Latest News from Reuven Cohen

2010 Predictions - Cloudy with a Chance of Convergence

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:24:25 EST

I'm off to Seoul, South Korea next week, but before I leave I wanted to give you a little holiday gift, yes, the gift of my prognostication. Before I do, as anyone who routinely reads my blog will understand, all I pretty much do is attempt predict the future. As an entrepreneur that has always been a key part of my successes & failures. (That and I also seem to be an eternal optimist) Generally my view of the future is not shaped by selecting any particular point in time but instead done from what I see from my ever changing vantage point in the present.

Before I dive into my predictions, I first must give you my ideology. It is my belief that before you can predict the future, you must first understand the past. In turn by understanding the past you are able to visualize your ideal future and more importantly the way to get there. The future is not predetermined, but rather guided by the decisions we as global collective make today. (Cheesy, but hey -- I'm predicting the future.)

Anytime Data - Real Time, Anytime and Anywhere
As we continue our long march into the world of Cloud Computing and Internet centric applications in 2010 I believe that real time information (data) will be the most important asset any business large or small can have. With the sudden influx of Cloud resources those who learn to tap into this wealth of data and do so the most efficiently will ultimately succeed.

The one thing that Moore's law and software development has taught us over the last 30 years is the more compute resource we have available the more we use. I see this holding true, except now we're not limited to any single CPU or Data Center. The future of computing will be about the speed in which we can make decisions (data analysis). This will be enabled by on an endless supply of real time information being gathered by a worldwide network consisting of both human and automated sources. The world has become one giant computer network with the Internet the glue that holds it together.

Emergent Clouds
As I've written about previously, I believe that the biggest technological business opportunities are not found in the established western countries, but instead are found in the new crop of upstart economies in regions such as Asia, South America and even Africa. The primary reason being these emerging economies have large population bases and more importantly they don't have the legacy infrastructure that most Western economies suffer from. These regions offer in a very real sense a greenfield opportunity. These (fast growing) emerging economies have an opportunity to choose the latest & best technology solutions without regard for how it may effect legacy systems -- since there really isn't any. In 2010 as we emerge from the recession I believe that we'll start to see these regions quickly become the brightest, biggest and fastest growth opportunities. Help equip these economies and you'll equip yourself for a profitable future.

Technological Convergence
Lately I've come to understand that beyond just being a buzzword, for me Cloud Computing has come to represent the convergence of many technologies. A kind of technological evolution where many existing IT systems, processes and applications have come together -- brought about by the Internet as both an operational as well as a delivery model.

This may be obvious to some, but in 2010 I see the use of Cloud Computing continuing to be developed and utilized in many different more radical contexts. Things we've never thought possible are now being made possible by the rapid advancements being brought about by near limitless access to compute resources. Any one individual in any one basement is now able to compete with the largest companies. What we're seeing for the first time are the barriers to large scale, compute intensive innovation being made available to all. It won't be those with the most money who win, but instead those with the best ideas.

Open Cloud Computing & Co-operative Community Clouds

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:45:00 EST

First in regards to Open Cloud Services, basically the concept goes like this; as we move away from the traditional client/server based models of the past to more web centric / service oriented opportunities of the future, we will see open source shift from application centric (source code) toward free open services and information. Cloud providers will essentially give away access in return for greater adopt of their platforms / services, increased customer acquisition and to accelerated creation of data and information. Basically the same reasons companies open source their applications today, just applied in a cloud context.

Wave on Ulitzer: Confessions of a Google Wave Fanboy

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST

Like many who were given early Google wave sandbox accounts, I didn't see the purpose at first. The rather buggy javascript laden interface was actually kind of slow and at times cumbersome and worst of all crashed my browser all the time. This was for the most practical of reasons, I didn't know anyone else using the platform and it was an alpha that was changing on practically an hourly basis.

Cloud Computing and The Israel Defense Forces

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:45:00 EST

Stepping off the airplane last Tuesday at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport I knew I was in for a memorable business trip. As I left the airplane I was greeted by a young female Israeli government official who seemed to recognize me by sight. This was to be my first indication of what was to become a very interesting few days in Israel.

Before I go into the details of my trip, I first need to give you some background which lead to my bizarre series of events. Although I was born in Haifa, a city in North Israel, I had left the country in 1982 at the age of 4, moving with my parents to Canada. Over the nearly 30 or so years since I left I have been lucky enough to travel all over world with generally little in the way of problems. Regardless of where I travel I've always use my Canadian passport, generally the Canadian passport provides me with a warm welcome regardless of the country I'm visiting. As an individual I've always identified myself both professionally and personally as a Canadian. When I speak, I like many other Canadians I throw in the casual "eh" at the end of sentences, and Americans routinely make fun of my "outs" and "abouts". I'm told they sound funny. So for all practical purposes, I am Canadian.

But because of where I was born, in the back of my mind I knew I was technically an Israeli citizen but never gave it much thought. Being born in Israel to a Swiss mother and Canadian father gave me a unique gift. This unusual "gift" is that of having three citizenships. Two of which, Israel and Switzerland require military service. Since leaving Israel at the age of 4 I have never had the opportunity to go back, not so much as a conscience decision as much as I never really had any reason to visit -- albeit for business or otherwise. But unlike Israel I have been to Switzerland many times over years and even have an active Swiss passport (which I rarely use). During my many trips to Switzerland, I have never been asked about military duty, so I falsely assumed the same would be true in Israel. Making what transpired all the more surprising.

Back to my arrival in Israel, at first I thought "Wow, Avner and the folks from the Israeli Association of Grid Technologies (IGT) who had invited to speak at their annual summit really go all out. I hadn't even gone through passport control and I'm already being greeted with a warm welcome". Well it turns out the welcome wasn't as warm as I thought. Next thing I know I'm being escorted to a secret label-less backroom at the airport. At this point I was told to wait. So for about two hours I waited as occasionally attractive young Israeli women with large machine guns would come in saying something to me in Hebrew, which I don't speak. After awhile they realized I didn't speak Hebrew and said "What kind of Israeli doesn't speak Hebrew" To which I responded, "A Canadian" They then ask me a series of questions. (Who my parents were, where I was born etc. Which they already knew)

The next part caught me by surprise, remember this is supposed to be a short (72hour) trip to Israel. A young woman tells me that as an Israeli citizen I have two conditions before I can leave: First I can't leave leave the country without permission from the dept of Interior and must get an Israeli passport. When I asked how long she tells me several weeks. Then the best part, secondly I must report for my Israeli military service in a place called Tiberias not far from Jordan and Syria on western shore of the Sea of Galilee as soon as possible. When I said again that I was just visiting, the official indicated that I was now officially in the Israeli defense forces (IDF).

I was now on my own in a country where I didn't speak the language and certainly didn't identify myself with. I was on my own effectively drafted into one of the most well funded and active defense forces on the planet. To give you some background on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in 2008 Israel spent $16.2 billion on its armed forces, making it the country with the biggest ratio of defense spending to GDP as a percentage of the budget of all developed countries.($2,300 per person). Also all male citizens are required to serve three years in the IDF with exceptions made only on religious, physical or psychological grounds. Arguably the IDF is one of the most politically charged defense forces on the globe, not exactly how I envisioned spending my next three years.

It wasn't that I was afraid of being in the army, so much as the thought of potentially being away from my family in what most certainly felt like a strange foreign land. With an 11 month old baby at home and my wife and I expecting another I focused on how to get out of this most awkward predicament I suddenly found myself in. So now instead of focusing my attention on the business meetings and presentations I was supposed to have over the next few days I would have to focus on what felt like getting back my freedom. Luckly my new Israeli friends and business partners stepped up to help me out.

Some of the biggest help came from an Israeli business partner (who asked not to be named). When I eventually emerged that evening from the holding area in the Airport, he was there waiting for me and sprung into action. Within minutes he had called senior contacts within the Israeli Government, contacts that would eventually include the Deputy Prime Minster of Israel as well as various other high ranking officials. He then detailed a strategy that would have me visit both the Dept of the Interior as well as the biggest Army base in the country.

While my business partner was calling everyone he knew, the second day of my trip I attendeed the conference as much as I could. After all I was in Tel Aviv for the World Cloud Computing Summit and a CloudCamp Tel Aviv which ended up being both successes having great turn outs. Needless to say there is a tremendous amount of interest in cloud computing in Israel with several hosting companies announcing they would be offering cloud related products and services. But alas, this aspect of my trip was greatly overshadowed by my worries of being conscripted into the military as well as not being able to leave the country. Anyone who follows my twitter account could easily see I was somewhat stressed over the situation. But thanks to the huge outpouring of support from the Israeli's I met, my situation would soon be resolved with the greatest of efficiency. Literally dozens of people made phone calls and provided me with advice. It seemed that if you had a friend in the IDF, they would call on my behalf with at one point one senior military commander noting that that I must of been a very special person because he had received no less then 10 calls about me in the previous 24 hours.

All in all it took roughly 48 hours to get my situation fully resolved. First with the issuing of an Israel passport (which was given to me 45 minutes after it was requested, a new record I'm told) as well as a visit to the largest military base in the country called Camp Rabin named for Yitzhak Rabin. The base was one of the first IDF bases and has served as the IDF headquarters since Israel's founding in 1948. Think of it like the Pentagon in the U.S.

One of things that struck me at Camp Rabin (other then it reminded me of a good unconference name) was the age of the average enlistee, somewhere between 18-21 years old, unsurprisingly all of which were heavily armed. It felt like a summer camp with guns.

After a few hours of back and forth between the IDF HQ and my outpost in Tiberias I was given my release papers. The papers were in Hebrew, but luckily my local partner who seemed to have became both my chauffeur and translator was there to help. He told me that I had been discharged from the IDF for the reason of "Old Age" and that it also said that I was free to leave the country.

Yes, one crazy business trip.

Enomaly Offers Turnkey Cloud Platform for Service Providers

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:00:00 EST

Create your own revenue-generating cloud computing service (IaaS) in your own Data Center(s). Gain key competitive advantage and service differentiation in the Cloud Hosting market through Enomaly’s turn key hosting platform. Enomaly delivers an end-to-end solution for carriers and hosting providers who want to offer an Infrastructure-on-Demand (IaaS) service. Enomaly provides the comprehensive capabilities needed to deliver a low cost, flexible and powerful cloud service offering. Our comprehensive deployment, management & operations functionality ensures that the service is delivered in a low cost, simple, and easy way, and offers unique, highly-differentiated customer benefits.

Cloud Computing Risk Assessment Report

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:15:00 EST

I've been traveling so there is a bit of a back log of news. In case you missed this, The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), working for the EU Institutions and Member States has released a Cloud Computing Risk Assessment report. ENISA is the EU’s response to Information security issues of the European Union. As such, it is the 'pacemaker' for Information Security in Europe. ENISA supported by a group of subject matter expert comprising representatives from Industries, Academia and Governmental Organizations, has conducted, in the context of the Emerging and Future Risk Framework project, an risks assessment on cloud computing business model and technologies. The result is an in-depth and independent analysis that outlines some of the information security benefits and key security risks of cloud computing. The report provide also a set of practical recommendations.

Did Western Union Invent Cloud Computing?

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST

Who invented Cloud Computing? Western Union did March 30, 1965

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:47:00 EST

Interesting post by Nick Carr in which he points to the supposed first published evidence of the concept of Cloud Computing. The proof comes in the document, dated March 30, 1965 which outlines a Western Union executive's ambitious plan to create "a nationwide information utility, which will enable subscribers to obtain, economically, efficiently, immediately, the required information flow to facilitate the conduct of business and other affairs." In a nutshell Western Union invented cloud computing.

Specifically, "Just as a number of local or regional companies provide both electricity and gas, independent telephone companies would be encouraged to provide both telephone and information utility services in their respective territories"

The original copy of this intriguing document resides in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Lemuelson Center for the Study of Invention & Innovation, in the Western Union Telegraph Company Records archival collection covering the years 1820-1995.

Here is the complete text.
1965: Western Union's Future Role-as the Nation's First Cloud Utility

Why the Cloud Needs Virtualization

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:00:00 EST

Lots of discussion lately about the need for virtualization in a cloud computing context. On one side you have people saying it's not necessary and adds extra complexity, on the other you have people (vendors) saying that virtualization is inherently a cloud infrastructure. Some even go as far as saying that virtualization and cloud computing are one in the same. I'm here to tell you that neither is true. My position is Virtualization Doesn't Make the Cloud, it makes the cloud better. Sure, you could manage raw servers Google style, but why? For me, it comes down two main aspects of scale, scaling up, and scaling out.

First let's look at scaling out, or to scale horizontally which basically means to add more nodes to a distributed system, such as adding a new servers or storage (which is easier). These could be in the form of physical or virtual servers. An example might be scaling out from one web server system to many dedicated slaves machines. Google has made an art form of scaling out. They have data centers around the globe geared toward this one core task - just in time hardware provisioning, but for most this is a very difficult and costly endeavour. Virtualization makes this sort of instant replication & provisioning of many virtual machines much easier.

Next is scaling up or the ability to scale vertically which means adding resources to a single server in a distributed system. Typically this involves the addition of CPUs or memory to a single virtual server in the form of Virtual CPU and RAM. Unlike a physical server, in a virtual environment you can change your virtual hardware characteristics, a physical server is what it is. You run at it's maximum potential limiting it's ability to easily scale up. If you need more scale you need more hardware or have to manually add more components to the physical server (RAM, CPU, storage, etc), which means downtime while the servers are upgraded. In virtual environment this isn't a limitation and can often be done on the fly.

Vertical scaling of existing systems also enables you to better leverage Virtualization technology because it provides more resources for the hosted Operating system and Applications that can share these resources in a multi-tenant environment. Virtualization also allows for more automated programmatic control of the system resources in correlation to the demands placed on the infrastructure or application being hosted. This is because in a virtual infrastructure you are not managing any actual physical components but instead virtual representations of them.

So it is very true that virtualization isn't a requirement of a cloud infrastructure, it just makes it a heck of lot easier to manage and scale out or up or both.

Cloud Computing in the Land of the Rising Sun

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:45:00 EST

I just got back from a week in Toyko. My trip was actually quite the experience, the first time I've gotten the chance to visit Japan. I was there in part to attend CloudCamp Tokyo as well as an action packed week of meetings. Other then 7 days of sushi, which got old pretty fast, I had an amazing time.

CloudCamp Seoul December 16th

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:53:00 EST

I wanted to quickly let everyone know about an upcoming CloudCamp in Seoul December 16th. We're currently looking for a few additional sponsors to help cover some of the costs. If you're interested in helping out, please get in touch. Registration: http://cloudcamp-seoul-09.eventbrite.com

Microsoft to Open Source the .NET Micro Framework

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:30:00 EST

(I'm currently in Tokyo, so I'll leave my insights into this news for another time)

Today, at the Microsoft Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles, Microsoft announced the release of version 4.0 of the.NET Micro Framework, but also that they are open sourcing the product and making it available under the Apache 2.0 license, which is already being used by the community within the embedded space.

The .NET Micro Framework,a development and execution environment for resource-constrained devices, was initially developed inside the Microsoft Startup Business Accelerator, but recently moved to the Developer Division so as to be more closely aligned with the overall direction of Microsoft development efforts.

See complete blog post here >

The Role of the CTO & CIO in Cloud Computing

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST

Recently I asked a question on twitter, one I figured would stir up some debate. (Which was the point) The question was "Does the CTO matter any more with the rise of Cloud Computing or is it all about the CIO with data reigning supreme?"

The Future of Cloud Computing Belongs to Asia

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:55:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

People often ask me where I believe the biggest opportunities for Cloud Computing currently are, at first I thought they were asking about the technical particulars like public clouds, platforms etc, but recently I've come to realize it isn't so much the technology as much as where the technology is being adopted that is important. Really what they're asking me is where is the money? I'm here today to tell you, it's in Asia.

One of the more interesting side effects of creating the CloudCamp series of events around the globe has been as a market research vehicle. As interest in Cloud Computing increases in various geographic regions, so does the interest in folks on the ground who want to help organize local CloudCamp events. This network of local organizers has become an invaluable resource into new markets. These events have also done a tremendous job of forecasting potential high growth markets and more importantly the opportunities for Cloud computing within various emerging markets. And lately it seems that by far the largest opportunities are coming from one particular region of the world.

To give you some background, we have an upcoming CloudCamp next week in Tokyo (November 17th) organized by NTT among others as well as next month in Seoul, South Korea (Dec 16th) organized by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and the newly formed Korea Cloud Service Association. The Japanese, South Korean and Chinese markets have been particularly strong for CloudCamp. Based on the this interest, we will also be doing a series of CloudCamp's in China (Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong), which will mostly likely take place in early 2010. (If you're interested in sponsoring one of these events, please get in touch)

As a more personal example, I will be in Tokyo next week for a CloudCamp Tokyo event on Tuesday as well as a number of business meetings. Purely from a demand point of view, from the moment I get off the plane on Monday until I leave on Sunday, I have non-stop meetings from 9am through dinners late into the evening every night of the week with various Japanese firms looking to capitalize on the booming Cloud Computing sector. We've seen so much interest from Japan that we've started to have to turn down meeting opportunities. To say the least, the interest in "Kumo" Japanese for cloud is astounding.

We've seen similar levels of interest in China as well where there seems to be a technological renaissance occurring. China is a very unique place when it comes to Cloud Computing. First of all they don't have the legacy infrastructure that most Western economies suffer from. It's in a sense a greenfield opportunity where the Chinese have the opportunity to choose the latest & best technology solutions without regard for how it may effect legacy systems -- since there really isn't any.

For instance, look at the massive adoption of mobile phones over the last several years, the traditional landline was almost completely bypassed for the newer and more efficient mobile options. Computing is also seeing a similar bypass, with projects such as national wifi networks being built in conjunction to a masssive multi-billion dollar national railway system. The Chinese seem to have realized that a national infrastructure is more then just a physical one, but also virtual.

I'm not alone in making this conclusion about the Asian market, In a recent report, Gartner said infrastructure software will account for 64.4 percent of overall enterprise software spending in the Asia-Pacific region next year, with APAC enterprise software spending to grow 10.2% in 2010 - the fast growth in any of the various global software markets.

Following upon the same sense Amazon Web Service has just announced an expansion into the Asian region in the first half of 2010. Saying "AWS customers will be able to access AWS’s infrastructure services from multiple Availability Zones in Singapore in the first half of 2010, then in other Availability Zones within Asia over the second half of 2010. AWS services available at the launch of the Asia-Pacific region will include Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Relational Database Service, Amazon Simple Queue Service, Amazon Elastic MapReduce, and Amazon CloudFront."

“Developers and businesses located in Asia, as well as those with a multi-national presence, have been eager for Asia-based infrastructure to minimize latency and optimize performance,” said Adam Selipsky, Vice President of Amazon Web Services. “We’re very excited to announce the expansion of AWS infrastructure into Asia to help our customers plan their technology investments and better serve their end-users in Asia.”

Tom Lounibos, CEO of SOASTA had an interesting comment on the opportunity in a twitter post earlier saying "AWS announces Singapore site 7 hours ago, and I wake to three SOASTA customer requesting Cloud Testing from Singapore! "Demand" wins!"

Although I am just one man from just one company I believe that in some small way that both Enomaly and CloudCamp represent the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the opportunity to offer Cloud Computing related products in service to the Asian Market and from where I sit there is no bigger opportunity then in Asia.

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The Future of The Cloud Belongs to Asia

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Enomaly ECP 3.0.3 Service Provider Edition Released

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST

ECP is a carrier-class architecture & cloud hosting platform which supports the deployment of very large public cloud infrastructure for service providers. The platform has been designed to span multiple federated data centers in disparate geographies around the globe handling hundreds of thousands of VM's and multi-tenant customers.

Enomaly ECP 3.0.3 Service Provider Edition Released

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST

Enomaly is proud to announce the general availability of The Enomaly Elastic Computing Platform (ECP) Service Provider Edition 3.0.3. Enomaly is proud to announce the general availability of The Enomaly Elastic Computing Platform (ECP) Service Provider Edition 3.0.3. ECP is a carrier-class architecture & cloud hosting platform which supports the deployment of very large public cloud infrastructure for service providers. The platform has been designed to span multiple federated data centers in disparate geographies around the globe handling hundreds of thousands of VM's and multi-tenant customers.

Cloud, The New Taste of the Internet

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:45:00 EST

Lately there seems to be a minor debate among the clouderati about the semantic differences between the term "the cloud" versus the use of "cloud computing". So I thought I'd jump into the fray.

As someone who spends his days eating, breathing and sometimes drinking cloud computing, it's fun to see how the debate has recently devolved into a debate purely focused upon the finer semantic nuances of the various terminologies. The debate seems to generally focus on the varied usages within the companies that are attempting to "cloud-ify" themselves & their products/services. This cloudification seems to be the trend du'jour within the technology industry, an attempt to augment marketing materials and or product positioning to include cloud related buzz words, whether they make sense or not.

Actually one of the better stated criticism comes from Oracle CEO Larry Ellison who observes that cloud computing has been defined as "everything". It's everything and nothing in particular, a trendy word that is used more to impress than explain a particular problem. I for one completely agree.

As a marketing term, cloud has enabled us to broadly define the movement away from the desktop / server centric past to the cloud [Internet] enabled future. Wikipedia's cloud definition says it well, "it is a paradigm shift where technological details are abstracted from the users who no longer need knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them". Yup, enough said.

This message is to of you -- the ones who are jumping on the cloud bandwagon, let me say this as plainly as possible. Regardless of whether it's "the cloud" or "cloud computing" it all comes back to the fact that it's a buzzword. A way to say we're cool, we're now, we're new, with out saying it directly (a neologism). It's the New Coke of Computing / the new taste of the Internet.

So what is The Cloud? It's the Internet. And what is Cloud Computing? It's the next big thing in computing, it's using the Internet.

ISO Forms Group for Cloud Computing Standards

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:45:00 EST

Big news on the Cloud Standards front, I was just informed that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - JTC 1 have formed a new Subcommittee (SC) at their Plenary last week that includes working groups for SOA and Web Services as well as a Study Group for standardization of cloud computing. (This information has not yet been made public, my source has indicated that I am allowed to share this)

The scope will include Standardization for interoperable Distributed Application Platform and services including Web Services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Cloud Computing. SC 38 will pursue active liaison and collaboration with all appropriate bodies (including other JTC 1 subgroups and external organizations, e.g., consortia) to ensure the development and deployment of interoperable distributed application platform and services standards in relevant areas.

Similar to other ISO initiatives each member country that’s interested in participating in this group will come up with their own structure to provide feedback on work items and establish voting positions, including the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) who will be the US TAG.

Administrative support and leadership of SC 38 will be provided as follows:

The US National Body will serve as Secretariat for the SC and its Working Groups, and Dr. Donald R. Deutsch from the US National Body will serve as the Chair for the SC. The National Body of China will provide Ms. Yuan Yuan as the Convenor of the Working Group on SOA. The US National Body will provide the Convenor of the Working Group on Web Services. The National Body of Korea will provide Dr. Seungyun LEE as the Convenor of the Study Group on Cloud Computing. The National Body of China will provide Mr. Ping ZHOU as the Secretary of the Study Group on Cloud Computing.

I’ve pasted the complete resolution in detail below.

Resolution 36 ‐ New JTC 1 Subcommittee 38 on Distributed Application Platforms and Services (DAPS)

JTC 1 establishes a new JTC 1 Subcommittee 38 on Distributed Application Platforms and Services

(DAPS) with the following terms of reference:

Title: Distributed Application Platforms and Services (DAPS)

Scope: Standardization for interoperable Distributed Application Platform and services including:

• Web Services,

• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and

• Cloud Computing.

SC 38 will pursue active liaison and collaboration with all appropriate bodies (including other JTC 1 subgroups and external organizations, e.g., consortia) to ensure the development and deployment of interoperable distributed application platform and services standards in relevant areas.

As per the JTC 1 Directives, SC 38 will establish its own substructure at its first meeting. Based on discussions at the JTC 1 Plenary, it is anticipated that SC 38 will initially establish subgroups as follows:

a. A Working Group on Web Services

o Draft Terms of Reference:

i. Enhancements and maintenance of the Web Services registry (inventory database of Web Services and SOA Standards).

ii. Ongoing maintenance of previously approved standards from WS‐I PAS submissions, ISO/IEC 29361, ISO/IEC 29362 and ISO/IEC 29363.

iii. Maintenance of possible future PAS and Fast Track developed ISO/IEC standards in the area of Web Services.

iv. Investigation of where web service related standardization is already ongoing in JTC 1 entities.

v. Investigate gaps and commonalities in work in “iv” above.

b. A Working Group on SOA

o Draft Terms of Reference:

i. Enumeration of SOA principles.

ii. Coordination of SOA related activities in JTC 1.

iii. Investigation of where SOA related standardization is already ongoing in JTC 1 entities, and

iv. Investigate gaps and commonalities in work in “iii” above

c. A Study Group on Cloud Computing (SGCC) to investigate market requirements for standardization, initiate dialogues with relevant SDOs and consortia and to identify possible work items for JTC 1.

o Draft Terms of Reference:

i. Provide a taxonomy, terminology and value proposition for Cloud Computing.

ii. Assess the current state of standardization in Cloud Computing within JTC 1 and in other SDOs and consortia beginning with document JTC 1 N 9687.

iii. Document standardization market/business/user requirements and the challenges to be addressed.

iv. Liaise and collaborate with relevant SDOs and consortia related to Cloud Computing.

v. Hold workshops to gather requirements as needed.

vi. Provide a report of activities and recommendations to SC 38.

Topics related to Energy Efficiency of Data Centers are excluded. On topics of common interest (such as virtualization), coordination with the EEDC SGis required.

Membership in the Study Group will be open to:

1. National Bodies, Liaisons, and JTC 1 approved PAS submitters

2. JTC 1 SCs and relevant ISO and IEC TCs

3. Members of ISO and IEC central offices, and

4. Invited SDOs and consortia that are engaged in standardization in Cloud Computing, as approved by the SG

In addition, the Convenor may invite experts with specific expertise in the field.

Meetings of the group may be via face‐to‐face or preferably by electronic means.

The SC 38 Secretariat will issue a call for participants for the Study Group.

The SGCC Convenor is instructed to provide a report on the activities of the

Study Group at the SC 38 2010 Plenary meeting.

Administrative support and leadership of SC 38 will be provided as follows:

a. The US National Body will serve as Secretariat for the SC and its Working

Groups, and Dr. Donald R. Deutsch from the US National Body will serve as the Chair for the SC.

b. The National Body of China will provide Ms. Yuan Yuan as the Convenor of the Working Group on SOA.

c. The US National Body will provide the Convenor of the Working Group on Web Services.

d. The National Body of Korea will provide Dr. Seungyun LEE as the Convenor of the Study Group on Cloud Computing.

e. The National Body of China will provide Mr. Ping ZHOU as the Secretary of the Study Group on Cloud Computing.

The Open Web Foundation Agreement (OWFa) for Collaborative Open Cloud Standards

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:50:08 EST

As part of a new initiative at the Open Web Foundation -- a group dedicated to the creation of community-driven specifications & standards. David Rudin along with several other individuals & organizations have crafted a new simple and easy to understand Open Web Foundation agreement (OWFa) targeting collaborative specification development and publishing. You can think of OWFa as similar to the Creative Commons license. But unlike the a CC license the OWFa was developed with the specific needs of spec & standards developers covering aspects such as patents, copyright/trademarks and other issues that most contributors (including open source developers) are concerned about.

More specifically it was created with an open collaboration model in mind where both large companies and individuals can equally collaborate without fear of legal ramifications. Using the OWFa the actual spec development can be done in any forum the participants choose (Unincorporated Google groups / Social Networks, non-profits, startups, Enterprises, etc.)

I'll also be the first to point out that one of the key authors is David Rudin, a Microsoft Standards Attorney. But regardless of Rudin's employer, this is a well thought out document and I for one am very excited by the potential usage of OWFa within a variety of standards processes. I believe that OWFa has the potential to dramatically effect the way we as industry both collaborate and innovate when it comes to the development of common truely open standards, whitepapers and best practices. I encourage anyone who truly believes in the creation of an Open Web to take a look the OWFa.

You can download a copy of the the final draft from here.

Transient Ambiance: The London Underground

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:57:15 EST

As many of you know lately I've spent a lot of time away from home, traveling the world telling everybody and anybody who cares to listen about the opportunities for "The Cloud". In the coming weeks as I continue to cover most of the globe from Asia to the Middle East. I thought I'd try something new. Think of this as a kind of travel soundlog. An ambient audio diary of my various adventures.

To start things off, below is the first in what I hope will be many of these. I'm calling this new feature Transient Ambiance, The mood evoked by my ever changing environment.

When I recorded this entry using my iPhone Voice Memo App, I found myself in the London Underground. As I waited in the tube station for my return to Heathrow airport, I was in the midst of one of those strange surreal moments. With only a Violinist and myself in the middle of a typically busy London underground station. A momentary period of solitude in an otherwise hectic week of meetings and presentations. As I sat pondering life's mysteries, a soft melodic music echoed off the dark, damp underground walls.

Download here (MP3, 2.95mb, timing:3.13)

What Comes After The Cloud?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EDT

Lately I seem to feel like that 80's Rock Band that had that one big hit, doomed to play the same song night after night. In my case I happened to stumble upon this thing called Cloud Computing a little earlier then most. Over the last 6 years or so I've watched as the concept of outsourced web centric IT go from a fringe concept to an overly hyped, albeit under adopted buzz word. I've watched just about anything with the word "cloud" attached to it take off.

Google Liberates Your Docs

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:31:00 EDT

In a note to the CCIF list, Sam Johnston informed us that Google too has continued on its promise to liberate our data as part of their Data Liberation Front project. This latest Google effort introduces a new feature that makes it much easier to get your content back out of the Cloud using a tool that lets Google Doc's users easily "Convert, Zip and Download." It's interesting to note that both Microsoft and Google released completing "open" initiatives today with Mircrosoft announcing they are opening the PST format for Outlook. It's great to see both companies actively battling it out for "Open Cloud" supremacy.

CloudCamp in the Cloud (Recap & Video)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:02:27 EDT

Last Thursday we held our first ever CloudCamp in the Cloud and so far the feedback has been very positive. A few pointed out that we could have done a better job with the chat or created an official backchannel of somesort as well as a more organized series of breakouts. But all in all I'm very happy with the results. For anyone interested, I've created a Ustream.tv CloudCamp Channel where I've posted the Audio/Video from the Camp. Going forward we hope to do more these possibly on a weekly or biweekly basis. Also you can grab the podcast from dropbox.

See the Video below, and I have no idea what I'm doing with my hands at the beginning of the Video, guess I was nervous or something. ;)

Microsoft "Opens" Outlook Personal Folders Format (.pst)

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:03:00 EDT

Big news from Microsoft today. In a blog post to the interoperability @ Microsoft blog, Paul Lorimer, Group Manager, Microsoft Office Interoperability announced they will be "opening" the Outlook Personal Folders format also called a .pst file.

Lorimer said that "In order to facilitate interoperability and enable customers and vendors to access the data in .pst files on a variety of platforms, we will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format. This will allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice. The technical documentation will detail how the data is stored, along with guidance for accessing that data from other software applications. It also will highlight the structure of the .pst file, provide details like how to navigate the folder hierarchy, and explain how to access the individual data objects and properties"

He also admitted that that the documentation is still in its early stages and work is ongoing. Going on to say "We are engaging directly with industry experts and interested customers to gather feedback on the quality of the technical documentation to ensure that it is clear and useful. When it is complete, it will be released under our Open Specification Promise, which will allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way."

This initiative is part of Microsoft's Interoperability Principles, which they announced in early 2008. As part of this initiative Microsoft has committed product features, documented formats, and implementation of standards that allow interoperability. The move to open up the portability of data in .pst files is another step in putting these principles in action.

Lorimer also said that "Over the past year, Microsoft Office has taken several steps toward increasing openness and documenting interoperability guidelines, offering customers a choice of file formats and embracing a comprehensive approach that includes transparency into our engineering methods, collaboration with industry stakeholders, and shared stewardship of industry standards"

This is a great move by Microsoft!

EuroCloud and The Case for a Cloud Computing Trade Association

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EDT

Some of the concerns I've heard repeatedly is the potential barriers to entry for participation in this type of association. The last thing this association should be is an inclusive club for a few select technology vendors and insiders. It needs to be available to all and should foster an engagement with both the existing community while also providing a formal / legal umbrella that the larger companies will feel comfortable participating in. I am also cognizant that it takes money to make money, so there needs to be a middle ground with potentially some of the larger vendors subsidizing the involvement of the smaller players and independents members. Simply membership should not be cost prohibitive.

Is IaaS Doomed? (The Term, Not the Concept.)

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:30:00 EDT

Actually, I quite agree with Beil's assertion. As far as acronyms go, IaaS is about as bad as they get. The fact that your infrastructure is provided "as a service" is an obviously important aspect, but in reality it's not the only or most important driver when looking at implementing a cloud like infrastructure. API's and other various "web services" are quickly becoming pervasive, just about everything built recently is being provided as a service, or has some kind of web services available. And if by chance it doesn't, then you're probably going to steer clear anyway. I'd say things like scalability, elasticity, federation, application efficiency, metering/chargeback, self service access, open api's and system automation are just as important if not more. So I ask, how important is it that your infrastructure is described as a service?

Google's Data Liberation Front

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:45:00 EDT

In what can be seen as a major win for users of Google's various cloud services, the company has announced a new website called "The Data Liberation Front" dedicated to be the central location for information on how to move your data in and out of Google products.

According to the site, The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. We do this because we believe that you should be able to export any data that you create in (or import into) a product. We help and consult other engineering teams within Google on how to "liberate" their products.

Their mission statement: Users should be able to control the data they store in any of Google's products. Our team's goal is to make it easier for them to move data in and out.

The site's creators point out that project was started as an internal engineering team back in 2007. When the team couldn't agree on the name, they came up with "Data Liberation Front" as a homage to The Judean People's Front, the splinter group in Monty Python's Life of Brian that spends most of its time bickering. In addition, the team indicated that they see themselves as being somewhat subversive, not so much within Google, but insofar as it's unusual for a big company to work to make it easier for their customers to leave them.

The site also points out that there shouldn't be an additional charge to export your data. Beyond that, if it takes you many hours to get your data out, it's almost as bad as not being able to get your data out at all. I would also add if your data isn't usable. For example a 1tb text file is (almost) just as bad as not getting your data at all.

The FAQ answers some interesting questions including that of Data Standards saying "We're working to use existing open standards formats wherever possible, and to document how we use those formats in a clear simple manner."

Personally, I applaud this move by Google, lets hope others in the cloud space follow Google's lead.

Ruv's Upcoming Cloud Travel Schedule

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:42:00 EDT

I am pretty busy over the next couple months with various Cloud Computing related travel. Below is an overview some of the key locations and events I will be speaking at. Please feel free to get in touch if you'd like to meet up in person or have me to speak at your conference / summit.
---

CSIM - Fall IT Executive Forum
October 27th & 28th - Los Angeles, California

Keynote Presentation: The future of Cloud computing

http://scsim.org/events/rsvp.php (Guests are welcome)

---

DATA MANAGEMENT, INFORMATION QUALITY & DW/BI
2-4 NOVEMBER 2009, Park Plaza Victoria Hotel, London

Keynote Presentation: Managing the Cloud - The Impact of Cloud Computing for Data Management Professionals

http://www.irmuk.co.uk/dm2009/sessions/

---

CloudCamp Tokyo
November 17th (I'll be in Tokyo 16th-22nd of November)

AREA SHINAGAWA Bldg. 1-9-36 Konan, minato-ku,
Tokyo, 108-0075 Japan
(2 min walk from Shinagawa Station)

http://www.cloudcamp.com/?page_id=1391

---

IGT2009 World Summit of Cloud Computing
December 2-3rd (Tel Aviv, Israel)

http://events.myreg.co.il/IGT2009/

CloudCamp Israel (Dec 2nd)

Location:
- Tel Aviv, Israel @ IGT

Embracing Low Performance Computing

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:00:00 EDT

A few of the more interesting tidbits included, the discussions around the future of the Open Grid Forum. It seems that the OGF is currently going through a major transition as the Grid world is quickly distancing itself from the stigma surrounding the use of the term Grid or High Performance Computing. There were several conversations discussing whether the OGF should even continue calling themselves the Open Grid Forum with a few even suggesting the Open Cloud Forum might be more suitable name. Also notible was most of the marketing materials at the Summit simply refers to the OGF.

Anatomy of a Cloud Consultant

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT

Earlier this week I was asked to participate in a cloud panel with a group of so called cloud experts. The panel focused on the state of the cloud industry. I have been on many of these cloud panels in the last year and have found it to be pretty vague what defines a "cloud expert".

So what is a cloud expert/consultant? First let's go to wikipedia. According to the site, in the broadest sense, "a consultant is a professional who provides advice in a particular area of expertise. A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter. A consultant usually works for a consultancy firm or is self-employed, and engages with multiple and changing clients. Thus, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired."

So a Cloud Consultant is basically an "expert" in the realm of cloud computing. Someone who has a deep and broad level of experience and understanding of the problems introduced by moving to a cloud based environment. This sounds straight forward enough.

So how do you qualify a cloud expert? This is where things start to get complicated. First of all, unlike other areas of IT there is no professional certification for "cloud consultants". So choosing a professional cloud consultant or service firm is a matter of doing your due diligence. To help, I've compiled a brief check list of things you may want to look for when selecting your cloud consultant.

1. Experience - As in any profession, experience solving real world problems is probably more important then anything else. Has your potential consultant done anything of consequence? What other companies has your consultant worked with, what major obstacles have they solved and how? On the flip side, if they claim 10 years experience as a cloud consultant, dig deeper, how did this obvious previous experience related to what more recently has been referred to as the cloud? Some possibly answers may include experience in Grid or Distributed computing, building large multi-location data center architectures, load balancing schemes, web server clustering or other elastic methodologies.

John M Willis is prime example with extensive experience in related areas of expertise such as Enterprise Systems management. Using this related experience Willis has been able to transfer those skills built up over decades into a thriving cloud consulting operation.

I'd also keep in mind that cloud computing isn't something new, but instead the intersection of several existing technologies. Make sure your consultant has the right mix of experience in the areas that are of most concern to you and your business.

2. Code - Often consultants do very little more then make recommendations that others must implement. This can be useful, but more often running code is more useful. One of the best and easiest ways to find great cloud consultants is look for those consultants who have taken it upon themselves to create open source cloud related Projects. The Boto Project by Mitch Garnaat is a perfect example. Garnaat is a longtime AWS consultant, a doer who is an active community member on the AWS community discussion boards, he proved his worth by his actions in the community and producing a project that helps thousands around the globe. It also helps that he's been working with AWS since 2006.

3. Community Engagement - As I mentioned previously, community involvement is another great way to gauge experience. Places like the the AWS discussion boards, or various other discussion groups are ideal places to find those hidden gems. They also provide valuable insight into the capabilities of the given consultant in a public setting. Is your consultant a troll who picks fights or are they a helpful member of the community? A quick Google search and you'll have your answer.

4. Blogs & Whitepapers -Blogs have also become very useful ways to determine a cloud consultants vision and capabilities. Although they may not shed to much light on their actual experience they do provide a potential channel by which you could find a consultant.

Randy Bias a well regarded cloud consultant provides what he describes as a StrengthsFinder Report to help potential consumers in their selection. The report provides a review of the knowledge and skills acquired and can give a basic sense of your consultants abilities. According to Bias, the report provides insight into the natural talents of the consultant and can give true insight into the core reasons behind their successes and why you should select them.

5. Interview - Like any job, interview your consultant. Ask them questions that would gauge their qualifications. Start off by asking them the ultimate trick question, "what is cloud computing?". Good answers avoid the specifics of the technology but instead focus on the opportunities. Bad answers are things like saying "Salesforce" or "Virtualization" or "VMware".

Keep in mind if you ask a 100 people what cloud computing is, you'll probably get 200 answers. So if you are wondering how would I answer, the question? Here you go, this one is on the house. "Broadly I see cloud computing as a new method to market, management and deploy software and or infrastructure using the web. Or more simply -- web centric software and infrastructure."

You may also want to refer to specific definitions use things like the wikipedia definition or the NIST definition as your benchmark. If your consultant says according to NIST or uses other well regarded "cloud luminaries" that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just make sure you agree with them. For instance, according to Larry Ellison may be good if your getting a job with an Oracle shop, but no so good for a Google App Engine gig.

6. References - Your only as good as your last job. So make sure to do your homework and ask the right questions. What did the consultant do, what problems did they solve, what technologies and platforms did they use and why was it a cloud project?

In closing, I do believe that a major obstacle to cloud computing consultants is the lack of accreditation. One possibly solution is to create an official professional cloud certification. One model could be similar to the IT Architect Certification Program provided by the Open Group. The Open Group certification program provides a framework for accreditation of third parties to establish IT Architect certification programs affiliated to The Open Group. The framework of accreditation and certification is specifically intended to standardize the process and criteria for IT Architect professional certification and establish a foundation for the required skills and experience necessary to achieve such a distinction. Basically, the Open Group has created a basic way for you to select someone with a standard level of knowledge required to preform the job of a IT Architect. Similarly, this could be applied to the job of a cloud consultant / Architect.

Good Hunting.

Is Sidekick Platform an Actual Cloud Service?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:30:00 EDT

My previous post about the Sidekick failure seems to have whipped up a bit of a frenzy around whether or not the Sidekick platform is an actual cloud service. On one side you people saying it isn't a cloud because it's not redundant or distributed or api accessible or whatever. On the other you have the media saying hey it's a web based service, so it's a cloud.

Whether the Sidekick platform is or isn't "cloud computing" is totally secondary to the real issue. The Sidekick failure has beautifully illustrated a major potential problem facing the use of any remotely hosted web services, cloud or otherwise and this is trust.

My issue with the sidekick cloud debate isn't whether or not it's a failure of cloud computing. You can't blame a buzzword. Cloud computing isn't any single technology but instead it's a new way to market, manage, deploy and operate web centric software and infrastructure. So I do agree it isn't a failure of cloud computing so much as a failure to build an adequate DR strategy among other things.

This failure does in the most simple terms demonstrate a key problem facing cloud computing, you are trusting someone else to manage your data / infrastructure. But leading an argument by saying it isn't a cloud because clouds can't fail is ridiculous.

Cloud Computing Is Dangerous

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:15:00 EDT

In about 25 years from now I can imagine having a conversation with my kids that goes something like this.

"Son, back in my day we used to store all our data on a single computer." My son in turn says, "Dad, that's crazy, I have every song I've ever listened to and every movie I've ever watched on my brand new ibrain, anytime anywhere" and I say "Worse yet, we had to return to that computer in order to access those files, in the snow, without shoes on..." (You get the idea)

Although I'm partly kidding, for most this how personal computing still works. Ask anyone who's ever lost a hardrive and they will tell you that your data is your life and for the most part your life is stored on a single computer. If you lose that computer, you lose, well, your data. (No dramatics sorry) This begs the question, wasn't the emergence of cloud computing supposed to help solve these types of problems? Isn't cloud computing supposed to be the answer to all our problems?

I'm here to tell you. Hell No! Cloud computing is Dangerous!

Helping bring this danger to the forefront was the announcement last week that a division of Microsoft ironically called Danger Inc had likely lost all the contacts, photos and other personal data for users of the T-Mobile Sidekick. Pretty bad, huh? What was worse is this cloud service was a manditory requirement for using the Sidekick service. If you wanted to use a Sidekick you had no choice but to use this sadly lacking excuse for a hosted data service.

Although many of the cloud pundants out there will try to tell you that the Sidekick service isn't a cloud application. Let's call it what it is, it's a cloud app -- your data when using a Sidekick is hosted in some elses data center. In the most basic terms, if I choose a device such as a mobile phone that requires me to use some elses data centers for storing my personal data, I expect it to be at the very least backed up automatically, and preferably I should have the ability to do so myself. It appears that neither was an option for T-Mobile Sidekick customers. This failure hits at the heart of why interoperability and data portability is so important. It comes down to bad things happen and I should have the ability to take the data that is mine if I choose to do so, easily.

Over the last few days I've read a number of articles that point out that this cloud failure means the end of cloud computing. Let me remind you that failures happen and it happen all the time. There are whole groups at major manufacturers devoted to it, on purpose. Whether it's on your desktop, in your data center or in the cloud. To fail is human. But to be prepared is noble.

The best and easiest way to be prepared for the inevitable failures that will occur is to rely on services that allow for portability. Make sure you have a clear exit strategy before you choose a cloud service provider and avoid the ones that attempt to lock you in. At the end of the day it's up to you to make sure you don't get Sidekicked (in the face or otherwise).

Again, for those of you effected by the Danger Inc failure, my deepest sympathies are with you, you deserve more. You deserve your life back, or at the very least your data.

Canadian Government Unveils Cloud Computing Strategy

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:13:00 EDT

This week I had the honor of organizing and hosting the first in a series of Global Government Cloud Computing Roundtables. This first event was held in Ottawa, Ontario and was coordinated in partnership with Jennifer Meacher of Canada's Foreign Affairs and International Trade(DFAIT) and held along side the GTEC conference.

The purpose of this by invitation meeting was to provide an international forum for leading government CIOs and CTOs to discuss the opportunities and challenges of implementing cloud computing solutions in the public sector. Representatives from the GSA's Office of Citizen Services and Communications as well as a variety of senior officials from various Canadian government departments were in attendance. Attendees were eager to share insights into the opportunities and challenges facing cloud computing both in the Canadian Government as well as more broadly. Needless to say it was a lively discussion.

Jirka Danek, the Canadian Government's CTO (Public Works) outlined a detailed strategy for Cloud Computing within the Canadian Government (Full text posted below). For those of you that are unfamiliar with Public Works Government Services Canada. PWGSC is similar to the General Services Administration in the United States with a mandate to be a common service agency for the Government of Canada's various departments, agencies and boards.

During Danek's presentation he pointed to cloud services such as the apps.gov web site in the USA as a possible model to follow with in the Canadian government. He also indicated that the Obama administration has provided Canada with a strong role model in driving the adoption and the use of cloud computing within government. He also see's opportunities for developing new cloud centric policies for government agencies who still must segregate data and processes before they can be more broadly adopted into the cloud. Other areas he also raised concerns focused around interoperability, portability and the lack of standards as some of key aspects hurting government cloud adoption.

For me one of the more exciting parts of the day was when Danek unveiled a detailed strategy for cloud computing which I have the honor of sharing publicly below. (Download Avaliable here)

Cloud Computing and the Canadian Environment

CloudCamp Announces “CloudCamp in the Cloud” – Virtual Unconference - Oct 22nd

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:16:00 EDT

CloudCamp, organizer of the community-based cloud computing unconference series, today announced that it’s taking its popular event series virtual with the forthcoming “CloudCamp in the Cloud CloudCamp in the Cloud, to be held Thursday, October 22, 2009 from 12 noon to 3 pm Eastern Standard Time, builds upon the original live CloudCamp format providing a free and open place for the introduction and advancement of cloud computing. Using an online meeting format, attendees will exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies.

There are a number of opportunities to get involved with CloudCamp in the Cloud:

ATTEND – Attending CloudCamp in the Cloud is free, fun and informative. Register now at http://bit.ly/UKbc1.
PRESENT – CloudCamp in the Cloud encourages community presentations. If you have a cloud-related topic to discuss, visit the http://bit.ly/2NNh5l page to submit a proposal.
SPONSOR – CloudCamp depends on corporate sponsors who provide financial assistance and other valuable donations. Current CloudCamp in the Cloud sponsors include Citrix, Enomaly and Appistry. If you would like to sponsor CloudCamp in the Cloud, please contact Reuven Cohen.
ORGANIZE – CloudCamp is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization. If you'd like to help facilitate CloudCamp in the Cloud, letting us know about your interest by emailing cloudcamp@googlegroups.com.
SPREAD THE WORD – Help share the news about CloudCamp in the Cloud, by retweeting this announcement (hashtag: #cloudcamp), blogging about the event, and linking to the main information page at http://bit.ly/3wBgyI.

Related Links
[1] http://bit.ly/UKbc1 [CloudCamp in the Cloud Registration]
[2] http://twitter.com/cloudcamp [CloudCamp on Twitter]
[3] http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10128776220 [CloudCamp on Facebook]

Contacts
Program

Dave Nielsen, (415) 531-6674, dave -at- platformd -dot- com

Sponsorships:

Reuven Cohen, (212) 203 4734 x102, ruv -at- enomaly -dot- com

Media:

Sam Charrington, (415) 727-1850, sam -at- appistry -dot- com

About CloudCamp
CloudCamp was formed in 2008 in order to provide a common ground for the introduction and advancement of cloud computing. Through a series of local CloudCamp events, attendees can exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies. CloudCamp has served over 5,000 CloudCampers in more than 50 events all over world, in cities like Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bangalore, Berlin, London, New York, San Francisco, Stockholm and Singapore.

Cloud Peering for Service Providers

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:15:00 EDT

Been doing some thinking around some of the opportunities for cloud providers to provide the seemless ability to utilize other "compatible" cloud service providers capacity as a kind of "cloud overdraft" protection. So it occurred to me, the concept already existing and is a core part of how the internet already functions. Yes, It's called "Peering", I'm calling my little spin on this concept "Cloud Peering"

Wikipedia describes Peering as is "a voluntary interconnection of administratively separate Internet networks for the purpose of exchanging traffic between the customers of each network." Now replace "Internet Networks" with Public cloud service / hosting providers and you start to see the opportunity.

Generally Peering relationships involves two more networks coming together to exchange traffic with each other freely, and for mutual benefit. But in the case of Cloud computing, this in stead of traditional user traffic, on demand cloud capacity can be made available in bulk or by metered usage.

Some other Cloud Peering motivations could include.

- Cloud Service provider Overdraft protection aka Cloud Bursting (Smaller hosting providers seamlessly overflowing to larger ones, Random small cloud provider Inc, bursts to AT&T cloud through whitelabel agreement)
- Increased redundancy (by reducing dependence on one or more cloud providers).
- Increased capacity for extremely large amounts of traffic (distributing traffic across many cloud providers).
- Increased routing control over your traffic. (Sudden spikes from London? No problem, scale using UK cloud resources)
- Improved perception of your network (being able to claim a "higher tier", mostly for marketing purposes, possibly QoS or SLA related).
- Ease of requesting for emergency aid (from friendly peers, when sh*t hits the fan).

Also, following the same model as traditional Peering, Cloud Peering could follow one of the following three categories:

- Transit (or pay) - You pay money (or settlement) to another network for Cloud access (or transit).
- Peer (or swap) - Two networks exchange traffic between each other's customers freely, and for mutual benefit.
- Customer (or sell) - Another coud pays you money to provide them with Cloud access.

Again, just random thought with a little help from wikipedia.

The Business of Cloud Computing is Booming

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:45:00 EDT

Getting a feel for the pulse of Cloud Computing can be a difficult endeavor. According to recent Google search trends "Cloud Computing" is at an all time high in terms of raw search queries. This has also been confirmed by analysts reports such as Gartner's Hype Cycle which shows Cloud computing at what they aptly describe as the peak of inflated expectations. For me tools like Google Trends & Google Insights helps shed light on Cloud Computing from a search engine point a view. But sadly does little in translating into actual financial facts and figures - the stuff that actually matters.

Trying to look beyond the hype and see if people are actually making money or getting work done should be the real litmus test in terms of gauging the business opportunity for cloud computing -- and at the end of the day it's probably a better statistic. But then again these sorts of "real world" revenue & sales pipeline stats are not nearly as easy to get. So I thought I'd take a moment, and discuss some of the recent success we've seen in our segment of the cloud world.

Generally, the Fall tends to be the hot sales season in IT where IT folks are coming back from summer vacations with budgets that must be spent before the end of the year. So this time of year does act as a kind of predictor of future sales opportunities. To put it simply, in IT if you can't sell your product or service in the Fall, you're probably not going to sell at all. This is as true in Cloud Computing as it is in any other area of information technology.

When speaking to the opportunity for cloud computing, I can only speak from my vantage point as a Cloud Service Provider enablement platform vendor. At Enomaly we specifically target service providers and hosting firms who are looking to roll out public "EC2" like infrastructure as a service. From our point of view it has become increasingly clear that any hosting firms that don't have cloud service strategies or offerings in place are quickly beginning to see huge revenue erosion. This has caused a significant influx of interest from a wide variety of hosting related companies that run the gamut from smaller VPS style resellers to multi-national telecommunication companies and everything in between.

An analysis by Guy Rosen also sheds some light on the cloud opportunity in which he estimates that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is provisioning 50,000 EC2 server instances per day. A 50K/day run rate would imply a yearly total of over 18 million provisioned instances. Based on these numbers, one could surmise, that a significant portion of these 50k in EC2 instances are directly coming out of the pockets of traditional hosting and data centers. In the hosting space, this kind of cloud leakage has become a major issue. One need not do more then monitor traffic to amazon or other cloud providers to get an idea of potential revenue walking out the door.

As a fast growing self funded company we don't have the luxury of spending large amounts on our marketing and sales efforts. For the most part we rely on word mouth and organic search engine optimization for our inbound sales channel. Because we spend a grand total of $0.00 dollars on our marketing efforts, our organic website traffic / inbound sales inquires also acts as a kind of simple market research tool. Based on the this very unscientific research tool, interest in cloud platforms is booming.

Over the last few months something interesting has happened. We've seen interest in our cloud service provider platform grow from dozens of inquires a month to dozens per day. Again, I can't say if this is a broader trend or limited to our sector, but from our vantage it has never been a better time to be in cloud computing. I'm just curious if others are seeing similar levels of interest for their cloud related products and services. I for one certainly hope so, because the better we do collectively, the better we do individually.

Swedish Government Bans the Word "Bank" from .SE Domains

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

A major uproar has been brewing in Sweden over a recent government ruling banning the word "bank" from any Swedish domains that do not fit the official definition of a financial banking institution. (Basically *bank.se) On Thursday The Pirate Bay pledged it's support joining in the protest against the Swedish Post- and Telecoms Authority (PTS) The list has since started growing by hundreds of names per hour. It is run by the web host Binero to protest against the PTS decision to subject all Swedish se-domain names containing the word “bank” to an inspection prior to registration. This to insures that anyone that might be confused with a bank actually fulfills the legal requirements for one. It is a departure from international standards, where issues are solved, usually by a Uniform Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP) once they arise after registration.

The big concern isn't specifically about the word bank so much as it sets a precedent for other words in the future. Think about if words such as cloud or science or music require official approval by a government agency before you could register the domain.

The Swedish Bankers’ Association have lobbied for restrictions on domain names for a long time, making an interpretation of the Swedish law mandating that anyone using “Bank” as a name in their business must fulfill the requirements of one.

Their arguments is that the banks have not been able to show evidence of fraudulent “bank”-sites, that typosquatting would not be stopped, whereas many Swedes would have a more difficult time registering, that scrutinizing new businesses before domain registration would be injust and, above all, that the approval of name scrutinization prior to registration would spread to many other names; titles protected by law, names of public authorities, brands, racist words etc.

“To diverge from the democratic country norm of problem resolution post rather than pre registration, and to do it for a common word and name like “Bank” is dangerous. It makes it legally and logically plausible for many groups to lobby for scrutinizing an unforeseeable number of other words and names pre registration as well,”said Binero CEO Anders Aleborg, continuing:

“All countries have the same problem and lobby groups like our big banks. There is a big risk that this form of net censorship might spread if Sweden does it.”

--------------------

For more information:

Anders Aleborg, CEO, Binero, +46 768-04 42 00, anders.aleborg@binero.se

Erik Arnberg, Marketing Manager, Binero, +46 70-398 75 34, erik.arnberg@binero.se

Swedish Government IT-advisor Patrik Fältström (Paf) blog: http://stupid.domain.name/node/812#comment

.SE home page re: this: http://www.iis.se/en/domaner/bank-i-domannamn/

PTS English home page: http://www.pts.se/en-gb/

Namnbank.se (Swedish): http://www.namnbank.se

Press pictures, Anders Aleborg, http://blogg.binero.se/press/

Binero AB is a web host and registrar with the ambition of being the friendliest in Sweden; transparency, honesty and friendliness.

New Simple Cloud Storage API Launched

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:30:00 EDT

New Simple Cloud Storage API Launched

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:57:34 EDT

PHP/Zend, Microsoft, IBM, Rackspace, GoGrid and Nirvanix have launched a new low level cloud API for PHP called the "Simple Cloud API". The API can best be described as low level storage focused API (An API for other API's). In a sense it's a way to create other higher level programmatic API interfaces such as REST or SOAP using an easy, yet portable PHP programming environment. It allows you to easily interact with a variety of cloud interfaces including support for File Storage, Document Storage, and Simple Queue services. The API is not a web service; it is an API that exposes common operations in application services offered by different vendors, making it easier for PHP developers to build ‘cloud native’ applications.

According to the website, "The Simple Cloud API is here to bring cloud technologies to PHP and the PHP philosophy to the cloud. With it, developers can start writing scalable and highly available applications that are still portable. If you're looking for code to start playing around with immediately, you'll find the first file storage, document storage, and simple queue interfaces."

Interestingly the goal of API is not be a standard, but instead to foster an open source community that makes it easier for developers to use cloud application services by abstracting insignificant API differences. Another goal of this initiative is to define interfaces to be implemented as a new Zend Framework component called ‘Zend_Cloud’. The Zend Framework will provide a repository of php appplication to host code for the Zend_Cloud.

Check out the project at http://www.simplecloud.org

Cloud Computing Infrastructure Capacity Planning

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

Public Cloud Infrastructure Capacity Planning

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:30:09 EDT

In the run of a day I get a lot of calls from hosting companies and data centers looking to roll out public cloud infrastructures using Enomaly ECP. In these discussions there are a few questions that everyone seems to ask.

- How much is it going to cost?
- What is the minimum resources / capacity required to roll out a public cloud service?

Both questions are very much related. But to get to and idea of how much your cloud infrastructure is going to cost, you first need to fully understand what your resource requirements are and how much capacity (minimum resources) will be required to maintain an acceptable level of service and hopefully turn a profit.

In traditional dedicated or shared hosting environment, capacity planning is typically a fairly straight forward endeavor, (a high allotment of bandwidth and a fairly static allotment of resources), a single server (or slice of a server) with a static amount of storage and ram. If you run out of storage, or get too many visitors, well too bad. It is what it is. Some managed hosting providers offer more complex server deployment options but generally rather then one server you're given a static stack of several, but the concept of elasticity is not usually part of the equation.

Wikipedia gives a pretty good overview of concept of capacity planning which is described as process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. Although this definition is being applied to a traditional business context, I think it works very well when looking at public cloud infrastructure.

Capacity is defined as the maximum amount of work that an organization is capable of completing in a given period of time with the following calculation, Capacity = (number of machines or workers) × (number of shifts) × (utilization) × (efficiency). A discrepancy between the capacity of an organization and the demands of its customers results in inefficiency, either in under-utilized resources or unfulfilled customers.

The broad classes of capacity planning are lead strategy, lag strategy, and match strategy.

Lead strategy is adding capacity in anticipation of an increase in demand. Lead strategy is an aggressive strategy with the goal of luring customers away from the company's competitors. The possible disadvantage to this strategy is that it often results in excess inventory, which is costly and often wasteful.
Lag strategy refers to adding capacity only after the organization is running at full capacity or beyond due to increase in demand (North Carolina State University, 2006). This is a more conservative strategy. It decreases the risk of waste, but it may result in the loss of possible customers.
Match strategy is adding capacity in small amounts in response to changing demand in the market. This is a more moderate strategy.

Compounding cloud capacity planning is the idea of elasticity. Now not only are you planning for typical usage, you must also try to forecast for sudden increases in demand across many customers using a shared multi-tenant infrastructure. In ECP we use the notion of capacity quota's where new customers are given a maximum amount of server capacity, say 20 VM's or 1TB of storage. For customers who require more, they then make a request to the cloud provider. The problem with this approach is it gives customers a limited amount of elasticity. You can stretch, but only so far. Another strategy we sometimes suggest is a flexible quota system (Match strategy) where after a period of time, you now trust the customer and automatically give them additional capacity or monitor their usage patterns and offer it to them before it becomes a problem. This is similar to how you seem to magically get more credit on your credit cards for being a good customer or get a call when you buy an unexpected big ticket item.

The use of a quota system is an extremely important aspect in any capacity / resource planning you will be doing when either launching or running your cloud service. A quota system gives you a predetermined level of deviation across a real or hypothetical pool of customers. Which out it, you is practically impossible to adequately run a public cloud service.

Next you must think of the notion of overselling your infrastructure. Let's say your default customer quota is 20 virtual servers, what percentage of those customers are going to use 100% of their allotment? 50%, 30%, 10%? Again this differs tremendously depending on the nature of your customers deployments and your comfort level. At the end of the day to stay competitive you're going to need to oversell your capacity. Overselling provides you the capital to continue to grow your infrastructure, hopeful slightly faster then your customers capacity requirements increase. The chances of 100% of your customers using 100% of their quota is probably going to be slim, the question you need to ask is what happens when 40% of your customers are using 60% of their quota? Does this mean 100% of the available capacity is being used? Cloud capacity planning also directly effects things like your SLA's and Q0S. Regardless of your platform, it's never good idea to use 100% of your available capacity nor should you. So determining the optimal capacity and having away to monitor it is going to be a crucial aspect in managing your cloud infrastructure.

I believe to fully answer the capacity question you must first determine your ideal customer. Determine where your sweet spot is, who you're going after (the low end, high end, commodity or niche markets). This will greatly help you determine your customer's capacity requirements. I'm also realistic, there is no one size fits all approach. For the most part, Cloud Computing is a best guess game, there are no best practices, architectural guidelines or practical references for you to base your deployment on. What it comes down to to is experience. The more of these we do the better we can plan. This is the value that companies such as Enomaly and the new crop of cloud computing consultants bring. What I find interesting is the more cloud computing as a service model is being adopted by hosting firms, the more these hosters are increasingly coming to us not only for our cloud infrastructure platform, but to help them navigate though a scary new world of cloud capacity planning.