George Reese is the CTO of enStratus™, the author of the #1 selling cloud computing book "Cloud Applications Architecture", and the author of this blog.
The Cloud Blog
Dasein Cloud and the vCloud API
1/20/2010 11:00AMDasein Cloud has introduced support for VMware's vCloud API. Because it is so different from other cloud APIs, the vCloud implementation for Dasein Cloud provides an excellent example of how Dasein Cloud is able to provide a rich experience for each cloud it supports without sacrificing abstraction.
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Cloud Services for Every SMB
1/13/2010 2:23AMIn the cloud computing era, just about every small/medium-sized business task has a cloud-based solution. There's simply no longer any need to own a server, and purchasing desktop software should be the exception and not the rule.
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Cloud Forensics using EBS Boot Volumes
1/3/2010 8:33PMIn December, Amazon introduced a new feature for their cloud: EBS Boot Volumes. An EBS boot volume essentially provides the ability to boot from a virtual SAN. This new approach to booting virtual machines offers up a wealth of new capabilities in the Amazon Cloud. Among the security uses of EBS volumes I find most intriguing, however, is the use of EBS volumes in cloud-based forensics.
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Principles for Standardized REST Authentication
12/26/2009 6:36PMI'm tired of wasting brain cycles figuring out whether a given vendor requires you to sign your query before or after you URL encode your parameters and I am fed up with vendors who insist on using interactive user credentials to authenticate API calls. Here's a set of standards that I think should be in place for any REST authentication scheme.
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Your Cloud Needs a Sys Admin
10/15/2009 9:48PMI've attended a number of CloudCamps around the world, and the question as to whether systems administrators are relevant in the post-cloud world always seems to come up. Let's put this silly question to bed: your cloud needs a sys admin.
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Four Tips for Avoiding VM Sprawl in the Public Cloud
10/3/2009 11:20PMYou moved into the cloud to save some money. Now it's the first of the month and you're looking at your latest cloud provider bill. It's not at all what you planned. Welcome to the world of VM sprawl, the dark side of cloud computing.
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The Dasein Cloud API
8/15/2009 3:43PMThe Dasein Cloud API is the next step in the drive towards Open cloud programming standards. This Open Source API enables programmers to write cloud management applications in Java against a single API that supports multiple clouds.
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Freemium Services and the Economics of Social Networking
7/5/2009 8:17PMSocial networking sites face a unique economic challenge when it comes to monetizing the value they create. Any attempt to capture a piece of the value they create inevitably damages that value.
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The First Step into the Cloud: Which Kinds of Applications Make the Most Sense?
6/24/2009 1:44AMA key to successfully integrating the public cloud into your IT infrastructure is identifying a first application that will provide you with measurable results and learnings that can apply to future deployments without putting your business at risk. IT annoyances make the ideal first cloud projects.
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A Quick Look at Amazon CloudWatch, Load Balancing, and Auto-Scaling
6/1/2009 6:45PMAmazon recently made available to the public three new services that will have a huge impact on the way people architect systems to be deployed in the Amazon cloud. I have put together my first look thoughts on these new offerings.
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The Five Laws of Implementing a Login Solution
5/20/2009 1:40AMDon't write your own. But whether your decide to write your own or implement a third-party solution, make sure it follows these five rules no matter what the risk profile of your application.
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Google's Failings Say Little about Cloud Computing
5/16/2009 5:27PMEvery time an individual cloud vendor suffers a failure like last week's networking issues with Google, mindless bloggers rush out to suggest the failures of one company represent failures of cloud computing in general. It's time to hold this logical fallacy up to the light and learn what we really can learn from any given incident.
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Transparency: The Key to Cloud Security
4/19/2009 9:56PMIf your cloud provider refuses to answer any specific question about their security architecture related to your security requirements, run--don't walk--away from that vendor
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Using the Cloud for Disaster Recovery
4/12/2009 1:19AMFew companies have a solid disaster recovery plan and fewer companies actually verify their DR plans are working. One of the often missed benefits of cloud computing is that it makes rapid disaster recovery with minimal data loss extremely cost effective and enables the automation of those processes that can be tested often using automated tools.
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The Varieties of Openness Worth Wanting in the Cloud
3/27/2009 11:23PMAll of the vendors in the cloud space have paid lip service to the idea of Openness in the cloud; and most everyone believes that being "Open" is a "good thing". In an environment in which few people agree on the specifics of defining the term "cloud computing", what exactly does it mean to have an Open Cloud?
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The Weakness of Commodity Server to Cloud Server Cost Comparisons
3/19/2009 7:30PMThough the conventional wisdom on the Internet is that the economic benefits of cloud computing fail for applications with steady usage needs, the reality is that the commodity-server to cloud-server comparisons on which this wisdom is based are flawed. The reality is that the cloud often provides compelling economic benefits even when you have an application with consistent resource demands.
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PCI in the Cloud
2/26/2009 4:10PMCompliance is the most significant issue confronting organizations looking at a move into the cloud. Here are a number of recommended architectures that should provide PCI compliance for pure-cloud infrastructures.
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