by HEIG-Cloud
Tags:Posted on Mon, Dec 14, 2015
One of the reasons why Cloud Computing has been such a success is that it automates many tasks that previously had to be done manually by system administrators. Take the provisioning of a server to run a web application. Traditionally this takes several weeks (ordering, delivering, installing, configuring, …) while a virtual machine in the cloud is provisioned with a few clicks and available in two minutes. This automation, coupled with economies of scale through immense data centers, is what allows companies like Amazon or Microsoft to offer cloud services at very low cost. Much cheaper than what a typical company pays to run its own traditional IT infrastructure.
Now there are many companies that shy away from public cloud offerings like AWS and Azure because the data they work with is sensitive. Think of banks, anybody providing health services like hospitals, or even schools that need to keep personal data which is protected by privacy laws. Sometimes using public cloud services has to be ruled out because there are not enough assurances that the data will be kept safe. In these cases one can still reap the benefits of cloud automation by running a private cloud.
To run a private cloud one needs the servers and the cloud software. For the latter, there basically two options: commercial software or Open Source software. VMware dominates the commercial cloud segment. Its software is seen as very solid, well documented, but also quite pricey. In the Open Source segment two projects dominate: OpenStack and Apache CloudStack. OpenStack is very widely used, offers a wide range of functionalities, but has a (deserved) reputation to be difficult to install and run. CloudStack is easier to use, but focuses on the core IaaS services: compute, storage and networking. OpenStack’s scope is broader and it offers more flexibility. Uptake of CloudStack is less than OpenStack’s.
We at HEIG-VD have deployed a private cloud for research and teaching based on OpenStack. In upcoming blog postings we will talk about our experiences, good and bad, with OpenStack.