A new year is often a time for reflection on the past and pondering the future. 2010 was certainly a momentous year for cloud computing. An explosion of tools for creating clouds, a global investment rush by service providers, a Federal "cloud first" policy, and more. But in the words of that famous Bachman Turner Overdrive song... Continue Reading →
Cloud Core Principles – Elasticity is NOT #Cloud Computing Response
Ok, I know that this is dangerous. Randy is a very smart guy and he has a lot more experience on the public cloud side than I probably ever will. But I do feel compelled to respond to his recent "Elasticity is NOT #Cloud Computing .... Just Ask Google" post. On many of the key... Continue Reading →
If You’ve Never Used A Cloud, Can You Call Yourself An Expert?
A recurring challenge I have with a lot of enterprise vendor "cloud" solutions I get briefed on is that they seem to be designed and built without any real understanding of how and why customers are actually using the cloud today. I suspect in most cases that this results from the fact that the people... Continue Reading →
SQL In the Cloud
Despite the NoSQL hype, traditional relational databases are not going away any time soon. In fact, based on continued market evolution and development, SQL is very much alive and doing well. I won't debate the technical merits of SQL vs. NoSQL here, even if I were qualified to do so. Both approaches have their supporters, and both types of technologies can be used to build scalable applications. The simple fact is that a lot of people are still choosing to use MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server and even Oracle to build their SaaS/Web/Social Media applications. When choosing a SQL option for your cloud-based solution, there are typically three approaches as outlined here.
A Superb Company Culture
A couple of years ago I went to a reunion celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of Object Design, Inc. (now part of Progress Software). I joined ODI as an intern in 1991 while at Babson because a friend at The Weber Group (Larry Weber's PR firm from the 90's) told me I should... Continue Reading →
HP Cloud Strategy? No So Much…
At Interop this week I met with Doug Oathout, VP of Converged Infrastructure at HP. It's often been very frustrating trying to figure out if HP really has a cloud strategy and is poised to compete in this market. While nobody would claim that HP is delivering any clarity on cloud right now, it sounds like... Continue Reading →
Savvis Offers Peek at Enterprise Cloud Future
I was first briefed on the Savvis Symphony VPDC (virtual private data center) back at Cloud Expo NYC in April of this year and had intended to post about it back then, or at least when they went live in July... so much for good intentions... They are starting to market this more heavily now,... Continue Reading →
Fixed Instance Sizes Are Dumb
After my recent post on EC2 Micro instances, I received a great comment from Robert Jenkins over at CloudSigma regarding the "false construct" of fixed instance sizes. There's no reason why an EC2-small has to have 1.7GB RAM, 1 VPU and 160GB of local storage. The underlying virtualization technology allows for fairly open configurability of... Continue Reading →
CSC Throws off “N-I-H” – Partners with Skytap for Dev/Test Cloud
In a fairly uncharacteristic move, CSC rejected a traditionally strong "not invented here" syndrome and has joined forces with Skytap for their CloudLab service. The Skytap-powered CloudLab has been in customer testing at CSC since mid-August and is now generally available to CSC customers. Within the domain of enterprise IT, public cloud usage typically falls into one... Continue Reading →
Micro Instances Do Not a Web Host Make
Amazon's announcement of Micro Instances this week ist great news for web sites who need a lower-capacity intense type for simple operations or low-volume processes. Some people have equated Micro Instances with a VPS model, or specifically as competition to traditional mass market web hosts. A small instances is not an offering that replaces a... Continue Reading →
John Treadway 