CloudBox is a fully managed cloud service that extends Alibaba Cloud's public cloud infrastructure, such as compute, storage, and network resources, to your on-premises data center. It is delivered as an integrated hardware and software solution to meet business requirements for data security, local data processing, and low latency. CloudBox is an out-of-the-box solution that helps you focus on your business logic and reduce operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. It provides a user experience in your local environment that is consistent with that of the public cloud.
Why choose CloudBox
The Alibaba Cloud public cloud offers a vast range of cloud products and a ready-to-use, fully managed service experience. However, it cannot meet certain requirements for on-premises deployment. Although self-built IT infrastructure and traditional private clouds can address requirements such as data security and low latency, they also introduce challenges, such as high initial costs and complex O&M. To address these pain points, Alibaba Cloud launched CloudBox. It extends public cloud infrastructure for on-premises deployment, providing low-cost, fully managed cloud services while meeting requirements for data security and low latency. The following table compares CloudBox with the public cloud and self-built IT infrastructure.
Comparison Criteria | CloudBox | Public cloud | Self-built IT/Traditional private cloud |
Primary industries | Manufacturing, healthcare, non-bank finance | General, the Internet | Government, finance |
Key scenarios | Low latency, enterprise edge | Elasticity, stability | Data localization |
Core value | Compact, low entry barrier, fully managed | High elasticity | Secure, controllable |
Consistent product capabilities with the public cloud | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
Standardized delivery | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
Agile scale-out | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
Fully managed O&M | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
Low entry barrier | ✔️ | ✔️ | ❌ |
Low latency | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
Data localization | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
Local data processing | ✔️ | ❌ | ✔️ |
Strong physical isolation | ❌ | ❌ | ✔️ |
CloudBox retains the advantages of the public cloud, such as being fully managed and low-cost, while offering an on-premises deployment model. For more information, see Benefits.
- On-premises deployment meets security compliance requirements.
- On-premises deployment meets business system requirements.
- Sensitive data or a large amount of data exists, which cannot be migrated to the cloud.
On-premises deployment
- CloudBox is managed by Alibaba Cloud public cloud in a centralized manner.
- CloudBox provides O&M similar to Alibaba Cloud public cloud.
- Alibaba Cloud installs and deploys infrastructure, and performs O&M on infrastructure.
O&M Free
- Small-scale deployment requires low cost.
- Standardized delivery requires a short period of time.
- Purchase of cloud services instead of hardware devices requires low cost.
Cost-effective
With benefits such as on-premises deployment and being fully managed, CloudBox is suitable for scenarios that involve local data processing, low latency, data security, and multiple branches. For more information, see Common scenarios.
On-premises data processing
Suitable for scenarios in which data cannot be transferred to Alibaba Cloud public cloud for processing because of bandwidth, cost, data volume, and time limit.
Sample scenarios: AI model training, rendering, and data analysis of traffic videos.
Low latency
Suitable for scenarios in which on-premises devices need to interact with applications in near real-time.
Sample scenarios: industrial parks, industrial manufacturing, and warehouse management.
Data security
Suitable for scenarios in which data must be deployed in industrial parks, data centers, or regions to meet regulatory, compliance, and security requirements.
Sample scenarios: industry associations, airlines, and hospitals.
Multi-branch collaboration
Suitable for scenarios in which centralized O&M is required to reduce costs because IT infrastructure is distributed in different regions or regions that are not convenient for O&M.
Sample scenarios: intelligent community and factory.
Service architecture
CloudBox is an extension of the public cloud to an on-premises data center (IDC). After you purchase CloudBox, Alibaba Cloud deploys infrastructure, such as compute, storage, and network resources, to your specified on-premises IDC. You can then create cloud product instances in CloudBox. The service architecture of CloudBox is shown in the following figure.
Features
CloudBox inherits the basic capabilities and rich ecosystem application marketplace of the public cloud. It supports the following features:
On-premises deployment with data audit capabilities
CloudBox can be deployed on-premises and connected to the public cloud through a network connection, such as an Express Connect circuit or the Internet. This deployment model meets your requirements for data security and low latency while providing a dedicated cloud service. Alibaba Cloud provides data audits for the network connection and supports third-party security audits to offer a secure on-premises cloud service.
Hyper-converged technology to reduce per-CPU cost
CloudBox uses the X-Dragon architecture of the public cloud. It is based on hyper-converged compute, storage, and network technologies and reuses the centralized management capabilities of the public cloud. You can purchase CloudBox starting from a single rack, which significantly reduces your cloud usage costs.
Public cloud extension with a consistent cloud service experience
CloudBox provides a user experience consistent with that of the public cloud. It supports the O&M and deployment tools, API, and full lifecycle management of instances that are provided by the public cloud. Business code that you write and run locally can be seamlessly migrated to the public cloud for deployment with a low learning curve. Similarly, business code that runs on the public cloud can also be migrated to CloudBox.
On-demand, out-of-the-box, fully managed cloud service
CloudBox provides infrastructure such as compute, storage, and network. Alibaba Cloud is responsible for installation, deployment, and O&M. You can purchase cloud services on demand and use public cloud services to manage resources within CloudBox. For more information about the cloud services that CloudBox supports, see Supported Alibaba Cloud services.
Billing
The billable items for CloudBox include compute resources, Elastic Block Storage, Object Storage Service, and network bandwidth. CloudBox supports only the subscription billing method, with subscription periods of 3 or 5 years. After you purchase CloudBox, you gain the right to use the service for the duration of your subscription. For more information, see Billing overview.
When you purchase CloudBox, you are purchasing service resources, not hardware. The CloudBox hardware remains the property of Alibaba Cloud.
Usage flow
As shown in the preceding figure, the process of purchasing and using CloudBox includes the following steps:
Purchase: Select CloudBox resources and submit an order in the Alibaba Cloud Management Console.
Delivery: Alibaba Cloud conducts an on-site IDC survey, then installs and deploys CloudBox.
Use: After you accept the delivery, you can start using the cloud services.
Unsubscribe: If you no longer need CloudBox, you can terminate the service after it expires or request to unsubscribe in advance.
For more information about these steps, see Getting started overview.
Management tools
After you register an Alibaba Cloud account, you can use CloudBox from any region through the following tools provided by Alibaba Cloud:
CloudBox console: A web-based service page for interactive operations. You can purchase, view, and manage resources in CloudBox, and use other related cloud services.
Alibaba Cloud Toolkit: An IDE plugin provided by Alibaba Cloud to help developers efficiently develop and deploy cloud-based applications.