapped into on-demand rather than requiring local installations, is akin to a household utility. Indeed, a commonly used analogy is that of electricity. Electricity is generated in a series of centralised locations by specialist providers using advanced equipment and techniques (pooled with wider electricity resources) and accessed through the grid in contrast to a system whereby each consumer builds, installs and maintains their own generator, with each having a finite capacity. In cloud computing the internet is analogous to the electricity grid and the user accesses the computing utility rather than build, install and maintain their own computing resources. Therefore, as with centralised electricity production, it delivers economies of scale for the provider, and consequently cost savings for the user, as well as the ability to access what you need, when you need it; providing solutions that are scalable and responsive to demand.

Generally the end user has no involvement (or need to invest) in the installation and maintenance of the hardware and infrastructure underpinning a cloud service, which is all controlled by the third party provider, but they can have input into software installations and configuration depending on which service they sign up for. These cloud services can be broken down into three tiers:

IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service - offers access to physical computing resource, including disk space on virtual servers and networks whilst leaving the installation and configuration of operating systems and software to the client.
PaaS - Platform as a Service - a platform including physical resource and operating systems together with the software (e.g., a solution stack) required to run a particular computing environment.
SaaS - Software as a Service - the user simply has access to applications running on a cloud platform.

Cloud Hosting
Cloud Hosting is a form of cloud computing, more specifically either IaaS or PaaS, whereby the end user can get access to shared physical resources - servers, networks, bandwidth and supporting infrastructure (plus solution stacks on PaaS) - without the need to purchase, rent or install specific hardware themselves. Typically cloud hosting is employed to serve websites but it can support other enterprise functions and networks.

In essence it is a variant of the wider concept of shared hosting but instead of multiple websites, for example, sharing a single physical server (including a software installation), those multiple sites are hosted across a network of shared servers (and computing resources) managed using software partitions. Cloud Hosting therefore provides scalable on-demand hosting capacity (as the appropriate level of physical resources can be accessed in accordance with demand), where the client doesn’t have to worry about the specifics of hardware installations and need only pay for what they use.

VDC - Under the banner of cloud hosting a VDC, or a Virtual Data Center, is again an IaaS which offers enterprises the opportunity to utilise their own networks of servers from the cloud using servers which are defined by software partitions rather than being physically distinct (although the underlying hardware resource is ultimately located within physical data centers).

Whatever demands a website and a business’s propositions create, there is always a hosting solution to fit the purpose. For many that will be cloud hosting due to its ability to offer cost efficiencies alongside unparalleled flexibility.