It’s all about Cloud:
Concepts, Strategies, Architectures, Players and Technologies

by Max Dolgicer download a PDF brochure

Description

Cloud Computing has gained a lot of attention in recent years. It has mostly been used for non Business critical applications like email, or for those Business functions that could be outsourced to a vendor that offers large Business applications in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. However, it is apparent that the reach of the Cloud is expanding, and many companies are wondering how to plan for more substantial use of Cloud capabilities, such that they won't fall behind their competition.

This seminar will provide an overview of the key Cloud characteristics and capabilities, differentiating between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS), including a Cloud reference architecture that covers all three types of Cloud. We will then discuss IaaS Cloud concepts based on the offerings of major IaaS vendors such as Microsoft, and a detailed discussion of Amazon Web Services. While these public IaaS Clouds offer substantial benefits, many companies want tighter control and are starting to build private Clouds. We will show what the requirements are, how to approach it, and who the vendors are that can help. Once we understand public and private Cloud we can look at another model that is starting to gain some traction: the hybrid Cloud, where critical Business systems run in a private Cloud, and peak capacity requirements of some applications are handled by public Clouds.

The seminar continues with an in-depth description of PaaS, illustrating how the implementation of Business applications for the Cloud is different from traditional development and deployment of on-premise systems (i.e. behind the firewall). In this context the seminar will also explain the synergy between Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing. We will explain the difficulties of moving applications that are not Service Oriented to the Cloud, and how the design principles of SOA are much better suited for Cloud Computing. This is key when we want to exploit the economy of scale by building and deploying multi-tenant applications.

The seminar will also address the major challenges for exploiting the Cloud, including the new security threats and how to address them, as well as the need to extend existing IT governance and Enterprise Architecture governance to the Cloud, so that Cloud deployment can be managed before it spins out of control. Another challenge we will look at is the integration of applications within the Cloud, across Clouds, and with on-premise systems. We will outline typical integration issues and solutions, and discuss the evolution of a new kind of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), sometimes referred to as the “Internet Service Bus” (ISB). This discussion also includes the (few) standards that can be useful today to mitigate vendor lock-in, as well as the capabilities and restrictions of Open Source solutions.

Main Topics

• Introduction to Cloud Computing
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• The Private Cloud
• Platform as a Service (PaaS): Key Concepts & Major Players
• Synergy of SOA and Cloud Computing
• Cloud Integration
• Cloud Standards and Open Source Software
• Securing the Cloud
• Governance for Cloud-based Services
• Outlook and Conclusions