As VM automation becomes more and more predominant in cloud environments, the issue of abstraction becomes more important. Consider if you will, an infrastructure in which the creation and management of VMs is fully automated. Now put all those applications and information and VMs in one big cloud that is all self-sufficient and constantly moving around due to load balancing and other automated processes. Then, add in cloud applications, plugins, security and anything else that could possibly run in that environment. Then, connect it all up so that every part of the infrastructure is inter-dependent and connects through a broker. And for fun’s sake, let’s assume there is a memory leak on one of the servers and your start losing VMs. Continue reading
Cloud Strategy
It’s a big-biggy Ford, a big-biggy! I mean what if it rips us all into tiny little atomic partical things?
With more and more organizations starting to dip their toes into the Cloud pool, there is still a lot of discussion around platform. For organizations who are looking to outsource their cloud environment, it seems like more and more (for now anyway) are favoring the big guys like AWS, Microsoft and VMware. On the other hand, folks who are looking at building their own clouds, and to some extent those who are looking to leverage a hosted cloud, OpenStack is becoming another interesting platform to look at. Recently, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger comented that OpenStack isn’t the right choice for enterprises. So, is he right? Continue reading
Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship
Continuing on my last post, I wanted to take some time to examine the role of Cloud Business Brokers (I was going to jump into Technical Cloud Brokers, but well, call me spontaneous), and how, like other broker models, they can provide valuable service to organizations to are looking to transition to cloud methodology, or who want to augment their existing build.
Let’s jump in shall we? Continue reading
Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons.
Technology Tuesday is upon us once again, and while I was hoping to use it to get the word out about a bunch of other cool stuff that is going on to contribute to the Cloud-scape, especially in Security, I decided with the Olympics underway, it was a good time to shine the light on what Canada is up to. Continue reading
Huh. Light reading. Tolstoy, Dovstoyevsky, I-Ching. “Journey Without a Goal.” Must have a killer ending.
When I started this blog back in January I honestly didn’t imagine I would get this far, yet here we are at my 100th post. Considering it’s a daily blog, that’s a lot of writing. So before I take a well deserved (in my opinion) 2 week break to let all of you catch up on your reading backlog, I decided to take this post to reflect on some of the coolest things that I’ve learned through the last 100 posts.
The biggest thing I’ve learned is that cloud is such a game changer for the entire IT, service provider, business customer and solution vendor market. In fact, I recently submitted a great topic for VMWorld that identifies just how everyone fits I to the new cloud economy. There is a huge opportunity for organizations like Telcos and consulting firms to create new services to bring large revenue streams through cloud services, as well as auxiliary consulting services.
The other big thing that I’ve learned is that as marketers (myself included) need to do a better job at educating the market on what cloud really is, how it works, risks and reward and even help them create achievable road maps. We’ve been too focused on pushing products and services and touting the cost savings without helping organizations properly understand why they need them in the first place. Customers will reward those service providers who help them understand and solve their business requirements.
But most importantly, cloud and virtualization requires baby steps to ensure the right policies and security controls are in place to reduce future risks.
I’m sorry. This is the fun-vee. The hum-drum-vee is back there.
If you’re a marketer, you might have heard rumblings about a new tool from Yahoo (yes, you read that right) called Genome. It’s basically a product of both its Interclick acquisition and other advertising deals with companies such as Microsoft and AOL, muddled together to help “understand consumer needs, anticipate audiences’ future performance and develop efficient media buys.” It’s basically a way for regular marketing folks to leverage the vast collection of data and in-house analytics of Yahoo.
Personally, I think this is a smart move for Yahoo as we all can agree that they’ve fallen behind on the search and social market. But as an organization who has invested heavily (and actually use) analytic tools such as Hadoop, it’s a great way for them to create a new channel through analytics as a service.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen this type of service. Google Analytics and Google Trends were created for this purpose. But Genome is focused and designed for marketers through providing data from many non-Yahoo sources and even allowing for the integration of your own sources. It’s a huge market, as analytic services that fit within the limited marketing budget are few and far in between.
It’d be nice to see this as the move that saved Yahoo and made them a strong player in an emerging cloud market. As a marketer, these types of services are valuable, and to deliver them with an attractive cost model, it becomes almost critical for smaller organizations to adopt these services in order to remain competitive.
Yeah. I got the memo. And I understand the policy. And the problem is just that I forgot the one time. And I’ve already taken care of it so it’s not even really a problem anymore.
When you ask a security professional about the biggest security threat they think exists, there is a good chance it will be related to people. After all, no matter what security controls you put in place, it really comes down to human nature as to whether they follow such controls or not. It’s like I always say, “If you don’t give your employees some flexibility, then you might as well hire more security people to deal with the increased workload. So when it comes to fostering an environment of awareness, there are several views on what is the best way to deal with high risk applications such as Dropbox. Continue reading
Well we were thinking of something simple, but hey, if you want to destroy the stage, we’re all for that.
I was tasked the other day with trying to estimate the number of potential clients for a service I am working on. It’s a tough question because the market is still in the first stages of adoption. As for why more companies haven’t started to adopt cloud, it really comes down to one key thing: It’s not something you just do, it’s a huge challenge and takes longer than organizations plan for. Frankly my dear, it’s a pain in the ass. Continue reading
Evacuate in our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances
As part of its ongoing move towards becoming a major player in the cloud market, Dell recently slipped out an announcement with a surprising partner, Desktone. Desktone, most known for their desktop as a service (DaaS) platform which runs with both Citrix and VMware virtual machines is the newest offering available under the Dell Simplified DaaS service. For organizations looking for a solid VDI model, this might be just the trick. Continue reading
Bye baby kitties. Damn Silent Bob, show some heart.
As someone who works in the IT security industry, I work with a lot of vendors. I used to work with a lot more, but as a side benefit of streamlining business, I’ve been able to cut down my vendor pool. At first it was a bit of a shock, but after a year of trial and error, I’ve learned a few great lessons that I think are a perfect strategy for any organization looking at updating their infrastructure, outsourcing or subscribing to a hosted cloud model. Continue reading
Tinder Stratus 