Comparing Approaches
When comparing cloudcenters (GoGrid) to service infrastructures (AWS), it’s important to remember both the practices of traditional data centers and the kind of application you are deploying.
Side-by-Side Comparison
It may help to look at traditional data centers, cloudcenters, and service infrastructures side-by-side. Table B-1 lists some of the areas of functionality for each type of infrastructure and how they compare.
Functionality | Traditional data center | GoGrid (cloudcenter) | Amazon (service infrastructure) |
Firewall | Perimeter hardware firewall | Perimeter hardware firewall (Q1 2009 release) | Custom distributed software firewall |
Load balancer | Hardware load balancer | Hardware load balancer | Roll-your-own software load balancer (possible 2009 release of custom load balancer service) |
Network isolation | VLAN | VLAN | Faux “VLAN” separation using distributed software firewall |
Private networks | Yes (VLAN) | Yes (VLAN) | No |
Network protocols | No limitations | No limitations | Restricted; no multicast, no broadcast, GRE and related may not work |
OS choices | Unlimited | Some limits | Some limits |
DNS | Yes; managed in-house | Yes; managed by GoGrid | No |
Persistent local storage | Yes | Yes | No |
Persistent network storage | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Mixed virtual and physical servers | Yes | Yes | No |
As you can see, cloudcenter-style cloud architectures are very similar to traditional data centers.
Real-Life Usage
The differences between cloudcenters and service infrastructures will become apparent the minute you attempt to try ...
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