See my other content on Google+
Recently, I’ve been doing some blogging over on Google+. It’s an interesting platform with lots of potential. I think one of the biggest things that’s missing is a robust formatting capability. Anyway, I’m likely to keep both blogs alive, so jump over there and see what’s cooking!
Simplifying Virtualization and Managing the Cloud
Originally published February 25th, 2011 on thedatachain
In this six part video series, Quest Software Chief Technologist Dmitry Kaganski, Quest Software Solutions Architect Ken Cline and Blue Canopy President and CEO Bradley Schwartz discuss methods for simplifying virtualization and cloud management
This was a presentation we did when I was with Quest Software. We were at the Verizon Center in downtown Washington DC presenting to a group of customers and prospects.
Top 100 Leaders of 2012 Magazine
I received the following email this morning! I must be something really special – I bet nobody else was worthy of such a prestigious nomination! I’m going to have to click on the “VISIT HERE” link to find out exactly what “personal, professional and academic achievements” warranted an invitation to join such an exclusive group of people.
Here’s my notification email: Read More…
Cloud 101: Is Cloud Computing right for your organization?
An interesting question: “Is Cloud Computing right for your organization?”
A simple answer: “Yes.”
If only it were that simple! If you’ve been following along with my “Cloud 101” series, you now understand that “Cloud Computing” is not a one size fits all offering. There are multiple service models and multiple deployment options, and they can be mixed and matched in any combination. Not only that, within each service model there are many configuration options – take IaaS as an example.
Cloud 101: The Four Deployment Models
This is the third in a series of posts designed to give you a quick, high-level introduction to Cloud Computing. The first two were:
If you’ve not yet read those posts, now would be a good time to skip back and take a quick pass through them.
In this edition, I’m going to talk about the four Cloud Computing deployment models. As a quick reminder, I’m basing this discussion on the NIST definition of Cloud Computing, so the four deployment models are:
- Private Cloud
- Community Cloud
- Public Cloud
- Hybrid Cloud
The Risk of Lock-in with Cloud Computing
Originally published June 29th, 2011 in the:
AFCEA Bethesda Chapter Presents
Cloud Lifecycle Management –
Plan. Acquire.Sustain.Adapt.
Cloud computing offers the next level of IT capabilities to agencies. When you implement cloud computing, you can adapt to changes in demand and requirements much more quickly than with traditional computing technologies. However, for all of the advantages that cloud promises, there’s a downside. There are significant risks associated with cloud computing; the obvious risks of security, data sovereignty, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, etc. – and some not‐so‐obvious risks.
Cloud 101: The Three Service Models
As I mentioned in my most recent post, Cloud 101: What is Cloud Computing?, NIST defines three service models for cloud computing:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Cloud 101: What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud Computing. A simple term – but what, exactly, does it mean? The National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) has their Definition of Cloud Computing (Special Publication 800-145) which is fairly widely accepted as a good definition. To avoid confusing the issue, I’ll use that as the foundation upon which to build my expanded definition.
As you read through the NIST definition, you’ll notice that it talks about essential characteristics, service models, and deployment models. There’s pretty much nothing about technology. That’s worth paying attention to! I’ll cover a couple of the essential characteristics here, I think a few are pretty obvious.
Cloud computing is a paradigm shift in how IT is exposed to the consumer
Is it “number” or “amount”?
OK…this is not a technical post, it’s a word choice post.
<soapbox>
I’m going to let you all in on one of my pet peeves … it seems that too many people who write about technology don’t know the difference between the words “number” and “amount”. A couple of examples:
- What is the amount of NICs in that server?
- The amount of TB of storage is surprising.
- The amount of ways the problem can be solved…
- The number of RAMs in servers today is amazing.
The Great vSwitch Debate – Part 8 (Final)
OK, I promised, so here we go! The other seven parts of this series have all dealt with the technical aspects of vSwitches, pNICs, Port Groups and such. This part will deal with the more mundane aspect of naming standards. While maybe not as glamorous, this is definitely one of the most important aspects of building your virtual infrastructure. Oh, by the way, the names I used in this series of article (i.e. PG_APP1, PG_VMotion, etc.) are really bad names for a production environment!
A naming standard is exactly what the title sounds like – a standard for defining the names of things. In my opinion, a naming standard should achieve a couple things:
- Provide a simple, consistent method for assigning names to objects – there is nothing “arbitrary” about a naming standard
- Be flexible enough to accommodate most, if not all, use cases
- Provide an effective means for all parties involved to understand what is being described
Ken's Virtual Reality 