Capacity Planning and the Cloud:
Why You Need It
by
Jim Smith
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What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the delivery of computer and
storage capacity as a service.
© 2011 Sam Johnston
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2
Front End / Back End
• Cloud computing has a front end and a back end
• They connect to each other through a network, usually the
internet.
– The front end is the interface the end user, or client, sees.
– The back end includes the various computers, servers, and data
storage systems that create the “cloud” of computing services.
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Benefits of the Cloud
• Lower Infrastructure Costs
– Pools all computing resources to be distributed to applications as
needed
– Optimizes the use of computing resources as a whole
– Delivers better efficiency and utilization of the entire shared
infrastructure
• CapEx–Free Computing
– Eliminates the capital expense associated
with building the server infrastructure
– Delivers a better cash flow
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Benefits of the Cloud (continued)
• Deploy Projects Faster
– Servers can be brought up and destroyed in minutes
– Time to deploy a new application drops dramatically with cloud
• Scale as Needed
– As applications grow, can add storage, RAM,
and CPU capacity as needed
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Benefits of the Cloud (continued)
• Lower Maintenance Costs
– Driven by two factors: Less hardware and shared IT staff
– Fewer physical resources, so less hardware to power and maintain
– With outsourced cloud, no need to keep server, storage, network, and
virtualization experts on staff full time; get economy of scale by
accessing experts through your cloud provider
• Resiliency and Redundancy
– Can get automatic failover between hardware platforms and disaster
recovery services
– Brings up servers in a separate data center if outage in your
primary data center
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6
Cloud Computing Concerns
Security
and
Privacy
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Security
The idea of handing over important data to another company
worries some people.
• Cloud computing services live and die by their reputations.
• It's in their interest to employ the most advanced techniques
to protect their clients' data.
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Privacy
• Authentication techniques
– User names
– Passwords
• Authorization format
– Each user can access only the data and applications
relevant to his or her job.
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Types of Clouds
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10
Types of Cloud Computing
• Infrastructure as a
Service
(IaaS)
• Platform as a
Service
(PaaS)
• Software as a
Service (SaaS)
© 2012 Kate Craig-Wood
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11
Cost of Cloud Computing (IaaS)
www.cloudorado.com
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12
Cost of Cloud Computing (PaaS)
www.zoho.com/creator
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13
Cost of Cloud Computing (SaaS)
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public/servers/pricing/
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14
Standard Capacity Planning
• Capacity is about CPU, memory, network, disk resources, and
application response times
• Want to know how much of each resource we are using now
and use in the future
• Want to know how much headroom we have to handle higher
loads
• Want to understand how headroom varies and how it relates
to application response times and throughput
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15
Capacity Planning Norms
• Capacity is expensive.
• Capacity takes time to buy and provision.
• Capacity only increases; it can’t be shrunk easily.
• Capacity comes in big chunks, paid for up-front.
• Planning errors can cause big problems.
• Systems are clearly defined assets.
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16
Do You Need Capacity Planning in the
Cloud?
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Example of Capacity in the Cloud
• Your small business manufactures
sports memorabilia.
• You have a program that lets
individuals buy products over the
web.
• Your current production machine
is in rented space in a data center.
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Example of Capacity in the Cloud
(continued)
The Problem
• Uncontrolled bursts of sales when a team has a winning
streak
– Everyone wants a genuine, authorized baseball cap or an official TM
jacket
– Over next few days, you sell a few hundred items
• Every time that happens, production server goes toes-up from
the load.
– Have to turn away an unknown number of customers
– Guesstimate far greater sales if that didn’t happen
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Example of Capacity in the Cloud
(continued)
Solution: Move it to the Cloud
• Copy and package your sales program so it can run in a
virtual machine in the cloud
– Runs in Java, so all you need is a cloud provider to supply JVMs in the
cloud
– Each copy of the program has its own connection to the credit card
processing service
– Multiple copies run well in parallel
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20
Example of Capacity in the Cloud
(continued)
You need:
•
•
A good idea of how much of each resource the program uses
–
On your own machine
–
On a “standard” virtual machine, as defined by your cloud provider
Load balancer or “application distributor” in the cloud you’re renting that can be
tuned to limit the number of transactions per cloud server
Then:
1. Run your program for awhile to collect statistics and cloud billings.
2. During a sales peak, see how much benefit you’re getting from not turning away
paying customers.
3. Figure out your cost per transaction, and compare that to the average profit you
got for the same set of transactions.
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21
Capacity Planning Process
1.
Establish your capacity modeling goals
2.
Understand service requirements
3.
Analyze current capacity
4.
Plan for future capacity requirements
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Model the Normal Load
Production server data brought into modeling tool at normal load
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23
Model Load Increases
Projected growth of 10% per step for ten steps
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Use Stretch Factor to Determine
When System is Queuing
40% growth = 1.963933
28 TPS
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50% growth = 2.129889
30 TPS
25
Model Adding a New Logical System
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Model Public Cloud Hardware
for VMware
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27
Model Load Increases with Public
Cloud
Projected growth of 10% per step for ten steps (same as before)
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Determine System Queuing with
Public Cloud (10% Growth
Increments)
Significantly less system queuing with public cloud, even at 100% growth
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29
Model Additional Growth with
Public Cloud
Projected growth of 50% per step for ten steps
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Public Cloud with 50% Growth per
Step
450% growth = 1.921017
100 TPS
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500% growth = 2.105103
110 TPS
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Conclusion
The goal of capacity management is to
provide satisfactory service to your customers
or users in the most cost-effective manner as
workloads and business needs change
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32
Thanks!
Questions?
Contact Information
Jim Smith
james.smith@teamquest.com
800-551-8326 ext.2156
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References
•
http://www.slideshare.net/adrianco/capacity-planning-for-cloud-computing
•
http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/07/do-you-need-capacity-planning.html
•
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/managed_cloud/
•
http://www.cloudorado.com
•
http://www.zoho.com/creator/pricing.html
•
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrastructure_as_a_Service#History
•
http://www.katescomment.com/iaas-paas-saas-definition/
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