It wasn't too long ago that the online version of Exchange went down longer than all of Mike Tyson's opponents put together.
Whoops. Exchange went down again more recently, this time for three hours. That may not seem like much, but the marathon record now stands at under two hours and four minutes. Apocalypse Now, a long movie in its day, was only 153 minutes long, and the 1989 Tour de France was won by only eight seconds.
And if your boss is staring down your neck wondering how much work you're doing, three hours without e-mail is an eternity.
Have you had any cloud outages? And if so, how did you react? Send me an e-mail at [email protected] -- and if it shows up late, I'll blame it on Exchange. (And if you know who beat whom in 1989 and how, also message me at [email protected].)
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/26/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
It's no real surprise that virtualization and the cloud are very much related. After all, most cloud services run off of virtualized platforms. This puts VMware in the cat bird's seat, and the company is taking full advantage. Its latest move is vSphere 5, a massive virtualization and cloud suite.
Much of the work focuses on administration. The goal is for IT to set core policies and then have vSphere essentially manage itself from then on. Sounds too good to be true, so we'll be tracking this little promise.
Performance is another key design goal, with vSphere 5 supporting as many as 32 virtual CPUs and VMs able to address a terabyte of memory. That's pretty big-time. VMware's cloud tools now drive off of vSphere 5, including vCloud Director and vCenter Site Recovery Manager.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/19/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
Like VMware, virtualization powerhouse Citrix wants a big chunk of the cloud. (Do clouds have chunks or just wisps?) Citrix has certainly built its share of cloud tools, but now it is also buying its way into the market. Case in point: Cloud.com, which Citrix just picked up for an undisclosed sum.
Cloud.com is in the infrastructure-as-a-service market and its stuff runs on all the major hypervisors. That fits Citrix's strategy to a T as Citrix supports its own Xen hypervisor as well as Hyper-V. Cloud.com's key tool is the open source Java-based CloudStack, which turns datacenters into a service, and self-heals or at least protects itself through robust failover.
Anyone one there ever give CloudStack a whirl? If so let us know how it went by writing [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/19/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
Although I haven't yet used it, the idea behind Microsoft's SkyDrive is pretty hard to complain about. Who could possibly take issue with a free tool that lets you share files and store data? Heck, my Carbonite account is over $50 a year.
SkyDrive is getting a major revamp, with the new version being largely driven by AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). While the old Ajax detergent, the White Tornado, was stronger than dirt, the new AJAX is designed to offer Web browsers more features and interactivity, and speeds performance by pulling data down from a server without slowing down the client (that's the whole "asynch" part of AJAX).
Microsoft wants the upcoming SkyDrive to exploit caching as much as possible so performance is snappy. And the company wants to make sure all major browsers get high SkyDrive performance.
Have you used SkyDrive or other cloud file sharing and storage solutions? Share your experiences at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/19/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments
Microsoft recently won a rather large cloud deal with the University of Nebraska, with Office 365 nudging out Google Apps. In sealing the deal Microsoft gave the University $250,000. Sound sleazy? Some would have us think so, but all this dough is supposed to go to consultants who will make sure Office 365 does the job.
Sounds to me like Microsoft is just looking for a happy customer, but beating out Google ain't so bad either.
Of course I don't know what Microsoft's true motives are -- maybe a reference account really is worth a quarter million.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/14/2011 at 12:47 PM8 comments
Cloud management concern Ensim has a new tool that lets service providers set up, manage and activate cloud services (be they public, private or hybrid).
Even if you aren't a service provider, these high-end tools often migrate directly down to the enterprise. Or the features themselves are exposed through the service providers.
Here's what Cloud Manager, which works with Microsoft, VMware and Citrix, does:
- Handles privilege management
- Offers end-users self-service
- Manages desktops hosted in the cloud
- Lets service providers offer bundled packages of applications
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/14/2011 at 12:47 PM4 comments
Amazon Web Services is either feeling extra generous or is under intense competitive pressure, as it recently cut prices for both in-bound and out-bound traffic for its line of cloud services.
In fact, in-bound traffic is now free, while out-bound is far cheaper, sometimes as much as 68 percent.
My guess is the move is due to the competitive pressures of Microsoft eliminating Windows Azure in-bound pricing. Coincidence? Since the announcements were a week apart, and the price cuts took place the very same day, I think not.
Amazon definitely wants a big chunk of the cloud market -- it has slashed prices no less than 14 times in the past four years.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/14/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
Symantec has some interesting findings about the cloud and virtualization. While pretty much bullish, the survey finds that cloud and virt projects tend to not meet expectations, especially when it comes to storage virtualization, which I daresay is more complicated than virtualizing servers, apps or desktops. I can't for the life of me understand why storage is so difficult, but it is.
Symantec also found that IT execs are more bullish on the cloud and virt technologies than mainline business execs, such as CEOs and CFOs. This may be a good thing. How many times has a CEO read an article in an airline magazine and comes back with a brand new IT directive? I'm sure you've been there.
Get all the deets here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/07/2011 at 12:47 PM7 comments
IBM this month will try to convince you to trust its new cloud backup and recovery service. More and more of these services are coming out all the time. The backup part is easy. Recovery... not so much. Just like on-premise recovery, which doesn't always work, cloud backup can take days to execute.
I guess it is all because the cloud system that stores the data doesn't always match the system needing the restore.
Have you run into this? Share your superior opinions (to mine, at least) by writing to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/07/2011 at 12:47 PM6 comments
I feel like I've written this item before. The news is that Microsoft's online Exchange went down again late last month, leaving customers e-mail-free for hours. That's a blessing for some, a disaster for others.
Hmm. Didn't this also happen in May? It sure did.
The timing couldn't be worse. Last week was the big Office 365 unveiling, and customers will only buy in if the service is proven reliable. We'll see.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/05/2011 at 12:47 PM5 comments
Satya Nadella may not be a household name, but he is one smart son of a gun. A while back, Satya ran Microsoft's Dynamics business and while it is no SAP or Oracle, this ERP lineup is doing pretty darn well. Now Nadella is trying to get Microsoft's cloud initiative off the ground. He's not a bad choice for a cloud exec.
Nadella sees the cloud as a transition. He believes the transition is inevitable, but vendors and customers must deal with security first and foremost, as well as compliance (for larger shops) and reliability. He suggests making sure any data going over the wire up to the cloud and back is properly encrypted.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/05/2011 at 12:47 PM1 comments
The day before Microsoft's lavish Office 365 party in New York, Google released a somewhat wacky blog detailing 365 reasons to use Google Apps instead. The only problem: There were only four reasons! I guess we'll have to wait for the other 361.
Google argues that its apps are perfect for teams, offer more choice, are cheaper and easier to license, and more Web-friendly. Time will tell who has the best offering, but one thing is for sure: This competition makes both companies better.
One thing I do know: Redmond magazine interviewed about a dozen Office 365 beta testers and the results were pretty darn good. Check it out here.
Posted by Doug Barney on 07/05/2011 at 12:47 PM2 comments