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Learning AWS
Learning AWS

Learning AWS: Design, build, and deploy responsive applications using AWS cloud components

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Learning AWS

Chapter 1. Cloud 101 – Understanding the Basics

In this chapter, we will introduce you to cloud computing and the key terminologies used commonly by cloud practitioners.

We will briefly describe what public, private, and hybrid clouds are, followed by a description of various cloud service models (offered by the service providers), including the features of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

To help you get started on Amazon Web Services (AWS), we will end the chapter by walking you through the step-by-step process of creating an AWS account, and describing some of the salient features of the AWS dashboard.

This chapter will cover the following points:

  • Define cloud computing and describe some of its characteristics
  • Describe and compare public, private, and hybrid clouds
  • Explain and compare IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS cloud service delivery models
  • Steps to create an AWS account
  • A brief overview of the AWS management console

What is cloud computing?

Wikipedia defines cloud computing as:

"Cloud computing is internet-based computing in which large groups of remote servers are networked to allow the centralized data storage, and online access to computer services or resources."

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) gives the following definition of cloud computing:

"Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."

There are several other broadly accepted definitions of cloud computing. Some explicitly emphasize configurability of the resources, while others include the need for rapid on-demand provisioning of resources, and still others drop the requirement of access via the internet. We define cloud computing as a model that enables the features listed here:

  • Users should be able to provision and release resources on-demand
  • The resources can be scaled up or down automatically, depending on the load
  • The provisioned resources should be accessible over a network
  • Cloud service providers should enable a pay-as-you-go model, where customers are charged based on the type and quantum of resources they consume

Some of the implications of choosing to use the cloud for your computing needs are as follows:

  • The illusion of infinite processing and storage resources, available on-demand, reduces the need for detailed advance planning and procurement processes.
  • The model promotes the use of resources as per customer needs, for example, starting small, and then increasing resources based on an increase in need.
  • The development and test environments can be provisioned on a smaller scale than production environment, and enabled only during normal business hours, to reduce costs.
  • The staging environment can be provisioned for a short duration to be a replica of the production environment. This enables testing using production configuration (and scale) for improved defect resolution.
  • There will be ease of scaling, both vertically and horizontally, in order to better manage spikes in demand and variations due to business cycles or time-of-day reasons, and so on.
  • This encourages experimentation, by trying out new ideas and software by quickly provisioning resources, rather than requisition for resources through time-consuming and cumbersome processes.

In addition, there are several key operational and maintenance-related implications, including no hardware maintenance or data center operations required, zero-downtime migrations and upgrades, ease of replacement of unhealthy machines, ease of implementation of high-availability and disaster recovery strategies, and many more.

These and other implications of using cloud services to design scalable, highly available, and secure applications are discussed in-depth in subsequent chapters.

Public, private, and hybrid clouds

Basically, there are three types of clouds in cloud computing, they are public, private, and hybrid clouds.

In a public cloud, third-party service providers make resources and services available to their customers via the internet. The customers' applications and data are deployed on infrastructure owned and secured by the service provider.

A private cloud provides many of the same benefits of a public cloud but the services and data are managed by the organization or a third-party, solely for the customer's organization. Usually, private cloud places increase administrative overheads on the customer but give greater control over the infrastructure and reduce security-related concerns. The infrastructure may be located on or off the organization's premises.

A hybrid cloud is a combination of both a private and a public cloud. The decision on what runs on the private versus the public cloud is usually based on several factors, including business criticality of the application, sensitivity of the data, industry certifications and standards required, regulations, and many more. But in some cases, spikes in demand for resources are also handled in the public cloud.

Cloud service models – IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

There are three cloud-based service models, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. The main features of each of these are listed here:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides users the capability to provision processing, storage, and network resources on demand. The customers deploy and run their own applications on these resources. Using this service model is closest to the traditional in-premise models and the virtual server provisioning models (typically offered by data center outsourcers). The onus of administering these resources rests largely with the customer.
  • In Platform as a Service(PaaS), the service provider makes certain core components, such as databases, queues, workflow engines, e-mails, and so on, which are available as services to the customer. The customer then leverages these components for building their own applications. The service provider ensures high service levels, and is responsible for scalability, high-availability, and so on for these components. This allows customers to focus a lot more on their application's functionality. However, this model also leads to application-level dependency on the providers' services.
  • In the Software as a Service(SaaS) model, typically, third-party providers using a subscription model provide end-user applications to their customers. The customers might have some administrative capability at the application level, for example, to create and manage their users. Such applications also provide some degree of customizability, for example, the customers can use their own corporate logos, colors, and many more. Applications that have a very wide user base most often operate in a self-service mode. In contrast, the provider provisions the application for the customer for more specialized applications. The provider also hands over certain application administrative tasks to the customer's application administrator (in most cases, this is limited to creating new users, managing passwords, and so on through well-defined application interfaces).

From an infrastructure perspective, the customer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure in all three service models.

The following diagram illustrates who is responsible for managing the various components of a typical user application across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS cloud service models. The column labeled User Application represents the main components of a user application stack, while the following columns depict the varying levels of management responsibilities in each of the three service models. The shaded boxes are managed by the service provider, while the unshaded boxes are managed by the user.

Cloud service models – IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

The level of control over operating systems, storage, applications, and certain network components (for example, load balancers) is the highest in the IaaS model, while the least (or none) in the SaaS model.

We would like to conclude our introduction to cloud computing by getting you started on AWS, right away. The next two sections will help you set up your AWS account and familiarize you with the AWS management console.

Setting up your AWS account

You will need to create an account on Amazon before you can use the Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon provides a 12 month limited fully functional free account that can be used to learn the different components of AWS. With this account, you get access to services provided by AWS, but there are some limitations based on resources consumed. The list of AWS services is available at http://aws.amazon.com/free.

We are assuming that you do not have a pre-existing AWS account with Amazon (if you do, please feel free to skip this section). Perform the following steps:

  1. Point your browser to http://aws.amazon.com/ and click on Create a Free Account.

    The process to create a brand new AWS account has started. You can sign in using your existing Amazon retail account, but you will have to go through the process of creating an AWS account; the two accounts are different for accounting purposes, even though they share the same common login. Let's take a look at the following screenshot:

    Setting up your AWS account
  2. After creating a new account or using your existing retail Amazon account, select the I am a returning user and my password is: option and click on Sign in using our secure server. A set of intuitive screens will guide you through multiple screens in order to to create an AWS account, these include:
    • Contact Information: Amazon also uses this information for billing and invoicing. The Full Name field is also used by the AWS management console to identify your account, as shown in the following screenshot:
      Setting up your AWS account
    • Payment Information: When you create an AWS account and sign up for services you are required to enter payment information. Amazon executes a minimal amount transaction against the card on file to confirm that it is valid and not reported lost or stolen. This is not an actual charge it merely places the 'X' amount on hold on the card which will eventually drop off. The 'X' amount depends on the country of origin.
    • Identity Verification: Amazon does a call back via an automated system to verify your telephone number.
    • Support Plan: You can subscribe to one from the following, Basic, Developer, Business, or Enterprise. We recommend subscribing to the Basic plan to start with.

      Note

      The Basic plan costs nothing, but is severely limited and hence not recommended for production. It is an excellent way to learn and get familiar with AWS.

    • Confirmation: On clicking on Launch Management Console you will be requested to login, as shown in the following screenshot:
      Setting up your AWS account
  3. At this stage, you have successfully created an AWS account, and you are ready to start using the services offered by AWS.

The AWS management console

The AWS management console is the central location from where you can access all the Amazon services. The management console has links to the following:

  • Amazon Web Services: This is a dashboard view that lists all the AWS services currently available in a specific Amazon region. Clicking on any one of these launches the dashboard for the selected service, as shown in the following screenshot:
    The AWS management console
  • Shortcuts for Amazon Web Services: On the console management screen, you can create shortcuts of frequently accessed services via the Edit option, as shown in the following screenshot:
    The AWS management console
  • Account related information: This allows you to access your account-related data. This includes security credentials needed to access the AWS resources by your application. The Billing & Cost Management option gives you real-time information on your current month's billing; this helps in managing costs, as shown in the following screenshot:
    The AWS management console
  • Amazon regions: This option allows you to access the AWS in a specific region. In the following screenshot, all the Amazon Web Services are located in the US East (N. Virginia) region:
    The AWS management console
  • Support: You can navigate to the Help, Forums, and support pages:
    The AWS management console
  • Service Health: Launches the health dashboard of all the Amazon Web Services across all regions, and not of your deployed service:
    The AWS management console

Summary

In this chapter, we introduced you to a few cloud computing concepts and terminologies. We described the basic features of public, private, and hybrid clouds. We introduced the main cloud delivery models, namely, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Finally, we listed the steps for creating your AWS account, and described the salient features of the AWS management console.

With the basics out of the way, in the next chapter we will deep dive into the details of how multitenanted cloud applications are different from traditional multi-tiered applications. We will also walk you through creating a sample application (using Spring and MySQL) that will be used to illustrate key cloud application design concepts through the rest of this book.

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Description

With the increasing global interest in leveraging cloud infrastructure, AWS Cloud from Amazon offers a cutting-edge platform for architecting, building, and deploying web-scale cloud applications. The variety of features available within AWS can reduce overall infrastructure costs and accelerate the development process for both large enterprises and startups alike. Beginning with basic cloud concepts, you'll learn about the various cloud services models and the design implications of multi-tenant applications. You'll then design, implement, and deploy a multi-tier, scalable, highly-available and secure application on the AWS platform. At every step, we explain the key guiding principles driving real-world production-ready application architectures. Finally, you will learn how to automate your cloud infrastructure, set up operations, application monitoring, and DevOps pipeline.

Who is this book for?

This book is targeted at expert programmers and architects wanting to learn AWS. Some familiarity with Spring, MySQL, and RESTful web services is assumed.

What you will learn

  • Multitenant design approaches for SaaS applications
  • Planning dev, test, staging, and production environments
  • Design considerations for scalability and highavailability
  • Planning for DR
  • The security considerations and implementation of AWS applications
  • Production deployment processes and tools
  • Monitoring AWS applications using CloudWatch
  • Automating infrastructure using CloudFormation

Product Details

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Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Jul 30, 2015
Length: 236 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784394639
Vendor :
Amazon
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Product Details

Publication date : Jul 30, 2015
Length: 236 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781784394639
Vendor :
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Table of Contents

8 Chapters
1. Cloud 101 – Understanding the Basics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Designing Cloud Applications – An Architect's Perspective Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. AWS Components, Cost Model, and Application Development Environments Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Designing for and Implementing Scalability Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Designing for and Implementing High Availability Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Designing for and Implementing Security Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Deploying to Production and Going Live Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.1
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4 star 44.4%
3 star 11.1%
2 star 11.1%
1 star 22.2%
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SD Oct 12, 2017
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I purchased this book 3 weeks ago and have gone through the first four chapters in detail and skimmed the last three chapters. The book provides a good introduction to Amazon Web Services. It also provides handy tips as well as extensive instructions on how to set your account and explore the . It also gives bird’s eye view of system architect trying to build an e-commerce by outlining the cost drivers and how to build flexibility to accommodate rapid scaling of the business. I will not classify this book as “introductory” but will definitely recommend it to someone who has some familiarity with cloud computing architecture. I hope the author will include more case studies in the future edition.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Daragh McBreen Aug 16, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
Haveing recently done a log of academic study on cloud concepts I wanted to add practicalskills to the knowledge. AWS have a free trial introductory period and its smart to usethat access and time in a productive manner.Therefore a guide to get off the groundfast is essential.This Packt publication brings you through the structure of an application and how itcan be built on the AWS infrastructure in logical step and bring it live on AWS.There are a lot of services available in AWS and this book providers a very goodfoundation for the experienced or improveing IT professional to improve skills inthe practical application of these services.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Oleg Okun Sep 28, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
This book covers a lot of topics related to Amazon Web Services (AWS) - the leading cloud services: setting up an own AWS account, a high-level overview of the main AWS components, criteria for designing cloud applications, AWS cost model, application development environment, solutions for scalability, high availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, security, and deployment to live production. Due to so many topics and practical recommendations, this book could serve as a quick guide for expert users who are however new to cloud-based services. Despite the fact that many topics are not described in depth, it is still useful to have all of them under the same cover.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Brian Aug 21, 2015
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This is a great resource. It's written in an "easy to follow" yet functionally technical manner. The ways it's organized is helping me grasp everything quicker than expected.
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Shari Card Aug 16, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
I'll preface this review by stating that I have used AWS in the distant past, but I needed to find a resource to get me up to speed on all of the new service offerings. This book did just that. The overview of the service offerings in the early chapters were clear and concise. In my opinion, the chapters on optimization and security will be a great resource for any AWS user. I like the step-by-step setup instructions for the different services. They were clearly written and easy to follow. Learning AWS will definitely become one of my go to resources.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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