Metaphorical Revise of Service Platforms

Prof. Reena S. Satpute Assistant Professor G. S. College of Commerce, Wardha Abstract: 21st century has come up with gigantic revolution in term of technology. In the present epoch, most of the world is connected through . Recent advancements in the field of made possible for us, to access anything which is stored on WWW, from anywhere, through internet. A quantity of technologies like , (IoT), Machine Learning, Data Science has made drastic change in many applications. Talking about internet based applications & with their resources, Cloud computing is the best solution to provide effortless access. Cloud computing is the latest computing model where IT services and applications are served over world-wide-web. On- demand services are relatively faster to deliver. They are demanded over internet and are enlightened as internet-centric software. Cloud is also capable of providing scalability for applications by providing virtualized resources dynamically (1). Though we have variety of Cloud Service Platforms available but widely platforms are Web Services, Cloud, Windows Azure platform, & IBM etc. Here, I am presenting a comparative study among five cloud service platforms so that choosing the optimal one for deployment and research development turn out to be easy. The objective of this study is to present the learner with the knowledge of various platforms so that they can choose whichever is suitable to them.

Keywords: Alibaba cloud,Cloud, Cloud stack, Scalable, IBM Bluemix, ,, Web Azure

INTRODUCTION “Cloud” is a latest development in the field of internet computing which allows users to access internet based application and resources from anywhere in the world through internet. These services are accessed by general internet protocols and networking principles. In case of Cloud Computing, resources are virtual and even unlimited. Moreover, configurations of machines on which cloud related software runs, are abstracted from the end-user. Cloud computing is the latest computing model where IT services and applications are served over world-wide-web(2).

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Figure 1) Cloud Platforms

When an in-house application ready to be exported to third party cloud is developed, much of application’s prerequisites already exist there. A Cloud based OS provides fundamental support for implementation of the application, interacting with storage, meanwhile other machines in the surroundings offer services such as remote storage. Development teams who wish to create a cloud app must call for a cloud platform which provides cloud based services for creating other supporting apps.

BACKGROUND HISTORY

A short overview of cloud computing environment is provided in this section as background. It formally defines cloud computing, presents various cloud computing platforms followed by related work and comparative revision with closing annotations to end with.

A. Cloud Computing

The term cloud is analogous to internet and in a relaxed way these can be used interchangeabily. Therefore, cloud computing refers to “a type of Internet-based computing,” where diverse services like servers, storage, and applications are delivered to machines and devices through the Internet(3). Cloud Computing facilitates real time network access to a distributed pool of configurable computational resources such as networks, servers, memory, apps, and services. Cloud services are meant to purchase the services instead of hiring them.

According to famous cloud scientist and researcher Buyya and his team [1]: “Cloud is a parallel and distributed computing system consisting of a collection of inter-connected and virtual machines that are dynamically provisioned and presented as one or more unified

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computing resources based on service-level agreements (SLA) established through negotiation between the service provider and consumers.” Cloud computing environment is shown in Figure 2).

Figure 2) Cloud Computing Environment

In the 21th century, cloud computing has possibly emerged into number of fields. The main attraction towards cloud computing explores its fundamental benefits as below:  Minimized costs  Easy access  Data backup  Data centralization  Sharing capabilities  Security  Free storage  Quick testing  Enhanced flexibility  Dependability

B. CLOUD COMPUTING PLATFORMS

In the current era, cloud computing became heart and soul of any organization. To inculcate this requirement cloud computing plays very important role (4). Cloud computing platforms basically possesses the five characteristics as below:

1) On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities,

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

2) Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).

3) Resource pooling. The provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand.

4) Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.

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

There have been number of comparative studies reported on comparison of cloud computing systems. This section introduces some cloud platforms with their comparative study.

1.

“Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud” also known as Amazon EC2 offers scalable computing in the “Amazon Web Services (AWS)”. It provides “as and when required” computing resources and services and that too in the cloud, with “pay-as-you-go” costs (5). It allows users to manage the scale in order to handle the fluctuations in needs or spikes in popularity, thus we do not need to forecast traffic.

Some common uses of AWS are as follows:

 Public or Private .

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 Static or a Dynamic website hostage.  Support for students to do online training programs like MOOCs.  Processing business and scientific data.  Handling peak loads with ease.

2. Google App Engine

GAE is a PaaS that enables us to implement and execute apps on Google’s universally available infrastructure. These applications are “easy to build”, “easy to maintain”, and “easy to scale” as the traffic and data storage requirements alter. With App Engine, we do not have to maintain any servers(6). We just upload our app and it is ready to go within few seconds. GAE easies “build and deploy” of an application, and due to app engine only, applications runs reliably, even if there is heavy load and traffic.

It includes the following characteristics:

 Constant storage with sorting, queries and transactional capabilities.  Real time load balancing.  Auto Scaling  Asynchronous job queues for executing tasks even outside the scope of a request.  Scheduled tasks for triggering activities at prior known timings or regular intervals just like in a round robin manner.  Integration with other Google cloud services and Application Program Interfaces.

3. Window Azure

Microsoft’s Window Azure is a set of tools, each one offering a particular collection of services to App. Developers; providing a well-known and flexible setting to drive and support specific requirements and services of the developers’ team, customers and users. It comprises of following four components.

 Windows Azure : This is a Windows environment for executing apps; storing data and information on machines; specifically in data-centers.  SQL Azure : Presents relational data services in the cloud; based on ’s SQL Server.

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 Windows Azure AppFabric : AppFabric being a set of Cloud-based infrastructure services runs apps either over the cloud or on-premises.  Windows Azure Marketplace: Marketplace is an online store for buying cloud data and apps.

4. IBM Bluemix:

IBM Bluemix is the cloud computing solution from IBM that comes with the platform (PaaS) as well as infrastructure (IaaS) offerings. With Bluemix IaaS, users can deploy and access virtualized compute power, storage and networking using the internet. The IBM service offerings can be used as a public, private or hybrid model whichever suits an organization’s need (7).

The IBM Bluemix PaaS is based on an open source cloud platform - . IBM services can be used by developers to create, manage, run and deploy scalable applications for both public cloud and on-premises environments. The programming languages that are supported by IBM Bluemix include Java, Node.js, PHP, and Python. The solution can even be extended to support other languages.

5) Alibaba:

Alibaba Cloud is the cloud initiative of the Chinese eCommerce giant - . The Alibaba services dominate the Chinese market and have roots all across the globe with headquarters in , China. It was established in 2009, just three years after the incorporation of Amazon Web Services. Alibaba Cloud began as a private cloud which was meant to support the internal infrastructural needs of the Alibaba Group but it soon scaled to a public cloud solution provider(8). The Alibaba Cloud computing services cover all the major cloud services like elastic computing, hosting, , relational (SQL), NoSQL database (using the Table Store), analytics (Hadoop), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Cloud services are a rapidly growing market. Modern technologies like big data analytics, IoT, artificial intelligence and even web and mobile app hosting all need heavy computing power(9). Cloud computing offers enterprises an alternative to building their in- house infrastructure. With cloud computing, anybody using the internet can enjoy scalable

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computing power on a plug and play basis. Since this saves organizations from the need to invest and maintain costly infrastructure, it has become a very popular solution. There are many companies that offer cloud platforms for development, management, and deployment of applications(10).

Comparative study of Various cloud computing service platforms

Various cloud platforms can be compared with each other on the basis of following seven point criteria .

i. Services ii. Computation iii. Storage Capacity iv. Networking v. Caching Approach vi. Language supported vii. Big data Support

Parameters Amazon AWS Window Azure Google App IBM Bluemix Alibaba Engine Cloud Services It provides PaaS It provides PaaS It provides PaaS It provides Paas It provides Paas, and IaaS. and IaaS. and SaaS. & Iaas platforms SaaS & Iaas platforms Computation It offers a virtual It is same as It consists of a The IBM service Alibaba Cloud environment for Amazon as far as set of products offerings can be began as a private Computing and computational that lets clients used as a public, cloud which was facilitates capacities are to develop apps private or hybrid meant to support computational concerned. and websites model whichever the internal capacity which can and run them. suits an infrastructural be resized . organization’s needs of the according to need. Alibaba Group but needs. it soon scaled to a public cloud solution provider. Storage Amazon Web WA provides It has a transient It block storage It has block Capacity Services Elastic storage to store disk of size from 25 GB to storage, file Block Store (EBS) large amounts of 10 GB (by 12,000 GB sharing and presents persistent unstructured data. default) tied to capacity with up storage device storage to various A blob is a file of the Virtual to 48,000 IOPS. capacity too much instances. Amazon any type and size. Machine’s file-share greater than IBM S3 – It stores Block blobs instance capacities blue mix. objects up-to 5GB Consists of lifetime. With available up to and Volumes blocks (each Auto scaling 12 TB. Use a ranging from 1GB block up-to 4MB) feature to store, storage device to 1TB in size. and are efficient GAE can scale with 120 TB with flexibility. mass data migration.

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Networking AWS Direct It provides agent Each Virtual With IBM Alibaba or Aliyun Connect (AWS- based machine to Machine Bluemix, users cloud build DC) is suited to machine instance in GCE can deploy and complex network high bandwidth connections. is a member of a access by using virtual and delay sensitive With WA Connect, single unique virtualized architectures that apps. Virtual Machines network, which compute power, mimic your can join the domain defines the storage and physical network on premises. address range networking using infrastructure and gateway the internet. address of all instances connected to it.

Caching Supports Cache Supports cache Shared memory Data Cache Supports cache Approach Clusters clusters cache is the free service remotely clusters. Along default service leverages the with this we can for AE apps. It caching customize cache gives cache capabilities of the expiration rules for capability on a data grid and lets specified best-effort basis; you perform resources. subject to the create, retrieve, overall demand update, and of all apps delete served by AE. operations. Language Any language can It supports It supports Java, It supports It supports C, Supported be used. Users can VB.NET, C#, Python and Go Python Ruby, C++, C#, Java, quickly launch PHP & java Languages PHP and Go Node.js, Python, Multitier web languages Languages. PHP, and Perl. applications with a Along with this Cloud Formation Java and Node.js template. is also included. Big data Amazon supplies Microsoft also Google doesn’t IBM Bluemix It gives data Support Elastic Map provides Hadoop provide any provides supports to elastic Reduce (Amazon service on WA for Hadoop like Analytics for computing, EMR) to instantly the same purpose. service right hosting, object provision On WA, blob now. Which explores storage, relational according to the storage keeps the Google’s Big the essentials of database (SQL), users need for data data a Map Reduce Query allows data quickly in NoSQL database concentrated job requires and users to analyze an interactive (using the Table applications. works upon. quickly and computational Store), big data With the help of interactively environment. analytics Big Data Support against very In addition to (Hadoop), offered by AWS, Large datasets this, it support Machine Learning users can Like up to IBM dashDB, (ML)and Artificial concentrate on billions of rows. IBM DataWorks Intelligence (AI). data analysis rather and IBM than the time- Streaming consuming setup. Analytics.

TABLE 1) COMPARISON OF VARIOUS CLOUD COMPUTING PLATFORMS ON BASIS OF ABOVE CRITERIA

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CONCLUSION

This paper entitles as “Metaphorical Revise of Cloud Service Platforms” provides introductory background to the cloud computing along with various cloud platforms. It also presents metaphorical revise of total five cloud computing platforms namely Amazon’s web services, Google’s Application Engine , IBM Bluemix, Alibaba cloud and Window’s Azure as shown in Table 1). These platforms have been compared on the basis of criteria such as Computation, Storage, Networking, Caching, Big Data support, Languages supported, services etc. Summary of this paper is this that every service provider is having many of the features same with different terms. None of the service providers are weak and they can be chosen as per the ease of the user.

REFERENCES

[1] R. Buyyaa, C. S. Yeoa, S. Venugopala, J. Broberg, and I. Brandic, "Cloud Computing and Emerging IT platforms: Vision, Hype, and Reality for Delivering Computing as the 5th Utility," Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 25, 2009, pp. 599-616. [2] D. Chappell, “Introducing the azure services platform an early look at windows azure, . net services ,” October, 2008. [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud [4] D. Chappell “A short introduction to cloud platforms” August 2008 [5] Jinesh Varia ,Sajee Mathew, “Amazon Web Services Overview of Amazon Web Services” January 2014 [6] http://blogs.technet.com/b/yungchou/archive/2013/01/06/31-days-of-servers-in-the-cloud- windows-azure-features- overview-part-6-of-31.aspx [7] http://vorsite.com/blog/2014/01/10-benefits-features-windows-azure/ [8] Amazon Web Services, Windows Azure, , VMWare and Others (Fall 2012) [9] https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/adminconsole/memcache [10] Mather, T., Kumaraswamy, S. and Latif, S. (2009) Cloud Security and Privacy, 1st ed., O’Reilly Media, Inc. Sebastopol, California.

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