Alibaba Cloud Computing Services

Alibaba Cloud is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group, one of the largest technology companies in China. It provides a wide range of cloud computing services, including storage, networking, databases, analytics, and artificial intelligence. These services are designed to help businesses of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, to build, deploy, and manage their applications and data in the cloud. Alibaba Cloud also offers a variety of tools and services for data management, security, and compliance. It operates in over 190 countries and has data centers in many regions around the world.

Services of Alibaba Cloud

Elastic Compute Service

• It is a Cloud Computing Service that provides on-demand, scalable computing resources. It allows users to launch virtual instances (virtual machines) on demand, and pay only for what they use.
• ECS instances can be customized with different configurations of CPU, memory, and storage, and can be deployed in various availability zones and regions.
• ECS instances can be used for a wide range of applications, such as web hosting, big data processing, and enterprise applications.
• Alibaba Cloud also offers various add-on services that can be used in conjunction with ECS, such as load balancers, auto-scaling, and monitoring.

Simple Application Server

• It is a fully managed, platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that enables you to easily deploy, run, and scale web applications, APIs, and microservices.
• It provides preconfigured runtime environments, automatic scaling, and automatic failover to ensure high availability.
• SAS supports multiple languages and frameworks, including Node.js, Java, PHP, and .NET Core
• SAS also includes built-in monitoring and logging capabilities, making it easy to troubleshoot and optimize your applications.

Apsara Stack 

• It is a hybrid cloud solution offered by Alibaba Cloud that aims to help organizations seamlessly integrate their on-premises IT infrastructure with the Alibaba Cloud platform.
• It is a set of technologies and services that enables customers to leverage the benefits of the cloud while maintaining control over their data and applications.

Apsara Stack includes several Key Components

1. Elastic Compute Service (ECS) Bare Metal: This service allows customers to run their applications on dedicated, physical servers within the Alibaba Cloud infrastructure. This can be useful for workloads that require high performance and low latency.
2. Apsara Stack Hybrid Cloud Engine: This service allows customers to deploy and manage their applications across both on-premises and Alibaba Cloud environments, using a single management console.
3. Apsara Stack Cloud-Native Stack: This is a collection of services and tools for building and deploying cloud-native applications, such as Kubernetes, Istio, and Prometheus.
4. Apsara Stack Cloud-Native Security: This is a set of security services and tools for protecting cloud-native applications, such as service mesh, application firewall, and threat detection.
5. Apsara Stack Data Management: This is a set of data management services and tools, such as ApsaraDB for RDS, ApsaraDB for MongoDB, and DataWorks, that can be used to manage and analyze data in both on-premises and Alibaba Cloud environments.
6. Apsara Stack Networking: This is a set of networking services and tools, such as Express Connect, VPN Gateway, and Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN), that can be used to connect on-premises and Alibaba Cloud environments.

Apsara Stack provides a comprehensive set of tools and services that allows customers to easily integrate their on-premises IT infrastructure with the Alibaba Cloud platform and also provides flexibility to move the workloads between on-premises and cloud seamlessly.

Server Load Balancer (SLB)

• Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer (SLB) is a service that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers. This helps to ensure that traffic is handled efficiently and that no single server becomes a bottleneck.
• SLB uses a variety of algorithms, such as round-robin, IP hash, and least connections, to determine which server should handle a given request. These algorithms take into account factors such as the server’s current load, response time, and health status.
• SLB also provides health checks to ensure that only healthy servers are selected to handle the traffic. If a server fails a health check, it will be removed from the pool of available servers until it is back to normal.
• Additionally, SLB can also be used to distribute traffic across different regions, this is called Cross-region load balancing, this will help to reduce the latency for users accessing the service from different regions.
• SLB also supports SSL offloading, this means that it can terminate SSL connections and forward traffic to the backend servers over plain HTTP. This can help to reduce the load on the backend servers and improve the performance of the service.
• Alibaba Cloud SLB also supports Layer-4 and Layer-7 load balancing, Layer-4 load balancing is used to distribute TCP and UDP traffic, and Layer-7 load balancing is used to distribute HTTP and HTTPS traffic. Layer-7 load balancing can be used to route traffic based on the URL, host, or other HTTP headers.

In summary, Alibaba Cloud Server Load Balancer (SLB) is a service that helps to distribute incoming network traffic efficiently, ensures high availability and performance of services, and can be used to distribute traffic across different regions, SSL offloading and support Layer-4 and Layer-7 load balancing.

Container Service

• Alibaba Cloud Container Service is a platform for managing and deploying containerized applications. It uses the open-source Kubernetes orchestration system to automate the scaling, deployment, and management of containerized applications.
• With Container Service, users can create and manage container clusters, deploy and update applications, and monitor the performance and health of their applications. It also supports scaling containers automatically based on resource usage, and it allows for rolling updates and rollbacks of application versions.
• One of the key features of Container Service is its integration with other Alibaba Cloud services, such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Server Load Balancer (SLB), and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), which allows for easy integration with existing infrastructure.
• Additionally, Container Service also has built-in security features such as network isolation, data encryption, and user authorization, which can help secure containerized applications.
• Container Service also supports multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud deployment, enabling users to deploy their containerized applications on multiple cloud platforms and on-premises.

Overall, Alibaba Cloud Container Service is a comprehensive platform for managing and deploying containerized applications on the cloud, it makes it easy for users to deploy, manage and scale their containerized applications and their infrastructures.

Elastic Container Instance (ECI)

• Alibaba Cloud Elastic Container Instance (ECI) is a fully managed container service that allows users to run containerized applications on the Alibaba Cloud platform.
• ECI enables users to easily deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications without the need to manage the underlying infrastructure. It supports both Docker and Kubernetes container orchestration and allows users to deploy and manage their applications using the same tools and workflow they use on-premises.

ECI provides several key features that make it easy to deploy and manage containerized applications on the Alibaba Cloud platform. These include:

• Automatic Scaling: ECI automatically scales the number of container instances based on the resource usage of the application, ensuring that the application has the resources it needs to run smoothly.
• Load Balancing: ECI automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple container instances, ensuring that the application is highly available and can handle large numbers of users.
• Security: ECI provides a variety of security features, including network isolation, access control, and automatic security updates, to help protect the application and its data.
• Monitoring and Logging: ECI provides detailed monitoring and logging of the application and its resource usage, allowing users to troubleshoot issues and optimize performance.
• Flexible Deployment: ECI supports a variety of deployment options, including single-container, multi-container, and serverless deployment, giving users the flexibility to choose the best option for their application.

Overall, Alibaba Cloud Elastic Container Instance is a fully managed service that provides an easy way to deploy and run containerized applications on the Alibaba Cloud platform with high availability, scalability, and security.

Auto Scaling

• Alibaba Cloud Auto Scaling is a service that automatically adjusts the number of instances (i.e. virtual machines) in an application based on the current demand. This allows for the efficient use of resources and cost savings by only running the number of instances needed to handle the current workload.
• Auto Scaling works by monitoring the performance of your application and automatically adding or removing instances as needed. This is done by setting predefined rules, called scaling policies, that specify when to add or remove instances based on metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, and network traffic.
• One of the main benefits of Auto Scaling is the ability to handle sudden spikes in traffic or usage without the need for manual intervention. For example, if your application experiences a sudden increase in traffic, Auto Scaling will automatically add more instances to handle the load, ensuring that your users are not met with slow performance or errors.
• Auto Scaling can also be used to automatically scale down instances when demand decreases, which can help to reduce costs. Additionally, Auto Scaling can be integrated with other Alibaba Cloud services such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS) and Server Load Balancer (SLB) to further optimize performance and cost.

In summary, Alibaba Cloud Auto Scaling is a service that automatically adjusts the number of instances in your application based on the current demand, by setting predefined rules that specify when to add or remove instances, it can help to increase the performance and reduce the cost of your application.

Cloud Shell

• Alibaba Cloud Cloud Shell is a cloud-based command-line interface (CLI) that allows users to interact with and manage their Alibaba Cloud resources directly from the browser.
• It provides a secure and convenient way to access and operate your Alibaba Cloud resources without the need to set up and maintain a local development environment.
• Cloud Shell provides a pre-configured Linux environment with a set of commonly used tools and software, including text editors, development tools, and cloud command-line interfaces (CLIs) such as the Alibaba Cloud CLI and Terraform. This eliminates the need to install and maintain these tools locally, making it easy for developers to get started quickly.
• Cloud Shell also includes built-in support for version control systems such as Git, allowing users to easily manage their code and collaborate with others. Additionally, it has native integration with Alibaba Cloud services such as Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Server Load Balancer (SLB), and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), making it easy to manage and automate tasks such as server provisioning, scaling, and networking.
• Cloud Shell also provides a built-in code editor, which allows you to edit files directly in the browser, and a built-in terminal, which allows you to run commands and scripts directly in the browser. This eliminates the need to use any additional tools or software, making it easy to get started and complete tasks quickly.

Overall, Alibaba Cloud Cloud Shell provides a simple, secure and convenient way for developers to access, manage and automate their Alibaba Cloud resources and applications, which makes it a powerful tool for DevOps and cloud management.