Partner

Teamup Technology Limited

Solution Description

Cloud-computing is one of the hottest topics in the information technology industry today. It simplifies the way information technology resources are consumed and managed, with promises of improved cost efficiencies, faster time-to-market and the ability to scale applications on demand. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud-computing service model, which delivers virtualized computing, storage and network infrastructures as service. By being able to add services without adding physical servers, end-users gain the benefits of flexible server provisioning while saving cost on power and cooling as well as space since a lot more can be done on the same physical footprint.

The key to success of cloud-computing technologies is automated management of cloud resources. It provides the automation needed to address the operational complexities in managing virtual resources. With Teamup Technology¡¯s cloud service management solution, called the Cloud Service Manager, you get a full set of functionalities to meet your business needs, including:

• Wizards for simplified service provisioning and deployment.
• Automated service request, approval and fulfillment.
• Full life-cycle management of virtual machines.
• Continuous monitoring of virtual machines and triggering of user alerts when resource usage goes beyond predefined thresholds.
• Automatic reconfiguration of virtual machines in accordance with service level agreements.
• Support of multi-tenancy for today¡®s organization hierarchies.
• Role-based access control to prevent unauthorized access.
• Logging of all user interactions to facilitate auditing.
• Comprehensive usage reports in tabular and graphical formats.
• Flexible chargeback with fixed and variable charging models based on resource usage.
• Integration with external billing systems through periodic generation of resource usage detail records.
• Web portal for easy access to cloud service from the internet.
• Use of mobile computing devices to access cloud services, e.g. iPhone and iPad.
• Internationalization with support for multiple languages.

Figure 1 below shows a block diagram of Cloud Service Manager:

Figure 1: System Block Diagram

In broad terms, Cloud Service Manager consists of two major subsystems:

• Frontend System for providing users with access to cloud services everywhere from various fixed and mobile computing devices, including web browsers, iPhone and iPad.
• Backend System for managing computing, storage and network resources in the backend datacenter infrastructure.

The frontend and backend systems communicate through an open XML API which can be used for the development of customized user interfaces. Besides, the frontend web portal is developed with pluggable portlets (JSR168, JSR286) which make it easy to customize the look-and-feel of the web portal.

Target Industry

Cloud-computing is the future for datacenters. Telecom service providers are in a unique position to build virtualized data centers to address enterprise needs across the realm of public cloud services. The key ingredients for success are already in place for service providers, including established IP network infrastructures and trusted billing. Service providers offer infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to consumers and businesses at zero startup cost and charge their customers on a pay-as-you-go model. Rather than purchasing hardware and software, consumers instead buy those resources as a fully outsourced service. Yet, enterprises may choose to adopt the private cloud, whereas they build their own cloud infrastructures instead of turning to the internet-based public cloud services and still enjoy the benefits of cloud-computing, including scalability and time-to-market.

Features & Benefits
Key features and benefits of Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) include:

• Scalability - One Cisco UCS Manager instance can manage two Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects, multiple Cisco UCS 5100 Series Chassis, 80 Cisco UCS 2100 Series Fabric Extenders, and hundreds of Cisco UCS-B Series Blade Servers.
• Service Profiles - The service profile allows the servers in the Cisco UCS to be treated as raw computing capacity that can be allocated and reallocated among application workloads, enabling a much more dynamic and efficient use of the server capacity than exists in today's data centers. Server deployment with service profile takes minutes instead of the many days or weeks that server deployment takes in many existing data centers.
• Cisco VN-Link - The Cisco UCS implements Cisco VN-Link technology which enables policy-based virtual machine connectivity, mobility of network and security properties during VMware VMotion migration, and a non-disruptive operating model in which network administrators perform network tasks and server administrators perform server tasks.
• Auto-discovery and configuration - Cisco UCS Manager automatically discovers devices that are added, moved, or removed from the system; adds them to its inventory; and applies service profile configurations as appropriate.
• Unified fabric - Cisco UCS provides the foundation for the operation of the internal unified fabric created by the Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects, the Cisco UCS 2100 Series Fabric Extenders, and the network adapters that are present on the Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. This foundation enables the use of Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) in the internal fabric, while preserving traditional Ethernet and Fiber Channel connectivity to the core LAN and SAN.
• XML-based API - A full-featured XML API exposing over 9000 objects provides powerful new opportunities for service providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and users interested in customizing the behavior of the Cisco UCS to enhance its value in their own unique environments.
• Unified Management - Cisco UCS Manager provides unified, centralized, embedded management of all software and hardware components of the Cisco UCS. By enabling better automation of processes, Cisco UCS Manager allows data center managers to achieve greater agility and scale in their server operations while reducing complexity and risk.

Key features and benefits of Teamup Technology's Cloud Service Manager (CSM) include:

• Designed for both private and public clouds.
• Aim for both administrators and end-users.
• Right-sized "just-for-clouds" architecture with no legacy and small footprint.
• Cloud services accessible from various mobile internet devices, e.g. iPhone and iPad.
• XML-based open API for development of customized user interfaces.
• Internationalization.
• Multi-vendor support with minimal dependency on specific hypervisor; begins with VMware-Cisco-EMC and Cisco devices.
• Support for network devices.
• Policy-driven framework for virtual machine life-cycle management and automation for on-demand resource provisioning.
• Chargeback with flexible schemes and UDRs.
• Multi-tenancy for maximizing resource utilization.
• Designed for scalability and high availability.

System Components

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) is a next-generation data center platform that unites computing, network, storage access and virtualization into a cohesive system designed to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase business agility. It is built from the following components: Cisco UCS 6100 Series Fabric Interconnects: line-rate, low-latency, lossless interconnect switches Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis: support for up to eight blade servers and up to two fabric extenders in a 6 rack unit (RU) enclosure Cisco UCS 2100 Series Fabric Extenders: unified fabric in the blade-server chassis, up to four 10-Gbps connections each Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers: enhanced support for application demands, energy use, and virtualization Cisco UCS B-Series Network Adapters: a range of adapters optimized for virtualization, compatibility with existing driver stacks, or efficient, high-performance Ethernet Cisco UCS C-Series Rack-Mount Servers: the benefits of the Unified Computing System in a rack-mount form factor Cisco UCS C-Series Network Adapters: a choice of four types of PCI Express (PCIe) adapters Cisco UCS Manager: centralized management capabilities

Figure 2 below shows the functional diagram of Cloud Service Manager:

Figure 2: Functional Diagram

Cloud Service Manager is composed of the following layered structure:

• User Interfaces consisting of web portals, iPhone and iPad.
• Access Management Layer for role-based access control (RBAC), logging of user interactions for auditing purpose and software licensing control.
• Service Management Layer for full life-cycle management of virtual machines, workflow automation, policy-driven service management, etc.
• Resource Management Layer for managing computing, storage, network and software resources, monitoring of server performance and generating user alerts, periodic generation of usage detail records (UDRs), charging, etc.
• Device Drivers for interfacing with the backend datacenter infrastructure, including VMware vSphere, Cisco UCS servers and EMC storage systems.

Figure 3 below shows the detailed system architecture of Cloud Service Manager:

Figure 3: System Architecture

The Service Logic Controller is the brain of the system, routing the user requests via the Orchestrator to the appropriate software modules for execution. Services are offered to end-users in the form of service catalogs which are constructed from a bunch of policies consisting of Service Policies, Resource Policies and Charging Policies.

Service Policies specify what the services are and how the services are offered. An example of service policies is the SLA-Aware Auto-Reconfiguration Policy which will automatically add or remove resources from a virtual machine to keep resource usage within predefined bounds. Resource policies are used to manage the computing, storage, network and software resources for service provisioning. Charging policies provide flexible usage-based charging models.

Company Info

Teamup Technology Limited was established in Hong Kong in February 2004. It was founded by a group of technology professionals with rich experience in the field of telecommunication. Our initial focus was on telecom technology and solutions for fixed and wireless network operators and now we are expanding into the cloud-computing business. Our vision is to be the leading provider of cloud engineering services in designing the systems necessary to leverage the power and economics of cloud resources to maximize profitability and competitive differentiation. Our strong local development team is committed to ensure that software applications are delivered with high quality and reliability to meet the business needs of our customers.

Our key products and solutions include:

• Cloud service management solution
• Location-based services platform
• SIGTRAN-based Mobile Application Part (MAP) application
• Short messaging applications using SMPP protocol
• SIP server and VoIP media gateway
• Prepaid and postpaid voice applications