ACCT
ACCT
ACCT
Levels of Virtualization
Virtualization is not a new concept. It has existed since 1960; however, it is only now, thanks
to the cloud-based systems, that there has been a lot of attention given to the implementation
of virtualization in Cloud Computing. It is the capacity that lets you run many computer
system instances using the same hardware set. How you use the hardware can be varied,
which is based on how the virtual machine is configured.
A very amazing yet simple example of virtualization is your PC or your laptop. You run
Windows on your laptop, but thanks to virtualization, you can also run Ubuntu on our laptop
today.
It is not simple to set up virtualization. Your computer runs on an operating system that gets
configured on some particular hardware. It is not feasible or easy to run a different operating
system using the same hardware.
To do this, you will need a hypervisor. Now, what is the role of the hypervisor? It is a bridge
between the hardware and the virtual operating system, which allows smooth functioning.
Talking of the Implementation levels of virtualization in Cloud Computing., there are a total
of five levels that are commonly used. Let us now look closely at each of these levels of
virtualization implementation in Cloud Computing.
For the basic emulation, an interpreter is needed, which interprets the source code and then
converts it into a hardware format that can be read. This then allows processing. This is one
of the five implementation levels of virtualization in Cloud Computing..
Multiple users will not be able to use the same hardware and also use multiple virtualization
instances at the very same time. This is mostly used in the cloud-based infrastructure.
When there are several users and no one wants to share the hardware, then this is where the
virtualization level is used. Every user will get his virtual environment using a dedicated
virtual hardware resource. In this way, there is no question of any conflict.
4) Library Level
The operating system is cumbersome, and this is when the applications use the API from the
libraries at a user level. These APIs are documented well, and this is why the library
virtualization level is preferred in these scenarios. API hooks make it possible as it controls
the link of communication from the application to the system.
This involves creating a virtual environment at the library level, enabling applications to run
in isolation by providing virtualized libraries. It allows multiple versions of libraries to
coexist on the same system, preventing conflicts between applications that require different
library versions. This can be achieved through tools like LD_PRELOAD in Linux.
5) Application Level
The application-level virtualization is used when there is a desire to virtualize only one
application and is the last of the implementation levels of virtualization in Cloud Computing.
One does not need to virtualize the entire environment of the platform.
This is generally used when you run virtual machines that use high-level languages. The
application will sit above the virtualization layer, which in turn sits on the application
program.
It lets the high-level language programs compiled to be used at the application level of the
virtual machine run seamlessly.
Conclusion
1. Public Cloud:
o Description: Public clouds are owned and operated by third-party cloud
service providers, and resources such as servers and storage are delivered over
the internet. Users share the same infrastructure with other organizations
(multi-tenancy).
Examples:
Amazon Web Services (AWS): Offers a wide range of cloud services
including EC2 (compute), S3 (storage), RDS (databases), and more.
Microsoft Azure: Provides services like Azure VMs, Azure Blob Storage,
Azure SQL Database, and various AI/ML services.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP): Includes services such as Compute Engine,
Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and Kubernetes Engine.
Advantages: Cost-effective, scalable, no maintenance (managed by the
provider), easy to deploy.
Disadvantages: Less control over the infrastructure, potential security and
privacy concerns.
2. Private Cloud:
o Description: Private clouds are dedicated to a single organization and can be
hosted either on-premises or by a third-party provider. They provide more
control and security over the infrastructure.
o Example
P Morgan Chase utilizes a private cloud to meet stringent security and
regulatory requirements in the banking sector.
o NASA uses a private cloud for its computing needs to maintain control
over sensitive data and research.
o Advantages: Greater control and customization, enhanced security and
privacy, compliance with regulations.
o Disadvantages: Higher costs, requires maintenance and management, less
scalable compared to public cloud.
(a) On-site Private Cloud (b) Out-sourced Private Cloud
3. Hybrid Cloud:
o Description: Hybrid clouds combine public and private clouds, allowing data
and applications to be shared between them. This provides greater flexibility
and optimized workload management.
o Examples:
o General Electric (GE) uses a hybrid cloud strategy to manage its vast
industrial IoT data, combining public and private clouds for optimal
performance and security.
o Adobe integrates its private data centers with public cloud services to balance
load and ensure high availability.
o Advantages: Flexibility, optimized cost, enhanced security and compliance,
seamless integration of on-premises and cloud resources.
o Disadvantages: Complex to manage, potential security risks due to data
transfer between environments.
4. Community Cloud:
o Description: Community clouds are shared among several organizations with
similar requirements and concerns, such as security, compliance, or
jurisdiction. The infrastructure is jointly owned and operated by the
community.
Examples
The European Union's Cloud Initiative provides a community cloud for
member states to share resources and data securely.
Healthcare consortia use community clouds to share patient data securely while
complying with regulations like HIPAA.
Advantages: Cost sharing, enhanced security and compliance for specific
needs, collaborative development.
o Disadvantages: Limited scalability compared to public clouds, potential
complexity in management and governance.
o Use Cases:
o Government agencies sharing data and resources for better coordination.
o Healthcare organizations collaborating on research and sharing medical
records.
o Educational institutions sharing resources for research and development.
Each deployment model offers different benefits and trade-offs, making them suitable for
various types of organizations and use cases. The choice of a deployment model depends on
factors such as cost, security, compliance, control, and specific business needs.
ACCT Assignment 3
Open Stack
t is a free open standard cloud computing platform that first came into
existence on July 21′ 2010. It was a joint project of Rackspace Hosting
and NASA to make cloud computing more ubiquitous in nature. It is
deployed as Infrastructure-as-a-service(IaaS) in both public and private
clouds where virtual resources are made available to the users. The
software platform contains interrelated components that control multi-
vendor hardware pools of processing, storage, networking resources
through a data center. In OpenStack, the tools which are used to build this
platform are referred to as “projects”. These projects handle a large
number of services including computing, networking, and storage
services. Unlike virtualization, in which resources such as RAM, CPU, etc
are abstracted from the hardware using hypervisors, OpenStack uses a
number of APIs to abstract those resources so that users and the
administrators are able to directly interact with the cloud services.
OpenStack components
Features of OpenStack
Use Cases