Top Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing Cloud Computing

(1)

Top Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing Cloud

Computing

The imperative of High Reliability, Redundancy and QoS for Stable Cloud Computing

FATPIPE NETWORKS

White Paper

FatPipe Networks 2011

4455 South 700 East • First Floor

Salt Lake City UT 84107

(2)

Cloud computing is one of the most captivating technology in today‟s IT world. Cloud computing, with the revolutionary promise of computing as a utility, has the potential to transform how IT services are delivered and managed. The demand for cloud computing solutions is expected to grow exponentially.

As a substitute of investing millions of dollars in continuous installation and maintenance, IT managers can rent/hire required resources from service providers, which are set as a cloud. This approach has led to a paradigm shift in enterprises that hunt for cost-effective solutions to achieve high application performance without a negative impact on IT budget and infrastructure.

This paper provides a general review of what cloud computing is, how it can greatly increase productivity while driving down costs. It will also identify the pitfalls to watch out for when implementing the technology, and stress the importance of WAN redundancy and reliability.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a new style of computing that makes IT infrastructure available as a ubiquitous, easily accessible, and reliable utility service, conceptually similar to the telephone or to electricity. Of course, the IT industry has been moving along this trend line for years, with software-as-a-service (and platform as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, hardware-as-a-service, etc.).

(4)

Businesses exploit resources of cloud providers by utilizing servers, hard drives, memory, storage blocks, deployment platform, software and database hosted in clouds. By contracting cloud resources, organizations can control the applications even from remote locations over the Web.

An Analysis on Clouds

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from cloud-based computing as they result in considerable IT savings and companies do not have to make huge investments in technology they need to run their businesses. The distinguishing factor about cloud computing is that the cloud vendors provide hardware and software services with a centralized architecture, and clients can use them on the fly. This radical initiative eliminates constant switchover to new technologies, rigorous training, and higher costs for purchasing software.

(5)

this aspect. It is a cost-effective option for companies that store large amounts of data. As they are centrally stored, Network Administrators need not manage huge datacenters as they expand.

Gartner, a leading technology research organization elucidates that clouds influence business with its scalability and utility of IT services. A Gartner report in 20081 explained the trends in information technology and cloud‟s performance have great impact over huge networks. This shift in focus from technical implementations to service access via Internet will totally transform the traditional computing models to gain maximum throughput. In November 2009, Gartner‟s analyst Daryl C. Plummer and his team presented a report2 explaining that clouds hold extensive technologies in application infrastructure. One of their press releases in 20103 has rated cloud computing as one of the top 10 IT strategies in 2011 among virtualization, green data centers, social computing, client computation, and mobile applications.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

On-demand Self Service - A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities,

(such as server time and network storage), as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service‟s provider.

Broad Network Access - Capabilities are available over the network and accessed

through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms.

Resource Pooling - The provider‟s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple

(6)

Rapid Elasticity - Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned -- in some cases

automatically -- to quickly scale out, and rapidly released to quickly scale in. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured Service - Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by

leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Cloud Service Models

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems; storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) - The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider‟s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user specific application configuration settings.

(7)

Cloud Deployment Models

Private Cloud - The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.

Community Cloud - The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.

Public Cloud - The cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an organization selling cloud services.

Hybrid Cloud - The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds).

Enabling Technologies for Cloud Computing

Consolidation and Virtualization – Sharing of hardware resources Billing and Provisioning – Appropriate cost accounting

(8)

Top Pitfalls to Avoid

The buzz around cloud computing resonates through every segment of the IT and networking industries. Cloud computing will have a profound impact on corporate networks, particularly wide area network (WAN) performance. Cloud data centers are “far away” from the users. Therefore, all employees will be “remote” from their data. As a result, there are potential pitfalls that can interfere with or negate the benefits of cloud computing. They are:

(9)

For example, a company has decided it will use a CSP to meet all of its computing needs. The company has calculated that using the Cloud as its main IT hub instead of using its own office space will save a lot of money otherwise invested in infrastructure, staff, maintenance and upgrades. After setting it all up and training its people, the company loses its data connection due to an ISP failure. The company is now at the mercy of the ISP to get up and running again.

Solution I: Router Clustering - Companies using Cloud Computing Services can bypass

connectivity issues by using a router-clustering device at each location. Router clustering devices aggregate any type of data connections, such as T1, DS3, DSL, cable, wireless, MPLS, etc., and provide intelligent and automatic failover when services or components fail.

A router clustering device can aggregate lines of same or different types from different providers, which increases reliability substantially. This gives the power back to the end user, and gives the end user real peace of mind that its network is up and running despite failures.

Router clustering devices will failover all WAN data traffic, including VoIP calls and Thin Client Sessions seamlessly.

Problem II: Inadequate bandwidth and latency - A company‟s bandwidth capacity can impact

the end user‟s Cloud Computing experience. WAN performance is key to Cloud adoption, as slow performance can jeopardize the whole effort and negate the Cloud benefits. As Tom Nolle, President of CIMI Corp, a consultant to service providers, "You can't write an SLA [service-level agreement] for the Internet."4

Solution II: Create a bigger pipe and deploy Quality of Service (QoS) – Companies can use a

(10)

Another way to maximize ones current WAN infrastructure to alleviate bottlenecking issues is to apply QoS rules from one or more locations. FatPipe QoS allows companies to set priorities on traffic flow and guarantee bandwidth based on application, IP or port.

Problem III: Slow speeds and latency between remote offices and HQ: A company has

remote offices located outside of the United States. The offices use MPLS to access the

headquarters, which provides access to the Cloud service they use over the Internet. The latency and gagging issues between the remote offices and the headquarters makes it difficult for the remote offices to take advantage of the Cloud services fully.

Solution III: WAN Optimization between remote offices and HQ: Regarding multiple offices in

a hub and spoke model, companies can apply WAN Optimization between the remote location and the headquarters, where they access the Cloud. If the company has an office in Australia which goes though its headquarters office in the US, where the cloud is, it can optimize traffic between the two sites and then access the cloud.

Role of FatPipe Technology in Cloud Computing

One must consider the importance of WAN connectivity and uptime regardless of the WAN infrastructure a client uses for Cloud Computing (private lines, public, or a hybrid). Companies can ask simple questions like, “what would happen if computing comes to a complete halt due to a failure in the WAN?” to evaluate their need. The best strategy is to combine multiple lines of different carriers so that automatic failover takes place immediately.

(11)

FatPipe WARP

–

Single Site Redundanc y and Relia bilit y for

WAN Computing End Users

The greatest challenge for enterprises or end-users that deploy cloud computing from an infrastructure point of view will be making sure that they always have access to the remote data centers which contain these services. While many larger offices would likely use MPLS or other private line technology to access these data centers, that still leaves open to potential for an outage on that private link. Smaller offices may only use Internet-based connectivity to access these data centers, and again will require the ability to failover in the event that their primary Internet connection fails. In both these scenarios, some type of inexpensive data lines (e.g., Internet broadband based), will be required to ensure uptime for offices utilizing cloud computing to cut costs and improve productivity.

FatPipe products provide the perfect solution to the requirement for WAN redundancy for these cloud computing customers or cloud service providers. With the ability to provide automated failover along with several load balancing algorithms, FatPipe products ensures that businesses deploying Cloud computing solutions remain up and running even in the event of a link failure.

FatPipe MPVPN

– Multi-Site Redundancy and Reliability

for Cloud Computing

(12)

FatPipe‟s patented technology, MPSec™ provides up to nine times additional WAN security in addition to IPSec.

MPVPN works with all existing hardware and applications. It is easy to install because of its user-friendly graphical interface and browser-based management tools. FatPipe MPVPN can accommodate small companies and branch offices with its lower throughput versions starting at 2 Mbps, as well as enterprise level customers who require speeds up to 2Gbps.

Cloud solution providers that are keen on providing reliable and secure connections to their clients can employ FatPipe MPVPN technology to provides a secure connection to their Cloud clients, taking advantage of FatPipe‟s patented and proven MPSec technology that provides an average of 9 times more security and reliability.

With FatPipe MPVPN and FatPipe VPN technology, Cloud solution providers provide a secure, reliable and redundant means of controlling access to information and managing the risks associated with cloud computing.

FatPipe WAN Acceleration

When preparing for Cloud Computing implementation, IT managers have the choice of adopting public, private, or hybrid clouds. These differ in the aspects of security and control over data that determines the usefulness of the cloud services. Generally, private clouds deliver a reliable security level for a company‟s sensitive data, and control over mission critical applications. However, the crucial factor that many companies fail to look is „uptime‟ having a huge impact on disaster recovery and business continuity. Private lines are more expensive than public lines, and can prevent a company from getting the line speed to support cloud computing.

(13)

FatPipe‟s WAN Acceleration technology offers the highest performance level of WAN acceleration and optimization available using patented and patent pending technology. With FatPipe WAN Acceleration, you can significantly boost your WAN performance through acceleration of your applications, and better utilization of your current WAN infrastructure. Bundled with Cloud computing solutions, FatPipe‟s WAN Acceleration can ultimately result in saving you thousands of dollars a year on additional hardware, software and bandwidth costs. FatPipe WAN Acceleration appreciably increases WAN utilization, providing effective use of WAN bandwidth by caching/compressing that sharply reduces redundant data on a WAN.

FatPipe is the first to market and the only provider of WAN acceleration and optimization technology that can work across multiple WANs. Not only can you optimize your WAN traffic and performance, you can achieve the highest level of WAN redundancy and reliability. Additionally, unlike other WAN optimization/acceleration products that provide WAN caching at file level, FatPipe WAN caching works at the file as well as the byte level. Small granularity results in greater levels of detected redundancies, and more deduplication and less retransmission, giving you the highest level of WAN optimization available.

(14)

FatPipe and Cloud Computing Providers Produce the

Best Solution

FatPipe WAN Redundancy and Optimization products are sometimes used by the Cloud Computing Provider at its site to support FatPipe customers who use the Provider‟s Cloud Computing services. FatPipes are setup at the provider site as well as the end user sites to achieve:

 The highest level of WAN redundancy and reliability  WAN Acceleration over multiple lines

 WAN Optimization and Quality of Service (QoS) over multiple lines  Additional Security using FatPipe‟s patented MPSec technology

FatPipe and the Cloud Computing Provider work together to provide the best-in-class services and technology, building powerful, highly reliable, and efficient networks that are easy to setup.

Benefits of FatPipe WAN Redundancy Products with

Acceleration

High Performance - Achieve faster results compared to other WAN Acceleration products that

store at the disk level – FatPipe offers the benefit of storing the data in memory as well as on disk giving you better performance and bigger storage. Supports WAN acceleration over multiple data lines for even faster speeds

De-duplication - Get between 4 to 18 times average data reduction. For instance, 400 mbps of

LAN traffic becomes 40 mbps on the WAN

Application/Data Independence - Faster WAN caching than the other WAN Acceleration

products that cache only at the file level – FatPipe provides the benefit of storage at the byte level. Unlike web caching, FatPipe does not serve stale data. Supports all major protocols.

Real Time Chart - FatPipe WAN Acceleration comes with a Real Time Chart that provides

(15)

QoS - Get further granular control of your data flow with FatPipe QoS, which includes application

layer and networking layer Quos

Works with Single and Multiple Lines - Use FatPipe WAN Acceleration at locations with single

lines, or FatPipe MPVPN or IPVPN products with WAN Acceleration for the ultimate reliable, redundant, efficient, optimized and secure WAN.

FatPipe Site Load Balancing

Site Load Balancing, built on FatPipe‟s patented technology SmartDNS technology, provides resiliency and continuity for your cloud computing needs. For organizations that want to improve application performance, ensure application availability, and implement a strategic disaster recovery plan, cloud computing is a cost-effective alternative to building additional data centers. Cloud balancing extends those advantages by enabling organizations to leverage cloud deployments.

(16)

Conclusion

Cloud computing is an evolving paradigm within the IT industry and one that will only gain momentum as more and more enterprises realize the significant cost savings and capital expenditure savings which can be realized. It is likely that more and more businesses will start looking at Cloud computing solutions and start adopting Clouds.