Dick Willis, Grid Computing Now KTN

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Cloud computing

• Dick Willis, Grid Computing Now! KTN

• The growth of grids

• Into the Cloud

• Out of the Cloud

• Bumpy flying pros and cons

• Service developer or service user?

• Dominion or not?

• Where next?

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Whatis.com

• Cloud computing is a computing paradigm in which
  tasks are assigned to a combination of
  connections, software and services accessed over
  a network. This network of servers and
  connections is collectively known as "the cloud."
  Computing at the scale of the cloud allows users
  to access supercomputer-level power. Using a thin
  client or other access point, like a PDA or
  laptop, users can reach into the cloud for
  resources as they need them.

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Cloud in Google Trends
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Into the Cloud
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The Growth of Grids
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• The Growth of Grids - middleware

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• Custom and practice in use of servers

One project/one job/one team
Lots of waste
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• Virtualisation

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• Service oriented architectures

Traditional software processes were tightly
coupled. Any modification had an effect on the
other processes this made changing slow and
costly
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Service oriented architectures

• SOA treats each process as a service for users
  (people or other processes) Each service
  communicates with other services according to
  standard protocols. Services can be delivered by
  different computers in different places each
  service corresponds to a business task

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• The Cloud

Provisioned to cope with changing demand
Networks of server farms
service
service
service
service
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• Out of the Cloud

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Out of the Cloud

• Using infrastructures of hundreds of thousands
  of servers
• Many large data centres, distributed around the
  world
• Have proprietary technologies for job
  scheduling, data sharing and management
• Care about power consumption, fault tolerance,
  scalability, operational costs, performance etc

• Google
• Amazon
• Yahoo
• eBay
• Microsoft
• IBM
• etc

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Google as an example

• Estimated 450,000 servers around the world
• Google file system highly distributed,
  resilient to failures, parallel etc
• Uses schedulers and load balancers for
  distribution of work
• Wide range of services

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Google as an example
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New services
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Amazon S3
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• Some pros and cons

• Cons
• Wheres your data?
• Security issues
• Lock-in

• Pros
• Scalable, flexible
• Pay for use only
• IT costs move from capital expense to variable
  cost
• Reliable
• Manageable through virtual consoles
• 24/7 access by browser

• But where are you now?
• Are you backed up?
• Have you tested it?
• Whats your disaster recovery plan?
• Most security failures are human!

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emailcloud

• Case study www.emailcloud.com
• A start-up providing mail-cleansing services
• Balances own servers with cloud service
• Resources are scalable and responsive to demand.
• External computing costs proportional to use
• And can be passed on to customer
• Initial investment costs minimised
• Competitive competition against VC backed rivals
  capacity not limited by cash reserves.
• http//bit.ly/casestudies

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• Things to consider

• Whats your business model?
• Pros vs Cons of a cloud service
• Cost benefits?
• New opportunities?
• Security now vs cloud (whats your real risk?)
• Bandwidth we dont live in S.Korea!
• Check service for lock-in, remember the small
  print

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Will Cloud dominate?

• Against
• Inertia
• Vested interests
• Lack of interoperability standards
• UK broadband infrastructure
• For
• Utility linkage of expenditure and
  revenue-generation
• Flexibility and resilience
• Access from anywhere, anytime
• Avoidance of software licence problems

Look behind you
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Sources of info and help

• Grid Computing Now! KTN www.gridcomputingnow.org
• Information
• Contacts
• Support
• Links
• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
  www.ktponline.org.uk
• Bringing research knowledge to bear on your
  problem
• Business Link www.businesslink.gov.uk
• White Rose Grid www.wrgrid.org.uk/
• Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York
• VizEdu on Cloud Computing http//bit.ly/vizeducl
  oud

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Thank you

• Grid Computing Now!
• Dick Willis
• www.gridcomputingnow.org
• dwillis_at_cnr.co.uk