azure vs amazon ec2

8/10/2019 Azure vs Amazon EC2

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CLOUD COMPUTING TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW AND

COMPARISON MICROSOFT AZURE VS AMAZON EC2

_______________

A Thesis

Presented to the

Faculty of

San Diego State University

_______________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Master of Science

in

Computer Science

_______________

by

Saurabh Gupta

Summer 2012


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Copyright 2012

by

Saurabh Gupta

All Rights Reserved


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DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this thesis work to my Guru Dr. Joseph Lewis and my family.It would not have been possible without their boundless love, continuous motivation and

support.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................v

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................. viii

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. ix

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................x

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ..................................................................1

1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................1

1.2 Purpose of Research ...........................................................................................1

2 THEORITICAL BASELINES.......................................................................................2

2.1 Definition ...........................................................................................................2

2.2 Distributed Computing.......................................................................................3

2.2.1 Clusters .....................................................................................................3

2.2.2 Supercomputers.........................................................................................3

2.2.3 Grids ..........................................................................................................4

2.2.4 Cloud Deployment Models .......................................................................4

2.3 Cloud Service Models ........................................................................................4

2.4 Top 10 Cloud Computing Providers of 2012 Based on Cloud ServiceModels......................................................................................................................5

2.5 Drivers for Adoption of Cloud Computing ........................................................6

2.6 Barriers to the Adoption of Cloud Computing ..................................................7

2.7 Cloud Security Issues and Related Works .........................................................7

2.7.1 Soap Messages ..........................................................................................7

2.7.2 Multi-Core OS Systems ............................................................................8

2.7.3 Securing Code, Control Flow and Image Repositories .............................8

2.7.4 Accountability in Clouds ..........................................................................8

3 WINDOWS AZURE AND AMAZON EC2 COMPONENTS ...................................10

3.1 Understanding Windows Azure .......................................................................10


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3.2 Components of Windows Azure ......................................................................10

3.2.1 Cloud Applications .................................................................................10

3.2.2 Data Management ...................................................................................12

3.2.2.1 SQL Azure .....................................................................................12

3.2.2.2 Tables .............................................................................................13

3.2.2.3 Blobs ..............................................................................................13

3.2.3 Windows Azure Access Control Service (Authentication) ....................13

3.3 Understanding Amazon EC2 ...........................................................................14

3.4 Components of Amazon EC2 ..........................................................................15

3.4.1 Elastic Compute Units ............................................................................15

3.4.2 Amazon EC2 Instances Types ................................................................15

3.4.3 EC2 Storage Types .................................................................................16

3.4.4 Elastic IP Addresses ................................................................................17

3.4.5 Amazon CloudWatch ..............................................................................17

3.4.6 Automated Scaling ..................................................................................17

4 COMPARISON BETWEEN MICROSOFT AZURE VS AMAZON EC2 ................18

4.1 Similarities between MS Azure and Amazon EC2 ..........................................18

4.2 Differences between MS Azure and Amazon EC2..........................................18

4.3 Price Comparison between MS Azure and Amazon EC2 ...............................18

4.4 Security Features Comparison .........................................................................20

4.5 Advantages of Amazon EC2 ............................................................................20

4.6 Advantages of Microsoft Windows Azure ......................................................21

5 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................22

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................24


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LIST OF TABLES

PAGE

Table 4.1. Differences between MS Azure and Amazon EC2 ................................................19

Table 4.2. Price Comparison Table..........................................................................................20

Table 4.3. Security Feature Table ............................................................................................21


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LIST OF FIGURES

PAGE

Figure 2.1. Cloud computing. ....................................................................................................2

Figure 2.2. Cloud service models. .............................................................................................5

Figure 3.1. Components of Windows Azure screen. ...............................................................11

Figure 3.2. Windows Azure application. .................................................................................11

Figure 3.3. Data management. .................................................................................................12

Figure 3.4. ACS. ......................................................................................................................14

Figure 3.5. Components of Amazon EC2. ...............................................................................16


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I take this opportunity to sincerely thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Joseph Lewis, for theguidance, encouragement, and unrelenting support during every step of my research work.

Without his help it would not have been possible for me to accomplish this feat.

I would also like to thank Professor Carl Eckberg and Professor Rob Malouf for

providing valuable suggestions and taking their time to review my thesis, as part of the panel.


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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

1.1INTRODUCTION

Cloud Computing has become one of the most talked about technologies in recent

times and has got lots of attention from media as well as analysts because of the opportunities

it is offering. Many companies have invested in Cloud Computing technology by building

their public clouds, which include Amazon, Google and Microsoft [1].

Cloud computing is shaping IT in a great way. The last few years have been difficult

for the world economy, and those working in IT havent escaped feeling some of the pain.

Innovation and investment in technology slows down just because the economy may be

facing problems and difficulties. It is fair to say that the pace of change in technology and the

holding back of investment has led to a situation when transformation is now very much on

the agenda for all companies.

This is likely to come about through the use of cost effective solutions. One such

platform in this direction is cloud computing technology, which is now driving demand in

both public and commercial space. More efficient ways of sharing information andcollaborating can offer real competitive advantage real step change for the IT industry.

Cloud computing has totally changed the way IT professionals used to think and work[2].

1.2PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

This thesis is to study, conceptualize, integrate and comparison of two cloud based

system i.e. Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2 to store and retrieve files in a cloud.

In this paper I discuss the benefits, drawbacks and also make comparison of two

cloud based system i.e. Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2 and also discuss how their cloud

computing strategies are being approached and how it effects the future of computing.

In the end, concluding that which Cloud Computing technology i.e. Microsoft Azure

and Amazon EC2 is better for start up companies in terms of scalability, manageability, cost

and load balancing requirements.


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CHAPTER 2

THEORITICAL BASELINES

2.1DEFINITION

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product ,

whereby shared resources like audio files, videos files, data access ,software applications

and storage resources are provided to PC , smart phones and tablets over the web or internet

without requiring cloud users to know the location and other details of the computing

infrastructure. Form of cost efficient and flexible usage of IT services. The services are

offered just-in-time over the internet and are paid per usage. Cloud computing is broken

down into three segments: "application" "storage" and "connectivity." Each segment serves a

different purpose and offers different products for businesses and individuals around the

world (see Figure 2.1) [3].

Figure 2.1. Cloud computing. Source: WIKIPEDIA, Cloudcomputing. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Cloud_computing, accessed April 2012, n.d.


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2.2DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING

Distributed computing refers to the very idea of using distributed systems that are

generally multiple computers connected to each other via computer networks to

collaboratively process a common goal [4]. Those computers communication can be

homogeneous or heterogeneous, distributed globally or locally. According to the

characteristics of localization or equality, distributed systems have different subsets, such as

supercomputers, grids, clusters, web 2.0 and clouds.

As an example for distributed computing, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial

Intelligence, short SETI, is a prime example based on heterogeneous and globally located

computers.

2.2.1 ClustersCharacteristics of clusters are that the computers being linked to each other are

normally distributed locally, and have the same kind of hardware and operating system.

There- fore cluster work stations are connected together and can possibly be used as a super .

As an example, in the US Air Force hundreds of PlayStation 3 consoles are used to be

connected together into one cluster. This merged machine is then utilized for high

performance computing to calculate complex equations, which demand powerful computers.

The PlayStation 3 is used as it is not only a gaming machine or blue-ray player, but also a

high performance machine offered for a reasonable price compared to other high-

performance servers .

2.2.2 Supercomputers

Supercomputers can be easily compared to clusters, because it follows the same

concept, except the fact that it is merged into one box already and is not locally

interconnected with other machines

IBM is constructing those machines consisting with a lot of processors that are

merged into 1 machine with high performance capabilities. The only disadvantage is that

they are usually expensive and have the necessity of a huge amount of energy.


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2.2.3 Grids

When defining grid computing it is necessary to differ it from clusters. While clusters

are distributed locally and obliged to use the same hardware and OS, grids involve

heterogeneous computers that are connected to each other and distributed globally. The OS

and hardware that run on those machines can also be different from each other .

The computers that are interconnected over the internet can come from anywhere

while there is usually no obligation to pay. For this reason already it is obvious that grids

being connected are not nearly as expensive as the supercomputers that are offered from IBM

and other technology companies.

2.2.4 Cloud Deployment Models

1.

Public Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is available to the general public.2. Private Cloud: The type of the cloud that is available solely for a single organization.

3. Community Cloud: In this type of cloud deployment model, the infrastructure of thecloud is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community withshared concerns.

4. Hybrid Cloud: This is a cloud infrastructure that is a composition of two or moreclouds i.e. private, community or public [3].

2.3CLOUD SERVICE MODELS

Here in this section, we will in short introduce the three cloud service models (IaaS,

PaaS, SaaS) which can serve as a foundation for further developing and understanding of

cloud computing and its capabilities (see Figure 2.2) [5]. Cloud computing providers offer

their services according to these three fundamental models where IaaS is the most basic and

each higher model abstracts from the details of the lower models.

These services are made possible by virtualization, the ubiquity of high-speed

networks and the capabilities of today's browsers. With these things in place, it becomes less

necessary to own your own infrastructure, or even to own your own software.

1.

Cloud Software as Service(SaaS): This is a capability in which the consumer canuse the providers applications running on the cloud. For e.g. Salesforce, Gmail.

2. Cloud Platform as Service(PaaS): In this type of service, the consumer can deploy,the consumer created or acquired applications created by using programminglanguages or tools provided by provider, on the cloud infrastructure. For e.g. GoogleAppEngine (Python, Java), Windows Azure (.Net)


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Figure 2.2. Cloud service models. Source:RESEARCHERS BLOG, Cost

benefits of cloud computing. Researchers Blog, http://clean-

clouds.com/2011/03/30/cloud-computing-cost-benefits/, accessed April2012, March 2011.

3. Cloud Infrastructure as Service (IaaS): This is a capability provided to theconsumer by which, it can provision processing, storage, networks and otherfundamental computing resources where the consumers can deploy and run thesoftware (i.e. operating systems, applications). For e.g. Amazon EC2, GoGrid,Eucalyptus [1].

2.4TOP 10CLOUD COMPUTING PROVIDERS OF 2012

BASED ON CLOUD SERVICE MODELS

Examples of SaaS providers:

1. Google Apps: provides web-based office tools such as e-mail, calendar, anddocument management

2. Salesforce.com: provides a full customer relationship management (CRM)6application

3. Zoho.com: provides a large suite of web-based applications, mostly for enterprise use

[6]

Examples of IaaS providers:

1. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): provides users with a special virtualmachine (AMI) that can be deployed and run on the EC2 infrastructure

2. Amazon Simple Storage Solution (S3): provides users with access to dynamicallyscalable storage resources


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3. GoGrid: provides users with access to dynamically scalable computing and storageresources, as well as dedicated servers

4. IBM Computing on Demand (CoD): provides users with access to highlyconfigurable servers plus value-added services such as data storage

5. Microsoft Live Mesh: provides users with access to a distributed file system;targeted at individual use

6. Rackspace Cloud: provides users with access to dynamically scalable computing andstorage resources, as well as third-party cloud applications and tools [6]

PaaS examples providers:

1. Akamai EdgePlatform: provides a large distributed computing platform on whichorganizations can deploy their web applications; has a large focus on analysis andmonitoring

2. Force.com: from salesforce.com (an SaaS provider), provides users with a platformto build and run applications and components bought from AppExchange6 or custom

applications

3. Google App Engine: provides users with a complete development stack and allowsthem to run their applications on Googles infrastructure

4. Microsoft Azure Services Platform: provides users with on-demand compute andstorage services as well as a development platform based on Windows Azure

5. Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS): provides users with a means of developing webapplications on top of the existing Yahoo! platform and in doing so leveraging asignificant portion of the Yahoo! resources [6]

2.5DRIVERS FOR ADOPTION OF CLOUD COMPUTING

1. Availability: Users have the ability to access their resources at any time through astandard Internet connection.

2. Collaboration: Users begin to see the cloud as a way to work simultaneously oncommon data and information.

3. Elasticity: The provider transparently manages a users resource utilization based ondynamically changing needs.

4. Lower Infrastructure Costs: The pay-per-usage model allows an organization toonly pay for the resources they need with basically no investment in the physicalresources available in the cloud. There are no infrastructure maintenance or upgrade

costs.

5. Mobility: Users have the ability to access data and applications from around theglobe.

6. Risk Reduction: Organizations can use the cloud to test ideas and concepts beforemaking major investments in technology.


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7. Scalability: Users have access to a large amount of resources that scale based on theirdemand.

8. Virtualization: Each user has a single view of the available resources, independentlyof how they are arranged in terms of physical devices. Therefore, there is potentialfrom a provider perspective to serve a greater number of users with fewer physical

resources [6].

2.6BARRIERS TO THE ADOPTION OF CLOUD

COMPUTING

1. Interoperability: A universal set of standards and/or interfaces has not yet beendefined, resulting in a significant risk of vendor lock-in.

2. Latency: All access to the cloud is done via the internet, introducing latency intoevery communication between the user and the provider.

3. Platform or Language Constraints: Some cloud providers support specificplatforms and languages only.

4. Regulations: There are concerns in the cloud computing community overjurisdiction, data protection, fair information practices, and international datatransfermainly for organizations that manage sensitive data.

5. Reliability: Many existing cloud infrastructures leverage commodity hardware thatis known to fail unexpectedly.

6. Resource Control: The amount of control that the user has over the cloud providerand its resources varies greatly between providers.

7. Security: The main concern is data privacy: users do not have control or knowledgeof where their data is being stored [6].

2.7CLOUD SECURITY ISSUES AND RELATED WORKS

Cloud computing is currently emerging as a mechanism for high level computation,

as well as serving as a storage system for resources. Cloud security is a complex issue,

involving the different levels of the cloud, external and internal threats, and responsibilities

that are divided between the user, the provider and even a third party. The focus of this

section is to identify and describe prime security attacks on clouds. In this section we depict

some prominent security issues in cloud computing today, along with the techniques applied

by adversaries to intrude in the cloud.

2.7.1 Soap Messages

As web service (WS) technology is the mostly used technology in the field of SOA in

the Cloud, the WS-security system should be rigid enough to optimize the security attacks


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from different adversaries. Security attacks can involve SOAP messages. SOAP is an XML

based messaging framework, used to exchange encoded information (e.g. web service request

and response) over a variety of protocols (e.g. HTTP, SMTP, MIME). It allows a program

running in one system to call a program running in another system and it is independent of

any programming model.

As of now, two common attacks with SOAP messages are the Denial of Service and

Wrapping attack [7].

2.7.2 Multi-Core OS Systems

Factored operating systems (fos) are designed to address the challenges found in

systems, such as cloud computing and many core systems, and can provide a framework

from which to consider cloud security.. In reality there are several classes of systems havingsimilarities to fos: traditional microkernels, distributed OSs and cloud computing

infrastructure. The main motive of fos was to compel the scalability, elasticity of demand,

fault tolerance and resolve difficulties in programming a large system [7].

2.7.3 Securing Code, Control Flow and Image

Repositories

Each user in the cloud is provided with an instance of a Virtual Machine (VM): an

OS, application, etc. Virtual Machine Introspection (VMI) was proposed in to monitor VMstogether with Livewire, a prototype IDS that uses VMI to monitor VMs. A monitoring library

named Xen Access is for a guest OS running on top of Xen that applies the VMI and virtual

disk monitoring capabilities to access the memory state and disk activity of a target OS.

These approaches require that the system must be clean when monitoring is started, which is

a flaw and needs further investigation in VMI [7].

2.7.4 Accountability in Clouds

Making the cloud accountable means that the cloud will be trustable, reliable and

customers will be satisfied with their monthly or yearly charge for using the providers cloud.

Trusted computing is an approach to achieve some of the characteristics mentioned above to

make a cloud accountable. Typically, it requires trusting the correctness of large and complex

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A simple yet remarkably powerful tool of selfish and malicious participants in a

distributed system is "equivocation": making conflicting statements to others. A small,

trusted component is TrInc which combats equivocation in large, distributed systems. TrInc

provides a new primitive: unique, once-in-a-lifetime attestations. It is practical, versatile, and

easily applicable to a wide range of distributed systems. Evaluation shows that TrInc

eliminates most of the trusted storage needed to implement append-only memory and

significantly reduces communication overhead in Peer Review. Small and simple primitives

comparable to TrInc will be sufficient to make clouds more accountable [7].


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CHAPTER 3

WINDOWS AZURE AND AMAZON EC2COMPONENTS

3.1UNDERSTANDING WINDOWS AZURE

This section explains the fundamentals of Windows Azure. The goal is to give an

insight for understanding and using the Microsoft cloud platform.

Windows Azure is Microsoft's application platform for the public cloud. Your

applications can use this platform in many different ways. For instance, you can use

Windows Azure to build a web application that runs and stores its data in Microsoft

datacenters. You can use Windows Azure only to store data, with the applications that use

that data running on-premises (that is, outside the public cloud). You can use Windows

Azure to help on-premises applications connect with each other or to map between different

sets of identity information or in other ways. Because the platform offers a wide range of

services, all of these thingsand moreare possible [8].

3.2COMPONENTS OF WINDOWS AZURE

To understand what Windows Azure offers, it's useful to group its services into

distinct categories and you need to know what its components do. Figure 3.1 [8] shows one

way to do this.

3.2.1 Cloud Applications

Windows Azure provides two types of roles [8]:

1. Web roles: A web role is designed for code that talks directly with web browsers orother HTTP clients i.e. it depends on IIS, Microsoft's web server. For example,

ASP.NET or PHP application.

2. Worker roles: A worker role is more general, designed to run a variety or differenttype of code. For example, application that processes lots of data in parallel.

3. Each role instance is really just a virtual machine (VM) running a flavor of WindowsServer and each one executes in a Windows Azure datacenter (see Figure 3.2) [8].


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Figure 3.1. Components of Windows Azure screen. Source: MICROSOFT,Understanding Windows Azure. Microsoft, https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/develop/net/fundamentals/intro-to-windows-azure/#cloud, accessed April 2012,

n.d.

Figure 3.2. Windows Azure application. Source:MICROSOFT, Understanding Windows Azure. Microsoft,

https://www.windowsazure.com/en-

us/develop/net/fundamentals/intro-to-windows-azure/#cloud, accessed April 2012, n.d.

4.

Load Balancing on a Windows Azure application: If the load increases, maybe you've acquired a large number of new users all at

once.

If the load decreases, another request can shrink the number of instances. Andbecause Windows Azure charges you by the hour for each instance, you pay onlyfor the capacity you need.


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3.2.2 Data Management

Every Windows Azure application runs in one or more VMs. Each VM has local

storage, which an application is free to use.

Windows Azure provides three data management options (see Figure 3.3) [8].

1. SQL Azure

2. Tables

3. Windows Azure Blobs Storage Service

Figure 3.3. Data management. Source: MICROSOFT,Understanding Windows Azure. Microsoft,

https://www.windowsazure.com/en-

us/develop/net/fundamentals/intro-to-windows-azure/#cloud, accessed April 2012, n.d.

3.2.2.1SQLAZURE

SQL Azure is a highly available and scalable cloud database service built on SQLServer technologies. With SQL Azure, developers do not have to install, setup ormanage any database. High availability and fault tolerance is built-in and no physicaladministration is required. SQL Azure is a managed service that is operated byMicrosoft and has a 99.9% monthly SLA.

SQL Azure provides a full featured relational database and enables many differenttypes of applications. Some common scenarios include: Business Intelligence, HybridApplications and Business applications.

Capabilities and Benefits of SQL Azure:

1. No Physical administration required

2. Scale on Demand


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3. Innovate faster

Capabilities and Benefits of SQL Azure Data Sync:

1. Managed Service

2. Control Synchronization

3.

On-Premises and Cloud

4. Cloud-to-cloud synchronization [9]

3.2.2.2TABLES

Tables don't provide relational storage. Instead, they let an application storeproperties of various types, such as strings, integers, and dates. An application canthen retrieve a group of properties by providing a unique key for that group.

Tables offer fast access to typed data.

They're also very scalable, with a single table containing as much as a terabyte ofdata.

Tables are usually less expensive to use than SQL Azure's relational storage [8].

3.2.2.3BLOBS

Windows Azure Blob storage is a service for storing large amounts of unstructureddata that can be accessed from anywhere in the world via HTTP or HTTPS.

Like Tables, Blobs are cheap, and a single blob can be as large as one terabyte.

Serving images or documents directly to a browser

Storing files for distributed access Streaming video and audio

Performing secure backup and disaster recovery

Storing data for analysis by an on-premise or Windows Azure-hosted service

A single blob can be hundreds of gigabytes in size, and a single storage account cancontain up to 100TB of blobs [10].

3.2.3 Windows Azure Access Control Service

(Authentication)

ACS is a Windows Azure service that provides an easy way of authenticating users

who need to access your web applications and services without having to factor complex

authentication logic into your code [11].

The following features are available in ACS:

Integration with Windows Identity Foundation (WIF).


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Support for popular web identity providers (IPs) including Windows Live ID,Google, Yahoo, and Facebook.

Support for Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) 2.0.

An Open Data Protocol (OData)-based management service that provides

programmatic access to ACS settings. A Management Portal that allows administrative access to the ACS settings.

Figure 3.4 [11] shows how ACS authentication works with a web application.

1. The client (in this case a browser) requests a page from the RP.

2. Since the request is not yet authenticated, the RP redirects the user to the authoritythat it trusts, which is ACS. The ACS presents the user with the choice of IPs thatwere specified for this RP. The user selects the appropriate IP.

3. The client browses to the IP's authentication page, and prompts the user to log on.

4. After the client is authenticated (for example, the identity credentials are entered), theIP issues a security token.

5. After issuing a security token, the IP redirects the client to ACS and the client sendsthe security token issued by the IP to ACS.

6. ACS validates the security token issued by the IP, inputs the identity claims in thistoken into the ACS rules engine, calculates the output identity claims, and issues anew security token that contains these output claims.

7. ACS redirects the client to the RP. The client sends the new security token issued byACS to the RP. The RP validates the signature on the security token issued by ACS,validates the claims in this token, and returns the page that was originally requested.

Figure 3.4. ACS. Source: MICROSOFT,How to authenticate web users with Windows

Azure access control service. Microsoft, https://www.windowsazure.com/en-

us/develop/net/how-to-guides/access-control/, accessed April 2012, n.d.


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3.3UNDERSTANDING AMAZON EC2

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides

resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier

for developers. Amazon EC2s simple web service interface allows you to obtain and

configure capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your

computing resources and lets you run on Amazons proven computing environment. Amazon

EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing

you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change.

Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity

that you actually use. Amazon EC2 provides developers the tools to build failure resilient

applications and isolate themselves from common failure scenarios [12].

3.4COMPONENTS OF AMAZON EC2

Figure 3.5 [13] shows you can easily find the high level overview and details for there

core components.

3.4.1 Elastic Compute Units

The Elastic Compute Unit (ECU) was introduced by Amazon EC2 as an abstraction

of computer resources. Amazons Definition of ECU notes We use several benchmarks and

tests to manage the consistency and predictability of the performance of an EC2 Compute

Unit. One EC2 Compute Unit provides the equivalent CPU capacity of a 1.0-1.2 GHz 2007

Opteron or 2007 Xeon processor. This is also the equivalent to an early-2006 1.7 GHz Xeon

processor referenced in our original documentation [14].

3.4.2 Amazon EC2 Instances Types

Amazon EC2 instances types are grouped into six families [15]:

Standard: have memory to CPU ratios suitable for most general-purpose applications

Micro: provide a small amount of consistent CPU resources and allow you to burstCPU capacity when additional cycles are available.


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Figure 3.5. Components of Amazon EC2. Source: S.ANAND, Understanding

Amazon Web Services (AWS). OracleApps Epicenter,

http://www.oracleappshub.com/emerging-technologies/understanding-amazon-web-services-aws/, accessed April 2012, December 2010.

High-Memory: offer larger memory sizes for high throughput applications, includingdatabase and memory caching applications

High-CPU: have proportionally more CPU resources than memory (RAM) and arewell suited for compute-intensive applications.

Cluster Compute: Cluster Compute instances provide a very large amount of CPUcoupled with increased network performance making them well suited for HighPerformance Compute (HPC) applications and other demanding network-boundapplications.

Cluster GPU: Cluster GPU instances provide general-purpose graphics processingunits (GPUs) with proportionally high CPU and increased network performancemaking them well suited for applications benefitting from highly parallelizedprocessing, including HPC, rendering and media processing applications.

3.4.3 EC2 Storage Types

Elastic Block Storage (EBS): This is persistent, network-based storage called ElasticBlock Store(EBS), which can be attached to running instances or also used as apersistent boot medium.

Instance Storage: This is local storage, which is non-persistent and data will be lostafter an instance terminates [16].
http://www.oracleappshub.com/emerging-technologies/understanding-amazon-web-services-aws/http://www.oracleappshub.com/emerging-technologies/understanding-amazon-web-services-aws/http://www.oracleappshub.com/emerging-technologies/understanding-amazon-web-services-aws/http://www.oracleappshub.com/emerging-technologies/understanding-amazon-web-services-aws/


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3.4.4 Elastic IP Addresses

Amazon's Elastic IP Address feature is similar to static IP address in traditional data

centers, with one key difference. A user can programmatically map an Elastic IP Address to

any virtual machine instance without a network administrator's help and without having to

wait for DNS to propagate the new binding. In this sense an Elastic IP Address belongs to the

account and not to a virtual machine instance. It exists until it is explicitly removed. It

remains associated with the account, even while it is associated with no instance.

Partial IPv6 is provided in the US East (Northern Virginia), EU (Ireland) and Asia Pacific

(Tokyo & Singapore) regions [14].

3.4.5 Amazon CloudWatch

Amazon CloudWatch is a web service that provides monitoring for AWS cloudresources and applications, starting with Amazon EC2. It provides you with visibility into

resource utilization, operational performance, and overall demand patternsincluding

metrics such as CPU utilization, disk reads and writes, and network traffic. You can get

statistics, view graphs, and set alarms for your metric data. To use Amazon CloudWatch,

simply select the Amazon EC2 instances that youd like to monitor. You can also supply

your own business or application metric data. Amazon CloudWatch will begin aggregating

and storing monitoring data that can be accessed using web service APIs or Command Line

Tools [15].

3.4.6 Automated Scaling

Auto Scaling allows you to automatically scale your Amazon EC2 capacity up or

down according to conditions you define. With Auto Scaling, you can ensure that the number

of Amazon EC2 instances youre using scales up seamlessly during demand spikes to

maintain performance, and scales down automatically during demand lulls to minimize costs.

Auto Scaling is particularly well suited for applications that experience hourly, daily, or

weekly variability in usage. Auto Scaling is enabled by Amazon CloudWatch and available

at no additional charge beyond Amazon CloudWatch fees [15].


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CHAPTER 4

COMPARISON BETWEEN MICROSOFT AZUREVS AMAZON EC2

In order to assess the quality of proposed design, we here compare costs on Microsoft

Azure Vs. Amazon EC2 platform. Amazon EC2 and Azure are both marketers of

applications through independent software vendors or ISVs. The major difference is that

EC2 features enterprise applications and Azure features work-group sized user groups.

Nonetheless, with the differences explained here, users interested in this technology should

be able to make the choice between EC2 and Microsoft Azure [17].

4.1SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MSAZURE AND AMAZON

EC2

As many companies have large amounts of information stored on computers, the needfor memory is essential. Cloud computing removes the need to install dedicatedsoftware to the computer, thereby reducing the amount of memory needed. . Azureand EC2 conceptually do the same thing.

Both EC2 and Microsoft Azure cloud computing technologies allow the expansion of

the virtual machines or VMs used for applications both in number and power

Both services work on the basis of the Virtual Machine model.

Amazon EC2 and Azure are both marketers of applications through independentsoftware vendors or ISVs [17].

4.2DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MSAZURE AND AMAZON

EC2

Table 4.1 [17, 18] will provide with easy comparison between the Windows Azure

and Amazon EC2 Web Services cloud terminologies.

4.3PRICE COMPARISON BETWEEN MSAZURE AND

AMAZON EC2

The costs are actually similar with a few exceptions. Some users say the EC2 is more

costly, although it can be economically worthwhile for small projects. However, there have


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Table 4.1. Differences between MS Azure and Amazon EC2

S.No. Microsoft Azure Amazon EC2

1. Microsoft Azure cloud basedcomputing offers a virtual server forloading software. It may be managed

by accessing it through a Webbrowser. This form of cloud basedcomputing is known as platform as aservice.

Unlike Microsoft Azure cloud computing,Amazon EC2 uses infrastructure as aservice. This provides clusters, grids or

virtual servers as well as storage, systems,software, and networks that take the placeof data centers.

2. Microsoft Azure is considered moreaccessible to developers who arefamiliar with .NET and VisualStudio. Although this is simpler forWindows developers to use, theapplications they can port to arelimited.

Amazon EC2 offers Windows, Mac OS Xand Linux. However, they haverequirements for storage and developersmust consider the computing time andbandwidth the applications willnecessitate.

3. Azure uses a pay-as-you-go systemfor the number of virtual machinesneeded for the application allowingthe number to be changed using amanagement console.

EC2 uses Elastic Compute Units (ECUs),which include storage or elastic blockstores and Amazon Machine Images. Theperformance is equivalent to 32- or 64-bitprocessors.

4. Base Plan Details: - 1.6 GHz CPU,1.75 GB RAM, 225 GB InstanceStorage, Moderate I/O Performance.This data is abstracted fromhttp://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_co

mpare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April28, 2012

Base Plan Details:- 1.7GB RAM, 160 GBlocat storage , 1 EC2 Compute Unit.This data is abstracted from http://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April 28, 2012

Sources: WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING,Microsoft Azure vs Amazon EC2. What is Cloud Computing,http://www.whatisthecloudcomputing.com/ microsoft-azure-vs-amazon-ec2, accessed April 2012, n.d.; FINDTHE BEST,Base plan details. Find the Best, http://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April 2012, n.d.


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been some complaints about the cost of Azure as well [17]. Table 4.2 [17, 18] shows the

price comparison between the MS Azure and Amazon EC2.

Table 4.2. Price Comparison Table

S.No. Microsoft Azure Amazon EC21. Microsoft Azure offers only a per

database pricing.EC2 provides MySQL, a full database,which is not as expensive as the SQL

2. Azure does offer a package availablefor a monthly fee, resulting in a 50%savings off the regular prices.

Instances purchased from one to three areavailable from EC2, which can save 37% to50% if used for the entire period purchased.

3. Microsoft Windows Azure CloudComputing Provider has a Proprietarylicense with a $12 per hour baseprice. It guarantees 99.9% uptime and1.6 GHz CPU, 1.75 GB RAM, 225

GB Instance Storage, Moderate I/OPerformance.This information is taken fromhttp://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April28, 2011

Amazon EC2 Cloud Computing Providerhas a Proprietary license with a $8.50 perhour base price. It guarantees 99.95%uptime and 1.7GB RAM, 160GB localstorage, 1 EC2 Compute Unit.

This information is taken from http://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April 28, 2011

Source: WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING,Microsoft Azure vs Amazon EC2. What is Cloud Computing,http://www.whatisthecloudcomputing.com/ microsoft-azure-vs-amazon-ec2, accessed April 2012, n.d.; FINDTHE BEST,Base plan details. Find the Best, http://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April 2012, n.d.

4.4SECURITY FEATURES COMPARISON

Cloud computing is currently emerging as a mechanism for high level computation,

as well as serving as a storage system for resources. Cloud security is a complex issue,

involving the different levels of the cloud, external and internal threats, and responsibilities

that are divided between the user, the provider and even a third party [17].

Table 4.3 [18] shows the security features between MS Azure and Amazon EC2.

4.5ADVANTAGES OF AMAZON EC2

1. EC2 is cheaper, at least to start. I can get an EC2 Windows 2008 R2 Server instanceup and running for about $40 per month.

2.

EC2 is familiar. The nice thing about EC2 is its like having your own WindowsServer without buying the hardware [19].


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Table 4.3. Security Feature Table

FEATURES MS Azure Amazon EC2

Advanced Firewall Critical Data Privacy

Customer/SecurePermissions

Data Protection

Persistenc Source: FIND THE BEST,Base plan details. Find the Best, http://cloud-computing.findthebest.com/saved_compare/Azure-vs-EC2, accessed April 2012, n.d.

3. EC2s biggest strength: its conceptually simple. Anyone whos ever used any VMsoftware is going to be able to grasp what it does immediately. Theres no learningcurve, just instant gratification [20].

4.6ADVANTAGES OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS AZURE

1.

Azure may be cheaper than EC2 in the long run. Azure is a zero maintenancesolution. You just deploy your application and Microsoft takes care of the software,patches and backups. Theres a cost to maintenance which has to be taken intoaccount when using EC2 compared to Azure. The problem is that cost is a bit hard tocalculate.

2. Scalability with Windows Azure is seamless. Theres a good chance this applicationwill grow to have many users and consume a massive amount of data. If it does,adding additional machines with Windows Azure is as simple as changing a value inthe configuration file.

3. Its completely integrated with Visual Studio. Once set up, deploying changes from

Visual Studio to Windows Azure is just a couple clicks [19].

4. Azure does more for you than EC2 does for the same price management of theunderlying OS and application server are included in addition to management of thehardware.

This is actually quite nice. You can deploy an application to Azure, and it will be load

balanced, patched, and have maintenance performed on it without you having to lift a finger

[20].


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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

In my research work, I studied major components of two giant Cloud Computing

platforms i.e. Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2 and also made comparisons between them

on the basis of security, cost, scalability, manageability and load balancing requirement.

Many start-up companies are interested in cloud computing but they are facing a real

dilemma as they hear different (positive and negative) views from different sources. This is

understandable as this technology is in its infant stage. Most of the start up companies,

which are in the process of making a decision to adopt some Cloud Computing technology,

e.g. Microsoft Azure or Amazon EC2, find this to be a difficult decision.

The first characteristic that start up companies to think about Cloud Computing is the

cost.

There are many other factors or characteristics, which affect the cost of Cloud

Computing for start up companies. These factors include elasticity, flexibility, data center

cost, pricing models and administrative costs. The scalability, manageability and load-

balancing are the biggest factors to make Cloud Computing cost effective for small scale orstart up companies and most of them move to cloud because of these characteristics of Cloud

Computing.

I have concluded that if a small scale or start up company uses Amazon Elastic Cloud

Compute (EC2) as its cloud services provider, this initially helps to reduce some of its

potential infrastructure costs but it does so at the expense of scalability and manageability,

and the company spends considerable time managing scaling logic and load-balancing

requirements. But with Windows Azure platform, start up company has already benefited

from quick development, improved scalability, simplified IT management and also reduced

its costssavings, which it will pass along to customers.

As a result of using the Windows Azure platform, instead of Amazon EC2, start up

companies no longer have to worry about managing their scaling logic and load balancing,

and can scale up quickly to handle the massive amount of data required for online database.


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It also simplifies maintenance of its infrastructure and can focus on its own business logic by

relying on Microsoft data centers. At the same time, the start up companies reduced their

hosting costs by halfsavings that they can pass on to customers [21].


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