Cloud Computing Literature
One of the most important aspects to
take account when someone is working with new technologies is where to
find information sources. And although the best information source
sometimes is Internet, often there is not relevant information or worst
it is not updated.
On the other hand, if our activity is
to write articles or relevant reports related with Cloud Computing the
best is get reliable information sources like books or accredited web
sites.
Thus, here is a list of books, web
sites and blogs which could be useful to find information about Cloud
Computing and Open Cloud Technologies such Hadoop.
Academic Books
Cloud Computing, Principles, Systems and Applications
by Nick Antonopoulos and Lee Gillam
This Cloud Computing book is a compilation of articles related with
Cloud Computing technologies in which we can find different research
areas as well as the results thereof.
Grid and Cloud Computing by Katarina StanoevskaSlabeva et al.
The fourth paradigm by Tony Hey et al.
Non Academic Books
Data-Intensive Text Processing with MapReduce by Jimmy Lin and
Chris Dyer
This is a perfect book to learn how to develop MapReduce applications.
This book is very detailed and contains great scientific support and
good information to perfectly understand the MapReduce paradigm.
Hadoop, The definitive Guide by Tom white
This is one of the most relevant books written about Hadoop technology.
This book, give us a perfect overview of the Hadoop Project and its
subproject as well as a detailed explanation of each of them. This is a
perfect book to understand all the Hadoop project and its impact in the
Cloud.
Pro Hadoop by Jasson Venner
This is a technical book which describes how to structure and set up a
Hadoop Cluster, to implement the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS)
as well as to create MapReduce applications. Also this book gives us
important tips to avoid common errors during the implementation of the
Hadoop technology.
Sites and Blogs
On the other hand, there are important sites and blogs with relevant
information on Cloud Computing and Distributed technologies. So, here
is a small list of them and if you know another good sites, please let
me know them.
Apache Hadoop Site – http://hadoop.apache.org/
Cloudera Blog – http://www.cloudera.com/blog/
International Science Grid – http://www.isgtw.org/
Yahoo! Hadoop Blog – http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/hadoop/
Greetings..!
Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable
and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the
Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control
over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them.
The concept incorporates technologies that have the common theme of
reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the
users. Cloud Computing services usually provide applications online
that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are
stored on the servers.
Companies or individuals engaging in Cloud Computing do not own the
physical infrastructure hosting the software platform in question.
Instead, they avoid capital expenditure by renting usage from a
third-party provider (except for the case of 'Private Cloud' - see
below). They consume resources as a service, paying instead for only
the resources they use. Many Cloud Computing offerings have adopted the
utility computing model, which is analogous to how traditional
utilities like electricity are consumed, while others are billed on a
subscription basis.
The Opportunity for Cloud Computing
The growing market offering Cloud-based solutions is particularly broad, coming either from big worldwide companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, IBM, etc., and from smaller but equally agile companies such as, GoGrid, Mosso, Enomaly, Bungee Labs Connect, LongJump, Coghead, and others.
The last years have seen increased activity, with Google, IBM, and a
number of universities embarking on a large scale Cloud Computing
research project. The term started gaining popularity in the mainstream
IT literature, and numerous Cloud Computing events had been scheduled
in many important symposiums all over the world.
The models that are currently used to offer Cloud Computing solutions, may be layered as:
Software as a Service (SaaS): is a model of software deployment
whereby a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a
service on demand. SaaS software vendors may host the application on
their own web servers or they may rent IaaS and/or PaaS from others.
Examples of SaaS vendors include Microsoft, Salesforce, Intuit
Quickbase, and Google Apps which provide common business applications
online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and
data are stored in the cloud.
Platform as a Service (PaaS): PaaS provides the
Application Framework-as-a-service layer upon which software
applications can be securely and reliably built. Industry Analyst firm
Forrester describes PaaS as "an externally hosted service that provides
a complete platform to create, run, and operate applications. It
includes dev tools, admin & mgmt tools, run-times, data mgmt
engines, security facilities, and user mgmt services; and based on
internet protocols and patterns."
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): is the delivery of computer
infrastructure (typically a platform virtualization environment) as a
service. Rather than purchasing servers, software, data center space or
network equipment, clients instead buy these resources as a fully
outsourced service. The service is typically billed on a utility
computing basis and amount of resources consumed (and therefore the
cost) will typically reflect the level of activity. It is an evolution
of web hosting and virtual private server offerings.
One of the most successful cases is the well known Amazon EC2. It is a
commercial web service that allows customers to rent computers on which
to run their own computer applications. EC2 allows scalable deployment
of applications by providing a web services interface through which a
customer can create virtual machines containing any software of their
choice. This allows the customer to create, launch, and terminate
server instances as needed, paying by the hour for active servers
(hence the term "elastic").
The main advantage offered by those solutions is the reduction of
infrastructure costs, and of the infrastructure's maintenance. By not
owning the hardware and software, Cloud users avoid capital expenditure
by renting usage from a third-party provider. Customers pay for only
the resources they use. The advantage for the provider of the Cloud, is
that sharing computing power among multiple tenants improves
utilization rates, as servers are not left idle, which can reduce costs
and increase efficiency.
Public cloud
Public cloud or external cloud describes cloud computing in the traditional mainstream sense, whereby resources are dynamically provisioned on a fine-grained, self-service basis over the Internet, via web applications/web services, from an off-site third-party provider who shares resources and bills on a fine-grained utility computing basis.Private cloud
Private cloud and internal cloud describe offerings deploying cloud computing on private networks. These solutions aim to "deliver some benefits of cloud computing without the pitfalls", capitalizing on data security, corporate governance, and reliability concerns. On the other hand, users still have to buy, deploy, manage, and maintain them, and as such do not benefit from lower up-front capital costs and less hands-on management.Architecture
The majority of cloud computing infrastructure, today, consists of reliable services delivered through data centers and built on servers with different levels of virtualization technologies. The services are accessible anywhere that has access to networking infrastructure. The Cloud appears as a single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers. The offerings need to meet the quality of service requirements of customers and typically offer service level agreements, and, at the same time proceed over the typical limitations.The architecture of the computing platform proposed by NICE (fig. 1) differs from the others in some interesting ways:
you can deploy it on an existing IT infrastructure, because it is completely decoupled from the hardware infrastructure
it has a high level of modularity and configurability, resulting in being easily customizable for the user's needs
based on the NICE EnginFrame technology, it is easy to build graphical web-based interfaces to provide several applications, as web services, without needing to code or compile source programs
it utilises the existing methodology in place for authentication and authorization
Further, because the NICE Cloud solution is built on advanced IT technologies, including virtualization and workload management, the execution platform is dynamically able to allocate, monitor, and configure a new environment as needed by the application, inside the Cloud infrastructure. The NICE platform offers these important properties:
Incremental Scalability: the quantity of computing and storage resources, provisioned to the applications, changes dynamically depending on the workload
Reliability and Fault-Tolerance: because of the virtualization of the hardware resources and the multiple redundant hosts, the platform adjusts the resources needed from the applications, without disruption during disasters or crashes
Service Level Agreement: the use of advanced systems for the dynamic allocation of the resources, allows the guarantee of service level, agreed across applications and services;
Accountability: the continuous monitoring of the resources used by each application (and user), allows the setup of services that users can access in a pay-per-use mode, or subscribing to a specific contract. In the case of an Enterprise Cloud, this feature allows costs to be shared among the cost centers of the company.
Find out more about the CloudFrame solution - already deployed by major Service Provider and software companies, to power their paid, public cloud offerings.
http://www.nice-software.com/solutions/cloud-computing
What cloud computing really means
The next big trend sounds nebulous, but it's not so fuzzy when you view the value proposition from the perspective of IT professionals
Cloud computing is all the rage. "It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition. As a metaphor for the Internet, "the cloud" is a familiar cliché, but when combined with "computing," the meaning gets bigger and fuzzier. Some analysts and vendors define cloud computing narrowly as an updated version of utility computing: basically virtual servers available over the Internet. Others go very broad, arguing anything you consume outside the firewall is "in the cloud," including conventional outsourcing.[ Stay on top of the current state of the cloud with InfoWorld's special report, "Cloud computing in 2012." Download it today! | Also check out our "Private Cloud Deep Dive," our "Cloud Security Deep Dive," our "Cloud Storage Deep Dive," and our "Cloud Services Deep Dive." ]
Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities.
InfoWorld talked to dozens of vendors, analysts, and IT customers to tease out the various components of cloud computing. Based on those discussions, here's a rough breakdown of what cloud computing is all about:
1. SaaSThis type of cloud computing delivers a single application through the browser to thousands of customers using a multitenant architecture. On the customer side, it means no upfront investment in servers or software licensing; on the provider side, with just one app to maintain, costs are low compared to conventional hosting. Salesforce.com is by far the best-known example among enterprise applications, but SaaS is also common for HR apps and has even worked its way up the food chain to ERP, with players such as Workday. And who could have predicted the sudden rise of SaaS "desktop" applications, such as Google Apps and Zoho Office?
2. Utility computingThe idea is not new, but this form of cloud computing is getting new life from Amazon.com, Sun, IBM, and others who now offer storage and virtual servers that IT can access on demand. Early enterprise adopters mainly use utility computing for supplemental, non-mission-critical needs, but one day, they may replace parts of the datacenter. Other providers offer solutions that help IT create virtual datacenters from commodity servers, such as 3Tera's AppLogic and Cohesive Flexible Technologies' Elastic Server on Demand. Liquid Computing's LiquidQ offers similar capabilities, enabling IT to stitch together memory, I/O, storage, and computational capacity as a virtualized resource pool available over the network.
3. Web services in the cloudClosely related to SaaS, Web service providers offer APIs that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. They range from providers offering discrete business services -- such as Strike Iron and Xignite -- to the full range of APIs offered by Google Maps, ADP payroll processing, the U.S. Postal Service, Bloomberg, and even conventional credit card processing services.
4. Platform as a serviceAnother SaaS variation, this form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the provider's infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider's servers. Like Legos, these services are constrained by the vendor's design and capabilities, so you don't get complete freedom, but you do get predictability and pre-integration. Prime examples include Salesforce.com's Force.com, Coghead and the new Google App Engine. For extremely lightweight development, cloud-based mashup platforms abound, such as Yahoo Pipes or Dapper.net.
5. MSP (managed service providers)One of the oldest forms of cloud computing, a managed service is basically an application exposed to IT rather than to end-users, such as a virus scanning service for e-mail or an application monitoring service (which Mercury, among others, provides). Managed security services delivered by SecureWorks, IBM, and Verizon fall into this category, as do such cloud-based anti-spam services as Postini, recently acquired by Google. Other offerings include desktop management services, such as those offered by CenterBeam or Everdream.
6. Service commerce platformsA hybrid of SaaS and MSP, this cloud computing service offers a service hub that users interact with. They're most common in trading environments, such as expense management systems that allow users to order travel or secretarial services from a common platform that then coordinates the service delivery and pricing within the specifications set by the user. Think of it as an automated service bureau. Well-known examples include Rearden Commerce and Ariba.
7. Internet integrationThe integration of cloud-based services is in its early days. OpSource, which mainly concerns itself with serving SaaS providers, recently introduced the OpSource Services Bus, which employs in-the-cloud integration technology from a little startup called Boomi. SaaS provider Workday recently acquired another player in this space, CapeClear, an ESB (enterprise service bus) provider that was edging toward b-to-b integration. Way ahead of its time, Grand Central -- which wanted to be a universal "bus in the cloud" to connect SaaS providers and provide integrated solutions to customers -- flamed out in 2005.
Today, with such cloud-based interconnection seldom in evidence, cloud computing might be more accurately described as "sky computing," with many isolated clouds of services which IT customers must plug into individually. On the other hand, as virtualization and SOA permeate the enterprise, the idea of loosely coupled services running on an agile, scalable infrastructure should eventually make every enterprise a node in the cloud. It's a long-running trend with a far-out horizon. But among big metatrends, cloud computing is the hardest one to argue with in the long term.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031?page=0,1
