In-depth analysis of how Dropbox works and how business' could benefit using it Team members: Chiara Cilardo, Azzurra Maria Barausse

1. Azzurra
Maria
Barausse
Chiara
Cilardo

2. INDEX
u
CLOUD
COMPUTING:
HOW
IT
WORKS
u
DROPBOX:
THE
SERVICE
u
DROPBOX
FOR
BUSINESS
u
SECURITY
ISSUES
u
SECURITY
ARCHITECTURE
u
DROPBOX’S
ARCHITECTURE
and
EVOLUTION
u
BUSINESS
MODEL

3. Service
models:
SaaS
PaaS
Iaas
Adop0on
of:
Virtualiza.on
Soa
4
deployment
models:
Private
Community
Public
Hybrid
Cloud
CompuIng:
How
Does
It
Work

4. Main
features
of
cloud
compuIng
(Na#onal
Ins#tute
of
Standards
and
Technology
-­‐
NIST):
1. On-­‐demand
self
service:
access
to
informa0on
resources
only
when
needed,
paying
the
same
usage
and
not
on
the
basis
of
a
fixed
fee
or
by
purchasing
a
license
once;
2. Broad
network
access:
resources
are
available
on-­‐line
and
accessible
at
any
.me
via
desktop,
laptop,
mobile,
tablet;
3. Resource
pooling:
using
a
mul.tenant
model,
which
allows
an
instance
of
soAware
to
serve
more
clients,
with
different
physical
and
virtual
resources
dynamically
reassigned
according
to
consumer
demand;
4. Rapid
elasIcity:
resources
can
be
rapidly
and
elas.cally
increased
(scalability);
5. Measured
service:
where
the
cloud
provider
measures
or
monitors
the
provision
of
services
for
various
reasons,
including
billing,
effec0ve
use
of
resources,
or
overall
predic0ve
planning

5. Dropbox,
born
in
2007
founded
by
Drew
Houston,
is
a
soAware
mul0plaHorm
cloud
storage
that
offers
an
hos0ng
file
service
and
automathic
synch
via
web
It
is
available
on
Windows,
Mac
OS
X,
Linux,
iOS,
Blackberry
OS
and
Android
Service
model:
SaaS
Deployment
model:
public
Dropbox
as
a
collabora0on
plaHorm
that
provides
users
with
reliable
data
storage,
synced
across
mul0ple
devices,
and
also
shared
among
a
group
of
users
200m
users
1
billion
files
syncs
a
day
10s
of
thousand
physical
servers
DROPBOX

6. Using
Dropbox
in
a
Business
ProspecIve
-­‐ Decreasing
in
maintenance
costs
(servers,
employees)
-­‐ Environmental
issues
(less
use
of
energy)
-­‐ Flexibility
(variety
of
devices
and
OS)
-­‐ Increase
in
collaboraIon
(sharing
access
to
important
files
independently
from
the
loca0on)
-­‐ Limited
costs
and
fees
(no
hardware
costs
and
very
liUle
setup
0me:
Dropbox
for
Business
is
priced
at
$795
annually
for
up
to
five
users,
plus
an
addi0onal
$125
per
year
for
each
addi0onal
user)

7. DROPBOX
SECURITY
CONCERNS:
-­‐ Monitor
dropbox
usage
-­‐ Beware
security
prac.ces
-­‐ Treat
Dropbox
as
public
repository
-­‐ Access
control
Some
possible
future
soluIons:
-­‐
encryp.on
and
password
-­‐
remote
wipe

8. HOW
DROPBOX
DEALS
WITH
PRIVACY
AND
SECURITY
PROBLEMS
AES-­‐256
encrypIon:
a
webtool
to
encrypt
and
decrypt
text
using
AES
encryp.on
algorithm;
you
can
chose
128,
192
or
256-­‐bit
long
key
size
for
encryp0on
and
decryp0on
Secure
Socket
Layer
(SSL):
encryp0ng
protocol
that
allows
a
safe
communica0on
between
source
and
client
(client/server
model)
on
TCP/IP
net
to
prevent
tampering
(falsifica0on)
of
data

9. HOW
DROPBOX
DEALS
WITH
PRIVACY
AND
SECURITY
PROBLEMS
AES-­‐256
encryp0on
SSL

10. Dropbox’s architecture
Mid
2007
2
employees
Almost
0
users
Clients
The
Server

11. The
Server
Clients
DB
S3
Late
2007
3
employees
• Fast
changing
environment,
resources
are
growing
at
the
same
0me
with
the
demand
• The
server
runs
out
of
space
and
becomes
overloaded
• Put
the
data
on
S3
• Use
of
MySQL

12. Early
2008
10
employees
50k
users
Clients
Metaserver
DB
S3
Noteserver
Blockserver
The
server
is
split
into
2
servers:
• Metaserver:
doing
all
the
meta
data
calls
• Blockserver:
hos0ng
all
the
files’
content

13. Late
2008
10
employees
100K
users
• Need
of
adding
more
meta
and
block
servers
• Only
one
DB
Add
Memecache
to
avoid
DB
scaling
issues
• Load
Balancing
method
to
op0mize
resources,
minimize
response
0me,
avoid
overload
of
resources.
Clients
Noteserver
DB
S3
LB
Memcache
Metaserver
Metaserver
Blockserver
Blockserver

14. Metaserver
Memcache
Early
2012
100
employees
50M
users
• Use
of
several
DBs
• Large
use
of
load
balancing
Clients
DB
S3
Memcache
Memcache
Metaserver
Metaserver
Blockserver
Blockserver
Noteserver
Noteserver
LB
LB
DB
DB

15. 1
billion
of
file
syncs
a
day
10s
thousand
fisical
servers
2014
200M
users

16. FACT:
Typically
people
tend
to
consume
more
contents
than
they
produce
BUT
For
Dropbox
the
wricen
raIon
between
uploading
vs
downloading
files
is
1:1
FURTHERMORE:
Best
prac0ces
and
standard
solu0ons
are
designed
for
different
order
of
magnitude
in
terms
of
writes
IMPLICATION
•
With
the
same
number
of
servers
Dropbox
is
doing
10
to
100
Imes
writes
than
other
companies
do!
•
Backend
must
be
designed
in
order
to
support
high
volume
of
writes
and
high
requirements
in
terms
of
correctness

17. Dropbox’s Business Model
LIGHT
USERS
HEAVY
AND
MEDIUM
USERS
COMPANIES
2GB
FREE
STORAGE
SUBSCRIPTIONS
$
SUBSCRIPTIONS
$$$

18. The Gamification
MIUM
Register
and
get
2GB
of
data
storage
for
free
In
order
to
receive
addiIonal
data
storage
•
Invite
your
friends
to
use
dropbox
•
View
Dropbox’s
how-­‐to
online
videos
•
Download
Dropbox
on
other
devices

19. 80
20