Revealing the "new career" of technology industry: cloud Architect

The online edition of Wired magazine, published in a recent article, describes the network built by the Los Angeles cloud services company Http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/29803.html ">dreamhost" and describes " Cloud architect "New species" in this technological world.

The following is the full text of this article:

"I am a cloud architect. Carl Perry (Carl Perry) said there was no irony in his tone. His business card also has the same title.

Perry works for a Los Angeles company called DreamHost, which was founded in 1997, when the total number of employees was only 4, and the main business was to help any Internet user who needed a website to build and host the site; but like many web hosting providers, The company eventually evolved into a company that was slightly different from its original business objectives. Following the footsteps of Amazon, Google and Microsoft, DreamHost now mainly offers so-called "cloud services", the Internet service that allows users to gain real-time computing power.

Through this service, which derives its name from Amazon's elastic Compute cloud--, you can build and host a website entirely on your own, or launch any other software application, or store virtually unlimited amounts of data.

Perry called himself a cloud architect because he was responsible for creating these DreamHost services-from servers to network devices to software. But the title represents more than that; you know, these services are built in a way that is different from traditional Web services or other online applications, designed to share a computing infrastructure with a large number of external developers and businesses-and to leverage the needs of these users to rapidly expand, This requires another dimension to be added to the coordination of machines, and a particular attention is required.

The software is different, the hardware is different, and in some cases the hardware is arranged in a very different way. "We've been trying to launch a program that integrates all of our equipment--and makes it modular, flexible, and high-speed." Perry said.

Cloud computing is a very difficult concept to define, and the word almost means everything. But in some cases, cloud computing represents a very real change, not only in how to get computing power, but also in how to build the data center infrastructure. Throughout the science and technology world, Perry is just one of many "cloud architects"--whether it's a cloud architect in a company like DreamHost or Hewlett-Packard--although that title may be of little value to some people, it means a lot to other people.

Parsing DreamHost Cloud Services

Perry and DreamHost are building cloud services in a way that is very similar to Google and Amazon, using ultra-low-cost commodity hardware-including devices purchased directly from Asian manufacturers-and then using software to handle all the complex transactions.

The DreamHost cloud service-which is still in beta-does not bring a dedicated server portal to the user. The service uses an open source platform called OpenStack, which brings users to the portal of a virtual server-a server that exists only in software form. Basically, the company can build multiple virtual servers on each entity server that can operate independently of the entity server. Users can then use a virtual server to run any software they like.

The virtual server is not something new, but DreamHost is a step further in this field. The company is one of Nicira's early customers, a start-up company that has recently been bought by VMware, a virtualization solution maker, at $1.26 billion. Nicira provides a way to "bundle" a virtual server together and make it a complex virtual network. Using Nicira's network controller-a software--dreamhost that can program its network to a large extent-is the same as the way we program computers. Instead of reconfiguring its hardware, the company can make complex changes to its network through software.

This not only makes it easier to differentiate the network traffic of each enterprise that uses the service-separating the traffic belonging to one enterprise from the traffic that belongs to another enterprise-but also gives many enterprises the opportunity to build their own specific network plans based on this service. "It gives us the flexibility to support hundreds of thousands of of the ' tenants ' on the internet-not just 4,096 ' tenants ' as before. Perry said.

Of course, you still need to run an entity network outside of these virtual networks. However, after owning a Nicira controller, DreamHost can also simplify its physical network and reduce hardware costs-this is essential when you are running a service that is designed to leverage the user's needs for rapid expansion.

With the Nicira, the entity network is mainly a method of transmitting traffic, and the complex problem is software. Instead of high-end networking equipment from Cisco, Juniper or Hewlett-Packard, DreamHost is using lower-priced hardware, which is provided by Silicon Valley start-up Arista, to cut more costs-and, to a large extent, similar to Amazon and Google- The company even buys equipment from Asian manufacturers such as US technology (DELTA) and Accton, which also produce equipment for companies such as Cisco and Hewlett-Packard.

Buying and configuring this "white box" hardware is not the easiest thing to do-because you don't get help from Cisco or HP-but in DreamHost, the company's network, called Cumulus NX, facilitates this arrangement. The sole purpose of cumulus receptacle is to make it easier for companies to use low-cost networked devices that come directly from Asian OEMs (original equipment manufacturers).

"Spine and leaves" architecture

DreamHost's network even looks different in appearance.

Traditionally, data center networks are built like bicycle wheels. In general, there should be a network core that communicates with servers on each rack, and wires pulled from the network core are connected to a switch at the top of each rack.

However, the network that supports DreamHost cloud services uses the architecture of what Perry calls "spine and leaf" (spine and leaf). Basically, this makes the entire network "flattened". DreamHost's network does not operate through a central core, but is built around a long "spine" that is "strung" from one frame to another, and these racks are so-called "leaves."----

This architecture makes it easier for traffic to transfer between servers, which is necessary for the modern network services provided by DreamHost. "Today, when a request arrives at a Web server, the request also touches 300 other servers." Martin Casado, founder of Nicira, said he had seen many clients adopt this mechanism. Martin Casado "Because of this, we can now see a lot of so-called ' traffic '-that is, the flow within the data center, not the traffic between the server and the user. ”

In addition, this architecture can make it easier to expand the web-and to cut costs even further, because you don't need as many devices as are typically used in the network's core architecture, but only a few inexpensive switches--the so-called "pizza box" switch--dreamhost Buy the equipment directly from the Asian original equipment manufacturer. Each server rack has a "pizza box" switch that connects it to the entire network, plus the same switch as the "spine" of the network.

"This allows us to quickly deploy and expand rapidly. Perry said. "We don't have a ' core ', and all the switches look exactly the same. Deploy more switches? That's not a problem at all. ”

When clouds are no longer clouds

DreamHost is just one of many companies that are rebuilding their computing infrastructure, which used the same "context" as Amazon and Google, but now more and more companies are rebuilding their networks. In some cases, companies are selling this infrastructure as a cloud service, such as Rackspace (offering very similar dreamhost services) and Cloudfare (providing a content delivery network that allows users to speed up the delivery of Web pages to global users). But some companies are rebuilding their architecture so that they can provide similar services within their own company.

EBay is an example. Martin (J.C Martin) is the "cloud Architect" of the online auction site, and the network he builds looks much like the DreamHost network. EBay also uses Nicira's services to build a "spine and leaf" network that does not provide cloud services to outside companies, but, like DreamHost, Martin has provided infrastructure for all teams in the company's marketing business unit.

"We can innovate more quickly. "said Martin. "Then provide this innovation to other parts of the company as a service." ”

Some people insist that these services should not be called cloud services. Companies such as Amazon use the term "cloud services" just to describe how far outsiders have come to access Web services. But whatever you call it, it doesn't really matter.

You can shrug off the metaphor of "cloud" and scoff at the concept of "cloud architect". But the fact is that EBay and DreamHost have built their networks in essentially the same way-a way that is completely different from previous data center designs. And the two companies are not alone.

(Responsible editor: Schpeppen)