Riverbed Stingray & Joyent Content Delivery Cloud

Transcription

1 Riverbed Stingray & Joyent Content Delivery Cloud Executive Summary Timely delivery of applications is critical to the success of most companies. But many applications now operate over vast geographical distances, causing a dramatic impact on their performance and speed. To address this issue, customers have traditionally deployed solutions such as content delivery networks (CDN). With the growth of virtualized applications and cloud computing, however, there is an alternative content delivery solution called the content delivery cloud (CDC). A CDC can improve performance while providing greater flexibility and control to content owners and customers. This solution brief compares and contrasts CDNs and CDCs and discusses how to build a content delivery cloud within the Joyent Cloud environments.

2 Content delivery network Content delivery networks consist of edge servers and points-of-presence (POP). The value of this architecture lies in the redundancy of resources that enable the network to absorb huge spikes in traffic while delivering content rapidly. CDNs offer network resources that are shared among the CDN operator s customers and structured services based on variables including: Bandwidth consumption Number of domains supported Type of content to be delivered Established SLAs CDN challenges While CDNs are an established tool for content delivery, they do have some drawbacks. The shared nature of their infrastructures, limited number of CDN providers, and the high level of control that is relegated to the CDN providers create issues that CDN customers must overcome. Complex commercial agreements Given the scale of investment required for a CDN to be commercially successful, there are a small number of companies that offer such services at a regional, national or global coverage level. To access CDN services, an application owner is required to contract with a third party company. These contracts are usually offered on a monthly basis and often require a term or data throughput commitments from the application owner. Service-level agreements (SLAs) will need to be defined and it may even be necessary to contract with more than one CDN provider to deliver the service levels and geographic reach the application requires. However, each CDN may have a different business model, SLAs, and pricing, making supplier selection and management extremely time consuming. Lack of flexibility Demand for content is dynamic and can change for a variety of reasons. Applications owners can trigger demand with the release of patches or software upgrades, or users can trigger it when a game or news story goes viral. Some service delivery flexibility can be built into the agreements reached between content owners and the CDN provider, but this is likely to be limited by the business models and commercial terms offered by each CDN. For example a content owner may be able to burst above an agreed bandwidth usage limit, but at a higher price per GB. In addition, limited or non-existent programmability can limit a CDN s ability to manage the application layer that results in 2

3 additional development costs. In some cases this lack of programmability can result in applications not being supported by a CDN. Differences in data ownership and security By design, a CDN is a shared content delivery platform with content cached and delivered across a network of third party servers that is also utilized by all the other CDN s customers. Content owners need to be comfortable with this concept when they utilize a CDN. If content were being delivered securely, a CDN provider would require: 1. Copies of the relevant SSL certificates to be cached on their SSL caching servers throughout their infrastructure, or 2. The content owner to use shared SSL certificates. This SSL information is something that the content owner may be reluctant to divulge. Optimization of network resources is non-existent or limited The availability of optimization features, such as web content optimization (WCO) is typically limited in CDNs. This can result in the need for additional resources, such as connections or DNS lookups, resulting in increased costs due to high resource utilization and difficulty in meeting SLAs. Even if the services are available, they typically have a high associated cost that does not justify implementation. Solution: Riverbed Stingray & Joyent content delivery cloud The Riverbed Stingray & Joyent content delivery cloud (CDC) is a fast and efficient content delivery platform for end-users. However, unlike a CDN which leverages a global network of servers to deliver content for all CDN customers, the Stingray CDC utilizes public or private Joyent infrastructure to provide the points of presence that offer a private CDN-like experience for the delivery of a customer s content. A CDC is able to support these services without the need for large initial capital investment or a complex infrastructure. The typical architecture of a content delivery cloud uses an advanced application delivery controller (ADC) such as Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager software as the intelligence within the Joyent infrastructure. In a CDC, Stingray Traffic Manager routes the user request to the most appropriate location based on the parameters set by the application owner such as geographic proximity and required response time. It would also employ features such as auto-scaling, content caching, bandwidth management, performance monitoring and content compression. Additional functionality such as Stingray Application Firewall for deeper application level threat identification and mitigation, and Stingray Aptimizer for end-user content optimization enhances the performance and security of the content delivery cloud. Moreover, Stingray Traffic 3

4 Manager is a software-based advanced Layer 7 ADC that ensures that the flexibility of the content delivery solution is not compromised as it can be deployed (and removed) quickly and easily. Benefits of Stingray & Joyent content delivery cloud Flexible content delivery solution The Stingray & Joyent content delivery cloud offers customers a rapidly deployed, highly customizable infrastructure with global presence. By deploying Stingray Traffic Manager in the Joyent Cloud, services can be rapidly turned on in a matter of minutes and adjusted in real time, delivering a where you need, as you need it services model. When it comes to service definition, the content owner is in complete control of when and how their content is stored at each location. The advanced Layer 7 features and rich scripting tool provide the content owner with the required capabilities to customize the end-user experience. From a deployment perspective, applications that are unsupported due to programmability requirements on a CDN can be enabled on a content delivery cloud. Scale delivery infrastructure on demand The tools and interfaces that are available to content delivery cloud customers allow them to programmatically adjust their infrastructure as needed and deliver services and capacity on demand. The result of this flexibility is reduced costs due to a decrease in the amount of bandwidth required to deliver applications and reduce host node capacity requirements since the heavy lifting is provided by edge CDC points-of-presence. Distributed content with centralized control A CDC offers a private, custom-built infrastructure that is centrally administered by the customer organization. This infrastructure is build on the Joyent Cloud Software and delivers the global reach and performance that is typically required for content delivery while the central control offers an easy insertion point for customer to incorporate business policy and SLAs on the content delivery cloud. Simplified management of content distribution Since a CDC is centrally managed and operates over a common Joyent cloud solution, the number of tools and touch points required to deploy and support the network endto-end is significantly reduced when compared to a CDN. Secure content delivery Using Stingray & Joyent CDC will ensure that the content owner knows both where their content will be stored, and that it will be delivered securely with SSL certificates stored on servers under their control. Overall, the content owner retains visibility and control 4

5 over the location and security of his content. A content delivery cloud also provides compliance based security policy protection at the edge through the use of an application-level threat identification and mitigation mechanism such as Stingray Application Firewall available as part of Riverbed image bundles in the Joyent Cloud today. Use cases Predictable and known content demand fluctuations and seasonal spikes for e-commerce customers E-commerce customers, such as online retailers, gaming companies, and online gambling organizations, experience substantial variations in demand for content across the day, week, month, and even seasonally. Some have traditional peaks of traffic around holidays, and sporting and major promotional events. For example, gambling companies will see peaks of demand based on their own areas of focus such as horseracing, boxing, soccer, etc. Promotions, sales, and product launches can also change the pattern of demand. Joyent is build for this type of spiky traffic and has selected Stingray as their primary supported Traffic Management solutions for the same reason. The flexibility and control that a content delivery cloud offers allows customers to easily adapt their environment to accommodate these spikes in content. This results in reduced content delivery costs through optimal deployment of CDC resources. For example, a customer may need to provide content (software upgrades, new releases) multiple times during the year. While the timing of that content distribution can be scheduled, the frequency with which this content distribution takes place may not be that frequent perhaps only once or twice a year, which can deem the use of a CDN prohibitive in terms of cost and management time. Capacity planning when content demand is difficult to forecast Media and gaming companies find it difficult to forecast the network demand for content when it comes to unexpected events. For example, anticipating demand for a new game or application is difficult, particularly with social media driven sites where global awareness and demand can be just a few tweets away. The need to support an existing application or product by providing patches or software upgrades to counter security threats or weaknesses in a timely fashion is not something that can be easily anticipated. These types of events can drive an order of magnitude increase in the scale that a content delivery infrastructure will need to support. As a consequence, preprovisioning the CDN to support peak performance required for a major event can prove to be costly and inefficient. This is where the dynamic control capabilities that a CDC offers will allow a user to limit the amount of preplanning that is required to accommodate unplanned bursts in content distribution. 5

6 Geographic service flexibility with advanced content delivery features Many CDN customers have customer site requirements that can expand beyond the control of a single CDN provider and force the deployment of a complex and costly multi-vendor solution in order to establish the geographic reach required of the CDN. This typically happens when customers are expanding their operations into emerging markets that do not have the customer base to justfy the expansion of a CDN provider into their market. If cloud coverage is available in the given location that is not serviced by a CDN, then a CDC can be deployed to support the new location. In addition, the features and capabilities that are available on a CDN can be limited when compared to the services that are available on a CDC built with the Stingray family of products on the Joyent Cloud infrastructure. Additonal features, such as global server load balancing (GSLB) and web content optimization can be tailored to meet customer specific requirements and support customer SLAs. This can reduce the cost of a service and improve the end-user experience that a CDC-based service has to offer. Secure content delivery A content delivery cloud can provide compliance-based security policy protection at the edge through the use of an application-level threat identification and mitigation mechanism such as the Stingray Application Firewall. The solution defends intranets, object stores, and internal web-based applications from attacks. Signatures and ID tools can help mitigate common application vulnerabilities and hacking methods like SQL injection and cross-site scripting, unchecked input data and weak authentication. Proactive security is also available for web applications via the establishment of a strong security perimeter that creates a secure session identifier. It proactively encrypts data, such as cookies and URLs, and applies site usage enforcement. It provides immediate real-time alerts and reports on attack trends, application behavior, and more for full audit tracking and logging can also be incorporated How it works The architecture of a content delivery cloud is not dissimilar to a CDN, with the major difference being the customer control point where decisions regarding infrastructure design and ongoing configuration are established. There are four easy steps that are required to get a core CDC up and running: 1. Select the presence you need: Establish points-of-presence as close to the end user through the Joyent Cloud data center options or through private deployment based on specific geographical requirements. 2. Link POP locations by deploying Stingray ADCs: Deploy a Stingray Traffic Manager at each location as the intelligence that links the user into an applicationaware network. Use it to: 6

7 Manage the application delivery configuration deployed in each location Perform staged deployment from development and test environments to a production environment Use a global load balancing solution to direct a request to the most suitable POP. Typically, this POP will respond within the internal SLAs created by the content owner Use the optimization features of the ADC to reduce bandwidth consumption and deliver the application optimized for the end user device Flex the network with trial data to validate configuration and adherence to SLAs 3. Enable the distribution of traffic across the locations: Point the edge nodes to proxy the origin device or original application. This will inject the data or application into the Content Delivery Cloud in preparation for the start of the delivery process. 4. Monitor and adjust the network: The monitoring tools on the ADC help ensure that SLAs set are not exceeded and that issues are either dealt with automatically (auto-scaling of applications) or reported to management tools to enable manual intervention by the application owners (enabling pre-configured and pre-agreed traffic management policies). A single combined report communicates event logs and diagnostic status across all traffic management systems. Four reasons to deploy Stingray & Joyent content delivery cloud 1. Agility: bring services to market more quickly The automation aspects of Stingray software on the Joyent infrastructure enables applications to rapidly respond to market forces and bring services to market more quickly. Already deployed services can also benefit from this automation since they can be resized and reconfigured very easily and quickly. The ability to quickly respond and react to user requirements can help a company better compete and differentiate based upon their content delivery infrastructure. 2. Utilization: deliver improved ROI with on-demand content delivery Where an organization has already made an investment in the Joyent cloud infrastructure to meet other business needs, the use of Stingray Traffic Manager to provide a distribution solution would enhance any ROI already established for Joyent cloud infrastructure. The deployment of Stingray Traffic Manager on Joyent cloud can reduce financial risk since a new long term cloud or CDN provider service agreement upon which to build services is not required. This flexibility allows customers to easily trial content delivery initiatives without substantial IT investment. 3. Flexibility: drive integration with content deployment lifecycle Stingray Traffic Manager enables customers to easily and cost effectively progress through the development, testing, and production rollout lifecycle since all stages of development can be conducted through the entire geographic expanse of a CDC, with performance metrics immediately available to enable rapid code and deployment 7

8 revisions. From a tools perspective, Stingray application development tools fit right into modern QA/test platforms, and can be used to test exactly the same rules and scenarios as would be used to deploy into global production environments. Stingray Developer Edition and evaluations can be provisioned through Joyent.com 4. Protection: secure critical corporate information from third party organizations The control of data is a significant issue when it comes to content distribution, with numerous security concerns driving an organization to look for a viable alternative to using a third party CDN. This is mainly due to limited customer control of the CDN infrastructure. With a content delivery cloud, the customer is in control of its key components and intelligence, including the policy, design, and content. Corporate exposure to sharing proprietary information, such as content and content delivery traffic patterns, to outside organizations is minimized with a CDC. A CDC can also add security layers starting at the edge of the network that can help protect applications by not forwarding attacks that would normally go uncheck in a CDN environment. Conclusion Riverbed Stingray & Joyent content delivery cloud offers a content owner flexibility and control of content delivery. It can offer significant improvements in end-user experience in application environment where there is rapid business growth or change. It can reduce management overhead and CAPEX commitments while providing the scalability to meet business requirements. The combination of the Stingray CDC architecture with the Joyent cloud service and software solutions will ensure there is synergy with existing IT infrastructure investments elsewhere within the organization. Free trial Discover what Stingray CDC can do for you Contact your Riverbed partner sales team to find out how you can deploy a CDC using Stingray ADCs in the Joyent Cloud. Get started with a free trial and test all of the capabilities available in the Stingray product family. Visit us at for more information. About Joyent Joyent is the high-performance cloud infrastructure and data analytics company. The Joyent Cloud is built from the ground up to meet the requirements of today's demanding real-time web and mobile applications. The Joyent Manta Storage Service is the first compute-on-storage innovation that eliminates data movement and enables 8

9 inexpensive, lightning fast big data analysis in-place, transforming the economics and utility of object storage and real-time big data. For more information visit About Riverbed Riverbed delivers performance for the globally connected enterprise. With Riverbed, enterprises can successfully and intelligently implement strategic initiatives such as virtualization, consolidation, cloud computing, and disaster recovery without fear of compromising performance. By giving enterprises the platform they need to understand, optimize and consolidate their IT, Riverbed helps enterprises to build a fast, fluid and dynamic IT architecture that aligns with the business needs of the organization. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) is available at 9