CloudBox is an extension of Alibaba Cloud public cloud in data centers. When you purchase a cloud box, Alibaba Cloud deploys infrastructure—computing, storage, and network resources—to your data center. CloudBox inherits the capabilities and application marketplace of Alibaba Cloud public cloud, so you manage cloud box resources through the same Alibaba Cloud services you already use.
The following sections describe the Alibaba Cloud services that work with CloudBox, organized by how each service interacts with cloud box hardware.
Services deployed with cloud box hardware
These services run locally inside your data center on the hardware devices of a cloud box.
| Category | Service | Description | Support scope | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Computing | Elastic Compute Service (ECS) | A scalable compute service that provides vCPUs and memory for your workloads. CloudBox delivers compute capacity as SKUs. | Supported instance families: ecs.g6 (general-purpose), ecs.c6 (compute-optimized), ecs.r6 (memory-optimized), ecs.g6se (storage-enhanced), ecs.gn6i-c4g1 (GPU-accelerated compute-optimized) | Compute SKU specifications |
| Storage | Elastic Block Storage (EBS) | A high-performance, low-latency block storage service that supports random read and write operations. | PL0 Enterprise SSDs (ESSDs) only | EBS resources |
| Storage | Object Storage Service (OSS) | A secure, cost-effective object storage service. OSS resources deployed with cloud box hardware let you store, access, and process unstructured data in your data center. You can create buckets directly in your cloud box. | — | OSS resources |
| Network | Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) | Builds a custom private network on Alibaba Cloud with Layer 2 logical isolation between VPCs. | — | Networking of cloud boxes |
| Network | Server Load Balancer (SLB) | Distributes inbound traffic across ECS backend servers based on forwarding rules. SLB offers Application Load Balancer (ALB), Network Load Balancer (NLB), and Classic Load Balancer (CLB). | CLB only | What is CLB? |
| Network | Express Connect | Establishes a fast, stable, and private connection between your data center and a VPC. Express Connect circuits protect data transmission, prevent network jitters, and reduce the risk of data breaches. | — | What is Express Connect? |
Services that run on cloud box resources
These services are deployed on top of CloudBox and consume its computing and storage capacity. CloudBox provides the underlying infrastructure for the following Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings.
| Category | Service | Description | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Container | Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) | ACK Pro clusters are developed based on ACK Basic clusters and are built for large-scale enterprise workloads, backed by a service level agreement (SLA) with compensation clauses. Create a CloudBox node pool in an ACK cluster to use the resources of a deployed cloud box. | Use CloudBox resources in an ACK cluster |
| File storage | Cloud Storage Gateway (CSG) | A gateway deployed at your data center or on Alibaba Cloud that provides industry-standard file access over Network File System (NFS) and Server Message Block (SMB) protocols. CSG on CloudBox lets you access OSS resources in cloud boxes using the same file-protocol workflow as Alibaba Cloud public cloud. | What is CSG on CloudBox? |
| Middleware | Enterprise Distributed Application Service (EDAS) | A PaaS for hosting applications and managing microservices, with full-stack support for developing, deploying, monitoring, and maintaining applications. EDAS supports hybrid cloud ECS clusters, so you can combine cloud box ECS instances with Alibaba Cloud public cloud ECS instances to meet data security, local processing, and low-latency requirements. | What is EDAS? |
Alibaba Cloud public cloud services that manage CloudBox resources
CloudBox reuses the management and service nodes of Alibaba Cloud public cloud. The following services run in Alibaba Cloud public cloud and manage resources in your cloud box remotely.
Security
| Service | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Security Center | A centralized security management system that identifies, analyzes, and sends real-time alerts about threats. Features include anti-ransomware, antivirus, web tamper-proofing, and compliance check. You can use Security Center to automate threat detection, alerting, response, and threat tracing, and better meet regulatory compliance requirements. | What is Security Center? |
| Bastionhost | An O&M management platform that integrates O&M identity authentication, account management, and operation audit to ensure cloud O&M permissions are controlled and operations are auditable. | What is Bastionhost? |
Monitoring
| Service | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) | An application performance management (APM) service that builds monitoring capabilities that can respond within seconds, across browser, application, and business dimensions. | What is ARMS? |
| CloudMonitor (CMS) | Collects metrics from Alibaba Cloud resources and internet applications. Configure alert rules for specific metrics to monitor network availability. | What is CloudMonitor? |
Middleware
| Service | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Microservices Engine (MSE) | An end-to-end microservices platform built for mainstream open source ecosystems. Microservices Registry supports the native Nacos engine, ZooKeeper engine, and Eureka engine. | Usage notes |
Automation and O&M tools
| Service | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Resource Orchestration Service (ROS) | Automates deployment and O&M by creating and configuring cloud resources from stack templates. Define ECS instances, ApsaraDB RDS instances, and dependencies in a template, and ROS provisions the entire stack. | What is ROS? |
| CloudOps Orchestration Service (OOS) | An automated O&M service for defining and executing tasks across multiple Alibaba Cloud services, including ECS, ApsaraDB RDS, SLB, and VPC. Define task sequences, input parameters, and output parameters in templates. | What is OOS? |
| Server Migration Center (SMC) | Migrates source servers to Alibaba Cloud. Supported sources include on-premises servers, virtual machines, and cloud hosts from other cloud platforms. | What is SMC? |
| Auto Scaling (ESS) | Automatically adjusts compute capacity based on your policies. Adds ECS instances to a scaling group during peak hours and removes them during off-peak hours to control costs. | What is Auto Scaling? |
| Cloud Assistant | A cloud-native O&M tool that runs shell, PowerShell, or batch commands across multiple ECS instances without passwords or jump servers. Use it to install software, distribute configuration files, and run scripts at scale. | Overview |
| Deployment set | A placement policy that distributes ECS instances across different physical servers to improve service availability and support disaster recovery. | Overview |