Transcript Slide 1
CLOUD COMPUTING FOR
LIBRARY SERVICES
Continuum of Abstraction
Locally owned and installed servers
Co-located servers
Co-located virtual servers
Web hosting
Server hosting services
Application Service Provider
Software-as-a-service
Platform-as-a-service
Cloud computing – basic understanding
Any arrangement where the library relies on some
kind of remote hosting environment for major
automation components
Includes:
Almost
any vender-hosted offering
Cloud computing – formal definitions
Highly abstracted computing model
Utility model
Provisioned on demand
Scaled according to variable needs
Discrete virtual machines
Compute cycles on demand
Storage on demand
Elastic – consumption of resources can contract and
expand according to demand
Hosting Services
Web hosting
Web
site only
Standard support for PHP, Perl, and other dynamic
page generation
Dedicated Server
Appropriate
for applications that have not been tested
and deployed in virtual environments
Virtual server
Requires
software that supports virtualization
Advantages
Increasing opportunities to eliminate local servers
and tech support
Most libraries cannot support the cost of systems
and network administrators which command higher
salaries than professional librarians
Eliminate hardware replacement, operating systems
upgrades, etc.
Software-as-a-Service
Complete software application, customized for
customer use
Eg: Salesforce.com
Platform-as-a-Platform as a Service
Virtualized computing environment for deployment
of software
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
Storage-as-a-Service
Provisioned, on-demand storage
Bundled to, or separate from other cloud services
Private vs Public cloud
Public – multi-tenant provisioning
Locically
isolated computing environment
Theoretical security / competitive concerns
Private – cloud architecture, institutionally
owned/controlled
Leverages
cost and scalability
Enforces physical segration
Examples of cloud offerings by
library vendors
Application Service Provider
Expxtech Horizon in 2000
Sirsi Unicorn (sirsi.net) 2005
DRA Classic pilot ASP program in 2000
Auto-Graphics acquired Macess Library Systems in
2001 > AGent VERSO offered primarily as hosted
service
Virtua ASP 2003
Polaris Hosted launched in 2005
Virtualization
SirsiDynix virtualization for Symphony implemented
in March 2010
SirsiDynix virtualization for Horizon implemented in
Dec 2009
Software-as-a-Service
Common marketing term
Often applied to ASP
Subscription-based vendor-hosted offerings
Serials Solutions
All offerings delivered as a service:
360
Search
360 Link
Summon
SirsiDynix
Strategic emphasis on SaaS
Technically more of a ASP model
Many local installs transitioning to SaaS
LibLime
LibLime Enterprise Koha deployed in Amazon EC2
LAMP stack implemented on Virtual Machine Image
Ability to meet larger site requirements through
high-performance cloud-delivered platform.
OCLC
WorldCat Cataloging
WorldCat ILL
WorldCat Local
WebScale Management Services
Private cloud