PE2-6.2 Virtualization & Service Level Agreements
You can explain virtualization as the root of cloud computing, describe cloud scenarios and their benefits in scalability and simplicity, and read a service level agreement.
Virtualization is the technology that made the cloud economically possible: one physical machine safely partitioned into many, so utilisation rises and the provider's cost per tenant falls. The SLA is the part engineers skim and should not — it defines what the provider actually promises, what the remedy is when they miss, and the remedy is almost always a service credit rather than your losses. Note how modest a 99.9% availability promise really is when converted to minutes per month.
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Roots of cloud computing
The technologies this was built from: distributed systems, grid computing and utility billing. Seeing the lineage stops the field looking like it appeared from nowhere.
Virtualization in cloud computing
The technology that makes all of it possible: one machine presented as many. Everything about elasticity and multi-tenancy follows from this item.
Cloud scenarios and their benefits: scalability and simplicity
What the technology is actually used for, with the two properties that make it attractive. Concrete scenarios are more useful here than the abstract benefits above.
Vendors and the vendor landscape
Who the providers are and how they differ. It dates quickly, so read it for the shape of the market rather than the names.
Security considerations
The security questions specific to running on someone else's infrastructure. The shared responsibility idea is the one to carry into the security topic later.
Service level agreements: what is promised and what the remedy is
What the provider actually promises, and what you get when they miss. The remedy is usually a credit rather than compensation, which is worth knowing before depending on one.
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