SilverLining

Stuff we're covering

• Hardware infrastructure and scaling• Cloud platform as a service • The SilverLining Project

Some context

• We work at a university• Funding based on projects• Biodiversity web apps and APIs• Focus on software (not hardware)

Infrastructure

• Applications depend on infrastructure• Infrastructure that "just works" is expensive• More money for infrastructure means less money for

application development• Degenerates without long-term funding• Unreliability is bad for applications • Increasingly bad user experience over time

• $1.6M USD total budget to 17 institutions• $245k  USD (30.6% of direct costs) for infrastructure

• $1.6M USD total budget to 17 institutions• $245k  USD (30.6% of direct costs) for infrastructure• $100k USD (12.6% of direct costs) for core application

developmento DiGIR provider, DiGIR portal

MaNIS, ORNIS, HerpNet, FishNet 

• $7.6M USD combined budgets, 71 institutions• $196k USD annual operating cost

MaNIS, ORNIS, HerpNet, FishNet 

• $7.6M USD combined budgets, 71 institutions• $196k USD annual operating cost• $179k USD (92%) for infrastructure

Infrastructure as a Problem (IaaP)

Infrastructure as a Problem (IaaP)

• Unsustainable• Creates a barrier to innovation• And this is all before scaling

comes into play!

Scalability

"The ability for infrastructure to reliably handle heavy request

loads in a high performance way."

IaaP at scale 

Scaling up

• Scale up vertically with a server upgrade • Scale out horizontally with more servers

Scaling up

Scaling DiGIR networksMaNIS, ORNIS, HerpNet, FishNet 

• ~85 million records • ~100 servers 

Scaling DiGIR networksMaNIS, ORNIS, HerpNet, FishNet 

• ~85 million records • ~100 servers 

s

Query: All records with a point

Response: Error: IO problem

"Scaling is hard."- Alex Payne

"Scaling is hard."- Alex Payne

al3x.net/2010/07/27/node.html

Scaling in the small

• Handling dozens or requests per second• Scaling up vertically is sufficient• Performance improvements are software related

al3x.net/2010/07/27/node.html

Scaling in the large

• Billions of requests per week (Google)• Millions of active users (Facebook)• Data centers worldwide with millions of servers

al3x.net/2010/07/27/node.html

Are we scaling large or small?

• GBIF ~220 million records• eBird ~2 million new records per month• Undigitized collections ~2.5 billion records 

Scaling in the "small-ish"

• We're at the brink!• IaaP is in the way, scaling is making it worse• Where's the silver lining in all of this?

Platform as a Service (PaaS)en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_as_a_service

Conceptually quite simple:• Computing power over the Internet • No servers to maintain• Pay for use• Scales large (even if your application is small)• Provided by companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google

SilverLiningsilver-lining.googlecode.com

• Experiments, metrics, prototypes (not products)• Picked Google App Engine• PaaS with biodiversity data• Simple Darwin Core• Bulk loading, storage• MapReduce - indexes, validation, statistics• Optimize for resource efficiency, search performance

Cost comparison

Total annual operating costs of vertebrate networks:• Current architecture: USD $195,600• Projected App Engine: USD $19,540 

Cost comparison

Total annual operating costs of vertebrate networks:• Current architecture: USD $195,600• Projected App Engine: USD $19,540 

Total cost for SilverLining work to date:• 50 cents

App Enginecode.google.com/appengine

• Develop scalable web apps on Google's infrastructure• No servers or hardware to maintain and free quotas• Standards based Java and Python SDKs• IDE support for Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ• Local development server • Integrated support for unit testing

App Engine constraints

• Practical constraints for performance and scalability• The datastore is not a relational database • Query can only use inequality filters on 1 property• Fails: year >= 1980 and year <= 1982 and elevation > 10• Solution: Set membership queries

Set membership queries

• Before: year >= 1980 and year <= 1982 and elevation > 10• After: year "within 1 year" of 1981 and elevation > 10• List for "within 1 year" of 1980: [1979, 1980, 1981]

Aggregation and synchronizationcode.google.com/p/pubsubhubbubcode.google.com/apis/feed/push

• Fast aggregation via API• Subscribe to changes at the source• Changes pushed automatically

What's the end game?

• PaaS instead of IaaP • SaaS (software as a solution)• BaaS (biodiversity applications at scale)

Aaron Steeleasteele@berkeley.edu

John Wieczorektuco@berkeley.edu

What's the end game?

• PaaS instead of IaaP • SaaS (software as a solution)• BaaS (biodiversity applications at scale)

Any QaaC? (Questions as a challenge)

Aaron Steeleasteele@berkeley.edu

John Wieczorektuco@berkeley.edu