Cloud Application Architectures

Comparing Approaches

When comparing cloudcenters (GoGrid) to service infrastructures (AWS), it’s important to remember both the practices of traditional data centers and the kind of application you are deploying.

Side-by-Side Comparison

It may help to look at traditional data centers, cloudcenters, and service infrastructures side-by-side. Table B-1 lists some of the areas of functionality for each type of infrastructure and how they compare.

Table B-1. Functions and capabilities of clouds

Functionality	Traditional data center	GoGrid (cloudcenter)	Amazon (service infrastructure)
Firewall	Perimeter hardware firewall	Perimeter hardware firewall (Q1 2009 release)	Custom distributed software firewall
Load balancer	Hardware load balancer	Hardware load balancer	Roll-your-own software load balancer (possible 2009 release of custom load balancer service)
Network isolation	VLAN	VLAN	Faux “VLAN” separation using distributed software firewall
Private networks	Yes (VLAN)	Yes (VLAN)	No
Network protocols	No limitations	No limitations	Restricted; no multicast, no broadcast, GRE and related may not work
OS choices	Unlimited	Some limits	Some limits
DNS	Yes; managed in-house	Yes; managed by GoGrid	No
Persistent local storage	Yes	Yes	No
Persistent network storage	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mixed virtual and physical servers	Yes	Yes	No

As you can see, cloudcenter-style cloud architectures are very similar to traditional data centers.

Real-Life Usage

The differences between cloudcenters and service infrastructures will become apparent the minute you attempt to try ...