In the first post of this three part series I talked about distributed transactional databases being the Holy Grail of database systems. Among other things the promise of such systems is to provide on-demand capacity, continuous availability and geographically distributed operation. But the historical approaches to building distributed transactional databases have involved unacceptable trade-offs, and as a result general purpose databases systems predicated on a single-server architecture have dominated the industry for decades.
In our quest for the Holy Grail of databases we acknowledge that there are folks who have given up on the highly desirable characteristic of transactional consistency in favor of a distributed operation. That is a trade-off that may be attractive if you can’t find a way to scale-out transactions, but it is a drastic choice that moves a lot of complexity and cost up the application stack. If there is a way to scale out transactional databases then that is clearly a much better outcome. Our Holy Grail discussion is specifically about distributed transactional databases because if such a thing can be built without a substantial downside then no one would want any other distributed data store.

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Back for Part 3 of the “Building a Hybrid Cloud” series, Keith Mayer and myself chat about and demo the latest networking enhancements made in Windows Server 2012 R2. Keith really shows you how Windows Server 2012 R2 offers networks for your virtualization hosts but also your virtual guests. One of the things that amazed me, is that the configuration steps for the host and guests are nearly identical.

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Everything as a Service has become nearly a synonym for cloud computing. That’s unsurprising, as the benefits of cloud – from economy of scale to increased service velocity – are derived mainly from the abstraction of network, compute and storage resources into services that can be rapidly provisioned, elastically scaled and intelligently orchestrated. We’ve come to use «Everything as a Service» and «Software Defined Data Center» nearly interchangeably, because the goal of both is really to drive toward IT as a Service. A world in which end-users (application owners and administrators) can provision, scale and orchestrate the resources necessary to deliver applications from app dev through devops to the network.
This journey, in part, gave rise to SDN as a means to include the network in this new service-oriented data center. But SDN focused on only a subset of the network stack, leaving critical layer 4-7 services behind.

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With the launch of Cisco’s software-defined networking startup Insieme expected tomorrow, our industry is about to hear a lot about “application-centric” everything. So what does “application-centric infrastructure” mean?
First, some basics: Networking is about connecting computing devices and systems so they can share data. Networking infrastructures are built with a combination of hardware such as gateways, routers, and switches that manage the movement of the data as well as software applications that enable you to do things like access the Internet and send email.
As you could probably guess, application-centric infrastructure is a type of networking that is based on the application. In an application-centric network, the network administrator manages a system for a specific application rather than managing individual servers and routers like they did in the past.

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Moving your data storage to the cloud is a smart move as there is an explosion of data day by day and systems are struggling to store all that data effectively and securely. Cloud computing has proven not only to be cost effective but also frees the businesses to concentrate on the daily workings while the cloud takes care of details such as security, support, maintenance and the ever-so-important backup. Therefore, the demand for cloud computing is also growing and there are many companies sprouting up by the minute. So the consumer ends up in a dilemma of how to choose the right one.

To select the right type of cloud for you, analyze what type of data you are basically dealing with. For example, videos, photos and online documents will require software based cloud services. Other type of cloud services include Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) where the customer can transfer his data with virtually no changes made. All that the customer needs to manage is the operating system and its applications. When the customer wants to use the cloud or offer it as a service to others, then the Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is the right choice.

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Perhaps it is tied to the number of press releases, product or staffing announcements including who has joined the organization along with added coverage of it?
Maybe its based on how many articles, videos or some other content and coverage that helps to show traction and momentum?
On the other hand is it tied to how many prospects are actually trying a product or service as part of a demo or proof of concept?
Then again, maybe it is associated with how many real paying or revenue installed footprints and customers or what is also known as industry deployment (customer adoption).
Of those customers actually buying and deploying, how many have continued using the technology even after industry adoption subsides or does the solution become shelf ware?
Does the customer deployment actually continue to rise quietly while industry adoption or conversations drop off (past the cycle of hype)?

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Given the differences in market maturity, cultural acceptance and local IT infrastructures, considerable regional differences exist in the deployment rates of cloud-based security systems. They all play a part in the level of spending dedicated to this delivery model — when compared with on-premises business technology deployments.
Moreover, privacy remains an inhibitor in the deployment of all forms of cloud-based services by the late adopter market segment. In particular, it’s a big issue in those regions and countries with strong regulatory requirements — such as Europe, with its data protection legislation.

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I flew into Tacloban airport for the first time in 2009. This provincial capital (pronounced “Tac-LO-ban”) of 200,00 people is hot, crowded, and gritty – as is its airport – and populated by the fierce Waraynon people. These are not the friendliest folks in the Philippines, and their largest city has a seething edge to it that one doesn’t normally associate with the country.

But become part of this culture and you will be fully accepted as a member of what must be one of the strongest, most loyal communities on Earth. I married a Waray, and have become one of the 24 members of her immediate family, 60 or so members of her close family, and hundreds of cousins and other relatives. I love them all, and they love me, unconditionally.

The Waray put their propensity for settling disputes with machetes to good use at the end of World War II, marching side-by-side with MacArthur after his return to Leyte Island, to drive the Imperial Japanese off of the island and out of the country. The US should be eternally grateful for their sacrifice and friendship.

Now these most resilient of people are being put to a most extreme test. The shocking damage caused to Tacloban and much of the surrounding area by Typhoon Yolanda means that an already impoverished part of the world will become more so, with the prospect of any sort of normalcy years, if not decades, away.

I wonder about the old man standing near the airport entrance, amused by my feeble use of the local language and who wished my wife and I a fond farewell when we left Tacloban, bound for the US a couple of years ago. He probably lived close to the airport. Did he drown in the typhoon’s surge?

I wonder about the joking, towering security guard at our downtown hotel – 18 dollars a night for a double that was home to five of us for a couple of days – who was proud to be as tall as the strange “Kano” (short for “Americano”) with the sunburnt skin. Did he die in the storm?

I wonder about the high-school kids working in the local McDonald’s, next to the harbor,; the squadrons of workingmen who loaded our new refrigerator and about half a ton of other goods onto the ferry, across a plank that on its best days would be described as “rickety”; the tricycle drivers who took us across the city and down to the MacArthur Memorial in Palo; the nice young woman in the Waray bookstore who helped me find a local professor who specialized in the origin of the local language; the guys in the street testing the noisy 6HP engines that are a staple of the region’s small fishing boats; and the endless parade of kids, teens, and adults hustling around the city trying figuratively to keep their heads above water. What happened to all of them?

My wife’s immediate family is safe and sound, tucked away in their tiny village in Samar Province, north of Tacloban. The tin roof flew off their main house, one wall came undone, two of their three small bamboo huts were flattened, and the small grove of coconut trees upon which they make much of their living was destroyed utterly. But nobody was hurt, the seven babies and toddlers are doing fine, the roof and wall have already been nailed back on, and new huts will be completed soon.

Many cousins from the neighboring village, who were attending high school in Tacloban, are still missing a few days after the storm blew through. There will be trauma and tears somewhere in the family. “Life is hard” is one of the foundational phrases among all Filipinos, and life among the Waray people remains as hard for most today as it was when their families first populated these islands many thousands of years ago.

Yet life there is also vibrant. I’ve drunk the local coconut wine (called “tuba”) while noisily engaging in chicken fights in the ocean cove that lies at the foot of my wife’s village. I’ve ridden in the small, outrigger bangka boats, helping to paddle when the engine conks out, on short jaunts and on the four-hour trip to Tacloban.

Awakened by roosters and the implacable sun, fed chickens that were running around just a few minutes before, enlisted to help fasten the fishing net one day and to scrape coconuts the next, and lazily sitting around in an apparent tropical paradise, I’ve lived the “maupay” (good) life there.

I’ve danced the local “kuratsa” for hours on New Year’s Eve. And I’ve laughed, my God how I’ve laughed along with the endless, divine comedy innate to a tightly knit, often battling, always loquacious family and people who will tell you their choice in life is to laugh often or never stop crying.

We will all cry many tears as this tragedy continues to unfold, and will mourn for the loss of life that has occurred. Many of my wife’s family will likely take the 24-hour bus ride to Manila in search of work. Christmas and New Year’s won’t be as joyful this year as in years past. The shadow cast by this storm may last for generations.

But the Waraynon will fight, as they always have. They will fight to rebuild their houses and lives. They will fight, fight, and fight some more to restore their world, with a fire inside that will not be extinguished. They will endure.

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I flew into Tacloban airport for the first time in 2009. This provincial capital (pronounced “Tac-LO-ban”) of 200,00 people is hot, crowded, and gritty – as is its airport – and populated by the fierce Waraynon people. These are not the friendliest folks in the Philippines, and their largest city has a seething edge to it that one doesn’t normally associate with the country.

But become part of this culture and you will be fully accepted as a member of what must be one of the strongest, most loyal communities on Earth. I married a Waray, and have become one of the 24 members of her immediate family, 60 or so members of her close family, and hundreds of cousins and other relatives. I love them all, and they love me, unconditionally.

The Waray put their propensity for settling disputes with machetes to good use at the end of World War II, marching side-by-side with MacArthur after his return to Leyte Island, to drive the Imperial Japanese off of the island and out of the country. The US should be eternally grateful for their sacrifice and friendship.

Now these most resilient of people are being put to a most extreme test. The shocking damage caused to Tacloban and much of the surrounding area by Typhoon Yolanda means that an already impoverished part of the world will become more so, with the prospect of any sort of normalcy years, if not decades, away.

I wonder about the old man standing near the airport entrance, amused by my feeble use of the local language and who wished my wife and I a fond farewell when we left Tacloban, bound for the US a couple of years ago. He probably lived close to the airport. Did he drown in the typhoon’s surge?

I wonder about the joking, towering security guard at our downtown hotel – 18 dollars a night for a double that was home to five of us for a couple of days – who was proud to be as tall as the strange “Kano” (short for “Americano”) with the sunburnt skin. Did he die in the storm?

I wonder about the high-school kids working in the local McDonald’s, next to the harbor,; the squadrons of workingmen who loaded our new refrigerator and about half a ton of other goods onto the ferry, across a plank that on its best days would be described as “rickety”; the tricycle drivers who took us across the city and down to the MacArthur Memorial in Palo; the nice young woman in the Waray bookstore who helped me find a local professor who specialized in the origin of the local language; the guys in the street testing the noisy 6HP engines that are a staple of the region’s small fishing boats; and the endless parade of kids, teens, and adults hustling around the city trying figuratively to keep their heads above water. What happened to all of them?

My wife’s immediate family is safe and sound, tucked away in their tiny village in Samar Province, north of Tacloban. The tin roof flew off their main house, one wall came undone, two of their three small bamboo huts were flattened, and the small grove of coconut trees upon which they make much of their living was destroyed utterly. But nobody was hurt, the seven babies and toddlers are doing fine, the roof and wall have already been nailed back on, and new huts will be completed soon.

Many cousins from the neighboring village, who were attending high school in Tacloban, are still missing a few days after the storm blew through. There will be trauma and tears somewhere in the family. “Life is hard” is one of the foundational phrases among all Filipinos, and life among the Waray people remains as hard for most today as it was when their families first populated these islands many thousands of years ago.

Yet life there is also vibrant. I’ve drunk the local coconut wine (called “tuba”) while noisily engaging in chicken fights in the ocean cove that lies at the foot of my wife’s village. I’ve ridden in the small, outrigger bangka boats, helping to paddle when the engine conks out, on short jaunts and on the four-hour trip to Tacloban.

Awakened by roosters and the implacable sun, fed chickens that were running around just a few minutes before, enlisted to help fasten the fishing net one day and to scrape coconuts the next, and lazily sitting around in an apparent tropical paradise, I’ve lived the “maupay” (good) life there.

I’ve danced the local “kuratsa” for hours on New Year’s Eve. And I’ve laughed, my God how I’ve laughed along with the endless, divine comedy innate to a tightly knit, often battling, always loquacious family and people who will tell you their choice in life is to laugh often or never stop crying.

We will all cry many tears as this tragedy continues to unfold, and will mourn for the loss of life that has occurred. Many of my wife’s family will likely take the 24-hour bus ride to Manila in search of work. Christmas and New Year’s won’t be as joyful this year as in years past. The shadow cast by this storm may last for generations.

But the Waraynon will fight, as they always have. They will fight to rebuild their houses and lives. They will fight, fight, and fight some more to restore their world, with a fire inside that will not be extinguished. They will endure.

read more

Forward-looking companies are now exploiting cloud efficiencies and agility to deliver applications better to their end users.
The next VMworld innovator panel discussion focuses on how two companies are using aggressive cloud-computing strategies to deliver applications better to their end users.
We’ll hear how healthcare patient-experience improvement provider Press Ganey and project and portfolio management provider Planview are both exploiting cloud efficiencies and agility. Their paths to the efficiency of cloud have been different, but the outcomes speak volumes for how cloud transforms businesses.
To understand how, we sat down with Greg Ericson, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Press Ganey Associates in South Bend, Indiana, and Patrick Tickle, Executive Vice President of Products at Planview Inc. in Austin, Texas.

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