Case studies: Cloud computing

Cloud computing broke out as the new paradigm of 2008 and since then a large number of companies have experimented with the technology. The case studies on this page illustrate the different experiences of some of the pioneers of cloud computing

2nd Wind
Abiquo
Aviary
Axentra
Bechtel Enterprise Cloud
Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara
FedEx
FreeDrive
Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)
Greenplum
The Washington Post, USA
DataCorps
Zimory

Company: 2nd Wind

Business: Fitness equipment dealers

Cloud provider: Google

Abstract:
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/case_studies/second_wind.pdf

Company: Abiquo

Business: Develop Open-Source Cloud Computing Platform

Cloud provider: Abiquo

Abstract:
Abicloud is an open source infrastructure software for the creation and integral management of Public & Private Clouds based on heterogeneous environments. The tool mainly offers users the capacity for scaling, management, automatic and immediate provision of servers, storage, networks, virtual network devices as well as applications. The services offered are dynamic creation and management of virtual clouds, virtual Data Centers (Cloudcenters) with provisioning services and automated management, and management of Amazon EC2 machines. With the community version of AbiCloud, small companies and start-ups can mount their own Private Cloud and obtain all the benefits that they will attain with AbiCloud in a big company or in a Host Provider.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Author:  Abiquo solutions

Links:
Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF)
DMTF for Open Virtualization Format Specification

Company: Aviary

Business: Online image editing software

Cloud provider: Amazon S3 (Data cloud)

Abstract:

Aviary is a company founded on 2007 which uses Adobe’s Flex to build a interned-based application for image manipulation, similar to Photoshop but with fewer features. The application and the image files are by default on Aviary servers, but backed up on Amazon S3. When on heavy loads, the primary data backend shifts to Amazon, which becomes the actual server for the user images. They also give the possibility to use S3 as primary storage in any case, to facilitate the collaboration with other users and tools.

Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22607/?a=f

Company: Axentra
    
Business: Provider of home server platforms for smart appliances and PCs

Cloud provider: Nirvanix

Abstract:

Axentra, a provider of home server platforms for smart appliances and PCs, wanted to extend the value of their HipServ home server software by offering a virtual hard drive, so that end users could remotely back up their important files to “storage in the sky.” The Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network addressed Axentra’s needs for a robust, secure, global infrastructure for on-demand storage. The easy-to-use Nirvanix API simplified integration into the existing HipServ application and accelerated delivery of the new Axentra service. Built-in user features provided the additional benefit of a seamless user experience and the flexibility in fine-tuning the service offering.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
www.nirvanix.com/downloads/case-studies/axentra-case-study.pdf

Company: Bechtel Enterprise Cloud

Business: Enterprise applications for construction

Cloud provider: Bechtel

Abstract:
Bechtel's challenge is to operate a seamless Project Service Network (PSN) authorizing employees, contractors, customers, and partners to access their global network with any device at any time through an Internet portal. There were two main challenges to IT service delivery: 1) the distributed nature of global project execution, and 2) people - enabling collaboration between permanent and temporary employees, as well as vendors, customers, partners, even competitors.
Bechtel had to become their own SaaS provider and possibly integrate with other SaaS providers, while the external cloud offer is not sufficient. Waiting for SaaS and Cloud Computing offerings to work their way up from consumer-ready, to SMB-ready, to enterprise-ready is too long, even though the underlying technologies can reduce costs and increase service levels, but integrating the right solution for an enterprise like Bechtel is the only remaining hurdle.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
cloudstoragestrategy.com/2009/03/bechtel-harnesses-the-cloud-a-case-study-in-service-delivery.html

Company:  Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Business: Research (Infrastructure as a Service)

Cloud provider: Eucalyptus.INC (Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems)

Abstract:
Eucalyptus is an open-source system for implementing on-premise private and hybrid clouds using the hardware and software infrastructure that is in place, without modification. Eucalyptus adds capabilities such as end-user customization, self-service provisioning, and legacy application support to data center virtualization features, making IT customer service easier, more fully featured, and less expensive.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:    
www.cs.ucsb.edu/common/wordpress/

Company: FedEx

Business: Transportation, e-commerce, and supply chain solutions.

Cloud provider: FedEx (Appistry’s software manages FedEx’s internal/private Cloud)

Abstract:
During the evaluation of alternative infrastructures for their next-generation logistics application, FedEx selected the distributed application architecture provided by Appistry. The initial main benefits of using this kind of architecture were to make the deployment and software-based fault tolerance easier. The adopted solution also allows the integrations into the cloud. As well, the development and testing environments shorten test times and decrease the effort to move into production, and manage multiple systems, resources and mission-critical applications in a single cloud environment.

Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
www.appistry.com/customers/profile/fedex

Company: FreeDrive

Business: Provider of personal storage and file sharing services.

Cloud provider:Nirvanix

Abstract:
FreeDrive needed to meet time-to-market objectives of a new service offering to capitalize on the growing demand for easy-to-use storage services on social networking platforms. The Nirvanix service took care of FreeDrive’s needs for reliable, scalable, on-demand storage; and enabled it to focus on development of front-end applications that provided a competitive advantage. The value-added capabilities built into the Nirvanix web services API simplified application development and enabled them to accelerate deployment by three months.
FreeDrive delivers an easy-to-use online storage and file sharing service optimized for social networking platforms (such as Facebook and MySpace). Outsourcing the storage to Nirvanix, FreeDrive could focus on its core competency. This offered also extra features, faster development through the API, international locations translating into higher performance and a better user experience
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
www.nirvanix.com/downloads/case-studies/free-drive-case-study.pdf

Company: U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) / Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)

Business:  US Goverment - Defense

Cloud computing Provider:  HP

Abstract:
DISA provides processing capability, systems management, communications and storage to support DoD services, agencies and combatant commands. With the goal of reducing costs, consolidating applications, shortening delivery times and simplifying the user experience, with a speed and agility comparable to the commercial marketplace, DISA employed a cloud computing infrastructure provided by HP.
RACE (Rapid Access Computing Environment) is a shared, flexible infrastructure that allows DISA to remotely provision its testing and development systems through a single, secure interface.
Among other benefits, DISA could A, B & C
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Links:
www.byteandswitch.com/storage/other/hp-to-power-dod-cloud-computing.php
www.computerworlduk.com/technology/applications/software-service/case-study/index.cfm
https://www.eds.com/insights/casestudies/downloads/DoDsmartcard.pdf

Company: Greenplum
    
Business: Distributed Computing

Cloud provider: Greenplum

Abstract:
Greenplum Database is a software solution built to support the next generation of data warehousing and large-scale analytics processing. It has a massive parallel processing architecture, and the current version supports the use of MapReduce for business intelligence and analytical processing. This allows a cluster of servers to operate as a single terabyte scale database attached to a supercomputer.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapreduce
www.crmbuyer.com/story/MapReduce-and-the-Database-Analytics-in Hyperdrive-64451.html?wlc=1247481743&wlc=1252493978
www.greenplum.com/resources/studies/

Company: The Washington Post, USA

Business: Press

Cloud provider: Amazon EC2

Abstract:
On March 2008, the William J. Clinton Presidential Library released more than 11.000 pages of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s official schedule during her husband's two terms in the White House. They were released as non-searchable PDF files hardly usable by journalists. Peter Harkins, Senior Engineer at The Washington Post, approached the transformation of the files into usable text by mean of OCR software.
To perform this task in a short time, he launched 200 servers on Amazon EC2 to convert the PDF files into machine readable text. The full task was finished in 26 hours, with a cost of $144.62.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/washington-post/

Company: DataCorps

Business: Automation and virtualization software

Cloud provider: Parallels: Virtuozzo containers

Abstract:
Following a consolidation request from one customer, DataCorps examined various virtualization technologies to apply. Virtuozzo was selected because it allowed consolidation without requiring deployment of new hardware and to work with Microsoft software, which allows the use of Virtuozzo containers on Windows machines.
The cost cut allowed DataCorps to enlarge the backup availability, which in combination with the container technology allows the execution of disaster recovery procedures in very short timescales.<br/>Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distinguished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
http://www.parallels.com/r/pdf/css/saas/Spreeddotcom_Parallels_SaaS_Case_Study.pdf

Company: Zimory

Business: Deployment of public/private clouds

Cloud provider: Zimory

Abstract:
Zimory Enterprise Cloud enables a higher utilization of even provisionally unused, available resources. Zimory Enterprise Cloud enables users to create a homogeneous computing cloud from various virtual servers -- from one or several data centers. With Zimory management tools, users determine exactly what resources, when and under what circumstances, are available for other uses. Using Zimory cloud management tools -- connected to an existing heterogeneous virtualized infrastructure – avoids resource conflicts and creates a “breathing Cloud“.
Cloud computing case study provided courtesy of the OGF-Europe FP7 Project &/or of its distin-guished Industry Expert Group (IEG) of the GÉANT & e-Infrastructures unit of the EC.

Link:
http://www.zimory.com/index.php?id=87