Lifting the Fog with Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is one of the latest catch phrases that the technology marketing engine has been pushing. The actual term, appears to have come from the idea of using a "cloud" to graphically represent the internet. So it really means internet computing.

If it is really just internet computing, haven't we been doing that all along? Yes and no. Yes, when you open an internet browser and start using the internet, you are doing internet computing. For instance a search utility would be used to find a subject. When you are done, that information for all intensive purposes is gone (we will ignore the fact that they save your search).

What makes cloud computing a bit different than traditional internet browsing is what you get when you do the computing. Cloud computing may or may not be run like a traditional internet application. It's the data that is generated that makes it different. It's YOUR data and it should be secure.

In a traditional, non-cloud computing environment, you will work with application such as a spreadsheet or word processor and then save your work in a document file. This happens locally or over a local area network (LAN). In a business, the later is more likely and the documents are held on the LAN as well. This is because in a business, they want to be able to control the flow of data, back it up and keep it on reliable media. You secure it with the network perimeter, permissions and so forth.

In the "Cloud Computing" environment, your data stays at the data center and is secured using many of the traditional methods using permissions and network perimeter. The internet breaks the perimeter bounds but it is virtually recreated using encrypted connectivity. The applications may run locally and access the data remotely or it may run both the data and application remotely via a browser.

Examples of cloud computing could be Salesforce.com, autotask.com or http://www.cygem.com/services-office.aspx

So what is the advantage of cloud computing? Here are some reasons a company may want to use cloud computing.

• Reduce dependence of onsite technical staff and equipment
• Get enterprise technology with a small business budget
• Workforce is mobile
• Workforce is geographically disperse
• You want to purchase only the technology you need

So in summary, cloud computing supports remote access and the management is on the service provider not the end user.

The psychology of outsourcing and how to use it effectively.

As IT professionals, we're always being asked to do more with less. We are responsible for the results of nearly everything that uses electricity in the organization and we embrace the old adage "If you want it done right, do it yourself." What this means is that we feel that everything in IT is on our shoulders from planning to implementation to maintenance.

Often in IT, there are many ways to accomplish any particular task. We each find the ways that work well for us and stick to them.

Human beings like control. We control our environment, our food sources, our travel and so on. IT professionals are even more so this way. It is one of the reasons that we get into computers. We know we cannot control other people, but we can control a computer. Even when we don't know why something is happening, we know there is a reason and can figure out at least how to make it happen or stop happening, whichever we desire.

At some point, it is no longer advantageous, and becomes counter productive, to try to control everything. We may spend inordinate amounts of time on repetitive or mundane tasks. Our environment grows to a point where we begin dropping the ball. We feel overwhelmed with all that needs done and are unable to help add value to the organization. What do we do?

The idea of outsourcing conjures up ideas of layoffs, poor English and loss of control. None of these needs to be true. Rather than struggle to keep control, let go of some of the tasks that make sense.

Often people have spam gateways that they have on a server that they own. This requires constant updates to the OS, Software or both. It also requires a server, location, and other maintenance. By using an outsourced spam service, all the maintenance is handled by the spam service. You can make it more secure by only allowing that service to have access to send mail to your email server. Also, you can purchase a caching option. If your Internet connection is lost, it will cache your email for you, then pass it to your email server when it comes back on line. You have control over the service via an admin login.

Patching is another item that can be outsourced. This usually requires an onsite device, but you don't need to mess with it. This can be coupled with other services such as monitoring to make sure that your systems are running effectively and are up to date. A report will give you information on the health of your systems and give you what you need to prioritize your spending and tasks. This actually gives you more control over your environment.

These are very easy ways to dip your toe into outsourcing without giving up control. You are just giving up some of the work. Often, the time and cost savings will postpone needing to hire another employee and may even free up funds for other projects that you want to do. These can give you the time for more value added tasks for your organization and you come off looking like a hero.

I want to drive it, not work on it.

Information Technology (IT) Systems are a complex integration of smaller subsystems. A metaphor commonly used compares IT to a car. While these are vastly different types of systems utilizing very different technologies, there are some similarities.

A car is made up of different subsystems integrated to make a complete system, the car. These include the drive train, passenger restraint, abs, etc. In the car's early days, many of these systems were poorly implemented or absent all together. Most of the safety issues were very apparent. If you crash, or the fuel tank blows up there is a safety issue. The reliability is less apparent and less of a consequence. If the motor stops working, you simply stop moving forwards. Over the decades of the automobile, the safety and reliability as well as the efficiency has improved. Some of these improvements have only come in the past 20 years, many decades after the automobile became a standard mode of transportation. These same issues, safety, reliability and efficiency are important within the information technology systems that we have become accustomed to. Also, like a car, a user needs to know how to operate it, not fix it.

Where there is a large gap, is that the system of the automobile, has become a well enginereed combination of subsystems; currently information systems engineering is more ad hoc by many different vendors and engineers without much regard for the other subsystems. Imagine this, you go to the show room floor to look for a car. None of the cars is the same. You spot a minivan, as you approach it, you notice that all 4 tires are different sizes, and types. You notice that there is a crank start in the front. It has xeon headlights though. The motor is a 5.0 liter, but the transmission only has 2 gears and it's a manual. There is no ABS, but it has airbags, and they haven't been connected yet, you'll have do that yourself. Instead of actually having a lot of cargo room, the reason for purchasing a minivan, it has a spare tire for each of the 4 mismatched tires on the vehicle. There are seats in the back, but they are just spares for the driver and passenger, so they aren't bolted in. There are no windshield wipers, so if it's raining, it's just best to shut the thing off. I think you get the idea. This is how many Information Technology systems are run. It's a matter of looking at the IT as a system rather than a bunch of random items in the same room.

There are a lot of people who know how to fix a computer (mechanics), but most don't have the experience or knowledge to engineer the IT system. That is where a company like CyGem, with experts in many areas is useful. An I.T. infrastructure can be engineered with the right components in a holistic manner to maximize reliability, safety and efficiency to meet the needs of the user.

Often it's not possible to build IT from scratch because the client may already have systems that they need to maintain or good equipment that they don't want to repurchase. In these cases, we can evaluate a road map for reutilization or replacement, along with priorities to allow a company to progress into a well engineered environment getting the most of every dollar spent. The road map and a maintenance program like Insight Anywhere together, help a company to have information technology they can spend more time driving, not working on.

Why I haven't gone to Vista... yet!

I remember the good old days when I bought my first computer. I knew nothing about computers other than the little I had access to at school. It was a Gateway 486DX2-66, to some this makes me a relative nubee in the tech world. It had a VESA slot for the video and EISA slots for the other I/O. It was the fastest computer around and I had no intention of being caught with a lack of resources. I upgraded to 16MB of RAM, the most it would support. I also paid up to get the 500MB SCSI HDD, IDE was only able to do 340MB at the time. It ran the latest software Windows 3.1 and DOS 6.
... then the education began.

I loaded all the software that I had available... pirating? what's that?
Anyway, I went to run the first game I had. What? No sound card, off to the computer store. During this process I learned about jumpers, interrupts and all kinds of things. Best of all was that you could run out of memory if you couldn't keep the first 640kb free, regardless of the amount of RAM installed. So as I learned more and more, I discovered that DOS, or more precisely the 16bit OS, was the cause of my ills. I was in pain, because that's all that was available to run the applications that I had. So I did research and found that there were 32 bit OSes on the horizon. OS/2 was the first. I actually purchased it, but it didn't have drivers for all my hardware and the applications needed a lot of tweaking to work. Not a viable solution from my view.

Then Windows 95 was announced. This was to be the holy grail of OSes. So I put up with Windows 3.1 for the next year and a half until Windows 95 was released. Windows 95 was great, it ran all of my applications, I didn't need to be concerned with the 640k limit (it still existed but handled it by itself pretty well). It was more stable than Windows 3.1 and had a much better user interface. Then the weak points of 95 started to reveal itself. The Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), while 4MB of RAM was the stated minimum, 16MB was the realistic minimum. The basic install was several hundred MB. So the OS vs. Resource battle ensued.

Then NT 4 was released. Directed at Business, it was more stable but could not run DOS based games, needed more resources and did not have drivers for all the hardware. Windows 98 came out and was slightly more stable than 95, but not as much as NT.

Then came Windows 2000, this IMO is the true holy grail and a fundamental shift in OSes. It is pure 32 bit based on the Windows NT model, but had drivers for most hardware. Through the growth of 95 and 98, games had gone to the DirectX model making DOS based games obsolete. This OS had been designed from the ground up with Networking and Security in mind. The NTFS made scan disk and disk defrag tasks marginal. The resources needed by now was minimum of 256MB of RAM and a 6GB HDD. This was easily achieved and the battle had slowed. The pain had stopped! I could finally do most of what I wanted without constant tweaking.

I ran Windows 2000 for a long time. Windows XP came out in 2001 and I kept on with 2000. The only difference I saw was it needed a bit more resources. Over time, Microsoft stopped supporting it and additional security was introduced in XP. Some small features were improvements, but the only reason I upgraded to Windows XP was the support. I'm happy with XP and have no need to upgrade again. It's not like the old days where you were waiting for the next release because your system was so unstable or could not do what it really needed to do. There are small incremental feature upgrades, most of which I never use. If Microsoft really wants to make an OS that is compelling, lets look at voice recognitioin and break the bonds of the desk. I'd like to be able to be working on something and without breaking my concentration be able to say "Computer, get me a list of all the restaraunts that serve healthy food and cator to children. Oh and send that list to my GPS." And when I setup my PDA or GPS, I just want to say "Computer, I'm connecting a PDA to my system. Install what is needed for it to work." That would be a benefit worthy of an upgrade. And it should run everything I have now... reliably.

Microsoft again is looking to push everyone into Vista. From a support and revenue standpoint, I understand the push. But what about the cost of the change to businesses? There is installing, finding compatible software, retraining, etc. I do not want to mess with it. I have heard nothing good about it and what little I have been on it was miserable. I was on a system that didn't appear to have an IP Address, so I went to run ipconfig /all to see if it was getting the right dhcp server. Where did the command prompt go? Where is network settings? Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, adds "features" to make it easier for the novice at the expense to all of us who have been using their systems for the last 15 years. In that time, hardware has become more powerful, apps are available on the Internet, games have basically gone to the console and are usually available on multiple platforms and other OSes that were not options now are. Linux and Mac OSX are the 2 next best options. If they are going to hide everything from me, Mac OSX is a good option. I know about as much about that as Vista. Then there is Linux, it's free but I'm not sure about running my apps. Then why not just keep running XP. I don't drive my car to the junk yard when the warranty runs out. The only reason I may switch is to go to the 64bit version, but will that gain me much either? XP 32bit is more compatible and supports 4GB of RAM and 2TB for the HDD.

So if I get to the point where I feel my hand is forced to change, I'll be looking at other OSes before I accept the change to Vista. "Computer, check spelling and publish blog."

What is Network Monitoring?

Network Monitoring consists of a way that an IT department can watch over all the servers, workstations and other network devices in an organization. If a piece of hardware or some software begins to fail, you can know about it before it causes an outage and take corrective action.

While this sounds like a great tool, previously, the resources needed to use it made it so that only large organizations could afford it. It was very complex and expensive. You would need a highly skilled person to operate the software and it would often require a large amount of configuration on each device. In addition, the hardware needed for the monitoring solution itself, could rival a small company's entire infrastructure. Obviously, if you had more resources commited to monitoring than to the things being monitored, it didn't make sense.

In recent years, SNMP and WMI have become common place and created a framework for the Network Monitoring to be utilized more easily. The proliferation of ASP models makes it so that the infrastructure to run the solution can be hosted and spread among several small businesses. This enables lower cost solutions and makes it available for small to medium businesses.

Now, with a lower cost and a distributed model. Small companies can leverage the experience, software and hardware of a larger company without breaking the bank. By implementing a Network Monitoring solution, they can have their servers and workstations patched; all the devices checked for security vulnerabilities and have services such as their email or web site checked for uptime. Troubleshooting time is reduced since the system will send alerts and bring most of the events together in a single place so that you can look for a trend.

A solution like this also helps companies analyze where they need to spend their IT dollars. Sometimes they think they need a new machine, but find out that just upgrading RAM will fix their problems. If you are a small company, you can't be diverting your attention away from your business. A network monitoring solution will help keep it on track without being over involved in day to day operations of the technology.