CS 4037

Introduction to Cloud
Computing
Lecture 4A
Danyal Farhat
FAST School of Computing
NUCES Lahore
Fundamental Concepts and
Models – Part 1
Lecture’s Agenda
• Roles and Boundaries

• Cloud Characteristics
Roles
Cloud Provider:
• Cloud Provider is the organization that provides cloud-based IT
resources.
• Cloud providers own the IT resources that are made available for
lease by cloud consumers.
• Some cloud providers also “resell” IT resources leased from other
cloud providers.
Example: MS Azure Stack deployed on PTCL servers.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Consumer:
• A cloud consumer is an organization (or a human) that has a formal
contract or arrangement with a cloud provider to use IT resources
made available by the cloud provider.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Service Owner:
• The person or organization that legally owns a cloud service is
called a cloud service owner.
• The cloud service owner can be the cloud consumer, or the cloud
provider that owns the cloud within which the cloud service
resides.
• For example, either the cloud consumer of Cloud X or the cloud
provider of Cloud X could own Cloud Service A.
• A cloud service owner is not called a cloud resource owner because
the cloud service owner role only applies to cloud services (which
are externally accessible IT resources that reside in a cloud).
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Service Owner:
• Tower technologies web server deployed in a VM that resides in
PTCL cloud.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Service Owner:
• AWS EC2 Instance available as a service in AWS cloud for the
consumers.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Resource Administrator:
• A cloud resource administrator is the person or organization
responsible for administering a cloud-based IT resource (including
cloud services).
• The cloud resource administrator can belong to cloud consumer or
cloud provider of the cloud within which the cloud service resides.
• The cloud resource administrator can also belong to a third-party
organization contracted to administer the cloud based IT resource.
Example: NUCES is using an AWS service administered by Systems Limited.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Resource Administrator:
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Resource Administrator:
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Auditor:
• A third-party (often accredited) that conducts independent
assessments of cloud environments assumes the role of the cloud
auditor.
• The responsibilities associated with this role include the evaluation
of security controls, privacy impacts, and performance.
• The main purpose of the cloud auditor role is to provide an
unbiased assessment (and possible endorsement) of a cloud
environment to help strengthen the trust relationship between
cloud consumers and cloud providers.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Broker:
• This role is assumed by a party that assumes the responsibility of
managing and negotiating the usage of cloud services between
cloud consumers and cloud providers.
• Mediation services provided by cloud brokers include service
intermediation, aggregation, and arbitrage.
• Can be a person from cloud provider’s marketing or business
department.
• Can be a third party organization providing consulting services.
Roles (Cont.)
Cloud Carrier:
• The party responsible for providing the wire-level connectivity
between cloud consumers and cloud providers assumes the role of
the cloud carrier.
• This role is normally assumed by network and telecommunication
providers.
• Example: VU using PTCL cloud using two communication links.
Communication link from OneLink
Communication link from PTCL
Boundaries
Organizational Boundary:
• “An organizational boundary represents the physical perimeter that
surrounds a set of IT resources that are owned and governed by an
organization.”
• The organizational boundary does not represent the boundary of
an actual organization, only an organizational set of IT assets and IT
resources.
• Clouds have their own an organizational boundary.
Boundaries (Cont.)
Organizational Boundary:
Boundaries (Cont.)
Trust Boundary:
• When an organization assumes the role of cloud consumer to
access cloud-based IT resources, it needs to extend its trust beyond
the physical boundary of the organization to include parts of the
cloud environment.
• “A trust boundary is a logical perimeter that spans beyond physical
boundaries to represent the extent to which IT resources are
trusted.”
• When analyzing cloud environments, the trust boundary is most
frequently associated with the trust issued by the organization
acting as the cloud consumer.
Boundaries (Cont.)
Trust Boundary:
Roles and Boundaries – Key Points
• Common roles associated with cloud-based interaction and
relationships include the cloud provider, cloud consumer, cloud
service owner, and cloud resource administrator.

• An organizational boundary represents the physical scope of IT

resources owned and governed by an organization.

• A trust boundary is the logical perimeter that encompasses the IT

resources trusted by an organization.
Lecture’s Agenda
• Roles and Boundaries

• Cloud Characteristics
Cloud Characteristics
• On-demand usage
• Ubiquitous access
• Multitenancy (and resource pooling)
• Elasticity
• Measured usage
• Resiliency (not included in NIST’s definition)
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
On-demand Usage:
• A cloud consumer can unilaterally access cloud-based IT resources
giving the cloud consumer the freedom to self-provision IT
resources.

• Once configured, usage of the self-provisioned IT resources can be

automated, requiring no further human involvement by the cloud
consumer or cloud provider.
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Ubiquitous Access:
• Ubiquitous access represents the ability for a cloud service to be
widely accessible.
• Establishing ubiquitous access for a cloud service can require
support for a range of devices, transport protocols, interfaces, and
security technologies.
• To enable this level of access, cloud service architecture must be
tailored to the particular needs of different cloud service
consumers.
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Multitenancy (and Resource Pooling):
• The characteristic of a software program that enables an instance
of the program to serve different consumers (tenants) whereby
each is isolated from the other, is referred to as multitenancy.
• A cloud provider pools its IT resources to serve multiple cloud
service consumers by using multitenancy models that frequently
rely on the use of virtualization technologies.
• Through the use of multitenancy technology, IT resources can be
dynamically assigned and reassigned, according to cloud service
consumer demands.
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Multitenancy (and Resource Pooling):
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Multitenancy (and Resource Pooling):
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Elasticity:
• Elasticity is the automated ability of a cloud to transparently scale
IT resources, as required in response to runtime conditions or as
pre-determined by the cloud consumer or cloud provider.

• Elasticity is considered a core justification for the adoption of cloud

computing.

• Cloud providers with vast IT resources can offer the greatest range
of elasticity.
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Measured Usage:
• The measured usage characteristic represents the ability of a cloud
platform to keep track of the usage of its IT resources, primarily by
cloud consumers.

• Based on what is measured, the cloud provider can charge a cloud

consumer only for the IT resources actually used and/or for the
timeframe during which access to the IT resources was granted.
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Resiliency:
• Resilient computing is a form of failover that distributes redundant
implementations of IT resources across physical locations.
• IT resources can be pre-configured so that if one becomes deficient,
processing is automatically handed over to another redundant
implementation.
• Within cloud computing, the characteristic of resiliency can refer to
redundant IT resources within the same cloud (but in different
physical locations) or across multiple clouds.
• Cloud consumers can increase both the reliability and availability of
their applications by leveraging the resiliency of cloud-based IT
resources.
Cloud Characteristics (Cont.)
Resiliency:
Cloud Characteristics – Key Points
• On-demand usage is the ability of a cloud consumer to self-
provision and use necessary cloud-based services without requiring
cloud provider interaction.

• On-demand usage is related to measured usage, which represents

the ability of a cloud to measure the usage of its IT resources.

• Ubiquitous access allows cloud-based services to be accessed by

diverse cloud service consumers.
Cloud Characteristics – Key Points (Cont.)
• Multitenancy is the ability of a single instance of an IT resource to
transparently serve multiple cloud consumers simultaneously.

• The elasticity represents the ability of a cloud to transparently and

automatically scale IT resources out or in.

• Resiliency pertains to a cloud’s inherent failover features of

availability and reliability.
Additional Resources
• Cloud Computing – Concepts, Technology, and Architecture
by Thomas Erl, Zaigham Mahmood, and Ricardo Puttini
Chapter 4: Fundamental Concepts and Models
Questions?