If you’re a large enterprise, you’re in pretty good shape for the cloud: you know what kind of security you want and need, you have security staff who can validate what you’re getting from the provider, and you can hold up your end of the deal – since it takes both customer and provider working together to build a complete security program. Most of the security providers out there are building for you, because that’s where the money is; and they’re eager to work on scaling up to meet the requirements for your big business. If you want custom security clauses in a contract, chances are, you’ll get them.

But at the other end of the scale there are the cloud customers I refer to as being “below the security poverty line.” These are the small shops (like your doctor’s medical practice) that may not have an IT staff at all. These small businesses tend to be very dependent on third party providers, and when it comes to security, they have no way to know what they need. Do they really need DLP, a web application firewall, single sign-on, log management, and all the premium security bells and whistles? Even if you gave them a free appliance or a dedicated firewall VM, they wouldn’t know what to do with it or have anyone to run it.

And when a small business has only a couple of servers in a decommissioned restroom*, the provider may be able to move them to their cloud, but it may not be able to scale a security solution down far enough to make it simple to run and cost-effective for either side. This is the great challenge today: to make cloud security both effective and affordable, both above and below 10,000 feet, no matter whether you’re flying a jumbo airliner or a Cessna.

-Wendy Nather, The 451 Group

*True story. I had to run some there.

So why did Netflix make the move? Economics – plain and simple. It is less expensive to move to the cloud than it is to continue supporting everything via internal Netflix DCs. In a cloud model, peak traffic loads dictate Netflix’s economics – they pay for peaks, but only when they occur. When traffic drops off, Netflix enjoys the resultant cost savings, plus they relieve themselves of a considerable management burden. The argument is straightforward.

All of this has brought me back to consideration of the “private” cloud (which is arguably not the cloud at all, but I digress) and the value that it offers. The industry definition of a private cloud is a cloud implementation that is internal to (still owned and operated by) a single enterprise. SoftLayer defines a private cloud a little differently: SoftLayer remains the IAAS provider, but we ensure that a customer is on a single node (i.e. server). This conversation will stick with the industry definition.

So, what are the impacts of the private cloud across an enterprise?

In theory, a private cloud would give individual departments or discrete project teams the ability to better manage cost. As with a public cloud, a project team would be able to take advantage of the cost savings that come with paying only for what they use. However, this means that change is necessary in corporate accounting functions given that systems now need to be managed based on a “pay as you go model” versus a cost center model. This means a fundamental change in IT philosophy, as they now need to bill departments working on a variable use model – all of a sudden they have to think more like a business unit with a P&L to manage.

The cloud provides the ability to quickly spin up and scale. In the SoftLayer world, this translates to availability in anywhere from 2-4 hours. This should mean an increase in operational efficiency across departments using the cloud. Projects can start and end quickly without concern for lengthy implementation or teardown windows. That said I am not sure this increase in efficiency is meaningful when balanced against an IT department that must build and support a cloud infrastructure that has to account for the operation across the entire enterprise. The impact is potentially great at a micro level, but wanes when you consider the larger picture.

From a planning point of view, IT must now consider what a variable use model means in practical terms. Different departments will experience different peaks and valleys based on different workloads. In all likelihood, these peaks will not align on the calendar, nor will they be consistent month over month. In addition, my assumption is that deployment of a cloud will engender unanticipated usage patterns given the supposed cost and operational flexibility that the cloud delivers within the enterprise. The challenge will be to balance these needs against the delivery of a service that will adhere to QoS promises and associated internal service level agreements. ( And I think they will have to exist. If IT moves beyond a cost center, and internal organizations are trying to budget based upon forecasted compute use, it only makes sense that IT will be held up against external providers. Indeed, I would expect some rogue departments to go off the reservation to external providers based on cost considerations alone.)

My guess is that the IT response to planning will be predictable – over-engineer the private cloud to make sure that it is bullet proof. This might work, but it will be expensive and will paradoxically lead to underutilization of what is an over planned resource – something the cloud is supposed to mitigate. This approach is also likely to lead to IT bloat as capable internal resources are likely to be thin, driving a round of hiring to ensure expertise is on hand to manage the cloud.

In addition, I would assume that some applications will continue to be supported (for a variety of reasons – security, I/O challenges), thus adding more cost to the equation.

The arguments against the private cloud are numerous and ought to give the enterprise pause for thought. Regardless, I am willing to bet that private cloud implementations will accelerate in the enterprise. Many companies are supported by IT organizations that are strong and well entrenched within the corporate culture. Part of the fight will be based around losing budget, headcount and perceived power if the decision is made to go to an external IAAS provider. All of the usual rubrics will be used: security, quality of service, performance and on the list goes. In essence, these are the same arguments that have been made in the past when a decision to outsource anything has come to the fore. Does it make sense to outsource everything? The answer is a resounding no, but the argument for looking to the public cloud, or SoftLayer’s private cloud is strong.

-@gkdog

The cloud promises a lot and it does deliver a lot.

• Control puts decisions and actions in the hands of the customer. Self-service interfaces enable automated infrastructure provisioning, monitoring, and management. APIs provide even greater automation by supporting integration with other tools and processes, and enabling applications to self-manage.
• Flexibility provides a broader range of capabilities and choices, enabling the customer to strike ideal balance of capital and operating expenses. In addition, access to additional infrastructure resources happens in minutes rather than week enabling you to respond “on demand” to changes in demand.
• Flexibility and control combined give administrators more choice. Who manages infrastructure (Internal staff or service provider?) Where are workloads processed in an internal datacenter or in the public cloud? When are workloads processed – is this resource-driven or priority-driven? How much to consume – is this policy-driven or demand-driven? How is IT consumed – via central administration or self-service?

Despite its numerous benefits, the operational and cost effectiveness for many enterprises is challenged by the fact that most cloud services come in limited configurations and only serve as standalone solutions. One cloud does not fit all – Fixed specs do not allow administrators to optimize a cloud environment with the ratio of processing power, memory or storage that its intended application needs for its best performance. Most cloud service providers offer a relatively small number of preconfigured virtual machine images (VMI), often starting with small, medium and large VMIs, each with preset amounts of CPU, RAM and storage. The challenge is that even a few sizes (versus only one) don’t fit everybody’s needs. For example, applications perform best when they are running on servers with optimized configurations. And every application has unique resource demands. If the server is “too small,” performance issues may arise. If the server is “too large,” the customer ends up paying for more resources than necessary.

To a degree we have already been doing lots of “cloudy” things given our focus on automation. Combine that with a set of tools that let customers self-provision and I think you see where I am headed. The next step up the value chain is SoftLayer’s “Build Your Own Cloud” solution. It delivers all of the benefits that I discussed above, but adds the logical step of handing configuration control to the customer. Customers are able to determine a number of things about the environment that their cloud sits on.

The end result is a cloud environment that is fit for customer purpose and customer cost. A classic win-win situation. I wonder what we will think of next.

-@nday91

I find I miss my Linux install. Due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. I’m too lazy to stop being lazy), and the fact that few games work well on Linux without lots of under-the-hood tweaking, I broke down and bought a Windows installation for my PC. In between mining asteroids in my Retriever Mining Ship and solving 3D puzzles with a transdimensional gun, I do normal work with my computer; programming, web design, web browsing, video editing, file management, the whole deal.

Windows Vista, however, has a new feature that makes my work awesome. No, I’m not talking about the 3D accelerated desktop with semitransparent windows (although that IS awesome). I’m talking about the new Start Menu search box.

In Windows XP (I’m doing this right now), hitting the Windows key opens up the start menu. I can either use the mouse to navigate the menu (why use the start key if you’re going to mouse the menu?), or navigate with the keyboard arrows. However, this can be quite tedious and slow. If I remember the program’s “.EXE” name and the program is on the Windows System Path, I can select “Run…” and type in the name, like wmplayer for Windows Media Player. But the names are funky and again, the cool programs aren’t on the path.

In Windows Vista, however, when you bump the start menu, a new device, the SEARCH BOX, is automatically engaged in the start menu! So, when I want to use, say, Notepad, I type ‘windows key notepad enter’. Goldwave (sound recording) is ‘windows key goldwave enter’. When I want to use a Open Office tool, I bump the Windows key, type “open office” and then select the tool I want with the arrow keys, as the search box narrows down the huge Start Menu to just the entries that make sense. Even cooler: when it’s budget time, I hit the Windows key then type “budget”. Search brings up “Apartment Budget.ods”. Select that with the arrow keys, and it opens Open Office Calc (spreadsheet) for me.

It’s like having a command line in Windows. Any program is just a few keystrokes away, and for a Linux nut and a touch typer like me, means that my computer is that much more efficient. I don’t need muscle memory with the mouse to navigate the start menu, I don’t have to squint at the menu items and find my program. I just have to remember the name!

Try it some time. It’s almost as awesome as saying “Engage” and going to Vulcan.

-Shawn