Cloud Computing Platform

Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing: Is it the next big thing in the cloud?

Monday, January 18, 2010 by Alicia Gaba

By 2015, ABI Research predicts that more than 240 million business customers will be leveraging cloud computing services through mobile devices, reaching revenues of $5.2 billion. According to ABI Research, an evolving IT supply chain, business adoption of cloud platforms for IT services, and greater business use of handsets and smartphones are creating new revenue streams for both IT and mobile suppliers serving businesses.

ABI Research practice director Dan Shey said, "The immediate opportunity lies in leveraging cloud platforms to develop mobile applications, particularly mobile applications that leverage enterprise data. Directly and indirectly, Microsoft and Google are major players both influencing and enabling these developments. Mobile operators have the most to gain through offers of cloud services to the enterprise leveraging their networks, application enablement, and data centers."

I can think of many applications we use at BlueLock that would be great to be able to access on a mobile device. We've also begun to see a number of clients asking for mobile cloud options. I can definitely see this trend taking hold in a big way. What do you think?

If you have questions about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing options, please contact us.

Link to the original article.

Advantages of Cloud Computing Meetups

Thursday, December 3, 2009 by Matt Hunckler

All schmoozing and business-card-swaping aside, there are some fantastic advantages of attending cloud computing conventions and expos. I've found meetups like Cloud Camps, ITEC, TechPoint Summits, and Cloud Users Groups to be a fuel source for both professional and personal growth.

Assimilation of knowledge through osmosis is simple.
There are usually tons of super-smart people at events like those listed above. Whether these people are cloud computing providers, vmware virtual server specialists, or others utilizing a cloud computing platform; just standing b and listening in on conversations can be a learning experience. Be curious, pay attention, and ask questions.

Networking -- the interpersonal relationships kind -- reaps rewards.
Meet some new people, nd expand your network. How can you help event attendees? I always make it a goal to make at least three connections that don't immediately benefit me in any way. While you should never help someone with the intent to gain something in return, the law of reciprocity always pays dividends.

Fluency increases competency.
The simple repetition of explaining the advantages of cloud computing has helped me build a certain level of confidence and competence around the benefits of virtualization, vmware hoted environments, and SaaS irtualization. Join in the conversation and learn to talk the talk. The act of speaking about cloud computing platforms, helps to organize thoughts, enhance comprehension, and vet new ideas.

Bottom line: get out of the office and learn somthing from somebody -- including yourself. Find the next cloud computing meetup in your area. Hope to see you there.

Test/Dev Clouds in High Demand

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Matt Hunckler

I love my job. As a client specialist at BlueLock, I get to spend the majority of my time working with the innovative companies that are producing the products and services of the future and, at the same time, pushing the limits of cloud computing hosting.

In all of my conversations with BlueLock clients, one thing is clear:

There is massive demand for a cloud computing platform, specifically for testing and development, that is cost-effective and integrates well with production environments.

Many businesses have data and processing that doesn't require a fully-managed cloud hosting service at four nines (99.99%) uptime.

Some companies offer services that seem like they could be a good answer for this problem. IBM recently released Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, which seems like it might be a competitor of Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform.

The problem with some of these test/dev clouds is that they can't support VMware hosted environments. This means that, with test/dev clouds like EC2 and IBM's new offering, a company that is running their production environment on VMware can't necessarily integrate their test and production environments seamlessly -- an important consideration when doing a cloud computing comparison.

Enter vCloud Express...

One of the cool tools that the BlueLock engineers are tinkering with is a VMware-based, pay-as-you-go option that will be ideal for companies that need an environment that is dedicated to test and development. We announced vCloud Express back at the start of September, and since then, have received an overwhelming number of signups for the beta-version. In fact, we acually completely filled up all of the beta test slots!

I'm excited for the public launch of BlueLock's vCloud Express, because we'll be able to offer clients the perfect solution for their test/dev needs. Until then, I'll keep you posted as we continue to progress.

Key differences between Amazon EC2 and VMware vCloud Express

Tuesday, October 6, 2009 by Alicia Gaba

Rick Vanover ran a very interesting post on TechRepublic regarding the key differences between Amazon EC2 and VMware’s vCloud Express, which BlueLock, a VMware hosting provider, is participating in. vCloud Express was publicly launched at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco. BlueLock and four other cloud computing providers where chosen as launch partners to provide the new cloud computing platform.

Amazon EC2 is based on Citrix XenServer technology and VMware’s cloud offering is targeted directly at Amazon. vCloud Express is obviously based on VMware virtualization technology as well as their vCloud API.

Snapshot of the differences between pricing and offerings:

- Pricing is very similar although they do not align directly

o EC2 instances start at $.10 per hour, but they offer 1 or 3 year subscriptions that can bring that price down to $.03 per hour for Linux instances

o vCloud Express instances start at $.036 per hour and they offer subscriptions for Windows licensing as well
o vCloud Express charges $.01 per hour for public IP addresses and $.01 per hour for external internet access for the workload including load balancing (which isn’t available on EC2)

- vCloud Express has more instant provisioning options in regards to cores, processors and quantities of RAM
- Operating Systems

o vCloud Express has a broad offering including Windows 2008 server instances which aren’t yet available on EC2
o AWS has a comparatively limited OS

I’m a little confused why he closes his post by saying that AWS is currently the winner. Based on what he’s stated above about the offerings, I would say it seems as though VMware’s vCloud Express is the winner. Ah, because its beta and there are still a few limitations here and there. Watch out Amazon, vCloud Express could give you a run for your money when it graduates from beta status.

To learn more about vCloud Express, click here.

To read Vanover’s full post, click here.

Hybrid Cloud Computing: Consistency and Strategy within Your Organization

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 by Brian Wolff

John Engate over at Rackspace does a great job of calling out the reasons companies are resistant to adopting cloud and outlining ways that companies can dip their toe into the cloud.

Our CTO, Pat O’Day participated in a cloud computing panel discussion a couple of weeks ago where Erik van Ommeren from Sogeti correctly pointed out that many of these companies are already unwittingly participating in the cloud with their blogging platforms, linked-in profiles, etc. So then the issue isn’t really about cloud or no cloud – it’s about using the cloud in a way that is consistent with strategy and the needs of the organization.

The last point that John made in his article was to point out that a hybrid approach is likely to be the winner – because for most companies it’s not going to be an “all or nothing” approach. We couldn’t agree more. When we started BlueLock in 2006, we built our data center specifically to cater to these companies so that the distance light needs to travel to connect private cloud servers and our public cloud servers is a matter of feet, not miles. We built a 2N data center with racks for companies to colo their private cloud equipment and easily connect it to our cloud computing platform.

In the coming weeks we’re going to be rolling out a comprehensive approach to cloud computing that will enable companies to choose which type of cloud they want to be in and to align their infrastructure needs, budget and strategy with their cloud computing strategy.

Stay tuned…

Preventing Vendor Lock-in

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 by Alicia Gaba

Earlier this week, the Open Group announced the creation of the Cloud Work Group which was established to ensure the effective and secure use of cloud computing in enterprise architecture as well as to continue previous Open Group efforts to develop and promote standards for cloud computing that will prevent vendor lock-in, which has been a hot topic these past few months.

As we all know, there are hundreds of “cloud experts” with hundreds of different definitions about what cloud computing really is. I think we’re beyond that at this point. Cloud computing has no official definition, but at this point there’s a general consensus around capacity on demand, access via internet with the use of virtualization, etc. etc. So now that we’re no longer seeking the “what,” the focus has been drawn more towards the “how” in regards to how do we make this technology the best it can be, and in a format that is beneficial to the service providers and the end users.

And that is precisely where the Cloud Work Group fits in. Defining the “how” starts with architectural requirements and works towards the different cloud computing platforms (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). Vendor lock-in is important to consider as these standards are created – as it’s the main reason for them. However, just because standards are defined, it doesn’t matter until the vendors and providers adhere to those and build their solution around them. There’s the rub.

There are tons of different providers out there, with lots of different solutions on different technology platforms. And currently, there’s just no economic incentive to go towards interoperability (or is there?). So how will we get all of the providers on the same page? What will be the biggest obstacles?

BlueLock Addresses Vendor Lock-in and SLA Risks Involved with the Cloud

Monday, August 10, 2009 by Alicia Gaba

Christina Torode recently wrote an article in SearchCIO TechTarget entitled, “Beware these risks of cloud computing, from no SLAs to vendor lock-in.”

While the on-demand utility model of cloud computing empowers users and speeds up projects, she argues those services may be too easy to consume. For example, one company has a CIO who is receiving bills for 25 different people in his company with 25 different accounts with service providers. That may be an example of something too easy to consume. It also begs the question as to whether that company has the right controls in place to control this kind of sprawl.

Considering the fact that this organization is using various cloud providers, it’s also a fair question to ask exactly what is being put in the cloud, which brings us back to the question of SLAs and vendor lock-in risks. . Is the information sensitive? What do the SLAs say? What does it cover? Is the provider responsible for regulatory compliance or is the user? Will you be locked in and who does the data belong to now?

Some companies don’t care about SLAs, and they just use the cloud because it’s easy. That’s OK, until something goes wrong. With liberal use of multiple clouds, like the situation described earlier, it might be wise to at least publish a policy around defining and preventing users from putting “sensitive data in the cloud.

However, if you are using an enterprise-level infrastructure cloud. At BlueLock we’ve built our solution with a 99.99% SLA, in a SAS 70 certified data center and we can help companies build a more secure and compliant environment using industry standard tools like Checkpoint firewalls, Shavlik and IBM. With respect to vendor lock-in, our clients can worry less about this issue because we’ve built our Cloud Platform on VMware, which means they can migrate their servers away from BlueLock by loading them into another VMware-based cloud, including an internal cloud.

There are considerations with any infrastructure choice a company makes, but there are also ways to avoid the big ones. Just remember, you get what you pay for so know your infrastructure choices and know how to manage your risks.

BlueLock Featured in Gartner's Hype Cycle

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Brian Wolff

BlueLock, a provider of cloud computing and managed IT services was featured in a July 23, 2009 Gartner report entitled Hype Cycle for Business Continuity Management, 2009 in the Cloud-Based Recovery Services section.

The report features findings on the increasing costs and risks of business disruptions and how they continue to drive the importance of effective business continuity management operations for business and technology executives. BlueLock was featured as a cloud services company able to cost-effectively solve business continuity issues using cloud computing and virtualization technologies.

“BlueLock has worked hard over the years to build a cloud computing platform that enables businesses to easily and efficiently integrate a cost effective disaster recovery solution into their IT infrastructure,” said Pat O’Day, CTO of BlueLock. “It’s nice to get this kind of recognition from a highly recognized and respected source such as Gartner.”

BlueLock’s disaster recovery solution is built on virtualized servers and uses virtualized storage. The two solutions work together to provide rapid recovery and performance on demand enabling BlueLock to readily adjust to client needs and quickly provide production capacity should a disaster occur. A couple of BlueLock’s local disaster recovery clients include Marian University and Wooden & McLaughlin, LLP.

“Using a combination of VMware and HP technology, we’re able to clone a bootable copy of a client’s production environment and move it hundreds of miles away to a disaster recovery site. When they declare a disaster or want to test their recovery plan, we simply boot them into production. You can’t do that without virtualization,” said O’Day.

US Federal Government Defines Cloud Computing

Monday, May 18, 2009 by Brian Wolff

As the various branches of the Federal government have begun investigating and adopting different “cloud computing” and cloud-like applications, they like the private sector have struggle with the definition of ‘what is cloud computing’. To provide clarity and a common platform for discussion, a draft definition by Peter Mell and Tim Grance at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was presented at a federal CIO summit last week.

Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling available, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is comprised of five key characteristics, three delivery models, and four deployment models.

Key Characteristics:
On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed without requiring human interaction with each service’s provider.

Ubiquitous network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Location independent resource pooling. The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve all consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. The customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources. Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.

Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned to quickly scale up and rapidly released to quickly scale down. To the consumer, the capabilities available for rent often appear to be infinite and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.

Pay per use. Capabilities are charged using a metered, fee-for-service, or advertising based billing model to promote optimization of resource use. Examples are measuring the storage, bandwidth, and computing resources consumed and charging for the number of active user accounts per month. Clouds within an organization accrue cost between business units and may or may not use actual currency.

Note: Cloud software takes full advantage of the cloud paradigm by being service oriented with a focus on statelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.

Delivery Models:
Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure and accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a Web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created applications using programming languages and tools supported by the provider (e.g., java, python, .Net). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but the consumer has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to rent processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly select networking components (e.g., firewalls, load balancers).

Deployment Models:
Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is owned or leased by a single organization and is operated solely for that organization.

Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations).

Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is owned by an organization selling cloud services to the general public or to a large industry group.

Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (internal, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting).

Each deployment model instance has one of two types: internal or external. Internal clouds reside within an organizations network security perimeter and external clouds reside outside the same perimeter.

The Cloud Not Just for Fun and Games

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 by Brian Wolff

Josh Bernoff, Forester researcher, and author of Groundswell has spent a good deal of time studying social media trends. He has looked at who is going on-line (by building user demographic and psychographic profiles) and what are they doing when they get there. In a recent blog post, he explored how new technology is changing gaming interfaces. Reviewing a product called OnLive, he sees the impact being bigger than just the world of gamers. he says:

“Because by putting all the hardware in the cloud and streaming the video down to your TV (or PC), OnLive means hardware doesn't matter anymore. Gaming is the hardest app to do this with, because of the demands on the processor and the fast action. If you can do it with games, you can do it with anything.”

He continues, “If they can do this for games, imagine for a moment that you can get access to cheap computing power in the cloud (just as you can get cheap storage now -- thanks YouTube) and then stream the results down to any screen, PC or TV. What could happen?”

In answer to his question, you can access reasonably cheap computing power, and many smart SaaS firms are doing just that as they transition their traditional infrastructure to a cloud computing platform.

Private, Public, or Hybrid – What is the Best Cloud Computing Alternative?

Monday, March 23, 2009 by Brian Wolff

Commenting on the 10-Year Anniversary of Salesforce.com Jon Urquat reflects on the growing debate regarding the form cloud computing will take in the years to come.

On the one hand you have Marc Benioff who clearly believes the future will see companies abandon their existing IT departments as he says: “no software, no hardware, don't hire anyone, just sign up to these various cloud platforms and pick the flavor that is appropriate for your application.”

On the other hand, many experts feel the real growth will come as companies internalize cloud strategies into their existing operations. And Urquat suggests the real growth may actually lie somewhere in between with Hybrid clouds, which allow companies to leverage the best of both worlds.

At BlueLock we have clearly seen clients adopt each of these strategies from Right-on-Interactive which runs their entire application in our cloud, to Marian College which still maintains their own servers, but relies on us for disaster recovery and connects their private cloud (BlueLock Box) to BlueLock’s public cloud. I don’t believe there will be one ultimate solution, and perhaps that is the real benefit of cloud computing; the ability to build an environment which serves the unique needs of each business.

Appistry's Roshan Sequeira to Talk Cloud Computing at CommunityOne East

Monday, March 16, 2009 by Brian Wolff

Appistry, a provider of cloud application platform software, today announced that Roshan Sequeira, a company Senior Consultant, will speak at CommunityOne East, a Sun Microsystems Developer Network Conference, held Mar. 18-19 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York, NY.

Sequeira's session, entitled, "Cloud Computing for Enterprise Software Developers," will occur on Mar. 18 from 11:10 - noon in Breakout Three and will cover current cloud platform offerings and show how easy it is to develop a cloud-enabled Java application.

Cloud Camp - The BlueLock Approach to Cloud Computing

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 by Brian Wolff

At CloudCamp Indianapolis BlueLock CTO, Pat O’Day kicked off the Lightning Talks with an overview of how, and more importantly why, BlueLock evolved from a traditional data center offering standard managed services to our current model providing Infrastructure-as-a-Service model. In this short video you will see how we solve client challenges with our virtual cloud computing platform.

The Buzz on Cloud Computing

Sunday, November 2, 2008 by Brian Wolff

The buzz on Cloud Computing is clearly drifting beyond the tech community. In an interview with NEWSWEEK’S Dan Lyons, VMware CEO Paul Maritz talks about future of Cloud computing and why the transition is occurring. Maritz says:

Businesses are going to want the flexibility to outsource the provisioning of infrastructure to people who can be presumably more efficient at it than they can be.

The motivation is going to come really from having other people provide the "plumbing"—power, the day-to-day management, the reliability, uptime and so forth. Businesses will want to have the option of moving their application loads into, and equally importantly back out of, this outsourced infrastructure as they see fit.

BlueLock, Indianapolis’ only Cloud Computing service provider is member of the VMware’s vCloud Initiative – a collaborative effort to build data centers to support cloud computing

Along with more than 100 industry leading service providers, BlueLock contributes their data center expertise and services working toward a goal of developing common set of cloud computing platform services and applications. The result of this unprecedented collaboration will be platform which will accelerate the acceptance of cloud computing and Virtualization in Indianapolis and around the world.