Infrastructure as a Service: Cloud Hosting Marketspace

The business of supplying cloud services to corporations certainly looks promising. Technology research firms are forecasting that the market for cloud services will expand at a dizzying pace over the next several years.

The logic  — remotely providing computing, data storage and applications as a service — is compelling. Customers don’t have to buy all that hardware and software themselves, and suppliers gain the efficiencies of running large-scale data centers for many different customers.

In this blog, let’s consider some key trends to build clarity around Infrastructure-as-a-service.  I review this marketspace and highlight some innovative cloud infrastructure vendors that are carving out a niche for themselves.

Structure of IaaS Market

The infrastructure-as-a-service market can be confusing, so some vocabulary standardization is useful. There are four major types of business models.

Co-location	Includes Internet data center facilities, plus network bandwidth and associated WAN and LAN equipment. Also includes 24/7 customer support (including phone support),   standardized SLAs, and innovation.
Dedicated hosting	Includes facilities and network, plus dedicated server hardware. Also includes 24/7 customer support (including phone support),   standardized SLAs, and innovation.
Virtual Platform Hosting (e.g., VMware vCloud)	Includes facilities and network, plus a virtual shared platform (e.g., VMware vCloud). This might be a shared environment using hypervisor-based virtualization, offering on-demand, flexible capacity. This may be offered with dedicated infrastructure. Also includes 24/7 customer support (including phone support), standardized SLAs, and innovation.
Cloud IaaS	Includes facilities, network, and on-demand, multitenant agile computing capacity, which can be either dedicated or virtualized. The capacity can be shared or private. “Agile” implies that customers can scale both up and down on demand, without a contractual commitment to fixed capacity. Self-administration thru a single pane interface (dashboard) is provided for managing the “virtual data center. Also includes 24/7 customer support (including phone support), standardized SLAs, and innovation.

CoLo Hosting -> Managed Services -> Infrastructure as a Service

The outsourced infrastructure market has evolved from Web and server hosting (co-location) to managed services (SLA-driven) hosting.  This market is now evolving rapidly to multi-tenant cloud infrastructure (Compute-as-a-Service or Storage-as-a-service model).

The catalyst for this shift is the opportunity for cost savings, reduced infrastructure management responsibility, leverage of technology innovation, flexibility that allows for unexpected resource loads, and faster provisioning enabling quicker application rollout.  What’s there not to like here?

The problems with internal infrastructure are well known and the economics are getting worse as a major technological shift and upgrade cycle hits companies.  The problems include; (1) High CapEx; (2) Low facility asset utilization (55%); (3) High Depreciation (42-50%); (4) Power/Cooling costs > Server Costs; (5) Not “Green”; and (6) 30% hardware obsolescence.

However, for enterprises considering moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud, the choices are overwhelming. There are different IaaS combinations possible depending on how you slice the core IT infrastructure:

• Servers (physical and virtual)
• Storage (NAS and SAN)
• Core Infrastructure Services (DNS,DHCP,NTP, image management)
• Network (Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Load Balancers)
• Facilities (Power, Cooling, Space)

Managers are doing homework on cloud infrastructure services and are planning 2012 proof-of-concepts will allow them to become familiar with different combinations of IaaS  services without having to make big strategic moves.

Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

The era of cloud Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) is here and getting better by the day.  The IaaS layer consists of virtual or physical hardware resources (e.g., compute, storage, network) offered as a service.

Simply put, IaaS is about providing pooled computing and storage services to users. The value is increased productivity.  Deploy infrastructure with a mouse or API.  No cabling, screwdrivers, racking, unboxing, and buying. Do it yourself remotely from anywhere anytime.

We define IaaS as a shared IT infrastructure (compute and storage) archi­tecture provided through on-demand services. IaaS vendors provide raw physical capacity for cloud computing. Services at this layer may include any combination of hosting and storage.. IaaS vendors provide outsourced servers, OS, storage, data center space, network equipment, etc., via a virtualized subscription model.

Under the IaaS banner, there are two different models:

• Compute-as-a-service (CaaS)
• Storage-as-a-service (StaaS)

COMPUTE AS A SERVICE

Compute-as-a-Service (CaaS) is the provisioning of computing resources (access to raw compute or server capacity) on demand. CaaS providers offer the ability to rent and not own IT resources. This cloud computing layer involves the delivery of virtual or physical resources as a service, priced via a consumption-based model, where usage is metered.

What do you get? Access to infrastructure stack:

–Servers on demand

- Full OS access

–Firewalls

–Routers

–Load balancing

What else can customers get? Customers can buy compute-as-a-service with or without managed and professional services. These extra services range from:

• Management of the server OS (e.g., automated patch management)
• Management of infrastructure software, such as Web server software, application servers and database servers.
• Management of storage, including backup and recovery.
• Management of security (e.g., intrusion detection)
• Management of other network devices, such as application delivery controllers.
• Professional services associated with hosting, such as architecture, capacity planning, performance testing, security auditing and transition services or data center migration.
• Premium 24/7 customer support (including dedicated support),  customized SLAs, and innovation.

Compute-as-a-service advantages are: Pay per use;  Instant Scalability; Security; Reliability and APIs

Risks are security, downtime, access, dependency, and interoperability between services.

STORAGE AS A SERVICE

Storage-as-a-Service represents a new way of delivering storage capacity to people, businesses and their applications. Cloud storage services generally have two defining characteris­tics: capacity is offered and billed for on an on-demand basis, and storage is provided by and often located at a third-party service provider.

Storage-as-a-Service involves the ability for applications to invoke various common reusable functions across heterogeneous storage provided as a service to do functions like thin provisioning, replication, de-dupli­cation, tiered storage, virtual tape, etc. Such services are consumed via a consumption-based model, where usage is metered similar to a utility.

Advantages of the storage-as-a-service model:  multi-tenented;  lowers costs by increasing use; economies of scale given by virtualization technology; and automated update policy.  Stuff that every in-house IT department struggles to deliver.

See this posting for a detailed coverage of storage-as-a-service.

Big Cloud Vendors

Vendors

Description

AT&T	AT&T (via its acquisition of USi) offers colocation, managed hosting on dedicated hardware as well as its VMware-based Synaptic Hosting platform, cloud IaaS on its Synaptic Compute as a Service (CaaS) platform, cloud storage and a CDN. It also provides services for hosted Oracle E-Business Suite.
Amazon Web Services	Amazon is a market leader in the subscription cloud IaaS space.  It is executing systematically on a vision of highly automated, inexpensive, commodity infrastructure, bought without any commitment to a contract. Its paid-by-the-hour compute offering is the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a Xen-based infrastructure; it also offers cloud storage, cloud based content distribution network (CDN) and a number of PaaS-like services.
IBM	IBM offers colocation (on a limited basis), managed hosting and cloud IaaS.  IBM uses its utility computing platform, called Managed Services Infrastructure Services, as the underlying foundation for both its managed services and its application management portfolio. IBM offers a number of on-demand options for its disaster recovery services. Typically aimed at large clients.
Rackspace	Rackspace is a leading Web hosting and managed hosting provider. It offers simple managed hosting (Rackspace Managed), complex managed hosting (Rackspace Intensive) and Xen-based cloud IaaS (Cloud Servers). It also has a PHP and .NET-based cloud PaaS (Cloud Sites, formerly known as Mosso), e-mail and SharePoint hosting, cloud storage (Cloud Files) and cloud-based backup (JungleDisk).
Savvis	Savvis is a market-leader in colocation and managed hosting (including utility hosting on its Virtual Intelligent Hosting platform). Savvis’ product portfolio also has VMware-based IaaS (its Symphony suite of offerings), proximity hosting and network services.
Verizon (+Terremark)	Verizon offers colocation, managed hosting and cloud IaaS on its VMware-based Computing as a Service (CaaS) platform.  Verizon acquired Terremark Worldwide, an independent Web hoster. It offers colocation, managed hosting (including utility hosting on its Infinistructure platform), developer-centric public cloud IaaS (vCloud Express) and enterprise-class cloud IaaS (Enterprise Cloud).
Microsoft Windows Azure	Windows Azure  is a comprehensive service across both compute, storage, network capabilities and higher-level services like relational databases.

Emerging Cloud Infrastructure Vendors

Bluelock

An enterprise-focused cloud hosting provider, Bluelock’s services are tied to VMware’s virtualization technology. Bluelock claims to be a leading VMware vCloud hosting provider, offering both technology and services in the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) space. Bluelock offers businesses a tailored solution for establishing a virtual data center hosted on either a public or hybrid cloud.

NephoScale

One of the more recent entrants to the IaaS market, cloud hosting provider NephoScale came out of stealth mode in January, 2011.  NephoScale’s public cloud infrastructure platform offers object-based storage, pay-by-the-hour servers and dedicated, on-demand servers. The CloudScript interface enables users to control all elements of their cloud deployment using a single, one-to-many API call.  What does it cost?  Cloud Computing and Storage Starter Package, inviting clients to kick the tires with a free, one-year trial of a 256 MB cloud server and as much as 1 GB of storage.

Bottom-line

The infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) industry is still in the early stage.  Unfortunately for decision makers, the cloud tech landscape is fraught with complexity and confusing jargon. Sorting through the options, scoring and understanding the opportunities are paramount for management.

Cloud IaaS is virtualized compute power and storage delivered via platform-agnostic infrastructures of abstracted hardware and software accessed over the Internet. These shared, on-demand IT resources, are created and disposed of efficiently, are dynamically scalable through a variety of programmatic interfaces and are billed variably based on measurable usage.

It is going to be extremely interesting to see how the IaaS market evolves in the next five years.

Additional Sources of Information

1. For more in-depth analysis see… Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web Hosting (Gartner Research)
2. Forrester Research “Is Cloud Computing Ready for The Enterprise?” — Definition of cloud IaaS – “A pool of abstracted, highly scalable, and managed compute infrastructure capable of hosting end-customer applications and billed by consumption.”
3. Amazon Web Services (www.amazon.com/aws) Created in 2006, Amazon Web Services was born with the purpose of renting the idle capacity of Amazon.com’s global servers. Netflix and Shell are among its customers.  The AWS division should end the year with revenue of $1.5bln, still a small fraction of the US$40+ billion in sales of Amazon.com.

List of Cloud Infrastructure and Hosting Vendors

VENDOR                                         PRODUCT
Amazon	EC2
Arsys	Flexible Cloud Server
AT&T	Synaptic CaaS
Attenda	Real Time Infrastructure
BlueLock	Virtual Coud
British Telecom	Virtual Datacenter Service
Carpathia	InstantOn
Carrenza	Carrenza Infrastructure Services
Cloud Central	CloudCentral Servers
Colt	Cloud Infrastructure Services
CSC	Trusted Cloud
DediPower	Public Cloud
Digital Ribbon	DEP & CPR
ElasticHosts	Cloud Hosting
ENKI	PrimaCloud
Flexiant	FlexiScale
GoGrid
Hewlett-Packard (EDS)	EDS
Horizon Data Center Solutions	FlexSafe Cloud
Hosted Solutions	Stratus Trusted Cloud
Hosting.com	Cloud VPS/Enterprise
IBM	Blue Cloud
iomart	CloudXtra & CloudSure
Joyent	SmartMachines & SmartDataCenter
KDDI	KDDI Cloud Server Service
Layered Tech	GridLayer
Logicworks	Logicworks Enterprise-Class Cloud
Macquarie Telecom	Cloud Services
Navisite	NaviCloud
NetMagic	CloudNet, CloudServe, PrivateCloud
NTT	NTT America Cloud
OpSource	OpSource Cloud Hosting
Oracle	Cloud Compute
Peak 10	Peak 10 Cloud Plus
Rackspace	Cloud Servers& Cloud Sites
RagingWire	Cloud Solution
Savvis	Savvis Cloud Compute
SDT, Ltd.	Hosts Unlimited
ServePath	GoGrid Cloud
SoftLayer Technologies	CloudLayer
Star Technology Services	The Star Platform
SunGard	Hosting365
SymetriQ	SymetriQ Cloud
TDS (VISI)	VISI ReliaCloud
Terremark	vCloud Express/Enterprise Cloud
ThinkGrid	ThinkGrid Cloud Services
UK2 Group	VPS.NET
Unisys	Unisys Secure Cloud
United Internet (1 & 1 )	Dynamic Cloud Server
Verizon Business	CaaS
Virtustream	Cloud Services: IaaS
Vitacore Systems	Public Cloud Solutions
Voxel	VoxCLOUD
Wipr	The Wipro Cloud

Related articles

• Gartner Has First Ever IaaS Magic Quadrant Report (readwriteweb.com)