innovation whitepaper cloud computing 09 2009

8/3/2019 Innovation Whitepaper Cloud Computing 09 2009

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Is Cloud Computing the Next Big Thing? This paper on Cloud

Computing explains why it may well be so. It traces the

context of Cloud Computing, a paradigm shift in IT.

Exploring industry definitions of this phenomenon, this

paper offers TCS perspectives on various aspects of Cloud

Computing: Types of Cloud delivery models, Public Cloud

Computing for Enterprise business and its challenges,

Public-Private & Federated Clouds, Next Generation

Computing Services and Benefits of the Cloud. It articulates

TCS Taxonomy on Cloud Computing.

TCS believes that Cloud Computing will prove very

attractive to the Enterprise IT world and specifically to IT

service providers, primarily due the infinite opportunities

around innovative business models. While the technology

foundations of Cloud Computing can be considered as a

gradual evolution, TCS firmly believes that the business

models will prove to be potentially disruptive.

Cloud could be a disruptive change for some enterprises, or

it could be an evolution beyond virtualization and utility

computing for others. Many challenges remain in leveraging

Cloud Computing but it will become an increasingly viable

option for enterprise IT.

This is the first in a series of TCS White Papers on Cloud

Computing.

TCS and

Cloud Computing


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TCS and Cloud Computing

About the Authors

K Ananth Krishnan

Chief Technology Officer, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

As CTO, Ananth directs technology and research in TCS.

Ananth chairs the Corporate Technology Board, the governing body

of Innovation in TCS. He has moved the company to an open and

collaborative innovation model, forging the TCS Co Innovation

Network, that connects to a gamut of entities in the ecosystem such

as global academic and research institutions, strategic technology

partners, venture funds and start ups to deliver disruptive,

sustaining and platform innovation solutions to customers. He

focuses the research efforts of TCS Innovation Labs world wide, thatcreate new solutions in various domains, into offerings that are of

measurable value to customers.

A member of TCS Corporate Think-Tank since 1999, he has led

several strategic initiatives and influenced business decisions. He

has been at the helm of large transformational projects within the

company. He is on the Customer Advisory Boards of several

organizations including Symantec and IBM-Rational, He is a Senior

Member of the IEEE and a member of the Computer Society of India,

and is an invited faculty in the Department of Management Studies

at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Ananth has been named in Computerworlds Premier 100 IT Leaders

for 2007. He has been chosen as one of Infoworlds Top 25 CTOs for

2007.

Ananth is an M. Tech. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute

of Technology, Delhi. He also has a Masters degree in Physics from

the same Institute and a Bachelor's degree in Physics from

Fergusson College, Pune.


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About the Authors (contd.)

Prof Harrick Vin

Vice President, Head, Systems Research, TCS Innovation Labs -

TRDDC

Member, TCS Corporate Technology Board

Prof. Harricks research interests are in the areas of networks,

operating systems, distributed systems, and multimedia systems.

He has co-authored more than 100 papers in leading journals and

conferences.

Harrick is a recipient of several awards including the Faculty Fellow

in Computer Sciences, Dean's Fellowship, National Science

Foundation CAREER award, IBM Faculty Development Award,Fellow of the IBM Austin Center for Advanced Studies, AT&T

Foundation Award, National Science Foundation Research

Initiation Award, IBM Doctoral Fellowship, NCR Innovation Award,

and San Diego Supercomputer Center Creative Computing Award.

He has served on the Editorial Board of ACM/Springer Multimedia

Systems Journal, IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, and IEEE

Multimedia. He has been a guest editor for IEEE Network. He has

served as the program chair, the program co-chair, and a program

committee member for several conferences.

Prior to joining TCS in 2005, Harrick was a Professor of Computer

Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

Harrick received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University

of California at San Diego.

V. Srinivasa Raghavan

Senior Consultant and Lead -Cloud Computing Initiative, TCS

Raghavan is with the TCS Corporate Technology Office and is the

global business owner for the TCS Cloud Computing initiative. A

versatile technology professional with over 15 years of experience,

he has built technology solutions for customers in various

industries and geographies. In his earlier role he was an enterprise

architect in the TCS Emerging Markets Business Unit, heading the

architecture practice, and prior to that he was a senior solution

architect for the reuse program in TCS.

Raghavan holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science and

Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and aMasters degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute

of Technology, Madras.


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Table of Contents

1. Introduction - A New Paradigm 4

2. Industry Definitions of Cloud Computing 6

National Institute of Standards

and Technology (NIST) 6

Wikipedia 6

University of California, Berkeley 6

3. Cloud Computing TCS perspectives 7

Benefits of Cloud Computing 7

Types of Cloud Delivery Models 7

Public Cloud Computing for

Enterprise Business 9

From Public to Private and

Federated Clouds 10

Next Generation Computing Services 11

Our Vision for Next Generation

Computing Services 11

4. TCS Cloud Taxonomy 13

5. Summary 15

6. References 15


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Introduction - A New Paradigm

(by K. Ananth Krishnan, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, TATA Consultancy Services)

The first six decades of Information Technology (IT) have witnessed startling evolution across several dimensions like:

Infrastructure paradigms like centralized computing, personal computing, client-server computing, the Internet

and mobile computing.

Technology abstractions like operating systems, database and transaction processing, application components

and service oriented architectures.

Application domains like personal productivity and collaboration, industry-specific platforms and enterprise

applications.

Service models like infrastructure services, application management services, systems integration and

consulting services.

So what is the next big thing in IT? Cloud Computing is a good candidate, and could impact all of these dimensions.

The early adopters of Cloud Computing already exist in the C or consumer world. As individual consumers in the Web

1.0 and Web 2.0 world, we are accustomed to the illusion of infinitely scalable, always available and very simply

consumable services typically delivered over the Internet, and now increasingly over the mobile phone and other

ubiquitous channels.

The E or Enterprise world is now kicking the tires of the same car, and debating whether this is an evolution or arevolution, or is it even a potential disruptor. Hype, fear, uncertainty and doubt are rife. The soothsayers predict

billions of dollars to be made or lost in the next few years. Economics seems to be driving more attention to the world

of Enterprise Clouds faster than expected. The C world cost benchmarks are growing attractive to E world

managements. Cloud Computing could be a disruptive change for some enterprises, or it could be just an evolution

beyond virtualization and utility computing for others. What matters is that Businesses will continue to demand

agility, will store and process massive amounts of data and will need easily available, highly stable and secure

platforms. All this needs to be done efficiently and at the lowest cost.

Lessons can be drawn from the experience of other Utilities such as Electricity, Telephone, Oil and Gas, and Water.

They have all mastered the techniques of centralized production and distributed consumption and most, if not all,

have experimented with multiple models before they reached this state. We must understand that though

technology is important, success is determined more by the business models used. The Utility Industry is in a

continuous state of Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo as far as business models are concerned.

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Cloud Computing could impact the software and services business models in a manner similar to the impact that

foundries have had on the hardware industry. The initial model of end-to-end integrated electronic chip players (for

example, designers owned the entire value chain, including capital intensive semiconductor fabrication facilities) has

evolved into different business models. For example, today, only a few major designers, with very high chip volumes

(for example, Intel and Samsung) can justify owning and operating their own fabrication lines. This has motivated therise of semiconductor foundries that build chips for others, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company

(TSMC). Foundries enable fab-less semiconductor chip companies whose value is in innovative chip design. A

company such as nVidia can now be successful in the chip business without the capital, the operational expenses, and

the risks associated with owning a state-of-the-art fabrication line. Conversely, companies with fabrication lines can

time-multiplex their use among the products of many fab-less companies to lower the risk of not having enough

successful products to amortise operational costs. Does this hint at the shades of Public Clouds and Private Clouds?

More later!

TCS believes that Cloud Computing will be very attractive to the Enterprise IT world and specifically to IT serviceproviders, primarily due the infinite opportunities around such business models. While the technology foundations

of Cloud Computing can be considered as a gradual evolution, TCS firmly believes that the business models will prove

to be potentially disruptive.

The TCS taxonomy for Cloud Computing is based on four abstraction layers starting with the Infrastructure, the

Platforms, the Software and finally the Cloud-specific Services. TCS believes that delivering a credible set of Cloud

Computing Offerings to enterprises will require collaborative innovation across multiple players such as public Cloud

providers, software and service providers, product vendors, and application vendors.

TCS believes that it is uniquely positioned to play a major role in Cloud Computing with its Co-innovation NetworkTM

(TCS COIN ), built on a strong internal foundation of TCS Innovation Labs, anchor clients and strong strategic

alliances with a range of innovative companies and academia. The TCS Cloud Computing initiative has built a credible

set of offerings across advisory, implementation and support functions.

In this white paper, we will set the context for Cloud Computing and present TCS definitions and insights into this

area.

This will be the first in a series of white papers to be published. A subsequent paper will define TCS strategies for Cloud

Computing. Later papers will cover the TCS offerings around Cloud Computing, and lessons and best practices for

Cloud Computing specific to industry verticals.


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Industry Definitions of Cloud Computing

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Wikipedia

University of California, Berkeley

Before we present TCSs definition and insights into Cloud Computing, let us understand the various definitions of

Cloud Computing in the industry.

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable

computing resources (for example, networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly

provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model

promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment[1]

models .

Cloud Computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided

as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology[2]

infrastructure in the "Cloud" that supports them .

Cloud Computing refers to both the applications delivered as services over the Internet and the hardware and

systems software in the data centers that provide those services. The services themselves have long been referred to

as Software as a Service (SaaS), so we use that term. The data center hardware and software is what we will call a[3]

Cloud .

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Cloud Computing TCS perspectives

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Types of Cloud Delivery Models

A Cloud is a set of IT infrastructure optimisation techniques rolled into one and offered as a shared service to its

customers. A Cloud Computing model is generally characterised by:

A true on-demand computing paradigm

Decoupling of application design and development from deployment

Automated system deployment and scaling

A pay-per-use pricing model

Flexible access models

Leveraging public Cloud Computing platforms could enable an organization to consider a spectrum of options for

running its IT: from not owning a data centre at all to leveraging only private cloud technologies inside the

enterprise.

Cloud Computing services offer three key benefits:

Cloud services offer an illusion of the availability of infinite compute resources on-demand, and thereby

eliminate the need for Cloud users to plan ahead for provisioning.

Cloud services eliminate any up-front commitment by Cloud users, thereby allowing companies to start small

and increase hardware resources only when there is an increase in their needs. Thus, companies can deploy a

service and scale on demand without taking the risk to build or provision a data centre for an unknown future

service demand. This not only eliminates the upfront capital investment for Cloud users, but also transfers the

risk of over-provisioning (under utilisation) and under-provisioning (saturation) to Cloud providers.

The ability to pay for use of computing resources on a short-term basis as needed (for example, processors by

the hour and storage by the day) and release them when they are no longer useful leads to significant economic

benefits.

All these benefits enable enterprises to focus on their core competence rather than running large data centres.

Todays public Cloud Computing delivery models can be distinguished based on the level of abstractions they

export to the Cloud users (or programmers) and the level of computing resource management (flexibility) they offer.

Based on this characterization, todays Cloud delivery models can be broadly classified into three categories:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): These Cloud service providers offer computational resources such as servers,

network, and storage from a shared facility managed by the provider to Cloud users on an on-demand basis.

Examples of IaaS providers include Amazon Web Services and Flexiscale. IaaS providers allow users to

dynamically grow and shrink their resource allocations to match their demands. However, the responsibility of

utilising this elasticity effectively rests with the Cloud user.

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Platform as a Service (PaaS): The Cloud service providers export application development platforms that

broadly fall into two categories:

- Those that export application development platforms for certain domains or class of applications

(for example, the Google AppEngine and Force.com)

- Those that export general purpose application development platform (for example, Microsofts Azure).

In either case, applications developed using these platforms benefit from elasticity offered by infrastructure-as-a-

service Cloud providers. For instance, the Google AppEngine is directed at traditional Web applications; applications

developed using the AppEngine API can scale automatically with increase in the number of resources, as well as

achieve high availability through replication. Force.com exports a platform for developing business applications

that solely interact with the salesforce.com database, while Microsoft's Azure platform allows developing

applications using .NET libraries and compiled to a common runtime language environment. The .NET libraries

provide a degree of scalability and fail-over support, but require developers to declaratively specify application

characteristics to take advantage of these features. Users do not get control of the operating system or runtime butare allowed to choose programming languages.

Software as a service (SaaS): The Software as a Service Cloud service providers offer specific application

services delivered over the Internet on some form of on-demand payment system. Examples include

Salesforce.com and WebEx.

Figure 1 shows the different Cloud Computing delivery models.

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User Level"Software-as-a-Service"

Developer Level"Platform-as-a-Service"

IT Level"Infrastructure-as-

a-Service"

Companies host applications in the cloud thatmany users access through internet connections.The service being sold or offered is a completeend-user application

Obtain general processing, storage,database management, and other resourcesand applications through the network andpay only for what gets used

Developers can design, build and testapplications that run on the Cloud provider'sinfrastructure and then deliver thoseapplications to end-users from theproviders servers

Google Docs, acrobat.com,Zoho,salesforce.com,Animoto, Oracle on demand,Windows Office Live

Amazon Web Services,Gogrid, Sun Grid ComputeUtility, Google Base

Azure Services Platform,Oracle SaaS platform,Coghead, force.com,Yahoo developer network,Google App Engine

Figure 1 - Cloud Delivery Models


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Public Cloud Computing for Enterprise Business

While public Clouds are quite attractive from the cost perspective, there are several fundamental limitations of

public Clouds that prevent their wide-spread acceptance for enterprise applications.

Economics: The decision process in most enterprises for Cloud Computing will start with the economics will

the Cloud bring down the total costs? Cloud need not always be a cheaper option. Enterprises need to consider

various factors while calculating the total costs, such as depreciation and tax benefits, processor capacity,

storage, network bandwidth, software licenses, power, and floor space. Economics will also depend on the size

of the enterprise (Small and Medium versus Large), and the workload and other characteristics of the

applications. It is likely that for sporadic usage scenarios such as testing and short-term computationally

intensive tasks, the Cloud could be a winner, while for others a deeper understanding of the economics is

required.

Data confidentiality and auditability: Security and auditability are significant concerns for most enterprisesgiven the public nature of Cloud offerings. There are regulatory requirements such as HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley

that will necessitate auditability of corporate data in the Cloud. In addition, national laws may mandate Cloud

providers to keep data within national boundaries or prevent a second country from getting access to this data

through its legal system. There is also a significant risk to privacy of personal information and confidentiality of

information from businesses or government organisations when data is located in the Cloud.

Software licensing: The current licensing model for commercial software is a mismatch for Cloud Computing.

Current software licensing limits the computer on which it can be installed and users pay one time and annual

maintenance charges. Thus, many Cloud providers have relied upon open source software but a key challenge

for commercial software vendors is to devise a better licensing model for the Cloud.

Service availability: Enterprises are very sensitive to whether Cloud providers can guarantee adequate

availability required by business (especially since enterprises will have little or no control over the physical Cloud

environment). Further, relying exclusively on a single Cloud service provider can also be a single point of failure;

most enterprises are reluctant to move to a Cloud provider without some business continuity strategy in place.

To guarantee high availability and avoid a single source of failure, multiple Cloud providers with independent

software stacks could be used. This, however, increases implementation complexity significantly.

Service lock-in (proprietary APIs ? no interoperability): Cloud providers today lack interoperability

standards. This implies that a Cloud user cannot easily move applications and data between any two Cloud

vendors, which results in a lock-in scenario. The lock-in is definitely advantageous to Cloud providers but Cloud

users are vulnerable to increase in prices, reliability problems or, in the worst case, the Cloud provider becoming

defunct. Standardisation of APIs will not only mitigate lock-in but will also enable the same software

infrastructure to be used in private and public Cloud such that excess computation workload that cannot be

handled in the private Cloud could be off-loaded to the public Cloud (surge protection).

Data transfer bottleneck and cost (technology trends): Given the data-intensive nature of applications, data

transfer - into and out of a Cloud - becomes a major issue with the current price of $100 to $150 USD per terabyte

transferred. This cost can quickly become prohibitive thus making data transfer a major bottleneck to Cloud

adoption. This is a significant challenge as, over the past decade, the cost of wide area network bandwidth has

fallen at a much slower rate than the cost of computation and storage capacity.

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Performance unpredictability:Multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) can share CPU and main memory quite well but

I/O sharing often leads to interference and hence unpredictability in performance.

Difficulty in debugging large-scale distributed systems: When an application is migrated to the Cloud and

executed in a large-scale distributed environment, there may be bugs that manifest, which may not be apparent

in a small-scale configuration. Detecting and debugging faults in such large-scale distributed deployment isquite a challenge.

Due to many of these reasons, today most of the public Cloud platforms are used primarily by small start-ups (with

little or no legacy applications or environments) or by enterprises for not-so-business-critical applications and

environments (for example, development and test environments). Most public Cloud providers realize these

limitations and have started working on solutions to address many of these issues. Hence, over the next few years, we

expect that public Cloud platforms will become more viable to host business critical applications and services.

Enterprises can address the limitations of a public Cloud by creating and operating a private Cloud that is shared

across business units, hosting applications within the enterprise, but not for anyone outside the enterprise. This

approach has the following advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages: The enterprise has greater control over the infrastructure. Thus, all of the challenges related to areas

such as data security, platform heterogeneity become slightly more manageable. Private Clouds are also better

at handling legacy application platforms and constraints (as most public Clouds today only support x86 server

platforms).Disadvantages: Designing and operating a private Cloud and achieving a Total Cost Ownership (TCO) close to

what public Cloud providers can offer is a significant technical challenge.

Consequently, no single Cloud provider (or Cloud implementation) meets (or is likely to meet) all enterprise

requirements. In such a scenario, organizations can create and manage Federated Virtual Private Clouds. A

federated Cloud design can leverage multiple Cloud implementations including a private Cloud implementation

and match application and business requirements to Cloud implementation features and capabilities.

Figure 2 provides a conceptual view of a Federated Virtual Private Cloud.

From Public to Private and Federated Clouds

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Next Generation Computing Services

Our Vision for Next Generation Computing Services

Cloud Computing forms a key enabler of TCSs vision for Next Generation Computing Services.

Next generation enterprise computing services environment should:

Support high-level specifications of IT service definitions, their Service Level Objectives (SLO) and business

priorities.

Support automated provisioning, allocation and optimization of resource allocations based on these

specifications to meet these SLO requirements.

Achieve low cost.

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EnterpriseInfrastructure

Secure, governed"virtual private cloud"

Federation of enterpriseand cloud services

Applications

Cloud Provider#1

Cloud Provider#2

Figure 2 - Federated Virtual Private Cloud

Policies:?IT service definitions?Service agreements?Business priorities

Workloads/Data

Identities / Security

Resources

Figure 3 - Next Generation Computing Services

Provision

Allocate

Services:?Meet business

requirements

Optimise


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To meet these objectives, the design of an enterprise computing environment should be driven by the following

principles:

Right sizing:The infrastructure provisioned for delivering services should be just as large as requiredover-

provisioning (under utilization) and under-provisioning (saturation) should be avoided. Note that eachinfrastructure component is a multi-dimensional resource. For instance, a server is a resource with three

dimensions: compute capacity, memory size and IO/network bandwidth. Similarly, a storage device is a two-

dimensional resource (with storage capacity and read/write bandwidth as the two dimensions). The

infrastructure should be provisioned and configured with the right amount of resource on each of these

dimensions. Over provisioning on any dimension increases the cost.

Diversity reduction: Diversity is defined with respect to the hardware and software stacks supported within an

infrastructure. When the diversity is greater, the overhead and cost of maintaining the infrastructure is higher.

Sharing: The computational demands of most services fluctuate significantly over time. Thus, sharing or

multiplexing the resources available within a data centre is a key principle in reducing the overall footprint andthe total cost of operating the environment.

Elasticity: To enable an enterprise to benefit from using shared computing resources across applications and

business units, one must allow resources allocated to an application to grow and shrink with demand. Further,

applications should be architected to operate correctly and efficiently in the presence of such fluctuations in

resource allocations. Lastly, charging users (or business units) based on the actual usage of resources (pay-as-

you-use charging model) is essential to promote elasticity. The charging model should also consider a finer

granularity of pay-per-use based on computation, storage and communication utilisation.

Agility: An enterprise IT environment should leverage emerging technologies rapidly as well as support rapid

deployment of new applications and services to meet business demands.

Predictive: To drive most of the above principles and optimisation techniques, an enterprise must rely upon

predictive analytics on the data collected from its operational environment. To support such analytics, the IT

environment must be well instrumented and monitored to collect data about infrastructure and application

inventory, workload, performance, reliability, among others.

Whereas these principles are relatively well understood, the design of enterprise computing environments that

satisfy the principles poses a significant challenge. Cloud Computing has an important role to play in this.

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TCS Cloud Taxonomy

With a lot of information available on this new area, it is imperative to build a taxonomy which forms the basis for

common understanding and focus. TCS has extensively studied this area, and the following taxonomy reflects TCSs[7]

insights on Cloud Computing. There are other taxonomies available such as the OpenCrowd Cloud Taxonomy . All[6]

these views will be the basis for the standardization efforts that have just started across the industry .

The Cloud Taxonomy consists of 4 layers, 8 sub-layers, and a variety of areas to address. Though layers and sub-layers

are static, TCS foresees that the areas to address will be a growing list. The growing list is denoted by ellipsis ().

The IaaS layer contains the following sub-layers:

Physical Infrastructure This addresses the elements of physical infrastructure such as processors, storage,

memory, network and devices.

Logical Infrastructure This is the backbone for Cloud infrastructure. Areas to address include techniques for

virtualization such as hypervisors, virtual operating systems, and other logical elements such as utility computing

and compute- grids

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Widgets, Mashups, Components, Services,Domain-specific environments

Advisory Services, Migration Services, Development Services,Deployment Services

4.0 CloudServices

4.2 Business Models

4.1 Services

3.2 Applications

3.1 DomainComponents

2.2 Enablers andFrameworks

2.1 Abstractions

1.2 LogicalInfrastructure

1.1 PhysicalInfrastructure

Owned vs Shared, Public vs Private, Single-vs Multi-Enteprise,Variable Cost Model, Strategic Platforms, Granular Pricing, ...

Virtualization, Virtual OS, Utility, Compute, Data Grid, Appliances, ...

Processor, Storage, Memory, Network, ...

SaaS, Software-and-service, IT-as-a-Service, Platform-and-Service,Horizontal (Payroll, Accounting, Collaboration,---) vs Vertical (InventoryManagement, Loyalty Management, ...), ...3.0 Software

as a Service

2.0 Platformas a Service

Programming, File/DB, Integration and Messaging, Identity andSecurity, Management, Measurement, Data Consistency, Transactions,Autonomic/Self-healing capability, Clustering, Scalability/Elasticity,Multi-tenancy, Load-balancing, ...

Software Engineering (Architecture, Design, Development, Build, Test,Release), Domain-agnostic Platforms, Analytics, Workflow, Scheduler, ...

1.0 Infrastructureas a Service

{{{{

Figure 4 - TCS Cloud Taxonomy


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ThePaaS layer contains the following sub-layers, which enable the building of true Cloud applications:

Abstractions Building a Cloud application requires a review of almost every computing paradigm to devise

tools and techniques for exploiting the Cloud infrastructure. This sub-layer also provides APIs to the higher layers

to exploit the infrastructure. Some of the areas to address will include programming techniques, file system,integration patterns, techniques for data consistency, transactions.

Enablers and Frameworks These address the domain-independent tools and techniques for building

applications in the Cloud. These are reusable components for the higher-level layers. Some of the areas to address

will be Software Development Lifecycle tools, domain-agnostic platforms, and common IT applications such as

workflows.

The SaaS layer contains the following sub-layers and addresses the unique needs of the customers by providing

domain-specific software as a service. This contains the following sub-layers:

Domain Components These address the domain-specific tools and techniques for building applications on a

Cloud. These are reusable business components. Areas to address will include mashups, widgets, business

services, domain-specific platforms such as mobile application platforms, and so on.

Applications This sub-layer addresses various application offerings, horizontal and domain applications that

can be provided in a SaaS mode

The Cloud Services layer provides the unique services needed to truly disrupt business models, and bring out the

true value of Cloud Computing to enterprises.

Services This sub-layer looks at the various service offerings provided by the IT vendors, including advisory

(consulting), migration, application development, and deployment.

Business Models This sub-layer is unique to the Cloud. Areas to address will encompass business concerns of

consumers and providers, including the type of Cloud (private or public or hybrid or federated), innovative

pricing models, costing models, and innovative strategic platforms. This area offers flexibility and provides

infinite possibilities in disrupting the business of IT.

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Summary

References

It is clear that Cloud Computing is fast moving beyond the hype to being taken very seriously in organizations. Cloud

Computing gets us close to the dream of an efficient, centralized computing power, and there are many niche players

positioning their products.

In the current scenario, while the definitions, taxonomy, and benefits of Cloud Computing are well understood, there

are still many open questions that need to be addressed before one can engage with the CXOs of customer

organizations, and move from a proof-of-concept to a serious production quality application. The early movers who

have addressed these open issues with their unique insights will be the most successful in the long term.

TCS believes that Cloud could be a disruptive change for some enterprises, or it could be an evolution beyond

virtualization and utility computing for others. Many challenges remain but TCS believes that Cloud Computing will

become an increasingly viable option for enterprise IT.

TCS has launched a COIN-based Cloud initiative to address these issues and has built a credible set of offerings across

advisory, implementation and support. In the next paper, TCS will share its strategy on Cloud Computing.

1. Draft NIST Working Definition of Cloud Computing v15, http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/

cloud-computing/cloud-def-v15.doc

2. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing [Accessed July 20, 2009]

3. Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing, Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2009-28, Feb 10, 2009

4. Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing, Cloud Security Alliance, April 2009

5. Nicholas Carr, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google,

W.W. Norton & Co., 2008, ISBN 0393062287

6. Open Cloud Consortium, http://www.opencloudconsortium.org

7. OpenCrowd Cloud Taxonomy, http://www.opencrowd.com/assets/images/views/views_cloud-tax-lrg.png


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All content / information present here is the exclusive property of Tata Consultancy Services Limited

(TCS). The content / information contained here is correct at the time of publishing.

No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, transmitted,

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and could result in criminal or civil penalties.

Copyright 2009 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and

outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global

businesses, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match.

TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled

services delivered through its unique Global Network DeliveryTM

Model , recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software

development.

A part of the Tata Group, Indias largest industrial conglomerate, TCS

has over 143,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants in 42

countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $6

billion for fiscal year ended 31 March 2009 and is listed on the

National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

www.tcs.com

To find out more about the Cloud Computing initiative within TCS,contact [email protected]

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About Innovation LabsTCS has to its credit several disruptive innovations to its credit. It

set up its first research lab in 1981 when the IT industry in India

was just taking shape. It set-up a software tool foundry which has

over the years produced generations of tools for model driven

development, testing, artificial intelligence and re-engineering, to

name a few.

Today, the global network of TCS Innovation Labs work acrossdomains and new technologies to deliver a range of solution

frameworks. In the true spirit of collaboration, TCS has created a Co-

Innovation Network (TCS COIN). This connects to several entities

in the innovation ecosystem and TCS co-innovates with them,

capitalizing on the strengths of each to the benefit of all.

Leveraging its tool strength, business innovation experience and its

co-innovation capabilities, TCS is well equipped to play a major role

in Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing is a set of IT infrastructure optimisation

techniques rolled into one and offered as a shared service to

customers. A Cloud Computing model is generally characterized by

a true on-demand computing paradigm, automated system

deployment and scaling, and a granular pay-per-use pricing model,

among others. Still evolving, this model poses several questions but

also offers flexibility and saving to enterprise customers.

innovation whitepaper cloud computing 09 2009

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