So I guess we’ve officially entered a new era of lean and mean.

I say this with the announcement of Ubuntu Snappy Core, “designed for lightweight cloud container hosts running Docker and for smart devices,” according to Canonical. “Snappy Ubuntu Core is the smallest Ubuntu available, designed for security and efficiency in devices or on the cloud.”

This first version of Snappy Ubuntu Core features secure app containment and Docker 1.6 (1.5 in main release), is available on public clouds, and for ARM and x86 devices on several IoT boards.

It’s a Trend!
This announcement comes just as VMware announced its Project Photon, a Linux container OS that also follows the minimalist ethos. CoreOS and Project Atomic are other efforts in this area. Even Microsoft is joining the quest, with its Nano Server project for cloud computing and containers.

The folks at Docker approve, noting in a recent blog, “VMWare’s announcement and other ecosystem announcements of this nature as being positive for the community because additional tools help to further liberate developers from the constraints of the infrastructure.”

This is great, ironic stuff, in that as the IoT is introducing insane new levels of complexity in end-to-end computing infrastructures, the operating systems need to become much smaller. The underlying principle is taken from the world of single-purpose computing such as game machines–the days of the general-purpose PC with a bloated OS to manage any contingency seem to be fading into the mist.

It’s wonderful that the leading edge is now crisp and snappy, even as it evokes quintessential old-man talk and old-man knowledge–to wit, the Wikipedia entry under “minimalism” in computer science has this marvelous chestnut:

“In the late 1970s and early 1980s programmers had to work within the confines of relatively expensive and limited resources. 8 or 16 kilobytes of RAM was common; 64 kilobytes was considered a vast amount and was the entire address space accessible to the 8-bit CPUs predominant during the earliest generations of personal computers. The most common storage medium was the 5.25 inch floppy disk holding from 88 to 170kB.”

As one sharing a birthday (more or less) with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Scott McNealy, I heartily approve of this new trend. It has nothing to do with ancient stories of how tough it was in the old days–Bronko Nagurski was a heck of a football player, too–and everything to do with creating a lean, flexible, massively scalable, highly performant IT infrastructure for this century, not the century just past.

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In this session we look at creating interactive communications via the web by adding messaging, file transfer, and group communication (group chat and audio/video conferencing) into the web experience.

We will also discuss potential applications of this technology in areas including B2B, B2C, P2P, and gaming. Peter is Technical Director at Acision. He graduated from The University of Edinburgh in 2000 with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science.

After graduation Peter worked on a PSTN switch developing signalling stacks for SS7, ISDN and similar protocols and creating advanced routing and service applications.

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Choosing between BIG-IP and LineRate isn’t as difficult as it seems….

Our recent announcement of the availability of LineRate Point raised the same question over and over: isn’t this just a software-version of BIG-IP? How do I know when to choose LineRate Point instead of BIG-IP VE (Virtual Edition)? Aren’t they the same??

No, no they aren’t. LineRate Point (and really Line Rate Precision, too) is more akin to an app proxy while BIG-IP VE remains, of course, an ADC (Application Delivery Controller). That’s not even pedantry, it’s core to what each of the two solutions supports – both in their capabilities, their extensibility, and the applications they’re designed to deliver services for.

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(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Igor Kirillov)

Research recently carried out by Dimensional Research has unveiled something very interesting about the future of cloud computing – and it’s a trend of which anyone with even a passing interest in the technology should be aware of.

Commissioned by Equinix, Dimensional conducted a survey of over 650 IT decision makers worldwide and discovered that the majority of enterprises are looking into the deployment of multiple clouds in both the short and long-term…

The Raw Facts About Multicloud

As posted on the Equinix blog, Dimensional Research found that 77% of IT decision makers are planning to implement multi-cloud architecture, while a staggering 91% intend to at least implement some sort of cloud-based solution within the next twelve months. Of these respondents, 48% plan to deploy six or more cloud services. The top applications slated to be moved to the cloud during this implementation are storage/backup, business intelligence, disaster recovery, project management, and content management.

Not all that surprising, right?

Dimensional further found that, though respondents understood the value of multiple cloud services, they were also unwilling to deal with the headache involved in juggling multiple hosts- a single provider must offer hosting for every vendor a client uses. 58% of the businesses surveyed have already found such an organization, while 45% intend to entrust their new services to a single colocation provider. In both cases, the majority of businesses (58%) planned to deploy their cloud infrastructure in multiple countries, underscoring the importance of globalization in the new cloud market.

Last, but certainly not least, the vast majority of professionals surveyed – 85%, to be exact – said that they place high value on establishing a direct connection to a cloud provider. There were several reasons given for this, but chief among them was a need for security, along with reliability and performance in second and third, respectively.

Why Does Any Of This Matter?

Alright. We’ve nailed down the raw details of Dimensional’s survey. Now let’s get to the important part – why should you care?

And just what does “multi-cloud” mean, anyway?  You’d be right to think it sounds suspiciously like another buzzword – it basically is. Let’s see if we can clear the air a bit.

In essence, multi-cloud is exactly what it sounds like. It’s term used to refer to a use-case in which a business implements multiple different services, platforms, and applications into its cloud architecture. Rather than using a hybrid cloud, a public cloud, or a private cloud, the business merges several different clouds into one complete platform.

In essence, it’s exactly what’s written on the box – cloud infrastructure which makes use of multiple different services, platforms, and applications.

“Multicloud,” explains Infoworld’s David Linthicum, “is more complex than a hybrid cloud, which is typically a paired public and private cloud. Multiclouds add more clouds to the mix; perhaps two or more public IaaS providers, a private PaaS, on-demand management, and security systems from public clouds, private use-based accounting…you get the idea.”

As for why it’s important?

A few reasons, according to Dyn’s Head of Market Intelligence Phil Hochmuth. Citing two well-known analysts within the technology industry, Hochmuth explains that economics and availability are two major factors driving the adoption of multi-cloud environments. Intense competition within the cloud provider space, he maintains, will serve to bring down prices, while high-availability and the capacity to keep track of one’s entire cloud network will drive adoption of third-party management and monitoring tools.

Of course, equally important to this adoption is the increasingly-complex ways in which businesses are using the cloud, says Lithicum. The majority of projects in the modern enterprise are complex enough that single-purpose cloud architecture simply isn’t up to the task of managing them. The move to multi-cloud is thus a natural progression, as opposed to some sort of radical paradigm shift.

A Multi-Cloud Future Lies Ahead

Industry experts have maintained for some time that multi-cloud is the future of cloud computing within enterprise. Dimensional Research’s survey simply drives this truth home. If your business is considering a leap into the cloud, it’s worth considering if a single public, private, or hybrid solution will be enough. You need to take stock of all your requirements – if you don’t, you might find what you end up with simply doesn’t fit your organization.

Do you think multi-cloud is the new “holy grail” of computing? Let us know in the comments.