SOA

Tactical Cloud Computing Panel at 1st Annual GovIT Expo

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EDT

I'm proud to announce that representatives from Lockheed Martin, SAIC, and Unisys will join me in a "Tactical Cloud Computing" Panel at SYS-CON's 1st Annual Government IT Conference & Expo in Washington DC on October 6, 2009.

As Technical Chair of this conference, my goal has been to provide useful and actionable information to the conference attendees. While the industry has engaged in a rigorous discussion around "enterprise" cloud computing, information on tactical or deployable cloud computing possibilities has been scarce. To address this, I've asked Dataline partners to join me and share their views on this issue.

Tactical Cloud Computing refers to the use of cloud computing technology and techniques for the support of localized and short-lived information access and processing requirements. Use cases could include:

“Cloudbursting” to support cyclic data processing requirements
Establishing a cloud-based collaboration environment in order to coordinate firefighting resources during a wildfire
Virtually binding shipboard IT infrastructures in order to create a battlegroup infrastructure-as-a-service platform
Virtually binding land vehicle based servers and storage resources into a battlefield data center
Dynamic provisioning of virtual cloud-based servers in order to automate exploitation and dissemination of unmanned air vehicle (UAV) streaming video feeds
This discussion panel will explore how defense, homeland security and law enforcement organizations are looking to leverage this new and exciting IT capability.

Please register and join us for this unique opportunity. First 50 registrants are eligible for a VIP pass !!

( Thank you. If you enjoyed this article, get free updates by email or RSS - KLJ )

Cloud Computing Best Practices

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:45:00 EDT

Some of the key things to think about when putting your application on the cloud are discussed below. Cloud computing is relatively new, and best practice is still being established. However we can learn from earlier technologies and concepts such as utility compute, SaaS, outsourcing and even internal enterprise centre management, as well as from experience with vendors such as Amazon and FlexiScale.

Licensing: If you are using the cloud for spikes or overspill make sure that the products you want to use in the cloud can be used in this way. Certain products restrict their licenses to be used from a cloud perspective. This is especially true of commercial Grid, HPC or DataGrid vendors.

Data transfer costs: When using a provider like Amazon with a detailed cost model, make sure that any data transfers are internal to the provider network rather than external. In the case of Amazon, internal traffic is free but you will be charged for any traffic over the external IP addresses.

Latency: If you have low latency requirements then the Cloud may not be the best environment to achieve this. If you are trying to run an ERP or some such system in the cloud then the latency may be good enough but if you are trying to run a binary or FX Exchange then of course the latency requirements are very different and more stringent. It is essential to make sure you understand the performance requirements of your application and have a clear understanding of what is deemed business critical.

One vendor who has focused on attacking low latency in the cloud is GigaSpaces and so if you require cloud low latency then these are one of the companies you should evaluate. Also for processing distributed data loads there is the map reduce pattern and Hadoop. These type of architectures eliminating the boundaries created by scale-out database based approaches.

State: Check whether your cloud infrastructure providers have persistence. When an application is brought down and then back up all local changes will be wiped and you start with a blank slate. This obviously has ramifications with instances that need to store user or application state. To combat this on their platform Amazon delivered EC2 persistent storage in which data can remain linked to a specific computing instance. You should ensure you understand the state limitations of any Cloud Computing platform that you work with.

Data Regulations: If you are storing data in the cloud you may be breaching data laws depending where your data is stored i.e. which country or continent. To combat this Amazon S3 now supports location constraints, which allow you to specify where in the world to store data for a bucket and provides a new API to retrieve the location constraint for an existing bucket. However if you are using another cloud provider you should check where your data is stored.

Dependencies: Be aware of dependencies of service providers. If service ‘y’ is dependant on ‘x’ then if you subscribe to service ‘y’ and service ‘x’ goes down you lose your service. Always check any dependencies when you are using a cloud service.

Standardisation: A major issue with current cloud computing platforms is that there is no standardisation of the APIs and platform technologies that underpin the services provided. Although this represents a lack of maturity you need to consider how locked in you are when considering a Cloud platform or migrating between cloud computing platforms will be very difficult if not impossible. This may not be an issue if your supplier is IBM and always likely to be IBM, but it will be an issue if you are just dipping your toe in the water and discover that other platforms are better suited to your needs.

Security: Lack of security or apparent lack of security is one of the perceived major drawbacks of working with Cloud platform and Cloud technology. When moving sensitive data about or storing it in public cloud it should be encrypted. And it is important to consider a secure ID mechanism for authentication and authorisation for services. As with normal enterprise infrastructures only open the ports needed and consider installing a host based intrusion detection systems such as OSSEC. The advantage of working with an enterprise Cloud provider, such as IBM or Sun is that many of these security optimisations are already taken care of. See our prior blog entry for securing n-tier and distributed applications on the cloud. Be sure to check out Amazon’s new VPC inititative as well as looking at VPN-Cubed by CohesiveFT if you have to tie together public Clouds with private applications, services or infrastructure. If you need to keep costs down and evaluate free then look at OpenVPN.

Compliance: Regulatory controls mean that certain applications may not be able to deployed in the Cloud. For example the US Patriot Act could have very serious consequences for non-US firms considering U.S. hosted cloud providers. Be aware that often cloud computing platforms are made up of components from a variety of vendors who may themselves provide computing in a variety of legal jurisdictions. Be very aware of the dependencies and ensure you factor this into any operational risk management assessment. See also my prior blog entry on this topic

Quality of service: You will need to ensure that the behaviour and effectiveness of the cloud application that you implement can be measured and tracked both to meet existing or new Service Level agreements. We have discussed previously some of the tools that come with this option built in (GigaSpaces) and other tools that provide functionality that enable you to use this with your Cloud Architecture (RightScale, Scalr etc). Achieving Quality of Service will encompass scaling, reliability, service fluidity, monitoring, management and system performance.

System hardening: Like all enterprise application infrastructures you need to harden the system so that it is secure, robust, and achieves the necessary functional requirements that you need. See my prior blog entry on system hardening for Amazon EC2.

Content adapted from my book “TheSavvyGuideTo HPC, Grid, DataGrid, Virtualisation and Cloud Computing” available on Amazon.

Cloud Computing Strategy

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:45:00 EDT

VMware: I already have the most popular virtualization software and I will integrate Spring Source and create the best PaaS offering. Amazon EC2: I am extending my cloud facility to a virtual private environment so that you security concerns are taken care. Microsoft: I am giving you a platform which is very similar to what you use so that you can seamlessly extend your application to the cloud and even the developers can continue to use the same set of tools. SalesForce.com: I am giving you a Force.com with which you can build what you need over and above what I provide out of the box.

Tips for Efficient PaaS Application Design

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:00:00 EDT

On yet another application review with a prospective client the issue of potentially troublesome data entity relationships came up. A number of our clients are existing QuickBase users who have made an initial attempt to design their applications and find that some assistance is needed. The first thing we look at to understand their application requirements are the data entity relationships.

Is Your SOA Hammer Looking for a Nail?

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:30:00 EDT

ZapThink considers the SOA business case as an essential SOA artifact. Architects must have a clear picture of the business motivations for SOA, not only at the beginning of the initiative, but also as the architecture rolls out. Nevertheless, there is still frequently a disconnect between the business problems and the SOA approach. The challenge here is that the architects -- or more broadly, the entire SOA team -- are only one part of the bigger picture, especially in large organizations. In the enterprise context, how the business asks for IT capabilities in the broad sense is often at the root of the issue.

Increased Productivity Due to Telecommuting

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 09:45:00 EDT

In the global networked economy, work is performed everywhere, at any time and any place. That said, what are the operational benefits? Cisco set out to evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with allowing and actively enabling employees to telecommute. Cisco announced the findings of its Teleworker Survey, an in-depth study of almost 2,000 company employees. The study, conducted to evaluate the social, economic and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting at Cisco, revealed that a majority of respondents experienced a significant increase in work-life flexibility, productivity and overall satisfaction as a result of their ability to work remotely.

Danish Broadband Supplier Uses JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform for Integration

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:45:00 EDT

Red Hat announced that Cybercity has chosen to use the JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform for system integration and middleware. The JBoss solution is expected to reduce Cybercity's total cost of ownership (TCO). In selecting an SOA solution, Cybercity initially evaluated Oracle Fusion, BEA WebLogic and JBoss solutions. The organization ultimately selected the JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform over an existing BEA WebLogic platform and its pre-installed COTS closed source system for the provisioning of Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) customers. In the future the JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform will serve as a link between systems such as the CRM/Customer support client, backend BSS/Billing system, external partners, ISP platforms and the actual network itself.

Testing SOA Solutions

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:15:00 EST

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) has been discussed as an important architectural style for the last few years. Organizations have started to develop service-oriented solutions and many are now leveraging services in their production environments. SOA introduces new technical complexities and challenges and makes testing a critical component of the development lifecycle.

Services-Oriented Architecture and Services-Oriented Development of Applications

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 12:00:00 EDT

Services-oriented development of applications (SODA) is an important development model for enabling organizations to reorient business processes in the transition to a service-oriented architecture (SOA). This article describes one such approach.

Paths to SOA

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 12:00:00 EDT

Many are comparing notes on two well-publicized paths to achieving SOA. The bottom-up approach is currently the most common variety, where Web services are created on an 'as need' basis to fulfill mostly integration-related requirements. These services are typically application specific and simply re-create traditional integration channels over the open Web services communication framework.

So You Want An SOA with Web Services

Wed, 13 Oct 2004 00:00:00 EDT

There is no question that service-oriented architecture (SOA) is quickly becoming one of the hottest trends in enterprise computing. IT departments are inundated weekly, if not daily, with the claims and marketing messages of vendors announcing myriad technology and service offerings that will magically transform the way business gets done.

A Dynamic Implementation Framework for SOA-Based Applications

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Today's IT environments are increasingly characterized by heterogeneous and complex applications, tight schedules, budgetary constraints, and an ever-changing landscape of business requirements. Few businesses have been agile enough to enhance their existing infrastructures to meet and overcome these challenges in an effective manner.

Canonical Message Formats

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

As the scope of enterprise integration grows, IT organizations are demanding greater efficiency and agility from their architectures and are moving away from point-to-point integration,which is proving to be increasingly cumbersome to build and maintain.

A Service-Oriented Management Approach for Service-Oriented Architecture

Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:00:00 EDT

Much has been written about service-oriented architecture (SOA) and the many technology and business benefits of adopting this approach. Poised to change the computing landscape once again, progressive IT departments, software vendors, and service providers have all been eager to embrace its concepts - familiar to anyone acquainted with the many past attempts to represent applications and IT infrastructure as modular reusable services.