COIS13034 Cloud Based Smart Application Management

The assignment requires you to do the following:
Identify four cloud service providers who offer PaaS (Platform as a Service) to develop applications.Select one of the cloud service providers from your list for further investigation. If necessary,create a trial account and use all the different services it offers. Take screenshots to record some of those services while using them.Compare and contrast between Bluemix (used in this unit) and the PaaS service of the cloud service provider you have chosen. What do you need to submit.

You are required to submit a written report in a single Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) document. The report should contain excluding references with ±100 words slack. The report must contain the following sections (feel free to add one or more sections if necessary):
Cover page/title page, Table of contents and abstract
Introduction
Cloud service providers

o List all identified cloud service providers who offer PaaS (Platform as a Service) to develop applications
o Select a service provider out of the list to compare with Bluemix and write two reasons to justify your choice
Comparison and contrast with Bluemix – this is the body of the report and should be written as detailed as possible. You can include screenshots and other media to enrich your report (you are not allowed to use screenshots and media content from internet they must be your own. It is a good idea to try the environment before your answer this section.

Cloud Computing refers to the practice which involves the use of a network which is usually the Internet for carrying out of various services and applications along with the exchange of information. There are a number of cloud delivery models that have been designed such as Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). There can also be a combination of two or more models which are termed as hybrid cloud delivery models. For each of these cloud models, there are a number of cloud service providers that are present (Yangui and Tata, 2014). The document covers the details of the cloud service providers for PaaS and compares and contrasts them with IBM Bluemix.

Cloud Service Providers

Amazon Web Service (AWS) 

There are a number of PaaS cloud service providers in the market and Amazon Web Service (AWS) is one of the most reputed out of all. The services are available through its runtime application termed as Elastic Beanstalk. This service provider has an immense customer base in the market and offers basic as well as advanced cloud services. There are numerous database options, SDKs for mobile operating systems, analytics tools, load balancing, disaster recovery and many more (Aws, 2017).

Microsoft Windows Azure

Microsoft came up with its PaaS cloud service provider Windows Azure in the market and has managed to offer excellent services to its customer on a global scale. The service provider offers reliable and scalable services that include SQL database services, storage solutions, back-up and data recovery options, NoSQL databases, application services and many more. The security mechanisms that come up with this service provider are also in accordance with the technological advancements (Azure, 2017).

Red Hat OpenShift

OpenShift is a PaaS cloud service provider launched by Red Hat. There are a number of system qualities that come easy with this service provider such as ease of installation, scalability along with rapid application development. It is based as per the Docker containers and the Kubernetes container cluster manager that allow ease of operation and multiple tools for the developers and operational staff (Openshift, 2017).

Google App Engine

Google also offers its customers with PaaS cloud services through its application called App Engine. It is a fully managed platform that allows the customers to run web as well as mobile applications. It supports a lot many languages and also fulfills numerous non-functional expectations of the customers such as reliability, performance, security and supportability. Application versioning is one of most powerful features of Google App Engine along with monitoring and diagnostics.

Amazon AWS and IBM Bluemix

Two of the most popular PaaS cloud service providers in the market are Amazon AWS and IBM Bluemix.

Amazon Web Service (AWS) is one of the most reputed PaaS cloud service providers out of all. The services are available through its runtime application termed as Elastic Beanstalk. This service provider has an immense customer base in the market and offers basic as well as advanced cloud services. There are numerous database options, SDKs for mobile operating systems, analytics tools, load balancing, disaster recovery and many more

 AWS PaaS cloud service provider

IBM’s Bluemix is another powerful cloud service provider that offers cloud model as Platform as a Service (PaaS). There are a number of storage and networking options that are provided by Bluemix along with data and analytics services and Internet of Things (IoT) applications as well. It provides flexible and scalable services to the customers. Security is one parameter that is not compromised with the quality of services in this case (Ibm, 2017).

Comparison of Amazon AWS and IBM Bluemix 

There are a lot of similarities between Amazon AWS and IBM Bluemix in terms of their features and qualities. Some of the similarities between these two PaaS cloud service providers are as listed below.

• Both of these cloud service providers and their services are backed by the Blue Chip technology companies. It means that these are backed by immense customer base in the market and assure their customers to make huge investments that would be safe. They will also be present in the market for the upcoming years.
• The offerings by both of these service providers are also similar in number such as Big Data and analytics services, mobile application services, language support services, storage solutions, virtual machines, Mode JS support and likewise.
• Both of these service providers support web as well as mobile applications and services. Also, these provide an integrated solution to the customer requirements.
• These service providers can be accessed by the users with the aid of a browser and also provide Command Line mechanisms in order to push the applications in to the cloud environment (Varma and Choi, 2016).
• The pricing model that is followed in both of these service providers is pay per usage model that include subscriptions and free tier for a majority of services.

Contrast – Amazon AWS and IBM Bluemix

Although there are many features in common between Amazon AWS and IBM Bluemix, however, there are also various points that distinguish them from one another.

Opinion on the Cloud Service Providers

Amazon AWS scores higher than IBM Bluemix on the basis of features and services that are offered by Amazon AWS. The striking features of the former include Application Programming Interafce (API), cloud storage options, numerous native databases along with popular run times.

Documentation and UI are the areas in which Amazon AWS can improve. Customers in the present era look for self explanatory and easy to use tools that are designed as per the latest design principles. There are navigational improvements that can be done in the UI of Amazon AWS.

IBM Bluemix can improve upon the stability and the run times that it offers. .NET is one of the most demanded run time in the present times which is missing from IBM Bluemix. The same shall be included in the cloud service provider to attract more and more customers.

Conclusion

Cloud computing and cloud services are highly demanded in the current era. There are a majority of industries and sectors that make use of cloud computing to offer required and expected services to their customers. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud delivery model in which customers are provided with a platform to perform various cloud services. There are numerous service providers available in the market that come from market giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Red Hat and many more. On the basis of the study and analysis that is carried out, Amazon AWS scores amazingly well on the features and services that are offered by all of these cloud service providers (Giessmann and Legner, 2016). It is essential for any of the cloud service providers to fulfill customer expectations and provide an expected mix of functional and non-function requirements.  

References

Aws, (2017). Types of Cloud Computing. [online] Amazon Web Services, Inc. Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/types-of-cloud-computing/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Azure, (2017). Microsoft Azure: Cloud Computing Platform and Services. [online] Azure.microsoft.com. Available at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Giessmann, A. and Legner, C. (2016). Designing business models for cloud platforms. [online] Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/isj.12107/abstract [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Ibm, (2017). IBM Bluemix - Cloud infrastructure, platform services, Watson, & more PaaS solutions. [online] Ibm.com. Available at: https://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/bluemix/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Myslik, M. (2016). Computationally intensive application adaptation for cloud deployment. [online] Available at: https://dspace.cvut.cz/bitstream/handle/10467/64732/F3-DP-2016-Myslik-Martin-thesis.pdf [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Openshift, (2017). OpenShift: PaaS by Red Hat, Built on Docker and Kubernetes. [online] Openshift.com. Available at: https://www.openshift.com/ [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Sehgal, S. (2016). Performance Analysis of Open Source Cloud Software. [online] Available at: http://www.ijeast.com/papers/147-151,Tesma201,IJEAST.pdf [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Smik, B. (2016). The web-based platforms for IoT (Internet of Things) management. [online] Available at: http://is.muni.cz/th/422678/fi_b/bc-thesis-smik.pdf [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Varma, M. and Choi, E. (2016). Comparative Study of Various Platform as Service Frameworks. [online] Available at: http://aircconline.com/ijccsa/V6N1/6116ijccsa03.pdf [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].

Yangui, S. and Tata, S. (2014). An OCCI Compliant Model for PaaS Resources Description and Provisioning. [online] Available at: https://academic.oup.com/comjnl/article-abstract/59/3/308/2568588/An-OCCI-Compliant-Model-for-PaaS-Resources [Accessed 18 Mar. 2017].