Open Source Cloud computing applications

As we all know, Linux and open source code play a very important role in cloud computing, so let's explore how Linux and the Open-source community can contribute to it. Of course, smart as you may have guessed one or two of them, but please continue to look down.

Software-as-a-service

SaaS (software as a service) accesses software on the Internet in the form of a service. An early SaaS approach is the creator Service Provider (ASP). ASP provides subscriptions to software stored or delivered on the Internet. The ASP delivers the software and charges according to the use of the software. This way, you don't have to buy the software, just hire the software on demand.

SaaS instance

An interesting example of the contrast between traditional and Saas applications is the Application Lifecycle management tool provided by softwareplanner.com. The company provides their tools in the form of traditional forms or SaaS. When using traditional forms, customers place application suites in their enterprise, and when using SaaS, customers have application suites and put them on the Internet.

SaaS Another aspect of is the use of remotely executed software on the Internet. This software can be a service used by a local application (defined as a Web service) or a remote application that is seen through a Web browser. An example of remote application services is Google Apps, which provides some enterprise applications through a standard Web browser. To execute applications remotely, it is often necessary to rely on an application server to advertise the required services. An application server is a software framework that publishes APIs for software services (such as transaction management or database access). Specific examples are Red Hat JBoss Creator Server, Apache Geronimo, and Ibm®websphere®application server. There are also a number of other application servers, and a detailed list is given in the Resources section.

SaaS Another recent example of is Google's Chrome browser. This browser is an ideal environment for a new desktop, and can be used to deliver applications (either locally or remotely), in addition to the traditional Web browsing experience. (See Resources for more information.)

Platform-as-a-service

PaaS The can be described as a complete virtual platform that includes one or more servers (virtual on a set of physical servers), operating systems, and specific applications (such as Apache and MySQL for web-based applications). In some cases, these platforms can be predefined and selected. In other cases, you can provide a VM image that contains all of the user-specific applications.

PaaS An interesting example of is Google App Engine. APP Engine is a service that lets you deploy WEB applications on Google's highly scalable architecture. APP Engine provides a sandbox for Python applications that can be referenced over the Internet (more languages will be supported in the future). In addition to supporting user authentication, mirroring operations, and e-mail delivery, APP Engine also provides a Python API for persisting data storage and management (using Google Query Language or GQL). The sandbox where the Web application runs will limit access to the underlying operating system. Although app Engine limits the functionality available to applications, it supports the construction of useful Web services. See the Resources section for more information.

Note: Deploying applications in App Engine is free within certain bandwidth and storage constraints. However, if you want to build a production Web site with App Engine, you need to evaluate the usage fee.

PaaS Another example of is 10gen, which is both a cloud computing platform and a downloadable open source package that can be used to create your own private cloud computing. 10gen is a software stack similar to app Engine that provides functionality similar to the app Engine-but there are some differences. With 10gen, you can develop applications using Python as well as JavaScript and Ruby programming languages. The platform also uses the sandbox concept to isolate applications and provides a reliable environment through many of its own application server computers (built on Linux, of course).

Infrastructure-as-a-service

IaaS The is delivering the computer infrastructure in the form of a service. This layer differs from PaaS in that it provides only virtual hardware and no software stack. The customer provides a VM image that is invoked on one or more virtual servers. IaaS is the most primitive form of computing as a service (except access to the physical infrastructure). The most famous commercial IaaS provider is the Amazon elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). In EC2, you can specify a specific VM (operating system and application set), and then deploy the application to it, or provide a VM image to be executed on the server. Then, you only need to pay for calculation time, storage, and network bandwidth.

Eucalyptus The project (Elastic Utility Computing architecture for linking Your Programs to useful) is an open source implementation of the Amazon BAE that is compatible with the commercial service interface. Like EC2, Eucalyptus relies on Linux and Xen for operating system virtualization. Eucalyptus was developed by the University of California (Santa Barbara) for cloud computing research. You can download it from the university's Web site (see Resources), or experience it through Eucalyptus public Cloud, although there are some limitations.

> another The EC2-style IaaS is the enomalism cloud computing platform. Enomalism is an open source project that provides a cloud computing framework that functions like EC2. Enomalism is based on Linux and supports both Xen and Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM). Unlike other pure IaaS solutions, Enomalism provides a software stack based on the TurboGears WEB application framework and Python.