Cloud Computing for Enterprises:WebSphere sMash and DB2 on EC2

IBM leverages Amazon's EC2 to deliver software

Level: IntermediateDustin Amrhein(damrhei@us.ibm.com

), Technical Evangelist, Emerging Technologies,IBM08 April 2009Among the three cloud types, the public cloud is likely the most well-known and maturein its offerings. Accessibility and affordability are two of the key characteristics that haveled to the popularity of the public cloud. To both of those ends, the Amazon ElasticCompute Cloud (EC2) infrastructure provides public cloud infrastructure that hostsAmazon Machine Image instances which deliver capability to users. To allow users toutilize EC2, IBM recently released Amazon Machine Images that package some of its popular software offerings for the EC2 platform, and the AMIs are available under adevelopment license at no charge. In addition, IBM also supports already purchased IBMsoftware running within the EC2 infrastructure. This article provides an overview of the public cloud, and it discusses the use of the WebSphere sMash and DB2 AmazonMachine Images to deliver web applications hosted on the EC2 infrastructure.

Enterprises and the Public Cloud

Consider two points of view to understand how enterprises can leverage public cloudcomputing solutions. In the first scenario, we see enterprises consume applications provided in the public cloud. This might be an application designed to process employee payroll data, or it might be a customer relationship management system. By utilizingsoftware delivered in this way, companies remove the burden of installing andmaintaining the application on its private data centers. Companies might also benefitfrom cost savings associated with license fees since most cloud providers charge based onconsumption. In the second public cloud usage scenario, we see companies utilizingcloud-based hosting solutions to deliver applications to users. By doing so, companies arefreed from the maintenance and upkeep of production systems since the cloud provider is

responsible for providing infrastructure resources to meet the demands users place on theapplication. This model also provides for an increase in ubiquity of a company's servicessince solutions delivered by way of a public cloud can be accessed at any time from anymachine with a viable network connection.Regardless of the scenario being discussed, a common theme is bottom-line value to a business. Public clouds very clearly can help an organization's bottom-line by reducingcosts associated with owning software and data center infrastructure components. In amore indirect way, public cloud usage can deliver value by enabling the company toquickly respond to changes in demand for their services, allowing the services to reachnew markets, and allowing valuable human resource to concentrate on delivering business innovation instead of simply delivering technological infrastructure that supportsthe business.

IBM and the Public Cloud

IBM is an active contributor in the public cloud by offering solutions that enablecompanies to obtain applications from the cloud and to deliver their end-user applications by utilizing a public cloud. From an application provider perspective, IBM offers LotusLive, Lotus Sametime Unyte, and software development tools hosted in a public cloud.This suite of tools allows users to meet, discuss, collaborate, and innovate all byleveraging cloud-provided services. In addition to providing these services, IBM's GlobalBusiness Services division helps clients to implement solutions that leverage public cloudofferings in order to deliver the sought after cloud value.The remainder of this articles focuses on how IBM enables developers to deliver effectiveapplications by utilizing a public cloud infrastructure. To achieve this goal, IBM packagesseveral of its enterprise product offerings as Amazon Machine Images, thus allowing theuse of the software on the popular Amazon EC2 infrastructure. The IBM AMIs includeWebSphere Portal Server and Lotus Web Content Management Standard Edition,WebSphere sMash, Informix Dynamic Server Developer Edition 11.5, and DB2 Express-C 9.5. By making this software available under free development licenses (priced, production licenses to come later) through Amazon's EC2 infrastructure, IBM is able toreach out to an ecosystem that serves over 400,000 users and attracts around 80% of alldevelopers utilizing cloud computing development services. For more information onIBM's outlook for developers and cloud computing, visit the developerWorks spacesCloud Computingsite. This article focuses on the Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Dataas a Service capabilities of the WebSphere sMash and DB2 AMIs respectively.

WebSphere sMash and DB2

Taken alone, WebSphere sMash and DB2 are both powerful tools for a developer to use.Using sMash, developers can create Web 2.0 style applications using well-knowntechnologies and patterns like DOJO, PHP, Groovy, and REST services. DB2 providesfor efficient, responsive, and reliable storage of enterprise data and includes pure XMLhandling capabilities. However, an even higher level of value can be realized when thesetechnologies are combined to deliver rich, responsive, data-oriented web applications.This article demonstrates a restaurant seating application that provides a glimpse of thecapabilities provided with sMash's Zero Resource Model and a DB2 database. The patterns for this application can be easily extended to deal with the most complex of dataand data relationships. The Zero Resource Model integrated with DB2 is utilized to provide a rich front-end experience fueled by a light-weight yet efficient and responsive back-end.

Setting up the AMIs

To begin using the IBM AMIs, you must meet certain prerequisites. First, set up anAmazon Web Services account. This is the account that you use to manage the EC2usage. After you set up the EC2 account, you can acquire both the sMash and DB2 AMIsand deploy them to your account by way of the supplied instructions. The AMIs areoffered with a development license free of charge, but remember to terminate theinstances upon completion since you are still charged Amazon's normal hourly rate for instance hosting. Here's a short recap of the setup with links:1.Set up your own AWS account. 2.Retrieve and configure thesMash AMI.3.Retrieve and configure theDB2 AMI.For the purpose of this demonstration, use the default user names when you configure theDB2 instance, and do not create a database yet as those details are covered in the nextsection

Create and activate the database

After you deploy both the DB2 and sMash to EC2, configure the database of your runningDB2 instance. This is the database that contains the tables utilized by your application. To