IBM Cloud Professional Certification Program
Study Guide Series
Exam C5050-287 - IBM Certified Solution Advisor - Cloud Reference Architecture V5
Purpose of Exam Objectives 2 High-level Exam Objectives 2 Detailed Exam Objectives 4 Section 1 - Cloud Computing Concepts and Benefits 4 Section 2 - Cloud Computing Design Principles 14 Section 3 - IBM Cloud Reference Architecture 25 Section 4 - IBM Cloud Solutions 38 Next Steps 44
Purpose of Exam Objectives
When an exam is being developed, the Subject Matter Experts work together to define the role the certified individual will fill. They define all of the tasks and knowledge that an individual would need to have in order to successfully implement the product. This creates the foundation for the objectives and measurement criteria, which are the basis for the certification exam.
The Middleware Certification item writers use these objectives to develop the questions that they write and which will appear on the exam.
It is recommended that you review these objectives. Do you know how to complete the task in the objective? Do you know why that task needs to be done? Do you know what will happen if you do it incorrectly? If you are not familiar with a task, then go through the objective and perform that task in your own environment. Read more information on the task. If there is an objective on a task there is about a 95% chance that you WILL see a question about it on the actual exam.
After you have reviewed the objectives and completed your own research, then take the assessment exam. While the assessment exam will not tell you which question you answered incorrectly, it will tell you how you did by section. This will give you a good indication as to whether you are ready to take the actual exam or if you need to further review the materials.
Note: This is the high-level list of objectives. As you review these objectives, click for a more detailed level of how to perform the task. High-level Exam Objectives Section 1 - Cloud Computing Concepts and Benefits
1.1 Define the cloud computing business advantages.
1.2 Demonstrate knowledge of Cloud architecture characteristics. Describe considerations such as risk, cost and compliance around cloud 1.3
computing.
1.4 Define automation and orchestration as it pertains to cloud computing.
1.5 Define why standardization is important to cloud computing.
1.6 Define service catalog as it pertains to cloud computing.
1.7 Define a hybrid cloud. Define the difference between a private cloud, a public cloud, and a 1.8
hybrid cloud.
1.9 Define PaaS, Containers and Microservices.
1.10 Define Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
1.11 Define DevOps as it pertains to cloud computing.
1.12 Explain the benefits of patterns as description of cloud services.
1.13 Define software defined environments as they relate to cloud. Section 2 - Cloud Computing Design Principles Demonstrate base knowledge needed to advice on creating a cloud 2.1
infrastructure.
2.2 Explain Cloud networking principles
2.3 Explain Cloud storage principles (block object file, SAN).
2.4 Describe security strategies in a cloud computing environment. Design principle for cloud ready applications (patterns, chef/puppet, heat 2.5
templates). Design principles for cloud native applications (open standards, 2.6
microservices, 12 factor app). Design principles for application development/DevOps (lean, continuous 2.7
delivery, agile, shift left test, test automation). Designing consumable applications for the cloud (UI, UX, design 2.8
thinking, innovation). Define hybrid integration capabilities (data, network, services, 2.9
management, integration).
2.10 Explain the role of the API Economy in the Cloud. Define how solutions in the cloud can be more effective (scalability, high 2.11
availability, service delivery).
Describe popular methods for billing, usage and accounting in the Cloud. 2.12 Describe principles of Cloud governance, compliance, and service 2.13
management. Section 3 - IBM Cloud Reference Architecture
3.1 Explain the five defining principles of IBM Cloud.
3.2 Explain the benefits of using the IBM Cloud Reference Architecture.
Explain the Cloud Platform Services for ICRA (this would include the 3.3
Containers, foundational services, and services taxonomy of Bluemix). Explain the Hybrid Cloud patterns represented in IBM’s Cloud 3.4
Reference Architecture ICRA. Articulate issues for connectivity of off-premise cloud with on-premise 3.5
workload in support of hybrid cloud environments.
3.6 Describe high availability and disaster recovery for cloud computing. Describe actors and roles as defined in IBM’s Cloud Reference Architecture (ICRA). Specifically, Cloud Service Consumers, Cloud 3.7 Service Creators, Cloud Service Providers, Cloud Services, and the
Common Cloud Management Platform. Describe how IBM Service Management can manage a cloud 3.8
environment. Describe the Integration and Extensibility models of cloud solutions 3.9
using API management. Describe non-functional requirements (NFRs) in the context of a cloud 3.10
solution. 3.11 Explain the mobile patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA.
3.12 Explain the IOT patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA.
3.13 Explain the DevOps patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA.
3.14 Explain the BD&A patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA. Section 4 - IBM Cloud Solutions
4.1 Describe the IBM capabilities for Cloud Managed Services.
4.2 Describe the IBM capabilities for Hybrid Integration.
4.3 Describe the IBM capabilities for Video services.
4.4 Describe the IBM capabilities for Cloud Brokerage.
4.5 Describe the IBM capabilities for DevOps.
4.6 Describe the IBM capabilities for Cloud native applications.
4.7 Describe the IBM capabilities for Service Management.
4.8 Describe the IBM capabilities for Storage.
4.9 Describe the IBM capabilities for Business Process Management.
4.10 Describe the IBM capabilities for IBM Marketplace. Detailed Exam Objectives Section 1 - Cloud Computing Concepts and Benefits 1.1. Define the cloud computing business advantages. Cloud computing is the latest major evolution in computing. It is a paradigm where computing resources are available when needed, and you pay for their use in much the same way as for household utilities. Just as water is piped to your home and you pay for as much or as little as you use, cloud computing resources are available whenever needed and charges are based on how much you use them. When you turn it off, the water that you would have used is available for use by others and, in the same way, shared cloud resources can be used by others when not used by you.
Widespread cloud computing is made possible by the Internet, and this is the most common way of accessing cloud resources. Intranets and dedicated networks are sometimes used too, in the case of a private cloud, for example.
1.1.1. Cloud computing provides the ability to make use of computing resources on an immediate basis, rather than a need to first invest time and skilled resources in designing and implementing infrastructure (hardware and middleware) and/or applications, and then deploying and testing it. This leads to faster time to value which may mean enhanced revenue, larger market share, or other benefits. 1.1.2. Describe how cloud computing can be a disruptive influencer 1.1.3. Describe the Business Drivers for adopting Cloud Computing 1.1.3.1. Agility 1.1.3.2. Innovation 1.1.3.3. New business models 1.1.3.4. Velocity 1.1.3.5. Self Service 1.1.3.6. Cost reduction 1.1.4. Define and classify systems in typical IT landscape into each category 1.1.4.1. Systems of Record 1.1.4.2. Systems of Insight 1.1.4.3. Systems of Engagements 1.1.5. Choose the target operating environment for system categorized as SOE, SOR, SOI, explain supporting rationale and business advantages 1.1.6. Define Two Speed IT, the characteristics of each and how would they co-exist 1.1.6.1. Industrialized Core 1.1.6.2. Agile Edge 1.1.7. Describe the top five benefits realized from Cloud Computing 1.1.7.1. Achieve economies of scale 1.1.7.2. Reduce CapEx by moving to OpEx 1.1.7.3. Improve access 1.1.7.4. Implement agile development at low cost 1.1.7.5. Leverage global workforce References;http://www.cloud- council.org/deliverables/CSCC-Practical-Guideto-Cloud-Computing.pdf http://www.thoughtsoncloud.com/2015/05/the-cloud-as-a-disruptive-forcejohn- hagel-of-the-deloitte-center-for-the-edge/
1.2. Demonstrate knowledge of Cloud architecture characteristics. 1.2.1. Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, ondemand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. 1.2.2. Cloud architectures typically leverage Internet-accessible on-demand services. Applications built on cloud architectures are such that the underlying computing infrastructure is used only when it is needed (for example to process a user request), draw the necessary resources ondemand (like compute servers or storage), perform a specific job, then relinquish the resources and often dispose themselves after the job is done. While in operation, the application scales up or down elastically based on resource needs. 1.2.3. Characteristics: 1.2.3.1. On demand self service 1.2.3.2. Omni-channel access 1.2.3.3. Resource pooling 1.2.3.4. Rapid elasticity 1.2.3.5. Measured service 1.2.4. References: http://www.cloud-council.org/deliverables/CSCC- PracticalGuide-to-Cloud-Computing.pdf
1.3. Describe considerations such as risk, cost and compliance around cloud computing. 1.3.1. Typical risks that should be considered and mitigated during a cloud deployment may include the following; 1.3.1.1. Loss of governance 1.3.1.2. Compliance and legal risk 1.3.1.3. Responsibility ambiguity 1.3.1.4. Isolation failure 1.3.1.5. Data protection 1.3.1.6. Insecure or incomplete data deletion 1.3.1.7. Handling of security incidents 1.3.1.8. Service unavailability 1.3.1.9. Management interface vulnerability 1.3.1.10. Vendor lock-in 1.3.1.11. Business failure of the provider 1.3.1.12. Malicious behavior of insiders 1.3.2. Cloud solutions typically allow to shift costs from capital expense (servers, storage, buildings, infrastructure) to operational expense (people, software, consumption based services). This is achieved by moving services to external cloud vendors that offer ‘their product’ based on consumption based pricing – or pay as you go. Large scale cloud vendors can exploit economies of scale to offer their services at lower price points than individual enterprises can achieve. 1.3.3. Consumption based pricing is attractive to consumers as it allows costs to be scaled to business volumes, providing certainty of cost-model and also avoiding significant up front costs (typically required for capital investment in traditional IT projects). 1.3.4. Cost savings are achieved largely through automation, standardization, and higher utilization of resources resulting in much higher efficiencies of the cloud provider, that can then be passed onto the cloud consumer. 1.3.5. References; 1.3.5.1. Platform-as-a-Service: An IBM Perspective http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5041.html?Open 1.3.5.2. Securely Expose Business Assets and Fuel Innovation http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5262.html?Open 1.3.5.3. Hybrid Cloud for Dummies http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/ku/en/kum12354us en/KUM12354USEN.PDF 1.3.5.4. Security for Cloud Computing Ten Steps to Ensure Success http://www.cloud-council.org/deliverables/CSCC-Security- forCloud-Computing-10-Steps-to-Ensure-Success.pdf
1.4. Define automation and orchestration as it pertains to cloud computing. 1.4.1. Automation and orchestration are the abilities to rapidly facilitate, simplify, provision and enable management and integration of computing resources with minimal administration effort or service provider interaction. 1.4.2. Automation is a key infrastructure management for cloud computing because without the benefits of automation, the complexity of a cloud environment is increased significantly and thus generate added costs - costs high enough to cancel out the cost savings derived from cloud computing in the first place. 1.4.2.1. Provides standardization and automation for deployment and management of IT services. 1.4.2.2. Provides the ability to maintain or improve quality and cost per IT service. 1.4.2.3. Provides a management stack that is easier to handle and provides for smoother workload migration. 1.4.2.4. Provides the ability to be audit proof and integrated with process governance. 1.4.2.5. Provides the ability to reduce costly manual interventions. 1.4.2.6. Provides the ability for IT to reduce the skill requirements needed for deploying and managing IT services. 1.4.2.7. Reduces errors caused by manual processes. 1.4.3. Orchestration provides the ability to integrate business processes and other systems into the fulfillment of services and resources. 1.4.3.1. Provides the ability to coordinate complex actions within a computing environment 1.4.3.2. Provides the ability to integration with external systems 1.4.3.3. Provides the ability to request approvals
1.5. Define why standardization is important to cloud computing. 1.5.1. Consolidating and standardizing the business processes in use in the environment reduce the number of manual actions both physical and electronic required to deploy a serviceand ensures a consistent process flow is used. 1.5.2. A small set of standardized software builds ensure consistency across the cloud environment, encapsulate the best practices for deployment, and reduce the time and effort required to maintain the software builds. 1.5.3. Helps maximize repeatability, compatibility, and interoperability. It also drives commoditization and increases quality.
1.6. Define service catalog as it pertains to cloud computing. 1.6.1. A cloud service catalog: 1.6.1.1. Contains a set of cloud services that an end user can request (usually through a web self-service portal). 1.6.1.2. Acts as the ordering portal for cloud end users, including pricing and service-level commitments and the terms and conditions for service provisioning. 1.6.1.3. Can also be used as a demand management mechanism, directing or incenting customers toward particular services or service configurations or away from legacy or declining services, as well as making sure of alignment with governance and standards through default configurations and service options. 1.6.1.4. Has a self-service look and feel; that is, it provides the ability to select service offerings from the cloud service catalog and generate service requests to have instances of those offerings fulfilled. 1.6.1.5. Is useful in developing suitable cloud-based solutions, thus enabling other IT and business services, which in turn create the value propositions for the investments in cloud architectures. 1.6.1.6. Contains features and characteristics (atomic items that can be configured and preferably priced based upon a "cloud chargeback" mechanism) to fulfill a particular need. 1.6.1.7. Serves as the provisioning interface to automated service fulfillment using a cloud orchestration subsystem.
1.7. Define a hybrid cloud. 1.7.1. A hybrid cloud is connection of one or more clouds with each other or with traditional data centers. While these are independent, they are connected together through technologies that enable data and application integration. 1.7.2. A hybrid cloud model may enable enterprises to achieve substantial savings in service delivery and service management through the infrastructure and resources provided via the public cloud. 1.7.3. A hybrid cloud enables the cloud consumer to segregate workloads based upon security and compliance requirements. 1.7.4. Describe how hybrid cloud impacts existing roles such as Lines of Business owners, Solution Designers, Infrastructure and Operations owners 1.7.5. Understanding of hybrid integration patterns 1.7.6. Understanding of cloud application maturity and gains at each level 1.7.6.1. Cloud enabled 1.7.6.2. Cloud Centric/Ready 1.7.6.3. Cloud native 1.7.7. Understanding of portability of workloads in a hybrid cloud 1.7.8. Describe the relevance of Cloud Brokerage in Hybrid Cloud 1.7.9. A hybrid cloud model provides an accessible and valuable solution for enterprises which require data and application security and control within a private cloud improving elasticity and minimizing resource overcapacity and application balancing, while moving peak-loads and less critical applications and data to the public cloud to improve service delivery and cost of computing.
References: http://www.cloud-council.org/deliverables/CSCC-Practical-Guide- to-HybridCloud-Computing.pdf IBM Cloud Architecture Center/hybrid http://www-935.ibm.com/services/multimedia/IBM_Future_of_Cloud_WEB.pdf
1.8. Define the difference between a private cloud, a public cloud, and a hybrid cloud.
1.8.1. Define a private cloud. 1.8.1.1. In a private cloud, the cloud infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units). It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off premises. 1.8.2. Define a public cloud. 1.8.2.1. In a public cloud, the cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or some combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider. 1.8.2.2. Public clouds are where IT activities/functions are provided as a service over the Internet, which allows access to technologyenabled services without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them. 1.8.3. Define a hybrid cloud. 1.8.3.1. In a hybrid cloud, the cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain independent entities, but are bound together by technology that enables data and application integration (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).
1.8.3.2. Hybrid clouds are where the external and internal service delivery methods are integrated. Rules and policies are established by the organization based on factors such as security needs, criticality and underlying architecture, so that activities and tasks are allocated to external or internal clouds as appropriate. 1.8.4. References: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800- 145/SP800145.pdf
1.9. Define PaaS, Containers and Microservices. 1.9.1. Explain PaaS. 1.9.1.1. The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment 1.9.2. Explain how PaaS related to computing platform. 1.9.2.1. A computing platform describes some sort of hardware architecture or software framework (including application frameworks), that allows software to run. A PaaS delivers a computing platform as a service. 1.9.3. Explain Microservices. 1.9.3.1. A microservice is a basic element that results from the architectural decomposition of an application’s components into loosely coupled patterns consisting of self-contained services that communicate with each other using a standard communications protocol and a set of well-defined APIs, independent of any vendor, product or technology. Microservices are built around capabilities as opposed to services, builds on SOA and is implemented using Agile techniques. Microservices are typically deployed inside Application Containers. 1.9.4. Explain Containers 1.9.4.1. An Application Container is a construct designed to package and run an application or its’ components running on a shared Operating System. Application Containers are isolated from other Application Containers and share the resources of the underlying Operating System, allowing for efficient restart, scale-up or scale-out of applications across clouds. Application Containers typically contain Microservices. 1.9.5. References: 1.9.5.1. Definition of PaaS at NIST: http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/index.cfm http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublicatio n800-146.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-145
1.9.5.2. Definition of Microservices and containers at NIST: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-180/sp800- 180_draft.pdf
1.10. Define Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). 1.10.1. Explain IaaS 1.10.1.1. 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, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls). 1.10.2. Explain how IaaS related to utility computing. 1.10.2.1. Utility computing relates to the business model in which application infrastructure resources, hardware and/or software are delivered. While cloud computing relates to the way we design, build, deploy and run applications that operate in a virtualized environment, sharing resources and boasting the ability to dynamically grow, shrink, and self-heal. 1.10.3. Explain the difference between a private IaaS and a public IaaS 1.10.3.1. Private IaaS are deployed, operated and consumed within the boundaries of the internal datacenter; in this model the IT organization standardizes the set of infrastructural services that it provides and develop the automations to deploy these services rapidly. The consumers of these IaaS services are business lines of development organizations in the enterprise that request these services through a servicecatalog. Public IaaS clouds allows to deliver the same ser of infrastructural services, but outside of the enterprise boundaries to other companies, to managed accounts, or even to consumer users. Public cloud for delivering IaaS services combine both the IaaS and cloud service provider models. 1.10.4. List some examples of IaaS offerings. 1.10.4.1. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. 1.10.4.2. CenturyLink. 1.10.4.3. SoftLayer. 1.10.5. References: 1.10.5.1. Definition of IaaS at NIST: http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/index.cfm http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800- 145.pdf 1.10.5.2. Definition of IaaS at Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
1.11. Define DevOps as it pertains to cloud computing. 1.11.1. DevOps is an approach based on lean and agile principles in which business owners and the development, operations and quality assurance departments collaborate to deliver software in a continuous manner that enables the business to more quickly seize market opportunities and reduce the time to customer feedback. Indeed, enterprise applications are so diverse and composed of multiple technologies, databases and end-user devices, and so-on, that only a DevOps approach will be successful when dealing with these complexities. 1.11.2. References; http://www.ibm.com/ibm/devops/us/en/resources/dummiesbooks/
1.12. Explain the benefits of patterns as description of cloud services. 1.12.1. Describe the concept of patterns as description for cloud services: 1.12.1.1. Patterns (aka service templates) describe how cloud services and applications are deployed, managed and scaled by an engine supporting the format (domain specific language) of the cloud service. 1.12.1.2. Patterns describe the structure and topology of a cloud service, i.e. the infrastructure and application components, resources and relationships and related management processes required to deliver the cloud service. 1.12.1.3. Pattern components are for instance definition of network and storage elements, image, software binaries, install scripts and recipes. 1.12.1.4. Patterns can either be described in a declarative (e.g. expressed by relationships) or imperative manner (e.g. express by a management plan). 1.12.1.5. Patterns can be composed out of other templates, e.g. an application pattern may use an infrastructure pattern. 1.12.2. Describe the components supporting pattern based deployment: 1.12.2.1. The pattern language (domain specific language) defines the format in which a cloud service is described. There are different formats of patterns available today: standardized, proprietary, open- source and open community formats. 1.12.2.2. Tools like pattern editors support the authoring of patterns. 1.12.2.3. The engine supporting the template language is used to deploy the service template on to a platform (e.g. a private or public cloud, or a specific type of hypervisor). 1.12.2.4. The service template may be published by the provider to a marketplace to make it available to a broader community and other consumers. 1.12.3. Describe the benefits of patterns: 1.12.3.1. Patterns codify best practices, promote standardization and reuse, enable faster time-to-value and reduced costs 1.12.3.2. Service templates are portable across different technology platforms supporting the same template language 1.12.3.3. Open standard pattern formats enable ecosystems and avoid vendor lock-in for consumers.
1.12.4. References: 1.12.4.1. IBM Redpaper: Cloud Computing Patterns of Expertise: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5040.html?Ope n 1.12.4.2. OASIS TOSCA standard: https://www.oasisopen.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_ab brev=tosca 1.12.4.3. TOSCA Simple Profile in YAML Version 1.0: https://www.oasis- open.org/committees/download.php/52571/TOSCA- SimpleProfile-YAML-v1.0-wd01-Rev-38.pdf 1.12.4.4. OpenStack Heat: https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Heat 1.12.4.5. OpenStack HOT: http://docs.openstack.org/developer/heat/template_guide/hot _guide.html 1.12.4.6. PureApplication System: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/puresystems/us/en/pf_pureapplicati on.html 1.12.4.7. PureApplication Services on SoftLayer Beta: https://www304.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/puresystems /centre/clo ud/PureApp-SL.html 1.12.4.8. PureSystems Centre / Pattern Catalog: https://www304.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/puresystems /centre/bro wse 1.12.4.9. SmartCloud Orchestrator: http://www- 03.ibm.com/software/products/en/smartcloud-orchestrator/ 1.12.4.10. UrbanCode Deploy: http://www- 03.ibm.com/software/products/en/ucdep
1.13. Define software defined environments as they relate to cloud. 1.13.1. A software-defined approach holistically automates network, computing and storage capabilities and opens the lines of communication between them. Essentially, software-defined environments break down the silos between network, storage and computing capabilities. Software-defined environments also offer a more secure universe for servers and services to operate in. By centralizing the infrastructure to one location, organizations are less vulnerable to attacks on multiple locations. 1.13.2. Software defined environments can be composed of software-defined data center (SDDC), software-defined network (SDN), softwaredefined compute (SDC) and software-defined storage (SDS). 1.13.2.1. SDDC is a vision for IT infrastructure that extends virtualization concepts such as abstraction, pooling, and automation to all of the data center’s resources and services to achieve IT as a service 1.13.2.2. SDN is an approach to computer networking that allows network administrators to manage network services through abstraction of lower level functionality. 1.13.2.3. SDS is a term for computer data storage technologies which separate storage hardware from the software that manages the storage infrastructure. 1.13.3. Another term out there is software-defined infrastructure (SDI). This refers to the collective of compute, storage and network and the intelligence for managing the infrastructure. 1.13.4. Use of the term software-defined environment (SDE) is the ability to capture information about workloads and the way information is processed, so we can set levels or objectives from a workload perspective, and manage these according to service level agreements (SLAs). 1.13.5. The SDE consumer and SDE providers. 1.13.5.1. An SDE consumer is someone who has a workload they want to deploy and they want to specify policies and nonfunctional requirements. 1.13.5.2. An SDE provider is a person building an infrastructure to serve these consumers, that could be internal IT, which is moving IT to the Cloud. 1.13.6. Understand the relevance of Open source in SDN, SDE, SDS. 1.13.7. OpenStack is a place where vendors come to build a consistent view and see how their products would plug into this API-driven behavioral model of an environment. It is a good framework for getting some consistency in thinking and the approach to doing software-defined everything and can be used as the foundation for a cloud computing environment. 1.13.8. References: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi- bin/ssialias?subtype=BK&infotype=PM&appname=STGE_DC_ZQ_U SEN&htmlfid=DCM03004USEN&attachment=DCM03004USEN.PDF http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/en/it- services/networkingservices/software-defined-network/ Section 2 - Cloud Computing Design Principles 2.1. Demonstrate base knowledge needed to advice on creating a cloud infrastructure. 2.1.1. The creation of a cloud infrastructure requires an environment that needs to address the following areas. A tester must be able to address many of these topics 2.1.1.1. Hardware/platform: A cloud environment needs to select hardware that can run virtualization technology. This includes distributed servers and mainframe solutions with an operating system that supports virtualization software. 2.1.1.2. Virtualization technology such as KVM, VMWare, zVM, etc. 2.1.1.3. Network topologies that supports the virtualization design, WAN/LANs/MPLS, etc., as well as a topology in support of a public, public and/or private cloud. 2.1.1.4. Security framework that meets the requirements of the public, private and private cloud environment at a minimum. If the application(s) that will run on the infrastructure is known, the security requirements can be used to augment that design. 2.1.1.5. Storage and archival needs to manage the data and backup needs 2.1.1.6. Provisioning and orchestration to manage, deploy, spin up, etc., environments 2.1.1.7. Monitoring to provide visibility and management of the environment 2.1.1.8. Capacity, availability and performance topics can be addressed as it relates to creating a cloud infrastructure. 2.1.2. References: 2.1.2.1. Overview of all the service models: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
2.2. Explain Cloud networking principles. 2.2.1. Cloud computing networks -- whether they support public, private, or hybrid clouds – must be able to: 2.2.1.1. Burst up and turn down bandwidth on demand. 2.2.1.2. Provide extremely low latency throughput among storage networks, the data center and the LAN. 2.2.1.3. Allow for non-blocked connections between servers to enable automated movement of virtual machines (VMs). 2.2.1.4. Function within a management plane that stretches across enterprise and service provider networks. 2.2.1.5. Provide visibility despite this constantly changing environment. 2.2.2. Capacity and planning: 2.2.2.1. Network capacity is defined in two dimensions, vertical and horizontal capacity: 2.2.2.2. Vertical capacity relates to the forwarding and processing capacity—in this case, a matrix such as bandwidth, packet rate, concurrent sessions, and so on. 2.2.2.3. Horizontal capacity involves the breadth and reach of the network-in this case, a matrix such as server port counts, external connectivity bandwidth, and so on. 2.2.3. Describe the network performance implications of building data center clouds. 2.2.3.1. Data center clouds are formed by connecting two or more data center cloud networks over a wide area network(WAN). Due to the inherent nature of WANs, network data loss and latency must be closely examined to make sure that sufficient bandwidth is allocated. 2.2.4. Identify the network performance issues related to creating multinetwork data centers. 2.2.4.1. The latency accumulated in networks largely in proportion to the number of interfaces a packet transits from source to destination, and each switch that handles packets poses risk of loss and delay. Network should be planned as flat as possible. 2.2.5. Software Defined Networking (SDN) 2.2.5.1. In Software Defined Networking the Control planes and Data planes are separated in order to allow management using software. 2.2.5.2. Software Defined Networking provides multi-tenancy and supports network services required by a Cloud deployment model. SDN has two models including the Overlay model and the Network model. 2.2.6. Reference: 2.2.6.1. Cloud Computing Network Primer: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/tutorial/Cloudcomputing -network-primer 2.2.6.2. Reference: The role of Software Defined Networking in Cloud computing:http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/tip/Ther ole-of-software-defined-networks-in-cloud-computing 2.2.6.3. Reference: IBM Data Center Networking Planning for Virtualization and Cloud Computing redbook:https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/Redpiec eAbstracts/sg247928.html?Open
2.3. Explain Cloud storage principles (block object file, SAN). 2.3.1. Compute storage is traditionally either Block storage or File storage. These storage models address specific uses cases that cover the needs of most compute based workloads. 2.3.2. Object Storage is an extension of the File storage model that provides additional capabilities in a Cloud deployment model. 2.3.3. Software Defined Storage capabilities provide various advanced functions like thin-provisioning, compression, encryption, etc. 2.3.4. References; 2.3.4.1. Reference: http://searchcloudstorage.techtarget.com/feature/How- anobject-store-differs-from-file-and-block-storage Reference: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5121.html
2.4. Describe security strategies in a cloud computing environment. 2.4.1. Knowledge of security for a cloud computing environment including understanding of roles and responsibilities (who is responsible for what, otherwise known as “who’s who in the zoo”). 2.4.2. Roles and responsibilities: cloud provider is always responsible for (at least) physical and environmental security of the data center and the provided cloud offering; solutions must take into account who does what from a security point of view and how/when lines of communication are maintained to address security concerns. 2.4.2.1. Evaluate cloud provider’s security posture. Cloud providers should have ongoing audit process conducted by independent, third-party auditors resulting in customer-accessible audit reports and compliance/certification statements. These reports will provide the insight needed to evaluate the cloud provider’s security best practices and operational controls. 2.4.2.2. Understand scope of cloud provider’s roles and responsibilities. As cloud offerings move up the stack, the cloud provider assumes more responsibility for security including data security. Understanding where the responsibilities shift is critical to understanding where responsibility and liability lie. 2.4.2.3. Understand lines of communication between cloud provider, third parties (if any) and customer. Customer deployed cloud workloads may involve additional services (beyond the IaaS/PaaS provided by the Cloud provider) including third party or “marketplace” services and/or support from business partners and ISVs who manage the Cloud workload for a customer. In the case of an incident (security, performance, other), clear lines of communication must be in place so that issues can be addressed in a timely manner. 2.4.3. Cloud Hosted Workload Security Best Practices. The following security measures represent general best practice implementations for security. The scope of roles and responsibilities for each will depend on what type of cloud infrastructure (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, XaaS) is being leveraged. 2.4.3.1. Implement and maintain a security process. A security process can provide the structure for managing information security, and the risks and threats to the target environment. In the event of a security breach, the security process can provide crucial information as to how the cloud is protected, responses to threats, and a line of accountability for management of events. 2.4.3.2. In an IaaS environment, the cloud provider will typically not have access to the customer’s data/workload and is not likely to detect any events within the customer’s environment that may impact the customer’s data/workload. In this case, the detection of an event (such as a data breach or loss) will primarily lie with the customer, who must then understand when and how to involve the cloud provider in any incident process management. 2.4.3.3. In a SaaS environment, the cloud provider will have responsibility for management of the application and data and will have prime responsibility for breach prevention and remediation. The SaaS provider and customer must understand when the SaaS provider will notify of a suspected breach and how they will involve the customer in any incident response process. 2.4.3.4. In a PaaS environment it is (rule of thumb) equally likely that either party will notice an event; the two parties should agree on the types of events and communication and response requirements related to the customer’s deployed workload given the nature of the PaaS services selected. 2.4.3.5. Implement a vulnerability and intrusion management program. As in any environment, in a trusted cloud environment, you are required to implement a strict vulnerability management program. Depending on the type of environment, you may also be required to implement mechanisms such as intrusion detection systems and intrusion Prevention Systems to ensure that IT resources (servers, network, infrastructure components, and endpoints) are constantly monitored for vulnerabilities and breaches. 2.4.3.6. In a cloud environment, the cloud provider will be responsible for vulnerability and intrusion management for the cloud infrastructure itself. This will typically be detailed and reported in the cloud provider’s SOC2 or equivalent audit reports. 2.4.3.7. For the customer’s cloud hosted workload, the customer is responsible for the appropriate operational management, including vulnerability and intrusion management as required by their environment. As an example, if a customer’s hosted workload does not have any Internet-facing connectivity, intrusion protection strategies may differ from a workload that represents a web-facing retail store. 2.4.3.8. Build and maintain a secure cloud infrastructure. A secure infrastructure helps provide cloud resiliency and the confidence that the information stored in the cloud is adequately protected. 2.4.3.9. In a cloud environment, this means that customer must rely on the secure cloud infrastructure provided by the Cloud provider and must then build their deployed workload to also provide security, performance, usability. Strategies for customer defined workload resiliency will depend on the model of the cloud provider; some providers will move a customer’s workload across data centers to ensure continued availability; others will not touch a customer’s workload. 2.4.3.10. Ensure confidential data protection. Data protection is a core principle of information security. All of the prevalent information security regulations and standards, as well as the majority of industry best practices, require that sensitive information be adequately protected in order to preserve confidentiality. Confidentiality of such data is required no matter where that data is resident in the chain of custody, including the cloud environment. 2.4.3.11. In a cloud environment, at the IaaS/PaaS level, the customer will typically retain full control of their workload data, and thus the responsibility for data protection techniques including data encryption, access control including logging/monitoring, and data deletion. 2.4.3.12. In a SaaS environment, the SaaS provider will have responsibility for data protection for the data managed by the SaaS offering. The customer is responsible for ensuring that the SaaS provider’s data protection controls are adequate for the offering provided. 2.4.3.13. In all XaaS, the XaaS provider will have responsibility for the data protection of the business data used to identify and bill the customer. This may or may not include credit card data, in addition to email, phone and address information. The XaaS provider must demonstrate adequate controls on this data including conformance with international regulations as imposed for example in the European Union by local Data Protection Agencies. 2.4.3.14. Implement strong access and identity management. Access and identity management controls are critical to cloud security. These controls limit access to data and applications to authorized and appropriate users.
2.5. Design principle for cloud ready applications (patterns, chef/puppet, heat templates). 2.5.1. Identify workloads that are “cloud ready” from a risk, compliance, and infrastructure perspective. 2.5.2. Given a list of workloads, be able to choose which are most likely to benefit from porting to a cloud infrastructure. 2.5.3. Be able to identify benefits of leveraging pattern technology, i.e., portability, reuse, speed to market. 2.5.4. Identify common cloud pattern technology, e.g., HEAT Orchestration Templates (HOT), IBM Pattern technology. 2.5.5. Identify common opensource automation tooling that supports cloud application deployment including CHEF, Puppet, Ansible, Salt. 2.5.6. Identify common software appliance formats. 2.5.7. References; 2.5.7.1. Developerworks Article- https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-get- themost-out-of-cloud-1-trs/ 2.5.7.2. Upguard Article- https://www.upguard.com/articles/the-7- configurationmanagement-tools-you-need-to-know 2.5.7.3. OpenStack HEAT- https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/Heat
2.6. Design principles for cloud native applications (open standards, microservices, 12 factor app).
2.6.1. Understand Cloud Native applications. 2.6.1.1. In general, a native app is an application program that has been developed for use on a particular platform or device. Cloud native apps are designed to take advantage of cloud computing frameworks, which are composed of looselycoupled cloud services. That means that developers must break down tasks into separate services that can run on several servers in different locations. Because the infrastructure that supports a native cloud app does not run locally, cloud native apps must be planned with redundancy in mind so the application can withstand equipment failure and be able to re-map IP addresses automatically should hardware fail. 2.6.1.2. The design paradigm is cost-effective, however, because services and resources for computation and storage can be scaled out horizontally as needed, which negates the need for over-provisioning hardware and having to plan for load balancing. Virtual servers or containers can quickly be added for testing and production deployment and can be brought to market on the same day it's created. 2.6.2. Understand12-factor applications 2.6.2.1. The Twelve-Factor App outlines a methodology for developers to follow when building modern web-based applications. 2.6.2.1.1. Codebase - One codebase tracked in revision control, many deploys. 2.6.2.1.2. Dependencies -Explicitly declare and isolate dependencies. 2.6.2.1.3. Config -Store config in the environment. 2.6.2.1.4. Backing Services -Treat backing services as attached resources. 2.6.2.1.5. Build, release, run -Strictly separate build and run stages. 2.6.2.1.6. Processes -Execute the app as one or more stateless processes. 2.6.2.1.7. Port binding - Export services via port binding. 2.6.2.1.8. Concurrency - Scale out via the process model. 2.6.2.1.9. Disposability - Maximize robustness with fast startup and graceful shutdown. 2.6.2.1.10. Dev/prod parity - Keep development, staging, and production as similar as possible. 2.6.2.1.11. Logs - Treat logs as event streams. 2.6.2.1.12. Admin processes - Run admin/management tasks as one-off processes. 2.6.3. Explain Microservices 2.6.3.1. A microservice is a basic element that results from the architectural decomposition of an application’s components into loosely coupled patterns consisting of self-contained services that communicate with each other using a standard communications protocol and a set of well-defined APIs, independent of any vendor, product or technology. Microservices are built around capabilities as opposed to services, builds on SOA and is implemented using Agile techniques. Microservices are typically deployed inside Application Containers. 2.6.4. References: 2.6.4.1. Definition of Microservices and containers at NIST: http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-180/sp800- 180_draft.pdf 2.6.4.2. Redbook - Microservices from theory to practice http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg248275.html?Open& ce=ism3129&cmp=IBMSocial&ct=C43202QW&cm=h&IIO=BSY S&csr=blog&cr=casyst&ccy=us&s_tact=C43202QW&s_pkg=ov xxxx 2.6.4.3. Building Cloud Native Applications http://ryanjbaxter.com/2015/07/13/building-cloud- nativeapplications/ 2.6.4.4. IBM & OpenSource https://www.ibm.com/cloud- computing/bluemix/open-source/ 2.6.4.5. 12-Factor App http://12factor.net/ http://www.clearlytech.com/2014/01/04/12-factor-apps- plainenglish/
2.7. Design principles for application development/DevOps (lean, continuous delivery, agile, shift left test, test automation). 2.7.1. DevOps is all about how quickly can you get an idea to production @ scale; 2.7.1.1. Accelerate software development and delivery - by enabling collaboration between customers and enterprises and eliminating organizational silos; 2.7.1.2. Balance speed, cost, quality and risk- By automating manual processes and eliminating waste; 2.7.1.3. Improve client experience - By speeding the customer feedback loop by being agile. 2.7.2. In the DevOps delivery pipeline Collaborative Development and Continuous Integration automates the delivery and building of the code upon check-in by the developers. Automated tests are also run by the build server and upon passing the completed package is ready to for deployment to an environment for more rigorous tests. 2.7.3. Continuous Integration enables DevOps teams to quickly integrate and validate changes and prepare those changes for testers automatically. 2.7.4. In the DevOps delivery pipeline, Continuous Delivery is the automation of deployment, testing, and delivery of changes to progressively more rigorous testing environments. 2.7.5. Continuous Delivery enables DevOps teams to quickly deploy, orchestrate, and assure testing criteria are met at each stage in the delivery pipeline. Deployments are made frequently and all deployment steps are consistent throughout the delivery pipeline. 2.7.6. In the DevOps delivery pipeline, Shift Left Testing involves creating production-like environments where more realistic tests can be done earlier in the delivery lifecycle. Techniques such as service virtualization, emulation of production data, and production-like simulated load are used to create environments with low overhead. 2.7.7. Shift Left Testing enables DevOps teams to find and fix problems much sooner because the systems under test more closely resemble the conditions in production. 2.7.8. In the DevOps delivery pipeline, Shift Left Ops involves integrating the Operations functions as part of the overall DevOps team. “If you build it, you run it” is a mantra of many DevOps teams. Environment provisioning, configuration, deployment, go-live, management, and monitoring are all responsibilities of the DevOps team. 2.7.9. Shift Left Ops enables DevOps teams to deploy to all stages including production with confidence and understanding of all details for successful delivery. 2.7.10. In the DevOps delivery pipeline, Lean Application Delivery combines agile practices and Lean principles to enable enterprise DevOps teams to orchestrate complex multi-application releases in a continuous and efficient manner. DevOps teams use Lean principles to eliminate bottlenecks and continuously improve delivery processes with an end goal of providing Speed to Value for the business. 2.7.11. References; 2.7.11.1. DevOps for Dummies www.ibm.com/ibm/devops/us/en/resources/dummiesbooks/
2.8. Designing consumable applications for the cloud (UI, UX, design thinking, innovation). 2.8.1. Understand the common design thinking tools 2.8.1.1. Understand the purpose of a playback 2.8.1.2. Understand the purpose of an empathy map 2.8.1.3. Understand the purpose of hills 2.8.1.4. Understand the purpose of a scenario map 2.8.2. Understand the difference between user interface design and user experience design. 2.8.2.1. User Experience Design describes increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability and ease of use in the interaction between the customer and the product 2.8.2.2. User Interface Design describes the graphical layout and format of the interfaces used within a product. 2.8.3. Understand what companies are trying to accomplish by adopting an innovation agenda 2.8.4. Reference: http://www.ibm.com/design/thinking/
2.9. Define hybrid integration capabilities (data, network, services, management, integration). 2.9.1. Hybrid integration bridges the gap between cloud and on-premises applications quickly and easily. 2.9.2. Organizations need a capability to connect seamlessly hundreds of endpoints to apps and data in the cloud and on premises. 2.9.3. A hybrid integration platform provides the ability to develop applications rapidly, with intuitive & robust tooling to transform data to meet business needs. 2.9.4. A hybrid integration platform provides the performance and scalability to meet the SLAs for your business applications. 2.9.5. References: 2.9.5.1. Hybrid Cloud Data and API Integration: Integrate Your Enterprise and Cloud with Bluemix Integration Services 2.9.5.2. IBM Reference Architecture for API management developerworks article: https://developer.ibm.com/apiconnect/documentation/api- 101/ibm-reference-architecture-api-management/
2.10. Explain the role of the API Economy in the Cloud. 2.10.1. The API Economy provides for the commercial exchange of business functions, capabilities, or competencies as services using standard web based interfaces. 2.10.2. An organization that uses APIs to deliver their services must choose among a variety of business models in order to derive the benefits they are seeking. 2.10.3. An organization that uses APIs to deliver their services must choose among a variety of adoption models in order to satisfy the needs of their consumers. 2.10.4. References: 2.10.4.1. API Economy Redbook http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5096.html 2.10.4.2. API Management Concepts on DeveloperWorks http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/middleware/services/ba dges/badgeapim1.html 2.10.4.3. API for Dummies on DeveloperWorks https://developer.ibm.com/apimanagement/2014/12/11/apisd ummies/
2.11. Define how solutions in the cloud can be more effective (scalability, high availability, service delivery). 2.11.1. Scalability in the cloud 2.11.1.1. IaaS offers capabilities to automate the manual scaling process associated with adding or removing virtual servers to support your business applications. 2.11.1.2. PaaS offers the capabilities for optimizing application performance through both vertical and horizontal scaling. 2.11.2. High Availability 2.11.2.1. High availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) strategies are challenges that many companies are attempting to manage. 2.11.2.2. Cloud providers use multiple application instances and availability zones to enable consumers to configure infrastructure and application component clusters, and determine the availability configuration for their application. 2.11.2.3. Local and global load balancing is provided to ensure no single device gets overwhelmed, and to distribute traffic between servers in one or multiple availability zones. 2.11.3. Service Delivery 2.11.3.1. Cloud computing is offered in multiple service models (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) and multiple deployment models (private, public and hybrid). 2.11.3.2. Cloud may further be available as completely self-service, partially managed or fully managed by the cloud provider depending upon the workload requirements. 2.11.3.3. Several services are offered in the cloud to support wide variety of workload such as monolithic applications, cloud foundry support, containers, Openstack and software defined environments. 2.11.4. References; 2.11.4.1. SoftLayer Auto Scale: https://knowledgelayer.softlayer.com/learning/introductionsoft layer-auto-scale 2.11.4.2. Bluemix Auto Scaling: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl- bluemixautoscale/
2.12. Describe popular methods for billing, usage and accounting in the Cloud. 2.12.1. Subscription-based pricing 2.12.1.1. In this model customer pay to have access to the product/service for a period of time – typically on a monthly basis. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and Websites. Rather than selling products individually, a subscription sells periodic (monthly or yearly or seasonal) use or access to a product or service. The model typically allows for unlimited usage during the subscription period. So that the customer pays the same amount regardless of the amount of resources they used. 2.12.2. Elastic pricing or Consumption-based pricing model 2.12.2.1. In this model the cost is tied to what customer actually use. Under these models you only pay for the amount of resources/services you actually use such as service functions, disk space, CPU time and network traffic. 2.12.3. Market-based pricing or Spot pricing for cloud 2.12.3.1. With market-based pricing there is a market price for a service, the market price varies over time based on supply and demand. Market forces govern the spot-pricing model i.e., when computing and storage resources are in high demand, the spot market will drive the price of services higher. Conversely, when resources are in low demand, the spot market will drive the price lower offering opportunities for bargain hunters. On the other side as a customer you can buy the service at the current price and use it straight away. Or you can make a bid to use the service at a lower price and if the market price reaches your price then your workload will be activated and you will be charged at your bid price. 2.12.4. Cloud chargeback/showback 2.12.4.1. In this model the consumer pay for the usage. It correlates utilization back to cloud consumers or corporate departments, so that usage can be charged if desired.
2.13. Describe principles of Cloud governance, compliance, and service management. 2.13.1. One of the aspects of cloud that often escapes critical evaluation is governance – the question of how all the loose associations upon which cloud depends are to be maintained and operated in a way that is reliable and trustworthy. It’s important for Cloud consumers to recognize that they are responsible for ensuring regulatory compliance. 2.13.2. An enterprise seeking to leverage services from a cloud environment needs to understand, first, what qualities and characteristics and dependencies are associated with the service; and second, how that service can be best orchestrated into their existing environment. 2.13.3. Governance is about making good decisions regarding performance predictability and requiring accountability. This is the case whether you’re governing your own data center or thinking about the cloud. At its most basic, governance is about applying policies relating to using services. It’s about defining the organizing principles and rules that determine how an organization should behave. 2.13.4. References: 2.13.4.1. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding- itgovernance-in-cloud-computing.html 2.13.4.2. http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-governance 2.13.4.3. http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/essentialguide/ Breaking-down-whats-in-your-cloud-SLA Section 3 - IBM Cloud Reference Architecture 3.1. Explain the five defining principles of IBM Cloud. These are the five guiding principles to think about in Cloud. Choice with Consistency because where and how you develop and deploy data and apps does matter. Hybrid Integration to build on what you have today & only change what needs to change. DevOps Productivity to give you the speed to innovate, experiment and continuously deliver the things you need. Powerful, Accessible Data & Analytics to get closer to the customer and to make smarter decisions in real time. Cognitive Solutions to go to the next level in deeper human engagement and deeper understanding of dark data. 3.1.1. Choice with Consistency means we need to put the right workload in the right place, and knowing that data is growing exponentially, customers are looking for options when it comes to web scale data. Some data will need to be local for a variety of reasons. Other data can be stored into the cloud to take advantage of flexibility and scalability. 3.1.2. Hybrid Integration and will represent the majority of workload because you’re always going to be connecting to something else. 3.1.3. DevOps productivity. If you look at the number programmers out there building applications their world is changing. Instead of simply coding they have to be assembling and composing. They're going to take API's and micro services and quickly put them together in new and unique ways. 3.1.4. Powerful, Accessible Data & Analytics - The cloud has enabled us to connect data and data sources that we've never seen before and were simply not possible previously – or at the very least not practical without cloud. And we are able to do things and gain insights that are fundamentally transforming whole business models. It starts with modern tools. 3.1.5. Cognitive Solutions - IBM made a deliberate decision to open up Watson technology to the world. Watson APIs are the cognitive building blocks to apply Watson’s capabilities. Watson APIs are available on Bluemix, and with Watson, partners and clients can build cognition into digital applications, products, and operations, using any one or combination of APIs.
3.2. Explain the benefits of using the IBM Cloud Reference Architecture. 3.2.1. The ICRA saves your business time and money by providing detailed documentation on the steps and components required for constructing a Cloud implementation across all deployment models which are proven and harvested from client experiences. 3.2.2. Your business can benefit from IBM’s experience in creating Public, Private, and Hybrid Clouds solutions with one common architecture with reusable assets and product recommendations. 3.2.3. It complies to Industry standards infact leads the way of getting the vendor neutral architectures endorsed by CSCC. 3.2.4. Your business receives a quicker start to create an industrial strength cloud architectures with pre-defined use cases and documentation on the architectural functional and non functional requirements like for security, services management, performance, HA/DR, scalability and virtualization 3.2.5. The ICRA promotes a self serve model to utilize sound architectural principles to speed development and reduce errors across the entire cycle, ensuring designs can scale for efficiencies and can fulfill important Cloud requirements such as elasticity, self-service and flexible sourcing 3.2.6. It complies to Industry standards infact leads the way of getting the vendor neutral architectures endorsed by CSCC. 3.2.7. Most important IBM Cloud architecture center provides a one stop shop to get into details of cloud solutions addressing workloads like mobile, Big Data analytics, hybrid solutions etc.
3.3. Explain the Cloud Platform Services for ICRA (this would include the Containers, foundational services, and services taxonomy of Bluemix).
3.3.1. Describe the roles – Consumer (Customer, Partner, Agent), Creator, Provider and Broker; 3.3.1.1. Consumer represents any person or system that can interact with the cloud computing environment, including customer, partner, developer and provider employees. 3.3.1.2. Creators create the applications, packaging and definitions that become the Cloud Services offered by the provider. 3.3.1.3. Provider is the entity that makes the cloud services available and manages the support systems that manage the cloud services. 3.3.1.4. Broker is the entity to through API the user and the provider. 3.3.2. Describe the domains within the Provider – Access, Cloud Services, Common Cloud Management Platform (BSS, OSS), Infrastructure. 3.3.2.1. The Access domain provides the edge of network infrastructure for the Provider including security, routing, network optimization and network protection functions 3.3.3. Describe the functional categories within Business Support Services (BSS). 3.3.3.1. BSS categories are Customer Management, Product Management, Partner Management, Subscription Management, Metering, Billing, Rating and Charging, Financial Management, Analytics and Reporting 3.3.4. Describe the functional categories within Operational Support Services (OSS). 3.3.4.1. OSS categories are Service Automation, Package Onboarding, Service Quality Management, Package Management, Service Operations Management, VM Management and Resource Management 3.3.5. Describe the five access interfaces – Customer Access, Storefront, Customer Management, Partner Management, and Provider Management. 3.3.5.1. Customer Access provides the interface (visual or non-visual) for interacting with Cloud Services. 3.3.5.2. Storefront provides the interface for discovering, selecting and ordering Cloud Services. 3.3.5.3. Customer Management provides the interface for managing customer accounts, users/groups and existing subscriptions. 3.3.5.4. Partner Management provides the interface for managing partner accounts and product management by partners. 3.3.5.5. Provider Management provides the interfaces for managing the cloud and its systems by the provider and its agents. 3.3.6. Describe the aggregated patterns provided by the Platform Services. 3.3.6.1. The Platform Services adoption pattern describes methods to provide application development and deployment environments, middleware deployment and management environments, and cloud integration services where the consumer has access to the data and applications for the platform, but not the underlying supporting infrastructure. 3.3.6.2. Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) - this pattern covers the continuum of managing an application through governance, development, and maintenance. Includes Analyze, On-Board, Develop, Test, Continuous Deployment, and Manage. Focus areas: Continuous delivery and DevOps. 3.3.6.3. Middleware deployment and management (Elastic Services and Applications Platform - ESAP) - this pattern covers the ability to increase or decrease capacity dynamically to provide latency optimization and redundancy for scalable and faulttolerant applications and database infrastructure deployable in a single VM or a cluster. Deployment of middleware and applications including for example data and applications like SAP. Focus areas: Deployment of cloud enabled or cloud born applications; elasticity and resiliency services; elastic data caching; and scale-out data (NoSQL) and scale-up data. 3.3.6.4. Cloud Services and Operating Environment (CSOE) - this pattern covers the APIs for various cloud integrations including Private to Private, Private to Public, Private to On-Premise, Public to On-Premise, Public to Public, and Public to Private Clouds. Includes “Born on the Cloud” and SaaS solutions.Focus areas: Hybrid Cloud, API management, Private/Public PaaS integration, Platform linkage up to SaaS and down to IaaS. 3.3.7. Describe how containers have change the way applications are developed an deployed. 3.3.8. Describe how containers package applications and dependencies into deployable standardized units. 3.3.9. Describe the general foundational services and the service taxonomy provided by Bluemix.
3.4. Explain the Hybrid Cloud patterns represented in IBM’s Cloud Reference Architecture ICRA. 3.4.1. Explain the benefits of leveraging IBM’s Cloud Reference Architecture and how it can be leveraged to facilitate a Cloud deployment. 3.4.2. Be able to define Hybrid Cloud and identify the architectural differences between Hybrid, Private, and Public clouds. 3.4.3. Understand the different deployment models for Hybrid Cloud. 3.4.4. Articulate brokerage services in the context of Hybrid cloud, i.e., why are brokerage services necessary and what do they provide? 3.4.5. References; 3.4.5.1. IBM Cloud Reference Architecture (ICRA) http://ibm.co/1P6TY8r 3.4.5.2. IBM Redguide: IBM SmartCloud: Building a Cloud Enabled Data Center: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4893.html
3.5. Articulate issues for connectivity of off-premise cloud with onpremise workload in support of hybrid cloud environments. There are three primary areas for consideration when we adapt our approach to security to move from perimeter-based security controls to security across (distributed) applications and data;
3.5.1. Identity - Manage identities and govern user access; 3.5.1.1. Continue focus on least privilege, separation of duty models in all cases. 3.5.1.2. Continue to act as authoritative source of user status, privileges 3.5.1.3. Use automation to ensure that users are properly permissioned at Cloud Provider for access to Cloud Provider’s resources (management portal, APIs). 3.5.1.4. Extend identity federation to Cloud deployed environment to support continued control over privileged users providing operational support of Cloud hosted environment. 3.5.2. Protection - Protect infrastructure, applications, and data from threats; 3.5.2.1. Cloud environments can use the same security tools, policies, and procedures as traditional IT to satisfy the compliance requirements of Cloud hosted applications and workloads. 3.5.2.2. Ensure appropriate firewalls, IDS/IPS, traffic monitoring between environments. 3.5.2.3. Leverage IaaS/PaaS structure to move to a High Availability == Disaster Recovery == Business Continuity architecture. 3.5.3. Insight - Auditable intelligence on cloud access, activity, cost and compliance; 3.5.3.1. Use move to cloud as a means to improve your overall IT asset management: know where your servers and what they are doing at all times. 3.5.3.2. Leverage cloud provider’s APIs and logs for complete visibility into your cloud environment. 3.5.3.3. Learn how to use an IaaS/PaaS SOC2 or ISO27001/2 certification as basis for your workload compliance assertions 3.5.3.4. Learn how to evaluate SaaS security and compliance.
3.6. Describe high availability and disaster recovery for cloud computing. 3.6.1. Describe High Availability as it relates to “manage from” and “manage to” stacks in a cloud computing environment. 3.6.1.1. High Availability of “manage from” stack may be required to ensure the cloud continues to perform despite component failures. 3.6.1.2. High Availability of “manage to” components ensures the workloads provisioned on the cloud are able to perform at the SLAs desired by the organization. 3.6.2. Define the areas of considerations for high availability of a cloud solution. 3.6.2.1. Resilient virtual infrastructure ensures the underlying hardware that the workloads run on can withstand failures. 3.6.2.2. Resilient Common Cloud Management Platform ensures the cloud computing management environment is highly available and builds on top of the resilient virtual infrastructure. 3.6.2.3. Resilient Cloud Managed Services from the perspective of a Cloud Managed Service provider ensures the services delivered via the cloud are configured to be highly available. 3.6.2.4. Resilient Cloud Managed Services being used together with partner applications in an end-to-end composite solution scope require all aspects of service composition to be highly available. 3.6.3. Define RTO and RPO: 3.6.3.1. Recovery Time Objective (RTO) specifies the duration of time within which a business process must be restored after a disaster. 3.6.3.2. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) specifies the point in time to which data must be recovered, measured backwards from the time of occurrence of the disaster. 3.6.4. Define DR topologies and configurations as it relates to cloud computing 3.6.4.1. Describe DR topologies that can be leverage to provide optimal RTO/RPO. These topologies can be defined as Single Primary / Single Secondary, Multiple Unrelated Primary / Single Secondary, Hybrid Cloud: Multiple Related Primaries and the configurations as Frozen DR, Cold DR, Warm DR, Hot DR and Active/Active DR. 3.6.5. References: 3.6.5.1. Building a Cloud Enabled Data Center http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp4893.pdf 3.6.5.2. Becoming a Cloud Service Provider http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp4912.pdf
3.7. Describe actors and roles as defined in IBM’s Cloud Reference Architecture (ICRA). Specifically, Cloud Service Consumers, Cloud Service Creators, Cloud Service Providers, Cloud Services, and the Common Cloud Management Platform. 3.7.1. Explain the role of the Cloud service consumer: 3.7.1.1. Cloud service consumers require a simplified interface with well-defined service offerings, pricing and contracts. 3.7.1.2. The cloud service consumer is the individual, organization or system which consumes service instances delivered by a particular cloud service. 3.7.1.3. Examples of service consumption are requests for virtual servers, changes to CPU capacity, requests for storage based on pre-defined templates, etc… 3.7.1.4. Cloud service consumers browse the service offering catalog and trigger service instantiation requests. 3.7.2. Explain the role of the Cloud service provider: 3.7.2.1. Cloud service providers are the owners of the CCMP, and are responsible for providing cloud services to the cloud service consumer. 3.7.2.2. The cloud service provider may itself be a consumer of the CCMP (in a hosted SaaS offering for example), or they may be running the CCMP themselves. 3.7.3. Explain the role of the Cloud service creator: 3.7.3.1. Cloud service creators are responsible for creating the services being offering in the cloud services offering. 3.7.3.2. Cloud service creators produce their cloud services by leveraging and enhancing functionality exposed by the cloud service provider. 3.7.3.3. Cloud service creators would be responsible for the design, testing, implementation and maintenance of management artifacts specific to a cloud service. 3.7.3.4. The cloud service creator can be an organization (e.g., ISV company) or an individual (e.g., business/technical specialists in the ISV creating services) 3.7.4. Describe Cloud Services as defined by the IBM CCRA V4: 3.7.4.1. There are 4 categories of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, BPaaS 3.7.4.2. In contrast to traditional IT services, cloud services have attributes such as pay-per-usage, self-service usage, flexible scaling and shared-usage. 3.7.5. Describe the CCMP: 3.7.5.1. The CCMP architecture is responsible for delivering instances of cloud services of any category to cloud service consumers, in an ongoing, self-service fashion. 3.7.5.2. The infrastructure element layer relates to the hardware infrastructure such as facilities, servers, storage, and network resources. 3.7.5.3. No software or hypervisor, or virtualization management software is included in this infrastructure layer. 3.7.5.4. The infrastructure is managed by the OSS part of the CCMP. 3.7.5.5. The CCMP exposes a set of BSS and OSS: 3.7.5.5.1. BSS Examples – Customer account management, service offering catalog/management, contracts/agreement management, service request management, order management, pricing, entitlement management, subscription management, metering, rating, billing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, clearing and settlement. 3.7.5.5.2. OSS Examples – Service delivery catalog, service automation management, service request management, change & configuration management, image lifecycle management, provisioning, incident & problem management, IT service level management, monitoring & event management, IT asset & license management, capacity & performance management and platform & virtualization management. 3.7.6. References; 3.7.6.1. IBM Cloud Reference Architecture (ICRA) http://ibm.co/1P6TY8r 3.7.6.2. IBM Redguide: IBM SmartCloud: Building a Cloud Enabled Data Center: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp4893.html
3.8. Describe how IBM Service Management can manage a cloud environment. 3.8.1. Describe the concepts of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) at a high level. 3.8.1.1. SOA is a set of components which can be invoked, and whose interface descriptions can be published and discovered. It defines how to integrate disparate applications for a web-based environment while using various implementation platforms. 3.8.2. Describe how cloud computing supports efforts to establish a serviceoriented architecture and to enhance service management. 3.8.2.1. SOA is the process of defining and IT solution or architecture, while cloud computing is an architectural alternative. The software services are supported by the SOA platform, which typically include components such as ESB and a service registry. The SOA platform is supported by the enterprise IT infrastructure of systems, data and networks. These elements of SOA also relate to different kinds of cloud services. The software services relate to SaaS, the infrastructure to IaaS. 3.8.3. Describe the components of service management for cloud computing. 3.8.3.1. Service Delivery and Process Automation. 3.8.3.2. Service Availability and Performance Management. 3.8.3.3. Storage Management. 3.8.3.4. Security, Risk and Compliance. 3.8.3.5. Data center Transformation. 3.8.3.6. Asset and Financial Management. 3.8.3.7. Network and Service Assurance. 3.8.4. Describe the components and benefits of Service Management in terms of visibility, control and automation. 3.8.4.1. Visibility – all elements and services (including assets, server, storage network, virtual and logical elements and relationships for configuration, availability, security and performance). 3.8.4.2. Control – policies to assure service delivery and compliance, including the correlation of resources with desired compliance patterns. 3.8.4.3. Automation – data center processes from element run-books to broad provisioning and compliance scenarios.
3.9. Describe the Integration and Extensibility models of cloud solutions using API management. 3.9.1. In a typical API model, APIs are accessed using the Representational State Transfer protocol. 3.9.2. End to end API security is important and must take into consideration protection of the message payload, authentication, authorization, etc. 3.9.3. In addition to publishing an API interface, a provided must also provide a mechanism for API discovery and navigation. 3.9.4. Reference: 3.9.4.1. API Management Concepts on Developer Works http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/middleware/services/badg es/badgeapim1.html
3.10. Describe non-functional requirements (NFRs) in the context of a cloud solution. NFRs identify critical aspects of the cloud solution that are not feature/function related. NFRs impact the solution design by clearing identifying key characteristics of cloud operations.
3.10.1. Availability and serviceability includes characteristics such as high availability, DR, acceptable downtime or degradation of services during maintenance. The availability expectations of a system relate to how many hours in the day, days per week, and weeks per year the application is going to be available to its users and how quickly they should be able to recover from failures. Since the system includes Software (including applications), Hardware and Network components, this requirement extends to all three types. The serviceability expectations must integrate with existing support structure and support processes, provide a ticketing system to log/track problem tickets and that integrated with an existing ticketing system, support automatic patch download and installation and provide sufficient diagnostic information (logs, dumps, traces) to expedite problem resolution and support service level agreements often measured by key performance indicators (KPIs) like “98.5% availability” or “Full restoral to service in < 4 hrs” or “Maintenance window limited to a two hour window once per month on second Saturday”. 3.10.2. Performance includes UI and VM expected performance. The cloud infrastructure and services must be able to meet the response time, throughput and scaling requirements as defined by the service level agreements of the service offering. The cloud infrastructure must provide manual and automated ways to optimize utilization in the data center. Often measured by KPIs like “64 bit RHEL VM should be available within eight minutes of user provisioning request” or “UI responsiveness should render catalog options within 5 seconds”. 3.10.3. Scalability includes number of concurrent users and number of number of managed workloads and number of VMs per minute/hour. Scalability is the ability to expand the system architecture to accommodate more users, more transactions and more data as users and data are added. This should allow existing systems to be extended as far as possible without necessarily having to replace them. Often measured in KPIs like “Needs to support 100 concurrent users” or “Should have capacity to managed 10,000 RHEL VMs and 5,000 AIX LPARs” or “System should be able to provision 100 RHEL VMs per/hour”. 3.10.4. Consumability includes UI usability, cloud infrastructure install time and total cost of ownership. Consumability is a description of the customer’s end-to-end experience with the solution. The tasks associated with Consumability start before the consumer purchases a service and continue until the customer stops using the product. By improving the Consumability of the service, the value of that service to the client can be increased. Often quantified as “UI should be intuitive for new users without formal training” or “Installation of cloud infrastructure should require no more than 80 hours”. 3.10.5. Extensibility includes 3rd party integration, UI extensibility, application interfaces, and hypervisor support. The Cloud must be extensible in order to address future functionality and changes without having to be rewritten, support that the application may have access to additional disparate back-end systems, support the ability to integrate with existing security systems either on-premise or elsewhere in clouds and be able to add/remove/relocate physical and logical resources without disturbing running services. Often quantified as “Cloud infrastructure should interface with existing problem management system” or “Cloud infrastructure should support Vmware, PowerVM, and HyperV” or “Self Service UI should be invocable through RESTful APIs”. 3.10.6. Security includes Command & Control, Identity, Access, and Entitlement Management, Data and Information Protection Management, Software, System, and Service Assurance, Threat and Vulnerability Management, Risk and Compliance Assessment and Security Policy Management. Often driven by industry regulatory compliance. Often quantified as “Must adhere to corporate standard XYZ” or “Provisioned VMs must receive monthly security updates” or “Cloud infrastructure should ensure network isolation between tenant workloads”. 3.10.7. References; 3.10.7.1. IBM Cloud Reference Architecture (ICRA) http://ibm.co/1P6TY8r 3.10.7.2. Non-Functional Requirements on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-functional_requirement 3.10.7.3. Journal article https://softwarearchitecturezen.wordpress.com/2015/04/24/n on-functional-requirements-and-the-cloud/ 3.10.7.4. Developerworks article- https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/clbluemix- nfr/index.html
3.11. Explain the mobile patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA. 3.11.1. Whether it is revenue growth, innovation, customer satisfaction, or improved organizational effectiveness, mobile plays a significant role. For an enterprise to remain competitive, it needs to bring its entire ecosystem on mobile (Transactions, Business Processes, Business Process Performance , Collaboration within the enterprise, Collaboration with its business partners, Commerce, Customer engagement, marketing, business performance). In addition, mobile device features like location awareness, drive new business models, business processes, products, marketing etc. 3.11.2. The reference architecture as defined above enables the ecosystem of an enterprise on mobile and helps in driving innovation, new business models, business processes, products and marketing because of mobile. 3.11.3. For enabling an enterprises’ ecosystem on mobile, you need a foundation component that provides most of the basic functionalities that are needed which includes connecting with business services, processes, business performance and collaboration. This functionality is provided by what we call as the Mobile Backend in the reference architecture. Some of the capabilities that are integrated using the mobile backend might be running in the Enterprises’ traditional data center or private cloud or it might be services that run in different vendors’ clouds. This requires integration with the enterprise systems and the vendor cloud solutions. So, mobile backend provides API connectivity, adapters to connect with enterprise systems or connectivity through an Enterprise Service Bus. For connecting with services provided through vendor cloud, Secured API connectivity is needed. So as you can see in the architecture, the Mobile Backend connects through the Transformation and Connectivity component. Mobile Backend should also provide the capability to write new business functionality as APIs. 3.11.4. When an enterprise exposes its ecosystem on the mobile device, we need to provide a secured connection between the mobile device and the mobile backend. In the reference architecture, this is achieved using the Mobile Gateway which is the, Entry Point for Mobile App or Mobile Web Authentication and API invocation. Mobile Gateway only allows valid request by acting as a reverse proxy, it authenticates certificates, applies security policies, invokes an API and authorizes the request using the security services as shown in the reference architecture. So, the Mobile Backend, Mobile Gateway, Connectivity and Transformation and Security Services provide the foundational capabilities on which an enterprises’ ecosystem can be brought on a mobile device. 3.11.5. In addition, an enterprise can benefit from many capabilities because of mobile. These capabilities are included in the business application services component. This includes proximity services that monitors and analyzes a customers’ behaviour in a physical location using beacons and mobile wifi’s. Mobile business applications also provides advanced capabilities like mobile campaign management, marketing campaigns and customer engagement designed for mobile, workflows enabled on mobile and business reporting and analysis of customers’ behaviour. Also, a point to note here is that mobile backend might provide functionalities of customer engagement through push notifications or customer interaction, operational analytics to understand what features, functions, links are broken or working. Mobile backend also provides location awareness functionality for driving business models because of mobile. However, the mobile business applications provide additional services that are not provided by Mobile backend. 3.11.6. Designed for mobile and because of mobile requires offline capabilities where the information captured are encrypted and stored on mobile devices and are synched to a data service in the cloud. Data services also provide capabilities for storing information in the cloud required for mobile applications that are not stored in the enterprise data. These data can be replicated across geographies and support SQL and non-SQL retrieval and provide file repository and caching of information. 3.11.7. The mobile devices contain a wealth of information and hence these mobile device end points needs to monitored, managed and secured. Mobile device management component in the reference architecture in addition to end point monitoring and security provide capabilities for enterprise app distribution and device analytics.
3.12. Explain the IOT patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA. 3.12.1. Understand an overview of the IoT pattern; 3.12.1.1. Understand the types of data commonly collected by IoT devices 3.12.1.2. Understand the industries affected by the proliferation of the IoT 3.12.1.3. Understand how cloud computing supports the IoT revolution 3.12.1.4. Understand the relationship between edge services and the IoT 3.12.1.5. Understand the information flow involved with the Internet of Things, including sensors, collectors, data storage, processing, etc. 3.12.2. Connect to IoT devices and quickly build scalable apps and visualization dashboards to gain insights from IoT data, using Bluemix IoT, Data, and Cognitive services. IoT is driving the following outcomes; 3.12.2.1. Automate smart processes using strength in cognitive, analytics, security, and cloud to catalyze and monetize the transformation of global technology. 3.12.2.2. Improve engagement by providing a rich programming platform and exploring new business models with new revenue opportunities. 3.12.2.3. Innovate and seize IoT growth opportunities by using the insight from IoT data. 3.12.3. References; https://developer.ibm.com/architecture/iot
3.13. Explain the DevOps patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA. 3.13.1. DevOps is an enterprise capability for software development and delivery in rapidly changing environments such as cloud, mobile and social will have a significant competitive advantage. It enables clients to: 3.13.1.1. Accelerate software development and delivery - by enabling collaboration between customers and enterprises and eliminating organizational silos; 3.13.1.2. Balance speed, cost, quality and risk- By automating manual processes and eliminating waste; 3.13.1.3. Improve client experience - By speeding the customer feedback loop by being agile; 3.13.2. At a high level, cloud capabilities for DevOps support the lifecycle of enterprise applications that are planned, developed, tested and deployed on cloud or in hybrid model. These solutions allow companies to leverage latest technologies to reinvent customer relationships by engaging constantly and changing applications according to the market needs. It is all about Agility. 3.13.3. There are five primary DevOps use-cases that will be used to shape the reference architecture and, which will drive the business outcome of business agility and speed to market; 3.13.3.1. Collaborative Development, and Continuous Integration 3.13.3.2. Continuous Delivery 3.13.3.3. Shift Left Test 3.13.3.4. Shift Left Ops Engagement 3.13.3.5. Lean Application Delivery 3.13.4. The DevOps use cases are broken down into a set of underlying capabilities which can be organized into architectural layers, and an overall reference architecture constructed. The architecture has 3 tiers, each containing a subset of the components: 3.13.4.1. Service Creator can be on cloud or on premises, and contains the capabilities; 3.13.4.1.1. Continuous Business Planning 3.13.4.1.2. Collaborative Development 3.13.4.1.3. Continuous Testing 3.13.4.2. Service Provider Cloud environment, which connects the provisioning, secure releasing and deployment of applications as cloud services; 3.13.4.2.1. Continuous Release 3.13.4.2.2. Continuous Deploy 3.13.4.2.3. Provision 3.13.4.2.4. Security 3.13.4.3. The following capabilities may be offered as part of the service creator view or the service provider view; 3.13.4.3.1. Continuous Feedback 3.13.4.3.2. Service Management Tools 3.13.4.4. Service Consumer, is the device or end user of the service deployed through the DevOps process, which is depicted as a Mobile Device, Enterprise Application or Cloud (native) Application. 3.13.5. References; 3.13.5.1. DevOps Architecture Centre https://developer.ibm.com/architecture/devOps
3.14. Explain the BD&A patterns in Cloud as part of the ICRA. 3.14.1. Understand an overview of the Big Data & Analytics in Cloud pattern; 3.14.1.1. Understand how cloud computing benefits big data & analytics solutions 3.14.1.2. Understand the business drivers, functional and nonfunctional requirements, and deployment considerations for the use of cloud computing for big data & analytics solutions. 3.14.1.3. Understand the capabilities provided by solution components for big data & analytics in cloud and their position in the ecosystem. 3.14.2. References; 3.14.2.1. CSCC paper on Big Data & Analytics in Cloud: http://www.cloud-council.org/deliverables/CSCC- CloudCustomer-Architecture-for-Big-Data-and-Analytics.pdf 3.14.2.2. How IBM leads building big data & analytics solutions in the cloud - Developerworks article http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl- ibmleads-building-big-data-analytics-solutions- cloudtrs/index.html
Section 4 - IBM Cloud Solutions 4.1. Describe the IBM capabilities for Cloud Managed Services. 4.1.1. Demonstrate understanding of differentiating CMS capabilities in the areas of security, self-service, management services and disaster recovery. 4.1.2. Demonstrate the CMS offerings and understanding of SLAs across the offerings. 4.1.3. Cloud Managed Services (CMS) are designed for cloud-ready, enterprise-class workloads, with the following key characteristics; 4.1.3.1. Enterprise-class, shared cloud available in 13 cloud centers located in 11 countries across 5 continents. 4.1.3.2. Standard set of operating system images in fixed sizes. 4.1.3.3. Service-level agreement (SLA) management starting at the virtual machine level and up to and including the operating system. 4.1.3.4. Security designed in and certified (compliance International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 270001/2 and SSAE16 for IBM data centers); multiple isolation levels. 4.1.3.5. Not based upon, but may include Softlayer. 4.1.3.6. IBM System x® and IBM System p® hardware. 4.1.3.7. Standard, high-performance and flash storage options. 4.1.3.8. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) lifecycle, asset, license, patch and configuration management. 4.1.3.9. High-availability clustering, active directory integration, and redundant network to support complex enterprise applications. 4.1.3.10. Database and middleware management options. 4.1.3.11. Disaster recovery options for critical workloads that support business functions. 4.1.3.12. Supports PCI and HIPAA workloads 4.1.4. Cloud Managed Services groups of offerings also includes IBM Cloud for SAP and IBM Cloud for Oracle, which are managed cloud platforms (leveraging CMS services), but fully optimized for the workloads of SAP or Oracle applications. 4.1.5. References; https://www.ibm.com/marketplace/cloud/managed- cloud/us/en-us
4.2. Describe the IBM capabilities for Hybrid Integration. 4.2.1. Understand API Management / API Connect 4.2.1.1. Assemble new APIs by mapping together data from multiple back-end systems and cloud applications. 4.2.1.2. Monitor and manage API usage to help ensure service-level agreements are met. 4.2.1.3. Empower developers to build engaging applications powered by your APIs through your Developers Portal. 4.2.2. Understand Secure Gateway 4.2.2.1. Create encrypted gateways in the cloud to allow self-service access to on-premises APIs and data. 4.2.2.2. Use a passport credential wallet to provide safe passage from one cloud to the other, greatly simplifying access for developers and knowledge workers. 4.2.2.3. Monitor and analyze how gateway is being accessed for greater insight. 4.2.3. Understand MQ Light 4.2.3.1. To create an engaging, high performance experience with customers, developers today are being challenged to build responsive applications that can easily scale with demand. 4.2.3.2. IBM MQ Light, the application messaging designed for developers, provides a flexible, easy-to-use messaging API to simplify development of scalable and responsive applications on premise or in the cloud. MQ Light is based on AMQP and uses a microservices framework for better scalability and deployability. 4.2.3.3. Innovative apps built using MQ Light can be deployed on premise or into the cloud using a fully managed messaging service in Bluemix or plugged into your MQ infrastructure. 4.2.4. Understand Cast Iron Live 4.2.4.1. Cast Iron Live is a multi-tenant, cloud-based platform for integrating SaaS and on-premises applications and enterprise systems in a hybrid environment. 4.2.4.2. It helps you integrate applications both within the cloud and between the cloud and the enterprise without embarking on lengthy, costly and complex projects.
4.3. Describe the IBM capabilities for Video services. 4.3.1. Understand ClearLeap. 4.3.1.1. Clearleap is a video platform providing enterprise grade cloud based multiscreen platform for the media and entertainment industry. The platform offers multiscreen business opportunities for premium content owners and pay TV providers. Its platform also prepares and delivers video libraries to traditional TV systems and multiscreen devices. 4.3.2. Understand Ustream. 4.3.2.1. Ustream is a video streaming platform that allows members to broadcast live streaming video on the Internet. Members can broadcast directly from the Ustream platform or from a mobile device using Ustream's mobile broadcasting application. Ustream members can also record and save videos for future broadcast distribution. Ustream's video platform is known for its ability to provide viewers with different ways to interact with the presenter during a live broadcast, providing broadcasters with chat and instant polling features, as well as allowing integration with Twitter and Facebook news feeds. 4.3.2.2. The top industries taking advantage of Ustream's live streaming are politics, entertainment and technology fields. Ustream's searching feature allows visitors to filter through video categories such as sports, entertainment, news, animals, music, technology, games and education. 4.3.3. References: 4.3.3.1. ClearLeap http://clearleap.com/ http://clearleap.com/platform/ 4.3.3.2. Ustream http://www.ustream.tv/ https://www.ustream.tv/product/ustream-pro-broadcastingvideo- platform?itm_source=home_bottom&itm_medium=onsite&itm_ content=learn_more&itm_campaign=cta_above_footer
4.4. Describe the IBM capabilities for Cloud Brokerage. 4.4.1. Describe the role of cloud brokerage in a multi-sourced operating model. 4.4.2. Understand the building block capabilities in realizing IT as a Service 4.4.3. The Cloud Services Broker model is designed to deliver IT-as-aService (ITaaS) centered on the concept of an Enterprise App Store as the new IT front office. The Broker platform uniquely helps IT managers control complexity, interoperability and total cost of ownership tradeoffs. The IT department can continuously meet business demand through multi- sourced delivery models while optimizing cost. This provides a balanced approach to standardizing and automating IT management and operational processes required to manage hybrid cloud portfolios. 4.4.4. References; http://www.gravitant.com/cloudmatrix-overview/
4.5. Describe the IBM capabilities for DevOps. 4.5.1. Explain the products and capabilities of the IBM DevOps Software Portfolio and how key software offerings work in unison to provide full end-to-end management of applications across the application delivery pipeline. 4.5.2. Understand UrbanCode Deploy. 4.5.2.1. UrbanCode Deploy accelerates the application delivery pipeline for cloud-native, cloud-enabled, and legacy applications residing on-premise or off-premise. 4.5.3. IBM UrbanCode Deploy provides: 4.5.3.1. Automated, consistent deployments and rollbacks of applications 4.5.3.2. Automated provisioning, updating, and de-provisioning of cloud environments 4.5.3.3. Resource orchestration of changes across servers, tiers and components 4.5.3.4. Configuration and security differences across environments 4.5.3.5. Clear visibility: what is deployed where and who changed what 4.5.3.6. Integrated with middleware, provisioning and service virtualization 4.5.4. Understand IBM Cloud Orchestrator. 4.5.4.1. IBM Cloud Orchestrator is a cloud management environment that provides an extensible self-service catalog and business process orchestration. 4.5.5. BM Cloud Orchestrator helps you: 4.5.5.1. Quickly deploy and scale on-premise and off-premise cloud services. 4.5.5.2. Provision and scale cloud resources. 4.5.5.3. Reduce administrator workloads and error-prone manual IT administrator tasks. 4.5.5.4. Integrate with existing environments using application program interfaces and tooling extensions . 4.5.5.5. Deliver services with IBM SoftLayer, existing OpenStack platforms, PowerVM, IBM System z, VMware or Amazon EC2. 4.5.6. References: https://www.ibm.com/ibm/devops https://www.ibm.com/ibm/devops/us/en/resources/dummiesbooks/ https://developer.ibm.com/urbancode/products/urbancode-deploy/ http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/ibm-cloud-orchestrator
4.6. Describe the IBM capabilities for Cloud native applications. IBM Bluemix. IBM Bluemix is a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) developed by IBM. It supports several programming languages and services as well as integrated DevOps to build, run, deploy and manage applications on the cloud. Bluemix is based on Cloud Foundry open technology and runs on SoftLayer infrastructure.
4.6.1. References: 4.6.1.1. Redbook - IBM Bluemix The Cloud Platform for Creating and Delivering Applications http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/Redbooks.nsf/RedbookAbstracts /redp5242.html?Open 4.6.1.2. Redbook - Microservices from theory to practice http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg248275.html?Open& ce=ism3129&cmp=IBMSocial&ct=C43202QW&cm=h&IIO=BSY S&csr=blog&cr=casyst&ccy=us&s_tact=C43202QW&s_pkg=ov xxxx 4.6.1.3. Bluemix https://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/bluemix/what-is- bluemix/
4.7. Describe the IBM capabilities for Service Management. 4.7.1. Explain the products and capabilities of the IBM IT Service Management portfolio 4.7.1.1. Understand the capabilities provided by the IT service desk system products including IBM Control Desk, IBM Endpoint Manager for Software Use Analysis, IBM Tivoli Netcool/Omnibus, IBM Cloud Orchestrator, and IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager 4.7.1.2. Understand the capabilities provided by IBM Application Performance Management 4.7.1.3. Understand the capabilities provided by the systems and workload automation portfolio including IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler, IBM Workload Automation, IBM Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS, IBM Automation Control for z/OS, IBM Tivoli System Automation for Multiplatforms, and IBM Tivoli System Automation for z/OS 4.7.1.4. Understand the capabilities provided by the cloud management portfolio including IBM Cloud Orchestrator, IBM SmartCloud Cost Management, and IBM SmartCloud Patch Management 4.7.1.5. Understand the capabilities provided by the IT operations and network management portfolio including IBM Netcool Operations Insight and IBM NetCool Network Management 4.7.1.6. Understand the capabilities provided by the IT operations analytics portfolio including IBM Operations Analystics Predictive Insights, IBM Operations Analytics Log Analysis, IBM Netcool Operations Insight, and IBM Operations Analytics for z Systems.
4.8. Describe the IBM capabilities for Storage. The IBM Spectrum Storage portfolio provides Software Defined Storage capability across both data and control planes. 4.8.1. IBM Spectrum Protect is an intuitive, intelligent, and transparent software that provides a set of product features that allow you to design adaptive and comprehensive data protection solutions. It is a comprehensive data protection and recovery solution for virtual, physical, and cloud data. Spectrum Protect provides backup, snapshot, archive, recovery, space management, bare machine recovery, and disaster recovery capabilities. 4.8.2. IBM Spectrum Control provides efficient infrastructure management for virtualized, cloud, and software-defined storage by reducing the complexity associated with managing multi-vendor infrastructures and helps businesses optimize provisioning, capacity, availability, protection, reporting, and management for today's business applications without having to replace existing storage infrastructure. With support for block, file, and object workloads, Spectrum Control enables administrators to provide efficient management for heterogeneous storage environments. 4.8.3. The control plane is a software layer that manages the virtualized storage resources. It provides all the high-level functions that are needed by the customer to run the business workload and enable optimized, flexible, scalable, and rapid provisioning storage infrastructure capacity. These capabilities span functions like storage virtualization, policies automation, analytics and optimization, backup and copy management, security, and integration with the API services, including other cloud provider services. 4.8.4. IBM Cleversafe allows companies to implement storage-as-a-service solutions that consolidate users and customers onto a single platform, which helps streamline management and efficiently scale to meet demands. 4.8.5. References; 4.8.5.1. IBM Software Defined Storage guide http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/redp5121.html 4.8.5.2. IBM Cleversafe http://cleversafe.com/resources
4.9. Describe the IBM capabilities for Business Process Management. 4.9.1. Business Process Manager - Manage, execute and govern process applications. Business Process Manager is a full-featured, consumable business process management (BPM) platform. It includes tooling and run time for process design and execution, along with capabilities for monitoring and optimizing work that is executed within the platform. It is specifically designed to enable process owners and business users to engage directly in the improvement of their business processes. 4.9.2. IBM Business Process Manager is available in on-premises and cloud configurations. It is designed to support mobile devices, features case management capabilities across its product editions and operates with a single process server or in a federated topology. 4.9.3. Operational Decision Manager - Capture, manage, govern and execute business events and rules across applications and processes. 4.9.4. Blueworks Live - True business collaboration to discover and understand business process and decisions. 4.9.5. Case Management Framework - Handle highly complex, knowledge worker ad-hoc processing typically driven by document capture and analysis. 4.9.6. IBM Business Monitor - Drive operational real-time visibility across the enterprise, beyond business processes and decisions. 4.9.7. References; http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/business- processmanager-family https://www.blueworkslive.com/home
4.10. Describe the IBM capabilities for IBM Marketplace. 4.10.1. The IBM Marketplace acts as a ‘app store’ to provide one stop shopping for self service cloud applications (SaaS) and services. Currently on version 3, it is the place for all cloud functionality. 4.10.2. References; https://www.ibm.com/marketplace/cloud/us/en-us
Next Steps
1. Take the IBM Certified Solution Advisor - Cloud Reference Architecture V5 assessment test. Use the promotion code 2018StudyAssess20 for $20 off each assessment.
2. If you pass the assessment exam, visit pearsonvue.com/ibm to schedule your testing sessions. Use the promotion code 2018StudyCert20 to receive 20% off the exam.
3. If you failed the assessment exam, review how you did by section. Focus attention on the sections where you need improvement. Keep in mind that you can take the assessment exam as many times as you would like ($10 per exam), however, you will still receive the same questions only in a different order.