Monitis: Cloud Monitoring Blog

There’s no doubt in my mind that cloud computing is reshaping the IT world and that more and more companies are convinced of its efficiencies and cost-savings. For example, with the cloud, there’s no need to manage complex systems underlying apps and databases, and you only pay for what you use.

Nevertheless, it’s worth remaining cautious before jumping on the cloud bandwagon, as there are no established standards yet. Here are a few points to consider:

- Security – Make sure your provider is registered as a data processor under the Data Protection Act (EU equivalent or US Safe Harbour) because you want to be able to trust whether that company is safely handling your customer files and other sensitive data.  Check into their policies and procedures on transferring, protecting and recovering data, as well as how they keep it confidential.

- Service – Get a service-level agreement. This will concretely define your expectations on minimum levels of service provided as well as compensation should your provider fail to keep their end of the bargain – for example, failed access to your data or apps.

- Speed – Consider whether your internet bandwidth can handle the increase in volume once you switch to cloud services. If not, you may want to consider alternate or multiple services.

-  Cost – Ask how much it’ll cost you to get off the cloud (if you must), for example, if you want to switch to another provider.  And will you be able to get your data back? These are important factors to consider.

Once we see more standards established in cloud computing, these issues will become less important. But it’s a good idea to be prepared and cautious when considering a move to the cloud.

The U.K.’s Telegraph has more to say on cloud computing risk. Check it out.

Cloud providers everywhere: listen up. Here are some good pieces of advice to bear in mind when developing cloud capacity and services. These tips are from a recent story that I read that discusses the realistic cloud computing needs of corporations.

Why read on? The recession and the corporate mandate for IT departments everywhere to cut costs is raising interest in cloud services. Meanwhile, many firms are still wary about making the change from internal-based servers, while others are test-driving systems on an application basis or with specific business processes.

- Differentiate yourself.  It’s already cluttered out there in Cloudville and the hype is deafening. Get more in tune with the specific business challenges that are facing your customers and design according to what you learn.  In short, be more explicit and more proactive in how you explain and differentiate cloud offerings from your competitors. There’s a lot of customer skepticism out there, and much of it can be overcome with more details from you.

- Know what else helps companies overcome their skepticism: market leadership and innovation. For instance, you can establish yourself as a cloud computing leader in research, analysis or forecasting, technology innovation, a provider of business value…or in other categories. If your customers see you as helping to shape the cloud industry and agenda, they’ll have greater confidence in you and your ability to deliver cloud services.

- Develop cloud services ecosystems. Let’s face it… rarely can an IT services provider deliver all the pieces of a cloud solution on its own. Look for a partner that can complement what you offer and provide go-to-market products. Maybe it’s a software vendor you need, or perhaps another cloud provider as a partner. Such partnerships will increase visibility among your customers and grow sales coverage for cloud-based services.

Bottom line: companies are interested in cloud computing, but need more convincing. You can help them embrace the cloud by considering the above advice.

We all know that more businesses and consumers are turning to cloud computing as a more efficient way of, well, doing business and staying in touch.  The beauty of cloud computing enables users to move and access data online from a single computer, and that means they can do business or stay in touch from any computer anywhere.

But, businesses and consumers that use the cloud to run applications and access data will increasingly be doing it without plugging in.

That’s according to a recent article on wireless cloud computing, quoting a Chicago Tribune tech writer Wailin Wong. She predicts that the migration to web access via wireless devices will soon make cloud computing even more virtual.  Already, many consumers are using the cloud wirelessly – for example, using their web-enabled mobile phones to share photos on Facebook and access email via Google.

"Industry players expect the number of mobile cloud computing applications to grow rapidly over the next few years," Wong commented, in the story.

I agree. Cloud computing is here and growing, and the ever-increasing use of wireless devices to access the web can only speed the trend. 

Amazon CloudFront was made to ease the distribution of content to users at fast speeds but with low latency.  The most recent freeware release of CloudBerry Explorer features CloudFront support.  It lets one create and handle distribution, assign CNAMES, or automate the whole process by using Windows PowerShell.  The CloudBerry Explorer also features strong support for batch changes for S3 object Access Control Lists; some videos are available to give help.

Managing Amazon S3 storage files is easy with CloudBerry Explorer.  It lets one manage files on cloud just as they would be handled on one’s own computer by providing one with a user interface for the Amazon S3 files, accounts, and buckets.  CloudBerry Explorer can be downloaded for free as freeware software.

Amazon CloudFront integrating with other Amazon Web services allows developers and business an efficient way to distribute contents to end users without contractual commitments.  Using global network of edge location system, Amazon CloudFront automatically routes your queries to the nearest edge location for optimal performance, and enables swift data content distribution.  It works seamlessly with Amazon Simple Storage Service [Amazon S3], thus requiring no modification in your data file storage. Best of all, like all Amazon Web services, there are no contracts for using Amazon CloudFront-you pay only when you use it, and for exact quantities of service delivered.

The surge in Cloud Computing has taken a new turn and entered the field of wireless communication; recent article in Chicago Tribune highlights the innovations and benefits. Using Hotmail, Facebook and Google Docs from wireless devices are examples of Cloud Computing which are now being taken to a whole new level that would allow users to be free of personal computers.

Both Motorola and Clearwire believe that future of Cloud Computing from wireless devices is bright where colleagues can work from any location (one working from home, other from the back seat of the car) on the same file, or tourist taking pictures and uploading to online albums right away. ABI Research estimate shows 19% Cloud Computing subscribers by 2014 would be wireless. The aim is to bring devices below Smart Phones to Cloud Computing.

Motorola has introduced Motoblur which is a web-based service, accessible from Motoblur-enabled handsets. It aggregates user’s data from online networks and streams updates to the phone. In case of phone lost the content can be remotely wiped as well as transferred to another handset without any loss of data. This is only part of Motorola’s vision and more improvements will be brought in future.

AT&T has its network burdened by iPhone users which will continue to grow. The need for high bandwidth is important and that’s what Clearwire aiming at with its WiMax network that would be expanded to 80 US markets by 2010. The expansion in Mobile Cloud Computing will allow more content access from affordable phones.

Even the mainstream press is getting on the cloud computing bandwagon!

A September 22nd story in The Wall Street Journal says cloud computing providers are in a recession-driven boom, as they offer companies cheaper ways to develop and manage IT infrastructure. Even investors are showing renewed interest in providers.

Industry analysts Gartner predicts that global revenue for cloud providers will grow to more than $56 billion this year, nearly 25% higher than 2008.  Gartner also says the market will climb to about $150 billion by 2013.

And I like the point that George O’Connor brought out in the piece. He’s a software and IT services analyst at institutional investor and corporate advisor at Panmure Gordon. "What makes this different is that it represents a more elastic approach to the problem of developing an IT infrastructure,” he said. 

He was referring to the fact that, up until now, companies had to build IT systems to “handle a limited number of specific business scenarios, but build them with the capacity to meet the highest possible demands.”  So, they’ve had to pay for IT platforms (along with servers, utility costs and server labor and management) that are far bigger than what they actually need.  Thus the savings of moving to a cloud platform, where you only have to pay for what you need.

I’m glad to see this subject taking on a wider audience because I think it’ll speed the adoption of virtual computing, and convince more corporations –and investors – of the savings and efficiencies that come with it.    

 Recently, Cast Iron Systems, a provider of cloud integration services, teamed up with Amazon in a business partnership. Specifically, the partnership will offer enterprises a way to move their applications to the Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud (Amazon EC2).

Why is this good news?

Well, if you’re like IT at many businesses today, you’ve probably been considering whether or not to move your apps and data from internal servers to the cloud. Yeah, everybody knows about the efficiencies and cost-savings, but what about the practical, how-to decisions involved: does all the data go, or does some stay? When the switch is flipped, will we be completely transitioned? How long does it take.

Cast Iron aims to manage those issues for companies making the move to the cloud. On the one hand, Cast Iron will help its business customers migrate data to Amazon. And it will also help firms easily manage access to their data.

This is a great example of providers recognizing that not every company is ready to jump on the cloud computing bandwagon. And that some want to, but not all at once.

It’s a hybrid world, and it’s good to see that the cloud work recognizes that.  You can read more about the Cast Iron/Amazon partnership on ZDNet.

Cloud computing just got a little easier, and for those still considering moving from virtual servers, perhaps more appealing. 

A recent article in a top industry publication showcases how enterprises can re-write and then move their legacy applications from servers onto the Amazon Cloud. The product is Queplix’s QueCloud, and it’s an upgrade from a tool that helped companies move old applications into virtualized servers.

I was fascinated reading how it works. First, “a crawler searches through the database to extract information such as business entities, metadata, user IDs and permissions, and builds new user interface screens.”  Next, a designer module “allows administrators to customize the look and feel of the system,” for instance, make improvements over the original user interface.

Finally, QueCloud deploys the workload to Amazon “as an application that will seem almost identical to users, but code has been replaced by Java code.”

Applications re-written for the cloud support advanced features, for example, search, auditing, data compliance, and automatic alerts for security breaches. And I expect that, as it becomes easier to migrate to cloud computing, for example, with products like Queplix’s, more companies will take their legacy applications off virtualized environments and onto the cloud.  

What do you think?

There’s an article that I highly recommend you check out on cnet. It’s on the government’s new Apps.gov portal and why it will change the economics and processes of Cloud computing.  For one, its IT Services catalogue structure brings cost savings and efficiencies. It’ll also give a friendlier end-user feel to Cloud service offerings, specifically the four category breakdown — Business Apps, Productivity Apps, Cloud IT Services, and Social Media Apps.

That’s a good thing for providers and users in and out of the government sector.  The story says Apps.gov should also remove government bureaucracy and save money because automation will eliminate lots of manual processes traditionally needed to manage service requests and things like approvals, price negotiations and certifications. Let’s hope private industry will watch and learn how to trim fat from Cloud computing. To read more about how Apps.gov will influence Cloud architecture, go here.

Since Citrix bought virtualization upstart XenSource, it’s been a bit confusing keeping track of all the similarly named products. But here’s something to tax your brain a bit more, Citrix is mixing different technologies to give more choices to customers trying to get consumers and business users to tap centrally controlled applications to PCs.

XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2 is Citrix’s new product, and here are some key features: It uses the terminal services method of giving PC users access to server variants of PC applications hosted on servers, and it can also stream an application stack from data center servers down to PCs and let the applications run locally on PCs or laptops that have a live link to those servers. The coding takes place on the PCs, not on the servers, and so there’s a lot less overhead on the servers. You get the application performance that you’d expect from a local PC. Gone are the hassles of tweaking PC apps (which you sometimes have to do to make terminal services work). Citrix is taking some of the code from its XenDesktop VDI solution and its XenServer hypervisor and wrapping them into XenApp 5. (You see what I mean about confusing names?)

According to an article in The Register, Citrix’s new app also has some valuable tools to "monitor server usage and loading in real-time, and allows system administrators to create policies to manage the powering up and down of servers in a XenApp network as workloads change." Citrix has also updated XenApp with better capacity management tools so that administrators can more easily do predictive capacity planning and help them sort out where to apply XenApp workloads (terminal services, streamed apps, or VM hosted apps) on a network of servers.

There are other improvements too, to note: more powerful HDX high-definition features. For one, through MediaStream for Flash, apps hosted inside multiple application containers in XenApp can nonetheless make use of local PC processing capacity to render Flash graphics and applications, and that takes a load off servers back in the data center. Another change: HDX also now supports plug-and-play USB devices locally on PCs -in other words, an app that needs to access a USB port is now possible over the network.

IntelliCache for MAPI is also a new feature, and it helps cut down on the "protocol chatter" between Microsoft Exchange Server messaging servers and Outlook PC clients. According to Citrix, Outlook/Exchange bandwidth can be cut down by a factor of six, and can improve email response time by as much as a factor of 50.

All in all, I think Citrix’s re-powered XennApp gives its business customers a strong choice for converting to centrally controlled apps. And choice is always good, yes?