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October 2011 - Posts

Top 10 Things I Learned About Cloud Last Week

Published: October 27 2011, 02:04 PM | 3 Comment(s)
by Andi Mann

Logicalis Cloud In a Box!While travelling back from VMworld EMEA last week, I stopped at London and visited with a fantastic CA Technologies customer and partner, Logicalis UK. Logicalis UK is an international provider of integrated information and communications technology (ICT) solutions and services, part of a group that employs over 2,000 people worldwide, with annualized revenues in excess of $1 billion.

Logicalis is doing some amazing things to deliver both public and private hosted cloud using CA Technologies, alongside key strategic partners Cisco and NetApp. While visiting their site in the UK - just outside of London, I learned a lot about the real world of cloud service providers.

The top 10 things I learned about cloud from my visit to Logicalis UK were:


1. Cloudbursting is real & it is happening today

There is a lot of hubbub over whether or not cloudbursting - the ability to shift an application from a private cloud into a public cloud when the demand for computing capacity spikes - is actually achievable in the real world. Well, I have seen it, and it is real. Logicalis does it today with incredible efficiency, as close to real-time as most mission-critical enterprise applications would realistically need.

2. Cloud in a box is real & exists today - literally

With the unique capabilities of Cisco UCS and NetApp storage, alongside CA Technologies automation and a lot of their own special sauce, Logicalis has literally put a cloud in a box. Wanna see it? Here it is! They have also solved a range of portability and security issues with some very clever solutions, even including the perennial "but what about administrators' physical access in a public cloud?" dilemma. And they make it look sexy as hell!

3. Expert partners make CA Automation Suite amazing

CA Technologies alone could not have made this unique solution happen without Logicalis - or vice-versa. Nor could we have made this solution work without other great partners, like Cisco and NetApp. Great partnerships like this bring people, process, and technology together to create unique and valuable solutions that are more than the sum of their parts - which is exactly what Logicalis delivers to its customers.

4. Cost savings from cloud can get real, fast

How about two and a half million pounds (~= $3.8m USD) in savings? Is that real enough for you? Logicalis has the numbers, but bottom line: if you avoid building a new data center, or reuse existing office (or classroom, warehouse, cupboard) space instead of dedicated conditioned raised floor space, then the savings can be - and for Logicalis' customers, are - substantial.

5. You don't need server virtualization to do cloud

In the aftermath of the VMworld hype a lot of people are equating virtualization with cloud. VMware has a great cloud platform, which Logicalis and CA both support, but Logicalis and CA also deliver cloud services on a range of alternative virtual platforms (including Hyper-V and Xen), and even on bare metal x86 servers (as CA Labs on Demand has been doing in our own private cloud for years). And not just x86, because, as I have learned ...

6. You can find public cloud providers that go beyond commodity x86

It is easy to find a public x86 cloud for Linux/Windows workloads; but the options for mission-critical UNIX servers are few and far between. CA's Labs on Demand provided automated self-service for UNIX for private cloud, and soon Logicalis will be providing UNIX support in their public and on-premise hosted private cloud too, using the UNIX support in CA Automation Suite. There is more special sauce here, but UNIX support is no longer the roadblock to cloud it has been in the past.

7. You can run restrictively licensed apps in the cloud

Again, Logicalis brings some special sauce to migrate even software from large, intractable OS and application vendors from server to server, and even site to site, without license issues or roadblocks. If you have license issues today with cloud, you should talk to Logicalis about how they solved them. Crazy cool!

8. Great things happen when you combine great solutions

Logicalis is not just a CA automation customer, but combines the power of integrating CA Automation Suite for Clouds with CA Spectrum, CA eHealth, and CA ecoSoftware to deliver an incredible solution that is more than the sum of its parts. Alongside Cisco UCS and NetApp storage, this adds up to a mission-critical, enterprise-grade cloud solution that is unique, differentiated, and truly remarkable.

9. Cloud does indeed make for amazing Disaster Recovery

Logicalis is providing site-to-site replication that automatically detects system failures and replicates the failing environment to a public cloud infrastructure, though not instantaneous, certainly faster than it takes to go grab a coffee. The demonstration of this is amazingly powerful, which leads me to my last learning...

10. Hitting a big red ‘power-kill' switch still freaks me out a little

Part of the DR demo the Logicalis crew gave me simulated an emergency outage by inviting me to hit this big red kill switch - as seen in data centers everywhere. When I did, I immediately heard the sickening (lack of) sound as the cloud-in-a-box died mid-process. After working in data centers for over 10 years, that sudden silence still gives me a visceral reaction. Much credit to the Cisco and NetApp hardware though - Logicalis has done this hundreds of times, and the box is still running smoothly.

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Overall, it was a fantastic site visit for me. Logicalis UK is doing amazing things with CA Technologies and great partners like Cisco and NetApp. Their people were friendly, smart, and highly qualified. Their processes are sophisticated, proven, and automated.

The way they combine these critical elements of people, process, and technology to deliver unique and valuable solutions is an incredible revelation. Make sure to check them out.

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By: Andi Mann
Andi Mann is vice president of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies. With over 20 years’ experience across four continents, Andi has deep expertise of enterprise software on cloud, mainframe, midrange, server and desktop systems. Andi has worked within IT departments for governments and corporations...
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Pragmatic Cloud: Technician, Disintermediate Thyself!

Published: October 26 2011, 09:32 AM | no comments
by George Watt

Can we be of better service by providing less service?

"There is unrest in the forest"

During a recent Cloud Exchange event the discussion turned to business consumers bypassing their IT colleagues and acquiring cloud services on their own. Sadly this type of disintermediation, business users "going rogue", is a phenomenon that we have been discussing for a while and it appears we may be doing so for quite some time. During the discussion I found myself saying "not all disintermediation is bad". Though now, as then, some additional explanation is required.

Disintermediation as a force multiplier

During similar discussions at previous conferences it occurred to me that there were several times early in the development and deployment of our private cloud when we intentionally disintermediated ourselves. In fact, we came to learn that selective disintermediation was a strategic weapon. We found that if we made it possible for people to acquire specific services simply and without the intervention of our team, disintermediation was a powerful force multiplier. In fact, it was likely one of the top five economic levers we had. Furthermore, not only did automated self-service solutions help us to allocate more of our team's time to strategic work such as high value automation, it also made our customers happier.

Happier? Absolutely. Think about a time when you may have wanted to acquire something without expending a lot of effort. Perhaps it was a book you wanted to read. Have there been cases where you bought that item online because you did not want to be bothered going to the local book store because it was a bit inconvenient? Have you ever bought something online because you thought the in-person experience would be unpleasant? When I asked this question of participants at the last Cloud Exchange, most indicated they had.

In the above cases you intentionally disintermediated the sales clerk because doing so delivered a better experience. Though disintermediation is not only a tool for avoiding the unpleasant... used properly, it can be a tool to provide additional value.

You're always free to leave

As I considered this I was reminded of one of the earliest examples of disintermediation that had a positive impact on my professional life. Believe it or not, there was actually a time when people had to check out of hotels. Face-to-face. At that time I was a field engineer and traveled more or less every working day of the year (and then some). I rarely spent more than a day or two in one place so several mornings each week I would wait in line, luggage in hand, to settle my bill. This process was unpredictable, though it was likely at least 10 or 15 minutes at the best of times, but often it took longer. The net effect of this was, since I had to be certain I could arrive at my customers' premises on time, I had to schedule a half hour on each morning of a check out.

Disintermediation to the rescue

Think about that. That's a half hour, two to five times every week. In a single year that represents  approximately 50-125 total hours set aside to accommodate hotel check-out. Now multiply that for years. Then came "Zip-out Check-out", "No Hassle Check-out", and many other similar services. These services let guests have charges automatically assigned to their credit cards and either check out via their television or by picking up a receipt from a slot in the lobby. It's obvious that these services have evolved and most hotels offer an even simpler automatic check-out today. Guests need only visit the reception desk if there is a problem with the bill (in my experience, a very rare occurrence).

So, what's the big deal? It certainly was not that I did not want to speak with the agents. I knew most of them very well. Think about what that meant to me. Thirty minutes 2-5 times a week - of my personal time - were again mine. That was a huge gift to me. Even at two check-outs per week, that would be more than forty hours of personal time returned to me each year. (It was likely twice that.) It also meant a much more predictable schedule.  Check-out would no longer be a factor in whether I would be on time for a customer visit.

Disintermediation for service improvement

So, with "Zip-out Check-out" I have a much better service, and they have a much more efficient operation. Of course, we are all aware that this type of positive disintermediation is not limited to rapid check-out services. We happily and willfully select "positive disintermediation" each and every day through services such as online shopping, self-service retail check-out, and automated banking machines.

Technician, Disintermediate thyself!

So disintermediation can be used as a strategic weapon; both for IT and for the businesses they serve. We used "positive disintermediation" to deliver better, faster service while giving our team more time to focus on those high-value activities such as further automating our environment. It also enabled us to be more nimble and more responsive to our customers.

With proper focus, and selection of the appropriate services, disintermediation can be morphed from the mostly negative connotation it has amongst many IT professionals today into one of the most powerful economic levers at their disposal.

Have you done any novel or "positive" disintermediation? If so, please share your story.

*Image used under Creative Commons License courtesy of Witt Istanbul Suites.

This blog is cross-posted at Pragmatic Cloud. Follow @GeorgeDWatt on Twitter.

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By: George Watt
George Watt ( @GeorgeDWatt ) is VP of Strategy for the Cloud Computing organization at CA Technologies. For nearly 25 years, George has been helping customers simplify and automate their complex IT infrastructures. Prior to his current role, George founded CA Technologies Engineering Services team, which...
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Cloud IaaS Management API Contenders Battle It Out

Published: October 24 2011, 02:04 PM | no comments
by Marvin Waschke

There is a battle going on in the IaaS standards world with several contenders, and as we've seen many times before, in computing, winner-take-all standards battles tend to take a long time. So, who are the contenders and how will this battle play out? Before we get there, let's consider a similar example from the world of local area networks (LANs). The last update to the token ring standard was in 1998, but by 2005, Ethernet had almost entirely supplanted token ring as the preferred LAN protocol. Interestingly, a quick Google search shows that you can still buy new token ring hubs and cables almost fifteen years after the last standard update, and the decline in popularity of token ring began a decade before.

The Ethernet versus token ring choice is a good example for comparison with the choice of IaaS management. Both are in an area where interoperability is important. In the '80s, there were token ring shops and Ethernet shops, but few that combined the two. Likewise, IaaS consumers are likely to stick with one IaaS protocol. The future is hard to predict, but unless a clear preference emerges in the next few years, the IaaS market is likely to segment along protocol lines.

Why? For the same reason IT shops divided into Ethernet LANs and token ring LANs. You could combine Ethernet and token ring. It was not impossibly hard. There were network interface cards (NICs) that would support both protocols and vendors who were ready and able to supply equipment that would combine the protocols, or at least allow them to peacefully coexist. But why bother? Once you choose your protocol, why give yourself a complexity headache by adding another?

Now, let's turn to IaaS protocols. One of the goals of cloud computing is to shift transparently and effortlessly between private clouds, shared clouds, and public clouds. If each of those clouds has its own management protocol, it is possible to shift smoothly if you have the right infrastructure in place, but it leads to a complexity headache. IaaS cloud users are likely to follow the example of the Ethernet vs. token ring and stay with cloud providers that use the same protocol.

Today, four protocols are prominent; one is proprietary, two are emerging standards, and one is an open source project:

  • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): A proprietary protocol developed by Amazon for its Amazon Web Services (AWS) IaaS. EC2 is naturally a leader because Amazon offering leading vendor of IaaS services. EC2 has the advantage of experience; it has been in use longer and probably has more users than any other IaaS management protocol. EC2 offers SOAP and REST versions of the protocol.
  • OCCI (Open Cloud Computing Interface): This Proposed Recommendation from the Open Grid Forum (OGF) is an emerging standard. It will remain in "proposed" status for a year, at which point it becomes a full Recommendation based on working implementations of the Proposed Recommendation. Only a REST interface is described in the OCCI documents although the standard is structured to allow for other protocols. OCCI was written by a group of cloud vendors and academic institutions.
  • CIMI (Cloud Infrastructure Management Interface): An emerging standard under development by the DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force) Cloud Management Working Group (I wrote about this in a past blog post). A work in progress was published in September 2011 with a standard for a REST interface and usage primer. A SOAP version of the interface is planned for later release. The DMTF is an international industry group that concentrates on IT management protocols.
  • OpenStack: The fourth important IaaS management protocol is part of the OpenStack Cloud Software cloud operating system and is an open source project under the Apache 2.0 license. It is different from the other three protocols noted above because it aims to release both the protocol and the source for an implementation of the protocol. This ambitious project was initiated by NASA and Rackspace Hosting in 2010. The project is written in Python and C++ and provides a REST interface to IaaS management.

 

Can we predict a winner?

Each of these protocols has advantages. You'd need a crystal ball to try to predict which will gain prominence over the others, although I am fairly certain that in the next few years, there will be a single predominant protocol, just like Ethernet has come to dominate LAN networks. Which one of these will occupy that position is sheer guess work. There is even a credible possibility that another, currently unknown or unnoticed protocol will sweep the field.

In future blogs (which will be posted at Cloud Commons), I plan discuss each of these protocols in more detail. Predicting the future is hard, but I hope to provide some insight that will help potential users of these protocols to make informed decisions.

 

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By: Marvin Waschke
Marv Waschke is a senior principal architect at CA Technologies. He has represented CA Technologies in several standards groups including the Cloud Management Working Group and Configuration Management Database Federation working groups of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). He is also a member...
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CA World Preview: The DevOps Convergence - Where agile development meets agile infrastructure

Published: October 19 2011, 12:35 PM | no comments
by Andi Mann

 

We're very excited to have Kurt Milne, managing director of the IT Process Institute, and one of my co-authors of Visible Ops Private Cloud joining us for a couple of sessions at CA World in less than a month. Kurt has 20+ years experience in various marketing management, alliance management, and engineering positions at leading technology companies. His main areas of expertise include IT service management and IT controls, inventory and supply chain management, and computer integrated manufacturing. He has led six major research studies and is responsible for overall ITPI operations including sponsorship and membership.

I had an opportunity to ask Kurt a few questions over email about his DevOps session (The DevOps Convergence - Where agile development meets agile infrastructure, 11/16 @ 4 pm PT in Mandalay Bay Ballroom L):

Tell us about your upcoming session at CA World 2011.

In our industry there has been significant focus on adopting agile development techniques.  There is also considerable focus on new cloud computing models.  I'll be speaking about DevOps - where those agile development and agile infrastructure converge. 

What are the top 3 things you want attendees to learn from your session?

One, that the benefits of really optimizing the DevOps point of convergence are significant: faster release of applications, better code, and higher service levels.Two, that the core problems at organizations that haven't optimized the point of interaction between Dev and Ops, can be understood and resolved. And three, that culture change may be required to improve collaboration between groups that may not have worked well together in the past. But tools can significantly improve the upstream and downstream processes that are needed to improve collaboration and gain the benefits of DevOps.

Tell us a key insight you have gained about DevOps?

The combination of new cloud IaaS capabilities, where you can stand up infrastructure from a few commands, and new automated deployment and configuration of complex multi-tier workloads from templates - is really transformative. Don't confuse DevOps with Continuous Deployment. And don't pigeon hole DevOps as something that only works for Web App startups. Every enterprise IT organization should be exploring how to implement DevOps practices and tools at their organization. Another way to approach DevOps  - "Assume your competitors are getting good at this!"

What do you hope to take away from CA World this year?

I look forward to experiencing the ongoing evolution of datacenter technology and cloud computing. These really are exciting times in our industry. I appreciate time when I can pause normal daily activities and step back to learn and explore new capabilities.

 

Thanks to Kurt for taking a few minutes to share his thoughts on his session and the event.

For those of you who are attending CA World, we look forward to seeing you very soon in Las Vegas! Be sure to drop by the Cloud Choice booth on Wednesday, 11/16 from 12:15 - 1:15 pm PT when Kurt, Jeanne Morain and I will be signing copies of Visible Ops Private Cloud.

Not yet registered? Click here to register and use the Agenda Builder to customize your schedule. Select "Cloud Choice" from the focus area drop down menu for cloud-related sessions.

Not able to attend? Follow the #CAWorld hashtag for general event-related tweets or #cloudchoice for updates on cloud sessions and activities.

 

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By: Andi Mann
Andi Mann is vice president of Strategic Solutions at CA Technologies. With over 20 years’ experience across four continents, Andi has deep expertise of enterprise software on cloud, mainframe, midrange, server and desktop systems. Andi has worked within IT departments for governments and corporations...
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Top five reasons to sign up for the Cloud Choice focus area at CA World 2011

Published: October 13 2011, 04:03 PM | no comments
by Katherine Demacopoulos

We thought we'd give you 5 more reasons to attend the Cloud Choice Focus Area at CA World 2011 beyond the fact we have more than 40 presentations across 3 tracks and dozens of cloud demos where you'll learn how to leverage the rapidly accelerating set of choices that cloud computing offers. And, gain insight into when, where, and how to incorporate cloud computing into your IT portfolio. Click here to register!

1. Cloud Choice, Your Voice:

Nothing defines IT at the Speed of Business like the cloud, and at CA World 2011, you'll discover how the latest innovations in cloud technology have the power to transform your organization by increasing your organization's agility, efficiency, elasticity, and cost effectiveness. Our goal at the conference is to show you the impact that cloud computing and our solutions can have on your organization, as well as provide you with expert knowledge on how to best navigate and leverage the distinct choices made available by the cloud.

2. Witness the Next Evolution of Cloud:

The benefits of cloud extend beyond agility and cost reduction. Organizations that adopt cloud can now leverage a cloud ecosystem to collaborate, compose, buy, sell, and deploy cloud services. The Cloud Commons ecosystem is a central hub of this evolution. Attend the Cloud Commons ecosystem sessions and check out the ecosystem pavilion on the Exhibition Center floor to learn best practice approaches for adopting cloud, speed the development of software projects, and simplify the process of buying, selling, and hosting cloud solutions.

One attendee at each of the following sessions will win a $1,000 DonorsChoose.org gift card!

  • Buying & Selling Cloud Solutions with Cloud Commons Marketplace
  • Extracting Value from a Cloud Ecosystem
  • Creating Appliances with Cloud Commons Developer Studio
  • Best Kept Secrets of Cloud Service Providers

3. Virtualization to Private Cloud:

Thought about moving to the cloud, but still not sure of the right approach? In their book, Visible Ops Private Cloud, Andi Mann, Kurt Milne and Jeanne Morain detail the four practical steps to get your organization from virtualization to a private cloud. Attend their session where they'll be detailing successful approaches undertaken by over 30 top-performing IT leaders. Don't miss the book signing after the event!

4. Mobile Cloud:

Tweet from your seat as you learn about the latest advances in mobile cloud and how to leverage new mobile technology in your organization. IT is often reactionary when it comes to making use of the latest trends, which is why employees will sometimes "go rogue" and find ways to use new tools that aren't being utilized by the organization. In our sessions on mobile cloud, you'll learn how IT can securely harness the power of mobile cloud to innovate and stay ahead of the curve.

5. Your Peers Talk Cloud:

At CA World 2011, you'll hear from many of your peers-enterprises and service providers alike-who are operating in a cloud environment and are eager to share their experience with you. Their expertise will help you avoid pitfalls and build off of the success that they encountered in the cloud. All aspects of the cloud will be addressed by presenters from the following organizations: UCLA, Qualcomm, CenturyLink, Wipro, ViaWest, Belgacom, PureSCM, CloudITeration, ScaleMatrix, CorePlus, DNS Europe, ScaleUp, MyCroft Inc, IT Process Institute, Deloitte, Infosys, PwC and Logicalis.

Just 5 more reasons to register for CA World 2011! Make sure to sign up for the Cloud Choice Focus Area to receive all the information about sessions, tracks and events at the conference. Register today!

 

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By: Katherine Demacopoulos
Katherine Demacopoulos is senior advisor, cloud computing, at CA Technologies. She has more than 15 years experience in marketing and communications for innovative enterprise software companies. She was one of the earliest employees in several start-ups, including NetEdge Systems (acquired by Larscom...
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