So I recently did a great Podcast where I talked about Citrix OpenCloud, Citrix OpenCloud Bridge and the On-Boarding whitepaper I did with Intel.  Check out the podcast here.   From this podcast, the following transpired…

So I went to the store the other day and bought some good old “Ready to Bake” cookie mix.  The great thing about this is you always know what you are going to get.  You follow the directions, turn on the oven, and place the dough on the pan.  The only mistake you can make is if you cook them too long!  12 to 15 minutes later you have a nice batch of warm cookies.

Kind of boring, right!  So then I got thinking, what if I used a cookie cutter to make some cookies.  That would change things a bit, right?  Here is what I ended up with:

Still pretty bland…

So I got thinking about how Citrix OpenCloud is changing the game with cloud computing and taking clouds that are “cookie cutter” and giving them the opportunity to spice it up a bit.  Sure I could add frosting (logo) to these cookies, but underneath they are still the same ingredients and brand.  They will have a little sugar taste but that is about it!  Your neighbor (cloud providers) can make the same cookies and I bet they will taste the same!  Heck, your kids (private clouds) can even make these cookies (with adult supervision of course) and I bet they will taste the same!  But, what if you want brownies, cupcakes, cake, pie, pizza dough or even spaghetti, what are your options?  Sure you can go out and buy “Ready to Bake” options or store bought, but what if you prefer wheat flour, organic products or a specific brand ingredient?

How can we address these desires and at the same time kick it up a notch (differentiation)?  Well, I went out and bought one of these:

Not only can I make cookies (adding as many chocolate chips as I want), but I have also become quiet the homemade pasta maker:

So think of IT Administrators or Cloud Providers as the bakers and Citrix OpenCloud is your high-end mixer that you can add any ingredients to in order to make whatever it is you want to make. Citrix OpenCloud will provide you with a few key ingredients to choose from when building out a cloud: XenServer, Netsclaer, XenApp and XenDesktop. Yet, Citrix OpenCloud allows you to bring a wide variety of ingredients to the table in order to build YOUR cloud. Citrix OpenCloud does not lock you into any particular hypervisor, web portal or API (as examples). Citrix OpenCloud allows you to build a cloud that can compete, perform, differentiate and meet you or your customer needs.

One could argue you can go from package to cookie in little time with a "Ready to Bake" option; a very valid point. Citrix OpenCloud will allow for any combination of ingredients but at the same time, we offer up our own recipes for those who want a cookie cutter scenario. In the end, Citrix OpenCloud is truly open, allowing you to build a cloud that meets the needs of your organization or cloud offering and when needed, we can provide you with a "Ready to Bake" option.

… So again, check out the podcast!

Disclaimer: I actually did make pasta and no one died from eating it!

Now to think up more recipes…

You want to check this topic and more in detail?  Come to Citrix Synergy 2011 (May 25 and 27) where Intel is a Platinum Sponsor!

Be sure to check out my sessions talking about Citrix OpenCloud and Citrix OpenCloud Bridge: SYN208 and SYN213

You can register for Synergy here.

Details on this session are available here.

Airline communications and IT provider SITA wanted to enhance business flexibility by building a cloud computing infrastructure with the scalability to meet growing demands and the flexibility to accommodate the fast-changing air transport industry. It also wanted to define a  reference architecture for running mission-critical solutions that could deliver the performance to process complex transactions with low latency. Finally, it needed to make sure its infrastructure was efficient enough to reduce operating expenses and keep transaction costs low.

The solution was IBM BladeCenter* servers with the Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 series, which SITA chose as the reference architecture for its cloud computing environment and its grid-based international fares pricing solution.

“Using IBM BladeCenter servers with the Intel Xeon processor 5600 series enables us to provide a tremendous amount of processing performance in a highly compressed footprint,” explained Chris Lofton, head of technology planning for SITA. “We are delivering better performance for mission-critical applications while substantially reducing our infrastructure.”

For details, read our new SITA business success story. As always, you can find this one, and many more, in the Intel.com Reference Room and IT Center.

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

Cloud Connect 2011 was a success for all, especially for Intel to show and tell people where they are in the conversation of the Cloud.  According to attendees, this year the attendance was 68 percent greater than last year.  Guess that clears up the question of, “is Cloud just the ‘buzz’ or is the Cloud forward-looking?” But questions still filtered the air at Cloud events that led up to Cloud Connect…

When people think “Cloud” they think Google or Amazon.  What about Intel?  When people hear, say, or see “Intel” they think of the microprocessor company.  Intel – just the processor company, but at Cloud Connect, we were able to help tell the story of where Intel fits in the conversation of the Cloud.  Along with the AES-NI Encryption demo showing the performance difference between our Xeon 5500 and Xeon 5600, and the very popular Nordic Edge One Time Password demo, Intel was able to help answer that question with the other two demos – Intel® Expressway Cloud Access 360 and the Intel Cloud Builders demo. 

Many people asked what Intel has to do with Cloud?  The Intel Cloud Builders demo of the eBook or guide was great to help tell that story of how we have worked with many of our ecosystem partners to develop the first 20 of our Reference Architectures and pull together all the case studies to help our future Intel customers and partners find the perfect recipes for building their Cloud.  Intel will be their trusted advisor and as we continue to build out on more RAs we will also build on the Intel Cloud Builders Guide (eBook) providing continued references within the guide in forms of videos, webcasts, podcasts, whitepapers, etc., to help our customers and partners build the perfect fit Cloud for their business.  Intel in the Cloud?

Wait…there’s more…The Intel® Expressway Cloud Access 360 demo (also Vikas Jain YouTube available) focuseson the biggest topic around Cloud – SECURITY IN THE CLOUD. Cloud Access 360 secures Client to the Cloud. It is the first solution suite designed to control the entire lifecycle of cloud access by providing SSO, provisioning, strong authorization and audit.  So again, Intel in the Cloud?

Outside of the demos, Intel was also there with a camera and questions.  Interviews were being conducted left and right with the attendees to find out what is their definition of the Cloud, how does their business fit in with Cloud, what brought them to Cloud Connect this year and many other more interesting questions that brought the conversation of Cloud to a whole new level of learning and excitement.  Overall, the attendees are starting to build on the hybrid Cloud, they do see a future for Cloud Computing, many different verticals are using or providing the Cloud today – education, worldwide businesses, technology, financial businesses, etc., and the best part, people are understanding not only Intel’s benefits of security in the Cloud, and for some Intel® TXT, but finding out that Intel, while still the microprocessor company, also facilitates as a Trusted Advisor role in the conversation of Cloud Computing.

Intel was also able to have a few sit down interviews with some of our partners and customers that helped make the Intel Cloud Builders Reference Architecture library fulfilled, including Cisco.  Also one of the Steering Committee Members from the Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA), Terremark, as wells as spend some quality time with McAfee, Hytrust, RSA, and a few others.  Along with these interviews and those at the Intel booths and show floor, stay tuned for videos from the successful Cloud Connect 2011! 

Do you remember the day when you were first aware that everywhere you went, people we’re talking about dot.com? Every start-up was telling you how the Internet was going to change the world, everyone you knew was talking about how they were using the web, and every bit of marketing flowing from the tech industry had to feature an Internet angle.  It’s like someone had turned a switch connecting people in a global zeitgeist that said if you wanted to move forward in life you needed to travel into the net.

A similar phenomenon has struck the tech world for the past couple of years with the word cloud.  If you’re a computing industry player you know your products have to have a cloud angle, if you’re an IT manager you know you’ve got to have a plan to use cloud, and if you’re a user you might have even heard about this thing called cloud.  You may not agree with anyone else on the definition of cloud, but you know it’s important and you know you can’t get left behind. Which brings me to a comment a friend of mine made to me back during the dot.com boom…”at some point people have to stop talking about this thing and really start delivering it”.  Wise words that companies like buildyourownpants.com should have listened to.

Over the past six months or so, the vaporous nature of cloud has been dissipating with a sense of customers beginning to implement solutions, take advantage of public cloud resources for targeted workloads and technology has come to market that offers real differentiated innovation.  Today at Intel is all about that delivery…our event called “Day in the Cloud” has brought together some of the leaders of cloud computing to show what we techies at Intel call Reference Architectures, proven technology solutions that address some of the critical user requirements for cloud deployments...and all based on industry standard solutions that our collective customers desire.  Our Intel Cloud Builders lab is opening up to show these reference architectures to some leading computing  editors and bloggers to highlight the incredible progress the industry has made in shifting from talk into action…into delivery of real solutions ready for customer deployment in both public and enterprise cloud environments.

The concept is simple.  A reference architecture is designed by a team of engineers to be a step by step recipe for getting a solution up and running.  It lists the ingredients (detailed lists of hardware and software that comprise the solution) and details the process of building the solution (think scripts, BIOS settings etc…kind of like Julia Child for the cloud).  With hardware vendors, software vendors and Intel engineers working together to develop and test each Reference Architecture, the end result is something that IT managers can safely use to stand up their own cloud solutions in test beds and production environments.  And interestingly enough, along the way this collaboration leads to additional insight for engineering teams that help improve the quality of the overall solution.

The Intel Cloud Builders program has delivered 25 of these reference architecture “recipes”, but today was the first day we actually showed a number of them (eight to be specific) up and running to a public audience.  These are available to folks who are getting their feet wet with these new technologies or for folks who have already begun deploying cloud solutions and are looking to improve critical capabilities like end to end security or on boarding from the enterprise to the public cloud.  With ecosystem partners including Cisco, Citrix, Dell, EMC, Gproxy, Hytrust, Microsoft, NetApp, Parallels and Vmware on hand to showcase their cloud solutions, the picture became clear that the cloud is swiftly moving from a bunch of hot air to smooth sailing solutions.  Check out our Day in the Cloud web page to keep pace with the day’s events and see what our guests have to say about the industry innovation on display today.

If you want to hear more from these industry experts and other cloud computing leaders check out my new podcast program: Conversations in the Cloud