research paper APA format

Drawn from chapter 1 of the CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide (Montgomery, 2016).

What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is essentially outsourcing datacenter operations, applications, or a section of operations to a provider of computing resources often called a cloud company or cloud service provider. The consumer of cloud services pays either monthly or by the amount of usage of the service. We will explore many different models and types of cloud computing in this book. Throughout this book we will be referencing the National Institute of Standards document NIST SP 800-145 as the main source of cloud computing definitions. NIST defines cloud computing as …a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. We will take a close look at all aspects of cloud computing as we progress on our journey to obtain the Cloud+ certification and provide much more detail to this general definition.

Computing as a Utility Service

We are accustomed to many services provided by utilities such as electricity and water into our homes; however, we do not get involved in the details of how these services are created and delivered—we just want the final product and to pay for what we use. Traditionally, computing did not follow this model. Instead a company or individual would purchase all the hardware and software to meet the needs of the corporation or individual. Individuals had to purchase the most up-to-date systems since the investment was high and they couldn’t always upgrade to new models. For large companies this would be an even bigger capital investment since they needed to maintain a staff of specialized engineers to operate and maintain the systems. Also, the solution had to have the added capacity to grow and to handle peak processing loads even if it often was not being used. Special rooms were needed to host the equipment and to power and cool the datacenter servers. Security of the data access had to be at a high level depending on the data and constantly upgraded to guard against security breaches and viruses. Cloud computing follows the utilities model where a provider will sell computing resources on an as-needed or as-consumed model. This allows a company or individual to pay for only what they use and has many additional advantages that we will explore throughout this book.

The Growth of the Cloud

The market and adoption of the cloud computing business has exploded worldwide as it has been adopted by the mainstream of companies and has moved from early adopters to general acceptance in the marketplace today. While there are many statistics and measurements of the size of the market, it is has been growing between 15 and 30 percent annually worldwide and is well over a $120 billion market in 2016, with many estimates that are much higher. What is clear is that the economics and business advantages of cloud computing are compelling companies to move more and more applications to the cloud, fueling additional growth well into the future.

Why Do This?

There are many advantages to moving to the cloud, but three stand out as compelling business and operations alternatives to hosting computing resources internally in a privately owned datacenter:

• In the past when computing resources were needed there was often a long delay of procuring, installing, and configuring all of the pieces needed to host an application. With a cloud solution, the equipment is already running in a cloud provider’s datacenter and you can begin using the service in record time, often as short as a few minutes.
• From a financial perspective, a company’s expenditures can be reduced as they avoid the large upfront costs of purchasing the needed computing equipment and ongoing support expenses associated with maintaining your own computing environment. Cloud computing with its pay-as-you-go billing model frees up a company’s capital budget to be used for other needs within a company.
• As the need to add capacity is reached, a cloud computing model can expand capacity almost immediately as compared to a corporate datacenter, where long delays are often experienced due to the need to procure, install, and configure the new equipment.

Prompt

Cloud computing services enable users to be mobile and access resources and information from their phones, tablets, laptops and other devices. Some services, such as Apple’s iCloud, also enable users to have multiple devices all connected to the same cloud account so that any and all information generated between them is also stored and accessible from any connected device. This service also enables the seamless exchange of connections as users change devices, like live phone calls. For this discussion, research a cloud service that facilitates mobility, such as the Apple iCloud or competing service, and address how this service meets user mobility needs. Discuss how a business might benefit from such a service. Support your response with at least one external citation and reference following APA 6 formatting requirements.

References

Montgomery, T. (2016). CompTIA cloud study guide: Exam CV0-001. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1119243229

Drawn from chapter 2 of the CompTIA Cloud+ Study Guide (Montgomery, 2016).

Understanding the Hypervisor in a Virtualized Cloud

Before exploring the amazing world of virtualization technologies, you need to pause and gain an understanding of the terminology used. In this chapter, we will look at the hypervisor, the core piece of technology enabling you to virtualize a datacenter. We will then investigate the differences between hypervisors.

A hypervisor is software that enables a server to be logically abstracted and appear to the operating systems running on it as if they are running directly on the hardware itself instead of the hypervisor software. The operating systems, or in this case virtual machines (VMs), see the hypervisor as the actual computer. With virtualization, many operating systems can now run on a single server hardware platform, whereas in the past each operating system required its own physical server platform.

Type 1 and Type 2 Hypervisor Types

The Type 1 hypervisor is installed and runs directly on top of the server hardware platform. This type is referred to as either bare-metal or native hypervisors. Type 1 hypervisors are generally more advanced and offer more features than a Type 2 and are found in the cloud datacenters as well as in the enterprise. Because the Type 1 hypervisor is running directly on top of the bare-metal hardware and not as an application on another operating system, it offers much higher performance, less overhead, and more security than a Type 2 hypervisor, which we will look at next.

A Type 2 hypervisor is installed as an application on an already existing operating system and allows you to then install the VMs in the application. For example, a PC running Windows can install a Type 2 hypervisor and run it as any other application. Then, inside the hypervisor, multiple operating systems or VMs can be run. VMware workstation and VirtualBox from Oracle are examples of Type 2 hypervisors. Type 2 hypervisors are good for testing applications and in situations where dedicating a server to be virtualized is not desirable. This type of hypervisor does not offer the higher performance of a Type 1 since the Type 2 has the additional overhead of running on top of another operating system such as Windows or Linux and not directly on top of the bare-metal server hardware.

Proprietary vs. Open Source

Hypervisors can be proprietary, which is another way of telling us that they were developed and sold by private corporations such as Microsoft or VMware. Examples of proprietary hypervisors are Hyper-V developed by Microsoft and ESXi from VMware.

Open source hypervisors are free for use by the public. Open source software is in the public domain, and there are no licensing fees. A good place to find open source code is on www.sourceforge.net. Some examples of fully functional open source hypervisors are KVM by Red Hat, VirtualBox from Oracle, and XenServer by Citrix. They are all complete virtualization systems that allow for one or more VMs to run on the same server hardware platforms as the proprietary hypervisors. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach. Generally proprietary hypervisors are fully supported by the vendor’s support agreements and have regular updates to add features and bug fixes. With open source, support is generally offered in community forums, with a few companies offering support agreements.

Consumer vs. Enterprise Use

While the underlying technology is similar between consumer hypervisors and those used by an enterprise or service provider, there are some significant differences. In the consumer world, a hypervisor is generally an add-on to an existing operating system running on a desktop or laptop computer. This allows us to use our PC as normal but at the same time work with and test other operating systems as VMs running on top of a Type 2 hypervisor. Many operating systems include Type 2 hypervisors as part of their releases or can be installed later as an application such as VMware workstation.
In the enterprise and cloud service provider environments, there is a great need for management, automation, and security of multiple hypervisors and virtual machines. In a large-scale deployment, there may be over 10,000 VMs in a datacenter. As you will see later, many utilities and software tools are able to manage these large environments. Also, in a cloud or corporate datacenter the hypervisor will run directly on the server as a Type 1 hypervisor.While the underlying technology is similar between consumer hypervisors and those used by an enterprise or service provider, there are some significant differences.
In the consumer world, a hypervisor is generally an add-on to an existing operating system running on a desktop or laptop computer. This allows us to use our PC as normal but at the same time work with and test other operating systems as VMs running on top of a Type 2 hypervisor. Many operating systems include Type 2 hypervisors as part of their releases or can be installed later as an application such as VMware workstation.
In the enterprise and cloud service provider environments, there is a great need for management, automation, and security of multiple hypervisors and virtual machines. In a large-scale deployment, there may be over 10,000 VMs in a datacenter. As you will see later, many utilities and software tools are able to manage these large environments. Also, in a cloud or corporate datacenter the hypervisor will run directly on the server as a Type 1 hypervisor.

Workstation vs. Infrastructure

You’ve seen that a hypervisor running on a workstation on top of an already installed operating system offers you the flexibility to run VMs as another application installed on an operating system. This comes at the cost of performance and security.

With an infrastructure- or enterprise-based hypervisor running directly on a server, you gain performance and many other advantages with this Type 1 hypervisor over the workstation-based Type 2 hypervisor. In the enterprise, many special tools have been developed for networking, security, automated deployment, monitoring, disaster recovery, and many other requirements that do not exist on the more limited desktop version.

References

Montgomery, T. (2016). CompTIA cloud study guide: Exam CV0-001. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1119243229

Prompt

There are several virtual machine applications currently on the market. Some of the most popular include VMWare, Hyper-V, KVM, VirtualBox, and XenServer. For this discussion, select a hypervisor or virtual machine application and research how it functions. Discuss your findings and provide at least two examples of how the system is used in business applications.