August 8th, 2011 — 2:32pm
Cloud services from both technology giants went down amidst lightning storms in Ireland yesterday.
According to Amazon’s service health dashboard, there are still issues in the Euro Zone Western region, although other zones are operating at normal availability.
After the outage, Amazon was forced to recover some block stoage servers manually. Amazon said this process required some capacity devoted towards other tasks to be used, thus hurting overall performance.
It said: “We anticipate that it will take 24 to 48 hours until the process is completed.”
Microsoft released a statement on the outage which read: “On Sunday, August 7, 2011, beginning at approximately 10:50AM PDT / 5:50PM UTC, a widespread power outage in Dublin caused connectivity issues for European BPOS customers.
“Services were restored to all customers by 5:45PM PDT/ 12:45AM UTC. Throughout the incident, we updated our customers regularly on the issue via our normal communication channels.”
All this being said, some experts were quick to chime in that this wasn’t a cloud issue, but a issue inherent in the infastructure of these two giants.
Riccado Degli Effetti, of Rackspace:
“It does not matter whether the computer hardware or software you use is located in your home or office, or miles away in the datacentre of a hosting company, things can still go wrong.
“That said, there are ways to protect datacentres from lightning strikes, such as installing lightning and surge protection.
“Both cloud and traditional managed hosting have to rely on well-maintained infrastructure to function,” he said.
He also had a thing or two to say about Amazon’s response to the crisis: “Customers rightly demand a high level of service and transparency when things do go wrong. It is no longer acceptable to post updates on a web site and not communicate directly or through multiple channels.
“Outages, although rare, are painful, and they should motivate cloud and hosting service providers to improve both preventive measures and the overall level of care provided to customers. As the saying goes, lightning never strikes twice, but Amazon has been hit before, in the US in 2009. It is important that lessons are learned from these events,” he added.
Comment » | Cloud Computing
August 2nd, 2011 — 8:00am
Some think so, including GreenPages Technology Solutions CEO Ron Dupler. Monday he was the first speaker at their annual technology summit. He urged the 100+ CIOs and CTOs that the time is now to seize upon cloud technologies.
“Cloud is here now!” affirmed Dupler in keynote address starting the conference, which has become a summer tradition for information technology (IT) professionals trying to keep their heads above waters in the rapidly changing world of IT. “It is real. It is happening. And we all need to seize the day and deal with it.”
Dupler said IT officers who did not embrace the cloud would be left behind, and said they were similar to doomsayers of old.
Dupler, for his part, said that IT professionals who dismiss the cloud are “trying to perpetuate the past” and ultimately are either going to “change their mind” or find themselves “working in new fields.”
The Kittery, Maine-headquartered GreenPages was an early cloud adopter and has been at the front of the cloud computing services paradigm shift advising customers to move to a fully virtualized IT environment in preparation for the cloud computing services era.
Technology research, Gartner, has projected that global cloud computing services revenue will hit $148.8 billion in 2014.
Dupler counseled IT executives attending the summit to look at cloud computing as an “opportunity” instead of a “threat.”
“In the future this is about integrating service platforms,” said Dupler. “It is helping you turn internal IT into a service platform itself and integrating various service platforms.”
http://www.greenpages.com
Comment » | Cloud Computing, future, IT Predictions
July 26th, 2011 — 8:38am
Dell (NSDQ:Dell) is leveraging its partnership with the Rackspace-led OpenStack open source cloud project to the fullest with the launch of an Infrastructure-as-a-Service system based on the OpenStack cloud operating system.
According to Dell, “OpenStack is a massively scalable infrastructure-as-a-service cloud solution. It offers support for existing ecosystems plus opportunities to influence future direction.”
The Dell Openck Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service arrives just as cloud technology has matured enough for customers to want alternatives to proprietary licensed software cloud models. John Igoe, director of cloud strategy at Dell put it thusly:
“This is one of the first reference architectures in the environment that can be purchased and deployed,” Igoe said of the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution.
The Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution IaaS play comprises the OpenStack cloud operating system; cloud-optimized Dell PowerEdge C servers; a new Dell-developed OpenStack installer called “Crowbar;” and services from Dell and Rackspace Cloud Builders.
According to Igoe, Dell’s new OpenStack cloud system will not cannibalize existing Dell offerings. Igoe said Dell wants its customers to have different options for moving forward with the cloud.
Kudos to Dell for being a leader in this burgeoning space.
Click here for more information about the new Dell OpenStack-Based Cloud.
Comment » | Cloud Computing, dell, future
July 19th, 2011 — 12:43pm
Hackers at Redmond Pie gave details of an exploit allowing someone to jailbreak version 4.3.4 of Apple iOS (it is important to note that this does not affect the iPad 2 device).
Jailbreaking is a means to circumvent normal security measures in Apple devices like iPhones and iPads. It allows anyone to use applications not approved by Apple’s App Store – obviously causing great concern to Apple over lost revenue.
“Apple has just pushed out iOS 4.3.4 for the iPhone, iPad and the iPod touch. And thankfully, we have cooked custom PwnageTool bundles which allows you to jailbreak any device (except for iPad 2) running iOS 4.3.4, and at the same time preserve your baseband for an Ultrasn0w unlock later on,” said Redmond Pie’s Uzair Ghani in a blog post.
At the moment, this jailbreak is “tethered”, meaning to take advantage of it, the device must be physically connected to a computer.
“No matter how annoying it may sound, it’s better than having no jailbreak at all,” Ghani said.
This latest in a string of hacks against iOS was releaed Friday, also the day that Apple released a security patch to repair PDF problems in their Safari Browser.
Typically to exploit the PDF vulnerability, an attacker would distribute a malicious PDF via email, or social networking sites and a user would unknowingly install malware by opening it. Attackers would then have access to personal and financial data stored on mobile Apple devices like the iPhone and iPad. They could even track a users location via the GPS capabilities in these devices.
This latest jailbreak exploit is likely to spur demands for increased vigilance by Apple. Germany issued a security warning to consumers in the wake of this latest hack release.
Popularity of the iPhone and iPad is only expected to grow. We can definitely expect more vulnerability exploits in the future.
Comment » | exploits, iOS
July 18th, 2011 — 10:51am
On Thursday Google App Engine, the mega-corp’s cloud platform offering, crashed, knocking some websites and services offline. According to the Google status dashboard, the disturbance happened bewteen 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. PST on Thursday, bringing down customer apps and web sites that depend on the Google App Engine.
Apps written for the platform use the Java (and by extension, languages that run on the JVM), Go orPython programming languages. Python apps, evidently, were unaffected.
Google’s status dashboard also indicated that a scheduled maintenance was being performed at the time, however, it is not 100% clear that the maintenance and performance malfunction are related.
A quote from a developer at “You vs. the Internet” summed it up thusly:
“Well, I think I aged a few years tonight. That really, really sucked. The worst part? Google never acknowledged that they had a problem,” a Wordament developer wrote. “Down the line of their Service Status was ‘Normal.’ And yet, we were running 0 servers. The other part that really sucked was our powerlessness to do anything. We couldn’t even contact support. Sigh.”
Comment » | Cloud Computing, Google
July 15th, 2011 — 11:43am
“The Cloud..” It seems no matter where you turn, you hear this phrase over and over. Google Cloud, Microsoft Cloud, Apple iCloud, etc. The list goes on and on.
But, what is “The Cloud” and why is it getting so much buzz?
The Cloud Defined
In the most basic of terms, cloud computing refers to being able to access resources and applications that are available on the Internet from just about any Internet connected device. Your “device”, be it a PC, iPhone, or other Internet enabled machine can then essentially act as if these resources and applications were housed locally. Being that they are housed remotely in one location means easier maintenance, and reduced costs.
In more sophisticated terms, it refers to scalable IT architectures that can be more easily accessed and maintained. “Scalability” means you can add more capacity, power, and services without incurring exorbitant costs – clearly a boon for businesses.
How Popular is The Cloud in the Business World
According to Saugatuck, a Connecticut based research and consulting firm, by 2015, there will remain no business computing category that hasn’t moved to the Cloud – with 65 percent or more of all NEW business application / solution decisions Cloud-based or Hybrid by 2015.
According to research firm, Gartner, By 2012, 20% of businesses will own no IT assets as increasingly business rely on external, cloud based hardware provided to them under subscription models.
Have questions about “The Cloud?” Call us – 972.235.3114
Comment » | Cloud Computing
July 7th, 2011 — 9:27am
Not to be left behind in the cloud buzz, Intel is putting some muscle into promoting its own cloud offerings. In what Intel is labeling “the world’s smallest data-center”, you essentially have two 1U servers in a nice, compact package. This is to further bolster their marketing for their “Cloud 2015″ service (wow, so the world doesn’t end in 2012 like the Mayans predicted after all??).
The servers showcase a number of different Intel products all at once. The utililize the latest and greatest Xeon processors. They have support for rigourous hardware encryption via Intel’s “Trusted Execution Technology”. It also features support for Intels hardware based Virtualization Technology.
Other feautres:
- Intelligent Power Node Manager
- Expressway Access 360
- Expressway Gateway Service
It seems this is effort at a model of many small datacenters distributed geographically, yet operating together. Let’s see how it plays out.
More information here.
Comment » | Cloud Computing, future
July 6th, 2011 — 12:11pm
Japanese electronics company Sony Corp. had announced Monday that Sony Network Entertainment International will fully have restored all PlayStation Network and Qriocity services in Japan by today.
You may recall in April when a hacker breach prompted Sony to shut down these services to bolster their overall security.
This breach was evidently perpetrated by the “hactivist” group, “LulzSec.” (they have since claimed that they are disbanding)
Since May 28th, they have been in the process of slowing phasing in newly implement security procedures.
Now that service has been restored in Japan, Sony has fully brought back PlayStation and Qriocity services in every area where they had been operating before the breach.
In addition, Sony will be offering a special “Welcome Back” package to all registered customers as a way of making amends.
Despite the new security measures. People and organizations utlizing these services should still take their own measures.
- Cancel credit card
- Change associated email address
- Change your password to something entirely new, not used anywhere else
Comment » | IT Support, Security
June 29th, 2011 — 9:03am
A new survey shows that even though CTO’s are showing broad interest in the cloud, mid-level technical engineers are showing a more tepid response to the idea of giving up full control to the public cloud.
Two main findings came out of the survey conducted by Cloud.com, Aenoss and BitNami. CTOs and executives are “gung-ho” about the cloud, and the myriad of benefits that it offers. And IT pros are not necessarily against the cloud, but there is trepidation in deploying to a *public* cloud infrastructure.
Other key points:
61% of organizations either have a cloud strategy in place, or are working on one.
20% Have cloud implementations already in place, and only 20% have no cloud plans whatsoever
70% chose to deploy to private cloud resources, 12% to public cloud
Cloud.com collected this data from over 500 IT users in the 2nd quarter of 2011.
What is striking is the trepidation against public cloud. It may be due to sheer lack of knowledge. On the other side, an example of going cloud in a big way is Wyoming. The state of Wyoming recently turned over much of its communication and collaboration infrastructure of its operations to the Google Cloud. Clearly this is a young and emerging sector, but it looks like public cloud is here to stay.
Comment » | Cloud Computing, Studies
June 27th, 2011 — 10:13am
Do you have an action plan if disaster strikes? Do you have the necessary resources to deal with disaster eventualities? When critical systems are affected (by human or natural causes), Disaster Recovery services are used to help you recover. Proper disaster recovery requires industry-specific expertise.
A 2009 Symantec report on Disaster Recovery Research indicates that disaster recovery is becoming one key factor in giving organizations an “edge” over others.
According to the Disaster Recovery Journal, an estimated $78,000 per hour is lost due to system downtime. Thus the losses incurred due to absence of proper disaster recovery service, approximately 40% of all businesses have now it an essential part of IT.
A good Disaster recovery plan should fit well with the needs of your business. With a solid, tested disaster recovery plan, you can respond in an organized, deliberate manner to a disasters, restore systems integrity and resume operations in the shortest time possible. Chiefly, this will also help reduce potential damage to the reputation of your organization.
A good disaster recovery plan will provide at least the following:
- Minimizes disruption and operational losses.
- Protect against potential threats.
- Manage the recovery operation in a deliberate manner
- Restore and maintain confidence from the public, stakeholders, and clients
Disaster Recovery is an ongoing process. It requires discipline to ensure your disaster recovery plan will be up to date and effective.
Comment » | Disaster Recovery, IT Outsourcing
