Hi all - just wanted to drop a quick note stating that the Cloud Manager product team is very happy to answer all questions that may pop up on the Cloud Builders Forum. My name is Jo De Baer, I'm working on serveral products in Novell's "Workload IQ" portfolio, but Cloud Manager is definitely where my main focus is these days. Pretty soon we'll be releasing 1.1 - we hope to get some good product feedback and feature requests from you!

I have been in this industry a long time. In that time there have been a lot of trends that were the “next big thing” and “going to change everything.”

Some of them really did – like the relational database. Some were all but missed by the experts – like the early web. Some went the way of Microsoft Bob…Ok, Bob was never suspected of changing anything, but I do take any opportunity to bring it up.

Clouds are the buzz-De-jeur. There is very little innovation today that is not being stapled to a cloud offering. Guess what?, Clouds are not new. When asked by customers to define the cloud, my slightly sarcastic answer is “Hotmail.” Actually “Hotmail”, and the myriad of other completely externally hosted internet applications are the front runners of Cloud computing. And they work well. The flagship externally hosted application today is probably “Salesforce.com”

These examples are one view of cloud computing – moving the app in its entirety, with no required integration to corporate systems, into an externally hosted environment.

Clouds today are more than this. I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now (ok, I really wanted to type that).

Clouds today encompass pretty much everything “as a service.” You can append almost anything IT does with“As a service” and you have named a potential cloud offering. This can be anywhere in the stack, hardware: Infrastructure as a service; OS: platform as a service; Compute: function calls as a service; or applications like Hotmail.

What has changed? (Why is it boom time for clouds?)

In a word – Virtualization. Virtualization provides the ideal “container” for selectively moving parts of an IT environment. It provides boundaries, isolation, and sufficient abstraction of the physical to provide the migratory lubrication never before seen.

My personal belief is that the offerings that win the race will be those that allow a near seamless migration of containers (VMs) from an internal cloud (normal operations) into externally hosted environments. I am not saying this will be easy, but the ecosystem is rallying to deliver this capability. Initiatives like the Open Datacenter and programs like Intel’s Cloud Builder are providing the reference designs that will open up flexible hosting.

In the end the cloud will reign, even if the notion of calling it the “cloud” is an anachronism from “shortly after the turn of the century.” Having compute evolve to be a utility just makes sense.

No doubt you've been following Intel's Cloud 2015 vision announcements. A core element of our strategy is the notion of "federated." The federated cloud simply means that enterprises can procure compute capacity on demand and safely share data and compute across internal and external clouds. There are three key steps to enabling a federated cloud.

• First: Move your applications and data to the cloud or between clouds.
  
• Second: Have scale-out storage to recognize dispersion of data to need.
  
• Third: Ensure that your environment is secure and compliant.
  

Move your application and data to the cloud or between clouds

Your enterprise may see a sudden surge in demand or may need to move its compute environment for business continuity. Traditionally to address such needs we would have to build redundancy or excess capacity in our environment. With a federated cloud one can move data and applications to the cloud or between clouds to address such needs, without building excess or redundant capacity. The reference architecture on cloud onboarding explains how we accomplish this critical business need via Cloud On-Boarding with Citrix OpenCloud* on the Intel platform.

Scale-out storage can be implemented with Xeon-based servers and Ethernet

Federated cloud and explosion of data volumes are requiring a different paradigm in storage that requires efficiency of storage. Traditional storage architectures based on SAN or NAS have limited ability to meet these new usage models, due to efficiencies & flexibility required in meeting volume scale & storage location requirements (i.e. in a remote data center or cloud service). The way to achieve the goal of efficiency and flexibility is to use scale-out storage architecture that federates the storage according to end-user need and tracks the split (or federation) of the storage using metadata. Scale-out storage is not a new concept but is being commonly used by large Internet portals such as Google and Facebook. With digital content doubling every year and the advent of the federated cloud, scale-out storage is quickly becoming the wave of the future. Such storage can now be deployed using standard Xeon-based servers and Ethernet fabric.

For a detailed description, the reference architecture "Scale-out Storage with EMC Atmos*" gathers in one place the essentials of a scale-out storage architecture based on EMC Atmos and Xeon servers. It provides you a recipe to embark on new storage architectures to achieve true cloud federation.

Achieve security and transparency with Intel® TXT

Federation brings good things, but it also brings the underlying concern of security of a federated environment. How do I know if my remote or federated cloud is secure and compliant to my requirements? One way to achieve security and transparency in a federated infrastructure is to use Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT). TXT establishes a root of trust in the infrastructure by measuring compliance of platform components, like BIOS, OS, and VMMs (virtual machine managers), during boot. This root is extremely difficult to defeat or subvert and substantially reduces the security risks of using a remote infrastructure. This third reference architecture explains how we built a cloud with VMware vCenter Server*, VMware vSphere Hypervisor*, Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series-based server platforms, and a plug-in designed to interface with TXT.

Within Intel Cloud Builders, there is a wealth of real-world examples. Many more white papers and case studies detail how Intel technologies are utilized as the foundation for storage and security for federated clouds. Look around and let us know if we can help you build a new federated cloud architecture or modify and rework an existing one. Feel free to ask me questions.

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Anymore, everybody is talking about cloud computing and its potential to drive gains in IT efficiency and flexibility. So why aren’t more organizations actually moving applications to cloud environments? In a word: uncertainties. 

Most of all, people are concerned about application and data security in the cloud. But there are many other overarching questions that also need to be addressed before moving to a cloud. Let’s look at six of these intertwined questions.

1. What applications are right for the cloud? While this doesn’t sound like a security question, it really is. In selecting applications, begin by considering the sensitivity of the application and how close it is to your company’s core competency. For example, you might outsource expense reports to a third-party service provider, while keeping your core data and applications in your private cloud, where you have greater control over them.

2. Are the right policies in place? You must be comfortable with the service provider’s policies on security, availability, disaster recovery, and performance. Whether you’re working with an internal or external provider, these policies should be spelled out clearly in service-level agreements (SLAs).

3. How will my data be protected? Before moving sensitive data to an external cloud, you need to be sure that your cloud provider has rock-solid, verifiable security in place. In addition, you will want to encrypt the data you place in the cloud. And even then, you might want to keep your most highly sensitive data within the walls of your own data center, where you can assume full responsibility for its protection.

4. What happens when an application goes down? Applications in high demand should be placed in compute pools with automated recovery policies to enable best availability. With this approach, a down server shouldn’t mean a down application. Instead, the compute pool just shifts the workload to another platform.

5. What does my application connect to, and how will it connect? When an application is moved to a cloud environment, there’s a good chance it will need to connect back to your corporate environment. You need to understand how that will work. And you need assurances that your network traffic won’t be visible to others who share the same cloud, and vice versa.

6. What are my storage requirements? When you place your data in a server provider’s storage systems, you need to be sure the provider can meet your data security, availability, performance, and backup requirements.

There are, of course, other questions that need to be asked as well. But this is at least a starting point for your cloud preparations.

Another bright early morning at the Cloud Expo, Day 3 kicks off with a power panel with Douglas Crockford, K. Scott Morrison, Treb Ryan, Jon Shende and David Rokita with the topic, Virtualization & Cloud Computing – A Tango for Two?”  I thought this would be great for people to really see where were the utilization of Cloud is going from 2010 going forward.  It would also answer questions about the redefining of Cloud Computing and the world of virtualization…hence…a tango for two?

One question that helped clear the air on the path of Cloud was the curiosity of what happens when the fizzle of questions about cloud fizzles out? Will people be just as needy and excited about Cloud Computing many years out passed 2010? Or will it become “yesterday’s news?” I think that is truly a loaded question that depends on person, the job focus, the industry leaders, the companies. So I talked to David Rotika, one of the panelists, and ask his opinion. He had a good point that I have heard from a few other people recently in the Cloud event space – the term “CLOUD” really IS just a buzz word and a few years from now, it won’t seem like such a big deal to implement, instead, it will just be something we naturally apply in our everyday technology world. The buzz and hype over Cloud or calling it “Cloud” will be what fizzles out, but the questions and usage models, the next roadmaps, the next implementations will not fizzle, and there will always be answers. And as Rotika sees it, which may be true, “The best people in IT have been able to deliver and implement the Cloud.  Traditional IT is now just done better.” In other words, there will still be questions of Cloud…that follow with answers of continuously implementing.

Ok. Tangent. Anyway, a few of the panelists pointed out the possibility that someone has yet to really “tap into” the  Cloud.  “This thing [Cloud] is really about applications.”  I keep hearing speakers say, “I remember back in the beginning of my career….early on…” from people in the tech industry for the last 15-25+ years.  This makes me think, or rather, wonder if the Cloud will be a consistent “buzz” in the virtual or any part of the tech world?  Fifteen years from now, will we be implementing the Cloud, applying the Cloud, if we “have yet to really tap out” on the Cloud, what or where do we think we will be in the conversation of Cloud then?  In addition, I am curious to know what other people think on this topic of whether or not all biz types are considered in?  SMBs?  Or just IT only?  Large companies only?  And what about all geos?  My question for the day, is…are SMBs often overlooked in the Cloud Conversation?

This week launched the seventh 2010 Cloud Expo West in Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, Calif.  After missing the first day, I was able to attend Day 2.  Bright and early, the day started out with a keynote from Intel’s Vice President of the Intel Architecture Group and General Manager of Data Center Group Marketing, Boyd Davis.  Unfortunately, attendance at 7:40 in the morning was not quite would it could have been due to the big win of the first world championship title of the San Francisco GIANTS franchise history.  Other than Cloud, the GIANTS game was the other BUZZ around the venue. Still Davis’ keynote was a great kickoff to a long second day as he covered Intel’s three pillars of Cloud; the Cloud 2015 Vision, the newly public Open Data Center Alliance, and Cloud Builders. Through his presentation, the Vision video opened, the OEM/ISV video also played throughout, and the Cloud Builders Videos was also a hit that seemed to really engage the audience.

Shortly after Intel, another interesting session was presented by Adaptivity with the topic, “Cloud Computing is Transforming the Business of Enterprise IT” with speaker Tony Bishop.  There was one video that made the audience wake up and laugh while simply understanding the Cloud from their perspective.  Overall, this was the key session people began rolling in.  “Welcome to caffeine and Cloud.”

Interesting as it is, I was talking with a few other Intel people on the plane on my way down to the event, and then listening to the chatter in the Cloud Computing atmosphere and noticing the two conversation types had some things in common.  I think Intel, like many other companies are realizing they need to do, or have started to do, it really look, see, and think “outside the box” or as I say “the blue box.”  In other words, we spend so much time talking amongst ourselves and our OEMs and ISVs, but Intel also really needs to talk with other businesses, IT Professionals, of course, but also even scale it further to developers, researchers, and really find out what other usages all businesses have for the Cloud, hence a scalable, flexible Cloud.  Also what are some other businesses’ concerns and other questions when implementing Cloud.  Are we one large ecosystem?  Do we all help each other?  Can one large business help those smaller businesses answer their questions and help build out on Cloud?  DO NOT get me wrong, the fact that we, Intel, work with the Open Data Center Alliance is great, because we ARE, truly a great trusted advisor, I just hear that we can take that still and maximize it even wider and possibly more creatively, literally.

I talked with Scott Reed from Developmentor in Las Angeles, Calif., and just from his developer’s  perspective, the discussions at the event so far have been “geared more toward IT” which is true, but is it possible to maximize our cloud conversation to target all interested areas of work for businesses?

“There is a lot of marketing focused sessions on their companies,” says Reed, but not many for how to help other companies how to implement Cloud.”

I heard the same from two other researchers who sat at my lunch table today.  They were looking to get information on how to look at patterns that need change, look ahead and see if there are things they can change before these patterns occur when implementing Cloud, but these researchers said this event was not going to provide the information to get what they are looking for.  So who is?  One notable thing in common with these three different people, two different job focuses within the industry, is that they all came from small –medium businesses, or SMBs.  They chatted with a systems engineer, industry researchers, public cloud providers, research firms, and other developers, (keep in mind, only day two, still many people to meet and that means still many job focus areas that can be of a target to provide information of how to successfully use or implement Cloud.

The rest of the day seemed like I kept hearing “Platform as a Service” is the best now.  I know that is something more for myself and Cloud partner in Cloud crime to find out in day three of the Cloud Expo.  Until then, here are some thoughts that crossed my mind.  What, if any, buzz is there about HPC Cloud?  I am also looking forward to the topic of virtualization v. Cloud Computing.  Again…more to come tomorrow… So stay tuned…