Architecting the Cloud E-Book

Michael J. Kavis

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Serie: Wiley CIO
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 369

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

An expert guide to selecting the right cloud service model for your business

Cloud computing is all the rage, allowing for the delivery of computing and storage capacity to a diverse community of end-recipients. However, before you can decide on a cloud model, you need to determine what the ideal cloud service model is for your business. Helping you cut through all the haze, Architecting the Cloud is vendor neutral and guides you in making one of the most critical technology decisions that you will face: selecting the right cloud service model(s) based on a combination of both business and technology requirements.

• Guides corporations through key cloud design considerations
• Discusses the pros and cons of each cloud service model
• Highlights major design considerations in areas such as security, data privacy, logging, data storage, SLA monitoring, and more
• Clearly defines the services cloud providers offer for each service model and the cloud services IT must provide

Arming you with the information you need to choose the right cloud service provider, Architecting the Cloud is a comprehensive guide covering everything you need to be aware of in selecting the right cloud service model for you.

Leseprobe

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Chapter 1: Why Cloud, Why Now?

Evolution of Cloud Computing

Enter the Cloud

Start-Up Case Study: Instagram, from Zero to a Billion Overnight

Established Company Case Study: Netflix, Shifting from On-Premises to the Cloud

Government Case Study: NOAA, E-mail, and Collaboration in the Cloud

Not-for-Profit Case Study: Obama Campaign, Six-Month Shelf-Life with One Big Peak

Summary

Chapter 2: Cloud Service Models

Infrastructure as a Service

Platform as a Service

Software as a Service

Deployment Models

Summary

Chapter 3: Cloud Computing Worst Practices

Avoiding Failure When Moving to the Cloud

Migrating Applications to the Cloud

Misguided Expectations

Misinformed about Cloud Security

Selecting a Favorite Vendor, Not an Appropriate Vendor

Outages and Out-of-Business Scenarios

Underestimating the Impacts of Organizational Change

Skills Shortage

Misunderstanding Customer Requirements

Unexpected Costs

Summary

Chapter 4: It Starts with Architecture

The Importance of Why, Who, What, Where, When, and How

Start with the Business Architecture

Identify the Problem Statement (Why)

Evaluate User Characteristics (Who)

Identify Business and Technical Requirements (What)

Visualize the Service Consumer Experience (Where)

Identify the Project Constraints (When and with What)

Understand Current State Constraints (How)

Summary

Chapter 5: Choosing the Right Cloud Service Model

Considerations When Choosing a Cloud Service Model

When to Use SaaS

When to Use PaaS

When to Use IaaS

Common Cloud Use Cases

Summary

Chapter 6: The Key to the Cloud

Why REST?

The Challenges of Migrating Legacy Systems to the Cloud

Summary

Chapter 7: Auditing in the Cloud

Data and Cloud Security

Auditing Cloud Applications

Regulations in the Cloud

Audit Design Strategies

Summary

Chapter 8: Data Considerations in the Cloud

Data Characteristics

Multitenant or Single Tenant

Choosing Data Store Types

Summary

Chapter 9: Security Design in the Cloud

The Truth about Data in the Cloud

How Much Security Is Required

Responsibilities for Each Cloud Service Model

Security Strategies

Areas of Focus

Summary

Chapter 10: Creating a Centralized Logging Strategy

Log File Uses

Logging Requirements

Summary

Chapter 11: SLA Management

Factors That Impact SLAs

Defining SLAs

Managing Vendor SLAs

Summary

Chapter 12: Monitoring Strategies

Proactive vs. Reactive Monitoring

What Needs to Be Monitored?

Monitoring Strategies by Category

Monitoring by Cloud Service Level

Summary

Chapter 13: Disaster Recovery Planning

What Is the Cost of Downtime?

Disaster Recovery Strategies for IaaS

Recovering from a Disaster in the Primary Data Center

Disaster Recovery Strategies for PaaS

Disaster Recovery Strategies for SaaS

Disaster Recovery Hybrid Clouds

Summary

Chapter 14: Leveraging a DevOps Culture to Deliver Software Faster and More Reliably

Developing the DevOps Mind-Set

Automate Infrastructure

Automate Deployments

Design Feature Flags

Measure, Monitor, and Experiment

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

Summary

Chapter 15: Assessing the Organizational Impact of the Cloud Model

Enterprise Model vs. Elastic Cloud Model

IT Impact

Business Impacts

Organization Change Planning

Change in the Real World

Summary

Chapter 16: Final Thoughts

The Cloud Is Evolving Rapidly

Cloud Culture

New Business Models

PaaS Is the Game Changer

Summary

Index

Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons is the oldest independent publishing company in the United States. With offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, Wiley is globally committed to developing and marketing print and electronic products and services for our customers’ professional and personal knowledge and understanding.

The Wiley CIO series provides information, tools, and insights to IT executives and managers. The products in this series cover a wide range of topics that supply strategic and implementation guidance on the latest technology trends, leadership, and emerging best practices.

Titles in the Wiley CIO series include:

The Agile Architecture Revolution: How Cloud Computing, REST-Based SOA, and Mobile Computing Are Changing Enterprise IT by Jason Bloomberg

Big Data, Big Analytics: Emerging Business Intelligence and Analytic Trends for Today’s Businesses by Michael Minelli, Michele Chambers, and Ambiga Dhiraj

The Chief Information Officer’s Body of Knowledge: People, Process, and Technology by Dean Lane

CIO Best Practices: Enabling Strategic Value with Information Technology (Second Edition) by Joe Stenzel, Randy Betancourt, Gary Cokins, Alyssa Farrell, Bill Flemming, Michael H. Hugos, Jonathan Hujsak, and Karl Schubert

The CIO Playbook: Strategies and Best Practices for IT Leaders to Deliver Value by Nicholas R. Colisto

Enterprise Performance Management Done Right: An Operating System for Your Organization by Ron Dimon

Executive’s Guide to Virtual Worlds: How Avatars Are Transforming Your Business and Your Brand by Lonnie Benson

IT Leadership Manual: Roadmap to Becoming a Trusted Business Partner by Alan R. Guibord

Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies by Robert F. Smallwood

On Top of the Cloud: How CIOs Leverage New Technologies to Drive Change and Build Value Across the Enterprise by Hunter Muller

Straight to the Top: CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-based World (Second Edition) by Gregory S. Smith

Strategic IT: Best Practices for Managers and Executives by Arthur M. Langer and Lyle Yorks

Transforming IT Culture: How to Use Social Intelligence, Human Factors, and Collaboration to Create an IT Department That Outperforms by Frank Wander

Unleashing the Power of IT: Bringing People, Business, and Technology Together by Dan Roberts

The U.S. Technology Skills Gap: What Every Technology Executive Must Know to Save America’s Future by Gary J. Beach

Architecting the Cloud: Design Decisions for Cloud Computing Service Models (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) by Michael Kavis

Cover Image: © iStockphoto/Kalawin

Cover Design: Wiley

Copyright © 2014 by Michael Kavis. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

ISBN 978-1-118-61761-8 (cloth)

ISBN 978-1-118-82627-0 (epdf)

ISBN 978-1-118-82646-1 (epub)

ISBN 978-1-118-69177-9 (o-book)

I dedicate this book to my parents, John and Deme, and

my brother, Bill, whose work ethic and drive to be the best

in their fields serve as inspiration for me to excel and fully

embrace my field of computer science.

FOREWORD

I first met Mike Kavis when he brought our Licensed ZapThink Architect SOA course to his company in Florida several years ago. As the vice president of architecture for this firm, Mike hoped to wrangle his group of developers to help them think like architects. And while I couldn’t transform developers into architects in four days, the thrust of the course was to help people think like architects.

The book you have in your hands now has the same mission. Cloud computing as an approach to IT infrastructure is still emerging, and thus the technical details are still in flux—but the architectural principles of the cloud are now falling into place. But only by thinking like an architect will you be able to take advantage of the full power of the cloud.

Architects are in a unique position in the IT shop, because they have one foot in the business and the other squarely ensconced in the technology. They must understand the nuts and bolts of what works and what doesn’t without falling victim to the techie tunnel vision that inflicts so many IT people. But they must also live and breathe the business: its strategy, its goals, and most importantly, its problems.

Architecting the Cloud connects these dots. Mike Kavis has intentionally avoided product- or vendor-specific details, focusing instead on the challenges that architects, as well as stakeholders in the architecture, should address—in other words, connecting the business problem with the appropriate solution. A truism to be sure, but easier said than done in the cloud.

The reason that solving business challenges in the cloud is so difficult is because the cloud is not just one thing. It is many diverse things: SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS service models, public, private, and hybrid deployment models, not to mention diverse value propositions. Some organizations seek to save money with the cloud while others want to shift capital to operational expense. On top of these benefits is elasticity: dealing better with unpredictable demand for IT resources.

Never before has architecture mattered so much. Building working solutions in the cloud that actually address the business need depends upon it. With his hands-on experience architecting such cloud solutions, Mike Kavis has the experience and insight to lead the way.

—Jason Bloomberg

President, ZapThink

PREFACE

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.

— Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

In the summer of 2008, after three decades of building software in corporate data centers, I walked away from corporate America to take a stab at building a technology company from the ground up based on a clever concept of the start-up company’s founder. After years of building software within the constraints of existing data centers and the long procurement cycles required to make new computing resources available to build on, I saw leveraging cloud computing as an opportunity to achieve far greater agility at a pay-as-you-go utility pricing model. When I started my journey I tweeted to my social network and asked if anyone knew of any real-life examples of real-time transaction processing occurring in the public cloud. My tweet generated a lot of laughs and snarky comments; after all, who would have thought of processing information from a brick-and-mortar retail point-of-sale system over the Internet with a transaction engine in the public cloud in 2008? One responder laughed and said, “Let me know when you find an example.” It was clear to me that we were pioneers, and we would have to learn things the way pioneers learned: by trial and error. Now, five years later, I want to share my lessons learned with readers so they can rely more on the experiences of others rather than brute force trial and error, like pioneers.

There are many books that define what cloud computing is and how the cloud is the biggest game changer since the rise of the Internet and the birth of the personal computer. The books in the marketplace today typically target management, beginners, or developers. This book is targeting chief technology officers, enterprise architects, product managers, and key technology decision makers.

Several books that target cloud architects get very specific about how to build software in the cloud and often focus on leading vendors. The content within this book is vendor agnostic since all the concepts discussed can be applied to any vendor or proprietary solution. I believe that one of the most critical technology decisions for succeeding with cloud computing is selecting the right cloud service model(s), which should be based on a combination of business, technology, and organizational requirements. Unfortunately, there is a notable absence of information in the marketplace to guide decision makers through this critical decision point. This book is focused on filling that information gap by providing decision makers with the pros and cons of each service model from the viewpoint of a consumer of cloud services.

This book is a must-read for any decision maker starting the vendor selection and development process for their cloud computing initiative. Starting a cloud initiative with a blank sheet of paper is a daunting task. This book provides the reader with an arsenal of design decisions to contemplate and highlights critical areas of concern that all cloud architectures must contend with.

Overview of the Contents

Within each chapter I’ll share a story that is relevant to the topic of discussion. These stories are either a personal experience that I have been involved in during my career or one of a peer or colleague. The names of companies, individuals, and products will be masked by fictitious names. Storytelling helps readers relate better to technical topics because we all have similar experiences throughout our careers. As with any other shift in technology, there is a lot of hype and many myths and misperceptions about cloud computing that lead to resistance or difficulties for some organizations in adopting the cloud. I have observed the same behavior numerous times in my career with the adoption of the Internet, service-oriented architecture (SOA), agile methodologies, and others. I have been fortunate enough to have multiple opportunities to be a pioneer for several of these technology shifts. I will use some stories from the past to show the parallels between the resistance to cloud computing and the resistance to the predecessor technologies.

I have always found that discussing technology in terms of familiar business scenarios helps readers to visualize concepts and makes it easier to translate those visualizations to the reader’s real-life scenarios. I have created a fictitious online auction company called Acme eAuctions (AEA) and will use AEA to describe many relevant business scenarios to help explain key points throughout this book. I will be discussing many facets of AEA’s business, not just its online auction website, so those readers not in the web business need not be alarmed. There will be plenty of scenarios that address relevant business scenarios for all readers.

As You Begin

Architecting the Cloud was written to fill a void that existed when I started building my first cloud application back in 2008. Each chapter provides insights gained through my experiences, both things I got right and things I got wrong. My hope is that by sharing these experiences and providing a list of design considerations in a variety of areas of concern, my readers can make more precise design decisions and will not have to rely as much on trial and error as I did when I first started. Cloud computing can offer tremendous benefits such as increased speed to market, lower total cost of ownership, and greater flexibility if designed correctly, but there are no silver bullets. To achieve these benefits, a pragmatic approach is required. This book aims to arm the reader with a long list of design considerations to help the reader achieve the goals that the cloud promises.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Eleni, and my kids, Yanni and Athena. They have supported me throughout my career and have made way too many sacrifices over the last decade as my journey took me from four years of graduate studies at night, to five years of being a road warrior, and to the six months when I was holed up in my office writing this book.

I could not have written this book without the guidance, constructive criticism, and encouragement of my friend, mentor, and fellow RESTafarian, Jason Bloomberg, president of ZapThink. Thanks for reviewing my chapters and helping me out at times when I was stuck.

A special thanks goes out to two warriors whom I have taken to battle with me for well over 10 years and who were a major reason we won the AWS Start-Up Challenge in 2010, Greg Rapp and Jack Hickman. Without talented, dedicated, and loyal technicians like these two guys, I would never have gained the experience required to write about the cloud. Nobody was crazy enough to take point-of-sale (POS) transactions out of grocery stores and into the public cloud back in 2008. We were met with resistance from retailers, POS vendors, investors, peers, and just about everyone. Greg and Jack never questioned the strategy and accepted the challenge. Together we changed the retail industry forever, and now cloud-based POS transactions are the future. Thanks, Greg and Jack!

And finally, thanks to my parents for raising me to be driven to be the best I can be. Mom and Dad, just look at the pictures because you won’t understand a word of this book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Kavis is a vice president and principal architect at Cloud Technology Partners and an industry analyst. He has served in technical roles such as chief technology officer, chief architect, and vice president positions with over 25 years of experience building enterprise solutions in health care, retail, manufacturing, and loyalty marketing industries.

In 2010, as chief technology officer for start-up M-Dot Network, his company won the prestigious Amazon AWS Global Start-Up Challenge. M-Dot built a high-speed micropayments network that processed digital incentives by integrating brick-and-mortar point-of-sale systems into a digital incentive PaaS built entirely on Amazon’s AWS public cloud. M-Dot Network was acquired in 2011. In his spare time he works with several start-ups in an advisory role focusing on architecture and cloud computing. When he is not staring at his computer he enjoys traveling to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to watch his beloved New York Giants.

Chapter 1

Why Cloud, Why Now?

There was a time when every household, town, farm, or village had its own water well. Today, shared public utilities give us access to clean water by simply turning on the tap; cloud computing works in a similar fashion. Just like water from the tap in your kitchen, cloud computing services can be turned on or off quickly as needed. Like at the water company, there is a team of dedicated professionals making sure the service provided is safe, secure, and available on a 24/7 basis. When the tap isn’t on, not only are you saving water, but you aren’t paying for resources you don’t currently need.