UNIT III

NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture -Public, Private and

Hybrid Clouds – IaaS – PaaS – SaaS – Architectural Design
Challenges - Cloud Storage.

1. NIST Cloud Computing Reference Architecture

(National Institute of Standards and Technology - NIST aims to promote
U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement
science, standards, and technology).
 Cloud computing reference architecture, identifies the major actors, their
activities and functions in cloud computing.

Fig: NIST cloud computing reference architecture

 NIST cloud computing reference architecture defines five major actors:
o Cloud consumer
o Cloud provider
o Cloud carrier
o Cloud auditor
o Cloud broker
 Each actor is an entity (a person or an organization) that performs
tasks in cloud computing.
Actor Definition
Cloud Consumer Acquires and uses services
Cloud Provider A person or organization, or entity responsible for
making a service available to interested parties.
Cloud Auditor A party that can conduct independent assessment
of cloud services, performance and security
monitoring of cloud services
Cloud Broker Intermediate between consumer and provider, they
create new services
Cloud Carrier An intermediary that provides connectivity and
transport of cloud services from Cloud Providers to
Cloud Consumers.
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 Actors in Cloud Computing

Fig: Interactions between the Actors in Cloud Computing

1 The Communication paths for a cloud auditor to collect auditing

information

2  The Communication path between a cloud provider and a cloud

consumer

3 The Communication paths for a cloud broker to provide service to a

cloud consumer

Example
Usage Scenario 1:
 A cloud consumer may request service from a cloud broker instead of
contacting a cloud provider directly.
 The cloud broker may create a new service by combining multiple
services or by enhancing an existing service.
 Actual cloud providers are invisible to the cloud consumer and the
cloud consumer interacts directly with the cloud broker.

Fig: Usage scenarios for cloud brokers

Example
Usage Scenario 2:
 Cloud carriers provide the connectivity and transport of cloud services
from cloud providers to cloud consumers.
 A cloud provider participates in and arranges for two unique service level
agreements (SLAs),
o one with a cloud carrier (e.g. SLA2)
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 o one with a cloud consumer (e.g. SLA1).

Fig: Usage Scenario for Cloud Carriers

Example
Usage Scenario 3:
 Cloud auditor conducts independent assessments of the operation
and security of the cloud service implementation.
 The audit may involve interactions with both the Cloud Consumer and
the Cloud Provider.

Cloud Consumer
 A cloud consumer represents a person or organization that maintains
a business relationship with, and uses the service from a cloud
provider.
 A cloud consumer browses the service catalog from a cloud provider,
requests the appropriate service, sets up service contracts with the
cloud provider, and uses the service.
 The cloud consumer may be billed for the service provisioned, and
needs to arrange payments accordingly.
 Cloud consumers need SLAs to specify the technical performance
requirements fulfilled by a cloud provider.
 SLAs can cover terms regarding the quality of service, security,
remedies for performance failures

Cloud Provider
 A cloud provider is a person, an organization
 It is responsible for making a service available to interested parties.
 A Cloud Provider provides the services, makes arrangement to deliver
the cloud services to the Cloud Consumers through network access.

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 Service Deployment –Making use of Cloud services on demand by or
consumers.
 Service Orchestration –
o Describes the arranging and coordination of tasks
o Has three layers: Service Layer, Resource Abstraction Layer and
Physical Resource Layer.
i. Service Layer: interfaces for accessing services (IaaS,
PaaS, SaaS)
ii. Resource Abstraction / Control Layer: contains the
system components (hypervisor) which are used for
accessing physical resources.
iii. Physical Resource Layer: interfaces for accessing to
physical resources(computers,disks,routers,firewalls, etc.)
 Cloud Services Management -
o Includes all of service-related functions that are necessary for
the management and operation of services.
o Can be described through
 Business support
 Provisioning and configuration
 Portability and interoperability

Fig: Cloud Service Management

o Business Support deals with
 Customer management (manage customer accounts,
open/close accounts, manage user profiles)
 Contract management (setup/negotiate/terminated
contract and SLAs)
 Pricing/Rating (evaluate cloud services)

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  Accounting and Billing(collect billing information, send
billing statements, manage payments)
 Reporting/auditing(monitor user operations, generate
reports)
o Provisioning/Configuration include
 Rapid provisioning: deploy(install) cloud services based on
user demands
 Resource changing: Resource assignment for repairs /
upgrades
 Metering: Provide metering per service
 SLA management: define SLAs, monitor SLAs
o Portability/Interoperability include
 Portability: ability to move applications and data across
clouds and cloud providers
 System portability: move / migrate a stopped VMs or
applications with their contents
 Service Interoperability: use data and services across
multiple cloud providers.

 Security- protecting data from unauthorized access. (Security

refers to who can access the information)
 Privacy – related to the collection, use, disclosure, storage and
destruction of personal data.

Cloud Auditor
 A cloud auditor evaluates the services provided by a cloud provider in
terms of security, privacy, performance, etc.
Cloud Broker
 A cloud broker manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud
services and negotiates relationships between cloud providers and
cloud consumers
 Cloud broker provides services in three categories
o Service Intermediation: A cloud broker enhances(modifying) a
given services.
o Service Aggregation: A cloud broker combines and integrates
multiple services into one or more new services.
o Service Arbitrage: A broker has the flexibility to choose
services from other cloud agency(brokers).
Cloud Carrier
 A cloud carrier acts as an intermediary that provides connectivity and
transport of cloud services between cloud consumers and cloud
providers.
 Cloud carriers provide access to consumers through network,
telecommunication and other access devices.

Scope of Control between Provider and Consumer

 The Cloud Provider and Cloud Consumer share the control of
resources in a cloud system.
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 Service Models
o IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
o PaaS –Platform as a Service
o SaaS- Software as a Service

 Application Layer
o Provides software applications for end users
o Providers of this application layer are called as SaaS Providers
o Users of this application layer are called as SaaS consumers
 Middleware layer
o Provides software building blocks (e.g., libraries, database, and
Java virtual machine) for developing application.
o Providers of this Middleware layer are called as PaaS Providers.
o Users of this Middleware layer are called as PaaS consumers.
 OS layer
o Provides operating system,Storage and drivers.
o Providers of this OS layer are called as IaaS Providers.
o Users of OS layer are called as IaaS Consumers.

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2. Public, Private and Hybrid Clouds (or) Different types of Clouds (or)
Cloud deployment models

2.1 Public cloud

Fig: Public Cloud

 A public cloud is one in which the cloud infrastructure and computing
resources are made available to the general public over a public
network.
 A public cloud is meant to serve a multitude(huge number) of users,
not a single customer.
 A fundamental characteristic of public clouds is multitenancy.
 Multitenancy allows multiple users to work in a software environment
at the same time, each with their own resources.
 is built over the Internet (i.e., service provider offers resources,
applications storage to the customers over the internet) and can be
accessed by any user.
 Owned by service providers and are accessible through a subscription.
 Best Option for small enterprises, which are able to start their
businesses without large up-front(initial) investment.
 By renting the services, customers were able to dynamically upsize or
downsize their IT according to the demands of their business.
 Services are offered on a price-per-use basis.
 Promotes standardization, preserve capital investment
 Public clouds have geographically dispersed datacenters to share the
load of users and better serve them according to their locations
 Provider is in control of the infrastructure
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  Examples:
o Amazon EC2 is a public cloud that provides Infrastructure as a
Service
o Google AppEngine is a public cloud that provides Platform as a
Service
o SalesForce.com is a public cloud that provides software as a
service.
 Advantage
 Offers unlimited scalability – on demand resources are available
to meet your business needs.
 Lower costs—no need to purchase hardware or software and you
pay only for the service you use.
 No maintenance - Service provider provides the maintenance.
 Offers reliability: Vast number of resources are available so
failure of a system will not interrupt service.
 Services like SaaS, PaaS, IaaS are easily available on Public Cloud
platform as it can be accessed from anywhere through any Internet
enabled devices.
 Location independent – the services can be accessed from any
location
 Disadvantage
 No control over privacy or security
 Cannot be used for use of sensitive applications(Government and
Military agencies will not consider Public cloud)
 Lacks complete flexibility(since dependent on provider)
 No stringent (strict) protocols regarding data management.
2.2 Private Cloud
 Cloud services are used by a single organization, which are not
exposed to the public
 Services are always maintained on a private network and the
hardware and software are dedicated only to single organization
 Private cloud is physically located at
o Organization’s premises [On-site private clouds] (or)
o Outsourced(Given) to a third party[Outsource private Clouds]
 It may be managed either by
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 o Cloud Consumer organization (or)
o By a third party
 Private clouds are used by
o government agencies
o financial institutions
o Mid size to large-size organisations.
 On-site private clouds

Fig: On-site private clouds

 Out-sourced Private Cloud

Fig: Out-sourced Private Cloud

 is supposed to deliver more efficient and convenient cloud services.
 Offers higher efficiency, resiliency(to recover quickly), security, and
privacy
 Provides

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 o Customer information protection: In-house security is easier
to maintain and rely on.
o Follows its own(private organization) standard procedures and
operations(where as in public cloud standard procedures and
operations of service providers are followed )
 Advantage
 Offers greater Security and Privacy
 Organization has control over resources
 Highly reliable
 Saves money by virtualizing the resources
 Disadvantage
 Expensive when compared to public cloud
 Requires IT Expertise to maintain resources.

2.3 Hybrid Cloud

 is built with both public and private clouds
 It is a heterogeneous cloud resulting from a private and public clouds.
 Private cloud are used for
o sensitive applications are kept inside the organization’s network
o business-critical operations like financial reporting
 Public Cloud are used when
o Other services are kept outside the organization’s network
o high-volume of data
o Lower-security needs such as web-based email(gmail,yahoomail
etc)
 The resources or services are temporarily leased for the time required
and then released. This practice is also known as cloud bursting.

Fig:Hybrid Cloud

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 Advantage
 It is scalable
 Offers better security
 Flexible-Additional resources are availed in public cloud when needed
 Cost-effectiveness—we have to pay for extra resources only when
needed.
 Control - Organisation can maintain a private infrastructure for
sensitive application
 Disadvantage
 Infrastructure Dependency
 Possibility of security breach(violate) through public cloud
Difference Public Private Hybrid

Tenancy Multi-tenancy: Single tenancy:  Data stored in the

the data of Single public cloud is multi-
multiple organizations data tenant.
organizations in is stored in the  Data stored in private
stored in a shared cloud. cloud is Single
environment. Tenancy.
Exposed to Yes: anyone can No: Only the  Services on private
the Public use the public organization itself cloud can be
cloud services. can use the accessed only by the
private cloud organization’s users
services.  Services on public
cloud can be
accessedby anyone.
Data Anywhere on the Inside the  Private Cloud-
Center Internet organization’s Present in
Location network. organization’s
network.
 Public Cloud -
anywhere on the
Internet.
Cloud Cloud service Organization has  Organization
Service provider manages their own manages the private
Manageme the services. administrators cloud.
nt managing services  Cloud Service
Provider(CSP)
manages the public
cloud.
Hardware CSP provides all Organization  Private Cloud –
Component the hardware. provides organization provides
s hardware. resources.
 Public Cloud – Cloud
service Provider
provides.
Expenses Less Cost Expensive when Cost required for
compared to setting up private
public cloud cloud.

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2.4 Community Cloud
 A community cloud serves a group(community) of Cloud
Consumers which have shared concerns such as mission
objectives, security, and privacy.
 Community cloud may be managed by
o The organizations (Or)
o By a third party
 May be implemented
o On customer premise (i.e. on-site community cloud) (Or)
o Off Premise

Fig: On-site Community Cloud

 Community clouds are distributed systems created by integrating
the services of different clouds to address the needs of an industry,
a community, or a business sector.

Fig: Outsourced Community Cloud

 Community clouds can be set for
o Media Industry :
 For improving the efficiency of production and creating
digital content.
 Community clouds can provide a shared environment .
o Health care industry :

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  Provides a global platform to share information and
knowledge
 supports the storing of patient-related data
o Energy and other core industries :
 For industries involving different providers, vendors, and
organizations, it provides the right type of infrastructure
to create an open and fair market.
o Public sector:
 provide a distributed environment to create a
communication platform for performing operations like
business-to-administration, citizen-to-administration, and
business-to-business processes
Benefits:
 Openness: Community clouds are open systems(accessible by
particular community) it eliminates dependency on cloud vendors
 Graceful failures: Since there is no single provider or vendor in
control of the infrastructure, there is no single point of failure.
 Convenience and control: Within a community cloud there is no
conflict between convenience and control because the cloud is shared
and owned by the community.
 Environmental sustainability: The community clouds have a smaller
carbon footprint because it controls underutilized resources.

Fig: Comparison of Cloud Computing

3. Services Classification of Cloud Computing / Cloud Service Models /

Categories of Cloud Computing
 Cloud services are categorized into three different models. They are
 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
 Platform as a Service (PaaS)
 Software asa Service (SaaS).
 These models are offered based on various SLAs between providers and
users
 SLA of cloud computing covers
o service availability
o performance

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 o data protection
o Security
3.1 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)/Hardware as a Service (HaaS)
 This model offers computing resources such as servers, storage,
networks based on the demand of users.
 Main technology used in IaaS is Hardware virtualization.
 IaaS/HaaS solutions bring all the benefits of hardware virtualization:
workload partitioning, application isolation, sandboxing, and
hardware tuning
 Sandboxing: A program is set aside from other programs in a separate
environment so that if errors or security issues occur, those issues
will not spread to other areas on the computer.
 Hardware tuning: To improve the performance of system
 The user works on multiple VMs running guest OSes
 the service is performed by rented cloud infrastructure
 The user does not manage or control the cloud infrastructure, but can
specify when to request and release the needed resources.

Fig : Infrastructure-as-a-Service reference implementation

 The above diagram specifies the components that are used for forming
an Infrastructure-as-a-Service solution.
 Contains 3 principal layers:
o The physical infrastructure
o The software management infrastructure
o The user interface.
 User Interface Layer

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 o Present at the top, the user interface provides access to the
cloud services.
o User Interface is developed using Web 2.0 technologies such as
Web services, RESTful APIs, and mash-ups.
 Infrastructure management software layer
o The core features of an IaaS are implemented in this layer.
o Management of the virtual machines is the most important
function performed by this layer.
o A central role is played by the scheduler, which is in charge of
allocating the execution of virtual machine instances.
o The scheduler interacts with the other components that perform
a variety of tasks.
o Pricing and billing component: Takes care of the cost of
executing each virtual machine instance.
o Monitoring component: Tracks the execution of each virtual
machine instance.
o Reservation component: Stores the information of all the
virtual machine instances that have been executed or that will
be executed in the future.
o QoS/SLA management component: will maintain a repository
of all the SLAs made with the users.
o VM repository component: Provides a catalogue of virtual
machine images that users can use to create virtual instances.
o VM pool manager component is responsible for keeping track
of all the live VM.
o Provisioning component interacts with the scheduler to
provide a virtual machine instance.

 Physical infrastructure Layer

o A service provider uses a massive datacenter containing
hundreds or thousands of nodes.
o A cloud infrastructure relies on a cluster.
o Heterogeneous environment where different types of resource -
PCs, workstations, and clusters—can be aggregated.

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  Examples: Amazon EC2, Windows Azure, Rackspace, Google Compute
Engine.

3.2 Platform as a Service (PaaS)

 Customers are provided with execution platform for developing
applications.
 Execution platform includes operating system, programming language
execution environment, database, web server, hardware etc.
 This acts as middleware on top of which applications are built
 The user is freed from managing the cloud infrastructure

Fig : Platform-as-a-Service reference model

 Application management is the core functionality of the middleware
 Provides runtime(execution) environment
 Developers design their applications in the execution environment.
 Developers need not concern about hardware (physical or virtual),
operating systems, and other resources.
 PaaS core middleware manages the resources and scaling of
applications on demand.
 PaaS offers
o Execution environment and hardware resources (infrastructure) (or)
o software is installed on the user premises
 PaaS: Service Provider provides Execution environment and
hardware resources (infrastructure)

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  Pure PaaS: Execution environment(software) is installed on the
user premises(hardware resources are not allocated for users).
 Examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku,
Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos.
 Classification of PaaS
Category Description Product Type Vendors
and
Products
PaaS-I Execution platform is Middleware + Force.com,
provided along with Longjump
Infrastructure
hardware resources
(infrastructure)
PaaS -II Execution platform is Middleware + Google App
provided with additional Engine
Infrastructure,
components
Middleware
PaaS- III Runtime environment for Middleware + Microsoft Azure
developing any kind of
Infrastructure,
application development
Middleware

 Characteristics of PaaS
 Runtime framework: Executes end-user code according to
the policies set by the user and the provider.
 Abstraction: PaaS helps to deploy(install) and manage
applications on the cloud.
 Automation: Automates the process of deploying
applications to the infrastructure, additional resources are
provided when needed.
 Cloud services: helps the developers to simplify the creation
and delivery cloud applications.
3.3 Software as a Service (SaaS)/Web-based software/ on-demand
software/hosted software
 Provides access to applications(software) through the Internet as a
service
 a software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by
providers.
 User can use the software directly without installing and
maintaining it.
 Users are free from developing and maintaining the software
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  On the customer side, there is no upfront investment in servers or
software licensing.
 It is a “one-to-many” software delivery model, whereby an
application is shared across multiple users
 Characteristic of Application Service Provider(ASP)
o Product sold to customer is application access.
o Application is centrally managed by Service Provider.
o Service delivered is one-to-many customers
o Services are delivered on the contract
 E.g. Gmail and docs, Microsoft SharePoint, and the CRM
software(Customer Relationship management)
Category Characteristics Product Type Vendors and
Products
SaaS Customers are provided Web applications and SalesForce.com,
with applications that
services(web 2.0) Clarizen.com
are accessible anytime
and from anywhere
PaaS Customers are provided Programming APIs and Microsoft Azure,
with a platform for frameworks.
Google App
developing applications.
Engine
IaaS Customers are provided Virtual machine Amazon, Go Grid
with virtualized management,
hardware and storage. Storage management,
Network Management

3.1.4. Mashup of Cloud Services

 Use of multiple cloud services simultaneously or in sequence
 –Pictorial representation of all services

Fig: Representation of all services

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4. Architectural Design Challenges

4.1 Challenge 1 : Service Availability and Data Lock-in Problem

 Service Availability

 Service Availability in Cloud might be affected because of

 Single Point Failure
 Distributed Denial of Service
 Single Point Failure
o Depending on single service provider might result in failure.
o In case of single service providers, even if company has multiple
data centres located in different geographic regions, it may have
common software infrastructure and accounting systems.
Solution:
o Multiple cloud providers may provide more protection from
failures and they provide High Availability(HA)
o Multiple cloud Providers will rescue the loss of all data.

 Distributed Denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

o Cyber criminals, attack target websites and online services and
makes services unavailable to users.
o DDoS tries to overwhelm (disturb) the services unavailable to
user by having more traffic than the server or network can
accommodate.
Solution:
o Some SaaS providers provide the opportunity to defend against
DDoS attacks by using quick scale-ups.
 Customers cannot easily extract their data and programs from one
site to run on another.
Solution:
o Have standardization among service providers so that
customers can deploy (install) services and data across multiple
cloud providers.
 Data Lock-in
 It is a situation in which a customer using service of a provider cannot
be moved to another service provider because technologies used by a
provider will be incompatible with other providers.
 This makes a customer dependent on a vendor for services and makes
customer unable to use service of another vendor.
Solution:
o Have standardization (in technologies) among service providers
so that customers can easily move from a service provider to
another.
4.2 Challenge 2: Data Privacy and Security Concerns
 Cloud services are prone to attacks because they are accessed
through internet.
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  Security is given by
o Storing the encrypted data in to cloud.
o Firewalls, filters.
 Cloud environment attacks include
o Guest hopping
o Hijacking
o VM rootkits.
 Guest Hopping: Virtual machine hyper jumping (VM jumping) is an
attack method that exploits(make use of) hypervisor’s weakness that
allows a virtual machine (VM) to be accessed from another.
 Hijacking: Hijacking is a type of network security attack in which the
attacker takes control of a communication
 VM Rootkit: is a collection of malicious (harmful) computer software,
designed to enable access to a computer that is not otherwise allowed.
 A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is a form of eavesdroppping(Spy)
where communication between two users is monitored and modified
by an unauthorized party.
o Man-in-the-middle attack may take place during VM
migrations [virtual machine (VM) migration - VM is moved from
one physical host to another host].
 Passive attacks steal sensitive data or passwords.
 Active attacks may manipulate (control) kernel data structures which
will cause major damage to cloud servers.

4.3 Challenge 3: Unpredictable Performance and Bottlenecks

 Multiple VMs can share CPUs and main memory in cloud computing,
but I/O sharing is problematic.
 Internet applications continue to become more data-intensive (handles
huge amount of data).
 Handling huge amount of data (data intensive) is a bottleneck in cloud
environment.
 Weak Servers that does not provide data transfers properly must be
removed from cloud environment

4.4 Challenge 4: Distributed Storage and Widespread Software Bugs

 The database is always growing in cloud applications.
 There is a need to create a storage system that meets this growth.
 This demands the design of efficient distributed SANs (Storage Area
Network  Network of Storage devices).
 Data centres must meet
o Scalability
o Data durability
o HA(High Availability)
o Data consistence
 Bug refers to errors in software.
 Debugging must be done in data centres.
4.5 Challenge 5: Cloud Scalability, Interoperability and Standardization
 Cloud Scalability
 Cloud resources are scalable. Cost increases when storage and
network bandwidth scaled(increased)

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 Interoperability
 Open Virtualization Format (OVF) describes an open, secure, portable,
efficient, and extensible format for the packaging and distribution of
VMs.
 OVF defines a transport mechanism for VM, that can be applied to
different virtualization platforms
 Standardization
 Cloud standardization, should have ability for virtual machine to run
on any virtual platform.

4.6 Challenge 6: Software Licensing and Reputation Sharing

 Cloud providers can use both pay-for-use and bulk-use licensing
schemes to widen the business coverage.
 Cloud providers must create reputation-guarding services similar to the
“trusted e-mail” services
 Cloud providers want legal liability to remain with the customer, and vice
versa.

5. Cloud Storage
 Storing your data on the storage of a cloud service provider rather
than on a local system.
 Data stored on the cloud are accessed through Internet.
 Cloud Service Provider provides Storage as a Service

5.1 Storage as a Service

 Third-party provider rents space on their storage to cloud users.

 Customers move to cloud storage when they lack in budget for having
their own storage.
 Storage service providers takes the responsibility of taking current
backup, replication, and disaster recovery needs.
 Small and medium-sized businesses can make use of Cloud Storage
 Storage is rented from the provider using a
o cost-per-gigabyte-stored (or)
o cost-per-data-transferred
 The end user doesn’t have to pay for infrastructure (resources), they
have to pay only for how much they transfer and save on the
provider’s storage.

5.2 Providers

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  Google Docs allows users to upload documents, spreadsheets, and
presentations to Google’s data servers.
 Those files can then be edited using a Google application.
 Web email providers like Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail, store
email messages on their own servers.
 Users can access their email from computers and other devices
connected to the Internet.
 Flicker and Picasa host millions of digital photographs, Users can
create their own online photo albums.
 YouTube hosts millions of user-uploaded video files.
 Hostmonster and GoDaddy store files and data for many client web
sites.
 Facebook and MySpace are social networking sites and allow
members to post pictures and other content. That content is stored
on the company’s servers.
 MediaMax and Strongspace offer storage space for any kind of
digital data.
5.3 Data Security
 To secure data, most systems use a combination of techniques:
o Encryption
o Authentication
o Authorization
 Encryption
o Algorithms are used to encode information. To decode the
information keys are required.
 Authentication processes
o This requires a user to create a name and password.
 Authorization practices
o The client lists the people who are authorized to access
information stored on the cloud system.
 If information stored on the cloud, the head of the IT department
might have complete and free access to everything.

5.4 Reliability

 Service Providers gives reliability for data through redundancy

(maintaining multiple copies of data).
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  Reputation is important to cloud storage providers. If there is a
perception that the provider is unreliable, they won’t have many
clients.
5.5 Advantages
 Storing data on the cloud is advantageous, because it allows you to
protect your data in case there’s a disaster.
5.6 Theft (Disadvantage)
 Data could be stolen or viewed by those who are not authorized to see
it.
5.5 Cloud Storage Providers
 Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
 The best-known cloud storage service is Amazon’s Simple
Storage Service (S3), launched in 2006.
 Amazon S3 is designed to make computing easier for developers.
 Amazon S3 provides an interface that can be used to store and
retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the
Web.
 Design Requirements

o Amazon built S3 to fulfil the following design requirements

o Scalable Amazon S3 can scale in terms of storage, request

rate, and users.
o Reliable Store data durably (permanently), with 99.99
percent availability.
o Fast Amazon S3 was designed to be fast enough to support
high-performance applications.
 Design Principles
o Amazon used the following principles to meet Amazon S3
requirements:
o Decentralization It uses fully decentralized techniques to
remove scaling bottlenecks and single points of failure.
o Failure toleration The system continues operation with no
or minimal interruption.
o Controlled parallelism Parallelism can be used to improve
performance
o Small, well-understood building blocks Do not try to
provide a single service that does everything for everyone,

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 but instead build small components that can be used as
building blocks for other services.
o Symmetry Nodes in the system are identical in terms of
functionality.
o Simplicity The system should be made as simple as possible.

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