Grant; Thanks for the explanation. I think if we're to make good decisions regarding these ideas and technologies, they have to be well understood first.
As a cloud evangelist, what is your take on being able to trust 'the cloud?' Personally, I don't put much trust in computers/infrastructure/software that I don't run or can't inspect - or, more likely, can't be inspected by people I trust. Of course, there is a security/usability trade-off here: I don't care so much about streaming music from the cloud, but I don't want government spys (or perhaps worse, advertising spys) reading my e-mail - hence I am not using GMail. Entire governments are leaving SaaS services and building their own infrastructure. "Not hosted in the USA" is now a requested feature. Personally, I don't see the cloud as the next big thing. I see it as on a hype curve. Right now it's very high on the curve, but the recent revelations - coupled with the fact that you have to completely trust your providers - is bringing it slowly down. -Jason On 12/12/2013 11:08 AM, Grant Shipley wrote: > Let's clear up what cloud actually means then. There are three types of > cloud computing: > > IaaS - Infrastructure as a service > > Think Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine here. The only thing provided to > the user is the hardware / vm. The user is responsible for providing the > operating system, updating it, apply security errata, installing and > managing all applications, tuning the OS - databases - application servers > etc. It addresses a real concern in the industry by reducing the time to > market for getting servers quickly. With IaaS, you can spin up 1000 > machines in a matter of minutes and grow as demand quires it. The only > problem, no one knows what their final bill will be every month. > > You have to bring your sys admins, application code, and users along with > you. > > PaaS - Platform as a service > > The OpenShift, Heroku, CloudFoundry here. PaaS sits on top of IaaS to > automate even more of the environment. Typically the PaaS will manage all > aspects of the environment for you. This includes database tuning, > automatic scaling, application server management, security updates to OS > and runtimes, etc. Users of PaaS need to deploy and be responsible for the > application code that is deployed on the environment to ensure it is > robust, scalable, and cloud friendly. > > You have to bring your application code and users along with you. > > SaaS - Software as a Service > > Think salesforce.com, facebook, gmail, dropbox here. Software as a service > is a WYSIWG environment. The platform manages everything for you and often > times you can't customize the application code. This is the cloud > technology that has been around the longest and widely adopted. > > You have to bring your users and your data to the table here. > > > The adoption rate among these three cloud technologies are as follows: > SaaS - Huge adoption. This was a buzz word 8 years ago and we really don't > hear much about it anymore because its widely accepted and in use by 99% of > all corporations today. > > IaaS - medium adoption. People still have concerns about moving their > workloads to a public cloud provider (ec2) but a lot of people are making > this move. When I talk about cloud computing to companies, one of the > first things I hear is -- we can't put our users email address and data in > a public cloud. Our data is so important we need a 5 million dollar oracle > RAC server behind 15 firewalls. I think ask them what they use for sales > automation tools. They proudly respond with Salesforce.com. Face -> Palm. > People don't realize that they are storing much more than users data in > the public cloud today. With SF.com they are storing all of their > financials and forecasts. Having access to someone sf.com environment is > more damning that having access to their internal oracle db. > > PaaS - low adoption. This is the new kid on the block. I fully expect > this to be mainstream and every developer will be using a PaaS in 3-5 years > as they see the benefits for development. The tidal wave is coming. It's > best for us developers to go ahead and get familiar with it because it is > coming! > > Now, just to be clear. You will hear a lot of other crap about cloud > computing. IMO ignore it. People and companies will tout things such as > mBaaS (Mobile backend as a service) MWaaS (Middle Ware as a Service) etc. > All of these new buzz word terms can be recognized in one of three main > categories (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). I don't know why people are clinging to and > making up new as a services acronyms. It just further confuses everyone > knew to cloud computing and is hindering the adoption of this fantastic > technology. > > -- > gs > > > > > On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 10:29 AM, Jason Klebs <[email protected]> wrote: > >> In my opinion, 'the cloud' is a buzz-word, and regarding it, people act >> accordingly. Buzz-words are meant to diminish understanding of >> something, not enhance it. Therefore, a lot of places don't weigh the >> benefits and drawbacks of what is essentially a move to another hosting >> provider. >> >> While we're opening up cans of worms... >> I have assumed (even pre-Snowden) that every EC2 instance comes with >> root access for the NSA built-in. Thoughts on this? >> >> -Jason >> >> On 12/12/2013 10:21 AM, Jonathan Duncan wrote: >>> On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 8:03 AM, S. Dale Morrey <[email protected] >>> wrote: >>> >>>> For the most part, you can't just migrate existing systems to "the >>>> cloud(tm)". You really do need to think of it as a re-implementation >> task >>>> and expect your costs to follow accordingly. >>>> >>>> Agreed. The Cloud is just another tool. Like any tool, if used properly >>> can be helpful, if used improperly can be deadly. The company I am >>> currently with is in the process of migrating all services to the cloud. >>> This includes an entire rewrite of the code base and entirely new system >>> architecture. It is a mistake to think of the Cloud in the same way as >> one >>> would think of traditional physical servers. For me, learning to use the >>> Cloud effectively has required me to adopt a new paradigm. >>> >>> /* >>> PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net >>> Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug >>> Don't fear the penguin. >>> */ >> >> >> >> /* >> PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net >> Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug >> Don't fear the penguin. >> */ >> > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */
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