Amazon EC2 (Infrastructure as a Service - IaaS):

1. Provisioning Virtual Servers: Users can provision virtual servers of

desired capacity through an automated web-based management
console, accessing dedicated virtual machines known as EC2 instances.
2. Choice of AMIs: Users have a selection of Amazon Machine Images
(AMIs) to choose from when provisioning a server, stored in Amazon S3
storage service.
3. Charges based on Consumption: Users are charged on an hourly basis
depending on the actual consumption of resources, such as server
uptime and capacity chosen.
4. User Control and Administration: Users have complete control over
their virtual servers, including deployment of applications and making
them accessible over the internet. They can also provision static IP
addresses and manage networking configurations.
5. Scalability Management: Users are responsible for defining
architectures that enable scalability using tools like Amazon CloudWatch
and Auto Scaling to monitor and adjust resource allocation based on
performance parameters.
6. Storage and Database Options: Data persistence is managed through
services like Elastic Block Storage (EBS) for mounting storage volumes
and Amazon SimpleDB for key-value pair storage. Relational database
systems can also be used, either pre-installed or separately provisioned.
7. Network Security: Amazon EC2 provides Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
service for connecting virtual servers to an enterprise's internal network
via VPN, ensuring network security measures are maintained.
8. Elastic Load Balancing: Elastic Load Balancing distributes incoming
requests across a group of servers, monitoring performance statistics to
dynamically adjust server resources.

Google App Engine (Platform as a Service - PaaS):

1. Code Deployment: Users upload code, written in Java or Python, along

with related files onto Google File System (GFS), making applications
immediately available on the internet without explicit provisioning of
virtual servers.
2. Resource Usage Measurement: Resource usage is measured in terms of
web requests served and CPU-hours spent executing requests or batch
jobs, with charges incurred only upon access.
 3. Free Development and Trial: Deploying applications on Google App
Engine is free within usage limits, allowing development and testing
without cost until a sufficient volume of requests is reached.
4. Scalability and Global Availability: Applications can be deployed globally
and made available 24x7, scaling resources automatically to
accommodate varying loads.
5. Server Execution Model: Applications are executed on a large number of
web servers within Google's data centers, with requests served by any
available server. Batch jobs can also be scheduled for execution.
6. Data Storage with Google Datastore: Google Datastore provides non-
relational database storage, allowing structured data types and
distributed storage on GFS. It supports a query syntax similar to SQL but
with some restrictions.
7. Memcache for In-memory Caching: Distributed in-memory cache,
Memcache, is provided to address issues with in-memory data
availability, ensuring session data retrieval even across different servers.
8. Scalable Architecture: Google App Engine's architecture ensures natural
scalability as load increases, with applications sharing resources across
multiple servers.

Microsoft Azure (Platform as a Service - PaaS):

1. Development and Deployment: Applications are developed using

Microsoft development tools such as Visual Studio and deployed on
Microsoft's cloud using Azure extensions, offering a platform similar to
Google App Engine.
2. Control over Resources: Users specify the number of instances required
for their application, with each instance running on a dedicated CPU
core. Applications can be deployed as web roles or worker roles, with
web roles responding to HTTP requests and worker roles executing
batch processes.
3. Storage Options: Azure provides storage services for blobs, non-
relational tables, and queues. SQL Azure, previously SQL Data Services,
offers relational storage with SQL Server database support, catering to
various data storage needs.
4. Application Execution Model: Application code runs on virtual machines
known as instances, with each instance executing Windows Server
operating system. Applications are scaled automatically based on
demand.
5. Integration with .NET Services: Azure offers .NET services including
access control services, service bus for globally published service
 endpoints, and web-service based workflow orchestration service, built
on Microsoft's enterprise middleware products.
6. Enterprise Integration Advantage: Azure benefits from a large base of
Microsoft applications already in use within enterprises, making it easier
to migrate existing applications to the Azure platform.
7. Relational Database Support: Azure provides support for relational
databases with SQL Azure, allowing full relational queries on small data
sets, bridging the gap between non-relational and traditional relational
models.
8. Scalability and Flexibility: While not as granular as Amazon EC2, Azure
provides a level of control over resource allocation, with applications
automatically scaling to meet demand. It offers a practical compromise
between control and ease of use for developers and enterprises.

Openstack

What is Openstack?
Openstack Definition: The official OpenStack website (www.openstack.org)
describes the framework as “open source software for creating private and
public clouds.” It goes on to say, “OpenStack Software delivers a massively
scalable cloud operating system” With an OpenStack cloud you can Harness
the resources of physical and virtual servers, networks, and storage systems
Efficiently manage clouds of resources through tenants, quotas, and user roles
Provide a common interface to control resources regardless of the underlying
vendor subsystem

The Dashboard is laid out in a two-column design, as shown in figure 2.4. The
left column is fixed in size, and the right is dynamically sized based on your
browser window. As you can see, the left column contains the Project tab, links
to other management screens, project selection drop-downs, and the Admin
tab if you’re an admin.