How to implement private cloud computing on a wide area network

Stephen Smoot, one of the authors of Private cloud computing: Consolidation, virtualization, and service-oriented infrastructure, has communicated with him about implementing private cloud computing on the WAN, and asked Smoot: How to look at the relationship between private cloud computing and public cloud computing, How to improve the WAN to better support private cloud computing and so on. These questions and answers are presented in the q&a of this article.

What is your definition of private cloud computing, and how do you see the difference between it and public cloud computing?

Stephen Smoot: A public cloud is a resource shared by many users. For example, clouds are generally likened to infinite resources, and you can immediately find the resources you need, use them, and then release them. It's very flexible and scalable, and that's what the cloud really means. Public cloud computing is easy to understand, as all resources have been set up first, and you can use them only for payment. For example, Amazon EC2 is the infrastructure cloud, and Salesforce.com is the software that serves as a public cloud. Like the public cloud, private clouds have the advantage of simplifying management, simplifying innovation, and lowering the threshold for use (internal only). For private clouds, although you need to control resources yourself, you can still handle these resources in the same flexible, dynamic manner.

How can companies tell if it is appropriate to use private cloud computing? Are there some metrics that require organizations to adopt a common cloud infrastructure?

Smoot: I think it actually depends on the business and the projects involved. A lot of people will eventually need two options; For businesses that are extremely focused on security, they may only adopt private cloud computing. For example, some organizations do not have access to the external Internet at all, so public cloud computing is not feasible. If you do need to master resource controls, you need to take a private cloud. We want to clarify one point: how to create a separate private cloud and deploy high-end services in it. If you have this requirement, then obviously you need to deploy the resources internally. Similarly, if you don't want to develop your own online document system, you can use Office 365 or Google Docs, which is, of course, the public cloud computing technology.

You mention the service-oriented infrastructure (SOI) in your book, which describes why infrastructure needs to evolve and support private cloud computing. So what is the role of the WAN in the next generation infrastructure?

Smoot: WAN is very important for cloud computing. One of the basic tasks that people have to do when creating or using a cloud is to concentrate all resources in one place. Unless this location covers all users, you will need to connect users and cloud services over the WAN. If you are using a public cloud, you cannot even choose this location. The server that you choose to use to handle the day-to-day activities of employees may be in another part of the United States, so users and cloud services need to connect across the WAN. For SOI, this is the model that must be used to deliver services to users from it. The key to IT services is your needs; you need someone to use your service. You certainly don't want them to get in trouble, so you have to have fast-responding, secure, scalable, high-quality services, which is what cloud computing is all about. Another problem is that resources are in an untouchable position. The speed of light is not something we can easily achieve, so the farther away it is, the slower it will be. This is a challenge that many people have to face when they go to cloud services.

In the introduction to this book, you first point out that the WAN "may be the weakest link to implementing a cloud plan." Why, and why is this problem more pronounced in a private cloud environment?

Smoot: Distance may be the real problem with the project. Let's say you've deployed some high-speed interactive web applications that show many sketches on a page element with a table. If the application is deployed on a server in another country, it may become slow. So you need to seriously consider how to move services to the cloud and deliver services to users through the cloud.

Now that the WAN may be the weakest link to implementing the cloud plan, how can the WAN be improved to support private cloud computing? What kind of WAN optimization technology is required for private cloud environment acceleration? How to implement private cloud computing on a wide area network (next) will continue to introduce you to WAN optimization in private cloud computing.