I will admit that "Cloud Computing" terminology is becoming confused. People are mixing together the concepts of commodity hardware datacenters, the benefits of virtualization and massively parallel systems into a blender and calling it a "cloud." The truth is that these three concepts are very disparate practices that often do not entirely co-exist. Most service providers will pick one or two of the three for their managed cloud hosting.

For example: Amazon AWS is largely a traditional infrastructure provider that leverages a massive number of commodity hardware (well, not quite, but bear with me) to offer low-cost server hosting. This allows you to spin up elebenty kabillion instances on the cheap, but the price/performance ratio many times just isn't there. A great article was recently published showing how moving a conventional Drupal installation away from AWS provided much better performance, lowered response times and was much more cost effective, even when accounting for disaster recovery. This demonstrates not how physical hardware is more cost-effective, but instead shows how performance matters when calculating cost.

When architecting an application's infrastructure it pays to remember that performance does not increase by adding more servers into the mix. Diagonal scaling is the best way to handle increasing load on a cost-effective basis, as demonstrated by Flickr and Wikimedia. Increase your hardware until you become constrained by concurrency (such as context switching, thread contention or mutex waits) or I/O then consider scaling out horizontally. Unless you are talking about massively parallel algorithms you don't need to spin up an enormous number of machines; even if you do start talking about massively parallel computation, you cease talking about infrastructure as a service and virtualization and instead move towards deploying Hadoop clusters across many physical nodes.

I would agree that vertical scaling isn't a great strategy. I would also argue that horizontal scaling on its own isn't a great strategy either. Get your money's worth for each instance you start, then keep deploying as demand increases.

Over the weekend the OpenStack project proudly announced its existence and its intended goal: to create an infrastructure cloud platform that can reach the scale of a million machines. NASA has evidently dedicated a team of employees to support these efforts likely to replace their existing Eucalyptus cloud fabric controller used within their Nebula infrastructure cloud.

NASA had already been working on Nova, a next-generation cloud fabric controller, for the better part of this year. Nova had even been released as open source project for public adoption. Meanwhile Rackspace, simultaneously prepping their "Ozone" cloud infrastructure software for public release, approached NASA to see if the two could meld their codebases together. As a result OpenStack was born and now Nova seems to have gone defunct... even Nova's old home at http://novacc.org/ redirects to the Nebula cloud computing platform page.

The announcement of OpenStack has generated quite a bit of buzz. Several out in the grand Interwebs are wondering what this collective brain weight will bring. The goals are quite lofty: allow an open, inter-operable fabric for deployment and provisioning of infrastructure as a service. And while there are many cloud projects ready to pledge support, I wonder if consumer adoption is just as rampant. Will service providers spring up, ready to host an OpenStack cloud? Bear in mind while the hypervisor management may be open source and (presumably) free for use, the capital expense of a data center is most decidedly not.

My biggest wonder is how these two (or three) separate projects, up to now independently architected, will be able to merge and work together as a cohesive whole. Nebula and Ozone appear to be comprised of C, Python and C++ - each of which are definitely complimentary languages to each other - but the codebases may leverage very disparate frameworks. Will code have to be largely re-designed and re-written? Will the separate pieces just end up sandwiched together? Or are the software engineering efforts so vast that it doesn't even matter?

One thing is becoming very apparent - everyone and their mom is racing to push their cloud solution out into public light. Even Oracle just released their Cloud Resource Model API - although it seems that is barely making a din above the OpenStack conversation. Everyone established infrastructure and/or software company seems to be throwing their hat in the ring and handing out orchestration solutions. One big problem exists however: are they going to start handing out blade chassis, too?

Yeah, I don't think so, either.

I could be rolling in free hypervisors but it always comes down to one thing: who is managing the SAN? Or figuring out the resulting layer 2 network craziness? Or keeping the cores stoked? Or keeping the backup generator filled with diesel?

Gartner recently released six "rights" and one "responsibility" for cloud service users/clients to help enable better business relationships between vendor and client. This list, although short, is actually quite exhaustive in terms of outlining some major topics a client should cover BEFORE entering a cloud hosting agreement.

Gartner's list of Cloud Computing Rights & Responsibilities:

The right to retain ownership, use and control one’s own data - Service consumers should retain ownership of, and the rights to use, their own data.

The right to service-level agreements that address liabilities, remediation and business outcomes - All computing services - including cloud services - suffer slowdowns and failures. However, cloud services providers seldom commit to recovery times, specify the forms of remediation or spell out the procedures they will follow.

The right to notification and choice about changes that affect the service consumers’ business processes - Every service provider will need to take down its systems, interrupt its services or make other changes in order to increase capacity and otherwise ensure that its infrastructure will serve consumers adequately in the long term. Protecting the consumer’s business processes entails providing advanced notification of major upgrades or system changes, and granting the consumer some control over when it makes the switch.

The right to understand the technical limitations or requirements of the service up front - Most service providers do not fully explain their own systems, technical requirements and limitations so that after consumers have committed to a cloud service, they run the risk of not being able to adjust to major changes, at least not without a big investment.

The right to understand the legal requirements of jurisdictions in which the provider operates - If the cloud provider stores or transports the consumer’s data in or through a foreign country, the service consumer becomes subject to laws and regulations it may not know anything about.

The right to know what security processes the provider follows - With cloud computing, security breaches can happen at multiple levels of technology and use. Service consumers must understand the processes a provider uses, so that security at one level (such as the server) does not subvert security at another level (such as the network).

The responsibility to understand and adhere to software license requirements - Providers and consumers must come to an understanding about how the proper use of software licenses will be assured.

This list brings light to what BlueLock is already doing right to better our relationships with our own clients. Based on the Gartner list provided, we are certainly in the right place.

Last night's episode of This Week in Cloud Computing features BlueLock's CTO and Co-Founder Pat O'Day. In the episode the subject of application & virtual machine portability comes up several times and Pat discusses one aspect of VM deployment: allowing several virtual machines to be deployed together as a singular, orchestrated virtual application solution. In VMware parlance this kind of logical grouping is considered a vApp, or virtual application solution.

The distinction between vApps and VMs can get a bit foggy and unclear at times. Things become a bit clearer when you take a look at the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification, which outlines the metadata that describes a vApp. In a nutshell: vApps are ultimately not definied by the virtual machines that run within them, but instead is a way of telling your infrastructure how VMs can play nicely with each other. Should the exist within an isolated network? How should IP addresses be allocated? Do you start the database server before the application server? Where did that other sock go? The OVF format lets your cloud infrastructure know all the facts necessary during deployments, shutdowns and re-starts.

This can be especially handy for disaster recovery. Imagine a meteor strikes your primary cloud hosting facility. Even though your operations staff now has super-powers, your data center is toast. Luckily you had the presence of mind to keep your vApps in an off-site data center that automagically activates when the primary data center goes offline. Thanks to the vApp's metadata, the disaster recovery site knows how to start an entire n-tier web application in an orderly fashion so that dependent services don't start out-of-order.

This kind of virtual application meta-data is being continuously extended to include service levels and quality of service data so that vApps can be deployed or even migrate to the most ideal resource pool either based on cost, performance or a mix between the two. This specification is evolving, and so are the use cases and technology stack that supports it. As the cloud ecosystem matures we will continue to see innovative ways to focus on not just the virtual machine, but the entire virtual solution.

Every year during the months of June and July the Midwest gets hit with tremendous storms in the late afternoon to early evening.  If you have never experienced this type of weather pattern, it is quite alarming.  It can be sunny and ninety degrees while sitting at work or spending time at the pool with the kids when dark storm clouds roll in and strong winds blow across the hot blacktop.  If there were tumbleweed lying around, many suburban neighborhoods would look like an old western shootout.

Within moments, raindrops and hail the size of marbles are pelting down on anything and everyone in sight.  Lightning streams across the sky and the tornado horn sounds; Welcome to the Midwest.  Whether you experience this type of weather or any other extreme storms, you need to ask yourself, what kind of back-up generator do I need to keep my data center up and running?

Just last week, I was talking with a new client who is in the process of moving part of his infrastructure into the cloud. He had recently experienced a four hour power outage at his office, leaving their on-site systems inoperable.  When most businesses operate without a disaster recovery plan due to financial constrains, I always ask the question - what is your threshold for pain?  It may sound a bit dramatic, or maybe it’s the ex-military in me, but in the end, the question is valid.  Most companies can work though a few hours of power loss, but when the clock keeps ticking and trucks aren’t rolling or vendors can’t pay for days or weeks, the pain threshold is diminished and tensions rise.

Cloud hosting has become well accepted in every size business.  What most CEO’s/Owners may not realize is that they don’t need to put all their proverbial chips in the pot, they can do a hybrid approach to maximize their existing infrastructure or simply utilize the cloud as a pure disaster recovery solution without spending large amounts of their budget on collocation equipment.  I have never understood why companies buy equipment for disaster recovery and let their hard earned money depreciate, let a true cloud company flip the bill for the equipment and as the business owner or CEO, reinvest your CAPEX back into your business. 

Next time you hear the tornado horn sound, think about a company like BlueLock that is rated for an F5 and ask yourself, "Are We Still In Kansas?"

For more information on BlueLock, an Indianapolis based company, visit our website or call me directly at 888-402-1980 ex. 127

As a systems administrator working the BlueLock Support Desk, I handle requests from a variety of clients. As a result, I have an opportunity to get to know our clientele better than other staff. It's a vital role and offers more challenges than standard help desk work. In a typical day, I will handle firewall change requests, virtual machine performance issues, IP address assignment, research, hard drive expansion and other tasks. No two days are the same and the level of activity varies from hour to hour.

Our primary goal is always to provide excellent customer service. One of my goals to that end is to be as pleasant and reassuring as possible. Though I may not be able to find a quick solution for a given issue, I have resources readily available to advance the process. Keeping the lines of communication open between involved parties is a special challenge. If a request is overly complex, I may need to involve the Engineering Team and administrative staff. The support desk acts as a coordinator for these tasks, ensuring progress toward an acceptable solution.

Virtualization and the Cloud are still a part of the wild frontier and I strive to help ease the transition for new adopters. Whether I'm explaining how VMware stores files or detailing the backup process, I consider the comfort level of my audience. I answer many questions over the phone, but others may require exchanging documentation. Our flexibility helps build goodwill and confidence in our offerings.

To help our clients achieve the true benefits of Cloud computing we have to bring something special to the table every day. These roles that I've detailed all go toward creating a special relationship. When a client signs on the dotted line with BlueLock we become a part of their organization start building that relationship immediately. By fostering that common connection we are making a serious commitment to success for all involved.

This is astute advice for disaster recovery planning folks.  When it comes to determining what events could lead to the loss of data or critical applications and services, the reality of life dictates that there are infinite possibilities.  It's therefore impossible to cover all your bases if that's your approach.  When counseling clients evaluating disaster recovery options, I usually proclaim the first step is to get the data out of the building.  Whether it's a site-specific outage or a more widespread event which simply prevents normal access to corporate systems, this approach ensures you have the flexibility to adjust as necessary.  Cloud Computing, whether it's wholesle outsourcing of IT systems using Infrastructure as a Service or application-specific outsourcing using Sofware as a Service solutions, provides a way to "get the data out of the building" without the huge capital expenditures associated with traditional disaster recovery scenarios.

I attended my first CloudCamp event last night as a BlueLock employee.  I am thankful to have been about to participate in plenty of good discussions around cloud hosting, the advantages of virtualization and the benefits of cloud computing.  During the Cloud Computing Security unconference session there were a lot of great ideas shared - one in particular from a CISSP (security) type who does security and compliance audits of companies. 

If you're into IT security and compliance, you should really check out the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).  They have a library of publications on a variety of topics - you can see them all here.  You can narrow your search to specific topic areas like Computer Security, Information Technology or even Disaster Resilience.  It's certainly worth bookmarking.

It's almost funny.  California doesn't like Arizona's controversial new immigration law.  California threatens to boycott all things Arizona.  Arizona retorts something along the lines of "Fine, guess you won't be wanting our electricity, either!"  Yup, Arizona supplies the power for 25% of Los Angeles. Checkmate. End of story. Plucky little Arizona nails Goliath right between the eyeballs. 

Any threat to the power supply is a serious one.  It goes beyond weenies spoiling in the fridge or missing your favorite tv show.  The information that is our lifeblood is funneled by electric power.  When the power shuts down, the data shuts down.  When the data shuts down, everything shuts down.  Not a good place to be. 

While the spitting match between these two western states is not likely to result in any real power outage, it does demonstrate the vulnerability that each of us face.  There are a multitude of ways that electric power outages can occur.   Ice, snow, wind, flood, earthquake, even a bad driver hitting the transformer down the street can shut you down.

Much has been said about the so-called risk of putting your data in the cloud.  Much of this chatter has been dead wrong.

Properly implemented, managed cloud hosting brings redundancy, and with that redundancy, mitigation of risk.  A properly designed data center will have both redundancy of power systems, but also redundancy of information.  Your data and applications should be backed up in at least one other (preferably geographically remote) location, so  that if things go down in Indianapolis, you have Salt Lake or Vancouver to fall back on.

Your data sitting in your private data center, with no backup power supply and no redundancy of data, is a sitting duck.  The only certainty is that sooner or later, your systems are going to go down.  Sooner or later, you will face an outage of some type.  We don't know if this will mean a minor loss of revenue or a major catastrophe; we only know that eventually you will draw the short straw in life, and end up with problems.  

Why not mitigate that risk now?  Utilizing cloud technology services is like preventative medicine.   You give your dog a rabies shot, don't you?  Why not vaccinate your business or organization against data loss and system outages?  It only makes good sense. 

Jake and I are at it again this week with another edition of Whiteboard Wednesday. Cloud computing enables a level of infrastructure uptime that simply can't be matched by traditional traditional physical servers or colocation services.

In this short video, the Kings of Cloud outline the engineering behind high availability (HA), disaster recovery, and the fully redundant cloud. We cover a wide range of topics — including cooling, power, storage, and other resources.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments or on twitter at http://twitter.com/bluelock. Here's the video:

I don't believe anyone really thinks all enterprise data centers will begin rushing to the clouds anytime soon (although there are a few that already have).  That's quite far-fetched.  However, that doesn't mean they won't begin testing out the waters (or the clouds). 

However, as EMC CEO Joe Tucci explained at EMC World, "IT infrastructure has gotten too complex, too inefficient, too inflexible, and too costly...You’re managing a lot more with the same or less resources.”

A recent article outlined the benefits of the enterprise data center alongside the benefits of cloud computing.

Today's data center benefits:

•  Trust
• Control
• Reliability
• Security

Cloud Computing benefits:

•  Dynamic
• Cost-efficient
• On-demand
• Flexible

“In a way, the attributes of one are the negative of the other,” Tucci said.

The question is - how does the enterprise access the best of both worlds?

The answer is simple, and it probably the same if you were to ask someone from EMC, VMware or BlueLock.  The answer is private cloud computing. 

What is private cloud computing? It refers to what some call internal cloud computing and describes an offering that emulates cloud computing on private networks which allows companies to access the advantages of cloud computing without the pitfalls, such as data security, corporate governance and reliability concerns.  Companies must still buy, build and manage the cloud, which isn't the case in the public cloud realm, but there are still many benefits.  One of those benefits that BlueLock clients have accessed, is the ability to connect their private cloud to the public cloud for bursting and/or disaster recovery.

Learn more about private cloud computing today.

 

There's no shortage of comparisons between cloud computing and electricity.

And, for the most part, I like the comparison between cloud computing and electricity because I think it's easy for people to "get". It relates datacenter computing to something more common - like toasters. (Though, come to think of it, I've seen toasters these days as complicated as blade chassis and FC SAN storage!) What I think is important to point out, though, is that most comparisons between cloud computing and electricity (as a utility) stop here. To understand if/when/how cloud computing becomes a commodity, it's important to continue the comparison. Let's take a little stroll down memory lane...

It wasn't enough to discover electricity for it to become a commodity. Edison's contribution of the creation of a power generation system is what got things rolling, but it was Edison's arch rival Nikola Tesla and his idea of Alternating Current (AC) which made widespread distribution of electricity and eventually commoditization of electricity possible. From Wikipedia:

AC replaced DC in most instances of generation and power distribution, enormously extending the range and improving the efficiency of power distribution. Though widespread use of DC ultimately lost favor for distribution, it exists today primarily in long-distance high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems. Low voltage DC distribution continued to be used in high density downtown areas for many years but was eventually replaced by AC low-voltage network distribution in many of them. DC had the advantage that large battery banks could maintain continuous power through brief interruptions of the electric supply from generators and the transmission system. Utilities such as Commonwealth Edison in Chicago had rotary converters or motor-generator sets, which could change DC to AC and AC to various frequencies in the early to mid-20th century. Utilities supplied rectifiers to convert the low voltage AC to DC for such DC loads as elevators, fans and pumps. There were still 1,600 DC customers in downtown New York City as of 2005, and service was finally discontinued only on November 14, 2007.

So it wasn't until we figured out a way to get gobs of power across long distances efficiently that electricity really became a commodity. Sound familiar? Might one draw a parallel between that and the bandwidth predicament that most potential cloud customers find themselves facing today? Organizations today do backup and recover to the cloud in the event of a catastrophe and others even run their production workloads in datacenters far, far away.

If only it were easier to move large amounts of data across current WAN connections and that WAN connectivity didn't cost so dearly, many more would follow suit. So, until the TCPIP equivalent of Mr. Tesla comes along we shall continue to need to find a way around this potential roadblock for IT organizations. This bodes well for regionalized cloud computing infrastructures where it's relatively inexpensive to get high speed connectivity across town or to the next state. Uncannily analogous to the regional power plants that existed in Edison's time.

Another challenge is standardization and portability. Electricity works as a commodity because we eventually standardized on how it was distributed and how devices consumed it. I can take my toaster and plug it into any 110v outlet in the US and I will get...well...toast. Provided that I have bread available. When companies can easily move workloads and data to the Cloud and between cloud computing providers then I think we'll have a true commodity.

BlueLock and LOGiQ3, a BPO service provider to life insurance and reinsurance companies, have been working together for a couple years now.  When LOGiQ3 came to BlueLock, they were looking for a secure, compliant and scalable cloud hosting solution.  The company had an aggressive go-to-market strategy and they had limited time to build and implement their IT infrastructure, let alone ensure it was compliance and bullet-proof. They didn't want to spend the capital on the equipment, labor and expertise needed to get to where the were going, so they chose to outsource their IT infrastructure needs.  

Why did the cloud (specifically BlueLock) make sense for LOGiQ3?

• No upfront costs or lengthy contracts
• The BlueLock Cloud is based on VMware virtualization technology
• BlueLock is well-equipped to handle their enterprise-level production needs
• The security is solid
• The data center is SAS 70 Type II
• 99.99% uptime guarantee
• Geographically diverse data centers for redundancy and disaster recovery needs

To learn more about the solution BlueLock put in place for LOGiQ3 download the case study.

BlueLock may be an experienced cloud hosting provider, but just because we're "in the cloud" doesn't mean we don't have a data center.  We actually have two.  The main cloud operations are in our our flagship facility in Indianapolis, IN.  We also have a sister facility in Salt Lake City, UT for replication and regional disaster recovery needs.

Mike Durham recently responded to some questions and concerns about preventative maintenance procedures in data centers.

He says administrators should have documented procedures for proper operation of equipment and ensure that they are followed. Procedures should also provide contact information for key personnel. Also, he adds, internal log data generated by the equipment should be used to alert personnel when equipment is not operating properly or when a potential problem exists. (via Processer.com)

Read the full article: Care & Keeping Of Power & Cooling

flexibility, security, & possibly reduced capital expenditure…

By Jon Schackmuth

Savvy business owners looking to get in the cloud are looking for flexibility, security and reduced cost.

The underlying question is:  Can small and medium sized businesses find what they are looking for in the cloud at a price they can afford?

Let’s start with flexibility in the cloud.  Simply put, this is what the cloud does best.  When the marketplace changes and we all know it does, the cloud allows business owners to turn the dial up or down as needed.  As an example, if a business jumps from 1,000 hits to 50,000 hits on their website and it’s positioned at a cloud hosting company like BlueLock, running on virtual machines, they can call the 24/7/365 operations staff and spin up more virtual servers – scalability on demand.  Conversely, if traffic slows in six months, simply turn the dial down and pay for the services being utilized – the beauty of metered usage…

Now that we have established that the cloud is flexible, the true objection of the cloud must be security.  Security is paramount when it comes to companies like BlueLock.  If in doubt, schedule a visit and see the layers of security BlueLock has to offer.  BlueLock’s privately owned building is made of poured concrete with a steel and concrete roof.  The actual servers are secured behind six levels of security and are accessed on a need-to-know basis. - TOUGH.

The use of Check Point firewalls and SAS 70 certification is the gold standard in the IT world and BlueLock utilizes both to protect its clients.  Ask yourself:  Where are my servers stored and who has access to them?  What if your servers crashed today?  What is your disaster recovery plan and how long could your servers be down before you start losing one customer?  What is the value of that customer?  These questions may be hard to answer, but the results could save your livelihood.  BlueLock has all of them answered for you, 24/7/365.

At this point, if I haven’t given you enough to think about with flexibility & security, you are probably in the mindset that it’s too costly!  Consider the amount you pay for your infrastructure.  Excessive CAPEX (capital expenditure) can bankrupt a company faster than a lack of customers.  What does it cost to build your own data center plus a back up site and then maintain it at the level that allows you to sleep at night?
 
Depending on the situation, the business may be a start-up or they may be upgrading existing servers. If you are a start-up, what do a full time IT employees cost?  If you build for today and you hit the home run you planned for, your company may be crippled.  If you spend too much CAPEX on IT infrastructure, you may not have enough left over for marketing and sales generating programs.  Once the original hardware purchase has been made, switching to outsourcing and OPEX (operating expenditure) is sometimes a difficult decision.   At some point, enough is enough when it comes to excessive CAPEX - you may need to go in a new direction and outsource – you may need to put your business in the cloud.

Having been a small business owner in the past, I can attest to each of these topics.  Flexibility is paramount in any business, security is critical when clients trust you with their personal data, and cost overruns will bankrupt even the well-informed business owner.  Having choices in the cloud is something that hasn’t been available in the past… Until now.

Fresh off center stage at VMware Partner Exchange 2010, BlueLock introduced its latest surprise, BlueLock CloudSuite.  After years of offering a robust enterprise-level service, businesses can now have the flexibility and price competitiveness of the newly introduced Bluelock vCloud Express.  For those who want managed services with varying levels of scale, security, and performance - choose between Virtual Cloud Professional and Virtual Cloud Enterprise.  A business that requires onsite control of their own isolated cloud can try the Virtual Private Cloud, you own it and BlueLock manages it.

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

In my last post, I tackled tips 1-5.  This week I’d like to take a look at the next five tips Adam Stone referred to in regards to "Making sense of the cloud: 15 tips for software CEOs" and provide you with the BlueLock perspective on what companies looking to migrate to cloud computing should be thinking about.

Tip #6:  To Avoid vendor Lock-in, stick to open standards. 
This one makes a lot of sense to me – in the end, you need to make sure that whatever you put in the cloud you can get back easily and intact.  While some may argue that deploying VMware technology locks you into VMware’s virtualization platform, I would argue that VMware is the defacto standard for virtualization technology for the enterprise, by virtue of their large market share.  Deploying VMware gives clients a lot of flexibility to move that server to another VMware host if they wish to move.  We even have cases where companies wish to protect themselves from something happening to BlueLock as a cloud provider.  In that instance, we’re replicating the entire virtual machines to a neutral third party, Iron Mountain.  If a triggering event were to occur, the company simply contacts Iron Mountain and receives immediate access to the virtual machines, which can immediately be loaded on servers running VMware.  That’s just one straight-forward example of how “portable” the environment is as a result of running in a VM ware-based virtualization platform.

Tip #7:  Location, Location, Location. 
Yes, indeed, it’s difficult to bend the laws of physics and the speed of light.  This tip talks about two real issues – the first is latency and the second deals with the laws that govern the location where the data center sits, in both cases, BlueLock has engineered solutions to address our client’s specific challenges.   We have clients that need to have the data closer to them than our data centers in Indianapolis, IN or in Salt Lake City, UT for speed or data privacy issues.  For these clients, we introduced our version of a private data center called The BlueLock Box in October 2007.  This private cloud solution entails installing an HP C3000 blade chassis with redundant SAN shelves behind the client’s firewall.  This solution provides them with the same benefits of BlueLock’s public cloud such as fault tolerance and scalability, but puts the data closer to them for speed and/or privacy issues. 

Tip #8:  Consider using a middleman. 
I agree with Adam – there is a huge opportunity for cloud brokers or companies that have expertise in helping clients make thoughtful decisions about what can and/or should go into the cloud and then to actually help architect and deliver the cloud solution.  We’ve worked closely with several partners who have trusted advisor relationships with large fortune 1000 clients that have chosen BlueLock as their cloud solution.  In fact, we’ve been asked to present next week in VMware’s Partner Exchange keynote on the topic of how partners can work with a cloud providers to deliver real value to their clients.  I will be sharing the stage with Carl Eschenbach, EVP of Worldwide Field Operations and Casey Watson, VP Business Development for Apparatus to talk about how BlueLock and Apparatus have built a sizable business delivering cloud integration services for large clients.

Tip #9:  Monitoring uptime isn’t enough, you need an action plan. 
We couldn’t agree more with Adam on this point.  From day one, we’ve had a resolution-based 99.99% uptime SLA in place for our clients.  This means that not only will we respond quickly to the issue, but we’ll promise resolution of that issue.  On top of that, we’ve also patented a portal that we call “the VITAL signs portal” that provides our clients with an overall view of the health of their environment, as well as an ability to drill into each aspect of their environment, to see what’s actually happening.  Finally, we have also built capabilities in the portal to send alerts and alarms when something goes wrong or when the environment has reached a pre-determined limit on things like CPU, RAM and storage.   If those measures aren’t enough, we’ve also built tailored metrics for some clients that wish to monitor additional key metrics in their environment.

Tip #10:  A clause may look good in the contract, but be useless in the real World.  Adam’s tip in this area covered a “useless” escrow agreement.  In tip number six, I shared how we’ve put an escrow agreement in place that can be tested and actually works.  Having said that, I agree that empty legal promises are not the way to make sure you’re protected.  Testing the system is the best way to insure what’s being set aside actually works.  In addition to the escrow agreement, we also have numerous disaster recovery clients that have performed successful tests of our geographic failover disaster recovery service.  In the end, you want the “promise” in writing, but then you want to do a test to make sure it performs as expected.  Reminds me of an old Reaganism – “trust but verify”.

Next week, I’ll take us down the homestretch and walk through the final five tips for migrating successfully to the cloud. 

Tip #11:  Set financial penalties for downtime
Tip #12:  It takes time to see ROI on SaaS development
Tip #13:  Savings are not in the cloud, but in headcount
Tip #14:  Follow the cloud into new markets
Tip #15:  Let the cloud lead you to new innovations

If you'd like to read the original post by Adam Stone, go here.

  Support - Done Well

The word 'support' has become cringe-worthy, much like 'Vista' or 'Millennium Edition.' Opinions seem to fall on one side or the other of a distinct dividing line - no vendor's 'support' is merely adequate these days. It's either phenomenal or terrible.

It's crazy to think that vendors strive for an utter lack of excellence. Still, many end users report just such an attitude in their communications with support personnel. Too often, customer support calls are considered unavoidable nuisances in an otherwise productive day. Of course, no one would ever admit they feel that way. But the attitude is pervasive, and it is all too easy for customers to detect, whether in voice inflection during phone calls or while reading hastily prepared e-mail responses. Worse still is getting no response at all.

BlueLock works very diligently to avoid falling into that trap. Working the front lines for a VMware hosting provider is a unique opportunity. Customers can contact us via e-mail or by telephone and all sorts of queries come in which keeps things interesting. Much of our work is generated automatically by our monitoring system. It's important for BlueLock Support personnel to be able to juggle several roles each day and we employ several tools that make it easier to provide top-level service. 

Don't Hesitate, Educate!

We understand that Cloud Computing is a fairly new concept, so one of the primary roles that we perform on the support desk is education. It takes time to become familiar with virtual servers, online disk expansions, and balloon drivers. At BlueLock, we can help make such concepts more clear - and it's as easy as calling the Support Desk.

The most popular topic for education at the BlueLock Support Desk is snapshots. Proper use of snapshots can make an administrator's job much easier. In a nutshell, each virtual machine on our environment is comprised of a file - that's right, the entire server is essentially a file running on a host system. Snapshots serve basically as restore points for those files. This is useful mainly when making major configuration changes or installing new software. When a snapshot is created, what really happens is that a 'change file' is generated. All subsequents changes to the virtual server are written to the change file. When testing is complete, the snapshot must be either committed or reverted. Committing the snapshot merges it with the original server file. This happens on the fly with no interruptions to service. Reverting essentially destroys the change file and returns the server to its state before the snapshot was taken.

The primary drawback of snapshots is that they tend to grow very quickly. Thus, BlueLock has a retention policy of 24-48 hours during which the snapshot must be committed or reverted.

VMware virtual servers are unique entities, especially when backing them up. Backups at BlueLock work much differently than with standard, physical hardware. We perform a combination of snapshots, disk-to-disk and tape backups to protect customer data. The current system is complex enough for its own blog posting, so I'll cover that in more detail at a later date.

BlueLock provided a cloud computing solution to Marian University as their aging hardware began putting a toll on IT efficiency within the organization.  Marian University needed the comfort of a virtual disaster recovery solution, greater uptime and better computing capabilities.  BlueLock's private cloud solution was able to meet those goals with virtualization storage, copmute stability and flexible growth capabilities without a large upfront investment.

With the BlueLock Box, essentially a private cloud solution, Marian replicates their systems from their LeftHand SAN to BlueLock's LeftHand SAN, allowing them to "talk" to each other in cases when Marian University needs more compute or storage space.  Watch this video to hear more about Marian's success with BlueLock.

Because we needed another "top" list, I'd love to go through David Linthicum's latest list, "Top 5 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2010."

Prediction #1: The rise of cloud computing standards

The whole theme of standards and interoperability was a big topic in 2009, but those discussions were very conceptual, and not really actionable.  Some organizations waited on the wayside before adopting a cloud computing solution because standards and interoperability would prevent them from experiencing vendor lock-in. On that note, some have said that BlueLock was a bad name choice because it has a connotation that we would "lock" our clients in.  I like to think that BlueLock would make someone think of security, but I guess not.  However, our cloud uses VMware virtualization technology, so you can take your VMware stuff and take it wherever you like (as long as it stays VMware) if you decide you aren't a big fan of us.  No vendor-lockin here.  Back to topic - I can already tell from listening in on some strategic meetings here that interoperability will take on a large role this year for us.  I can only guess that we aren't the only cloud computing provider with that on our mind.

Prediction #2: First Major Cloud Computing Outages

This one is only a matter of time.  Stuff happens in the cloud.  The cloud still involves real people and of course, real technology.  Although outages will happen, your provider should make sure that there is a sufficient backup plan in order that will help alleviate those pains.  And of course, the second a "big" provider has a "big" mishap, all aim will go to the cloud.  However, Linthicum reminds us, "Despite the outages, cloud computing providers will maintain an uptime record that far exceeds that of most on-premise systems, but you won't hear about that in the technology press."

Prediction #3: Microsoft will be relevant in the cloud

Most businesses run Microsoft, so to say that Microsoft will not become a larger cloud player would be silly.  Now that they've finally got going on the cloud front, we'll see just how much of an impact they'll make, but we're sure to see them make some sort of splash.  However, "Google will continue to dominate small to medium-sized businesses, using its free ad-driven model for delivery of Google Docs and Gmail, with a few larger enterprise deals thrown in."

Prediction #4: Rapid Consolidation of Existing Providers

As cloud computing continues to grow, many of the successful providers will want to expand even more, which will involve buying up the smaller guys.  Hence, there will be less small providers and more big - consolidation.

Prediction #5: Rise of Cloud Computing Startups

As if 2009 didn't see enough, there will be more in 2010 as the technology leaves the stage of early adoption and reaches the masses.  As consolidation occurs (see prediction #4), market value will increase and more VC-backed startups will sprout up.  Think you've seen a lot of "as a services" this year?  It won't be the end of it.

Read David's original post here.

Do you have a prediction for the cloud in 2010?

A recent survey of business leaders, conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and commissioned by Accenture, revealed what those IT and business leaders are discussing in their closed-door budget meetings.  The results hint at one thing when it comes to IT: strategy. 

These IT and business leaders are the same people who worked to slash their IT expenses in 2009.  They may now be looking at IT as a strategic tool to reduce other business expenses, increase revenues and provide other kinds of value to the business.  Will this strategy correlate to the top IT strategies for 2010?

Accenture’s research shows that strategic areas for IT spending in 2010 will include server virtualization and consolidation, business analytics and intelligence, and more customer self-service e-business automation projects.  These are all good steps towards building a lean mean fighting IT machine.

Many are faithful that 2010 will bring about a recovery.  Most companies are approaching 2010 with conservative optimism in light of that "faith."  With lean IT that does its job, many companies could be in a good position to ride that recovery fruitfully.

What is your company planning to do in 2010 to make IT work better and harder?

Is your company planning to bring virtualization and/or cloud computing into their IT mix?