The Future of Cloud Computing at NASA




          Karen Petraska
          Service Executive, NASA Computer Services Office
          Raymond G. O’Brien
          CTO for IT, Ames Research Center
          April 20, 2012
Past, Present, Future


From the NASA Strategic Plan:
Goal 6: Share NASA with the public, educators,
and students to provide opportunities to
participate in our mission, foster innovation and
contribute to a strong National economy
• 2009: NASA’s contribution to OpenStack was
  timely to the introduction of cloud computing to the
  industry
• 2012: Industry has enthusiastically embraced
  OpenStack and an increasing number of
  commercial implementations of OpenStack clouds
  are now available
• 2012 and Beyond: NASA shifts focus to becoming
  a wise and informed consumer of commercial
  cloud services
NASA CIO’s Vision For Cloud Computing

 The NASA CIO’s vision for cloud computing at NASA:
  » To have a good computing environment that addresses
    NASA’s computing requirements for all NASA people
  » Have an easy and seamless way to obtain services,
    leveraging economies of scale wherever possible
  » Innovate how we do security in the cloud; remove as
    much burden from the end users as possible
  » Leverage our buying power and unique requirements to
    influence industry where appropriate
  » Be agile and nimble to embrace and integrate new
    technologies that support our mission
Embracing the Technology

 The NASA community in general is starting understand
  the advantages of using the cloud model
 NASA is evaluating its application portfolio and
  experimenting to understand the characteristics of
  applications that run well in the cloud
 NASA is exploring options for and aspects of delivering
  enterprise cloud services within the NASA environment
  » Challenges: Governance, Security, Cost Recovery
 Success stories in using commercial cloud
  » JPL BeAMartian and others
  » NASA Web Environment
NASA’s Computing Environment

 NASA requires many types of computing
  »   Business and administrative (highly virtualized today)
  »   Web sites and web applications
  »   Modeling and simulation
  »   Science data processing and analysis
  »   Engineering analysis
  »   Flight command, control, telemetry and flight operations
 NASA collaborates with scientists and others all over the world
  » Universities, corporations, other US Government agencies, foreign space
    agencies
 Data of interest to NASA resides in many locations depending on the
  collaborators
  » Often extremely large data sets
  » Science data archives of long term scientific interest
Actions to Achieve the Desired Future State


 Current activities to support an enterprise cloud service
  » IaaS focus for now
    • Working to understand what platforms will be useful
  » FedRAMP: A&A for provider controls but what about
    consumer controls?
  » Common Cloud User and Management Interface
  » Acquisition Strategy
  » Best approach for user support
    • Decision trees for assessing cloud suitability
    • Managed environments
Things We’ve Learned
What Works Well (and What Doesn’t)

 It is easier to birth new applications in the cloud than to migrate
  legacy applications
  » Legacy code that has not been ported recently can be very time
    consuming to move to cloud, and if it requires out of date or specialized
    compilers, it may simply not be worth the effort
 Applications that are bursty or require many nodes for brief periods of
  time
  » Applications that run continuously may not be economical in the cloud
 Compute servers that have more than 50% of wall clock time idle
 Applications that need to be always available but not always running
 “Embarrassingly parallel” computations (e.g., suitable for Hadoop
  processing) work well in the cloud
  » Applications that require significant inter-processor communication (e.g.
    climate models) will be substantially slowed
Economics

 The learning curve getting into cloud is steep: developers and
  systems administrators have to learn new paradigms and work in
  new ways
 Second big investment is moving legacy code into the cloud
 If the organization has excess capacity in existing data centers and
  existing owned computing infrastructure, it may make sense to fully
  utilize what you already own BEFORE paying for additional capacity
  in a cloud
 Build a business case for each application to decide if a move to
  cloud is prudent: understand hidden and unanticipated costs.
   » Costs of getting data into and out of the cloud
   » Cost of computing cycles
   » Long term data storage costs
   » Licenses, IP addresses, etc.
Summary


 NASA is embracing cloud computing
 NASA is working to become a well educated customer of
  commercially available cloud services
 We believe there are aspects of our business that can be
  improved through the use of cloud, potentially enabling
  more work within the same budget
Cloud’s Potential is Becoming More
       Evident Within NASA


  2009                    2012




                                     April 20, 2012
Today: Lots of NASA Piloting
          Activity

                 Different cloud providers
                 Mission and Enterprise
                  workloads
                 Private and public cloud
                  services
                 Becoming an informed
                  consumer
                 Some already pursuing
                  steps towards routine
                  use


                                      04/20/12
OpenStack: Creating Competition
         and Choice

                   NASA ultimately buys all
                    its on-going services,
                    support, and products
                   NASA will likely use
                    most major commercial
                    services in the future
                   Ditto for major private
                    cloud products
                   As a cloud consumer,
                    NASA wins from
                    competition and choice

                                        04/20/12
NASA’s Continued Community
        Involvement

                NASA is very proud to
                 have been part of the
                 creation of OpenStack
                Future participation will
                 shift largely to
                 involvement as a user
                Very active Bay Area
                 community makes this
                 easy for Ames
                Will strive to keep the
                 original Nebula-based
                 contributor authority
                 active                04/20/12
Climbing up the Stack within NASA


                    Lots of focus on IaaS
                     layer right now within
                     NASA, but…
                    Nebula testing feedback
                     showed the high value
                     certain groups place on
                     what equates to platform
                     services
                    Increasing popularity of
                     SaaS with employees
                     requires guidance and
                     governance
                                        04/20/12
Leveraging OpenStack’s Success for
   Future NASA Policy Revision

                  Commercial Tech
                   Transfer is a high priority
                   for NASA
                  OpenStack is a shining
                   example
                  Current NASA policy is
                   being reviewed for
                   possible revision to
                   allow more NASA
                   involvement in
                   community SW
                   development products
                                         04/20/12
Product Positioning for Future NASA Use


                    Federal Risk and
                     Authorization
                     Management Program
                     (FedRAMP)
                    FedRAMP will be Key to
                     Future Authorized NASA
                     Cloud Use of
                     Commercial Clouds
                    Cloud features that
                     facilitate or address
                     NIST 800-53 control
                     implementation will be
                     highly valued     04/20/12
NASA’s OpenStack List for Santa

                Easy to install distributions
                Many commercial service
                 providers
                Lots of value-add tool and
                 support providers
                Lots of priced enterprise-
                 class customer support
                 options
                Tight alignment with
                 FedRAMP and NIST security
                 requirements
                Niche features enabling HPC
                 cloud
                Continued rapid feature
                 development                04/20/12
And Finally…


                A much deserved thank
                 you from NASA to:
                 » The Nebula project team and
                   all its sponsors and
                   supporters
                 » Rackspace Hosting
                 » The entire OpenStack
                   community
                Together you have
                 created something truly
                 special that will benefit
                 the industry and all
                 consumers of cloud
                Congratulations!        04/20/12

OpenStack NASA

  • 1.
    The Future ofCloud Computing at NASA Karen Petraska Service Executive, NASA Computer Services Office Raymond G. O’Brien CTO for IT, Ames Research Center April 20, 2012
  • 2.
    Past, Present, Future Fromthe NASA Strategic Plan: Goal 6: Share NASA with the public, educators, and students to provide opportunities to participate in our mission, foster innovation and contribute to a strong National economy • 2009: NASA’s contribution to OpenStack was timely to the introduction of cloud computing to the industry • 2012: Industry has enthusiastically embraced OpenStack and an increasing number of commercial implementations of OpenStack clouds are now available • 2012 and Beyond: NASA shifts focus to becoming a wise and informed consumer of commercial cloud services
  • 3.
    NASA CIO’s VisionFor Cloud Computing  The NASA CIO’s vision for cloud computing at NASA: » To have a good computing environment that addresses NASA’s computing requirements for all NASA people » Have an easy and seamless way to obtain services, leveraging economies of scale wherever possible » Innovate how we do security in the cloud; remove as much burden from the end users as possible » Leverage our buying power and unique requirements to influence industry where appropriate » Be agile and nimble to embrace and integrate new technologies that support our mission
  • 4.
    Embracing the Technology The NASA community in general is starting understand the advantages of using the cloud model  NASA is evaluating its application portfolio and experimenting to understand the characteristics of applications that run well in the cloud  NASA is exploring options for and aspects of delivering enterprise cloud services within the NASA environment » Challenges: Governance, Security, Cost Recovery  Success stories in using commercial cloud » JPL BeAMartian and others » NASA Web Environment
  • 5.
    NASA’s Computing Environment NASA requires many types of computing » Business and administrative (highly virtualized today) » Web sites and web applications » Modeling and simulation » Science data processing and analysis » Engineering analysis » Flight command, control, telemetry and flight operations  NASA collaborates with scientists and others all over the world » Universities, corporations, other US Government agencies, foreign space agencies  Data of interest to NASA resides in many locations depending on the collaborators » Often extremely large data sets » Science data archives of long term scientific interest
  • 6.
    Actions to Achievethe Desired Future State  Current activities to support an enterprise cloud service » IaaS focus for now • Working to understand what platforms will be useful » FedRAMP: A&A for provider controls but what about consumer controls? » Common Cloud User and Management Interface » Acquisition Strategy » Best approach for user support • Decision trees for assessing cloud suitability • Managed environments
  • 7.
  • 8.
    What Works Well(and What Doesn’t)  It is easier to birth new applications in the cloud than to migrate legacy applications » Legacy code that has not been ported recently can be very time consuming to move to cloud, and if it requires out of date or specialized compilers, it may simply not be worth the effort  Applications that are bursty or require many nodes for brief periods of time » Applications that run continuously may not be economical in the cloud  Compute servers that have more than 50% of wall clock time idle  Applications that need to be always available but not always running  “Embarrassingly parallel” computations (e.g., suitable for Hadoop processing) work well in the cloud » Applications that require significant inter-processor communication (e.g. climate models) will be substantially slowed
  • 9.
    Economics  The learningcurve getting into cloud is steep: developers and systems administrators have to learn new paradigms and work in new ways  Second big investment is moving legacy code into the cloud  If the organization has excess capacity in existing data centers and existing owned computing infrastructure, it may make sense to fully utilize what you already own BEFORE paying for additional capacity in a cloud  Build a business case for each application to decide if a move to cloud is prudent: understand hidden and unanticipated costs. » Costs of getting data into and out of the cloud » Cost of computing cycles » Long term data storage costs » Licenses, IP addresses, etc.
  • 10.
    Summary  NASA isembracing cloud computing  NASA is working to become a well educated customer of commercially available cloud services  We believe there are aspects of our business that can be improved through the use of cloud, potentially enabling more work within the same budget
  • 11.
    Cloud’s Potential isBecoming More Evident Within NASA 2009 2012 April 20, 2012
  • 12.
    Today: Lots ofNASA Piloting Activity  Different cloud providers  Mission and Enterprise workloads  Private and public cloud services  Becoming an informed consumer  Some already pursuing steps towards routine use 04/20/12
  • 13.
    OpenStack: Creating Competition and Choice  NASA ultimately buys all its on-going services, support, and products  NASA will likely use most major commercial services in the future  Ditto for major private cloud products  As a cloud consumer, NASA wins from competition and choice 04/20/12
  • 14.
    NASA’s Continued Community Involvement  NASA is very proud to have been part of the creation of OpenStack  Future participation will shift largely to involvement as a user  Very active Bay Area community makes this easy for Ames  Will strive to keep the original Nebula-based contributor authority active 04/20/12
  • 15.
    Climbing up theStack within NASA  Lots of focus on IaaS layer right now within NASA, but…  Nebula testing feedback showed the high value certain groups place on what equates to platform services  Increasing popularity of SaaS with employees requires guidance and governance 04/20/12
  • 16.
    Leveraging OpenStack’s Successfor Future NASA Policy Revision  Commercial Tech Transfer is a high priority for NASA  OpenStack is a shining example  Current NASA policy is being reviewed for possible revision to allow more NASA involvement in community SW development products 04/20/12
  • 17.
    Product Positioning forFuture NASA Use  Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP)  FedRAMP will be Key to Future Authorized NASA Cloud Use of Commercial Clouds  Cloud features that facilitate or address NIST 800-53 control implementation will be highly valued 04/20/12
  • 18.
    NASA’s OpenStack Listfor Santa  Easy to install distributions  Many commercial service providers  Lots of value-add tool and support providers  Lots of priced enterprise- class customer support options  Tight alignment with FedRAMP and NIST security requirements  Niche features enabling HPC cloud  Continued rapid feature development 04/20/12
  • 19.
    And Finally…  A much deserved thank you from NASA to: » The Nebula project team and all its sponsors and supporters » Rackspace Hosting » The entire OpenStack community  Together you have created something truly special that will benefit the industry and all consumers of cloud  Congratulations! 04/20/12

Editor's Notes

  • #12 Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crowd_04379.JPG Clip Art: http://openclipart.org/detail/35563/abstract-people-by-tobias-moon
  • #13 http://openclipart.org/detail/150577/test-tubes-by-i-art
  • #16 http://openclipart.org/detail/155425/�chelle-contre-un-mur-by-mathafix
  • #19 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wish_list.jpg
  • #20 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thank_you_001.jpg