Cloud computing interoperability, portability key to multi-cloud use

Of late, organisations, driving their digital transformation, are increasingly moving towards cloud-based solutions. Growth of cloud computing services during the last decade has transformed the way governments, enterprises and consumers are storing and processing data and managing the resources. India's cloud computing market has poised for growth and this technology is being increasingly embraced across retailers and consumers. Cloud computing is a revolutionary technology that has enabled applications like Big Data, IoT and social networking which have major impact on the world. This also includes smart city applications, next generation telecom networks, health care, emergency response systems which are now adopting cloud technologies. The unique ability of cloud systems to host any service, scale it up to any desired level and pay-per- use model are the key drivers for increased cloud adoption.

Advantages of cloud computing system over legacy system

• Savings

• Optimal utilisation of infrastructure

• Disaster recovery

• Elasticity: For projects requiring varying storage loads, the auto scaling feature of cloud systems is beneficial.

Features of Indian cloud ecosystem

1. Data will be guaranteed to reside in India only

2. There shall not be any legal framework outside Indian law

3. The cloud ecosystem should comply with guidelines and standards published by MEITY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology)

4. CSPs (cloud service providers) will be responsible for privacy and security safeguards. Data security is the responsibility of the user as well

5. CSPs have to undergo a surveillance audit every year by STQC (Standardisation testing quality certification)

6. CSPs need to adhere to the guidelines and acts published by Government of India

7. No data should be shared to any third party

8. An undertaking has to be given by the CSP on section 43 (A) IT Act

9. Availability of cloud services should be above 99.5 per cent.

There 19 CSPs empanelled with MEITY. This includes four public sector CSPs (NIC National Cloud, BSNL, RailTel and ITI), five of multinational companies and rest by local companies. Further empanelment is in progress. Cloud services of successfully empanelled CSPs are onboarded on GeM (government e-marketplace) platform. Empanelment duration is three years.

Unfortunately, at present clouds of different vendors are having issues of interoperability resulting in cloud computing silos. The first disadvantage of this is vendor lock-in. The second disadvantage is the barrier for developing inter-cloud applications that deliver higher value.

If we consider smart city applications, it is desirable to integrate data from different sources such as pollution data or weather data such as rain etc., with the traffic data. As these data are in different clouds, developing such an application becomes quite complex if the cloud interoperability feature is not there. Cloud interoperability means that data can be processed by different services on different cloud systems through common specifications. It also encompasses the possibility to use different cloud facilities to achieve diverse business goals. Cloud interoperability requires shared processes, APIs, containers and data models across the multi-cloud environment to enable communication between application components. It offers enterprises the freedom to retain their existing cloud investments while augmenting them with the benefits of new-age cloud solutions. But it is quite challenging to implement cloud interoperability due to complexities around application integration for different cloud environments. Reliability, performance and security are the primary enterprise concerns for interoperability in multi cloud environments.

Another aspect of interoperability in cloud computing service is portability, which is the ability to move data, software, platforms and such other entities from one system to another so that it is usable on the target system. Portability promotes competition in cloud service leading to cost reduction for the customers. Vendor locking will be avoided and there will be different vendors to choose from.

If interoperability is implemented and data portability from one cloud to the other takes place, cloud to cloud traffic through telecom networks will increase benefitting the TSPs. With the deployment of autonomous vehicles and drones, TSPs providing low latency connection to the edge data centres will be preferred.

Interoperability standards for cloud

Lack of standards leads to market domination by few companies. Closed APIs (application programming interface) prevent interoperability. Open APIs lead to large diversity in cloud computing companies. Interoperability is good for customers as it leads to

• Better control

• Competition

• Cost reduction

• Avoidance of vendor lock-in

• less migration resistance,

• Development of innovative cross - cloud applications

ITU has specified requirements and description of test cases in English language (not software) for testing the interoperability.

Due to the importance of developing cloud standards, DOT has mandated TSDSI (Telecom Standards Development Society of India) in 2017 to develop interoperability and portability standards.

API Gateway

Interoperability between multiple clouds is provided and enforced by API Gateways. For Cloud interoperability, cloud service platforms have to latch on to brokers (like UPI platform), nominated by the government.

Regulation in cloud computing

The market should address the following concerns of customer:

• Possibility of storage on multiple clouds

• Preservation of quality in storage: When stored data is retrieved, no data should be lost and quality should not degrade.

• What is the policy regarding deletion of data in case of default in payment?

• Quality of service: Availability of service, reliability of service, monitoring of cloud performance and presentation of relevant performance figures to the prospective/existing customers is required to protect their interests.

• Interoperability:

o Porting of data: Apart from compatibility between the clouds for achieving data portability from one cloud to the other, how much time is required for porting the data, for what reasons porting can be denied, process involved, how CSPs help the customers in the process and what are the rights of customers are also important. Data porting from one cloud to the other is more challenging and advanced than Mobile Number Portability (MNP), because of the involvement of huge data and its transfer preserving the same form and same quality with the same performance. Customer should have a seamless experience when his data is ported from one Cloud to the other.

o Orchestration across multiple CSPs: when we are using different clouds, orchestration across CSPs should be there so that customers will have seamless experience

• Bill shock: If customers don't take care of certain aspects and don't show due diligence, they may receive bill shock at the end of the billing cycle. CSPs should educate the customers in this regard.

Way forward

Cloud is not static technology and is evolving. It is becoming pervasive. There are proposals with MEITY to develop test bed and test cases and allow CSPs to check for compliance to standards and to promote research and standardisation in cloud technology. The emerging areas are: security, data management, cloud/edge integration.

In the future, it will be difficult to differentiate between telecom and cloud. They will be mutually affecting each other. Cloud native technology and edge computing are the cornerstones for the cloud infra in 5G. The term cloud native refers to the concept of building and running applications to take advantage of the distributed computing offered by cloud delivery models. The cloud native apps are designed and built to exploit the scale, elasticity, resilience and flexibility the cloud provides. Edge computing provides distributed cloud infra resources closer to the location where it is needed. For 5G services to spread across the country, edge data centres have to proliferate.

(The author is a former Advisor, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India)