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| Private Cloud | IndianTechnoEra |
Private Cloud
What is Private cloud?
The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for an organization. It may be managed by the organization or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.
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| Private Cloud Architecture | IndianTechnoEra |
Also referred to as internal cloud or on-premise cloud, a private cloud intentionally limits access to its resources to service consumers that belong to the same organization that owns the cloud.
Private Cloud Characteristics:
Heterogeneous infrastructure
Customized and tailored policies
Dedicated resources
In-house infrastructure
End-to-end control
Private Cloud Vendors
There are various vendors for Private cloud vendors
AWS, Cisco, Dell, Google, HPE (Hawlett Packard Enterprise), IBM, Microsoft, OpenStack, SAP, VMware etc.
Private Cloud Market Share
34% AWS-Amazon Web Services
22% Microsoft Azure
9.5% GCP-Google Cloud Platform
06% Alibaba Cloud
Private Cloud Layer
Cloud Stack contains the following layers:
Virtualization Layer lies in between the Physical and Service Layer.
Service Layer.
Physical Layer
This is the layer where all the required hardware are stored. These hardware will be your individual machines, clusters, networking components, storage components etc. These are our data centers.
Features of Physical Layer
Physical Layer consists of thousands of nodes grouped together (i.e. the data centres).
Responsible for communication between the hardware devices and higher layers.
Virtualization Layer
Virtualization Layer (i.e., VMWare) sits on top of the physical Layer and has a set of Virtual Machines generated by this.
Features of Virtualization Layer:
Key enabling technology.
Pool of Virtual Machines (VMs) are created from the underneath physical resource.
Basically, this layer is a key enabling technology, that creates a pool of virtual machines which can be used in one form or the other by the consumer.
This layer of Virtual Machines forms the first service model which is called Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Service Layers
The Service Layers include:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Platform as a Service (PaaS).
Software as a Service (SaaS).
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
The layers of Virtual Machines (VMs) forms the first service model which is known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model.
When consumer use this service of Infrastructure, they will be given these Virtual Machines, and the consumers can install their own Operating System, software etc.
In these Virtual Machines which behave as if the underneath hardware (i.e., physical Layer) is being accessed through the Virtual Machine.
So, the consumers actually rent for Infrastructure (which is the underneath physical Layer), but in reality they rent the Virtual Machines which represent the underlying hardware.
In other words, the consumers pay for the Infrastructure, but utilize the service of Virtual Machines which represent the physical Layer.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Next in the stack comes the Platform Layer, where all the software relevant to creating the middleware are kept such as Java, SQL Server, C#, PHP, Python, System Compilers, System Software etc.
Everything is available on this platform layer of the stack as the service.
This is provided to the users as Platform as a Service (PaaS), where these software are borrowed by the consumers. So, consumers don’t borrow the Infrastructure (as in the case of IaaS), but they borrow the platform (i.e. PaaS) which contains certain software as per their requirement on top of the specification of hardware, as per the requirement given by the virtual machine, and they can use that platform.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Finally, the Application Layer, where all the application software (i.e., gmail, facebook, twitter, Google drive etc.) will be installed in the cloud stack, which the organization can utilize.
Here, lots of applications will be provided as a service to the consumers, which is called SaaS. Hence, when we want Infrastructure, we can use IaaS, when we want Platform, we can use PaaS and when we want application, we can use SaaS. Also, lower service layer supports the upper service layer i.e. SaaS needs PaaS, IaaS and Physical layer, while PaaS needs IaaS and Physical Layer.
Private Cloud Pros-Cons
Pros of Private Cloud
1. Increased Security: Private clouds offer much more security than public clouds because they are isolated from other networks, allowing only specific users to access the data and applications hosted on the cloud.
2. Customization: Private clouds provide more customization options than public clouds, allowing users to tailor their cloud environment to their exact needs.
3. Improved Scalability: Private clouds can be scaled up or down quickly and easily, allowing for improved performance when needed.
4. Reduced Costs: Private clouds are generally less expensive than public clouds since they are tailored to a company’s exact needs.
Cons of Private Cloud:
There are following advantage of private cloud;
1. Cost: Private clouds can be expensive to set up and maintain, particularly for smaller businesses.
2. Maintenance: Private clouds require regular maintenance and upkeep, which can be a burden for IT departments.
3. Lack of Flexibility: Private clouds lack the flexibility of public clouds, which can be used to quickly and easily deploy new applications or services.
4. Limited Resources: Private clouds are limited to the resources available on the physical network, which can limit scalability and performance.
Private Cloud Setup
How to setup Private Cloud?
Assessment
The first step for an organization going in for a private cloud setup is assessment. Here, the enterprise assesses existing infrastructure, people and other assets with respect to its IT portfolio.
IT assets are benchmarked in terms of performance, availability and scalability, so that a cost-benefit analysis can be carried out based on the target cloud platform. An ROI model and a high-level strategy document should be prepared.
Consolidation
The next step in private cloud setup is consolidation. All avenues for consolidation of IT infrastructure and budgets should be explored and implemented. For instance, if an organization has multiple data centers, it can consider discarding some of them.
The organization should then consolidate the data in a central location to cater to requirements for the entire region. The central data center must have cloud properties, so that it is robust enough to cater to all the data from different regions.
Virtualization
After consolidating IT assets, consider virtualization of IT infrastructure. This step in the private cloud setup journey will help optimize consolidated infrastructure.
Generally, hardware sizing is done with a view to peak requirement/usage of that hardware. Organizations should ascertain the extent to which hardware is underutilized.
Migration:
Application standardization
Application performance
Application standardization:
Once the infrastructure is virtualized and the data center consolidated, consider application migration. Applications are assessed from a functional and non-functional perspective and accordingly selected or rejected for migration to the cloud.
Application architecture standardization is an important factor. This involves building standard reference architecture, comparing it with the current application architecture, and establishing the gap between the two.
Any anomalies have to be eliminated at this stage, modifying the applications as required, to conform to the reference cloud architecture.
Application performance:
On a virtualized cloud platform there are certain qualities that are expected from applications. Let’s assume the application accesses a file using a specific URL and a specific path. The cloud has no standard specific location of files because if the machine goes down, the file is lost and the application too goes down.
On a cloud platform you cannot expect the application to access the file using a uniform path, when the same file can be located in multiple places on the cloud. Thus the application needs to be modified such that it doesn’t expect the file to be in a specific location.
Automation:
The next step in the private cloud setup journey is automation, wherein qualities such as self-provisioning are incorporated in applications.
For instance, if load on an application unexpectedly increases while it is running, a traditional environment would demand procurement of a new server, installation of the application and connection to the network, for the additional load to be handled.
However in a private cloud setup, the application should have the self-scaling capacity to form a new virtual machine (VM), install itself in the virtual environment and commence servicing the new request.
Optimization:
The move to a private cloud setup is invariably prompted by potential cost and performance benefits. The final, optimization stage involves scrutiny of the metrics.
After three months of running the applications on the private cloud setup, observe the metrics generated and evaluate whether targets are being met.
Based on this analysis, modifications can be incorporated to attain the maximum benefit. This is the highest maturity level of the private cloud setup journey.
Virtual Private Cloud
What is Private Cloud?
A virtual private cloud (VPC) is a secure, isolated private cloud hosted within a public cloud.
VPC customers can run code, store data, host websites, and do anything else they could do in an ordinary private cloud, but the private cloud is hosted remotely by a public cloud provider.
VPCs combine the scalability and convenience of public cloud computing with the data isolation of private cloud computing.
Imagine a public cloud as a crowded restaurant, and a virtual private cloud as a reserved table in that crowded restaurant. Even though the restaurant is full of people, a table with a "Reserved" sign on it can only be accessed by the party who made the reservation.
Similarly, a public cloud is crowded with various cloud customers accessing computing resources – but a VPC reserves some of those resources for use by only one customer.
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| Virtual Private Cloud Architecture | IndianTechnoEra |
How is a VPC isolated within a public cloud?
A VPC isolates computing resources from the other computing resources available in the public cloud. The key technologies for isolating a VPC from the rest of the public cloud are:
a. Subnets
b. VLAN
c. VPN
Some VPC providers offer additional customization with:
a. Network Address Translation (NAT)
b. BGP route configuration
VPC Examples
AWS - Amazon Virtual Private Cloud
Amazon VPC enables you to launch AWS resources into a virtual network that you've defined.
This virtual network closely resembles a traditional network that you'd operate in your own data center, with the benefits of using the scalable infrastructure of AWS.
VPC Vendors (Providers)
Here are the top 5 VPC providers;
Amazon VPC
Google Cloud VPC
IBM Cloud Private
Microsoft Azure Virtual Network (Azure VNet)
VMware vCloud Air
VPC Pros-Cons
Advantage of Virtual Cloud Computing
Scalability
Easy hybrid cloud deployment
Better performance
Better security
Increased security: VPCs offer a secure, isolated environment where you can control access to resources and set up security policies.
Improved scalability: VPCs enable you to easily scale your cloud resources.
Reduced cost: You can use VPCs to create a hybrid cloud architecture that allows you to optimize costs by taking advantage of different compute and storage options.
Flexibility: VPCs provide a high level of flexibility and control over where your resources are located.
Disadvantage of Virtual Cloud Computing
Complexity: VPCs are more complex than traditional cloud architectures and require more management.
Limited availability: VPCs are limited to certain regions and may not be available in your area.
Increased costs: A VPC requires more resources and expertise, leading to higher costs.