Selected Topics in Computer

Science

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• Cloud Computing
• Introduction
• Virtualization
• Cloud Data Storage
• Security
• References
• T. Erl, Z. Mahmood, and R. Puttini, Cloud Computing Concepts, Technology, Security &
Architecture, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 2024.
• Dan C. Marinescu, Cloud Computing Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. Morgan Kaufmann, 2023
Load Balancing
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•
• Fog and Edge Computing
• IoT
• Software Defined Network

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Selected Topics in Computer
Science

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4

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• Evolution of Cloud Computing

• Definition of Cloud Computing

• Characteristics of Cloud Computing

• Roles and Trust Boundary

• Enabling Technologies

• Service Models

• Deployment Models: Public, Private, Community, and Hybrid

• Reference and Architecture Models 5

• Cloud-based Applications

• Benefits and Challenges

• Service Quality Metrics and SLAs

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• 1961: John McCarthy - Introduced utility computing

• “If computers of the kind I have advocated become the computers of the future, then computing may

someday be organized as a public utility just as the telephone system is a public utility.… The computer

utility could become the basis of a new and important industry.”

• 1969: Leonard Kleinrock (ARPANET)

• Predicted the emergence of computer utilities driven by advancements in computer networks.

• “As of now, computer networks are still in their infancy, but as they grow up and become sophisticated, we

will probably see the spread of ‘computer utilities’….”

• 1990s: services like search engines, email, and social media emerged.

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• 1999: Salesforce.com

• Pioneered remotely provisioned services for

businesses.

• 2006: cloud computing emerges

• Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) enables

leasing computer power

• Google Apps begins offering browser-based

enterprise software

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 Innovation Product Service

Has this Happened Before? Evolution of Electricity

Evolution of water Utility

Innovation Product Service

Get a continuous
Generate your own Buy it as a product and supply of the utility New Disruptive Buy and Maintain Electric Grid, pay only
for the electricity you
utility manage it through a dedicated Technology the Technology use
connection

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 Transformation of IT from a Product to a Service

Innovation of IT IT Products Cloud Computing

New Disruptive Buy and Maintain On-Demand IT
services on a Pay-as
Technology the Technology You-Go basis

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• “Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared

pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal

management effort or service provider interaction.” NIST

• Cloud computing is a specialized form of distributed computing that introduces utilization models for

remotely provisioning scalable and measured resources(CPU, storage, VMs, DBs, applications, etc.).

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• On-demand self-service: users can provision resources independently, without human interaction.

• Broad network access: capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard

mechanisms(thin or thick client platforms).

• Resource pooling:

• provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers

• location independence

• Rapid elasticity: allows resources to scale automatically with demand, appearing unlimited to users.

• Measured service: resource usage is monitored and reported.

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• Roles

• Cloud provider - the organization that provides cloud-based IT resources.

• Cloud consumer – an organization(human) with a formal agreement to use IT resources provided by a cloud

provider.

• Cloud broker – a third-party organization that manages and operates cloud services on behalf of a cloud

consumer.

• Cloud resource administrator - a person or organization responsible for administering a cloud-based IT resource.

• Can be(or belong to) cloud consumer, cloud provider or a third-party organization

• Cloud auditor - third party (often accredited) that conducts independent assessments of cloud environments.

• evaluation of security controls, privacy impacts, and performance

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• Trust Boundary - a logical perimeter that typically spans beyond physical boundaries to represent the extent to
which IT resources are trusted.
• Associated with the trust granted by the cloud consumer organization.

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• Foundational Technologies Influencing Cloud Computing

• Clustering – a group of independent IT resources that are interconnected and work as a single system.

• Grid Computing – computing resources are organized into one or more logical pools.

• Grid computing is more loosely coupled and distributed than clustering, allowing for heterogeneous and

geographically dispersed resources.

• Networks and Internet Architecture

• Internet Service Providers (ISPs): backbone of cloud connectivity.

• Packet Switching & Routers: enable data flow across dynamic network paths.

• Standardization & Modularity: simplifies scalability and maintenance.

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• Cloud Data Center Technology

• Virtualization: abstracts physical resources for efficient usage.

• Hardware-Based: Hypervisors directly on hardware for efficiency.

• Operating System-Based: Hosts multiple VMs within an OS.

• Containers: Lightweight, portable application environments.

• Autonomic Computing:

• Self-configuration: allows cloud services to automatically configure themselves based on predefined policies.

• Self-optimization: automatically enhance performance by dynamically adjusting configuration parameters.

• Self-healing systems: ability to automatically detect, diagnose, and recover from hardware or software

failures.

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 • Multitenant Technology

• Allows multiple tenants (users) to access the same application logic simultaneously.

• Each tenant has its own view of the application(UI, business process, access control, etc.)

• Comparison with Virtualization

• Virtualization: multiplies server environments.

• Multitenancy: multiplies user-specific application instances.

• Service Technology and Service APIs

• REST services

• Web services

• Middleware

• Business drivers, such as cost reduction (TCO), are also a key determining factor.
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• Software as a Service (SaaS) (high level)

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) (low level)

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• Infrastructure is compute resources, CPU, VMs, storage, etc.

• The user is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and

applications.

• The user does not manage or control the underlying Cloud infrastructure but has control over

operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of some networking

components, e.g., host firewalls.

• Services offered by this delivery model include: server hosting, storage, computing hardware,

virtual instances, load balancing, Internet access, and bandwidth provisioning.

• Example: Amazon EC2

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• Allows a cloud user to deploy consumer-created applications using programming languages and tools supported by

the service provider.

• The user:

• Has control over the deployed applications and, possibly, application hosting environment configurations.

• Does not manage or control the underlying Cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or

storage.

• Not particularly useful when:

• The application must be portable.

• Proprietary programming languages are used.

• The hardware and software must be customized to improve the performance of the application.

• Examples: Google App Engine, Windows Azure

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• Applications are supplied by the service provider.
• The user does not manage or control the underlying Cloud infrastructure or individual application capabilities.
• Services offered include:
• Enterprise services such as: workflow management, communications, digital signature, customer relationship
management (CRM), desktop software, financial management, geo-spatial, and search.
• Not suitable for real-time applications or for those where data is not allowed to be hosted externally.
• Examples: Google Docs, Salesforce, Dropbox
In-house Hosted IaaS PaaS SaaS
Deployment Deployment Cloud Cloud Cloud

Data Data Data Data Data

APP APP APP APP APP

VM VM VM Services Services

Server Server Server Server Server

Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage

Network Network Network Network Network

Organization Organization & service Service Provider

controlled provider share control controlled

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0
 A Simple Reference Model
• AIaaS – AI as a service

• CaaS - Communication as a Service(a submodel of SaaS) applications SaaS

service service

management
• DaaS – Data as a service

monitoring
metering
security
service service PaaS
cloud runtime
• DBaaS – Database as a service(a submodel of PaaS)
virtualization storage
IaaS
• FaaS – Function as a service infrastructure

• Building Microservices applications

• SECaaS – Security as a service(a submodel of SaaS)

• SaaS – Storage as a service(a submodel of IaaS)

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• Public Cloud - the infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is

owned by the organization selling cloud services.

• Companies that own the largest cloud computing facilities(Hyperscalers): Amazon’s AWS (Amazon Web

Services), Microsoft’s Azure Cloud, Google’s GCP(Google Cloud Platform)

• Private Cloud – Centralize IT resource access across the organization using cloud computing.

• The infrastructure is operated solely for an organization and is managed by the organization or by a third party.

• Community Cloud - the infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a community that

has shared concerns.

• Hybrid Cloud - composition of two or more Clouds (public, private, or community) as unique entities but

bound by a standardized technology that enables data and application portability.

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• Reference & Architecture Models

• NIST SP 500-292: In-depth reference architectural models.

• ISO/IEC 22123: Additional reference models.

• CSA Enterprise Architecture Model: Integrates features from four organizational architectures

• Business Operation Support Services(BOSS), Business Operation Support Services(ITOS),

Technology Solution Services (TSS), Security Risk Management(SRM).

• IaaS

• Architecture: Physical servers running hypervisors and orchestration software.

• Cloud Controller: Allocates resources, creates virtual instances, configures networking, and storage.

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• PaaS

• Architecture: Built on IaaS, includes application development frameworks, middleware capabilities, supporting

services like databases.

• Management: Cloud service customerss manage the platform, not the underlying infrastructure.

• SaaS

• Architecture: Complete applications built on IaaS and PaaS, supporting web browsers, APIs, mobile applications.

• Service Delivery: Fully delivered application with integrated platform capabilities.

• XaaS

• Concept: Represents various services delivered over the Internet

• Flexibility: Services often span the IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models, showing flexibility and overlap in service

delivery.

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• High Growth Applications: Startup Businesses

• Friendster (2002): Early social media platform, failed due to lack of scalability.

• Facebook (2004): Achieved success through scalable and flexible infrastructure.

• On-Off Applications: Research Computing

• Modern Drug Discovery:

• Data-intensive simulations and tests for new compound discovery.

• Requires large computational power for simulation jobs.

• Critical: Reducing time to market.

• Solution: Rent computer for simulations

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• Aperiodic Bursting Applications: Seasonal Business

• : High demand during US Holiday seasons.

• : Website crashed within 10 minutes of the free trouser promotion during Super Bowl 2010.

• Dynamic Computational Requirements: Stock Market Analysis

• Mine market data during the day.

• Process and analyze data at night.

• Varying computational needs over time.

• Solution: Dynamic and flexible infrastructure to reduce costs and improve performance.

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• Benefits

• Pay-as-You-Go/pay-for-use economic model: reduce capital expenditure, lower IT Infrastructure cost

• Elasticity: the ability to accommodate workloads with very large peak-to-average ratios.

• Simplified IT management: services are handled by the provider

• Scale quickly

• Flexible options: configuration, software platform, access from any machine

• Resource utilization is improved: reduce idle resources, better utilization of CPU, storage and bandwidth

• Increased availability and reliability

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• Challenges

• Internet dependence

• Security and confidentiality

• E.g. Healthcare applications

• Portability between cloud providers/Vendor Lock-In

• Moving large data is still expensive

• Legal issues E.g. UK laws require personal data of UK citizens to remain within the UK.

• Service Level Agreements

• Privacy

• Green computing? Data centers account for 3% of global electricity consumption

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• Service-Level Agreements (SLAs):

• Are human-readable documents that describes QoS features, guarantees, and limitations of cloud-based IT

resources.

• It serves as a critical specification, as the service implementation is hidden from the consumer.

• Are key to negotiations, contract terms, legal obligations, and performance metrics.

• They formalize guarantees from cloud providers, influencing pricing models and payment terms.

• Cloud provider guarantees are often extended to consumer’ clients and partners relying on the hosted services.

• It's essential to align SLAs and service quality metrics with business requirements. This is particularly critical for

providers hosting shared resources for multiple consumers, each with unique SLAs.

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• SLAs use service quality metrics to express measurable QoS characteristics.

• Availability – uptime, outages, service duration

• Availability rate metric - expressed as a percentage of uptime

• Measurement – total uptime / total time

• Frequency – weekly, monthly, yearly

• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

• Example – minimum 99.5% uptime

• Outage Duration Metric – duration of a single outage, both maximum and average continuous outage
• Measurement – date/time of outage end – date/time of outage start
• Frequency – per event
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• Example – 1-hour maximum, 15-minute average

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• Reliability – minimum time between failures, guaranteed rate of successful responses

• Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) Metric – expected time between consecutive service failures

• Measurement – Σ, normal operational period duration / number of failures

• Frequency – monthly, yearly

• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS

• Example – 90-day average

• Reliability Rate Metric - percentage of successful service outcomes under predefined conditions

• Measurement – total number of successful responses / total number of requests

• Frequency – weekly, monthly, yearly

• Cloud Delivery Model – SaaS

• Example – minimum 99.5%

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• Performance – capacity, response time, and delivery time guarantees
• Network Capacity Metric - measurable characteristics of network capacity
• Measurement – bandwidth / throughput in bits per second
• Frequency – continuous
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• Example – 10 MB per second
• Server Capacity Metric - measurable characteristics of server capacity
• Measurement – number of CPUs, CPU frequency in GHz, RAM size in GB, storage size in GB
• Frequency – continuous
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS
• Example – 1 core at 1.7 GHz, 16 GB of RAM, 80 GB of storage
• Storage Device Capacity Metric - measurable characteristics of storage device capacity
• Web Application Capacity Metric - measurable characteristics of web application capacity
• Instance Starting Time Metric – length of time required to initialize a new instance

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• Scalability – capacity fluctuation and responsiveness guarantees
• Storage Scalability (Horizontal) - permissible storage device capacity changes in response to increased workloads
• Measurement – storage size in GB
• Frequency – continuous
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• Example – 1,000 GB maximum (automated scaling)
• Server Scalability (Horizontal) Metric – permissible server capacity changes in response to increase workloads
• Measurement – number of virtual servers in resource pool
• Frequency – continuous
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS
• Example – 1 virtual server minimum, 10 virtual server maximum (automated scaling)
• Server Scalability (Vertical) Metric – permissible server capacity fluctuations in response to workload fluctuations
• Measurement – number of CPUs, RAM size in GB
• Frequency – continuous
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS
• Example – 512 core maximum, 512 GB of RAM

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• Resiliency – mean time to switchover and recovery
• Mean Time to Switchover (MTSO) Metric – the time expected to complete a switchover from a severe failure
to a replicated instance in a different geographical area
• Measurement – (date/time of switchover completion – date/time of failure) / total number of failures
• Frequency – monthly, yearly
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• Example – 10-minute average
• Mean Time to System Recovery (MTSR) Metric – time expected for a resilient system to perform a complete
recovery from a severe failure
• Measurement – (date/time of recovery – date/time of failure) / total number of failures
• Frequency – monthly, yearly
• Cloud Delivery Model – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
• Example – 120-minute average

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