Evaluating Cloud Service Providers

This report compares AWS and IBM BlueMix cloud services based on factors like navigation, design, deployment, management, and more. It offers insights into the development and deployment process of a 'Hello World' application. The report concludes with the author's opinion on the preferred cloud service provider.

Running head: EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
Abstract:
Cloud service is one of the most popular services because of the vital role it can play in
different sectors. However, the users are confused about the selection of the cloud service
provider, and the offered report will assist the users in clarifying those doubts. The defined
objective of the paper will be achieved by comparing two cloud service providers and
evaluating them based on multiple factors. Doing so will enable the understanding of the
factors that must be evaluated before adopting a service. The paper will be concluded with
the author’s opinion over his preferred choice of cloud service provider.

2EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION:....................................................................................................................3
AWS VS IBM: (1100)...............................................................................................................4
NAVIGATION AND DESIGN:............................................................................................5
CREATING AND DEPLOYING ‘HELLO WORLD APPLICATION’:.............................5
DIFFICULTY ANALYSIS:...................................................................................................8
EASE OF MANAGEMENT:.................................................................................................9
REFLECTION:..........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION:.......................................................................................................................10
BIBLIOGRAPHY:...................................................................................................................11

3EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
INTRODUCTION:
The increasing demand for the cloud services has inspired technical giants to jump in
the competitive cloud market which has the confused the consumers on to select any one of
them. Hence, the designed report will assist the readers to select a cloud service provider
from the compared service providers. Following is the list of most significant cloud service
providers:
 Amazon Web services (AWS)
 Google App Engine
 Microsoft Azure
 IBM BlueMix
 Red Hat OpenShift
 Engine Yard
 Oracle Voice
 Cloud Foundry
 Long Jump
 AppFog
 Heroku
 CloudBees
 Caspio
 Adobe Creative Cloud
 VMware
 Rackspace
 Alibaba Cloud
 Pivotal web services
 PodSpace

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 Multiple others
The four most significant of them who offer PaaS (Platform-as-a-service), apart from the
IBM Bluemix are AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google App Engine and pivotal web services.
Further AWS is shortlisted for comparing with the IBM BlueMix. The reason for selection is
laid on the fact that AWS is “The biggest cloud service provider currently with over 47% of
total public cloud market share.” and “Resources on AWS is easily available than others.”.
AWS VS IBM: (1100)
The table shown below discusses the services offered by the
Services offered BlueMix AWS
AI- Artificial
intelligence
The discussed service provider
offers a strong AI services.
The cloud providers offer AI
services but are
comparatively weak than
competitors.
IoT- Internet of Things The considered cloud provider
offers configured platform for the
IoT services.
The deemed cloud service
providers offer a secure and
broader range of scalability
for the discussed service.

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SDA-Scalable Digital
Application
When compared with its
competitors BlueMix has still a lot
to do in the discussed service area.
The deemed cloud provider
is the leader in offering the
SDA.
Miscellaneous On, the other hand BlueMix has its
focus on a lower scale. It focuses
on the scholarly applications and
low cost offering organisations.
The pricing and targeted
domain of the services are
extensive for the AWS.
However, they are mostly
focused on the business
perspective.
Table 1: COMPARISON OF PAAS SERVICES
(Source: Created by the Author)
NAVIGATION AND DESIGN:
The design and navigation are of great vitality in attracting the consumers and
keeping the deemed point in mind the BlueMix has focused on making the PaaS platform to
be user-friendly. The sub-sectioning and ease of the AWS are appreciable. However, it is not
as comfortable as the BlueMix. However, BlueMix does offer some navigational challenges
relevant to the UI, but they are minor and can be ignored by the developers based on other
options. Hence it can be stated that in the designing and navigation the latter is leading than
the AWS cloud PaaS services.

6EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
CREATING AND DEPLOYING ‘HELLO WORLD APPLICATION’:
It should be noted that ‘XYZ’ stands for the options to be selected while ‘XYZ/ABC’
stands for selecting the option ABC in the section XYZ. The coding is available on the
official website of the discussed cloud providers.
BLUEMIX:
The following steps are involved in developing and deploying a ‘hello world’
application in the IBM BlueMix PaaS service.
1. Toolchain development:
 Signing in to the account
 Navigating to DevOps.
 Accessing the ‘Create a toolchain/Develop a cloud Foundry app’ option.
 Assigning a name to the toolchain.
 ‘New/Repository type’ for selecting “Git repos and issues tracking” where new
name can be assigned to the repo.
 ‘Create’ will offer an overview page of the toolchain.
2. Webpage development: In the overview toolchain overview page ‘Eclipse Orion Web IDE’ to open a Web
IDE. Within the Web IDE, ‘File/New/File’. Rename the highlighted file as “index.html”. “CODING”.
3. Manifest Development: Inside Web IDE ‘File/New/File’ Rename the highlighted file as “manifest.yml”

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 Coding
4. Application Deployment: Inside Web IDE “deploy’. Post-deployment ‘Open the application URL’ in the web browser. The website opens up in new window tab.
5. Committing the changes to repo: ‘Git’, ‘Commit’, ‘Sync’ will enable the users to commit the required changes to the
repo.
AWS:
The following steps can enable the user to achieve the defined objective of deploying
the application.
1. Launching a “Windows server Amazon EC2 instance”:
 Signing in to the console.
 Inside navigation pane ‘instances/instances’.
 Browsing to and selecting the self-defined “Windows server Instance” in the list.
 ‘Connect’, ‘Get Password’, ‘Browse/open’ and finally ‘Decrypt password’ before
selecting ‘Download remote desktop file’ and opening it.
2. Configuring the source content for deployment of the “Windows Server Amazon EC2
Instance”:
 Creating a web page: Creating a subfolder of name “HelloWorldApp” and coding.
Followed by creating a file inside the subfolder by the name of “index.html” and
insert the coding in the file.

8EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
 Developing a script to run the program: In the above-created subfolder another file
named “before-install.bat” is created using text editor and batch script code is
inserted.
 Adding an app specification file: In the discussed subfolder another file is created
using the text editor and saved in the name of “appspec.yml” which is coded with the
YAML code.
3. Uploading of the “Hello world” application:
 In the discussed step, an “Amazon-S3 bucket (CLI) is created for calling the “mb”
command of the name “codedeployement”. It is created as ‘create bucket/bucket
name/region/create’ followed by some coding to authorise the access to the Amazon
S3 Bucket along with the IAM user.
4. Deployment of the application:
 A CLI is used to create a service role, and ARN is achieved, and “create-deployment-
group” command and another is created by the name of “Helloworld_Depgroup”,
and some coding is done. Following that the deployment of the application revision
(console) is done and monitoring of the troubleshooting method is done before
finally verifying the deployment.
5. Updating and redeploying the application: In the discussed step the web page is modified and redeployed by making the coding
changes to the “index.html” file. The redeployment is carried out in two steps first being the CLI and secondly on the
Console.
DIFFICULTY ANALYSIS:
The level of difficulty is higher in the AWS platform because of its detailed process in
achieving the objective of the deploying the “Hello World” application. However, it is

9EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
significantly beneficial in the long-term because it will enable the user to understand the
concept and make necessary changes if needed. On the other hand, the developers who are
looking for the ease in deployment process should opt for the BlueMix because it offers ease
in the process, however, lacks clarity of the measures that are taken in achieving the goals. In
conclusion, it can be stated that the organisational and professional developers would be more
comfortable with the BlueMix while the scholarly activists would be more satisfied with the
AWS service.
EASE OF MANAGEMENT:
AWS is the global leader in the field of cloud services, and one of the reasons behind
that is the large size of resources (space, memory and others) that it allows to the users. It also
offers the option to enhance or reduce the size of the inventory as per the requirement of the
users. Limited accessibility of managing the resources is also offered to the customers to
make variations as per their desire. On the other hand, BlueMix offers extended accessibility
to managing of resources which can be proved to be concerning from the security
perspective. Additionally, it lacks way behind than the former when compared with the
offered resource size, but it also offers the flexibility of managing the resources and an
additional option of capacity planning which can assist the user in understanding their needs.
Another notable factor for the resource allocation and management process is that the costing
of the AWS is much higher than the BlueMix.
REFLECTION:
On the evaluation of both the services, it is evident that both the service providers
offer some excellent services and are leading from each other in one sector or the other.
However, the author of the paper would like to recommend the AWS as a PaaS service
option. The reason for the selection is based on the flexibility of multiple languages and OS
platforms along with colossal scalability benefits. Additionally, the vast domain of resource is

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a perk that cannot be avoided. The detailed process of deployment of applications is another
positive attribute according to the author as it helps the users to enhance their skills.
However, the cost is a factor that needs to be concerned before equipping the services which
are justified in accordance with the offered services and benefits.
CONCLUSION:
The report can be emphasised to state that understanding the demand of the cloud
services multiple organisations are jumping in the field to satisfy consumers need. This
considerable competition has made the situation advantageous for the end-users, as they are
getting the services that they need with enhanced capabilities. The comparison between the
discussed service providers has enabled the author and readers capability to select the factors
that need to be considered before equipping the cloud services. Additionally, an idea about
the development and deployment process of the “Hello World” application has even offered a
basic idea of the application development. Hence, in conclusion, it can be stated that the
report has offered an idea of the cloud service providers and all of them offer some elite
services and hence should be selected depending upon the requirement.

11EVALUATING CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS
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