Eucalyptus�Open Source Software Supporting Hybrid Cloud Solutions

A popular way of integrating public and private clouds is using Eucalyptus (www.eucalyptus.com). Eucalyptus is an open source software platform that implements IaaS-style cloud computing using the Linux-based infrastructure found in many modern data centers. While it can be deployed solely for private clouds, because it is interface-compatible with Amazon�s AWS, it is possible to move workloads between AWS and the data center without code modification.

Many other cloud vendors support Eucalyptus, so today, it is the most portable option available. Eucalyptus also works with most of the currently available Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), CentOS, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), openSUSE, Debian, and Fedora. Importantly, Eucalyptus can use a variety of virtualization technologies, including VMware, Xen, and KVM, to implement the cloud abstractions it supports. Eucalyptus�s Walrus is an S3-compatible implementation of cloud storage. It is well-described in The Eucalyptus Open-source Cloud-computing System.

The Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) is powered by Eucalyptus and brings an Amazon EC2-like infrastructure inside the firewall. It appears that the recently announced Nimbula, which supports private versions of EC2, is similar.

Ubuntu UEC is open source, with commercial support available from Canonical Ltd., a company founded (and funded) by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth (formerly the official maintainer of Debian, a version of Linux, and founder of Thawte Consulting) for the promotion of free software projects. Canonical is registered in the Isle of Man (part of the Channel Islands), a favorable tax jurisdiction, and employs staff around the world, as well as in its main offices in London. Ubuntu JeOS is an efficient variant of Ubuntu configured specifically for virtual appliances.

Eucalyptus Features and Benefits
The most attractive features of Eucalyptus are:
� Is compatible with Amazon AWS (EC2, S3, and EBS)
� Includes Walrus, an Amazon S3 interface-compatible storage manager
� Has added support for elastic IP assignment
� Has a Web-based interface for cloud configuration
� Provides image registration and image attribute manipulation
� Provides configurable scheduling policies and service level agreements (SLAs)
� Supports multiple hypervisor technologies within the same cloud

The benefits of Eucalyptus include:
� The ability to build a private cloud that can �cloud-burst� into Amazon AWS
� Easy deployment on all types of legacy hardware and software
� Leveraging of the development strength of a worldwide user community
� Compatibility with multiple distributions of Linux, including support for the commercial Linux distributions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

Eucalyptus Enterprise Edition 2.0 was built on the core Eucalyptus open source platform, with additional functionality designed to optimize the building and deploying of massively scalable, high performance private clouds in the enterprise. The latest release adds support for Windows Server 2003 and 2008 and Windows 7 virtual machines. (Previously, only Linux images were supported). Other changes include new accounting and user group management capabilities, allowing administrators to easily define groups of users and allocate different levels of access based on a group�s needs.

The benefits of Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) include:
� It incorporates Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition (April 2009); an enhanced version of Eucalyptus that uses the KVM hypervisor was integrated into the distribution. This allows any user to deploy a cloud that matches the same API employed by AWS.

� Official Ubuntu images have been released that work both on AWS (a Xen-based hypervisor system) and a UEC cloud (a KVMbased hypervisor system)

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

The Battle Over Public and Private Clouds

�Ever since offshoring got hot in the 90s, large companies have been moving toward a model of IT in which the IT services appear to come from a single IT department but are actually an integrated mix of cloud, virtualization and networking services, often provided by external companies,� says Chris Wolf, analyst at The Burton Group.

Supposedly, the big battle today is the conflict between public and private clouds. The issue has produced more heat than light. Consider these well-known facts:

� In olden times (and in some places, even today) , if you wanted water, you dug a well and then drew water. Tap water and indoor plumbing only became available in the late 19th century, and became common only in the mid-20th.

� Before the 20th century, if you wanted clothes, you needed to have them made to measure (�bespoke tailoring� in the British argot). Ready-to-wear clothing, prior to the Civil War, was mostly for outerwear and undergarments. It took the Civil War to give the impetus to building factories that could quickly and efficiently meet the growing clothing demands of the military.

� Electricity use began with on-site generators. In 1895 at Niagara Falls, George Westinghouse opened the first major power plant using alternating current, making it possible to serve many customers and to transport electricity over considerable distances.

In each case, what was once local, time-consuming, and expensive became available to all, in quantity, and inexpensively, perhaps with some sacrifice in customizability.

So it has been with data centers.

Until the microcomputer revolution, all data centers were �bespoke�� that is, made to measure and custom designed. The concept of centrally managed data centers (empires) was justified by the need for control, standardization, and security.

There has always been tension between users, who craved freedom and competitive advantage through agility, innovation, and their own data silos, and the command and control mentality of centralized administration.

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

Advantages of Cloud Hosting Over Remote Hosting

Cloud service providers offer a number of advantages over and above those provided by remote hosting Some vendors, such as Rackspace, offer both, so a look at their offerings makes clear the incremental benefits of cloud hosting:

� Scalability (also called elasticity), the ability to provision one or more servers quickly and to scale up or down quickly

� Pre-configured operating system images, such as a variety of popular Linux distributions: Ubuntu, Debian, Novell (SUSE), Gentoo, Centos, Fedora, Arch, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux and various version of Windows-based servers.

� Virtual servers or physical servers that can be sized to different plans through a control panel, all the way up to 15.5 GB of RAM; servers can be configured with one to four processors and with one to four cores per processor, and disk drives are usually arranged in a fault-tolerant RAID configuration

� Dedicated IP addresses for cloud servers

� Communication among servers in the same cloud (co-located), effectuated at high-speed and free of communications charges

� Replication and/or distribution over various geographical areas

� Persistence provided by a separate cloud storage facility, as storage in a virtual cloud server is not persistent when the server instance is shut down

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

The Divisive Issue of Multitenancy

Multitenancy is a characteristic of SaaS, and sometimes PaaS, where numerous customers run the same application, sharing the same equipment and software, but each accesses only his or her data. Perhaps the best known example is the Google Apps Premier Edition, a SaaS service (www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html). More than two million unique enterprises, each operating under its own domain name, share the same Google infrastructure and cloud, which altogether supports tens of millions of individual users.

Some argue that multitenancy is the conditio sine qua non (a mandatory condition) for �true� cloud computing; certainly, it promises the greatest cost savings. Of course, the cost savings can be offset by the difficulty of scaling an application developed to support a single user to securely support many, as well as the problems of scaling from a single instance to many instances (a bigger, faster server can only take you so far) as the demand grows. In addition, the actual development of a multitenancy system is somewhat more complex, and the testing necessary for security needs to be more stringent.

On the other hand, multitenancy simplifies the release management process. In a traditional release management process, packages containing code and database changes have to be distributed to individual client desktop and/or server machines and individually installed. With browser accessed applications using the multitenant model, the package typically only needs to be installed on a single server and is automatically propagated to other server instances. This greatly simplifies the release management process. (In essence, this is the great-grandchild of service bureaus that handle applications such as payroll on behalf of many different customers).

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

Cloud Deployment Models

Four models of cloud deployment are recognized by NIST.

� 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.

� Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It may be managed by the organizations or a third party and may exist on premise or off premise.

� Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is made available to the general public or a large industry group and is owned by an organization selling cloud services.

� Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds).

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

Cloud Service Models

The three service models defined by NIST are essentially a hierarchy:

� Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer in this highest level is to use the provider�s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a Web browser (e.g., Web-based e-mail). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.


� Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer in this intermediate level is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications developed using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.


� Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

Cloud Computing Essential Characteristics

On-demand self-service. A consumer armed with an appropriate delegation of rights (permission) can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed and automatically, without requiring human interaction with each service�s provider.

Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Resource pooling. The provider�s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of separately allocable resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth,
and virtual machines.

Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to scale out quickly and then rapidly released to scale in quickly. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.

Measured service. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Source of Information : Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

New in the Cloud

Matthew Glotzbach (Director, Product Management, Google Enterprise) listed 10 things that you could do in the clouds in 2009 that you couldn�t do the year before. Not surprisingly, he mostly talked about Google-related things, so his list is not complete. Still, Matthew�s list is a reminder of how far we�ve come in a short space of time.

1. Having access to everything on the go�through an iPhone an Android-based phone like Google�s Nexus One, a BlackBerry, or Apple�s new iPad.

2. Being able to search through all my e-mail quickly from any device using Gmail or Google Apps (see http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7190).

3. Chatting with customers and partners�in any language. Matthew gave a very cool live demo of inline translation of chat; my Web site, eyeonthecloud.com, implements a translate button provided by Google. Last I looked, it translates the site into 52 languages on request. You can do use it too; just copy this code snippet into your Web page:

<div id=�google_translate_element�></div><script>
function googleTranslateElementInit() {
new google.translate.TranslateElement({
pageLanguage: �en�
}, �google_translate_element�);
}
</script><script src=�http://translate.google.com/
translate_a/
element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit�></script>

4. Easy collaboration with Google products Sites and Docs. (Lee Lefavre provides a great explanation of document sharing at http://www.masternewmedia.org/online_collaboration/document-collaboration/Google-Docs-explained-in-simple-words-by-Lee-Lefever-20070919.htm). Online collaboration has been a goal for years; it�s now coming of age.

5. Organizing travel using TripIt, a personal travel assistant (www.tripit.com/).

6. Easily collecting data from co-workers and customers using Google forms (see http://docs.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=15166).

7. Building a scalable business application on the cloud platform with Force.com (see www.salesforce.com/platform or http://developer.force.com/appengine) to create Web and business applications that span both salesforce.com and Google�s cloud computing platforms and take advantage of the key features of both.

8. Using online-templates for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

9. Running fast, secure, and stable Web apps (Chrome; see http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/fresh-take-on-browser.html).

10. Securely sharing video in apps with Youtube for Google apps (see www.google.com/intl/en/press/pressrel/20080902_video_in_apps.html).

Source of Information : Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

We�re Using Cloud Computing Already

Like the fellow who wrote prose but didn�t know it, you and I are using cloud computing more than we realize. I use it and benefit from it every day, and probably you do too. Consider my little business. Like more than a million other businesses, I use the paid version of Google Apps (cloudbased, with an annual fee of $50 per user), so e-mail addressed to my hshco.com domain is hosted by Google, and spam filtering, archiving, and e-discovery are provided by Postini, owned by Google since 2007. Google Apps also maintains my contact list and calendar, which are all accessible from my desktop, synchronized over the cloud to my laptop and Black-Berry, and accessible from anyone else�s computer equipped with a Web browser an Internet connection, and the right credentials. I can access and allow others to collaborate on my documents anywhere through Google Docs, recently enlarged to accept files of up to 1 GB, and terabytes of storage can be rented for a modest annual cost.


Electronic Faxing
I use RingCentral�s cloud-based Rcfax.com (www.rcfax.com) to virtually (electronically) send and receive faxes. Incoming faxes are sent to a telephone number supplied by RingCentral and are routed to my e-mail address as PDF attachments; outgoing messages are sent via e-mail to their service and delivered to fax machines around the world. Google Apps and RCFax, SaaS providers both, interact flawlessly without either one having to do anything special�or even know about each other.


Voice in the Cloud
If you call my published phone number, (201) 490-9623, the call is handled by the cloud-based Google Voice. I can accept the call from any telephone number linked to my Google Voice account (it will try them all, in the priority I specify). It I can�t pick up, you can leave me a message, which I can access through my e-mail, as an SMS message on my BlackBerry, or from
any Internet browser. I can also get a (still imperfect, but usually understandable)
transcript of the message delivered in the same ways.


Commerce in the Cloud
Some of my books are available for sale as downloadable e-books through my Web site (hosted under the covers by Google). It is interfaced with the cloud-based PayLoadz.com (www.payloadz.com) to receive and fulfill orders, which are paid for either using Google Checkout (http://checkout.google.com/sell/), E-bay�s PayPal.com (www.paypal.com), or Amazon Payments (https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/index.htm), cloudbased services all.

The several sites interact seamlessly. For example, you can choose to pay via Google Checkout, via PayPal, or via Amazon�s checkout system. My Web site will hand off seamlessly to Payloadz, which calls the payment service that you selected. After you�ve paid, you will again be handed off seamlessly to the part of PayLoadz that fulfills the order. You never left my site, and I didn�t have to code all that functionality myself�a key characteristic we�ll return to again and again.


Distributed Hosting in the Cloud
A portion of my Web site requires FTP (file transfer) and database services that Google�s hosting doesn�t offer (at least as of this writing). That development subdomain is seamlessly hosted by Godaddy.com. I could just as easily have used Amazon, Rackspace, or any one of hundreds of alternatives.


Accounting and Online Banking in the Cloud
Accounting for my little business is done using the cloud-based version of Quickbooks (http://oe.quickbooks.com/) which interfaces with the online banking system I use at CapitalOne bank (www.capitalone.com) Rather than Quickbooks, I could just as well have used NetSuite Small Business (www.netsuite.com) or several other fine cloud-based alternative. In turn, the bank�s Web-based bill-paying application is handled by a separate cloud-based vendor that interfaces with the cloud-based Automated Clearing House (ACH) system for issuing the electronic checks to pay my bills. Similarly, Intuit has a subsidiary, Intuit Financial Services (formerly Digital Insight), that provides outsourced online statements, check imaging, bill payment and similar services for numerous banks (http://ifs.intuit.com/), a full SaaS application. Most of my income is also received electronically as direct deposit ACH payments (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automated_Clearing_House). When I need to ship an order, PayPal�s MultiOrder Shipping interfaces with a Pitney Bowes application that prints a prepaid label, obtains a tracking number from USPS, and notifies PayPal so it can charge my account. (That�s three major vendors, all interoperating seamlessly with cloud applications).

If I complete an online purchase and go to the merchant�s site to track delivery, I�m usually handed off to UPS, Federal Express, or the USPS, each of which operates tracking systems in the cloud. There are many other interesting cloud services that I use but don�t have space to mention, and even more that I don�t [yet] use. The important message here is that cloud computing can be used not only for enterprise-to-individual interaction, but also for enterprise-toenterprise interaction.

Source of Information :  Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011

Guide to Computer Assisted Surgery

What Is Computer Assisted Surgery?

CAS refers to a surgical concept that involves the use of computer technology. It is also referred to as computer aided surgery, computer assisted intervention, and surgical navigation.

How Does It Work?

CAS combines the precision of computer technology and the skill of a surgeon. The advances in health field have made it possible for medical professionals to use various technologies like 3D imaging and real-time sensing to plan and execute surgical procedures.

In CAS, a virtual 3D model of the anatomical region of the patient to be operated is produced using specialized software. The surgeon examines the 3D model, assesses the case, and plans the surgery carefully.

In many cases, specialized software programs are used to create a moving digital image of the patient's anatomical region as it is moved during the surgery. The image is processed in real time and it serves as a roadmap for the surgical procedure. It also guides the placement of surgical instrument during the surgery. The availability of such real-time data helps the surgeon enormously and allows him to complete the surgery successfully.

What Are the Applications of Computer Assisted Surgery?

Computer technology is used in a variety of standard as well as high precision surgical procedures including ENT surgery, orthopedic surgery, oral and facial surgery, visceral surgery, radiosurgery, and neurosurgery.

What Are the Benefits of CAS?

CAS is one of the important reasons behind the advances in health field, particularly in terms of surgical procedures, in the past few decades. There are a number of reasons why CAS is widely gaining recognition among medical professionals all over the world.

* It creates a virtual three-dimensional model of the anatomical region that is about to be operated. It allows surgeons to plan and simulate the surgery in a virtual, preoperative environment. It reduces the difficulties and risks associated with the surgical procedure significantly.

* It increases the accuracy of the surgical procedure considerably, which means smaller incisions, less pain, less scarring, shorter hospital stay, and shorter recovery time.

* It plays a key role in joint replacement surgeries that require precise implant placement. In a non-CAS surgery, there is always a risk of incorrect prosthetic alignment due to human error. In a CAS surgery, there are no such risks as the surgeon can use real-time data to correct the procedure intra-operatively and make sure the prosthetic is positioned perfectly.

* It increases the precision and accuracy of surgical cuts. It lowers blood loss and reduces the number of embolic occurrences.

* It offers valuable real-time data to the surgeon during the planning, execution, and follow-up of the surgery. It reduces the risk of preoperative, intra-operative, and post-operative complications to a great extent. So, the patient is able to recover and return to his normal life quickly.

Looking Beyond Computer Assisted Surgery

CAS plays a key role in improving the precision and accuracy of surgical procedures and reducing the risks and difficulties associated with the same. It reduces the operating time and makes the job of the surgeon easier.

One of the benefits of CAS is that it has led to other developments in the field of medical science. For example, it is one of the important factors that led to the development of robotic surgery, which is considered one of the incredible advances in health field.

What is Cloud Computing?

At its simplest, cloud computing is the dynamic delivery of information technology resources and capabilities as a service over the Internet. Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. It generally incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).

According to Gartner Group, the attributes of cloud computing are:

� Service-based
� Scalable and elastic
� Shared
� Metered by use
� Use of Internet technologies

The most frequently cited benefits of cloud computing are:
� It is agile, with ease and speed of deployment
� Its cost is use-based, and will likely be reduced
� In-house IT costs are reduced
� Capital investment is reduced
� The latest technology is always delivered
� The use of standard technology is encouraged and facilitated

As applications migrate to the Internet �cloud,� as Internet access becomes ubiquitous, and as low-cost, ultra-lightweight devices (such as the new Apple iPad tablet) and inexpensive, handheld devices built on Google�s Chrome Operating System or on Google�s Android all provide access to what is increasingly the ubiquitous Internet, the number and types of tasks taking advantage of the new technology will increase by several orders of magnitude, going far beyond the comparatively modest list of things that we use computers and the Internet for today.

While a plethora of introductory books related to cloud computing have been published describing how to use specific Google- or Amazon-provided services (a search for �Cloud Computing� on Amazon.com lists more than 927 results), there are few implementation-centered books that focus on the enterprise, the major vendors, the services they provide, how to choose among them, and the supporting vendors, or on how to build real, working applications quickly and economically.

Having seen it all for more than 45 years, I retain a healthy skepticism of the supposedly new and unique. But I remain curious and excited about the truly innovative. Cloud computing is the real deal. It marks a true paradigm shift, whose effects will eventually dwarf those of the dot.com revolution.

Source of Information : Implementing and Developing Cloud Computing Applications 2011