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Cloud computing: Windows of performance

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: The murmur of Cloud Computing today is bound to build up to crescendo in the years to come simply because it makes sound business sense. Cloud computing is a new paradigm in the world of computing.

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The cloud essentially creates an illusion of infinite computing resources which are available on demand to the user who only pays based on the usage. While on the surface it appears extremely simple and straightforward, making an optimal use of the cloud is no trivial task.

Prior to deploying an application on the cloud, the IT team has to decide the CPU, memory and bandwidth usage of the application.

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For instance, the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) provides several variants of CPUs based on different pricing schemes, such as $0.085, $0.34 or $0.68 per hour for small, large or extra large CPU instances running Linux.

Also Read: Deciphering cloud computing



There are different pricing schemes for memory and bandwidth usage as well. While the technological challenge of deploying the cloud is a separate area in itself, the business considerations needed for deciding the cloud computing resources optimally is equally critical.

As you also have to choose from different CPUs, which typically comprise CPU processors with different clock speeds, or multi-core CPUs for extra large instances, the choice can be overwhelming. You also need to consider how your application will scale up with increasing, decreasing or bursts of traffic. To estimate the resources needed requires a good understanding of how the application scales with increasing traffic.

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The ideal application deployment would scale linearly with increasing traffic. The key parameters that need to be considered for application performance are application latency and throughput versus the instance type.

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Another factor is the kind of resource types that need to be added. It may make sense to add small CPU instances incrementally, rather than adding extra-large CPU instances, which are only partly deployed, wasting precious resources.

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Once the CPU type — small, medium, large or extra large — is chosen, you need to monitor how the loading of the CPU resource performs with increasing traffic.

Hence, regardless of the choice, there will be three windows of performance to consider:

Window of Optimality: In the optimal window the cost of cloud computing resources, for handling the incoming traffic versus the revenue for the enterprise is truly profitable. In the optimal window the application will be capable of scaling extremely well to increasing traffic thus resulting in excellent revenue for the enterprise.

Window of Diminishing Returns: In this window the addition of extra resources at additional cost will not result in a proportional increase in scalability. In fact, the increasing cost of adding additional resource will offset the revenue to the enterprise as the application will not scale appropriately and will result in diminishing returns.

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Window of Loss: This is the window which no enterprise should find itself in. In this window the cost of adding the extra resources will be larger than the revenue to the enterprise, as an inordinate amount of resources will have to be added for small increases in scalability.

This will be the result of a poorly designed application. In this situation, you need to go back to the drawing board, and re-architect the application.

Hence cloud computing, while truly alluring for the SMB, is a path that requires careful planning when adopted by the enterprise.

Tinniam V Ganesh is a senior architect at Infinite Computer Solutions

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