Expanding the role of Network Operator to include Cloud Operator

Amazon Web Services is a benchmark in cloud computing.  They have added DNS services to improve the performance of AWS clients.

With Route 53, you can create a “hosted zone” to add DNS records for a new domain or transfer DNS records for a domain you currently own. Route 53 is also designed to work well with other AWS offerings, such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). By using AWS IAM with Route 53, you can control who in your organization can make changes to your DNS records. In the future, we plan to add additional integration features such as the ability to automatically tie your Amazon Elastic Load Balancer instances to a DNS name, and the ability to route your customers to the closest EC2 region.

Route 53 is also designed to be fast and simple. It uses a global network of DNS servers to respond to end users with low latency and has an easy-to-use, self-service API. There are no long-term contracts or minimum usage commitments for using Route 53 – you pay $1.00 per month for the hosted zones you manage, $0.50 per million queries for the first billion queries, and $0.25 per million queries above a billion. To learn more about Amazon Route 53 visit the Amazon Route 53 detail page or the Getting Started Guide.

Performance of cloud computing solutions is where the top guys are fighting it out.  Why? The top clients find latency and performance of their services has a direct impact on business and value of their services.

Equinix is one choice to improve the performance of applications.

Applications are not all one and the same. You need to be able to set, measure and achieve individual application performance targets to successfully empower customers and employees. Identifying and prioritizing latency-sensitive applications is key to end-user satisfaction.

You can maximize performance for business-critical and latency-sensitive applications by deploying Application Performance Nodes in Platform Equinix sites, which are strategically placed close to major population centers and key user groups.

Equinix provides the widest metro-level coverage of key business and population centers across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific—over 6 million square feet and growing.

Another alternative ramping up is from the Telcos.

One report from Ovum discusses the role of Telcos.

Major telcos will be strong force in cloud computing, experts predict

The major global telecommunications companies will become strong players in the cloud computing market as interest from previously cautious end users increases rapidly over the next two to three years, Ovum has predicted.

A new report* by the independent telecoms analyst states that AT&T, BT, Orange Business Services and Verizon Business have made considerable progress in the arena in just over a year, and in terms of services, can now compete with established players from the IT industry.

According to the report, these companies have led a ‘competitive march’ from telecoms into cloud computing, and now have widely acknowledged credibility in the field.

As companies like HP, Cisco, IBM, and Dell build solution stacks that go across their products.  Another integration paradigm is to integrate the network operator with the cloud operator.

Peter Hall, report author and Ovum principal analyst, said: “The major telcos have a long heritage in providing managed data center services and hosting and have combined this with their networking and security expertise to meet the needs of customers for cloud computing services.

The Telcos are ramping up to be cloud computing players.

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Happy New Year!!! Welcome 2011

Hope you enjoy a day of F3 – Friends, Family, and Football.

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Here is a shot out the front door at 7a. (taken with an iPhone 3GS)

Google changes its home page.

Happy New Year 2011!

My home is almost done, and we can move out of our 850 sq ft cozy beach house.

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Happy New Year!

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Thanks for continuing to visit www.greenm3.com.

I have much more to discuss on this blog in 2011.

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“Good Enough” Photography ends Kodachrome film, Cloud Computing is bringing an end to an Era of overprovision

I’ve known Jay Fry for years and first met Jay when he was with Cassatt.  Jay writes a good perspective on “good enough” being the new normal.


Making 'good enough' the new normal

Posted by Jay Fry at 9:52 AM

In looking back on some of the more insightful observations that I’ve heard concerning cloud computing in 2010, one kept coming up over and over again. In fact, it was re-iterated by several analysts onstage at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas earlier this month.
The thought went something like this:
IT is being weighed down by more and more complexity as time goes on. The systems are complex, the management of those systems is complex, and the underlying processes are, well, also complex.
The cloud seems to offer two ways out of this problem. First, going with a cloud-based solution allows you to start over, often leaving a lot of the complexity behind. But that’s been the same solution offered by any greenfield effort – it always seems deceptively easier to start over than to evolve what you already have. Note that I said “seems easier.” The real-world issues that got you into the complexity problem in the first place quickly return to haunt any such project. Especially in a large organization.
Cloud and the 80-20 rule

But I’m more interested in highlighting the second way that cloud can help. That way is more about the approach to architecture that is embodied in a lot of the cloud computing efforts. Instead of building the most thorough, full-featured systems, cloud-based systems are often using “good enough” as their design point.
This is the IT operations equivalent of the 80-20 rule. It’s the idea that not every system has to have full redundancy, fail-over, or other requirements. It doesn't need to be perfect or have every possible feature. You don't need to know every gory detail from a management standpoint. In most cases, going to those extremes means what you're delivering will be over-engineered and not worth the extra time, effort, and money. That kind of bad ROI is a problem.
“IT has gotten away from “good enough” computing,” said Gartner’s Donna Scott in one of her sessions at the Data Center Conference. “There is a lot an IT dept can learn from cloud, and that’s one of them.”

MSNBC/NYtimes has an article about the last roll of Kodachrome film, for some the best film for photography.

Demanding to shoot
Demanding both to shoot and process, Kodachrome rewarded generations of skilled users with a richness of color and a unique treatment of light that many photographers described as incomparable even as they shifted to digital cameras. “Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day,” Paul Simon sang in his 1973 hit “Kodachrome,” which carried the plea “Mama, don’t take my Kodachrome away.”

All 25 Kodak labs are shut down.

At the peak, there were about 25 labs worldwide that processed Kodachrome, but the last Kodak-run facility in the United States closed several years ago, then the one in Japan and then the one in Switzerland. Since then, all that was left has been Dwayne’s Photo. Last year, Kodak stopped producing the chemicals needed to develop the film, providing the business with enough to continue processing through the end of 2010. And last week, right on schedule, the lab opened up the last canister of blue dye.

Steve Hebert for The New York Times

Lanie George pulls off infrared goggles after leaving the darkroom processing Kodachrome film at Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., on Dec. 28, 2010. The lab is the last one processing the 75-year-old film and will process the final roll on Dec. 30.

Here is a CBS video about the end of Kodachrome.

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Skype joins banned in China–YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter

I have some friends in China and using Skype is convenient to communicate. GigaOm says China is making moves to block Skype.

Will Skype Be Banned in China?

By Ryan Kim Dec. 30, 2010, 9:10am PDT 1 Comment

China has reportedly moved to block private VoIP services such as Skype, and will only allow China Telecom and China Unicom to offer such services, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It’s unclear when this will take effect, or if it means the outright ban of services such as Skype. China previously banned outside VoIP companies in 2006 for two years to help its homegrown companies compete ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Skype currently partners with Chinese Internet company Tom Online and said in a statementvthat users can still access Skype through Tom.com, though it declined to speculate on future access being blocked.

Doing business in China requires government support if you are big.

Either way, it’s a blow for Skype in particular, and VoIP providers in general, and underscores the difficulty of doing business in China for Internet companies. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are already blocked in China and Google had to move its servers to Hong Kong.

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2011 Data Center Fight Club–Google, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, & Zynga

In Data Centers a “Fight Club” metaphor can be used to describe the secrecy behind a competitive group.  Where little is said out in the public.  The big fight in 2009 was a Google vs. Microsoft for PUE and efficient data centers.  PUE is now a common term and even used by some to specify data centers. 2010 Facebook has emerged as a competitor, and there are many other companies that tops in their category like Twitter, Skype, and Zynga.

TechCrunch discusses the talent wars for top engineers.  Data Centers are not mentioned in the article, but none of these companies can exist without data centers.

Begun The Talent Wars Have – Why Twitter needs a London HQ: Google Engineers

by Mike Butcher on December 30, 2010

We’ve reported before about how the escalating warfor talent in Silicon Valley is effectively creating a kind of arms race between tech companies.

For example, Google is offering employees a 10% pay increase for 2011; companies like About.me are getting acquireddays after launch; and job postings in the IT industry are shooting to astronomical levels. Even Google’s Eric Schmidt has admitted to this battle.

Facebook, Google, Zynga and Twitter are hiring like crazy – and this insatiable desire for staff is likely to spill over into other countries. And perhaps the obvious first target outside of the Valley is London: English speaking, and a magnet for existing tech people in Europe working for US multinationals. And the latest to consider extending its reach there is Twitter. Europe is highly attractive to Twitter, since its advertising markets, particularly the UK where Twitter has exploded in adoption, are waiting to be milked.

Twitter’s first office outside of the US, will be headed up by Katie Jacobs Stanton, the company’s head of international strategy. Stanton was recently in London, where the UK government has been going all out to try to woo tech companies with its ‘East London Tech City’ policy.

What gets little press is the talent battles these companies have to find the best data center staff.

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