Understanding IaaS in Cloud Computing

8 of 17 in Series: The Essentials of Services in Cloud Computing

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) refers to the renting of computer hardware (servers, networking technology, storage, and data center space) instead of buying and installing it in your own data center. Operating systems and virtualization technology to manage these resources can also be rented for use in a company’s cloud computing environment. More and more companies are looking to defray costs and gain flexibility by leveraging infrastructure that can be used on demand. What does this mean to you and your cloud computing environment?

• Think about how you’re getting your services.

• Understand which services include a set of well-defined interfaces and which ones will lock you in to a complex set of services that will be difficult to move away from.

• Know why you’re using a cloud service. For example, if you need some temporary capacity to test a new application, your requirements will be very different than if you’re creating an application that will operate in a cloud.

In addition to understanding potential cloud gains, get familiar with how your infrastructure service provider handles the following capabilities:

• Explicitly defines service level agreements for availability, support, and performance (of provisioning more resource)

• A utility computing billing arrangement, relating cost to actual resource usage in a measured way

• A virtualization environment that enables the configuration of systems (for compute power, bandwidth, and storage) as well as the creation individual virtual machines (all to be available on an ad hoc basis)

• A flexible, extensible, resource-rich environment that’s engineered for secure multi-tenancy (multiple users or tenants running the software in a shared environment on its servers)

• Internet connectivity, including a Web services interface to the customer’s management environment.

Cloud Computing Glossary

cloud computing

A networking solution in which everything — from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes to personal collaboration — is delivered as a service wherever and whenever you need.

Cloud Computing Glossary

cloud service

The delivery of software, infrastructure, or storage that has been packaged so it can be automated and delivered to customers in a consistent and repeatable manner.

Cloud Computing Glossary

deprovision

The release of cloud services that are no longer needed.

Cloud Computing Glossary

federating

Linking distributed resources together over the cloud.

Cloud Computing Glossary

hypervisor

An operating system that acts as a traffic cop, managing the various virtualization tasks in the cloud to ensure that they make things happen in an orderly manner.

Cloud Computing Glossary

multi-tenancy

The sharing of underlying resources by multiple companies over a cloud.

Cloud Computing Glossary

network attached store

Storage that has its own network address through which it is accessed by the network's workstation users. Acronym: NAS

Cloud Computing Glossary

service level agreement

A contract that stipulates the type of service you need from providers and what type of penalties would result from an unexpected business interruption. Acronym: SLA

Cloud Computing Glossary

solution stack

An integrated set of software that provides everything a developer needs to build an application.

Cloud Computing Glossary

storage area network

A storage systems that is flexible and scalable because it's available to multiple hosts at the same time. Acronym: SAN

Cloud Computing Glossary

vertical industry groups

Workgroups comprised of members from a particular industry such as technology and retail.

Cloud Computing Glossary

virtual memory

The portion of your hard drive that Windows uses to expand the available RAM

Cloud Computing Glossary

virtualization

Using computer resources to imitate other computer resources or whole computers to maximize performance and flexibility.