Cloud Computing& Business

Tim PrestonTuesday,

September 27, 2011

Presentation Gameplan

1. Cloud computing & business introduction2. Business approaches to cloud computing3. Cloud financial decision models4. Recommendations

Cloud Computing Quotes…and Hidden Agendas

Articles Surveyed

• Dispelling the vapor around cloud computing. IBM• Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud

Computing. UC Berkeley• Cloud Computing ROI Assessment. BTC Logic• Cost of cloud computing, expensive! up.time IT

Systems Management Blog

* The Berkeley article argues that private clouds are not included in cloud computing.

*

IBM’s take on the cloud• Industry-wide survey of companies in 2009• Findings:– Private clouds > public clouds right now– Privacy/security are #1 barrier– Many workloads are cloud-inappropriate

• Survey bias: large companies (1k-10k employees)

• My opinion: small/startup companies need the cloud more than anyone!

Berkeley View

Next: Berkeley economic arguments to support cloud computing

Berkeley Cloud Performance Assessment

• In practice, virtual machines can share CPU’s and main memory surprisingly well.– CPU’s already handle context switching well; VM-

switching is similar to a special case of this.– Ex., when running the STREAM memory benchmark on

75 EC2 instances, μ = 1355 MB/s, and σ = 52 MB/s (< 4% of μ)

• I/O, via disks and the network, are another story.– Ex., for a 1 GB disk write by 75 EC2 instances, μ = 55

MB/s, and σ = 9 MB/s (> 16% of μ)– Network issues will be discussed next…

Data transfer bottlenecks

If this statement is true, then we are better off with a cloud.Note: this model assumes that revenue is proportional to user hours, and that revenue is not affected by whether we’re on a cloud or not.

Berkeley Cloud Decision Model

More Detailed Cloud Decision Modeling

• Next, we’ll examine BTC Logic’s model– Based on ROI (Return on Investment) analysis– Concrete calculations are based on a blog entry by

up.time IT Systems Management Blog

http://www.uptimesoftware.com/uptimeblog/cloud-virtualization/cost-of-cloud-computing-expensive/

Recommendations FOR clouds• Startup business can greatly benefit from public

clouds by “testing the waters” without making risky hardware purchase decisions

• Servers with “spike & flatline” demand• Non-computing businesses: public clouds can help

companies focus on core competencies• Web software companies: public clouds can allow

all employees to work in one location – not necessarily the location where web apps are hosted– Ex., California developers & Idaho electricity costs

Recommendations AGAINST clouds• Software shouldn’t be in the cloud if:– It’s subject to government regulations or

auditability requirements; ex., Sarbanes-Oxley– It processes very sensitive information; ex., health

care records– Its workloads are network-heavy, and heavy

control of bandwidth is required; ex., streaming audio/video applications

– It can be easily run independently on a user’s desktop (why bother putting it on a cloud?)