“Cloud Cruiser specializes in cloud cost management. To understand what we do, think about the problems our customers are facing – they are losing visibility to IT because their users, developers are using capacity from Amazon, Rackspace and others and they don’t even know what’s going on. We pull in data and we can show the users, the CIOs what’s going on,” stated Nick van der Zweep, VP of Products and Strategy at Cloud Cruiser, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Monthly Archives: December 2012
IT Multi-Tasking: I Was Told There’d Be No Math
By Ben Sawyer, Solutions Engineer
The term “multi-tasking” basically means doing more than one thing at once. I am writing this blog while playing Legos w/ my son & helping my daughter find New Hampshire on the map. But I am by no means doing more than one thing at once; I’m just quickly switching back & forth between the three which is referred to ask “context switching.” Context switching in most cases is very costly. There is a toll to be paid in terms of productivity when ramping up on a task before you can actually tackle that task. In an ideal world (where I also have a 2 handicap) one has the luxury to do a task from start to finish before starting a new task. My son just refuses to let me have 15 minutes to write this blog because apparently building a steam roller right now is extremely important. There is a sense of inertia when you work on a task after a short while because you begin to really concentrate on the task at hand. Since we know it’s nearly impossible to put ourselves in a vacuum & work on one thing only, the best we can hope for is to do “similar” things (i.e., in the same context) at the same time. Let’s pretend I have to email my co-worker that I’m late writing a blog, shovel my driveway, buy more Legos at Amazon.com, & get the mail (okay, I’m not pretending). Since emailing & buying stuff online both require me to be in-front of my laptop and shoveling & going to my mailbox require me to be outside my house (my physical location), it would be far more efficient to do the tasks in the same “context” at the same time. Think of the time it takes to get all bundled up & the time it takes to power on your laptop to get online. Doing a few things at once usually means that you will not do that task as well (its quality) as you would have had you done it uninterrupted. The more closely, time-wise, you can do a task usually means the better you will do that task since it will be “fresher” in your mind. So…
- Entire Task A + Entire Task B = Great Task A & Great Task B.
- 1/2 Task A + Entire Task B + 1/2 Task A = Okay Task A & Excellent Task B.
- 1/2 Task A + 1/2 Task B + 1/2 Task A + 1/2 Task B = Good Task A & Good Task B
Why does this matter? Well, because the same exact concept applies to computers & the software we write. A single processor can do one thing at a time only (let’s forget threads), but it can context switch extremely fast which gives the illusion of multi-tasking. But, like a human, context switching has a cost for a computer. So, when you write code try to do many “similar” things at the same time. If you have a bunch of SQL queries to execute then you should open a connection to the database first, execute them, & close the connection. If you need to call some VMware APIs then you should connect to vCenter first, do them, & close the connection. Opening & closing connections to any system is often slow so group your actions by context which, in this case, are systems. This also makes the code easier to read. Speaking of reading, here’s a great example of the cost of context switching. The author Tom Clancy loves to switch characters & plot lines every chapter. This makes following the story very hard & whenever you put the book down & start reading again it’s nearly impossible to remember where you left off b/c there’s never, ever a good stopping point. Tom Clancy’s writing is one of the best examples of how costly context switching is.
So, what does this have to do with cloud computing? Well, it ties in directly with automation & orchestration. Automation is doing the work & orchestration is determining the order in which work is done. Things can get complicated quickly when numerous tasks need to be executed & it’s not immediately apparent which need to run first & which are dependent on other tasks. And, once that is all figured out, what happens when a task fails? While software executes linearly, an orchestration engine provides the ability to run multiple pieces of software concurrently. And that’s where things get complicated real fast. Sometimes it may make sense to execute things serially (one at a time) vs. in parallel (more than one at a time) simply b/c it becomes very hand to manage more than one task at the same time.
We live in a world in which there are 10 different devices from which we can check our email and, if we want, we can talk to our smartphone & ask it to read our email to us. Technology has made it easy for us to get information virtually any time & in any format we want. However, it is because of this information overload that our brains have trouble separating all the useful information from the white noise. So we try to be more productive and we multi-task but that usually means we’re becoming more busy than productive. In blogs to follow, I will provide some best practices for determining when it makes sense to run more than one task at a time. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to help my daughter find Maine…
Enterprise Cloud Computing Adoption
IT professionals including server and storage managers often think that the adoption of cloud computing in the enterprise puts their jobs in danger. To the contrary, the role of the IT professional is evolving into a more strategic position as more organizations adopt private and public cloud, with many using a combination of the two, which is often referred to as hybrid cloud. Recent reports suggest that the cloud will result in increased career advancement for IT professionals both in terms of responsibility and job opportunities.
IT professionals should embrace the cloud, not fear it. Consider surfers who once rejected surf board leashes as “kook chords,” dismissing them as unnecessary. However, as is the case with many innovations, the “kook chord” has gradually become a reliable standard used by virtually every surfer today.
Dear apps industry, why can we all not just get along?
Ecosystem could be “the word” of 2013, if only vendors, providers, ISVs and other technology conglomerates stop acting in a “This Town ain’t big enough for the both of us“ way.
As an App user* I am increasingly amazed, affected and annoyed by what in my view can only be described as turf wars between various technology providers. Increasingly cooperation – that originated by a desire to have a quick time to market – is being replaced by outright competition driven by a desire to own the full stack. Some recent examples:
- Phone manufacturers replacing perfectly good map applications with in-house brews*
- Search engines wanting to become social networks*
- Social networks* and web retailers* wanting to become advertising specialists
- Photo filtering apps opting out of 140 char event timelines* and v.v. event timeline apps adding photo filtering*
- Email providers abandoning the use of third party sync to enterprise messaging apps …
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Cloud Surveillance
“We’ve been disrupting the security industry for years with camera surveillance in the cloud,” explained Rishi Lodhia, CEO & Founder of CameraManager.com, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Software Values in SDN
“Software defined networking is a key thing at Cloud Expo. Broadcom has been on the forefront of software defined networking. We have been a part of the OpenFlow effort from the early days,” explained Sujal Das, Director of Product Marketing at Broadcom Corporation, in this SYS-CON.tv interview with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan at the 11th International Cloud Expo, held November 5-8, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Cloud Expo 2013 New York, June 10–13, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
Dear Apps, Why Can We Not Just All Get Along?
Ecosystem could be “the word” of 2013, if only vendors, providers, ISVs and other technology conglomerates stop acting in a “This Town ain’t big enough for the both of us” way.
As an App user* I am increasingly amazed, affected and annoyed by what in my view can only be described as turf wars between various technology providers. Increasingly cooperation – that originated by a desire to have a quick time to market – is being replaced by outright competition driven by a desire to own the full stack. Some recent examples:
Phone manufacturers replacing perfectly good map applications with in-house brews*
Search engines wanting to become social networks*
The Rise of Android (Infographic)
ScaleMP to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York
SYS-CON Events announced today that ScaleMP, a leading provider of virtualization solutions for high-end computing, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 12th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 10–13, 2013, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
ScaleMP is the leader in virtualization for high-end computing, providing maximum performance and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The innovative Versatile SMP™ (vSMP) architecture aggregates multiple independent systems into a single virtual system, delivering an industry-standard, high-end symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) computer. Using software to replace custom hardware and components, ScaleMP offers a new, revolutionary computing paradigm.
Cloud Expo Trademarks Being Infringed Again
Just wanted to get a quick note to all of our Cloud Expo friends that Cloud Expo and Cloud Expo Europe are registered trademarks of our parent company, SYS-CON Media, Inc. I am CEO of SYS-CON and value all the friends we’ve made in the industry these past years, as we continue to provide you with the best events in the business.
So I want to make it clear that we ARE NOT affiliated with an event in London that’s using our Cloud Expo Europe name. This is NOT our company, NOT our show, and we ARE NOT affiliated with that company. We urge our friends to continue to support the true Cloud Expo events that we’ve been producing for many years!
With that, I wish all of our friends Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!