Dilbert on Cloud Computing

Keeping the lights on

Having spent years running 24×7 internet-facing production systems, I find that the monitoring element of an application delivery environment is often the last item to be addressed and built outside of the application delivery architecture. As we continue to build our application delivery infrastructure in the cloud, having a good monitoring strategy will allow us to arm ourselves with the information we need to make intelligent decisions.

So exactly what should be monitored?

Availability

The first element in a monitoring strategy is to determine whether the application is accessible. The most simplistic form of determining availability is ping. However, as most applications are obscured behind a load balancer, a ping response doesn’t necessarily mean that the application is responding to requests. Use a monitoring system that can speak application-layer protocols to ensure that the application is indeed healthy and responding to user requests. It’s best to leverage a 3rd party solutions that can assess availability from multiple networks and provide an unbiased view on the availability of the application.

Resource Utilization / Load

Next element in a good monitoring strategy is to determine how healthy a system is. Tracking the load of various system components will enable us to uncover bottlenecks within the application delivery environment. Leverage SNMP to capture and record utilization statistics on CPU, memory, disk IO, network IO, threads, and so on. Graph these stats to establish baseline and find correlations between each monitored element. (more…)

Cloud scaling considerations

Amazon’s new Relational Database Service (RDS) has generated quite a bit of buzz as of late. This move propels Amazon forward into the application services provider in the cloud computing arena. I’ve briefly written about different types of cloud services in an earlier post and outlined differences between Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (Saas), and IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS). As cloud-based services gain maturity and adoption, the lines between different “as-a-Service” offerings to blur as providers evolve their service offerings.

Under the covers, RDS instances are essentially EC2 images with MySQL with added services to automates the backup and scaling capabilities. Scaling, or elasticity, has been one of the lures in placing workloads in the cloud. Cloud computing will reach nirvana when compute resources are automagically provisioned and de-provisioned as workloads increase and decrease.

Today, cloud resources provides a mechanism to scale resources in a linear fashion:

• add another server… in the case of web & application servers where workloads can be divided amongst a pool of servers;
• move to a bigger server… in the case of database servers where a single server is responsible for processing all the workloads;

However, is linear scaling the right approach to servicing workload increase? (more…)

Technology as a service

Cloud computing concept is transforming the IT industry and shaping the IT service delivery into a pay-as-you-grow model. Here’s a whitepaper from Cisco on Cisco-powered “network clouds”. Thought I’d share some keypoints / highlights…

Abstraction of physical hardware (virtualization) & the ability to share common resources among users (multi-tenancy) are at the heart of cloud computing. It is with virtualization & multi-tenancy that various utility-based approach can be realized and built onto one another:

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): the abilityy to buy servers, data center resources, network equipment as an outsourced service delivered through the network cloud. Amazon, Joyent, GoGrid and FlexiScale are some examples of providers in this arena.

Platform as a service (PaaS): provides developers access to development tools for various software platforms that the developer needs to develop on. Some examples of development platforms currently out there:

• AppEngine from Google: based on Python and Django
• Force.com from SalesForce: based on the SalesForce SaaS infrastructure and Apex language
• Bungee Connect: visual development studio based on Java
• LongJump: based on Java/Eclipse
• WaveMaker: visual development studio based on Java and hosted on Amazon EC2

Software as a service (SaaS): enables service subscribers to access a software application from a software vendor through the web. Many traditional off-the-shelf application providers are transitioning to a SaaS model. The most well known SaaS provider is probably salesforce.com. WebEX is another example of SaaS.

IT as a service (ITaaS) encompasses IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. It is a service model where an organization or individual contracts with a service provider to provide individual or bundled services. (more…)

VMWorld 2009 recap: Cisco UCS, WAAS.. and more

With over 12,000 attendees, VMWorld 2009 was definitely impressive. It was great to be there as part of the Cisco data center team and see Cisco continue to make progress into the server & virtualization space. A few exciting technology showcases & announcements that were exciting to me:

VMWorld Data Center chose Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) to virtualize and reduced an environment of 37,728 physical servers using 2,483 racks and 25,329 KW of power to 776 physical servers in 28 racks using 528 KW of power.

The Cisco UCS infrastructure supported all the instructor-led labs with an aggregate of 4096 Intel Nehalem Cores and 24 TB of memory using:

16 racks
64 chassis
512 blades
32 6120 XP Fabric interconnects (2 per rack)

Here’s a cool time-lapsed video on the entire build out of the Data Center at VMworld:

(more…)

VMWorld 2009 TweepUp @ The Chieftains on Saturday 8/29 @ 5:30p

I’m organizing a TweetUp for the folks coming to VMWorld 2009. It’ll take place at The Chieftain Irish Pub on the corner of 5th Street and Howard (across from InterContinental Hotel). So come out and hang out with your #VMWorld tweeps and enjoy great draft beer & pub food.

The Chieftain is offering the following drink specials:

$3 PBR
$4 Mimoas
$5 Bloody Mary

I’ve posted the event on Facebook. Please RSVP so I can give the Pub a rough headcount. Current this event isn’t sponsored. Email me if you’re interested in sponsoring it.

The count down to VMWorld 09

The etherspace has been busy with highlights, tips, and expectations of VMWorld 09 taking place at the Moscone center in SF starting August 31. I’d like to chime in and highlight technology areas that I’ll be focusing on while I’m there next week.

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)

Cisco’s entry into the server computing realm by providing a platform that unifies network, compute, storage access, and virtualization resources. A “wall of UCS” at VMWorld will showcase 16 racks containing 64 chassis, 512 blades, 4096 cores, & 24 TB of memory. This is where the VMWorld labs are run out of and it is expected that ~1500 users will be accessing the UCS systems at any given time through VMware View.

Here’s a video of what the rack looks like at the Moscone:

VMware View and Cisco WAAS

As remote desktop technologies gain adoption throughout enterprises, Cisco’s WAAS & ACE products ensure availability & performance when users access their remote desktop images through VMware View. (more…)

idea blog, 24 august 2009

Earlier this week I read on NY Times about the GPS run craze sweeping through the running community and wondered if there’s an iPhone app that tracked your GPS coordinates and “drew” them for you to upload to sites like gpsdrawing.com. I found the following apps that sort of accomplishes that.

Trails – Primarily designed to record maps while hiking, on bike trips or while jogging directly on your iPhone.

InstaMapper’s GPS Tracker – Periodically uploads iPhone’s GPS coordinate to a website to be shared w/ other people.

Neither application does exactly what I’m envisioning. So here goes idea #1 for today’s blog… and that is an iPhone application that basically tracks your GPS coordinates and plots its movements over a period of time, producing a “drawing”. Sort of a fun / waste-your-time application that can be applied to running, hiking, roadtripping. (more…)