Implementation Of Cloud Computing Inside College Campus Information Technology Essay

CLOUD COMPUTING can represent a unique opportunity to reduce the costs associated with infrastructure and can help to accomplish achieve ever greater levels of efficiencies. With Cloud Computing users can access database resources via the Internet from anywhere, for as long as they need, without worrying about any maintenance or management of actual resources. Besides, databases in cloud are very dynamic and scalable.In this paper we discuss on implementing a cloud computing platform that “enables Software as a Service (SaaS) to provide a closed box execution environment that guarantees remote execution of programs in a Local Area Network.Inside a college,students can make use of the cloud resources available online, through a simple web interface.

INTRODUCTION:

Cloud computing provides the facility to access shared resources and common infrastructure,offering services on demand over the network to perform operations that meet changing business needs. The location of physical resources and devices being accessed are typically not known to the end user. It also provides facilities for users to develop, deploy and manage their applications ‘on the cloud’, which entails virtualization of resources that maintains and manages itself.

DEFINITION:

A cloud is a pool of virtualized computer resources.

A cloud can:

Host a variety of different workloads, including batch-style back-end jobs and interactive, user-facing applications

Allow workloads to be deployed and scaled-out quickly through the rapid provisioning of virtual machines or physical machines

Support redundant, self-recovering, highly scalable programming models that allow workloads to recover from many unavoidable hardware/software failures

Monitor resource use in real time to enable rebalancing of allocations when needed

BENEFITS OF CLOUD COMPUTING:

CLOUD COMPUTING can represent a unique opportunity to reduce the costs associated with infrastructure and can help to accomplish achieve ever greater levels of importantefficiencies. These efficiencies can include not only cost reduction, but also improved access to resources and essential data. The determination as to whether cloud computing services are a good match for your particular business will of course depend the size of your enterprise, its general needs and your overall sales goals. 

Cloud computing, typically entails:

High scalability

Cloud environments enable servicing of business requirements for larger audiences,through high scalability.

Agility

The cloud works in the ‘distributed mode’ environment. It shares resources among users

and tasks, while improving efficiency and agility (responsiveness).

High availability and reliability

Availability of servers is high and more reliable as the chances of infrastructure

failure are minimal.

Multi-sharing

With the cloud working in a distributed and shared mode, multiple users and applications

can work more efficiently with cost reductions by sharing common infrastructure.

Virtual service

Virtual servers seek to encapsulate the server software away from the hardware

This includes the OS, the applications, and the storage for that server.Servers end up as mere files stored on a physical box, or in enterprise storage.A virtual server can be serviced by one or more hosts, and one host may house more than one virtual server.

Virtual servers can be scaled out easily.If the administrators find that the resources supporting a virtual server are being taxed too much, they can adjust the amount of resources allocated to that virtual server.Server templates can be created in a virtual environment to be used to create multiple, identical virtual servers.Virtual servers themselves can be migrated from host to host almost at will.

NEED FOR CLOUD:

As an end user, cloud computing lets you run software applications and access data from any place and time, and from any computer; without the need to ever install, upgrade, troubleshoot software applications physically on a local desktop or server. This is one of the most important elements of cloud computing, and why it has become so popular today. In a sense, cloud computing outsources the technical hassles to someone else.

It could bring hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems would reduce the need for advanced hardware on the client side

You wouldn’t need a large hard drive because you’d store all your information on a remote computer.

Cloud computing gives the option of storing data on someone else’s hardware, removing the need for physical space on the front end.

CLOUD COMPUTING CHARACTERISTICS:

Because cloud computing is related to a number of other technologies, it is best defined by the presence of a number of characteristics. These represent ideals that people want for the applications that run on the cloud:

Incremental Scalability: Cloud environments allow users to access additional compute resources on-demand in response to increased application loads.

Agility: As a shared resource, the cloud provides flexible, automated management to distribute the computing resources among the cloud’s users.

Reliability and Fault-Tolerance:Cloud environments take advantage of the built-in redundancy of the large numbers of servers that make them up by enabling high

levels of availability and reliability for applications that can take advantage of this.

Service-oriented: The cloud is a natural home for service-oriented applications, which need a way to easily scale as services get incorporated into other applications.

Utility-based: Users only pay for the services they use, either by subscription or transaction-based models.

Shared: By enabling IT resources to be consolidated, multiple users share a common infrastructure, allowing costs to be more effectively managed without sacrificing the security of each user’s data.

SLA-driven: Clouds are managed dynamically based on service-level agreements that define policies like delivery parameters, costs, and other factors.

APIs: Because clouds virtualize resources as a service they must have an application programming interface (API).

TYPES OF CLOUD:

Public Cloud

A public cloud is one based on the standard cloud computing model, in which a service provider makes resources, such as applications and storage, available to the general public over the Internet. Public cloud services may be free or offered on a pay-per-usage model.

The main benefits of using a public cloud service are:

Easy and inexpensive set-up because hardware, application and bandwidth costs are covered by the provider.

Scalability to meet needs.

No wasted resources because you pay for what you use.

The term “public cloud” arose to differentiate between the standard model and the private cloud, which is a proprietary network or data center that uses cloud computing technologies, such a virtualization. A private cloud is managed by the organization it serves. A third model, the hybrid cloud, is maintained by both internal and external providers.

Examples of public clouds include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM’s Blue Cloud, Sun Cloud, Google AppEngine and Windows Azure Services Platform.

Hybrid cloud

A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment in which an organization provides and manages some resources in-house and has others provided externally.

Although cloud computing is often said to be the future of the industry, the hybrid model is more prevalent for a number of reasons. Large enterprises often already have substantial investments in the infrastructure required to provide resources in-house. Furthermore, many organizations would prefer to keep sensitive data under their own control to ensure security.

Private cloud

This cloud computing environment resides within the boundaries of an organization and is used exclusively for the organization’s benefits. These are also called internal clouds. They are built primarily by IT departments within enterprises who seek to optimize utilization of infrastructure resources within the enterprise by provisioning the infrastructure with applications using the concepts of grid and virtualization.

Advantages

They improve average server utilization, allow usage of low-cost servers and hardware while providing higher efficiencies; thus reducing the costs that a greater number of servers would otherwise entail

High levels of automation, reducing operations costs and administrative overheads

Common Services. Some products offer Internet-based services-such as storage, middleware, collaboration, and database capabilities-directly to users.

SaaS. Software-as-a-service products provide a complete, turnkey application-including complex programs such as those for CRM or enterprise-resource management-via the Internet.

PaaS. Platform-as-a-service products offer a full or partial development environment that users can access and utilize online, even in collaboration with others.

IaaS. Infrastructure-as-a-service products deliver a full computer infrastructure via the Internet.

CLOUD WITHIN CAMPUS:

When the concept of cloud computing is applied to web hosting, the result can be a technology that lets users scale resources on the fly, and make changes according to usage and the particular needs of the enterprise in real time. Thus, as your traffic fluctuates, the hosting package can be adjusted to ensure maximum efficiency and minimum waste. This flexibility allows businesses to reduce overhead by only investing in the hosting power they actually need, without incurring downtime or overage charges by driving servers beyond capacity.Instead of getting individual cluster for each and every deparment in our college ,We propose that cloud power can be utilised according to their need by hosting the service in local LAN of college

SPECIFICATION:

TYPE OF CLOUD: PRIVATE CLOUD –

Private cloud is implemented within college campus thereby enabling students to

Execute complex jobs inside college.

Reduce the cost of getting higher-end machines.

Avoid wastage of resources through sharing of computing resources.

Provide transparency to users.

SERVICES PROVIDED: SaaS (Software as a Service) –

Our web interface application is hosted as a service provided to students belonging to various departments inside college.

WORKING OF COMPONENTS:

Figure :

PHASES:

Program submission.

Upload program to database server.

Processing inside cloud.

Return result to client browser.

PROGRAM SUBMISSION(FRONT END):

The student can submit complex programs like MPI from anywhere inside the local area network through the browser.The programs are entered through the HTML front end on the client browser as shown in the screen shot below

UPLOAD PROGRAM TO DATABASE SERVER:

Tomcat can be used to implement a java servlet that uploads the program based on user input..Tomcat serves as a back-end which handles requests passed to it from a general purpose web server such as Apache.

PROCESSING INSIDE CLOUD:

The uploaded program is shared among the nodes.On the back end of the system are the various computers, servers and data storage systems that create the “cloud” of computing services.

The MPI specification allows users to create portable libraries that can take advantage of multiple processors to provide high performance. An increasing number of implementations covering most common platforms are becoming available.MPI is well-suited to a range of environments and can function using multiple processors in a single high-performance computer as well as across a network of lower-powered machines. For complex programs like MPI programs, once the user submits the job, the user will be prompted to enter the number of nodes required by the user for the computation. Thus the user is given the priviledge to choose the number of nodes

After job submission, the agent, starts running automatically.It is the component running on the worker nodes.

Initially, it has to determine the local system parameters that are essential for job selection and execution.These are the installed memory, the CPU architecture, the availability of some runtime environments and the operating system.

It starts the working loop with a query to the server for a job.If the server responds with the copy of the file to be executed, the agent downloads the specified files.

The agent starts the job with low operating system process priority and waits for its completion.During the execution,it periodically contacts the server to submit the heartbeat.

When the job is finished without any error, all result files and the standard/error out data are uploaded to the server.

If all the files are transferred successfully, a final commit is sent to the server.Then and only then, the job is accepted as successfully done and the agent proceeds by waiting for the next job from the server.

RETURN RESULT TO CLIENT BROWSER:

The computed results are sent back to the client browser.

Screenshot:

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS:

  Programming language Used: Java

  Web Server Used: Apache-tomcat 5.5

  Automation of execution is done using: Shell script

  Web interface Request Handler: Servlet 

  Front end: HTML

  Database Connector: libmysql-java (jdbc driver for mysql)

  Back-end: Mysql 5.0.51a-24

ADVANTAGES:

Reduced Cost: Each department need not invest in buying separate servers.The cloud technology will supplement clusters at each department with a single powerful server for all purposes.

Increased Storage

Sutdents can store more data than on private computer systems.Thus individual computers need not be high-end powerful machines.

Highly Automated The work of compilation and execution will be completely automated.

Flexibility

Cloud computing offers much more flexibility than past computing methods because a number of services are provided to the user just with a machine and a browser.

More Mobility 

Students can access server resources wherever they are, rather than having to remain at their desks.

CONCLUSION:

Cloud computing is the big wave in computing. It has many benefits, such as better hardware management, since all the computers are the same and run the same hardware. It also provides for better and easier management of data. Thus implementing cloud within a college campus will definitely help in all means.