Cloud Computing with Eucalyptus

The computer has undergone fundamental changes. Some changes are easily visible, such as storage devices that are of the size of a credit card and has a much greater capacity than the mainframes of 30 years ago, or even cell phones capable of performing more tasks than those same mainframe, growth of free software, among other things. But fundamental changes happen only once every ten years or more, even in computing. The moment calls for changes in business computing. And that niche is flourishing cloud computing: better, faster, cheaper. More than a political rather than a philosophy, it is literally a way of life among the tech community. Computer – processing, storage, communication – is relatively free, scalable as needed, operates itself and always works. This is the vision that guides developers of Cloud Computing Services.

Within the concept of cloud, scalability is one of the main ideas. Virtualization is a concept that, in this context, allows scalability. Although not a new concept, it is that it allows a better use of a server, adding multiple operating systems and applications on a single computer that is shared. Simply put, cloud computing is changing the processing and storage in the company and within the cloud – enabling better use of resources.

And how you can use this cloud? Eucalyptus is an open source software based on Linux software architecture that implements scalable and efficient cloud within IT organizations.

This article seeks to address the concepts of cloud computing through the lens of distributed systems in the next section and also present the Eucalyptus software, a system that is responsible for implementing the cloud service in the third section.

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is the next stage of evolution of the Internet. Cloud computing incorporates not only processing power, but also computing infrastructure, business process, collaboration, personal and can be delivered as a service.

But what exactly is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a computing model that provides simple access and on-demand centers to highly elastic computing resources. These resources are provided as a service over a network (usually the Internet), and are made possible by a series of innovations in computing technologies, operations and business models. The cloud allows consumers to utilize technology as an unlimited resource, at the minimum cost, and reliable, while they need not worry about how it is constructed, how it works, who operates or where it is located.

When it comes to cloud, it is possible to define its key features: scalability, ability to scale to support the issue being processed; elasticity, easy to expand or collapse automatically; Self-service, the user himself get access to computational resources they will need, can access all features of the cloud from anywhere, on any device; Full Virtualization, no matter how large is the computing power of the cloud, it is simple to operate and maintain, as if only one server; consistency despite the existence of several processing blocks in the cloud, you can use various technologies, presenting the consistent service to the end user.

According to the market survey, there is a large investment in cloud computing and related infrastructure. This massive investment indicates that there is a demand for this type of service. However, the race to cloud computing is just beginning.

Cloud computing will gain market share in the upcoming time and, as a consequence, will adopt a standardization. There are several options and products in the market that can be processed in the cloud chosen. This market has the advantage of reaching a large number of users, since their software would run on any cloud. The end user will not buy an expensive license, but a license agreement that would only last for a certain time. With a standardization of the clouds, the software market is open to a greater number of sellers and the final product becomes cheaper for buyers. The computation is possible anywhere, using any device.

The Eucalyptus System

Eucalyptus is a system infrastructure to implement a hybrid cloud that is IaaS type.. You can use clusters or workstation farms. It began as a project of the University of Santa Barbara, California, and has been marketed today by Eucalyptus Systems Inc. However, it is maintained and developed as a free software and open source ( www.eucalyptus.com ).

The Cloud Controller (CLC) is the main controller component responsible for managing the entire system. It is the main point of entry into the Eucalyptus cloud for all users and administrators. The Cluster Controller is responsible for maintaining all instances of the virtual network. The Walrus (W) is the controller that sends messages of access to storage devices within Eucalyptus. The Storage Controller (SC) is the storage service within the Eucalyptus that is implemented in cloud interface.

An installation of Eucalyptus can aggregate and manage resources from one or more clusters. Installation on a cluster consisting of at least two machines: one running the CC, SC and CLC, and the other, turning the NC. It is recommended for testing environments. An installation on multiple clusters can put each component previously presented in separate machines. It is preferred when it intends to perform work that is more serious.

Among the benefits of Eucalyptus, it is been created to house research and communication platforms for cloud computing. It is available for free in the form of source code, making it easier to understand what is “down” and the creation of extensions to the platform. Currently, development is accelerating. Being compatible with the cloud platforms because of its flexibility, can migrate applications on cloud from one to another easily. Enables the creation of hybrid clouds that use both private and public clouds.

Final Thoughts

Cloud computing is already a reality, a new way of offering IT services, which ensures the delivery of computing power that the customer needs, when he needs it. If this were the computational power data center customer, it could be underutilized on many occasions, generating unnecessary spending. With cloud computing, the customer pays only for what he use.

Eucalyptus is an alternative for those who want to work with cloud computing. And it has the advantage of being an open source system, have compatibility with consolidated architectures and use technologies with broad adoption, such as Linux, Xen and etc.