Sunday, 22 July 2012
Abstract
In an
attempt to gain a competitive edge, businesses are increasingly looking for new
and innovative ways to cut costs while maximizing value. We are evaluating
OpenStack cloud services from technical and commercial angles to be used by an
enterprise.
Introduction
As per Wikipedia: Cloud computing is
the delivery of computing and storage capacity as
a service to a community of end-recipients. The name comes from the
use of a cloud-shaped symbol as an abstraction for the complex
infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts
services with a user's data, software and computation over a network.
A cloud service is distinguished from traditional managed
hosting services by three main characteristics:
- Pay
as you go — you consume and pay for the service by the minute or by the
hour. You do not pay in advance for resources that you may or may not
actually use.
- Elasticity
— you can scale up or scale down your consumption of resources based on
demand.
- Managed infrastructure — the infrastructure for the service is owned and completely managed by the provider.
As per some of the analysts, anything and
everything beyond your firewall is cloud. So the
cloud is a physical place, perhaps owned and controlled by some other entity,
and it contains computing resources that are available pretty much on demand
for a price.
There are mainly three types of cloud computing:
§ Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS),
Examples of IaaS include: Amazon Cloud Formation (and underlying services such as Amazon EC2,
Simple Storage Service), Rackspace Cloud, Google Compute Engine, and RightScale.
§ Platform
as a Service (PaaS),
and Examples of PaaS include: Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, EngineYard, Google App Engine, and Microsoft Azure.
§ Software
as a Service (SaaS). Examples of SaaS
include: Google Apps, Quickbooks Online and Salesforce.com.
Using Infrastructure as a Service, users rent
use of servers (as many as needed during the rental period) provided by one or more
cloud providers. Using Platform as a Service, users rent use of servers and the
system software to use in them. Using Software as a Service, users also rent
application software and databases. The cloud providers manage the
infrastructure and platforms on which the applications run.
End users access
cloud-based applications through a web browser or a
light-weight desktop or mobile app while the business
software and user's data are stored on servers at a remote
location. Proponents claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their
applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less
maintenance, and enables IT to more rapidly adjust resources to meet
fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
However
further cloud service can have 3 further services in stack, which are
following:
Clients (examples) are computer
hardware and/or computer software which rely on The Cloud for application delivery, or which is
specifically designed for delivery of cloud services, and which are in either
case essentially useless without it.
Services (examples)
are "software system[s] designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network" which may be accessed by other cloud
computing components, software (eg Software
plus services) or end users directly.
Storage (examples)
is the delivery of data storage as a service (including database-like services),
often billed on a utility
computing basis (eg per gigabyte per month)
Most of the current commercial Cloud services providers try to focus on one of the above and offer services to customers. Commercial cloud services either use proprietary technology or licensing method resulting in increased costs for customers.
Why not Commercial Cloud Services?
Some of the
major difficulties with going ahead with commercial cloud services stacks are
following:
1) Technology Lockin - One of the concerns for
Software Architects while building applications for cloud is the technology
lock-in. For example a .NET application built for Microsoft Azure services
would not be compatible with Amazon AWS and vice versa. Also cloud
applications designed for Microsoft Azure & Amazon AWS are not directly
portable on premise environments. Basically applications designed for AWS &
Azure are locked in with the provider and you need to spend good amount of
re-engineering efforts to move them out.
2) Development Costs – If you are planning to
develop applications/services for commercial platforms then you need to have
knowledge of their proprietary SDKs etc. Hence development time goes up and
costs are further increased.
3) Licensing Costs – Due to the nature of
proprietary technology, the cost of licensing tend to be higher.
4) Small Development Community – As the cost of
development is higher, small vendors tend to shy away from the development
resulting in small development community.
5) Compatibility – Commercial vendors usually try to
create compatibility within small group of hardware and software vendors. This
may result in hardware and software compatibility issues for customers.
Some of the above mentioned concerns get
addressed with Open Source environment.
1) It’s based on open source and open standards.
Hence code portability to the users. Developers can use existing python, perl
or GEMs to port their applications to Cloud.
2) Low development cost as no upfront cost of
licenses/knowledge upgrade.
3) Negligible licensing cost as it is based on Open
Source standards.
4) Global development community
5) High level of compatibilities
A
typical Cloud Infrastructure
A typical cloud is made of Cloud controller,
nodes, network filtering, caching and load balancing mechanism. Each node is
capable of running multiple VMs. Further nodes can be managed by virtual
infrastructure manager.
OpenStack
Let’s take case of OpenStack, which is an open
source solution. If we have to offer OpenStack as IaaS then following features
are required in OpenStack solution:
1. Allow application owners to register for our
cloud services, view their usage and see their bill (basic customer relations
management functionality)
2. Allow Developers/DevOps to create and store
custom images for their applications (basic build-time functionality)
3. Allow DevOps/Developers to launch, monitor and
terminate instances (basic run-time functionality)
4. Allow the Cloud Operator to configure and
operate the cloud infrastructure
These are the basic minimum features for any
service provider to ensure that he is able to monetize the services and get
revenue out of it.
OpenStack
architecture
It’s quite simple and provides all the basic features that IaaS needs.
·
Dashboard (Horizon)
provides a web front end to the other OpenStack services
·
Compute (Nova) stores
and retrieves virtual disks ("images") and associated metadata in
Glance
·
Image (Glance) can
store the actual virtual disk files in Object (Swift)
·
Services authenticate
with Identity (Keystone)
Logical OpenStack Architecture
·
End users can interact
through a common web interface (Horizon) or directly to each service through
their API
·
All services
authenticate through a common source (facilitated through Keystone)
·
Individual services
interact with each other through their public APIs (except where privileged
administrator commands are necessary)
OpenStack
Implementation scenario
Hypervisor: Xen
Device Emulation: KVM
Networking: vSwitch
Virtual Image Management: ovftool, Clonezilla
Red Hat introduced the libvirt library as an API for managing
platform virtualization(hypervisors and VMs). What makes libvirt interesting is
that it supports a number of hypervisor solutions (KVM and Xen being two) and
provides API bindings for number of languages (such as C, Python, and Ruby). It
provides the "last mile" of management, interfacing directly with the
platform hypervisor and extending APIsout to larger infrastructure-management
solutions. With libvirt, it's simple to start and stop VMs, and it provides
APIs for more advanced operations, such as migration of VMs between platforms.
Using libvirt, it's also possible to use its shell (built on top of libvirt),
called virsh.
Benefits
of OpenStack solutions
1) Its diverse and has active developer community,
its being based on industry opens standards, flexibility, and ability to scale.
2) Zero initial investment on solution
3) Each of the commercial vendors has its own API,
and these APIs doesn’t support various storage systems. OpenStack works on open
standards.
4) OpenStack uses software logic to ensure data
replication and distribution across different devices, meaning that inexpensive
commodity hard drives and servers can be used in lieu of more expensive
equipment. Further Quota facility ensures that users can’t provision more than
allocated disk space.
Points
to further look for in OpenStack:
1) Presently OpenStack doesn’t have billing solution
and Zuora
kind of solution need to be separately integrated
2) Customer portal needs to be further created
3) Some work is still required for making
nova-network more available.
Conclusion
OpenStack provides all the features that are
required to run IaaS cloud services. However to commercialize it, some level of
integration and effort is required.
Sunday, 22 July 2012 0
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
"Microsoft Surface" Vs "Samsung Galaxy Tab" Vs "Apple iPAD"... Decide yourself..
| Microsoft Surface | Samsung Galaxy Tab | Apple iPAD | |
| Keyboard | The Surface keyboard will be part of its Touch Cover, which is connected with magnets and flips open. There will be a version with pressure-sensitive flat keys and another with more traditional raised keys called a Type Cover. | Thirdparty support | Thirdparty support |
| Display Size | 10.6 inches 1366×768 | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 | 9.6 Inches 2048 x 1536 |
| Processor | Windows RT has an NVIDIA Tegra-based ARM chip and the Surface Windows Pro has an Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor | respectable 1GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor | Apple A5x SoC, which breaks down to a 1GHz dual-core processor combined with a quad-core graphics processing unit. |
| OS | Windows RT/Windows 8 Professional | Android 4.0 ICS + TouchWiz UX | iOS 5.1 |
| RAM | ?? | 1GB | 1GB |
| Disk Space | Windows RT has 32 or 64GB while the Surface Windows Pro has 64 or 128GB | it’s offered in 16GB, 32GB and 64 GB versions, but it can be expanded thanks to its available microSD card slot | 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities |
| Stand | kickstand included | thirdparty | thirdparty |
| Productivity Suite |
Wednesday, 20 June 2012 0
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Have you ever tried to figure out what a credit card
number represent or if there is any way to figure out if number itself is
correct. You surely cant check the validity of credit card just by number, but
can figure out if credit card number is
valid or not.Saturday, 16 June 2012 0
So you have decided to start
your own blog/CMS site and want to join the crowd.. read on..
I will try to cover generic topics
in this article that you need to start blogging or CMS site. Details will
follow in future posts.
Step One – What do you want to blog about?
You need to make sure that you
select right area in which you are good. For example if I am asked to write
a review of Indian classical music, then god save me and reader. Similarly you
need to make sure that you are good at the topic you are writing about.
Secondly use “Google Adwords” and “Google Trends” to figure out you don’t have
too much competition on the similar lines. For example you may be having heavy “keyword”
competition for “textile waste recycling” but low competition for “textile
recyclers”. Start with the topics which face low competitions but have low to
medium traffic generation. Once you have figured it out, you are all set to
look for technology/platform.Sunday, 10 June 2012
Hacking means finding out weaknesses in a computer or computer network and exploiting them, though the term can also refer to someone with an advanced understanding of computers and computer networks.
Disclaimer: I have never been involved with any hacking activity nor caused trouble to network administrators :).
Firstly why do we need to know what is hacking? Surely not to impress girls, but to make sure others tech guys cant get into your network and PC. They can steal your data data, modify it or even destroy it. Bringing down a network is childs play these days. The technique which were used by SETI earlier are now used to push denial of services on various sites. The other reason for learning hacking is to ensure internally employees are not able to steal data, watch restricted contents or do something that security admins dont want them to do.
One famous hacker once wrote that ``Hackers understand something basic about computers, and that is that they can be enjoyed. I know none who hack for money, or hack to frighten the company, or hack for anything but fun.'' Most of the IT wizards were once hackers; Bill Gates, Alan cox, Linus, Marcello, Willy, Tweedie, Kolivas etc are just to name few. For that matters, most of the kernel programmers are the best hackers.
Sunday, 10 June 2012 0
Buying a right computer as per your need is critical for your work and day to day communication. I have put some of the points that can be useful while buying a new computer. You can use these tips to buy a new laptop or desktop.
Whether you want a laptop or desktop?
Though desktops are cheaper than
laptops and repairs costs are also less in desktop, but are you sure you
want a desktop? Desktop takes more space, requires external power backup and can’t
be moved easily. You can’t carry a desktop around and it will take lot of space on
your table. Price difference between regular desktop and laptop is not much. At
the same time if you want to play latest games and run processor intensive games
on big screen, desktops are the way to go.
So first make up your mind
whether you want a desktop or laptop!!
Which operating system you need?
Most likely it will be windows
based system which is easy to operate for everyone at home. However you make
also like to look for Mac based system which will be good for graphics or Linux
based system which can be great for programming and open source lovers. Also
see if you can get 64 bit Operating system. It will definitely be faster compared
to 32 bit OS.
Wikipedia
- “Network security consists of the provisions and policies adopted by a network
administrator to prevent and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer
network and network-accessible resources.”
In today’s world securing information is most
critical and difficult part in any organization. Your development and research
team will come up with some of the best ideas and products, but in the end
somebody else may end up enjoying benefits out of it. You will never know while
you are sleeping, your employee may steal data from your premise or your
corporate enemies may launch a cyber attack on your network.
In order to secure your network you will find lot
of applications, hardware and tools which are available in market. However I
will try to explain very few of open source tools from load of tools which are
freely available. The reason for going with open source is simple, it’s open.
You know what is application/tool is doing and you have full control on it. Should
your company follow the crowd moving towards open source network security? That
depends on which is more important to you: an agile solution that doesn't cost
much or a comprehensive solution that comes with plenty of support. If you are
looking for the agile solution read on…
IP COP – IPCOP comes with bundle of tools and
applications built in. It has transparent proxy server, web caching tools,
advanced proxy for controlling your traffic, DHCP server, firewall, IP tables
for those fine tuning, URL filtering for blocking chat etc, port forwarding for
getting specific traffic into your network. Just put in on your internet pipe
and you are up and running. It will secure network and keep inform you once
something goes wrong. It can run on old PII or PIII machine with 512 MB RAM and
is not resource intensive. You can access the website at http://www.ipcop.org/
OpenVPN – You must be using paid VPN software or hardware
to connect to your office network. Try Open VPN, It’s an excellent tool which
can be run on Linux box or can be run directly from IPCOP. With OpenVPN you can
·
tunnel any IP subnetwork or virtual Ethernet adapter over a
single UDP or TCP port,
·
configure a scalable, load-balanced VPN server farm using one
or more machines which can handle thousands of dynamic connections from
incoming VPN clients,
·
use all of the encryption, authentication, and certification
features of the OpenSSL library to protect your private network
traffic as it transits the internet,
WireShark - Formerly known as
"Ethereal," Wireshark is the world's foremost network protocol
analyzer. It allows the user to see all traffic being passed over an Ethernet
network. It runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and others.
It shows you any packet travelling on network and can also show you any non
encrypted password J. Use it for good http://www.wireshark.org/
NMAP - Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a
free and open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. Many
systems and network administrators also find it useful for tasks such as
network inventory, managing service upgrade schedules, and monitoring host or
service uptime. Output of nmap can tell you open ports, running services etc on
a network in a minute. NMAP is fastest and most comprehensive way to discover
network, running services and holes in security.
Open SSL - The OpenSSL Project is a collaborative
effort to develop a robust, commercial-grade, full-featured, and Open
Source toolkit implementing the Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and Transport
Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols as well
as a full-strength general purpose cryptography library. You can compile apache, postfix with SSL
support and start your own secure mail delivery on TLS or run https services.
SSL will provide secure connectivity between your server and client to exchange
data. http://www.openssl.org/
Clam
Antivirus – Ever heard of free antivirus which can secure your email gateway
for free. Clam is just the right choice if you are looking to implement a low
cost email server with full featured antivirus support. ClamAV is an open
source (GPL) antivirus engine designed for detecting Trojans, viruses, malware
and other malicious threats. It provides a high performance mutli-threaded
scanning daemon, command line utilities for on demand file scanning, and an
intelligent tool for automatic signature updates. I have personally used it
along with postfix and found it as reliable as any commercial grade
application. http://www.clamav.net/lang/en/
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