Overview of Cloud Computing

Editor's Notes

• #2: In this session SIOS will cover a new SugarCRM offering for High Availability (HA) and Disaster Recovery (DR), leveraging the benefits of cloud computing. Take advantage of cloud as your real-time failover instead of investing in expensive on-premise HA or DR server clusters. In this session you will learn about: * Cloud Security * High Availability via the Cloud * Disaster Recovery via the Cloud * Public Cloud use-cases * Deploying SugarCRM HA/DR * Application Monitoring & Real-time data replication If you have mission-critical applications and associated business data, can you afford not to have a clear business continuity plan? And if you have a plan, can you afford not to consider the benefits of cloud computing such as: opex vs. capex, flexibility, time-to-market, and efficiency of resources?
• #21: * Host Operating System: AWS administrators with a business need are required to use their individual cryptographically strong SSH keys to gain access to a bastion host. These bastion hosts are specifically built systems that are designed and configured to protect the management plane of the cloud. Once connected to the bastion, authorized administrators are able to use a privilege escalation command to gain access to an individual host. All such accesses are logged and routinely audited. When an AWS employee no longer has a business need to administer EC2 hosts, their privileges on and access to the bastion hosts are revoked. * Guest Operating System: Virtual instances are completely controlled by the customer. They have full root access and all administrative control over additional accounts, services, and applications. AWS administrators do not have access to customer instances, and cannot log into the guest OS. Customers should disable password-based access to their hosts and utilize token or key-based authentication to gain access to unprivileged accounts. Further, customers should employ a privilege escalation mechanism with logging on a per-user basis. For example, if the guest OS is Linux, utilize SSH with keys to access the virtual instance, enable shell command-line logging, and use the ‘sudo’ utility for privilege escalation. Customers should generate their own key pairs in order to guarantee that they are unique, and not shared with other customers or with AWS. * Firewall: Amazon EC2 provides a complete firewall solution; this mandatory inbound firewall is configured in a default deny mode and the Amazon EC2 customer must explicitly open any ports to allow inbound traffic. The traffic may be restricted by protocol, by service port, as well as by source IP address (individual IP or CIDR block). API: Calls to launch and terminate instances, change firewall parameters, and perform other functions are all signed by an X.509 certificate or the customer’s Amazon Secret Access Key. Without access to the customer’s Secret Access Key or X.509 certificate, Amazon EC2 API calls cannot be made on their behalf. In addition, API calls can be encrypted in transit with SSL to maintain confidentiality. Amazon recommends always using SSL-protected API endpoints. The Hypervisor Amazon EC2 currently utilizes a highly customized version of the Xen hypervisor, taking advantage of paravirtualization. Because paravirtualized guests rely on the hypervisor to provide support for operations that normally require privileged access, it is possible to run the guest OS with no elevated access to the CPU. This explicit virtualization of the physical resources leads to a clear separation between guest and hypervisor, resulting in strong security separation between the two. Instance Isolation Different instances running on the same physical machine are isolated from each other utilizing the Xen hypervisor. Amazon is an active participant and contributor within the Xen community, which ensures awareness of potential pending issues. In addition, the aforementioned firewall resides within the hypervisor layer, between the physical interface and the instance's virtual interface. All packets must pass through this layer, thus an instance’s neighbors have no additional access to that instance, and can be treated as if they are on separate physical hosts. The physical RAM is separated using similar mechanisms. Customer instances have no access to raw disk devices, but instead are presented with virtualized disks. The AWS proprietary disk virtualization layer automatically wipes every block of storage used by the customer, and guarantees that one customer’s data is never exposed to another. Note that unintentionally leaving data on disk devices is only one possible breach of confidentiality; many others exist, and for this reason AWS recommends that customers further protect their data using appropriate means. One common solution is to run an encrypted filesystem on top of the virtualized disk device. Network Security The AWS network provides significant protection against traditional network security issues and the customer can implement further protection. The following are a few examples: * Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) Attacks: AWS API endpoints are hosted on the same Internet-scale, world class infrastructure that supports the Amazon.com retail site. Standard DDoS mitigation techniques such as syn cookies and connection limiting are used. To further mitigate the effect of potential DDoS attacks, Amazon maintains internal bandwidth which exceeds its provider-supplied Internet bandwidth. * Man In the Middle (MITM) Attacks: All of the AWS APIs are available via SSL-protected endpoints which provides server authentication. Amazon EC2 AMIs automatically generate new SSH host keys on first boot and log them to the console. Customers can then use the secure APIs to call the console and access the host keys before logging into the instance for the first time. Customers are encouraged to use the SSL endpoints for all of their interactions with AWS. * IP Spoofing: Amazon EC2 instances cannot send spoofed traffic. The Amazon -controlled, host-based firewall infrastructure will not permit an instance to send traffic with a source IP or MAC address other than its own. * Port Scanning: Port scans by Amazon EC2 customers are a violation of the Amazon EC2 Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Violations of the AUP are taken seriously, and every reported violation is investigated. When Port scanning is detected it is stopped and blocked. Port scans of Amazon EC2 instances are generally ineffective because, by default, all inbound ports on Amazon EC2 instances are closed. The customer’s strict management of security groups can further mitigate the threat of port scans. If the customer configures the security group to allow traffic from any source to a specific port, then that specific port will be vulnerable to a port scan. In these cases, the customer must use appropriate security measures to protect listening services that may be essential to their application from being discovered by an unauthorized port scan. For example, a web server must clearly have port 80 (HTTP) open to the world, and the administrator of this server is responsible for ensuring the security of the HTTP server software, such as Apache. * Packet sniffing by other tenants: It is not possible for a virtual instance running in promiscuous mode to receive or “sniff” traffic that is intended for a different virtual instance. While customers can place their interfaces into promiscuous mode, the hypervisor will not deliver any traffic to them that is not addressed to them. This includes two virtual instances that are owned by the same customer, even if they are located on the same physical host. Attacks such as ARP cache poisoning do not work within EC2. While Amazon EC2 does provide ample protection against one customer inadvertently or maliciously attempting to view another’s data, as a standard practice customers should encrypt sensitive traffic.
• #23: If you want to see more…. … whether you’re a channel partner who wants to appreciate how this can provide you incremental business, … or you are a customer who wants to understand how you can protect your enterprise’s critical assets for less than the cost of 2 hours of your admin staff’s time each month, … ..we’re in Booth 201 and we’re giving a talk today at 1:30pm. Notes - HA For SugarCRM Costs: $10/seat/mth x 25 users = $250/mth Notes - IT Costs in Hours: Avg salary: $102K High-end: $162K (someone who understands business continuity) Fully loaded $162K (1.5x)=$243K=$117/hr $250 = 2 hours of admin time. http://www.cbsalary.com/salary_chart.aspx?edu=&sid=CA&cty=palo%2balto&jn=&tid=249423&kw=Information%2bTechnology&specialty=Information%2bTechnology%2bAdministrator%2b%28IT%2bAdministrator%29&ns=1