networking-info

According to The Register , the Yahoo! technology organization led by CTO Ari Balogh will now work on "developing a world-class cloud computing and storage infrastructure; rewiring Yahoo! onto common platforms; and creating a stronger partnership between product and engineering teams." Part of the Yahoo! reorganization will include the formation of a Cloud Computing & Data Infrastructure Group. Infoworld also reported the story.

InformationWeek has started a Cloud Computing Newsletter . They will be providing news and insights on this "critical IT trend". Cloud computing ranges from the software-as-a-service market to Web-based storage services such as Amazon's S3. They will report on cloud-infrastructure technologies -- including servers, storage, and virtualization -- and new data centers under construction by Google and other service providers. They will also follow the business adoption of cloud services -- why CIOs are plugging into cloud services, how they're doing it, and the ROI behind their decisions.

Last week I attended an IBM SOA event in Northern Virginia. While there, I was discussiing the merits of cloud computing with some interested attendees. Their key question was if cloud computing was just a fad or did it represent a disruptive change in the marketplace. I personally believe that cloud computing is real and that this new view on infrastructure really is disruptive. To me, hardware (server and storage) virtualization technology, the virtualization of applications through SOA and the virtualization of data connectivity through ad hoc networking, makes cloud computing technology more than just a fad. While this concept isn't new, technology to implement the concept is. Besides, would IBM invest so much into such an initiative without doing some due diligence of its own? Last year, IBM demonstrated Blue Cloud in Shanghai which was the result of an initiative from IBM’s Almaden Research Center architecture. Blue Cloud was built on Xen and PowerVM virtualized Linux and a H...

Last week I attended the Joint Warfighting Conference 08 (JWC 08) in Virginia Beach, Va. There were approximately 5000 attendees representing military, industry, academia, and government, registered for this year's three-day conference. Titled "DoD Capabilities for the 21st Century," the goal is to reach out to all joint warfighters. I also followed the proceedings via a live blog provided by Robert Pursell of USJFCOM Public Affairs , from which I took the following comments of note: Air Force Col. Vincent Valdespino, J6, director, Command, Control, Communications and Computer System Directorate, on future challenges: “Gen. Mattis has challenged me personally, ‘How do you ensure that that network is available to me and robust enough to become an enabler for me and not a problem for me. To be there when I need it, to be there when I’m out there on the edge, in an AOR, in the high wind, in the high sand of southwest Asia, and that radio, that phone, that cell, that network...

...... Second Cloud Center in China " IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of new "cloud computing" centers in South Africa and China . Cloud computing enables the delivery of personal and business services from remote, centralized servers (the "cloud") that share computing resources and bandwidth -- to any device, anywhere. The shift to cloud computing is fueled by the dramatic growth in business collaboration, connected devices, real-time data streams, and Web 2.0 applications such as streaming media and entertainment, social networking and mobile commerce. Cloud computing represents a major step up in computing -- as it enables governments, businesses and individuals to access super-computing power, analysis of massive amounts of data, and applications five to 10-times more cost effectively.* The new centers are designed to help clients in Africa and China tackle issues they would otherwise not be able to address. For example, using IBM's new cent...

Last week, Dataline (my company), in collaboration with IBM , Google , Northrop Grumman , Cisco and Great-Circle Technologies , launched an initiative aimed at integrating an end-to-end solution for secure cloud computing. Called Service Oriented Architecture – Real Time (SOA-R), the goal is to provide the benefits of cloud computing and secure ad-hoc mobility in a modular, standards-based implementation framework to public sector organizations. By exploiting the advantages of a service oriented approach, web services and interfaces specific to the national security business domain are being developed and enhanced for deployment from and interface with a cloud computing infrastructure. By doing this, Dataline, in concert with its partners, looks to provide leading edge solutions without the risk typically associated with early adoption of leading edge technologies. Like cloud computing, SOA-R has dual meanings. Whereas cloud computing refers to both a platform and type of application...

In The real value of Cloud Computing , ENKI hits on why cloud computing is disruptive. It's the services stupid !! By separating enterprises from their servers and offering universal, secured, access to the servers, cloud providers bundle the computing with value-added services. This graduated outsourcing model provids application architecture expertise, highly reliable software deployment, and live site management with greatly reduced cost. The combination of scalable computing and services lowers the technological and cost barriers to entry in the web-facing application market.

Jonathan Strickland provides an excellent overview of cloud computing on the how stuff works website.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos on Cloud Computing How and when Amazon began its cloud computing effort. Why Amazon has become an innovator with Amazon Web Services and how it relates to their core business of being an online retailer. Whether or not Wall Street recognizes Amazon’s cloud efforts. What’s next for Amazon Web Services. Whether or not Amazon has plans for a VC fund or for cloud computing startups. ( GigaOm )

My company, Dataline LLC , in cooperation with IBM, Google and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, is sponsoring an educational series entitled " Cloud Computing in a Netcentric Environment ". The series will be held at The Tower Club in McLean, VA and is designed for those interested in understanding how cloud computing and the associated technologies can be used to support national security applications. The series schedule is as follows: What is Cloud Computing? --------------Wed, July16, 2008 Global Information Access --------------Wed, August 13, 2008 "Increased Efficiency, Reduced Cost"----Thu, September 11, 2008 Event Driven Information --------------Wed, October 8, 2008 Information Availability ----------------Wed, October 29, 2008 Mission Relevance --------------------- Wed, November 12, 2008 Registration is available at http://www.dataline.com/soar2.htm

Storage firm EMC has joined the Daoli Trusted Infrastructure Project which conducts research into "trust and assurance" in cloud computing environments. The team's research will focus on cloud computing, trusted computing and virtualisation. EMC is also working with China's Tsinghua University on the research of cloud computing technologies, a hot sector which is raising attention from both manufacturers and research institutions around the world.

For explaination and details see Understanding the Cloud Computing/SaaS/PaaS markets: a Map of the Players in the Industry by Peter Laird, Kent Dickson, and Steve Bobrowski from Oracle. Update: Please see the September 2008 Update of this map

Key cloud computing concerns by CXO's attending the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston were addresed in a June 9th panel of executives from Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Salesforce.com. A June 14th Information Week Article by Rob Preston summarized them as: Security. It's still top of mind for most customers. The vendor argument usually comes down to scale and centralized control. Few enterprises can allocate the money and resources that companies such as Amazon, Google, IBM, and Salesforce do to secure their data centers. Data stored within the cloud, the vendors argue, is inherently safer than data that inevitably ends up on scattered laptops, smartphones, and home PCs. Vendor lock-in and standards. The cloud vendors emphasize the openness and extensibility of SOAP, XMPP, and other Web services protocols. AWS's Adam Selinsky notes that the vendor's IT infrastructure services require no capital or other up-front investments, and Ross Piper of Salesforce.co...

On June 5th, IBM announced it will establish the first Cloud Computing Center for software companies in China, which will be situated at the new Wuxi Tai Hu New Town Science and Education Industrial Park in Wuxi, China. The center will offer emerging Chinese software companies the ability to tap into a virtual computing environment to support their development activities. It will be established through an agreement signed today between IBM and Wuxi Tai Lake Industry Investment and Development Company. On the same day, IBM released an updated version of IBM's Tivoli Provisioning Manager focused on allowing data centers to benefit from cloud computing, allowing them to scale more cost-effectively. IBM is now positioning TPM at the forefront of its "Blue Cloud" cloud computing initiative.

Elastic Utility Computing Architecture for Linking Your Programs To Useful Systems ( EUCALYPTUS ) is a new project that seems to be trying to put an "open source" flavor to cloud computing. Assuming relative parity between the implementation of Elastic, Utility or Cloud computing infrastructures, EUCALYPTUS is an open-source software infrastructure for implementing computing clusters and/or workstation farms. The current interface to is interface-compatible with Amazon.com's EC2 but the infrastructure is designed to be modified and extended so that multiple client-side interfaces can be supported. EUCALYPTUS is implemented using commonly-available Linux tools and basic web service technology. The goal of the EUCALYPTUS project is to foster community research and development of Elastic/Utility/Cloud service implementation technologies, resource allocation strategies, service level agreement (SLA) mechanisms and policies, and usage models. The current release includes the f...

Today I had the pleasure of hearing The Honorable John G. Grimes , Assistant Secretary of Defense for Networks and Information Intergration and Department of Defense CIO, speak on some key current issues. Of note to this audience is three of his points on cloud computing: He met with his staff yesterday on how best to deal with the cloud computing idea; DoD needs to understand how best to move towards a cloud with thin clients; Industry will hear more about DoD's plans for cloud comuting in the coming months. Sounds like there is a future for cloud computing in the DoD !

In this May 1, 2008 Globe and Mail Update article , Mathew Ingram provides an excellent comparison of Amazon and Google's cloud computing initiatives. Bottom line: Amazon leads the pack with Google a distant second.

For some interesting views, take a look at these video interviews on what is cloud computing . These were done during the recent Web 2.0 Expo, April 22-25 in San Francisco, CA. Co-produced by TechWeb and O'Reilly Media , this is a conference and tradeshow for the rapidly growing ranks of designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, and business strategists who are embracing the opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies.

Earlier this year, Diane Greene, VMware President and Co-Founder, described cloud computing as the final evolutionary step for virtualization. Reza Malekzadeh, Senior Director of Products and Marketing reinforced that view at the Nordic Virtualization Conference in June 2. They both presented a five stage vision where virtualization is used first for test and development, then for server consolidation, then for infrastructure on demand, then for data center automation and finally for cloud computing. Is this their mantra now?

According to Mario Dal Canto, "Virtual Cloud Computing represents the next wave of virtualization and offers significant market opportunities by providing a new, simpler, and much more pervasive platform for on-demand, desktop and application service delivery." As the Chairman and CEO of XDS, Inc, a provider of universal dialtone-based virtualization technology, he obviously sees a tremendous future in cloud computing. His personal history; CEO of Cybertel; CEO of Impres; Director of Worldwide Market Development at Sun Microsystems; and the Founder and Director of Sun Italia SpA; gives him quite a bit of credibility. If you are interested in hearing more, he will be speaking at the Virtualization Conference & Expo 2008 East , in New York City, June 23-24, 2008.

Microsoft's dance with cloud comuting is very puzzling. Point 1: The June 5th Wall Street Journal article discusses the friction between Steve Ballmer and Bill Gagtes over NetDocs, described by WSJ writer Bob Guth as " a promising effort to offer software programs such as word processing over the Internet." Sounding very similar to Google Docs, the project died because it would have eaten into Microsoft Office revenues. Point 2: Microsoft's plans to open up it's entire lineup of Internet services to developers under a "Cloud OS" moniker. Alternatively described as "cloud-centric" Brian Hall, general manager of Windows Live describes this effort as "A lot of the data, a lot of the apps, a lot of the interesting things are on the edge. They are on the PCs. They are on the Xboxes. They are on the phones." Point 3: The ongoing Microsoft/Yahoo dance which seems to be focused on search engines and ad revenue, not cloud computing at all. If ...

A short promotional video on Salesforce and the Google cloud .

Valve , a Bellevue, Washington based entertainment software and technology company, recently announced that they will use the cloud computing paradigm as their next major update. Called " Steam Cloud " the service will allow gamers to store not only their profiles and key bindings online, but also all of their savegames created through Steamworks-supported applications. Steam has had 114 client updates since their launch in 2003, but the biggest one is yet to come. Steam Cloud is Valve’s plan to further engage PC gamers with their games, and this is one more step to Steam becoming the core of the PC gaming experience.

Last week in Eye on the Enterprise , Joe McKendrick, highlighted IBM VP Steve Mills' apparently less than enthusiastic statement regarding cloud computing. In an April 30th interview with CNET’s Dan Farber, Steve Mills said: "The cloud as some amorphous concept that meets all needs and requirements is science fiction." Mr. McKendrick sees this as evidence of IBM's long history of competing with itself. Personally, I believe that IBM is just being coy about it's intentions. To support my point, I refer you to Mr. Mills' statements on March 19th regarding the IBM European Cloud Computing Hub : "Our investments in cloud computing are a prime example of how IBM is seeking out emerging global market opportunities and new computing models that benefit IBM clients," said Steve Mills, Senior Vice President and Group Executive, IBM Software Group. "Through this new facility and the cloud computing model, the wealth of talent at IBM's software lab in ...

VMware President and Chief Executive Officer Diane Greene,in her keynote address at the JP Morgan Technology Conference in Boston, described cloud computing as the final evolutionary step for virtualization. In her view, cloud computing starts with workloads being assigned to connections, software and services, which are accessed over a network of servers and connections in various locations, collectively known as “the cloud.” Using a thin client or other access point, like an iPhone or laptop, users can access the cloud for resources on demand. The evolutionary steps are: Users deploy virtual machines (VMs) for testing and development; VMs are then employed for server consolidation in production environments; Datacenter resources are then aggregated, virtualizing the entire center; Automation of all aggregated workloads; and finally Datacenter are finally seen as virtual resources of the "cloud"

During last month's Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Partnership Conference, cloud computing debuted as a "top priority" for senior leadership. Speakers described a future state when users would access computing time from DISA’s "cloud" to run applications without requiring access to a traditional server. John Garing, DISA CIO, said that the Government is looking to only pay for usage. Cloud computing and virtualization were identified as growing business segments and have quickly been adopted by DISA leadership as a service to DoD customers. Led by DISA’s Computing Services unit this new service will provide military users a faster, cheaper source to run applications in an on-demand environment. Called the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE) this "cloud" will give warfighters the ability to configure, order and access a server on the network in less than 24 hours. While I applaud DISA on their rapid adoption of the cloud concept, I am v...