Category Archives: Cloud Platforms

Developing and Deploying applications for the Cloud

Cloud Platforms,

In this blog, I will cover the considerations for developing and deploying applications for the Cloud along with the newer deployment models like Devops and Paas based approach.

Developing applications for the cloud is little similar to developing applications for the web but its not exactly the same. In the cloud, there are considerations like failure handling, traffic unpredictability, resource distribution which does not apply to typical web based application. Can we take any enterprise application and directly put them in the cloud and make it an Cloud based application? This normally does not work unless the enterprise application has the cloud application characteristics which I have described below.

Following are some of the important characteristics of a Cloud based application:

Continue reading Developing and Deploying applications for the Cloud →

Cloud OS comparison

Cloud Platforms,

In this blog, I will cover basics of Cloud OS, how Enterprise Cloud is different from private/public clouds from Cloud providers and comparison of the major Open source cloud OS available today.

Cloud OS:

Just like Operating system for a desktop or server manages the resources associated with it, Cloud OS manages the resources associated with the cloud. Major cloud resources are compute, storage and network. Compute includes servers and hypervisors associated with the servers that allows for VM creation. Storage includes local storage, Storage area network and Object storage. Network includes vlans, firewalls, load balancers etc. Cloud OS is also responsible for giving the cloud characteristics like Elasticity, self service provisioning model etc. Cloud OS is also responsible for other items like image management, authentication, security, billing etc.

Continue reading Cloud OS comparison →

Accessing AWS Services

Cloud Platforms,

In this blog, I will cover common methods of accessing AWS services using AWS console, AWS CLI and AWS Python SDK. The basic requirement is to have the AWS free account already created.

AWS console:

With AWS console, all activities could be done using the web interface. This approach becomes cumbersome when dealing with hundreds of VMs. Also, we cannot have a programmatic model with this approach.

AWS CLI:

AWS CLI for Windows or Linux can be downloaded from here. Using AWS CLI, all AWS services can be invoked using CLI.

Continue reading Accessing AWS Services →

Amazon AWS overview

Cloud Platforms,

Amazon AWS is the leader in Cloud provider marketspace. AWS started out with IaaS but have also become a PaaS player now.  Amazon’s services extends Computing, Storage, Database, Analytics and Application services. There are multiple granular services under each of the above categories. The best way to get familiar with the cloud services is by trying them out. AWS has an excellent 1 year free tier program where users can try AWS services. The free subscription is with the smallest performance VM and it cannot be used for business purposes, but its a great tool to experiment and get familiar. I could not find the free option with Google compute engine. With Microsoft Azure, they have 1 month trial option.

Continue reading Amazon AWS overview →

Cloud Computing

Cloud Platforms

Cloud Computing is the most talked about buzzword today. Though there is a deluge of information available in Cloud computing everywhere, I found it difficult to pick the practical and relevant information I need. Following are some topics that I will explore in the next series of blogs(not in the same order). I am not an expert in any of these topics, I am writing this blog as I am learning more on each of these topics.

  • Types of Cloud
  • Cloud service categories
  • Cloud provider comparison
  • Cloud hardware architecture
  • Cloud OS comparison
  • AWS Services overview – Getting started with AWS
  • PaaS – Why startups love it?
  • How to build Cloud application?
  • Openstack – Getting started with Openstack
  • Hybrid clouds and migrating between Clouds
  • Cloud management software
  • Network Virtualization

Continue reading Cloud Computing →