Cloud Computing For Dummies®

Cloud Computing For Dummies®

Released November 2009
Publisher(s): For Dummies
ISBN: 9780470484708

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Book description

The easy way to understand and implement cloud computing technology written by a team of experts

Cloud computing can be difficult to understand at first, but the cost-saving possibilities are great and many companies are getting on board. If you've been put in charge of implementing cloud computing, this straightforward, plain-English guide clears up the confusion and helps you get your plan in place.

You'll learn how cloud computing enables you to run a more green IT infrastructure, and access technology-enabled services from the Internet ("in the cloud") without having to understand, manage, or invest in the technology infrastructure that supports them. You'll also find out what you need to consider when implementing a plan, how to handle security issues, and more.

  • Cloud computing is a way for businesses to take advantage of storage and virtual services through the Internet, saving money on infrastructure and support

  • This book provides a clear definition of cloud computing from the utility computing standpoint and also addresses security concerns

  • Offers practical guidance on delivering and managing cloud computing services effectively and efficiently

  • Presents a proactive and pragmatic approach to implementing cloud computing in any organization

  • Helps IT managers and staff understand the benefits and challenges of cloud computing, how to select a service, and what's involved in getting it up and running

  • Highly experienced author team consults and gives presentations on emerging technologies

Cloud Computing For Dummies gets straight to the point, providing the practical information you need to know.

Table of contents

  1. Copyright
  2. About the Authors
  3. Authors' Acknowledgments
  4. Publisher's Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
    1. About This Book
    2. Foolish Assumptions
    3. How This Book Is Organized
      1. Part I: Introducing Cloud Computing
      2. Part II: Understanding the Nature of the Cloud
      3. Part III: Examining the Cloud Elements
      4. Part IV: Managing the Cloud
      5. Part V: Planning for the Cloud
      6. Part VI: The Part of Tens
    4. Icons Used in This Book
    5. Where to Go from Here
  6. I. Introducing Cloud Computing
    1. 1. Grasping the Fundamentals
      1. 1.1. Considering Perspectives
      2. 1.2. Computing on the Cloud
      3. 1.3. Defining the Cloud
        1. 1.3.1. Elasticity and scalability
        2. 1.3.2. Self-service provisioning
        3. 1.3.3. Application programming interfaces (APIs)
        4. 1.3.4. Billing and metering of services
        5. 1.3.5. Performance monitoring and measuring
        6. 1.3.6. Security
      4. 1.4. Comparing Cloud Providers with Traditional IT Service Providers
      5. 1.5. Addressing Problems
      6. 1.6. Discovering the Business Drivers for Consuming Cloud Services
        1. 1.6.1. Supporting business agility
        2. 1.6.2. Reducing capital expenditures
    2. 2. Discovering the Value of the Cloud for Business
      1. 2.1. Modeling Services
      2. 2.2. Understanding Infrastructure as a Service
      3. 2.3. Exploring Platform as a Service
      4. 2.4. Seeing Software as a Service
        1. 2.4.1. Software as a Service modes
        2. 2.4.2. Massively scaled Software as a Service
        3. 2.4.3. Economies of scale
      5. 2.5. Management and Administration
    3. 3. Getting Inside the Cloud
      1. 3.1. Feeling Sensational about Organization
        1. 3.1.1. Deciding on a strategy
        2. 3.1.2. Coping with governance issues
        3. 3.1.3. Monitoring business processes
        4. 3.1.4. Managing IT costs
      2. 3.2. Administering Cloud Services
        1. 3.2.1. Service level agreements and monitoring
        2. 3.2.2. Support
        3. 3.2.3. Billing and accounting
      3. 3.3. Looking at the Technical Interface
        1. 3.3.1. APIs and data transformations
        2. 3.3.2. Data and application architecture
        3. 3.3.3. Security in the cloud
      4. 3.4. Managing Cloud Resources
        1. 3.4.1. IT security
        2. 3.4.2. Performance management
        3. 3.4.3. Provisioning
        4. 3.4.4. Service management
      5. 3.5. Untangling Software Dependencies
    4. 4. Developing Your Cloud Strategy
      1. 4.1. Seeing the Many Aspects of Your Cloud Strategy
      2. 4.2. Questioning Your Company's Strategy
      3. 4.3. Assessing Where You Are Today
        1. 4.3.1. How tangled is my computing environment?
        2. 4.3.2. What's my data center environment?
        3. 4.3.3. What data supports my strategy?
      4. 4.4. Assessing Your Expense Structure
      5. 4.5. Checking Up on Rules and Governances
      6. 4.6. Developing a Road Map
  7. II. Understanding the Nature of the Cloud
    1. 5. Seeing the Advantages of the Highly Scaled Data Center
      1. 5.1. Comparing Financial Damage: Traditional versus Cloud
        1. 5.1.1. Traditional data center
        2. 5.1.2. Cloud data center
      2. 5.2. Scaling the Cloud
      3. 5.3. Comparing Traditional and Cloud Data Center Costs
        1. 5.3.1. Examining labor costs and productivity
        2. 5.3.2. Wondering where you are
          1. 5.3.2.1. Electric power
          2. 5.3.2.2. Other location costs
    2. 6. Exploring the Technical Foundation for Scaling Computer Systems
      1. 6.1. Server-ing Up Some Hardware
        1. 6.1.1. Tradition! versus clouds
        2. 6.1.2. Considering cloud hardware
          1. 6.1.2.1. Cooling
          2. 6.1.2.2. CPU, memory, and local disk
          3. 6.1.2.3. Data storage and networking
          4. 6.1.2.4. Redundancy
          5. 6.1.2.5. Software embedded within the data center
        3. 6.1.3. Open-source dynamic
      2. 6.2. Economies of Scale
        1. 6.2.1. Benefitting enormously
        2. 6.2.2. Optimizing otherwise
          1. 6.2.2.1. Backup and disaster recovery
          2. 6.2.2.2. System management
          3. 6.2.2.3. Security
          4. 6.2.2.4. Client caching
      3. 6.3. Keeping the Bottom Line in Mind
    3. 7. Checking the Cloud's Workload Strategy
      1. 7.1. Managing Workloads in the Cloud
        1. 7.1.1. Thinking of workloads as well-planned services
          1. 7.1.1.1. Different workload types
          2. 7.1.1.2. Workloads as self-contained entities
        2. 7.1.2. Creating interfaces between containers
        3. 7.1.3. Discovering how XML fits in
        4. 7.1.4. Using container workloads: Case study
      2. 7.2. Balancing Risk and Practical Models
      3. 7.3. Testing Workloads in the Real World
    4. 8. Managing Data
      1. 8.1. Declaring Data Types
      2. 8.2. Securing Data in the Cloud
        1. 8.2.1. Data location in the cloud
        2. 8.2.2. Data control in the cloud
        3. 8.2.3. Securing data for transport in the cloud
      3. 8.3. Looking at Data, Scalability, and Cloud Services
        1. 8.3.1. Large-scale data processing
        2. 8.3.2. Databases and data stores in the cloud
        3. 8.3.3. Data archiving
      4. 8.4. Sorting Out Metadata Matters
      5. 8.5. Talking to Your Cloud Vendor about Data
    5. 9. Discovering Private and Hybrid Clouds
      1. 9.1. Pining for Privacy
        1. 9.1.1. Defining a private cloud
        2. 9.1.2. Comparing public, private, and hybrid
          1. 9.1.2.1. Going public
          2. 9.1.2.2. Keeping things private
          3. 9.1.2.3. Driving a hybrid
      2. 9.2. Examining the Economics of the Private Cloud
        1. 9.2.1. Assessing capital expenditures
        2. 9.2.2. Vendor private cloud offerings
          1. 9.2.2.1. Services-led technology
          2. 9.2.2.2. Systems integrators
          3. 9.2.2.3. Technology enablers
      3. 9.3. Offering Up Key Vendors
        1. 9.3.1. Services-led technology companies
          1. 9.3.1.1. IBM
          2. 9.3.1.2. Hewlett-Packard
          3. 9.3.1.3. EMC
        2. 9.3.2. Systems integrators companies
          1. 9.3.2.1. Unisys
          2. 9.3.2.2. Computer Sciences Corporation
          3. 9.3.2.3. Accenture
          4. 9.3.2.4. Savvis, Inc.
        3. 9.3.3. Technology enabler companies
          1. 9.3.3.1. VMware
          2. 9.3.3.2. CA
          3. 9.3.3.3. Platform Computing, Inc.
          4. 9.3.3.4. Rackspace
          5. 9.3.3.5. 3Tera
          6. 9.3.3.6. Eucalyptus
  8. III. Examining the Cloud Elements
    1. 10. Seeing Infrastructure as a Service
      1. 10.1. Tracing IaaS to ISP
        1. 10.1.1. Renting (but not to own)
          1. 10.1.1.1. Taking price beyond hardware
          2. 10.1.1.2. Managing traffic
          3. 10.1.1.3. Deploying quickly
          4. 10.1.1.4. Security is variable depending on provider
        2. 10.1.2. Following the ISP pattern
      2. 10.2. Exploring Amazon EC2: Case Study
        1. 10.2.1. EC2 Compute Units
        2. 10.2.2. Platforms and storage
        3. 10.2.3. EC2 pricing
        4. 10.2.4. EC2 customers
      3. 10.3. Checking Out Other IaaS Companies
        1. 10.3.1. Rackspace
        2. 10.3.2. GoGrid
        3. 10.3.3. Others
      4. 10.4. Examining IaaS-Enabling Technology
        1. 10.4.1. AppLogic
        2. 10.4.2. Eucalyptus
      5. 10.5. Trusting the Cloud
      6. 10.6. What Infrastructure as a Service Means to You
    2. 11. Exploring Platform as a Service
      1. 11.1. Putting Platform as a Service on a Pedestal
      2. 11.2. Integrated lifecycle platforms
        1. 11.2.1. Anchored lifecycle platforms
        2. 11.2.2. Enabling technologies as a platform
      3. 11.3. Getting Inside the Integrated Lifecycle Platform
        1. 11.3.1. Google App Engine
          1. 11.3.1.1. Other Google infrastructure services
          2. 11.3.1.2. Google development stack
          3. 11.3.1.3. Google fees
        2. 11.3.2. Microsoft Azure
          1. 11.3.2.1. Azure platform
          2. 11.3.2.2. Azure fees
      4. 11.4. Getting Inside Anchored Lifecycle Platform as a Service
        1. 11.4.1. Salesforce.com's Force.com platform
          1. 11.4.1.1. Force.com platform
          2. 11.4.1.2. Force.com fees
        2. 11.4.2. Intuit
          1. 11.4.2.1. Federated Applications
          2. 11.4.2.2. Intuit's Partner Platform
        3. 11.4.3. LongJump
          1. 11.4.3.1. LongJump Development Suite
          2. 11.4.3.2. LongJump fees
      5. 11.5. Enabling Technologies as a Platform
        1. 11.5.1. Testing in the cloud
        2. 11.5.2. Service management for the cloud
        3. 11.5.3. Integration and configuration platforms
        4. 11.5.4. Social network, framework, and portal platforms
    3. 12. Using Software as a Service
      1. 12.1. Salesforce.com's Approach to Evolving Software as a Service
        1. 12.1.1. Salesforce.com software environment
      2. 12.2. Salesforce.com ecosystem
      3. 12.3. Characterizing Software as a Service
      4. 12.4. Understanding the Economics and the Ecosystem
        1. 12.4.1. Pretending you're a customer
          1. 12.4.1.1. Determining the right revenue model costs
          2. 12.4.1.2. Calculating two examples
      5. 12.5. The value of the ecosystem
      6. 12.6. Examining Types of SaaS Platforms
        1. 12.6.1. Packaged Software as a Service
        2. 12.6.2. Collaboration as a Service
        3. 12.6.3. Enabling and management tools
          1. 12.6.3.1. Testing as a service
          2. 12.6.3.2. Monitoring and management as a service
          3. 12.6.3.3. Development tooling as a service
          4. 12.6.3.4. Security as a service
          5. 12.6.3.5. Compliance and governance as a service
    4. 13. Understanding Massively Scaled Applications and Business Processes
      1. 13.1. Naming Names: Companies with Massively Scaled Applications
        1. 13.1.1. Listing the companies
        2. 13.1.2. Looking at Web-based business services
      2. 13.2. Delivering Business Processes from the Cloud
        1. 13.2.1. Business process examples
        2. 13.2.2. Business processes destined for the cloud
        3. 13.2.3. Hidden in the cloud
        4. 13.2.4. Business processes already flying high
        5. 13.2.5. Predicting the future
    5. 14. Setting Some Standards
      1. 14.1. Understanding Best Practices and Standards
        1. 14.1.1. Best practicing makes perfect
        2. 14.1.2. Setting your sites on standards
      2. 14.2. Clouding the Standards and Best Practices Issue
        1. 14.2.1. Interoperability
        2. 14.2.2. Portability
        3. 14.2.3. Integration
        4. 14.2.4. Security
      3. 14.3. Standards Organizations and Groups
      4. 14.4. Cloud Security Alliance
        1. 14.4.1. Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)
        2. 14.4.2. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
        3. 14.4.3. Open Cloud Consortium (OCC)
        4. 14.4.4. Open Grid Forum (OGF)
        5. 14.4.5. The Object Management Group (OMG)
        6. 14.4.6. Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)
        7. 14.4.7. Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF)
        8. 14.4.8. Vertical groups
  9. IV. Managing the Cloud
    1. 15. Managing and Securing Cloud Services
      1. 15.1. Putting Security on the Spot with Questions
      2. 15.2. Understanding Security Risks
      3. 15.3. Reducing Cloud Security Breaches
      4. 15.4. Implementing Identity Management
        1. 15.4.1. Benefits of identity management
        2. 15.4.2. Aspects of identity management
          1. 15.4.2.1. Corralling the data
          2. 15.4.2.2. Integrating
          3. 15.4.2.3. Beefing up authentication
          4. 15.4.2.4. Provisioning
          5. 15.4.2.5. Single sign-on
          6. 15.4.2.6. Security administration
          7. 15.4.2.7. Analyzing data
      5. 15.5. Playing Detective: Detection and Forensics
        1. 15.5.1. Activity logs
        2. 15.5.2. HIPS and NIPS
        3. 15.5.3. Data audit
      6. 15.6. Encrypting Data
      7. 15.7. Creating a Cloud Security Strategy
    2. 16. Governing the Cloud
      1. 16.1. Looking at IT Governance
      2. 16.2. Deciding on a Governor
        1. 16.2.1. Imagining a scenario
        2. 16.2.2. Imagining another scenario
      3. 16.3. Knowing the Risks of Running in the Cloud
        1. 16.3.1. Understanding risk
          1. 16.3.1.1. Deducing IT risk
          2. 16.3.1.2. Risk list
        2. 16.3.2. Measuring and monitoring performance
        3. 16.3.3. Measurement methods
      4. 16.4. Making Governance Work
        1. 16.4.1. Establishing your governance body
        2. 16.4.2. Monitoring and measuring IT service performance
        3. 16.4.3. Cataloging control and compliance data
    3. 17. Virtualization and the Cloud
      1. 17.1. Visualizing Virtualization
        1. 17.1.1. Characteristics
          1. 17.1.1.1. Applications
          2. 17.1.1.2. Forms
        2. 17.1.2. Using a hypervisor in virtualization
          1. 17.1.2.1. Scheduling access
          2. 17.1.2.2. Defining types
        3. 17.1.3. Abstracting hardware assets
      2. 17.2. Managing Virtualization
        1. 17.2.1. Foundational issues
        2. 17.2.2. Abstraction layer
        3. 17.2.3. Provisioning software
        4. 17.2.4. Virtualizing storage
        5. 17.2.5. Hardware provisioning
        6. 17.2.6. Security issues
          1. 17.2.6.1. Network monitoring
          2. 17.2.6.2. Hypervisors
          3. 17.2.6.3. Configuration and change management
          4. 17.2.6.4. Perimeter security
      3. 17.3. Taking Virtualization into the Cloud
    4. 18. Managing Desktops and Devices in the Cloud
      1. 18.1. Virtualizing the Desktop
        1. 18.1.1. Across industries
        2. 18.1.2. The client desktop
          1. 18.1.2.1. Session-based computing
          2. 18.1.2.2. Operating-system streaming
          3. 18.1.2.3. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
          4. 18.1.2.4. The PC blade
      2. 18.2. Putting Desktops in the Cloud
        1. 18.2.1. Further pros
        2. 18.2.2. Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
          1. 18.2.2.1. Desktone
          2. 18.2.2.2. Virtual Bridges
      3. 18.3. Managing Desktops in the Cloud
        1. 18.3.1. Watching four areas
        2. 18.3.2. Managing assets
        3. 18.3.3. Monitoring services
        4. 18.3.4. Change management
        5. 18.3.5. Security
      4. 18.4. Getting a Reality Check
    5. 19. Service Oriented Architecture and the Cloud
      1. 19.1. Defining Service Oriented Architecture
        1. 19.1.1. Combining the cloud and SOA
        2. 19.1.2. Characterizing SOA
      2. 19.2. Loosening Up on Coupling
      3. 19.3. Making SOA Happen
        1. 19.3.1. Catching the Enterprise Service Bus
        2. 19.3.2. Telling your registry from your repository
          1. 19.3.2.1. Registry
          2. 19.3.2.2. Repository
        3. 19.3.3. Cataloging services
      4. 19.4. Understanding Services in the Cloud
        1. 19.4.1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
        2. 19.4.2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
        3. 19.4.3. Software as a Service (SaaS)
      5. 19.5. Serving the Business with SOA and Cloud Computing
    6. 20. Managing the Cloud Environment
      1. 20.1. Managing the Cloud
        1. 20.1.1. The service provider
          1. 20.1.1.1. Managing based on services
          2. 20.1.1.2. Managing several cloud providers
        2. 20.1.2. Customers
          1. 20.1.2.1. Provision resources in the cloud
          2. 20.1.2.2. Deal with incidents and problems
          3. 20.1.2.3. Monitor and measure
          4. 20.1.2.4. Bill and other services
        3. 20.1.3. Hybrid environments
          1. 20.1.3.1. The service catalog
          2. 20.1.3.2. The Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
      2. 20.2. Building Up Support Desks
        1. 20.2.1. Service desk goals
        2. 20.2.2. Varying support levels
        3. 20.2.3. Examining support services
          1. 20.2.3.1. Communication via multiple channels
          2. 20.2.3.2. Incident and problem management
          3. 20.2.3.3. Change management
          4. 20.2.3.4. Knowledge base
          5. 20.2.3.5. Configuration management
      3. 20.3. Gaining Visibility
        1. 20.3.1. Ensuring adequate performance levels
        2. 20.3.2. Monitoring service availability
      4. 20.4. Tracking Service Level Agreements
  10. V. Planning for the Cloud
    1. 21. Banking on Cloud Economics
      1. 21.1. $eeing the Cloud's Allure
        1. 21.1.1. Filling the need for capacity
        2. 21.1.2. Getting the work done without capital investment
        3. 21.1.3. Selecting a SaaS for common applications
        4. 21.1.4. Selecting the massively scaled application
        5. 21.1.5. When it's not black and white
      2. 21.2. Creating an Economic Model of the Data Center
        1. 21.2.1. Listing application costs
        2. 21.2.2. Recovering costs
      3. 21.3. Adjusting the Economic Model even Further
        1. 21.3.1. Private cloud and allocation costs
        2. 21.3.2. Service levels and compliance costs
        3. 21.3.3. Strategic considerations and costs
      4. 21.4. Summarizing an Economic Cost Model
    2. 22. Starting Your Journey to the Cloud
      1. 22.1. Putting the Kibosh on Cloud Cultural Issues
        1. 22.1.1. Anticipating (but not with relish)
        2. 22.1.2. Smoothing the transition
          1. 22.1.2.1. Get executive support
          2. 22.1.2.2. Understand the culture
          3. 22.1.2.3. Communicate the message
          4. 22.1.2.4. Educate the troops
          5. 22.1.2.5. Get people involved
          6. 22.1.2.6. Train your staff
      2. 22.2. Measuring Twice: Assessing Risks
        1. 22.2.1. Playing risk with categories
        2. 22.2.2. Top company concerns
      3. 22.3. Picking the Right Targets for Success
        1. 22.3.1. Picking the low-hanging fruit
        2. 22.3.2. Approaching other areas
      4. 22.4. Planning for Leveraging the Cloud
        1. 22.4.1. Example 1
        2. 22.4.2. Example 2
  11. VI. The Part of Tens
    1. 23. Ten (Plus One) Swell Cloud Computing Resources
      1. 23.1. Hurwitz & Associates
      2. 23.2. National Institute of Standards and Technology
      3. 23.3. CloudCamp
      4. 23.4. SaaS Showplace
      5. 23.5. TechTarget
      6. 23.6. The Cloud Standards Wiki
      7. 23.7. Finding OASIS
      8. 23.8. The Eclipse Foundation
      9. 23.9. The Cloud Security Alliance
      10. 23.10. Open Cloud Manifesto
      11. 23.11. Vendor Sites
    2. 24. Ten Cloud Dos and Don'ts
      1. 24.1. Don't Be Reactive
      2. 24.2. Do Consider the Cloud a Financial Issue
      3. 24.3. Don't Go It Alone
      4. 24.4. Do Think about Your Architecture
      5. 24.5. Don't Neglect Governance
      6. 24.6. Don't Forget about Business Process
      7. 24.7. Do Make Security the Centerpiece of Your Strategy
      8. 24.8. Don't Apply the Cloud to Everything
      9. 24.9. Don't Forget about Service Management
      10. 24.10. Do Start with a Pilot Project
  12. Glossary

Product information

  • Title: Cloud Computing For Dummies®
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: November 2009
  • Publisher(s): For Dummies
  • ISBN: 9780470484708