Sunday, February 14, 2016

The power of Cloud Computing

The power of Cloud Computing  Point of view on

IBM Smart Cloud

Executive summary

There is huge requirement for internet based computing, shared resources, data used by the organization and information which need to be used by the firms. The need based upon on demand services and data models. Many of the organizations in the world are struggling with their data holding capacity or storage problem along with shared services and infrastructure.
Now a days organization want a specific or dedicated center for data/infra/services so that they can use them for their smooth work. The main objective of this document is to provide the overview of cloud computing and to discuss approach designed by IBM called “IBM Smart Cloud”.

Abstract
IBM is offering set of cloud computing service that is based on public/private/hybrid models. Cloud computing can really reduce the management effort for any organization.in today’s world most of the companies are switching their traditional dedicated service and now moving to open and shared infrastructure and pay as one uses it. With the help of hardware virtualizationservice-oriented architecture, and autonomic and utility computing we can reduce the cost and other efforts. Companies can scale up as computing needs increase and then scale down again as demands decrease. IBM Smart cloud is offering service in different sectors like Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)software as a service (SaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). IBM started its experiment for cloud computing in the year of 1960 and developed virtual machine for software testing and development.


                                           Figure 1: Application services models
IBM is offering cloud computing services in the below mentioned sectors in an aggressive manner.

  1.     Cloud based collaboration,
  2.      Development and test
  3.      Application development
  4.      Analytics, 
  5.      Business-to-Business integration
  6.      Security
This paper will give the brief information about how IBM Smart cloud can help the business. As an offering from IBM they are providing variety of services to the customers. They are giving entry points, control and integrated values. Their system has the capability to support new and existing infrastructures investments to provide seamless execution of work. Smart Cloud can provide the service even if the existing system is working on middleware applications. IBM has designed three umbrellas to support their cloud solutions as mentioned below.

  1.  Smart cloud foundation
  2.          Smart cloud services
  3.          Smart cloud solutions

IBM offers services under variety of model such as public/private and hybrid but they are not strictly distinct.

IBM Smart Cloud Models

IBM has designed their models based on customer needs. IBM offered the flexibility to the customers to design their own models based on their requirements, it also offer the combination of models to suffice the need of the customers. Following are the traditional models that are offered by IBM.
  •         Private  models
  •      Public   models
  •         Hybrid   models

Again private models are divided in multiple categories where the ownership is provided between multiple stakeholders. There are certain private models where the customer has full rights for its operation and ownership. In others models where customer has the ownership rights but the operation part is handled by the IBM or any other provider. In some cloud services IBM has the rights for its operation and ownership. But as per the latest business scenarios majority of the cloud users are using hybrid models to suffice their need.

Public Smart Cloud model
A public model where cloud infrastructure and data storage service are available for general public or large scale industry or group. In these kind of platforms ownership and authorizations are maintained by the organization. IBM Smart cloud enterprise is the best example of these kind of services. Smart cloud will provide this models at a subscription rate or at no cost since these kind of models are basically for training or public service purposes.




Private Smart Cloud model
A private model where the cloud infrastructure is exclusively for a specific organization or service provider. And that service provider has all the rights for centralized service management and economies of scale. In private models the service provider has greater access control than public players. Because of latency, security, or regulatory concerns most of the service provider adopted this kind of models.  In private cloud infrastructure data center can be hosted by the third party based on the need.

Hybrid Smart Cloud model
These models are nothing but a combination of private and public models. There are certain customers which needs different models for different service areas like data center storage and infrastructure management. In these kind of models the ownership can be distributed between service provider and IBM based on their need.


Problem Statement: Where we can actually fit IBM Smart Cloud
Whenever you are managing production environment there is a need of capacity planning and optimization.it will help to reduce the cost and burden of the project but it is a very complex and challenging process. When the customer is using virtual environment like VMware this process will become more complex.
 Statistical analysis of the key bottlenecks and an understanding of the system capacity is much needed.

Case study: Image management of branches with VMware using IBM Smart Cloud

VMware was using different offices to support their branch operation and they need infrastructure   support to complete this requirement because they want a reliable and constant desktop experience. They want to integrate their software and hardware requirement both in a seamless manner. The SmartCloud Desktop Infrastructure solution is based on a joint reference architecture with VMware that supports a wide range of hardware and software. By using IBM Smart Cloud Desktop Infrastructure the VMware has the flexibility choose what you need to meet your unique business requirements while giving your employees more flexible, secure and productive ways to work. This solution simply, securely and cost effectively addresses the requirements of branch office employees while maximizing worker uptime and efficiency.
Where wide area networks are robust and reliable, VMware View with VMware vShield and vCenter Operations Manager for View enable organizations to do more with less and to adopt an automated, policy driven approach to managing end users in their branches.

                        Figure 2: IBM desktop infrastructure Solution
By using VMware View physical appliances from the VMware Rapid Desktop Program, IT organizations that need a more distributed virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) model can move the infrastructure closer to end users to optimize application response times and improve performance. IT can, in turn, remotely manage, patch and back up user information in the data center. Many use cases defined in the solution require persistent user information across sessions. The biggest cost savings, both in terms of capital expenditures and operating expenditures, can be achieved by using “stateless” desktops. VMware View has a feature called “persona management” which maintains user data and profile persistence across stateless sessions.

Conclusion
Transitioning to a virtualized environment from traditional desktops can be a time-consuming effort. It often requires specialized skills that are not readily available in-house. Implementations must be carefully managed to support a wide variety of users, applications and complementary software to help provide the security and management functions necessary to succeed.
References:
       IBM Smart Cloud  -  Wikipedia

Author - Ravi Upadhyay

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