The best thing about public cloud is it’s cheaper to fail than belabor conversations about whether to try it or not. If you physically touched it, estimated your peak demand before buying, and/or don’t have a re-occurring OpEx fee… IT’S NOT CLOUD.
If you’re an IT manager calling your internal VMware or other virtualization farm a “Private Cloud” in an attempt to prove to your leadership that “public cloud is insecure” or “I built the same thing as Amazon Web Services (AWS)”, you need to get ready for a dose of reality in the coming year.
Server-huggers beware, you might have been able to get away with it until now, but 2013 will mark a turning point in which the term Private Cloud will be permanently exposed for what it is… a capital intensive, server stacking, virtualization game.
Just because you might have flexibility to decide how much RAM you can assign to a VM, doesn’t give you the right to “cloud-wash” your internal IT operation and call it something that it’s not… because although it may be Private (can someone tell me again why it’s important to be able to touch your servers?), it’s certainly not Cloud.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
FileZoomer for Amazon S3 Adds Glacier, Life Cycle, Versioning, Batch Options
A new release of FileZoomer, a cross-platform client for Amazon’s S3 has been released, adding support for new S3 features including Versioning and Object Life Cycle. Object Life Cycle for S3 includes the option to migrate files to the lower-cost AWS Glacier storage option, and includes a facility to retrieve archived files so they can be downloaded from S3.
The Glacier support in S3, as featured in FileZoomer, does not require a separate AWS Glacier account. Instead it is handled transparently by S3 and FileZoomer.
Versioning allows the option of keeping previous versions of files as they are updated.
Unique to FileZoomer is the Batch Processing option, which allows the interactive creation of configuration files that control batch uploads, downloads, and syncing files between a local machine and S3. Once configured, the pre-defined actions can be invoked from within the FileZoomer client, of from batch processes in Windows, Mac OS X, or linux.
FileZoomer is a free java client that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and linux, and it can be downloaded from FileZoomer.com
Web Application Lifecycle Maintenance
Like an automobile, a web application needs occasional maintenance and management over its life cycle. Although it doesn’t need oil changes, it will probably need version upgrades. There may not be manufacturer recalls, but sometimes servers fail or hang. An application doesn’t need to be washed and detailed, but it does need to be backed up. And both cars and applications need occasional performance tuning.
This article provides a complete list of the system management functions that need to be performed on a standard architecture web application, with a particular emphasis on doing so in an Infrastructure-as-a-Service environment.
SYS-CON.tv Interview: The Power of Cloud
“We provide the solution for Budget2Pay, so anything to do with spend management within organizations so you have a clear vision of everything that is going on in your company,” explained Harm Poelen, Managing Director of 20/20 vision Europe, 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.
Outlook 2013: Enterprise Will Seek a Better Network to the Cloud
In 2012, much of the industry was focused on what’s going inside the data center to enable cloud computing. As we move into 2013 and beyond, enterprise IT will need to consider the network that connects the data centers – particularly how these inter-data center networks need to change to support new cloud use cases and associated network requirements for bandwidth scalability, low latency, security, virtualization and automation. As network specialists, Ciena has been concentrating on solving the connectivity issues between data centers, and data centers to the cloud.
There are multiple reasons for this. First, enterprise IT organizations are highly motivated to drive efficiencies. Enterprise is already deriving efficiencies from its network – first through data center consolidation, then virtualization. The cloud promises to offer up to 25 percent infrastructure savings on IT services and hardware expenses, according to some studies. In turn, the network is also a key enabler for cloud service providers to operate multiple data centers as a shared pool of virtual data centers. We’ve found through our own research that this can enable a 35 percent reduction in total cloud data center resources.
Cloud Computing: Oracle Buys Eloqua for the Cloud
automation and revenue performance management software.
It’s agreed to pay $23.50 a share, a 31% premium over Eloqua’s close Wednesday. Oracle said it would lay out $871 net of Eloqua’s cash. It seems we might figure about $811 million.
Eloqua, which got started in 2000, only IPO’d in August, raising $92 million at about $12 a share so Oracle is paying close to double the IPO price. The Wall Street Journal said it “has a history of losses and has warned it may not be consistently profitable in the future.”
My Four Foundations for 2013
As the last productive week of the year nears its end, time to think about what was important this year and what will be important next year. The first winter storm of the season is blowing into my northern Illinois location as I contemplate things, reminding me that I should have bought a snow shovel yesterday and that it’s unlikely I’ll be traveling more than a few feet from home today.
And let’s dispense with thinking about the current year. We all know what was important in our world, whether we’re only now thinking about migrating to the cloud and wonder how easy and cheap it really is to spin up an instance or two, or realized with horror we may have to rework massive ideas and deployments with Win8 in mind.
And let’s dispense with thinking about the current year. We all know what was important in our world, whether we’re only now thinking about migrating to the cloud and wonder how easy and cheap it really is to spin up an instance or two, or realized with horror we may have to rework massive ideas and deployments with Win8 in mind.
So, onto 2013, and the things I’ll be thinking about.
1. End violence. I’m just a technology writer, and most everyone in our industry is so focused on features, deliverables, competitive challenges, etc. that some high-flown unreachable idea like ending violence is not in our job description. Whether you join or contribute to an organization, develop products with this end, or simply keep telling people that Newtown, Syria, drones, and all the other soul-crushing violence must end, I hope you (and I) can do something to bring it down a few notches.
2. Fight for privacy. Too many people in our industry have been focused for too long in harvesting personal information for profitable use – I’m looking at you Google – seemingly unaware that this mindless pursuit is doing all of the donkey work for governments worldwide who would love to know everything you’re doing at all times. I was just in London, and did my brave part by routinely hoisting the middle finger to the ubiquitous cams there. As I trudged around, I felt as if I was in a remake of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.”
3. Green up! I had to (gasp) print something out while working at a big software company in Palo Alto a few years ago, and was chastised by the leader of the company’s Green Team for my moral lapse. I asked her where she and her family were vacationing that year. “Why, Dublin, Ireland. Thanks for asking!” She didn’t appreciate my point that my little print job was probably not as perfidious as the contrails from the 747s they’d be taking. That said, it’s time we start looking at datacenters, devices, processes, and the things we create in a more greenish light. I make the economic argument – the developing world uses 3-5% the per-capita power of the developed world. How can we ever achieve global economic growth and end poverty unless we can achieve moderate lifestyles with at least a magnitude more efficiency than today?
4. Predictive power. I’ve been talking to people all over the world over the past three weeks about the research I’ve been conducting for the past two years. A topic that repeatedly emerges is whether this stuff has any predictive power. Can we forecast economic growth, investment growth, or other concrete measures with it? If my team and I add a green element to it, will it carry any predictive power as to ROI for green investments, etc. Heck, I don’t know. Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition, and only a few predicted the timing of the economic meltdown in 2008. Humans are pretty irrational, and it’s therefore pretty hard to predict their behavior, unless you’re at a big sporting event or inside a casino. This will be my main braincrunch of the year. Paraphrasing the Donald Sutherland character from Kelly’s Heroes, “the data’s pretty, but can it fight?”
That’s it. No cutesy “13 for ’13” list for me. There’s enough going on here to keep me busy and mildly insane for the entire year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
SYS-CON.tv Interview: Innovation in the Cloud
“At CoreSite we have the benefit of having over 150 cloud providers within our data centers. We want to enable our cloud community to really do some innovative things,” explained Gerry Fassig, VP at CoreSite, 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: Cloud Service Management
“CompatibleOne is a cloud service broker – it’s an intermediary between consumers and producers and it also enables them to integrate different services together,” explained Jean-Pierre Laisné, Open Source Manager at CompatibleOne, 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.
Personal Cloud – Next Trend in IT
Business is continually seeking ways to improve functions. One of the most financially burdensome departments for many companies is IT. To succeed in any industry, a system needs to be in tune with the fast pace of the world it serves. Sustaining such an environment requires dedication to maintaining resources, both in terms of labor as well as equipment. Cutting out needed IT staff for a system that requires around the clock monitoring can halt business continuity should something go awry. Because the infrastructure and staff go hand-in-hand, not investing enough in either category will have adverse effects on business.
To circumvent these situations, companies are now seeking cloud computing models for business applications. Cloud computing is a concept that has a somewhat broad definition. Essentially, business systems for public cloud systems are services that provide the same functionality as network infrastructure to varying degrees. Rather than investing a large sum of money in creating a server environment to retain data and host applications, cloud services have much more appeal as the back-end mechanics for traditional computing environments are eliminated, requiring only a client and an internet connection to use such a service.