1.11 Compare and contrast technologies that support cloud and virtualization - Paiet/Tech-Journal-for-Everything GitHub Wiki

1.11 Compare and contrast technologies that support cloud and virtualization

Virtualization
- Virtual switches
  - Vlans on Cisco switches
  - Hyper-V virtual switches
- Virtual routers
  - Brocade Vyatta 5400 vRouter
  - Cisco IOS XRv Router
- Virtual firewall
- Virtual vs physical NICs
  - Physical NIC connects to physical switch. If NIC is offline then all services are off to that server.
  - Virtual NIC connection a virtual switch. If NIC for a single vNIC is offline it doesn't necessarily mean that any other vNIC on that server is offline.
- Software defined networking (SDN)
  - [Microsoft's Azure] 10
  - Google for Work (aka GoogleApps)
  - Cisco's Application-Centric Infrastructure Cisco's proprietary way of doing SDN
  - Open Network Foundation (ONF) is the open standard
Storage area network (SAN)
- Uses different hardware, protocols & reads and writes data differently than a NAS.
- iSCSI
  - Allows for connection to SAN over existing network infrastructure. Unlike Fibre Channel which require dedicated cabling
  - Emulates the SCSI bus over the existing IP network.
- Jumbo frame
  - Traditional ethernet frames have mtu of 1500 bytes
  - Jumbo frames are 9000 bytes in payload
- Fibre Channel
  - Traditionally how SANs are accessed.
  - Doesn't work at file level but stores data by blocks
  - Higher performance than traditional TCP/IP, less overhead
  - Able to transmit at speeds up to 16Gbps
  - Despite the name, Fibre Channel supports not just fiber optic cable, but also coax and twisted pair copper
  - Ports
    - Any entity that actively communicates over the network
  - 3 Fibre Channel Topologies
    - Point-to-Point (FC-P2P)
      - 2 directly connected devices
    - Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL)
      - Similar to a token ring network
      - Losing a link breaks the ring and kills the network
    - Switched Fabric (FC-SF)
      - Connects devices or loops to a FC switch
      - Similar to ethernet switching
- Network attached storage (NAS)
  - Appliance that connects directly to the network using a network ethernet cable(s).
  - treated as another host (computer) on network.
  - Web Interface for configuration (typically RAID)
  - single or multiple drives
Cloud concepts
- Define some acronyms:
  - IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
    - Servers (Computers)
    - Storage
    - Networking
  - SaaS (Software as a Service)
    - Monitoring
    - Content
    - Collaboration
    - Communications (email etc)
    - "on-demand software"
  - PaaS (Platform as a Service)
    - Database solutions
    - Runtime software
    - Identity Management
    - Web Server
    - Dev tools
    - OS
- Public IaaS, SaaS, PaaS
  - e.g. Amazon EC2 and Rackspace
  - Pay as you go--by the hour for computing power
  - No contracts
  - Multi-tenant environment (hardware sharing)
  - provider chooses where to place your server.
  - Self managed.
- Private IaaS, SaaS, PaaS
  - Many companies out there e.g. OnlineTech
  - Single-tenant (hardware id dedicated to single company)
  - Higher Security
  - Compliance achievable
    - Sarbanes Oxley and HIPAA (US)
  - Customizable performance on network, storage and servers.
  - Hybrid is possible between onsite and cloud.
- Hybrid IaaS, SaaS, PaaS
  - blends public and private cloud technology.
  - technically, when there is at least on public cloud and one private cloud in the mix.
  - Example of usage, is when private data is secured in private cloud but other high interactive tasks may be carried out in the public cloud.
- Community IaaS, SaaS, PaaS
  - A targed type of cloud computing
  - Cloud computing limited to a smaller group of companies.
  - Normally, these companies are working together to achieve a specified goal.
  - Management is shared, costs are shared.