Stefan Tai

Cloud service benchmarking can provide important, sometimes surprising insights into the quality of services and leads to a more quality-driven design and engineering of complex software architectures that use such services. Starting with a broad introduction to the field, this book guides readers step-by-step through the process of designing, implementing and executing a cloud service benchmark, as well as understanding and dealing with its results. It covers all aspects of cloud service benchmarking, i.e., both benchmarking the cloud and benchmarking in the cloud, at a basic level. The book is divided into five parts: Part I discusses what cloud benchmarking is, provides an overview of cloud services and their key properties, and describes the notion of a cloud system and cloud-service quality. It also addresses the benchmarking lifecycle and the motivations behind running benchmarks in particular phases of an application lifecycle. Part II then focuses on benchmark design by discussing key objectives (e.g., repeatability, fairness, or understandability) and defining metrics and measurement methods, and by giving advice on developing own measurement methods and metrics. Next, Part III explores benchmark execution and implementation challenges and objectives as well as aspects like runtime monitoring and result collection. Subsequently, Part IV addresses benchmark results, covering topics such as an abstract process for turning data into insights, data preprocessing, and basic data analysis methods. Lastly, Part V concludes the book with a summary, suggestions for further reading and pointers to benchmarking tools available on the Web. The book is intended for researchers and graduate students of computer science and related subjects looking for an introduction to benchmarking cloud services, but also for industry practitioners who are interested in evaluating the quality of cloud services or who want to assess key qualities of their own implementations through cloud-based experiments.

Cloud service benchmarking can provide important, sometimes surprising insights into the quality of services and leads to a more quality-driven design and engineering of complex software architectures that use such services. Starting with a broad introduction to the field, this book guides readers step-by-step through the process of designing, implementing and executing a cloud service benchmark, as well as understanding and dealing with its results. It covers all aspects of cloud service benchmarking, i.e., both benchmarking the cloud and benchmarking in the cloud, at a basic level. The book is divided into five parts: Part I discusses what cloud benchmarking is, provides an overview of cloud services and their key properties, and describes the notion of a cloud system and cloud-service quality. It also addresses the benchmarking lifecycle and the motivations behind running benchmarks in particular phases of an application lifecycle. Part II then focuses on benchmark design by discussing key objectives (e.g., repeatability, fairness, or understandability) and defining metrics and measurement methods, and by giving advice on developing own measurement methods and metrics. Next, Part III explores benchmark execution and implementation challenges and objectives as well as aspects like runtime monitoring and result collection. Subsequently, Part IV addresses benchmark results, covering topics such as an abstract process for turning data into insights, data preprocessing, and basic data analysis methods. Lastly, Part V concludes the book with a summary, suggestions for further reading and pointers to benchmarking tools available on the Web. The book is intended for researchers and graduate students of computer science and related subjects looking for an introduction to benchmarking cloud services, but also for industry practitioners who are interested in evaluating the quality of cloud services or who want to assess key qualities of their own implementations through cloud-based experiments.

Cloud computing is a buzz-word in today’s information technology (IT) that nobody can escape. But what is really behind it? There are many interpretations of this term, but no standardized or even uniform definition. Instead, as a result of the multi-faceted viewpoints and the diverse interests expressed by the various stakeholders, cloud computing is perceived as a rather fuzzy concept. With this book, the authors deliver an overview of cloud computing architecture, services, and applications. Their aim is to bring readers up to date on this technology and thus to provide a common basis for discussion, new research, and novel application scenarios. They first introduce the foundation of cloud computing with its basic technologies, such as virtualization and Web services. After that they discuss the cloud architecture and its service modules. The following chapters then cover selected commercial cloud offerings (including Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine) and management tools, and present current related open-source developments (including Hadoop, Eucalyptus, and Open CirrusTM). Next, economic considerations (cost and business models) are discussed, and an evaluation of the cloud market situation is given. Finally, the appendix contains some practical examples of how to use cloud resources or cloud applications, and a glossary provides concise definitions of key terms. The authors’ presentation does not require in-depth technical knowledge. It is equally intended as an introduction for students in software engineering, web technologies, or business development, for professional software developers or system architects, and for future-oriented decision-makers like top executives and managers.

Cloud Computing erlaubt die Bereitstellung und Nutzung von IT-Infrastruktur, von Plattformen und von Anwendungen aller Art als im Web elektronisch verfügbare Dienste. Cloud Computing folgt dabei den Ideen des Utility Computing, dh. es wird immer die aktuell benötigte Menge an Ressourcen zur Verfügung gestellt und abgerechnet. Dieses Buch will einen Überblick über Cloud Computing Architektur, Anwendungen und Entwicklung vermitteln. Ziel ist es, die Leserinnen und Leser auf einen einheitlichen Stand zu bringen und so eine gemeinsame Diskussionsgrundlage zu erreichen. Technische Vorkenntnisse sind nicht erforderlich.