cloud computing in libraries

CLOUD COMPUTING IN LIBRARIESBasic concepts and library applications

Library Services in the Cloud9 Nov, 2012

Marshall BreedingIndependent Consult, Author, Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guideswww.librarytechnology.org/twitter.com/mbreeding

Summary Cloud computing in Libraries: trends

related to the adoption of cloud computing technologies for library management and discovery products.

Summary Cloud computing is one of the most important technology

trends of the times. The phase of client/server computing is fading into obsolescence, replaced by entirely web-based systems, increasingly deployed through SaaS. Libraries and other technology-oriented organizations now have options through infrastructure-as-a-service offerings such as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud and Simple Storage Service to ramp up computing capabilities quickly, enjoy free access for smaller projects, and take advantage of usage- based subscription models for larger-scale production projects. Breeding expands on these topics and provides a basic explanation of cloud computing that focuses on real advantages and disadvantages for libraries.

Cloud Computing for Libraries

Volume 11 in The Tech Set

Published by Neal-Schuman / ALA TechSource

ISBN: 781555707859

http://www.neal-schuman.com/ccl

Book Image Publication Info:

Cloud computing as marketing term

Cloud computing used very freely, tagged to almost any virtualized environment

Any arrangement where the library relies on some kind of remote hosting environment for major automation components

Includes almost any vendor-hosted product offering

Cloud computing – characteristics

Web-based Interfaces Externally hosted Pricing: subscription or utility Highly abstracted computing model Provisioned on demand Scaled according to variable needs Elastic – consumption of resources can

contract and expand according to demand

Fundamental technology shift Mainframe computing Client/Server Cloud Computing

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrick/61952845/http://soacloudcomputing.blogspot.com/2008/10/cloud-computing.html

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2001/jw-1019-jxta.html

Local Computing Traditional model Locally owned and managed Shifting from departmental to enterprise Departmental servers

co-located in central IT data centers

Increasingly virtualized

Virtualization The ability for multiple

computing images to simultaneously exist on one physical server

Physical hardware partitioned into multiple instances using virtual machine management tools such as VMware

Applicable to local, remote, and cloud models

Gartner Hype Cycle 2009

Gartner Hype Cycle 2010

Gartner Hype Cycle 2011

Cloud computing layers

Mobile Computing

Infrastructure-as-a-service Provisioning of Equipment Servers, storage

Virtual server provisioning Examples:

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Rackspace Cloud www.rackspacecloud.com/

) EMC2 Atmos (www.atmosonline.com/)

Web-scale computing

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/googles-data-centers-inside-look.html

Amazon EC2 Amazon Machine Instances (AMI)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Debian Fedora Ubuntu Linux Open Solaris Windows Server 2003/2008

Amazon Web Services Console

Software-as-a-Service Complete software application, customized for

customer use Software delivered through cloud infrastructure,

data stored on cloud Eg: Salesforce.com—widely used business

infrastructure Multi-tenant: all organizations that use the

service share the same instance (codebase, hardware resources, etc) Often partitioned to separate some groups of

subscribers

Types of SaaS

http://www.samanage.com/blog/2011/08/not-all-saas-offerings-are-created-equal/

Application service provider Legacy business applications hosted by software

vendor Standalone application on discrete or virtualized

hardware Staff and public clients accessed via the Internet Same user interfaces and functionality as if

installed locally Established as a deployment model in the 1990’s Can be implemented through Infrastructure-as-a

Service Individual instances of legacy system hosted in EC2

ASP vs SaaS

From: THINKstrategies: CIO’s Guide to Software-as-a-Service

Multi-tenant

Salesforce: classic multi-tenant Salesforce.com: multi-tenant cloud

infrastructure used by organizations across many industries

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-10400538-264.html

Multi-Tenant vs Multi-Instance

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas/google-apps-vs-office-365-your-choice/1357

Private vs Public

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cloud_computing_types.svg

Storage-as-a-Service Provisioned, on-demand storage Bundled to, or separate from other cloud

services Examples:

Enterprise: Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Consumer: Dropbox

Data as a service General opportunity to move away from library-

by-library metadata management to globally shared workflows

Shared knowledge bases E-resource holdings Bibliographic services Linked data applications

Key Issues Data ownership Creative commons license Data portability across competing providers

Cloud computing in action

Common Library Examples

Cloud computing trends for libraries Increased migration away from local

computing toward some form of remote / hosted / virtualized alternative

Cloud computing especially attractive to libraries with few technology support personnel

Adequate bandwidth will continue to be a limiting factor

Operation of a library’s Web site Fewer libraries choosing to operate their

Web sites on local servers Simple sites: Web hosting services Intermediate sites: Hosted CMS

Drupal consulting firm + hosting service Complex sites

Custom programming EC2 or other Infrastructure as a service

Mail and Calendaring Many libraries just use individual accounts on Gmail or similar

services A more sophisticated approach uses mail services from

Google, Microsoft, or others institutionally Google Apps for Businesses Microsoft Exchange Online

Same interface, but e-mail addresses carry the institutional domain name Free or low-cost for small organizations Professional levels for larger organizations

Supplemental services: No advertising Back-up and recovery services Service Level agreement

Document creation and collaboration

Google Docs / Google Drive Microsoft Office 365 Zoho.com

Concerns / Issues: Documents as official institutional records Backup and recovery process Private or Subject to FOIA?

Data in the cloud Storage as a service Informal / small-scale

Dropbox (2GB+) Microsoft Skydrive (7GB+) Mostly used as supplemental storage and for

sharing Institutional / Larger-scale

Local storage still dominant When using cloud storage for institutional data

Multiple tiers of backup with SLA DuraCloud, S3, many others

Platform-as-a-Platform as a Service

Virtualized computing environment for deployment of software

Application engine, no specific server provisioning

Examples: Google App Engine

SDKs for Java, Python Heroku: ruby platform Amazon Web Service

Library Specific platforms

Library automation through SaaS Almost all library automation products

offered through hosted options SaaS or ASP?

Data as a service SaaS provides opportunity for highly

shared data models General opportunity to move away from

library-by-library metadata management to globally shared workflows

Web-scale Index-based DiscoverySearch:

Digital Collections

Web Site ContentInstitution

al Repositori

es

…E-Journals

Reference Sources

Search Results

Pre-built harvesting and indexing

Consolidated Index

ILS Data

Aggregated Content packages

(2009- present)

Repositories in the cloud Dspace – institutional repository

application Fedora – generalized repository platform DuraSpace – organization now over both

Dspace and Fedora DuraCloud – shared, hosted repository

platform Pilot since 2009, production in early 2011 www.duraspace.org/duracloud.php

Caveats and concerns with SaaS Libraries must have adequate bandwidth

to support access to remote applications without latency

Quality of service agreements that guarantee performance and reliability factors

Configurability and customizability limitations

Access to API’s Ability to interoperate with 3rd party

applications Eg: Connect SaaS ILS with discovery

product from another vendor

Maintain institutional branding Using cloud computing does not mean

giving up your identity Be sure that your services delivered through

your own URL Most cloud services support domain aliases Accomplished through DNS configuration

Implemented by your network administrator Create CNAME entry to redirect cloud service to

a subdomain associated with your library: S3.mylibrary.org = s3.amazonaws.com.

Cost implications Total cost of ownership Do all cost components result in increased or

decreased expense Personnel costs – need less technical administration Hardware – server hardware eliminated Software costs: subscription, license,

maintenance/support Indirect costs: energy costs associated with power and

cooling of servers in data center IaaS: balance elimination of hardware investments

for ongoing usage fees Especially attractive for development and prototyping

Personnel Distribution

Server Administration

Application maintenance

Staff client software updates

Operational tasks

Application configuration or profiling

Operational tasks

Local Computing Cloud Computing

Budget Allocations

Server Purchase Server

Maintenance Application

software license Data Center

overhead Energy costs Facility costs

Annual Subscription Measured

Service? Fixed fees

Factors Hosting Software Licenses Optional modules

Local Computing Cloud Computing

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Elimination of capital expenses for equipment

Lower annual costs

Redeployment of technical staff to more meaningful activities

Higher revenues relative to software-only arrangements

Provision of infrastructure at scale with lower unit costs

Longer-term relationships with customers

Libraries Providers / Vendors

Risks and concerns Privacy of data

Policies, regulations, jurisdictions Ownership of data

Avoid vendor lock-in Integrity of Data

Backups and disaster recovery Opportunities for increased redundancy

Required infrastructure Adequate bandwidth

Web-based applications do not necessarily require the highest-performance connectivity

Able to function well in remote and rural areas? Business applications consume less bandwidth than

audio or video streaming services Reliable Internet and local network infrastructure Critical paths:

Users --> provider Library locations --> provider Not: users --> library

Security issues Most providers implement stronger

safeguards beyond the capacity of local institutions

Virtual instances equally susceptible to poor security practices as local computing

Cloud computing trends for libraries Increased migration away from local

computing toward some form of remote / hosted / virtualized alternative

Cloud computing especially attractive to libraries with few technology support personnel

Adequate bandwidth will continue to be a limiting factor

Relevant trends No technical limitations on scalability of

infrastructure General move toward ever larger

implementations of automation infrastructure

National infrastructure (beginning with smaller countries)

US: Statewide and regional projects

Resource sharing opportunities Larger instances of automation systems

or participation in multi-tenant services provide inherent resource sharing capabilities

Ever larger repositories of metadata Simpler mechanisms for patron requests

of items not in local collections

Increased pressure Library automation vendors promoting

SaaS offerings Some companies already exclusively SaaS

Software pricing increasingly favorable to SaaS

Caveat Critically assess viability of the

technology and its appropriateness for your organization

Start with low-risk projects before making strategic commitments

Questions and Discussion