Service-Oriented Cloud Computing Infrastructure (SOCCI) Framework – SOCCI Elements

 

This chapter defines the elements of the Service-Oriented Cloud Computing Infrastructure (SOCCI).

Virtualization enables cloud infrastructure. It has provided an opportunity to reverse the resulting server sprawl, to consolidate (e.g., to run) many applications upon a single physical hardware component, driving utilization higher than before but retaining the separation of operating systems and application environment required to allow ready configuration and maintenance for each application as though it were still physically separate.

Create an infrastructure which operates like a utility – i.e., find out how many CPU cycles, how much RAM, and how much disk space is required and deliver it without depending on what type of hardware is supporting it.

Cloud computing infrastructure includes but is not limited to four kinds of resources; one or more of these resources can be provisioned as a service depending upon the needs of the consumer:

Compute – Information Processing Resources

  • Provide Internet-based computing to represent the fundamentals necessary to process instructions, store such instructions and the results of their computation, and to transmit these internally between subcomponents or externally to other devices over networks spanning great distances.
  • Some examples of the computing elements are a set of VMs and operating system virtualization (Xen, KVM, VMWare, HyperV)

Network – Interconnect Resources

Cloud computing networks:

  • Burst up and turn down bandwidth on-demand.
  • Allow for connections between servers to enable automated movement of virtual machines.
  • The underlying network for the cloud can be very dynamic in nature, integrating many different value-add entities across different routes that are optimized in real time. Though transparency to all this complexity is desired from the consumer perspective, to manage and administer this network visibility is also essential. A network map at any point in time allows visibility into the interconnects and possible issues, constraints, or bottlenecks, etc. in the cloud.

Cloud computing network can be seen in three independent structures:

  • Front end – connects users to application
  • Horizontal aspect – physical servers and movement of their virtual machines
  • Storage networks

Storage – Recorded Information Resources

  • This infrastructure enables the storage and retrieval of any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the cloud. It conforms to a utility model while supporting elastic requirements allocating and releasing storage on-demand.
  • Storage should also support the recoverability of data by leveraging horizontal partitioning to meet service-level requirements.

Facilities – Housing & Facilitating Computing Resources

  • The cloud computing hosting facility has to be situated in a secure and well-guarded location with all the appropriate best practices in place for building and safety standards.
  • Connectivity to the resources needs to be open so that resources external to the facility can leverage the resources within the facility on an as-and-when-needed basis.
  • The network bandwidth in the facility should match up to the demands of the cloud computing requirement of elasticity that is to scale up or down at any given moment.
  • Another requirement would be to establish disaster recovery plans that can be executed annually to assure all the stakeholders that there will be continuity of computing resources if and when such circumstances arise.