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Why Infrastructure Technology Is Challenging | SOA World Magazine

Doug Theis — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:43:35 +0000

I like writing about “Infrastructure Software.” One of the most challenging things about being an advocate for a broad horizontally applicable technology is that it does not solve a particular business problem.

Instead, it solves about 100,000 business problems.

That was an admittedly uber-geeky joke I made on my column “Integration Edge” on ebizQ in an article about Legacy Modernization.

Although I was making light of the situation, the impact for a technology advocate is real. The problem with writing about infrastructure software is that everyone is impacted by it, yet nobody is particularly interested in it. It’s a bit like America’s “crumbling” infrastructure” – roads and bridges. Critically important, yet so easily overlooked. That’s why I often refer to software like Integration or Data Management as infrastructure software.

I had breakfast this morning with the CEO and the CTO of Algebraix Data, an interesting Austin-based infrastructure software company. We were discussing the challenges of bringing such software to market, and I mentioned “infrastructure software does all the heavy lifting, yet gets almost none of the credit”. When things are working well, nobody sees infrastructure software. When things go well, it’s the end-user products like Salesforce.com that get the credit. It’s a tough marketing problem to crack.

Why Infrastructure Technology Is Challenging | SOA World Magazine.

Don’t Flush Privacy in the Name of Security – CIO.com

Doug Theis — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:29:50 +0000

Network World — On the face of it, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) that the U.S. House of Representatives just passed seems to address the long-held notion that encouraging private and public sector concerns to share security information will improve our general security.

And while the goal of CISPA is noble and the need warranted (even coveted by some enterprises looking for a way to share information while reducing legal liability), the devil is in the details, and unfortunately CISPA goes too far in terms of trading off our liberties.

CISPA, which passed the house by a vote of 248-168, would lead to the establishment of “procedures to allow elements of the intelligence community to share cyber threat intelligence with private-sector entities and utilities and to encourage the sharing of such intelligence.”

The bill identifies types of data the federal government will not be able to share, including library usage and book purchase records, and firearm, tax, education and medical records. And it would limit the government to using cyberthreat information for: cybersecurity, cybersecurity crimes, protection of individuals from death or bodily harm, risk of sexual exploitation (such as child pornography) and national security.

Don’t Flush Privacy in the Name of Security CIO.com.

The (very) uneven distribution of DNS root servers on the Internet – Royal Pingdom

Doug Theis — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:26:32 +0000

As we reported last Friday, the number of DNS root servers on the Internet has grown significantly the past few years. Now we will take a closer look at how those root servers are distributed across the world.

Since the root servers are critical to Internet’s DNS infrastructure, they would ideally be spread out in a way that serves the Internet population in a fair and even manner. That is, however, not the case.

As you’ll see, when you start taking regional Internet user numbers into consideration, the distribution of root servers is highly uneven. Some regions are clearly underserved.

via The (very) uneven distribution of DNS root servers on the Internet.

IPvSexy, Yes You to can get there too. « LooseBolts

Doug Theis — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:23:22 +0000

Today we celebrated going live with IPV6 versions of many of our top rated sites. The work was done in advance of our participation in the IPV6 Launch Day. For the uninitiated, IPv6 Launch Day is the date where major sites will begin to have their websites publicly available in the new Internet numbering scheme and is currently set for June 6, 2012. As many of you likely know the IPv4 space which has served the Internet so well since its inception is running out of unique addresses. I am especially proud of the fact that we are the first of the largest Internet players to achieve this unique feat. In fact three of our sites occupy slots in the Top 25 Sites in the ranking including www.aol.com, www.engadget.com, and www.mapquest.com. As with all things there are some interesting caveats. For example – Google is IPv6 enabled for some ISPs, but not all. I am specifically highlighting global availability.

IPvSexy, Yes You to can get there too. « LooseBolts.

Open-source cloud frameworks: A work in progress – Computerworld

Doug Theis — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:24:29 +0000

When IT consultancy OpenCredo set out to launch three new applications within seven months for a major insurance underwriter, it had three goals in mind: Trim development time from the usual years-long pace, allow for frequent changes from the client, and build a system that can handle unpredictable traffic spikes.

By using the Cloud Foundry open-source framework along with other open-source software, OpenCredo eliminated “heavy lifting” such as configuring virtual machines and adjusting the size of storage volumes, says CEO Russell Miles. The framework allowed developers to write code locally, share it with the client, and automate the integration, testing, and deployment of application components.

Among other advantages, Cloud Foundry makes it easier to scale an application by adding more instances without downtime, Miles says. Because of the way it works with other open-source software, new features can be added in minutes rather than hours.

Open-source cloud frameworks: A work in progress – software, open source, internet, cloud computing, applications – Computerworld.

When is colocation a better fit than cloud computing?

Doug Theis — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:51:51 +0000

When is colocation a better fit than cloud computing? That’s one of the most frequent CIO and data center strategy questions we hear as companies tour our Indianapolis colocation facility.

Let’s define terms.

Colocation is outsource data center facilities: hardened data center buildings, power redundancy, cooling redundancy, physical security, fire suppression, and access to telecommunications carriers. Colocation providers could also be called high-tech landlords, providing data center as a specialized real estate offering.

Cloud computing is many things (read up on cloudwashing), but generally it is one of more computing resources delivered via the Internet. Many companies use cloud computing to eliminate the need to buy and own disk storage, servers, network and security devices.

Let’s assume that high data center uptime is a requirement, regardless of whether a company uses colocation or cloud computing. Most companies expect at least 99.995% uptime for their production data center. 99.995% uptime is 28 minutes of downtime per year or less. The cost of downtime for companies like this is almost always a combination of lost productivity, lost revenue and lost clients. Both colocation and cloud computing can offer high data center uptime.

Here are a few instances when cloud computing may be a better fit.

Companies are in start up mode and are trying to keep costs low.
Cloud computing offers low start up costs, almost no capital expenditures up front. Cloud computing typically offers server and network management as part of the service, so the need for on-staff IT help is also reduced.

Scalability (cloud bursting) is a key requirement.
A few of the more sophisticated cloud providers offer the ability to protect a company from its own success, i.e. an onslaught of web visits without a crash. Think of a successful marketing campaign that drives so much traffic that your website topples under the load. Cloudbursting offers a solution to this problem.

Avoidance or reduction of on-staff IT support.
If a company is trying to cut IT staffing costs, cloud computing can offer the benefits of IT delivery support without the FTE burden.

Here are some of Lifeline Data Centers’ observations on when colocation is the better fit.

Companies wish to control the hardware that supports their applications.
This is often a result of the applications a company uses. Many mission critical applications require extra memory, processor power, and/or network resources to meet performance goals. Controlling all hardware components end-to-end improves reliability and performance.

Companies wish to own and operate their own hardware, for whatever reason.
This could be to take advantage of sunken costs, to leverage lower costs of owning hardware over time, or just because it’s important for the CIO to own his own hardware.

Data center compliance and certification requirements are complex.
HIPAA, FDA, FISMA, NIST, PCI/DSS and SOX compliance are easier to manage in a physical data center than a logical of virtual data center offered by cloud computing.

Companies need access to multiple telecommunications carriers.
This is not exclusive to colocation. However colocation providers that deliver carrier neutral data centers with no cross connect fees are more common that cloud computing providers who offer the same flexibility.

Cloud computing and colocation are not mutually exclusive. Many companies utilize cloud resources via their colocation facilities.

What are your requirements for the next generation of your data center? Will you choose colocation, cloud computing, or a hybrid solution that includes both?

CIOs: Don’t Get Taken For Granted – Informationweek

Doug Theis — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:43:03 +0000

I receive no shortage of advice on how to do my job–research, articles, books, seminars, conferences, boot camps, blogs…the list goes on. I hold a position that must be the most surveyed and over-analyzed on the planet. Every vendor wants to know what keeps me up at night so that it can help me sleep better.

But the most valued advice I receive comes from other CIOs. Their only bias is the same as mine: getting the job done right. It’s with this thought in mind that I’ll be writing a regular “Dear John” column on InformationWeek.com starting next month. If you want technical, organizational, career, or any other kind of professional advice from a working CIO, send me a Dear John email at jmcgreavy@techweb.com and I’ll answer select ones in my next column.

I promise you this: I’ll give it to you straight. Do you work for an overbearing IT director or a line-of-business executive who thinks he knows more about IT than you do? Are you facing an intractable software rollout or upgrade? Do you need guidance on dealing with a specific vendor? Are you a vendor exec who can’t figure out why you keep striking out with a particular CIO? Tell me about it and let’s see what we can do.

CIOs: Don’t Get Taken For Granted – Global-cio – Executive insights/interviews – Informationweek.

Cloud Bursting Not Ready for Prime Time | Blogs | ITBusinessEdge.com

Doug Theis — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:02:24 +0000

It all sounds great on paper: an integrated physical/virtual/cloud environment in which resources are spun up at the drop of a hat allowing enterprises to consume exactly what they need and not a bit more. In such a world, “cloud bursting” is as common as apple pie and CIOs never have to worry about over-provisioning or under-performing.

So far, though, the reality is a lot different. Enterprises are indeed becoming more agile and data environments more dynamic, but the idea of automatically bursting excess loads onto the cloud is still largely a myth.

For one thing, notes ZDNet’s Manek Dubash, moving data from one set of resources to another still takes a fair amount of time. So if you want the flexibility to suddenly shift data spikes onto the cloud, you’ll need to have things like applications, storage and bandwidth standing at the ready, which costs money. It’s probably not as expensive as maintaining your own backup infrastructure, but it still represents a set of capabilities that you’re paying for but not necessarily using.

Cloud Bursting Not Ready for Prime Time | Blogs | ITBusinessEdge.com.

Facebook’s Open-Source Data-Center Project Gains Strength CIO.com

Doug Theis — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:29:19 +0000

Facebook’s year-old project to develop open-source hardware designs with the aim to build efficient data centers gained momentum on Wednesday, with some top technology companies joining the effort and introducing server designs.

The company provided details about implementations of the open hardware designs and also announced new members of the Open Compute Project, including Hewlett-Packard, Advanced Micro Devices, Fidelity, Quanta, Tencent, Salesforce.com, VMware, Canonical and Supermicro. HP and Dell have contributed new server and storage designs that fit into OCP’s Open Rack specification, which covers hardware, such as motherboards and power components, that goes inside a server chassis.

The Open Compute Project was announced by Facebook in April last year and revolves around opening up hardware specifications and designs to create power-efficient and economical data centers. The project shares the ethos of the open-source software movement, with a community working together to share, tweak and update hardware designs with the aim of improving products.

Facebook’s Open-Source Data-Center Project Gains Strength CIO.com.

Enterprise vs. Public Cloud – VISI

Doug Theis — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:20:58 +0000

I spend a lot of time talking to business people about cloud computing, and one of the consistent questions I hear is: What’s the difference between VISI’s enterprise cloud platform and something like Amazon’s public cloud?

It’s a question that troubles businesses because both cloud platforms provide a utility-based computing solution. Both companies manage the underlying computing and storage infrastructure powering their platforms. And from the perspective of customers, both types of cloud providers represent an outsourced IT business model. I can understand why businesses are confused, and I’m here to help explain the difference.

Let me start to address this question by looking at two different application architectures. I’ll call them “Architecture A” and “Architecture B”.

Architecture A shows two large computing nodes connected to a storage node containing 10 hard drives. Architecture B shows 10 computing nodes, each containing a single hard drive. Let’s say that the computing nodes in Architecture A are five times as fast and five times as reliable as any of the computing nodes in Architecture B. Now, ignore infrastructure questions related to physical network connectivity and power for the moment. Which of the two computing architectures is the best one for your applications? Which one provides the most application resiliency and performance? The answer to that question depends on how your applications are designed. Stay with me here for a moment.

Enterprise vs. Public Cloud | Colocation & Data Center Blog – Minnesota-based | VISI.

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