Virtualized and private cloud infrastructures are all about sharing resources – compute, storage and network. Optimizing these environments comes down to the ability to properly balance capacity supply and application demand. In practical terms, this means allocating the right amount of resources and putting workloads in the right places. These decisions are critical to ensuring performance, compliance and cost control.
Yet most organizations are using antiquated methods such as home-grown spreadsheets and best guesses to determine which infrastructure to host workloads on and how much capacity to allocate. Not only do these approaches hinder operational agility, but as hosting decisions become more and more complex, they are downright dangerous. The typical strategy employed to stave off risk is to over-provision infrastructure, and the thinking behind this is that having an excess of capacity on hand will ensure that enough resource is available to avoid any performance problems. This is not only expensive, but it actually doesn’t prevent key operational issues and many of the performance and compliance issues that are caused by incorrectly combining workloads.
Demand for data sovereignty puts home grown data centres in the spotlight
The continuing revelations by former US National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden about the extent of data surveillance are rumbling like thunder around the cloud computing industry.
This is likely to be more than just a passing storm in a tea cup as there could be lasting repercussions on where cloud users and providers store their data.
Companies, governments and the European Parliament are starting to take a long hard look at the whole issue of data sovereignty which may well trigger a rush for securing data on home soil. At this moment the European Parliament is considering a proposal to suspend the ‘US – EU Safe Harbor Framework’ currently in place and so prevent the data flows of EU citizens being passed to American companies – not only this, the motion is also calling for the creation of indigenous European clouds to promote more growth and greater trust in cloud computing …
Compuware APM Introduces Smart Network Packet Capture and Analysis
Compuware Corporation has announced a major new release of its Data Center Real User Monitoring solution (DC RUM). Enhanced analytics and new network packet capture and analysis capabilities simplify identification and triage of performance issues across applications, infrastructure and network. Now application operators can monitor and understand the network impact on application performance down to the transaction and user level at packet-level depth. The new availability analytics span all layers of a business transaction, from the network TCP session all the way up to the application logic.
Bloated Web Pages Can Make or Break the Day
In a previous post, we discussed why GoDaddy could sustain the peak load after its Super Bowl Ad campaign aired and why others like Kia wasted a lot of marketing money because its site availability dropped under the load. In this post, we will look at the technical details behind the impact of oversized pages, and how that may have been averted by kia.com.
Previously, I noted availability issues occurred for Kia during game time. The Kia team broke an important performance rule – large number of bytes transferred.
First, let’s look at the anatomy of an American football fumble– play in motion, ball fumbled, pile-up ensues until possession is determined, then play is recovered or turned over.
How to Performance Test Automation for GWT and SmartGWT
This article is based on the experience of Jan Swaelens, Software Architect at Sofico. He is responsible for automatic performance testing of the company’s new web platform based on GWT and SmartGWT. Sofico is specialized in software solutions for automotive finance, leasing, fleet and mobility management companies.
About two years ago Sofico started a project to replace its rich desktop application (built with PowerBuilder) with a browseribased rich Internet application. The developers selected GWT and SmartGWT as core technologies to leverage their in-house Java expertise because they believed in the potential of what these (fairly) new technologies had to offer. Their goal was to replace the existing desktop client with a new one that ran in a browser. Their eyes where set on a better user experience and high degree of customization possibilities to give their customers the flexibility and adaptability that they need to run their businesses.
Ambernet Technologies to Exhibit at Cloud Expo New York
SYS-CON Events announced today that Ambernet Technologies, the innovative “Cloud Management Center” company, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 14th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 10–12, 2014, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York.
Ambernet Technologies is a leading global provider of cloud management software (CloudTruOps) and IT professional services to the enterprise, service provider and government markets. CloudTruOps is the industry’s first infrastructure-independent and service-aware software solution that provides a fully transactional single pane of glass for cloud service provisioning & orchestration, governance, policy, security, performance, self-service storefront, and billing/chargeback for multiple clouds. Ambernet’s IT professional services provide consulting services, solutions, and support. Ambernet is a global company with headquarters in Dallas, Texas and regional offices in Toronto, Canada, and Bangalore, India.
Salesforce.com’s remarkable growth continues, but 2014 will be more challenging
Jeremy Cox, Principal Analyst, Customer Engagement, Madan Shaina, Lead Analyst, Information Management Software
Salesforce.com grew by 33% year-on-year in its fiscal year 2014, breaking the $4bn mark. It was involved in larger transactions, several of which broke the $10m ceiling. At the earnings call in February 2014, the company’s chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, was clearly feeling bullish about the immediate future; he delivered a forecast that the company would grow by approximately 30% to $5.3bn over the coming year.
No other software company of this magnitude is growing as fast, but there are concerns around profitability and the increasingly competitive environment, as major vendors flesh out their cloud-based offerings.
Salesforce.com’s evangelism about the “Internet of Customers” pays off
As Salesforce.com continues to fund its growth at the expense of short-term profits, Marc Benioff’s evangelism about the “customer company” and Salesforce1 as the …
Data Center Transformation Advice
HP experts explain how enterprise IT operators and planners can keep their data centers from spinning out of control despite new requirements, leverage the best of converged systems, and improve efficiency.
As software-driven data centers have matured and advanced to support unpredictable workloads like hybrid cloud, big data, and mobile applications, the ability to manage and operate that infrastructure efficiently has grown increasingly difficult.
At the same time, as enterprises seek to rationalize their applications and data, centralization and consolidation of data centers has made their management even more critical — at ever larger scale and density.
What Are the Top Security Concerns When Moving to the Cloud?
Cloud computing brings a myriad of benefits for any enterprise, but it is also a cause for concern in a world where, according to InformationWeek, cyber criminals are now targeting «any company where they can find data to resell, disrupt or exploit.»
Moving your company’s sensitive data into the hands of third-party cloud providers expands and complicates the risk landscape in which you operate every day.
In order to understand what concerns should be given emphasis in your cloud security strategy, you need to understand what you can’t afford to lose and what can protect you.
Verizon Highlights Cloud, Managed Security Services Focus
Cloud and cybersecurity professionals Siki Giunta and Eddie Schwartz have joined Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ executive leadership team as the company focuses on providing enterprise cloud, managed security and machine-to-machine technology to its clients.
VES President John Stratton hired Giunta, who handled the global cloud business of CSC, to oversee the company’s global cloud ecosystem and prepare Verizon Cloud for market, Jeff Nelson wrote Thursday.
Schwartz, who was chief information security officer at RSA, joined VES in November and has headed the cyberforensics investigation and global consulting teams as well as formed the Verizon Cyber Intelligence Center.