40 Informatica Economică vol. 18, no. 4/2014

A Model for Comparing Free Platforms

Radu LIXĂNDROIU, Cătălin MAICAN Transilvania University of Brașov [email protected], [email protected]

VMware, VirtualBox, Virtual PC and other popular desktop virtualization applications are used only by a few users of IT techniques. This article attempts to make a comparison model for choosing the best cloud platform. Many virtualization applications such as VMware (VMware Player), Oracle VirtualBox and Virtual PC are free for home users. The main goal of the virtualization software is that it allows users to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on one virtual environment, using one computer desktop. Keywords: , Virtualization, Jaccard Index, Comparing Model

Introduction Benefits obtained from the use of cloud 1 The desktop virtualization software allows computing services [15] multiple operating systems to install on a  Globalization for access to resources - computer or laptop in a virtual environment people around the world can access cloud without disturbing the host operating system. resources using the . Moreover, in many such programs, one can  They make savings by increasing the vol- change to another operating system without ume or the productivity. Thus, lower rebooting the computer. The main advantage costs per unit, project or product obtain. of these applications is that they can be used  They allow running Streamline pro- on technically weaker computers, taking ad- cesses, which leads to obtaining a high ef- vantage of the virtual machine features on the ficiency by comparing the results ob- server. [16], [17] tained to the corresponding time and the The advantages of virtualization platforms people involved. are:  They increase accessibility. Access can 1) Multiple operating systems can be used at a be made from anywhere, anytime. time, without rebooting.  The monitoring of the projects is more ef- 2) They represent a completely isolated me- fective. dium from the host operating system, because  The levels of training of technical staff it is a virtual environment. Therefore, the pos- are lower. It requires fewer persons to sibility of infection with viruses or other un- configure and maintain hardware and wanted items while working decreases. software platforms. 3) They allow the running of different appli-  Savings on software licensing. There is cations or different operating systems on one no need to purchase expensive software type of computer. For example, if one wishes licenses or software. to run some applications that only work in  They reduce the cost of capital. Compa- Win XP on a system that has installed Win 8, nies can make great savings on hardware one can install a virtual machine on the exist- costs or software. ing system (with Win 8 installed) that simu- lates running Win XP.  Mobility - Employees with access to the internet can work anywhere. This flexi- 4) The restoration of a virtual machine is very bility positively affects the work-life bal- fast. For example, one can open the virtual ance for employees leading to increased machine selecting an older configuration. This labour productivity. function is usually called Snapshot. The Snap- shot feature is usually used to create tests on  Increasing flexibility. Changes can be the system. made quickly without involving addi- tional costs.

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 They reduce spending money on technol- plans for disaster recovery. Cloud compu- ogy infrastructure. Some technologies ting providers offer multiple services for may be used only on demand when data retention and backup. needed in certain projects.  Competitiveness - Access through the  Flexibility - quickly meet business de- cloud offers SMEs access to enterprise- mands class technology. Cloud computing al-  Payment for use - cloud services are usu- lows small businesses to use superior re- ally paid only as long as they are used. sources. Because cloud computing is quickly im- plemented in any company, start-up costs 2 Comparison model using Jaccard index and running costs are minimal. The Jaccard index, also known as the Jaccard  Increased Collaboration - Cloud compu- similarity coefficient is a statistical indicator ting increases the level of collaboration, used to compare the similarity of several sets. while enabling collaborative work The Jaccard index measures the similarity be-  Document Management - Cloud compu- tween finite two ore more sets of sentences ting keeps all files in a central location and is defined as the intersection of sets di- and everyone is working on one version vided by the sample sets meeting: |퐴∩퐵| of the document. Employees can discuss 퐽(퐴, 퐵) = |퐴∪퐵| with each other in real time to make If A and B are empty, define J(A, B) = 1 changes together. The collaborative pro- cess increases efficiency and improves 0 ≤ 퐽(퐴, 퐵) ≤ 1 company communication.  Security – the loss or destruction of the The Jaccard distance is complementary to the personal computer may have some seri- Jaccard coefficient and is: ous financial implications, but when eve- 푑 (퐴, 퐵) = 1 − 퐽(퐴, 퐵) rything is stored in the cloud, data can still 퐽 |퐴 ∪ 퐵| − |퐴 ∩ 퐵| be accessed, regardless of what happens 푑퐽(퐴, 퐵) = to a computer. |퐴 ∪ 퐵|  Opportunities for back-up - companies that rely on cloud no longer need complex 2.1 Jaccard index for general information

Table 1. General information

Software

License(s)

Written in Written

As a service

Jaccard index Jaccard

Local installationsLocal

Initial release date Initial release Apache Cloud Foundry 4/12/2011 Ruby, Go 1 1 1 License Apache Cloud.com /CloudStack 5/4/2010 Java, C 1 1 1 license Proprie- [3] 5/29/2008 tary, GP Java, C 1 1 1 L v3 C++, C, Apache OpenNebula[5] 03/2008 Ruby, 1 1 1 License Java, Shell

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script, lex, yacc

C++, PHP, GPL OpenQRM[6] 03/2008 Shell 1 1 1 License script Apache OpenShift[7] 5/4/2011 Ruby 1 1 1 License Apache OpenStack[8] 10/21/2010 Python 1 1 1 License Apache Java, Py- oVirt 8/9/2012 ? 1 0.5 License thon BSD PetiteCloud 1/1/2014 Java, C 0 1 0.5 License

Software (SaaS) [5] is a soft- Software as a product (Local Installation) ware distribution model where the applica- [6] - Software as a product (local installation) tions are hosted by a provider and are availa- involves the purchase of a license. These soft- ble to customers over the Internet. ware solutions are expensive purchases, but SaaS [9] is becoming more widespread as the there are no monthly usage fees. In addition, technology develops Web, service-oriented there are extensive maintenance and upgrad- architecture (SOA). Broadband companies ing costs. have become increasingly available in order to Software as a product generally does not re- support user access from more areas around quire Internet access to run the software. the world. However, whenever a software update is The benefits of SaaS include: needed, more money is needed. Some up- • Easy Management grades are not strictly necessary, but their pur- • Automatic Updates chase is recommended to increase their sys- • High compatibility: users access a single tem reliability and to get new features. Some version of the software. companies stop maintaining old software ver- • Easier collaboration possibilities offered by sions once a new version is released, leaving working collaboratively. users with an expensive solution that is not us- • High mobility - can be accessed from any lo- able. cation with an Internet connection. 2.2 Jaccard index for supported hosts

Table 2. Supported hosts Bare Jaccard Software Linux FreeBSD Windows Metal index Cloud Foundry 1 0 0 1 0.5 Cloud.com / CloudStack 1 0 0 1 0.5 Eucalyptus 1 0 0 1 0.5 OpenNebula 1 0 ? 0 0.25 OpenQRM 1 0 0 0 0.25 OpenShift 1 0 0 1 0.5 OpenStack 1 0 1 1 0.75 oVirt 1 0 0 1 0.5

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PetiteCloud 1 1 1 0 0.75

FreeBSD - is a free operating system de- open source and omnipresent. The largest scendent from Unix. It is a complete, unitary cloud infrastructures in the world are built on developed operating system. The kernel, de- Linux. vice drivers and user space utilities such as Architecture compatible - Linux has a broad command interpreter or shell, are held in the application and ISV ecosystem. With many same tree tracking source code revisions users, Linux provides applications for the (CVS). This method of development is in con- needs of all users. trast to the one used for Linux (an operating Cost-licensing is not necessarily 0. There are system similar to but better known), where the many implementations for certain commercial kernel is developed by a team of developers, costs to be paid. Linux is a more cost effective and user-space utilities and applications are platform for implementing such solutions pro- developed by other teams (such as GNU pro- viders. Linux benefits arise from the speed of ject). Then, all these are packaged together implementation and flexibility. and released by other teams in the form of Virtualization - Linux can form a local or Linux distributions. cloud environment. Linux is, therefore, an op- As an operating system, FreeBSD is generally timal platform for cloud, being a host operat- regarded as very reliable and robust, and out ing system through technologies like KVM or of the operating systems that report the oper- Xen. ating time since last boot (uptime) remotely, Windows Cloud Server Hosting Benefits - FreeBSD is the most popular choice of the High availability: redundant architecture en- free operating systems displayed in the Net- sures maximum application / website uptime craft list of the top 50 web servers with the possible. longest uptime. Particularly large scalability: cloud solutions BareMetal is an exokernel-based operating are designed for each and every business. system created by Return Infinity. It is written Easy to use – the loading of the data on the in Assembly to achieve high-performance server is performed using the most comforta- computing with minimal footprint. This oper- ble software used by the customer. ating system is not based on C, C++ or Unix- Possibility to manage monthly costs. like kernels. A history of over 16 years in hosting. Linux: Designed for the Cloud – [8] Linux provides a perfect technology for cloud com- 2.3 Jaccard index for supported clients puting. This is modular, efficient, powerful,

Table 3. Supported clients

Software

Xen

KVM

Linux

VMware

Windows

VirtualBox

Jaccard index

Cloud Foundry 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.833 Cloud.com / CloudStack 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.000 Eucalyptus 1 1 1 1 1 ? 0.833 OpenNebula 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.000 OpenQRM 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.000 OpenShift 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.833 OpenStack 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.833

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oVirt 1 1 0 0 1 0 0.500 PetiteCloud 1 1 1 0 1 1 0.833

VMware desktop software runs multiple op- open source virtualization technologies. KVM erating systems such as Microsoft Windows, can use Linux for many of the things that a Linux and Mac OS X. VMware ESX servers hypervisor has to do, like for example, plan- and VMware ESXi servers are able to run di- ning tasks, memory management and interac- rectly on server hardware without requiring an tions with hardware devices. additional operating system host. KVM creates virtual machines that can be VMware Workstation, Server and ESX use an opened by guest clients of operating systems optimized path to run target operating systems like Linux or Windows, and it uses a modified on the host compared to emulators, which version of another open source element - simulate the function of each CPU instruction QEMU - to provide I / O device for emulation on the target machine one-by-one, or which inside the virtual machine. offer a dynamic recompilation and a reuse of In conclusion, KVM is able to run efficiently code, compiling machine-instruction blocks for Windows and Linux virtual machines. first time they run. VirtualBox This makes the performance increase. At the VirtualBox is part of the most popular cross- same time, however, problems may arise platform virtualization software in the world, when customers of virtual machines migrate allowing one to run multiple operating sys- between hardware hosts using different in- tems. struction or between hardware hosts with a VirtualBox (Sun) offers a free version and a different number of processors. subscription enterprise version. The free ver- Xen Cloud Platform (XCP or) [12] is a virtu- sion allows only the use of a 32-bit operating alization solution that provides turnkey open system (as guest OS), while the paid edition source virtualization and out-of-the cloud allows a 64-bit guest operating system. It also computing. XCP includes Xen hypervisor, the has a free version of open source, but that is enterprise ready Xen API tool stack and inte- difficult to install in Windows. Virtualbox is gration of cloud solutions, storage and net- available for all operating system platforms. A work. Additional functions are available in virtual machine created in a single operating XCP: VM lifecycle: snapshots, checkpoints, system can be used in others as well. It is pos- migration, more resources for flexible storage sible to transform a Virtualbox virtual ma- and networking opportunity, opportunity for chine created in VMW and vice versa. tracking events, upgrade and patching capa- bilities, performance monitoring in real time 2.4 Disclosure index computation – The using templates based for Windows and Linux simple cardinal valuation method clients. The decision maker establishes relationships Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM) [13] is an between criteria ordered according to their im- open source hypervisor that provides enter- portance, which progressively increase the as- prise-class performance. KVM advantages sociated share value. The evaluation algo- are: high scalability, high security, the possi- rithm is: bility of operating on Windows and Linux on Criteria are sorted in ascending order based on x86 systems. their increasing importance. Let this order be Compared with other solutions, KVM pro- C1, C2, ..., Cn (C1 being the least important vides a cost-effective alternative allowing cost criterion). reduction, high scalability. We attribute value x, w1 : x to the weight of KVM is a solution proposed by IBM and is criterion C1 one of the best solutions in its category. The decision maker appreciates to what extent Virtual machines that are based on KVM tech- criterion C2 is more important than C1 by nology are the latest step in the evolution of

DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/18.4.2014.04 Informatica Economică vol. 18, no. 4/2014 45 subjectively determining the value of the ratio 3 We note that w  1. w  j 2 w2  1 j 1 w2  ( , and the equality occurs w1 if one considers that C1 and C2 are of equal Table 4. The weight of each criteria importance). Criteria Importance w The method is applied for each criterion by Supported Hosts x 0.25 w comparing it to the previous one. Thus, j Installation 1.2 0.3 is determined, for j  2,3,...,n Supported Clients 1.5 0.45

1 w2  w2  w3  w2  w3  w4 ... w2  w3 ... wn1  wn  x 1 3

Final score  w j  Jaccard index j The weights of the n criteria are calculated: j1

w j  w j1 w j , with j  2,3,..., n and

w1  x Table 5. Final score Sup- Supported Installa- ported Final Clients tion Hosts score Cloud Foundry 1 0.5 0.833 0.808333 Cloud.com / CloudStack 1 0.5 1.000 0.85 Eucalyptus 1 0.5 0.833 0.808333 OpenNebula 1 0.25 1.000 0.775 OpenQRM 1 0.25 1.000 0.775 OpenShift 1 0.5 0.833 0.808333 OpenStack 1 0.75 0.833 0.883333 oVirt 0.5 0.5 0.500 0.5 PetiteCloud 0.5 0.75 0.833 0.658333

1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0

Fig. 1. Final score

3 Case Study - the use of OpenStack Physical servers are distributed across multi- In the following case study, we present a com- ple sites (two in France and one in Romania). pany from Brasov, Romania, which offers On the whole, there are about 13 “blade” serv- cloud services. At present, the company only ers. The servers are dual core CPU 8 (i.e. 16 uses VMware for all cloud solutions. physical cores per server, 32 virtual enabled

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Hyperthreading) and they each have 128 GB France uses other equipment, having com- of RAM. pletely different servers, storage, network etc. Physical machines are standardized (they The data centers are interconnected by high have the same characteristics and are pro- speed leased lines (MPLS L2). duced by the same manufacturer). One site in Romania and one in France have the same server model. The second site in

Fig. 2. Space usage by file type

If one considers a fair allocation of resources, RAM and 1TB HDD. However, the company from our perspective they are not all opti- made tests on machines with more resources. mized. There are some virtual machines that For “Self-service” for the company’s users, have an over-allocation of resources, but some we use a product developed by VMware, others have a sub-allocation of resources called vCloud Director. It is a tool devoted to (CPU and RAM rule). Sub-allocation creates final users, which they can use to manage the problems with the performance on individual resources of the cloud. It can create virtual virtual machines. Over-allocation can be machines based on templates provided by a achieved at the virtual platform (cluster) level, catalogue, can modify resources on existing when more virtual machines are installed than machines, can make start / restart / stop oper- physical resources, which makes virtual ma- ations, has access to the local console of the chines start “fighting” for resources... machine using a simple browser. It can also A virtual machine can be allocated at one time manage the security area for its resources; in on just one physical server. But, it can migrate vCloud, there is a virtual firewall that protects from one server to another, live, at any time. virtual machines There is indeed the possibility to put a virtual machine on two physical servers using the VMware Fault Tolerance function. This func- tion is used when we want 100% availability for a virtual machine or a service on a virtual machine The best virtual machine that this company has in production at present has 8 CPU, 16GB

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Security is a complex topic and is achieved on several levels. There, one can distinguish: - Physical security: access to servers, storage system (the data in the cloud) - Virtual machine security: physical network firewall, virtual firewall in a “virtual data cen- tre”, IPS and SSL VPN connections etc. - Data security on virtual machines: backup solutions, antivirus solutions, antispam solu- tions etc.

Fig. 3. Space allocated by data store in GB

Fig. 4. Space allocated & used by data store in GB

As regards sales, this Romanian company technical ones, because they do not need tech- mostly focuses on SaaS technologies. They nical knowledge to manage their business are preferred by customers, especially by non- platform in the cloud.

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Prices vary significantly, depending on the [4]http://searchcloudcomputing.tech- quantity purchased and on the time the con- target.com/definition/Software-as-a-Ser- tract covers. vice [5]http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/re- 4. Conclusion sources/the-economics-of-software-as-a- In this article we tried to make a comparison service-saas-vs-software-as-a-product model of free licensed cloud platforms be- [6]http://www.get- cause the choice of a good platform leads to: bynder.com/en/knowledge/our-blog/soft- great flexibility – it is able to optimize the IT ware-as-a-product-vs-software-as-a-ser- infrastructure costs of a company; security - vice/ data in the cloud are more secure than those [7] https://www.freebsd.org/ managed on traditional systems; high man- [8]http://www.anhost- agement capacity - with cloud computing, the ing.com/blog/2012/10/top-five-benefits- management of a company can be accom- of-using-linux-web-hosting/ plished by a smaller number of employees [9] http://www.orcsweb.com/blog/windows- working more efficiently; small costs - cloud cloud-server-hosting-benefits-saas-host- technology reduces maintenance fees. There ing/ are no longer multiple servers, software and [10] http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud upgrade fees. Many of the hidden costs typi- [11]https://www.linux.com/learn/whitepa- cally associated with software implementa- pers/doc/8/raw tion, customization, hardware, maintenance, [12] http://www-archive.xenproject.org/ and training are included in a transparent sub- /cloudxen.html scription fee; open projects - Internet and web [13] http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/kvm/ services standards allow the connection to [14] http://www.sysprobs.com/why-to-use- various services. This means information can -virtualbox-virtual-pc-other- be decentralized and can be accessed from an- desktop-virtualization-software-ad- ywhere in the world, from any computer or vantages mobile device, at any time. [15] http://www.verio.com/resource-cen- ter/articles/cloud-computing-benefits/ References [16]http://www.salesforce.com/uk/socialsuc- [1] S. Niwattanakul, J. Singthongchai, E. cess/cloud-computing/why-move-to- Naenudorn, S. Wanapu, “Using of Jac- cloud-10-benefits-cloud-computing.jsp card Coefficient for Keywords Similar- [17] http://cloud4good.com/why-cloud/ ity” in Proceedings of the International [18]http://www.networkworld.com/arti- MultiConference of Engineers and Com- cle/2231739/tech-debates/who-has-the- puter Scientists 2013 Vol I better-virtualization-platform---vmware- [2] R. Real, J.M. Vargas, "The Probabilistic or-microsoft-.html Basis of Jaccard's Index of Similarity", [19] https://cloud.oracle.com/home http://sysbio.oxfordjournals.org/con- [20]http://cloudhostingmagazine.co.uk/Arti- tent/45/3/380.full.pdf+html cles/in- [3] A. N. Albatineh, M. Niewiadomska-Bugaj dex.?mag=Cloud&page=compDet "Correcting Jaccard and other similarity ails&link=4097&cat=Cloud indices for chance agreement in cluster [21] http://www.asugnews.com/article/sap- analysis", Advances in Data Analysis and hana-cloud-platform-vs.-hana-enterprise- Classification, 2011, Volume 5, Issue 3, cloud-faq-definition pp 179-200

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Radu LIXĂNDROIU Assoc. Prof., Economist, Ph.D. in Cybernetics, Statis- tics and Economic Informatics at the Academy of Economic Studies Bucha- rest. Post-graduate studies at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, Transilvania University of Brasov, specialized in Marketing Systems. Teaching and re- search activity in the fields of Databases, eCommerce, Accounting Software. Author or co-author of more than 40 papers in prestigious Romanian and for- eign specialized publications. Author or co-author of 3 specialized books; team member in 7 scientific research contracts.

Cătălin MAICAN Assoc. Prof., Economist, Ph.D. in Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics. Teaching and research activity in the fields of Da- tabases, Windows and Web Programming. Author or co-author of more than 50 papers in prestigious Romanian and foreign specialized publications. Au- thor or co-author of 6 specialized books; coordinator of a CNCSIS (National Council for Scientific Research in Higher Education) grant and team member in 8 scientific research contracts.

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