Analysis of centralized and decentralized cloud architectures
Renuka Prasad Pasupulati, Jordan Shropshire · 2016
This research analyzes cloud computing systems from a design perspective. Specifically, the research investigates the impact of distributed and centralized cloud architectures on security and performance. It begins by establishing a generic terminology for comparing cloud computing systems. Next, four architectural components of clouds are compared. The components are: compute, storage, networking, and VM registry. These subsystems are core features which collectively dictate the scope and composition of the cloud's attack surface. For each subsystem, the implications of distributed and centralized architectures are observed. Specific examples and four leading cloud computing platforms are referenced. The selected cloud platforms are vCloud, OpenStack, Eucalyptus, and Cloudstack. These platforms were selected because they present variations of distributed or centralized architectures. The results describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of both types of architectures. Finally, this research concludes that neither architectural approach is more secure, since both incorporate risk tradeoffs in their core components.