#5 – Disaster Recovery

Data is the most crucial thing your business can have.  Data on your customers, proprietary data, research, and development data.  Without those it would be hard for any company to continue doing business effectively.  Tape backup solutions are expensive and a rotating hard drive set-up can be both flakey and a bad user experience.  So how do we get our systems backed up cost effectively and simply.  And your answer is Cloud Computing.  Back up your data to the big hard drive in the sky.  Whether it be with our Geek Locker software or a solution like Mozy or Carbonite.  Get your data off site easily to the Cloud.

#4 – Development

This doesn’t just apply to programmers or web designers.  This can apply to everyone.  Lets say you are looking into a new piece of software that should be help your day to day process.  Maybe you don’t have a spare server to try the software on or maybe it has requirements that your current hardware can’t meet.  Guess what the cloud can help.  Instances can be turned off or on as needed so you don’t have the costly expenditures of new hardware or of downtime while testing.  So if you think you have a way to make your business better why not try it.

#3 – Reducing Hardware Cost

I have two words for you, Desktop Virtualization.  Most companies cycle hardware on a 4 or 5 year basis.  With desktop virtualization you can cut those costs down to slim clients and have the Cloud do all your heavy lifting.  If a machine breaks then you simply swap out the thin client and your end users continue working.  Your data is already off premises and on the cloud so your disaster recovery is already in place.

#2 – Mobile Workforce

Do you currently have a mobile workforce?  Are you looking to make your workforce mobile?  Moving certain things to the cloud whether it be your file server or going to desktop virtualization if you have a mobile workforce the cloud will keep them efficient.  There is an added bonus to this which is security.  You no longer have to open up internal holes in your network.  Your users aren’t getting on their network with their personal equipment.  They will be connecting to something outside of your network.

#1 – Everybody Needs a Plan

Cloud computing isn’t going anywhere.  It is guaranteed to help your business in one way shape or form.  At a minimum you need a plan.  We have mentioned before that if you don’t have a five year plan that includes the cloud you are going to fall behind, and that statement still holds true.  Find a consultant who can help you make that plan.  Once you have a plan stick to it.

Via the power of twitter I got an invite into the beta for Google+.  And to be honest with you I haven’t been able to stay away from it.  But, it leads to a bigger issue that will soon be at hand.  How much of you do you want on the Cloud or on the internet as a whole.  Google Profiles are now required to be public or they will shut you off at the end of the month.  Now all they are requiring is like your name or something like that everything else you can still privatize.  But, have no doubt that Google is collecting that information as well as every last bit of information you are putting into Google+.  So let’s consider this for a moment.  A quick perusal of the different Google apps made available to every single GMail user.  E-Mail, RSS, Voice, Calendar, Docs, Health, and Blogs just to name some.  I would argue that those things could virtually define you.  And I will bet that if you were to have your account hacked could wreck you.  Google has launched a product to store virtually every last bit of personal and or professional data and whats worse I will let them.
I find that I should practice what I preach.  And I preach cloud computing if done the right way.  I can’t help but think Google is doing it right.  I am done with Facebook and I will continue with twitter (need my fix) but Google+ will probably get the majority of my information.  Why?  Because, integration is coming.  From one place I can e-mail, socialize, read the news, look at my finances, adjust my calendar, update a resume, and even see what my medical records say if I needed too.  That is powerful and simplistic all in the same stroke.  And what’s genius is Google then uses all that info to make money with ads.

So Google has opened a new frontier.  Social cloud that will hopefully soon integrate with all of my other cloud apps that Google is currently hosting.  Don’t be surprised when something you say on Google+ shows up in an ad, but when you start to get upset remember progress isn’t free.  And having your identity on the cloud by some is considered progress.

Dear Netflix,

I am selfish in our love affair.  I know this and you know it.  You knew it going into our relationship.  I ask for so much and you charge me so little.  Now I wanna give back.  I wanna tell you that you live in a shack and its time to upgrade to the prominence you belong.  Time to leave the ghetto and move in with all the rich people.  Because you are rich.  You have all kinds of content that I wanna enjoy.  But I don’t wanna wait I am demanding.  So, I want more of your content to be stream-able.  To my TV, My iPad, my iPhone, or heck you can stream it straight into my brain I am down.  But here is the one catch.  I need HD.  I want HD.  If I don’t get more HD our love affair may end with me screaming at you until we can never have a future again.  But I am willing to pay for this.  I am not greedy.  You give me something I will give you something.  So here is how we stay together forever.

More HD content.  And in exchange charge me more, tier your packages I will pay you.  You have become my favorite place to go for content.  No more iTunes, Amazon, or Best Buy.  My love affairs with them are over.  Just you, me and a lot of movies and TV shows.  But I need more, we are growing stagnant.  Give and take Netflix, give and take.  You give me more you can take more from me.  This is why you need to go to the cloud.  You can have more space.  This is like your new home in the Hamptons.  Its time to move there from your single bedroom apartment in the Bronx.
I need you to be more reliable.  My content pausing, pixelating, or losing sync just won’t cut it in our new arrangement.  I need reliability.  I need flawless audio and video.  Now I don’t blame you entirely for this Comcast is at fault as well, because they don’t want us to be together.  They are the ex who is trying to get me back.  Well let’s get you a CDN and guarantee they won’t win me back over.  I wanna be in it for the long haul.  But, how can I if I can’t rely on you when I need you most.

So here we are Netflix.  At the precipice of our life together.  And you need to make a decision.  Invest in me and your other 20 Million lovers.  Or we may leave you and go check out Hulu Plus or Amazon Instant.  Oh that’s right you forgot they were there waiting to snatch up your sloppy seconds.  Happily waiting in the wings like vultures.  Don’t make me turn to them I don’t wanna go.  I wanna stay here with you.  Amazon already has the cloud.  They already have a CDN.  But the Amazon Cloud isn’t as good as we can make your home in the Hamptons.  We will give you nothing but the best.  Amazing hard drives.  Lots of bandwidth.  And some sweet blade servers to call your own.  Doesn’t that sound amazing?

So please Netflix.  Don’t make me say the lines that kill every relationship.  Don’t make me think about cheating on you with one of those other services.  Get me more content, more HD, and lets move you into a new home.  If we can do all that I am sure all 20 Million of your lovers will help pay.  Sign us up!!  But please don’t make me say It’s not me it’s you!!

Love,

The Cloud Geeks

Security is a hot topic in the cloud.  How can I trust data that is not directly under my control behind my souped up firewalls and under my watchful eye?  It’s a valid concern.  Network Admins and Engineers are paid to be super vigilant and un-trusting.  We all believe we know best and the way we secure things is the best way.  We may agree on certain practices but when you break it down into the minute details the things that separate a well secured network from a decently secured network we will never always agree.  So how as an admin can I give up the ability to secure my data and infrastructure and hand it over to a cloud company.  Easy don’t give up the control and make sure your cloud company has some best practices.

I am going to focus in more on private clouds as that is where you should store your most sensitive data.  Private clouds can give you a lot of control.  Some will even allow you to control the firewall in front of you cloud.  That’s great but a firewall is only a small part of that battle.  Do they use private key/ public key authentication?  Can you VPN in and if so what is the encryption on that VPN is it even SSLed?  Is your cloud PCI compliant if you are storing financial information on it?  What kind of security check do the engineers at your providers go through?  Let’s attack these one at a time.

Private key / Public key authentication is often used when using Unix boxes and SSH.  Amazon currently does this.  It is very secure as long as the key set is not distributed to a large number of people.  These key sets should also be changed with some regularity like every 30 to 60 days. For Unix instances this is a widely used method and one that is a very good practice.

VPN is a tough one to crack.  If it isn’t SSLed then you might as well be broadcasting your data to the world.  I mean it is safer then straight remoting into a box because it creates a tunnel to your target.  But if that tunnel isn’t secured then what is the point of creating it.  So lets focus in on SSLVPN technology.  SSL encryption varies from SSL to SSL.  Minimum recommended is 128 bit encryption and this is required for PCI and SAAS 70 compliance.  We are currently building a 2048-bit system to fully secure your data and if your provider won’t at least give you 512-bit encryption I would start looking elsewhere.  VPN is the preferred system for Windows based servers as well as when controlling the topology of your network.

As for the background of the staff at your cloud.  A provider should be running background checks on anyone with access to private data.  It is not out of line for you to request a copy of those background checks or at least summaries without ay of the employees data.  At the minimum ask about their hiring practices and minimum requirements.

The cloud can be a safe place.  It can even be safer than your private network.  Just don’t cut corners.  Treat it like it is your own and verify everything.  Test for vulnerabilities constantly.  In today’s business world your data is your business.  You don’t want it compromised but you also want to be able to work with it effectively.  The cloud can give your data new life and availability while keeping you even more secure then you have ever been.

The neural center of a cloud is its network.  The brain may be in the actual servers but the network is its spinal chord and nerve endings.  The cloud is nothing without it.  And networking is about to change drastically as people start to convert from IP v4 to IP v6.  I explain both of those and what the cloud geeks are doing for them after the break.

To understand the fundamental breakdown and evolution of IP (Internet Protocol) we will have to get our geek on a bit.  The current version 4 is broken down into 4 groups called octets.  You may be familiar with these, they look something like 192.168.1.100.  You have probably seen those numbers at home especially if you use a Linksys router.  Then you add in sub-nets and this is where we get geeky, so let me break it down like this:  Your home address is like your IP address.  Your sub-net is your neighborhood.  I am not going into subnetting any more than that because this would become a dissertation and well no one wants me to do that.  So lets get down to the problem working in octets and subnets was actually limiting, it only allowed for 4,294,967,296 addresses.  That may seem like a lot but think about it this way on a daily basis more homes are connecting to the internet.  Every internet connection needs one of these addresses.  It was something that the original internet knew but probably didn’t think we would run out as quickly as we did.  Alas, Armageddon is here for IP v4 even with ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers), or an internation IP consortium, working on reclaiming IPs and even full subnets companies will be forced to move into IP v6.  So you’re probably wondering why this matters?

IP v4 is based on a 32 bit system.  You can do the math and it will give you that huge number I mentioned earlier or you can just research it a little further like I did.  IP v6 is based on a 128 bit system thus giving us approximately 340 undecillion addresses.  Again, I didn’t do the math and didn’t even know what an undecillion was until I looked it up and found this answer on Wikipedia.  My mathematical prowess aside, that’s a lot of addresses. IP v6 also was built with security on the layer,  meaning IPsec is cooked right in; you don’t have to create another layer in your networking stack.  It also allows for stateless auto-configuration, sorta like DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), but better.

From an admin’s standpoint IP v6 brings with it a lot of needed changes.  Multicast is now done in a much cleaner way and doesn’t have to hit every node on the network.  The implementation of IPsec as mentioned earlier allows for cleaner VPN (virtual private network) tunneling.  It, in theory, gets rid of the need for NAT (network address translation) which is where you take one IP address and change it into internal addresses like the linksys router with the 192.xxx.xxx.xxx.  The packets are easier to route even though they are larger due to the need for no checksums and that irrelevant header data has been moved.  I won’t get any geekier on you but needless to say as an admin, it’s like falling in love all over again.

So what does all of this do for the cloud, you may be asking?  Let’s give a for-instance involving Amazon EC2.  Amazon uses Nat to turn a public IP address into internal ones.  They also use internal DHCP and only provide you with a single IP address internally.  For most basic applications this is fine, but if you need multiple IP addresses for something like SSL security you have to start hacking the box.  This in turn kinda demolishes the security that the SSL is suppose to be providing.  I know of people who have begged and cajoled Amazon to correct this and so far, it is a no go.  What if they implemented IP v6?  They could give an endless stream of IP addresses that are internet facing (not behind a NAT) and allow the developers who so desperately want to start using the cloud the ability to do it right.

The Cloud Geeks are proud to announce full adoption of IP v6 in their business plan for the cloud.  We have embraced it already and are training ourselves on full implementation.  This is an exciting time for us.  We feel like we are on the cutting edge of computing.  In the months to follow, our datacenter will get up and running and we will talk more about the things we are doing.  For now I leave you with this: There is no place like ::1.  Or for you IP v4 inclined there is not place like 127.0.0.1.

What if everything you did could be done in real time with no very expensive upgrades or cards?  How bout being able to edit in real time from a netbook while on the go?  What if with a high-speed internet connection you could completely change the way your business works and how productive you technicians could be?  As a formal A/V professional if I could have had all of those things I would probably have never left the business.  The cloud gives you all of that and so much more.

It is hard to afford the machines that can real-time render high end graphics, transitions, or audio effects.  So currently most professionals even a lot of big studios do not do real time rendering.  They preview their edits and save them, then at the end of the day they render them over night.  What if your digitally enhanced preview is wrong (its not common but it happens)?  You loose an entire night of renders.  Cloud compute cycles and the limitless memory that they can provide would allow you to render video and audio tracks in almost real-time.  Even the most complicated of multi-track edits could be done quickly and efficiently, even in full High Definition.

Let’s touch on High Definition video for a minute.  The best way to shoot and edit high definition is in a uncompressed format.  Those files are massive in size and in compute complexity.  So lets talk about the storage aspect first.  High speed storage that can handle uncompressed HD footage is expensive and can be complicated to set-up in the proper configuration for what you are trying to do.  The cloud changes that if you choose the right cloud.  If they have fast high-speed storage then you have an unlimited amount of canvas so to speak on which to work with.  And a higher quality product in the end.  Then there is the compute power needed for rendering raw HD video or even audio for that matter.  The more complicated the file the more compute power is needed to render these items in real time type environment.  The cloud is the only cost effective way to get the high compute, memory, and storage that rendering and producing HD content would require.

Cloud computing could absolutely revolutionize this entire industry, more so then maybe any other.  The combination of power and storage resources makes audio visual production on the cloud a major game changer.  Tell us what you think, could the cloud revolutionize studio production?

If you spend time researching cloud technologies you will find that the thing people have the most problem with is the IO speeds of the hard drives.  This is a big problem as all of your other layers rely on IO.  If you have slow speeds then your Platform and Software services will not run as efficiently as possible.  So how do you solve the issue of hard drive speeds?

The answer to this can get rather technical.  Read and write speeds are ranked normally by RPMs or rotations per minute.  Your standard computer runs anywhere from 5400 RPMs to 7200 RPMs.  A gamer or a standard server might have a 10,000 RPM hard drive.  But to see real speeds over what would be multiple machines you need to go expensive.  At a minimum you would be looking at 15,000 RPM specialized hard drives.  And even those would not provide the speed we are looking for.  So then your really limited and Solid State Drives (SSD) would be your option or is there something better?

Lets start by looking at SSDs.  SSD does not run in RPMs as there are no disks to spin.  They work in data transfer rates.  Your standard SSD will run at something like 250 MBps for reading data, and 180 MBps in writing you data.  Part of that limitation is due to the actual controller.  Another part is that Operating Systems are still being optimized for Solid State Drives.  The big downside is the life of a solid state drive.  There performance reduces over time as they have a limited amount of write sequences before they degrade.

There is one other option that is starting to emerge as what will be the future in server storage.  Its headed by a group names FusionIO.  They are putting SSD storage directly onto cards that are plugged into the server.  This seeps up the Read and write speeds and also allows for faster transmissions.

The most viable option to me is the FusionIO system.  They see storage as its own virtualized layer which it should be.  Allowing for fast but not so affordable storage capacity in the cloud.  This is a must for any application and can be a differentiator when deciding between cloud providers.

Small Business (SMB) should be in the cloud.  They should be using it to differentiate themselves from other SMBs.  They should learn the power of cloud and leverage it to explode.  We will talk about how and why.

SMB is in a interesting position.  They probably can’t afford a full-time IT staff.  Yet they need technology to help their business run and keep things flowing.  They probably either outsource their IT to a third party company or they have one overworked and underpaid IT guy who gets ignored.  So how does a SMB afford something as big as the cloud?  They start small.

Small businesses normally have a lot of files.  They share these files amongst many users.  They might be business documents or they could be financials, but any which way those files need to stay secure and need to be backed up on a consistent basis.  This normally requires at least one server sometimes 2 depending on how they do the financials.  Depending on the end users it normally means a Domain with pretty high end security settings.  You can spend upwards of 25 to 30 thousand a year just to have a third party company handle all of that for you.  This is a cheaper solution then hiring a full time IT guy.

The cloud can cut that number in half again for you.  You can remove the cost of servers and the constant maintenance that they require.  They can automatically back up your files to multiple locations.  And depending on the cloud probably have better security then your local IT company can handle.

After security the cloud gives you access to everything that you have or need from anywhere you have internet connectivity.  This can be done with any system and some very expensive VPN (Virtual Private Networking) technology.  But with the cloud it is automatic.  You can access files on your phone or on the go with your laptop.  The only thing required is an internet connection.  Does your company loose business when its closed due to inclement weather?  Not anymore your people can work from home.

And then the final thing you can do with the cloud is reduce the cost of end users.  This is the most over looked part of what cloud computing can do for you.  Normally you buy your end users decent desktop or laptop systems depending on what they are doing.  Nothing to slow because you wanna keep them productive.  What if you could by $150 thin clients that harnessed the power of your cloud.  No more expensive $800 dollar systems every three years.  Your thin client never really becomes obsolete due to the power of your cloud.  You users can work faster and securely from any terminal because their profile and software goes to any computer with them.

These are just a few of the things that the cloud can do for a small business.  Harness the power and watch your business become more productive.

Let’s start with the easy one:  technology companies.  If you are a technology company and you haven’t found a way to integrate into the cloud, then you are already behind the curve.  Cloud technology will not go anywhere it will only get better.  And I am not saying don’t wait for the better; I am saying you need a strategy.  How are you going to utilize the cloud to do what you do now, but better?  Will it be the endless compute cycles speeding up your process?  Will it be access to files from anywhere in the world?  Or will it help reduce your costs by moving your data center?  All of these things are how cloud benefits you, and things that can dramatically increase your ROI (return on investment).  For a technology company the cloud allows you to do more with less.

Now, here is the downside.  You will have to find the cloud that is right for you.  You may have to set up a private cloud because none of the providers out there match the needs of your company.  This is where your strategy is of the utmost importance.  And just because you are a technology company don’t think for a second that you can do it all internally.

You need to bring in a fresh pair of eyes, to see and evaluate where you are currently falling short and where you are strong.  This evaluation will allow you to see how cloud-computing will benefit you and your company.  Some people think just going to the cloud will do this.  They think that they are now technologically advanced.  Saying that is like buying a PS3 and assuming because you own it you’re now a gamer.  Buying into cloud doesn’t necessarily make you an advanced company;  it does with a strategy and even if you have 100 network engineers on your payroll, you need to bring in outside eyes.  Take it from an engineer, we aren’t good at seeing our weaknesses.  You need new eyes.

Technology is ever changing;  it is a hard field to succeed in.  Especially, if you are a small tech company.  The cloud can help you succeed but it can also be the end of your business.  Get a strategy first.  Take time with it and consider everything.  Bring in a team of outside eyes to help develop that strategy.  Then execute it and you will see  how the cloud truly benefits you and how it can help you grow your company.

So, who offers all of these things now,  in one integrated form?  The answer to that, and why it still doesn’t work coming up.

Amazon Web Services offers all of those services in one package.  They have load balancing; cloud servers in both Unix and Windows varieties.  Twitter uses a Unix Apache based server, so they have the stability of Linux.  What they don’t have is infinite expandability.  They would constantly need to monitor their load, and add new servers (VPS) every time their loads start to max out.  Then, they would need to add those servers to their load balance and allow all of that to propagate.  That would be more than a full time job and if you miss your window of opportunity you would have down time.

Add on to all of that, how often the Amazon Cloud fails, you have a system that has fail whales.  Here is what we would do differently:  Set up infinitely expandable nodes with the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), setup that would expand and contract as needed.  We would add in a CDN (Content Distribution Network) to handle images, and load balance all of that across the globe.  Now, none of this would be cheap but it would allow for full redundancy and expandability for something that, as of right now, is unreliable.

Let us know your thoughts.  What would you do to help Twitter not Fail Whale?