Category Archives: Cloud Services

What You Don’t Know About IaaS

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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

As many of you know, cloud computing is today’s go-to technology.  The three major categories Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) represent the basic offerings.  Cloud technology has been around for more than 10 years, but there still exists a lack of knowledge in those looking to take advantage of its benefits.  What you don’t know about cloud computing will bar you from laying hold of the future.  Every new tech startup is leveraging the power and freedom of the cloud from the get-go.  There’s a reason for that.  It is the data center platform of today.  IaaS is the foundation of the today’s data center.  Is your business finding ways to take advantage of this?

Cloud Computing Foundation

IaaS is the foundation of cloud computing.  The core components compute, storage, and networking, provides the starting point for all other cloud software directions.   Figure A below shows how IaaS fits into the basic model.  IaaS provides the foundation.  Next, comes PaaS.  Here is where the developer world truly takes advantage.  Services such as containers, databases, queuing, web and others exist to provide elastic development environments.  Organizations deploying a DevOps (Tightly integrated Software Development and IT Operations) strategy, find PaaS the platform of choice.  The teams make use of interpretive environments (PHP, Java, Python, Node.js) to move applications through the entire life-cycle.  At the top of our cloud pyramid is SaaS.  This is the top layer of the foundation.  Most companies are using products in this core component.  Products email, storage, and collaborative tools exist here to provide productivity benefits.

 

Cloud Computing Stack

Figure A

Basic Components

The basics of IaaS lie in just three infrastructure components:  Compute, Storage, and Networking. These components are instantly flexible in a cloud-based environment.  They are scaled to meet current demand.  Customers use a drop down to increase or decrease processor power.  Administrators add needed storage quickly and easily.  Designated network administrators make networks and IP addresses available without any effort at all.  Customers have the option to scale resources up or down.  Each change in resources is different.  Scaling up is usually a snap, but scaling down may not be as simple to execute.  Cloud service users fine tune resource utilization to optimize costs by taking advantage of resource elasticity.  Again, simply with a click.

Major Benefits

Elasticity of services is the most beneficial aspect of implementing cloud-based services as part of your business.  If you need more or require less, the click of a mouse is all that is needed to make the change.  This elasticity also helps to save on costs in the long run.  IaaS has also brought new technologies into Platform as a Service (PaaS).  Container engine technology is implemented as an additional service within PaaS.  It offers businesses new avenues in which to deploy and maintain their applications.  However, the most flexible and granular aspect of IaaS, is the implementation and application of security.  Security is woven into the fabric of the solution.  The basic components and others, all have security features applied to them when provisioned.  Security is to cloud services, like brake fluid is to a brake system.  IaaS just doesn’t work without it.

Conclusion

Infrastructure as a Service is the foundation of cloud-based services.  It creates the environment in which Platform as a Service and Software as a Service are founded upon.  To learn more about the how and why of cloud, give us a call or fill out the contact form on our site.

Azure IoT Suite Connected Factory Now Available

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New IoT Offering on Microsoft Azure

Many customers tell us that they want to start with the digital transformation of their assets, for example production lines, as well as their business processes. However, many times they just don’t know where to start or what exactly Industrie 4.0 is all about.  Check out this post on what’s new in IoT on Azure.

https://azure.microsoft.com/blog/azure-iot-suite-connected-factory-now-available/

Serverless Technology Drives New IT Operations

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The Effect of Serverless Technology on IT Operations

How much have you heard about Serverless Technology?  Don’t feel bad, you’re not alone.  Few people have even heard the term let alone know what it means.  Simply put, the concept “focuses on code, not on servers”.  As so eloquently put in Tomasz Janczuk’s post titled “What is serverless”.  You can’t get any more simpler than that.  Some excellent examples to do research on are AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, and Iron.io just to name a few.  There are others out there, and growing in number everyday.  So what’s the big deal?  Why is this technology or better stated, architecture, making such an impact?  Let me answer that question with an infographic.  I think this one really says it in a way we all can understand.  Shoot me an email or IM me on Skype if you have trouble getting it.

 

Without or With – Where would you rather be?

 

IT Operations in a Serverless World

Hands On With EC2 and Microsoft Windows Server

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Get Some Free Hands-on with EC2 and Server 2012

This video provides some very good information on how to work with Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service.  It does have a good bit of Amazon propaganda at the beginning, but there is value for those who are unfamiliar with the platform.  You’ll learn about much of the EC2 functionality provided for Windows based products.  There are three videos in the series.  The first gives you an overview of the EC2 service.  The second provides a demo of provisioning a Windows Server using the EC2 platform.  Then the final video offers the viewer the opportunity to get some hands-on with EC2 by deploying a  Windows Server within Amazon Web Services (AWS).  The series is really not for beginners, but with some research a novice techie could perform the hands-on lab.  The video in this post is the second in the series.  To gain access to the lab, you’ll need to check the Amazon events site to see when the next training will be held.

Click here to access the Hands-on-Lab: Windows on AWS  New Tab training.

You’ll be able to register for the next scheduled hands-on with EC2 lab from this page.  If you have any question feel free to contact us!

Cloud Security – A Practical Approach

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Don’t Misinterpret the Meaning of Cloud Security

With the increasing adoption of Cloud Services, many businesses are attempting to better understand what the benefits really are.  A major reason many businesses are not moving to the use of cloud services revolves around security.  Just what exactly is going on in the puff-puff world?  David Hunt presents a very practical approach to what cloud security is all about.  He outlines some basic ideas that expose how to create a secure cloud environment.  His article outlines three things to focus on that can really shore up your security – Compromised Credentials, Loss of Access to Data, and New and Stealthy forms of Malware.  As I see it, these are very basic and easy to review.  Taking a more in-depth approach to your policy and response to issues up front, can make for a more secure cloud environment.  Don’t get me wrong, you can’t take this as the end all, but by truly focusing on how you will address each one, opens the door to a more complete understanding of what’s real with cloud security.

 

A Look at Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities in the Cloud

Based on a recent survey of over 1000 IT professionals from Evolve IP, half of all IT leaders and administrators, believe that the public cloud is less secure than on-premise hosting. While concerns over cybersecurity vulnerabilities particular to the cloud aren’t unfounded, the massive move cloudward suggests that, trust them or not, your enterprise will begin using cloud services sooner rather than later.

Utilizing the Amazon Web Services API

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Amazon Web Services API – Easier To Use Than Expected

I found that many readers want to acquire information on PaaS (Platform as a Service) offerings.  Admittedly, I too want to get the inside scoop.  While grovelling for info on Amazon Web Services, I ran into Michael Wittag’s article on Cloud Zone about using the AWS API to get things done.  This article was very straight forward and to the point.  It was an informative post as well.  It outlines four tools used to perform functions on AWS:  Web Management Console, Command Line Interface (CLI), Software Development Kits (SDKs), and Blueprints.  The Web Management Console is usually the first tool any AWS customer will work with.  The tool is very easy to use.  However, I feel that you’ll need to have a solid knowledge of datacenter concepts before you dive in.  Moving to the command line would be a normal progressing if you wanted to start automating tasks in your AWS environment.  With automation comes different methods to accomplish your tasks.  Software Development Kits will provide the avenue for creating scripts.  You would be surprised how many different software SDKs you can actually use to interact with the Amazon Web Services API.  Michael lists nine different supported SDKs that developers and administrators can use.  Lastly Blueprints can also be used to manage your environment or multiple environments.  Now here is where the excitement begins.  With Blueprints, you can automate the creation of systems, services and infrastructure in the cloud.  AWS also has Blueprints to help you with learning more about and using Lambda.  Check out the article and comment with your thoughts.  Also don’t overlook the additional resources at the end of this post.

 

Interacting With AWS to Turn System Diagrams Into Reality – DZone Cloud

The Cloud Zone is brought to you in partnership with Iron.io. Discover how Microservices have transformed the way developers are building and deploying applications in the era of modern cloud infrastructure. Generally speaking you can host any application on AWS. If you interact with AWS, you will always make calls to the API.

 

Additional resources to check out on this subject:

Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Platform as a Service

Amazon Web Services in Action

The Essentials of Digital Innovation

Amazon Web Services Lambda

HPE Discontinues Public Cloud Platform For Microsoft Partnership

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Hewlett Packard Discontinues Helion To Offer Azure

Wow!  What an interesting business decision for HP’s public cloud platform business.  When I saw this, I just had to dig deeper to get the full scoop.  I had already seen a previous article on this new relationship between HP and Microsoft.  At first I was stunned.  Why would HP drop its own public cloud platform to offer a competitors?  Then I remembered all the years of partnership between the two companies in the past.  So what do we think will come out of this particular venture? Most analysts are saying that this move will open doors for providers to operate more in the hybrid cloud space.  It’s strange to me that hybrid cloud has been labeled as weak in the cloud space.  I remember going to vendor sponsored seminars on cloud computing four years back where public, private and hybrid cloud we featured.  Has hybrid cloud really not been taking off?  Could HP dropping its public cloud platform really change the face of cloud services completion?  What do you think about this new relationship?  Let me hear from you.

 

Its public cloud soon gone, HP aligns with Microsoft Azure

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise has partnered with Microsoft to offer its Azure cloud services to customers, filling a gap when HPE closes its own public cloud early next year. Microsoft will be a “preferred” public cloud partner to HPE, and HPE will become a “preferred provider” of Microsoft Azure services, CEO Meg Whitman said on HP’s quarterly earnings call Tuesday.

Google Cloud Platform Prices Reduced Up To 30 Percent

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Preemptible Virtual Machine Instances Provide Reduced Google Cloud Platform Prices

There’s an interesting new development in Google Cloud Platform prices that I think is worthy of review.  I’ve always felt that cloud computing prices should be lower.  The technology has been around long enough for many providers to have recouped their upfront deployment costs.  Cloud companies can now begin to pass on cost savings to their customers as the next generation of IT begins to pick up additional momentum.  Also, the level of service provider maturity is bringing about new and more robust offerings.  This in turn continues the technology road map for those companies who have been early adopters.  Check out the additional resources provided below.  You’ll learn more about Google’s cloud platform pricing structure and philosophy, and even how to create your first cost savings virtual machine.  I definitely recommend that you take the time to review these resources and any others found within the web of links.  You can also give us a shout if you’re looking to learn more about the product.

 

Google Drops Cloud Computing Prices By Up To 30 Percent, Launches Preemptible Instances

Google today announced yet another round of price cuts for its cloud computing platform, as well as a new instance type that will allow businesses to save even more on some of their cloud computing tasks. Today’s cuts focus on the Compute Engine side of the service and include cuts of up to 30 percent for the smallest instances.

 

Google Proposes “Pay Less, Compute Moore” (Not a typo)  New Tab

Google Cloud Platform Pricing Philosophy  New Tab

Google Cloud Platform vs AWS TCO Tool  New Tab

Google Compute Engine Pricing  New Tab

Google Cloud Pricing Calculator  New Tab

How To Create A Preemptible Virtual Machine Instance  New Tab