Private Cloud Platforms comparison & reviews

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Analysis expand Luciano Taranto
 		by Bhagyashri (Shri) Bhagvat by Bhagyashri (Shri) Bhagvat
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  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + True Disconnected Offering of Cloud System
  • + IaaS and PaaS Solution
  • + Enterprise Solution
  • + Strong Storage Capability with Additional Compute and Networking Functionality
  • + Vendor Maturity and Market-share
  • + Simple and Straightforward Editions
  • + Mature on-prem IaaS solution
  • + High-fidelity implementation of AWS APIs
  • + Proven at scale over years of operation
Cons
  • - Disconnected Mode Only Billed as Capacity
  • - New to Market
  • - Closed Solution
  • - Limited Capability
  • - Few Use Cases
  • - Temporary
  • - Recent acquisition concerns
  • - No administrative GUI
  • - Missing features beyond API compatability
  Content  
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Content Creator
Luciano Taranto
Luciano Taranto
AppScale
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Overview
Azure Stack is Microsofts extension of Azure that provides a way to deliver Azure services in an on-premises environment. (see details)
The AWS Snowball Edge is a type of Snowball device with on-board storage and compute power for select AWS capabilities. (see details)
Integrated software stack with AWS-compatible IaaS services.
  Assessment  
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Maturity
Azure Stack was made publicly available June of 2017 and builds off of Azure which has been available since February of 2010
Snowball Edge was announced 2016 and builds on AWS which has been around since 2012
Based on the Eucalyptus code-base that has been in production for over a decade, powering installations beyond 200K cores in size.
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Disconnected Offering
Azure Stack can be deployed in disconnected mode
Must connect back to AWS platform for full functionality
Can be deployed in a disconnected environment
Infrastructure Services expand
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  Compute  
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Virtual servers
Azure Stack allows for the deployment of virtual servers called virtual machines
Virtual servers are called EC2 instances
Virtual servers are called cloud instances (equivalent to EC2 instances in AWS)
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VM Type - General Purpose
General purpose VMs are Basic A, Standard A, Av2-series, D-series, DS-series, Dv2-series, DSv2-series
The SBE1 EC2 instance is the general purpose offering
Virtual machine hardware can be configured to take full advantage of the underlying hosts hardware. A collection of instance types can be customized in terms of vCPUs, memory, and disk.
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VM Type - Compute Optimized
Computed optimized VMs are F-series, Fs-series, Fsv2-series
The SBE-C EC2 instance is the compute optimized offering
Compute-optimized instance types can be customized by modifying the instance type
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VM Type - Memory Optimized
Memory optimized VMs are D-series, DS-series, Dv2-series, DSv2-series
There is no memory optimized offering
Memory-optimized instance types can be customized by modifying the instance type
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VM Type - Accelerated (GPU)
There are no accelerated VM offerings with a GPU
The SBE-G EC2 instance is the accelerated GPU offering
GPU instance types can be customized through advanced configuration only. No official documentation.
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Metadata URL
While Azure has an Instance Metadata service, this functionality is not currently supported on Azure Stack
You get access to a subset of metadata typically available to EC2 instances through an internal URL
Metadata URL, featuring EC2-compatible information and thus compatible with cloud-init, is reachable from instances.
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Rapid Provisioning
You can easily and quickly deploy virtual machines using the Azure Stack console
You can specify the job and resources and Amazon will configure the device for you and ship it out to you
System components enable fast provisioning, particularly of EBS-backed instances.
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Resize existing VM
This functionality is supported in Azure Stack as well
Typically resize an instance using CLI modify-instance-attribute on instanceType attribute but Snowball Edge only allows you to modify userdata
EBS-backed instances can be resized after stopping by modifying InstanceType attribute via ModifyInstanceAttribute request (in CLI or Console).
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Resource Management
The Azure Resource Manager provides a platform to manage all resources deployed within the Azure Stack
Resources such as EC2 instances cannot be managed through the console after the device is created and must instead be managed through the CLI/API adding a level of complexity
Resources can be managed from either the Console or CLI/API
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Scalability
Azure Stack includes scale sets which allow for automatic scaling of instances based on load
A cluster of 5-10 Snowball Edges can be created to offer increased durability and locally scale up or down storage on demand
AWS AutoScaling APIs are supported, with performance-based triggers for up- and down-scaling.
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VM Imaging
You can create and publish a custom marketplace item
No mention in the developer guide
Images (akin to AMIs and AKIs) can be created and shared with other cloud users. Existing instances can be saved into an image.
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VM Import/Export
You can import and export a disk used by a VM. In addition, you may be able to import/export a VM state but this is not confirmed (see details)
No mention in the developer guide
Instances can be imported using raw disk or VHD formats. Exports done manually at hypervisor level. No API support for the operation exists.
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VM live migration
Azure Stack supports live VM migration as a preventative measure to protect resources from failing hardware
AWS does not support live VM migration and as such we shouldnt expect Snowball Edge to do this
VMs can be live-migrated using CLI / API. In the event of a host failure instances to not automatically restart.
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VM to host affinity
This capability is not supported by Azure Stack
When deploying a cluster, you can select which nodes an instance runs on
Not supported. Can only be achieved by backend administration using instance migration.
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VM to host anti-affinity
Azure Stack provides Availability Sets which replicate the VM across different hosts for high availability thus enforcing host anti-affinity
When deploying a cluster, you can select which nodes an instance runs on thus also choosing which nodes it does not run on
Not supported. Can only be achieved by backend administration using instance migration.
  Networking  
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Cloud virtual networking
The Network Resource Provider delivers a series of Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) features
The EC2 instances can have virtual network interfaces attached to them which allows them to communicate with each other and outside devices
Overlays a virtual network on top of your existing network. Supports EDGE (EC2 Classic) and VPCMIDO (AWS VPC) modes.
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Cross-premises connectivity
Cross-premises connectivity can be established in Azure Stacks which are deployed in the connected mode
The Snowball Edge connects into the datacenter and allows for transfer of data between the datacenter and AWS albeit in a slow snail-mail fashion
Support for AWS VPN Gateway is available but only when using VPCMIDO network mode.
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DNS hostname resolution
Azure Stack supports DNS hostname resolution
No mention in the developer guide
DNS names for VM instances is supported automatically
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DNS zone management
Azure Stack supports the creation and management of DNS zones and records using both the console and the API
No mention in the developer guide
No mention in the documentation
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IP reassignment
You can reassign an IP by modifying the virtual network interface or by deleting it and creating a new one (Experience)
You can delete the virtual network interface attached to an EC2 instance and then create a new virtual network interface for that EC2 instance with a new static IP address
Elastic IP and Elastic Network Interface functionality enables flexible IP address assignment.
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Load balancing
The Azure Stack provides load balancing functionality
No mention in the developer guide
Elastic Load Balancer is an included service.
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Network Interfaces
You can create and modify network interfaces attached to virtual machines (Experience)
The device has a set of external network interfaces for connectivity into the customer datacenter (see details)
Elastic Network Interface functionality allows attaching and detaching of virtual NICs to instances
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Outbound Network Connectivity
The Azure Stack is integrated into the customers datacenter and has outbound network connectivity to the customers border
The device has a set of external network interfaces for connectivity into the customer datacenter (see details)
Can be configured to connect to external networks with both EDGE (EC2 Classic) and VPCMIDO (Amazon VPC) networking modes.
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Public IP Address
Azure Stack supports IPv4 public addresses
Can attach a virtual network interface to your EC2 instance and specify a public IP address for use
Public IP addresses can be assigned to instances either automatically or from a pool of Elastic IP addresses.
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SR-IOV support
No mention of this capability for Azure Stack
No mention in the developer guide
Can be customized to use SR-IOV for instance networking by advanced configuration only. No official documentation.
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VM Security Groups
VM Security groups are provided as network security groups
Security groups exist and can be configured for EC2 instances similar to the way they work in AWS with limitations
Instances can be added to a security group which has a specific network security policy applied to it.
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Virtual Network Peering
Not supported as of 20190124
Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) are not supported in Snowball Edge and thus you cannot make virtual networks to peer
Ability to create a peering connection between two VPCs is supported.
  Storage  
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Object storage
Azure Stack provides blob storage for object storage
The Snowball Edge supports S3 (object storage) as its primary purpose is downloading customer data from a remote datacenter which can then later be transferred to S3 in AWS
Supports S3-compatible object storage using its Object Storage Gateway (OSG)
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Block storage
Azure Stack supports page blobs which are the equivalent of block storage
Block storage must exist as the Snowball Edge is capable of hosting EC2 instances but end-users have no access to block storage and cannot attach volumes themselves to EC2 instances
Elastic Block Storage (EBS) provides block-level storage volumes that you can attach to instances.
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Shared file storage
Azure Stack does not provide a SMB or NFS solution
Once connected to the datacenter, the S3 Adapter for Snowball or NFS mount point can be used to upload data from the datacenter into the Snowball Edge
Shared file storage is not supported.
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Backup
Microsoft Azure Backup Server can be used to back up data within Azure Stack (see details)
By its nature, the device offers data backup for data stored within a datacenter albeit in a slower process
Procedures for backing up and restoring everything except root disks of instance-store (ephemeral) instances are documented.
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Local Data Protection
Local data is encrypted and replicated across nodes in case of hardware failure
The Snowball Edge employs defense-in-depth for data protection including a ruggedized tamper-reistant enclosure, 256-bit encrpytion, and a TPM
Relies on replication features of underlying software and hardware (RAID and Ceph) for local data protection from hardware failures.
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Remote Replication
The only replication option available is locally redundant storage