Cloud Application Architectures

Cloudcenters in Detail

GoGrid is the first and largest U.S. cloudcenter and is popularizing this approach. (Other cloudcenter companies include FlexiScale, ElasticHosts, and AppNexus.) Among its primary advantages is the ability to directly translate skillsets, existing infrastructure, and projects to the more flexible cloud environment. GoGrid’s approach will also eventually make so-called “cloud-bridging”—connecting and integrating your internal data center to external clouds—much easier.

Data Centers in the Clouds

Traditional data centers are composed of the following elements:

• Perimeter security using a hardware firewall and intrusion detection system

• Load balancing using a hardware load balancer

• Network segmentation using differing network blocks and VLANs

• A combination of physical hardware and virtual guest operating systems

• Filesharing using (NAS)

• Block storage using (SANs)

• Data center support services: DNS, DHCP, server imaging, inventory management, asset management, and monitoring

• Power, cooling, bandwidth, and backup for all of these support services

• 24/7 on-site support and staff

Cloudcenters are very similar to traditional data centers, offering most of these services with only small variations to provide them in a multitenant fashion. In addition, cloudcenters, unlike normal data centers, deliver direct cost efficiencies along with indirect human efficiencies through the GUI and API.

GoGrid Versus Traditional Data Centers

The primary downside of traditional data centers is the need ...