CLOUD solution architecture has evolved over the last couple of years, and today is ready for mass adoption by enterprises. Essentially Virtualization is the key disruptive technology which enables the CLOUD as we know it today. VMWare, Citrix followed by others have pioneered the concept of Virtual Machines (VM), and played a key role in the de-facto standardization of the same to bring to this stage of enterprise adoption. VM is a block of portable data/software/registers, which can be planted on a given compute platform in almost real-time speed, or instantaneously. Thus compute capacity can be increased or decreased at will, by increasing or decreasing the number of VM’s. Another unique characteristic of the VM is that it is migratable across physical compute platforms within the same rack, or across neighboring racks, or across geographies. This unique virtue of VM Migratability provides the benefit of flexibility and elasticity to the CLOUD compute platform. The VM migration creates new challenges to Network I/O underneath – Network I/O should be able to support fast, low latency, high bandwidth interconnect between VM’s and VM’s and data.Virtualization and Network I/O challenges
Not all enterprise applications have the same compute, and i/o requirements. Enterprise applications vary and exhibit unique characteristics interms of Compute requirements and data movement requirements. As an example a CLOUD Search Engine will run compute intensive search algorithm across many-many simultaneous VM instances (in most cases VM instances across geographies) and each one of them sorting data. A CLOUD Video services application will need the VM to move large amounts of data at real time rate from the storage to each subscriber. Data movement between VM's and storage is a significant factor to consider. The choice of the Network fabric underneath becomes significant. A highly optimized Switching fabric is needed to interconnect VM<->VM; VM<->Storage; VM<->Users. The underlying network must also provide end to end QoS on the packet data path. A highly optimized fast and low latency Network I/O fabric is another key Puzzle piece.
Storage in the CLOUD
Storage is a architecture to move blocks of data or files to & fro the Compute Platform to remote disks, via specialized interconnect links. SAN and NAS are two predominant architectures, both of which are protocols designed to operate over optimized network I/O. The SCSI was the earliest interconnect standard. SCSI has since then evolved to support faster and fatter I/O thru SCSI-over-Fiber Channel OR SCSI-over-Ethernet. Fiber Channel and Ethernet is the Physical layer on which the SCSI protocols are mapped. Ethernet is rapidly evolving from 1Gg to 10Gig and beyond, and with several vendors and standards body behind it to address its shortcomings; it is not surprising that historically Ethernet has proved to be the most preferred standards based Network I/O. In summary the Storage Interconnections is another part of the CLOUD solution puzzle.
CLOUD 1.0
The above pieces of the Puzzle have been around and are well researched and several vendors providing robust solutions for each puzzle part. CLOUD solution providers have integrated the individual solutions to form a CLOUD based application delivery model. This CLOUD Model can be called as the CLOUD1.0 Model. The focus of the CLOUD1.0 was on consolidation of resources to reduce computing, storage and power consumption costs. The model had early adopters in Enterprises to serve applications largely limited to the mobile workforce. It did not find mass adoption to deliver applications to workforce within the Enterprise walls. Several concerns and issues remained in the minds of CIO/Network Administrators, impeding the widespread adoption.
Vision of the CLOUD 2.0 Model
Several new approaches have emerged to enhance the CLOUD Model and make it more acceptable for mass adoption. Several solution providers have built solutions targeted to address the concerns of the CIO’s and the in the process created more pieces of the Puzzle which on integration, enables the evolution to the next-generation CLOUD Solution model, referred here as CLOUD 2.0. A rough illustration of the CLOUD Model 2.0 is shown here:-
Before going into the individual pieces of the Puzzle, let’s take a look at the advantages the CLOUD Model2.0 delivers and thus positions itself for wide spread adoption to deliver services for workforce inside the enterprise walls.
- Enterprise grade High Speed Wireless Access Network, Controlled and Managed from the cloud. Further lowers the TCO of the network
- Traditional Security services to secure popular applications like Email, WEB2.0 applications, Data Loss prevention tools – controlled and managed from Cloud. Mitigates CIO concerns and further lowers TCO.
- Conventional WAN Acceleration solutions required active management by onsite Network Administrators. WAN acceleration services are needed on links between the Enterprise site and the Cloud. Cloud deployed WAN acceleration solutions with onsite client solutions are becoming available, which becomes one more part of the Puzzle. This further removes complexity of Network optimization management and further reduces Network TCO.
- Several Cloud applications are becoming available from hosted application vendors. Most of these applications would need to be secured individually as simple Network security services are not enough. Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and corporate business policies have to be monitored for compliance on all traffic to/from the Enterprise and the Cloud. Application Security and DLP solutions deployed and managed from the Cloud are becoming available, which becomes one more part of the Puzzle. This further reduces the complexity and TCO for the CIO and Network Administrator.
CLOUD 2.0 Enterprise
An enterprise adopting the CLOUD 2.0 model is illustrated below. It is important to note some significant changes which have made this movement. Let’s take a look at them.
CLOUD based Managed Secure “Wireless Network-on-Tap” Service
A typical enterprise today, has a wired switching at each enterprise site as a primary network access medium. Wireless access is fast becoming the preferred network access medium. The 802.11n WLAN standard makes a big difference, as it provides 200Mbps data transfer throughput and coming standards promise to ramp this up still higher. The technology of hosting a Wireless Network Control function on VM’s is a significant game changer. The enterprise sites have Radio Nodes (RN) installed on ceilings to provide Wireless Coverage and Capacity. A minimalistic Ethernet infrastructure exists on-site to connect the radio nodes. The configuration, control and management of the Radio Node is done by the hosted Wireless Controller in the CLOUD. The enterprise Network administrator has access to configure the Wireless Network Controller and apply appropriate network polices, user policies, QoS policies, filters etc. The Hosted Wireless LAN Controller approach enables the collapse of the on-site network infrastructure in the enterprise, without sacrificing on mobility, bandwidth and security, and reduces the cost of delivering network access.
With respect to securing the Wireless Network infrastructure, standards have evolved making the WLAN access as secure as the wired network access, and coupled with specialized Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems can detect and also prevent intrusions in real-time.
Several leading enterprises have begun to adopt the Wireless LAN as a primary network access medium.
The rise of Tablets and Notebooks
Gone are the days when Mobility applications were only meant for workers on the move, inside and outside the enterprise premises. Today Mobility has become an integral need for the entire workforce as the need for always-on-connectivity is the new paradigm. Android and Apple tablets are bringing in volumes which are driving investment to design newer, lighter, faster and longer battery life tablets by all vendors. In the market share game, Desktop gave way to Laptops, and Laptops to notebooks and now notebooks to Tablets. Substantial percentage of enterprise workforce in the near future will carry handheld computers of some kind as compared to tethered desktops. Enterprise centered around "always connected mobility handhelds" always connected on the Wireless Infrasructure is another significant disruptive game changer technology.
Enterprise Security services on the tap from CLOUD
Traditional means of securing the enterprise meant deploying Perimeter Firewall, Anti-Virus, Spam filters, Web URL filters, NAC systems, Data Loss Prevention systems. A new generation company; ZScaler has taken the hassle out of installing so many appliances, by providing security services on the tap from Cloud deployed servers. It acts like a giant Proxy in the Cloud and all the enterprise network administrator has to do is to point the browsers to the Cloud Proxy. It secures email content, blocks spam, detects WEB2.0 attacks, and more. The Hosted Enterprise Security services is going to be play a significant role in mitigating concerns of CIO’s and Network administrators in moving towards CLOUD 2.0 architecture.
Delivering on the CLOUD promise
The coming together of disruptive technologies described above namely: - “Secure Wireless Network on Tap”, “Enterprise Handheld computing platforms”, “Enterprise Security services on Tap”, “WAN Acceleration hosted services” together promise a new generation of CLOUD which is referred here as CLOUD 2.0. It presents an opportunity for enterprises to move towards an ALL CLOUD deployed enterprise information services, which helps in reducing TCO, improving power consumption budgets, lowering enterprise carbon footprint, enhancing application availability to the entire enterprise.
In the next series we will look at some ideas on how CLOUD2.0 can be architected to be deployed in Hybrid Cloud Model for further acceleration in adoption by SMB’s and Enterprises.
