Tomi Dolenc Jernej Porenta Arnes TF-MSP, Heraklion User‘s Needs in the Cloud

Outline Before: virtual server hosting After: „clouds“ How & why User‘s needs Is our judgement clouded? Relation towards commercial clouds

Virtual server Arnes “Guest virtual servers” - GVS Typical VPS Linux/Apache/MySQL stack 1 CPU / 512Mb / 30GB Packages: full (root access), partial (user access), closed (web based access) (Virtuozzo, ~100 VPS/server) Covers typical needs of user organizations: Website (CMS) LMS (mostly for schools) Any other web based apps Support: Helpdesk 10/5 Full VPS backup

Extended needs More disk space More memory Different platform (MS Windows) Example: Specific software Digital archives

Arnes clouds 2011 Goal: enable tailored hosting for VIU + beyond Project started late 2010 Planned features VM Hosting Storage

Arnes clouds 2011: VM hosting Solutions tested OpenNebula Eucalyptus Ganeti Planned: 10 physical servers small/medium/large VM total user control

Arnes clouds 2011: VM hosting Implemented – pilot phase: 3 physical servers (will extend to 10) Ganeti Web managed VMs Production: late 2011

Arnes clouds 2011: Storage Started Q Planned: iSCSI access to >1TB space Pilot phase: Started in May Tests were OK Production: October 2011

Future Translate to “true cloud” Implementation: OpenStack Dynamic provisioning Advanced user needs: Temporary computing power API interface

Future Extend resources Additional physical servers Additional storage Additional features Predefined templates Extended support (?) Use private cloud for our needs

Is our judgement clouded? Going “cloud” looks appealing First step not difficult Marketing the buzz Keeping with the IT development trends Who needs it? ROI? Legal aspect?

Assesment of user‘s needs Only through selected interviews/personal contact Users interested in anything that’s free Very important: know & trust your provider Feedback from the pilot: Happy with the support Want more (sky’s the limit)

Resource allocation No charges  Policy very important! Internal user segmentation Save enough for VIU needs Maintain the helpful face Will they use flexible CPU/storage (“true cloud”)?

Planning the resources Make sure the € is well spent Flexible resource allocation Add more as you go and let users ask for your € Plan B: share/relocate to grid/HPC (can consume pretty much everything)

Legal aspect Hosting personal data  Signing MxN contracts? Our Information Officer is currently looking into European practices, we are trying to find how it works in reality What’s your model?

MITM to public clouds Universities outsource to the cloud (only students) Google & MS not very interested in us Universities slow in adopting AAI VDI for schools? Tempting but expensive Companies reluctant to partner with NREN

Your experience or good/bad practice? (CC) Blackandecker/Flickr.