IT Management Gets Cloudy

CIOs and IT managers are slowly realizing the benefits of Cloud Computing but there's still a long ways to go. Product offerings for hosted services have matured and exploded but there are so many options now that it's hard for IT management to keep up.

So, here's a quick guide to the Cloud technologies that are out there.  I've broken it out in to the three major Cloud services areas to help you better understand what's available and how:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) or HaaS (Hardware as a Service)
• PaaS (Platform as a Service)
• SaaS (Software as a Service)

Infrastructure as a Service
* In a nutshell: you pay for full access to a server that someone else hosts for a monthly fee.  These services generally include some sort of terminal access to a virtual computer instance that you populate with your own operating system and software license.  Often, you'll access the server through a terminal service client of some sort. *Note: HaaS often is confused with IaaS and generally refers to on site (not Cloud) equipment provided along with support services by a service provider for a monthly fee rather than as an up front capital investment.

* Who needs it: anyone that needs full configuration capability for a server but doesn't want to actually host the server themselves.

* Benefits: host equipment so you don't need to build your own Tier-1 datacenter for access to a highly reliable and secure environment.

* Challenges: even though you have full access to the "box" your applications are deployed on the "box" may actually be a virtual server rather than a full server... limiting the configurations on the actual hosting hardware.  If you're trying to move a locally hosted server to the Cloud the performance may not be the same since your connection now goes over the internet.

* Prominent vendors/examples: Rackspace.com, Amazon Web Services, GoGrid.

Platform as a Service
* In a nutshell: highly-reliable hosted operating system software that totally obscures the hardware infrastructure. Services may be accessed through a web browser or application client of some sort.

* Who needs it: application developers that need a platform (.NET for instance) for their applications but do not require complicated customized infrastructure.  Anyone who wants their application to "scale" quickly on a fully virtualized platform without downtime for software and hardware upgrades.

* Benefits: the infrastructure disappears. You get a reliable and scalable service for a monthly fee.

* Challenges: customization of the platform may be restricted to enable broad use by many types of applications. You may not have all the options you would like. Some PaaS services do not provide all the debugging, test and development tools you'll need or may use tools you're unfamiliar with.

* Prominent vendors/examples:Amazon Beanstalk, Google AppEngine, Microsoft Windows Azure, Salesforce Force.com.

Software as a Service
* In a nutshell: perhaps the first and most recognizable of the cloud services, SaaS obscures the whole back end and simply provides a web-based application generally accessed through a web browser.

* Who needs it: anyone wanting to host a highly reliable web site or service generally accessed through a browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox.  Some applications may be quite complex and may even interface with hosted databases and other web services but require no access to the underlying operating system or hardware on their own.

* Benefits: the cheapest and least complex platform and also the easiest to develop for.  Applications can be deployed very quickly.

* Challenges: configuration options are often accessed through a web console and are limited in scope.

* Prominent vendors/examples: SalesForce.com (main CRM app), 1&1 Website Hosting, Carbonite Backup.


There's something for everyone in Cloud computing.  With so many options, the question is not whether you need Cloud computing any more, but WHERE you need Cloud computing.  Many companies are taking baby steps in to the technology through obvious Cloud computing targets like hosted e-mail and CRM.  Especially small and medium sized companies that have difficulty investing capital in secure, highly reliable onsite infrastructure will be interested in the opportunities that Cloud computing presents.

Even large enterprises can find Cloud computing synergies.  How powerful would it be to pay a monthly fee for an application you don't need to deploy across hundreds or even thousands of desktops?  Wouldn't it be nice to simply deploy a shortcut to a hosted application instead?  There would be no need for internal development and no need for additional help desk resources.

If you're a CIO or IT manager, do yourself a favor.  Get educated and get moving.  The Cloud is here like it or not.

Impressions of a trip to Seattle

On a more personal and non-technology front, after selling my business I decided to take a short break before going back to work, so I took my family up to Seattle.  I had not been to the Northwest US before and we all needed a break from the Kansas heat.

The trip out was uneventful except for on the second leg of the flight when we flew by a large circular lake with an island in the middle, tall cliffs all around and a mountain off to one side.  Any guesses what it is?  I'll post the answer at the end of the post.

So, Seattle.  After recovering from a trip out with small children in a confined space we started our scheduled activities.  This is where the fun started.  We made a hiking excursion to the Dungeon of Spit (actually the it's the Dungeness Spit - a 5 1/2 mile long and very narrow strip of land on the north end of the Olympic Peninsula just west of Seattle - my kids made up the Dungeon thing and I thought it was funny).  Anyway, I saw a hiker with a Microsoft t-shirt on.  You know the t-shirts... the geeky looking ones that Microsoft hands out at events that nobody ever wears and end up as car wash rags.  He was wearing it proudly and hiking through the wildlife refuge.  I stifled a snigger.  You wouldn't be caught dead in one of those back home in Kansas, but I was close to the home of Microsoft, so I just accepted it and moved on.

Throughout the trip, even from people I knew didn't care for Microsoft I heard what good things they've done for the community in Seattle... how the city has thrived due to the employment of thousands and service projects and whatnot.  What was going on?  Steadfast Microsoft haters saying good things about Microsoft?

We also spent time at Hurricane Ridge, canoeing on a lake, visiting Paulsbo (a beautiful little town with a Norwegian heritage), going up the Space Needle, visiting the Seattle Aquarium and more.

I noticed something else both while in Seattle proper and in the surrounding areas.  There were people... lots of people... around.  I mean... they were out, doing stuff, not hiding indoors just getting in and out of cars like we do in Kansas City.  There is a sense that Seattle is a real community where the people like to get out and around other people and see each other.  I've bragged in the past about how we have more freeway miles of roadway in Kansas, per capita, than anywhere else in the US.  Now, I'm not sure that's as good a thing as I thought.  Since we spend so much time in our cars in the KC area we see each other walking about the city less.  We interact with each other less.  We get in the car each morning, go to work, see the people there, get back in the car and go home.  In Seattle you might drive or walk down to the ferry, motor across Puget Sound, then take a bus or light rail to your destination.  All the while you talk with and are around other people.

It's a very different style of living in the Northwest than here in Kansas.  The suburbs of KC and the residential area around Seattle couldn't look more different.  In KC the fairly level ground makes it easy to plan grid-like streets and subdivisions of houses.  In Seattle the hilly an heavily wooded terrain make that kind of development much harder or impossible.  So, instead, they develop around the natural features of the land, giving the area a much more outdoorsy feel.  In KC you can see the sky from horizon to horizon, you can see the weather coming and aside from some tornadoes it's really fairly predictable.  In Seattle, there are numerous micro-climates including one of two rain forest regions in North America.

The city itself is much different also.  Actually, the Seattle area is really several cities, and there is more than one downtown... all within 1/2 hour of each other.  And the water... its everywhere!  Seattle sits between the Pugot Sound and lake Washington.  There are little fingers of the sound that dive in and out of the shore areas and create all kinds of interesting features.  I went to Venice a long time ago and the amount of water in and around Seattle reminds me a bit of that, although otherwise the two are nothing alike.

In any case, I'm back in dear old Kansas now, getting back to work.  My wife and I haven't really thought about moving outside the area much although we talked about it some after we got married.  We're both thinking about it a little more now though.  It's hard not to be impressed by the Northwest.  Especially when the temperature up there never got above 85 while the thermometer topped 110 at home.

Oh, and that lake I mentioned at the top... it was Crater Lake in the north of Oregon near the border with Washington.  The lake was formed when the volcano blew up and created a caldera.  It was amazing to look at from the plane and I would consider making a trip back to the area just to see it again.  Off to the side is Mount Scott, a stratovolcano (a tall volcano unlike the wide ones in Hawaii which are shield volcanoes).  The Mount Scott volcanoes tired themselves out thousands of years ago and left us some of the most spectacular terrain in North America.

Crater Lake, Oregon

Skype, Typing, Security on Tablets

Here are a couple questions I was asked today:

How easy is it to type on tablets?

Typing on a tablet is typing on a touch screen.  You one-finger or two-finger type.  If you have something like my Iconia A500 you can attach a USB keyboard.  You could also pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard for wireless typing.  Using the touchscreen keyboard is definitely slower than a keyboard but faster than on a phone.

Does Skype work on them?
You can use Skype on Android tablets.  See http://www.gadgetsbing.com/2010/11/skype-hits-on-android-tablet/ for some details.  It's on iPad (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=804071).  Looks like not on Playbook (http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=813617).
E-mail, Skype, and Internet need to be speedy and secure, are they?

Security - the Playbook is potentially more secure but it requires pairing with a Blackberry phone I think.  It's half-baked, but better than iPad and Android.  Wireless security is good on all of them... assuming you connect over a secure wireless network with decent encryption.  It doesn't matter which device you have, if you connect over an open wireless connection your transmissions can be intercepted and read.

I use a Sprint Overdrive 3g/4g hotspot in combination with my Iconia for on-the-go internet.  If you get a tab with built-in broadband you wouldn't need to do that.  I don't do any significant work on public wi-fi though for security reasons.  If you stay of public wi-fi you're pretty safe.

Security options for business use of tablets are few at this point.  The Microsoft tabs based on Windows 8 should be good but those won't be out for a while.  The Playbook should be good for security but there's a whole lot of downside for the Playbook in my opinion.

Summary
This is a brand new form factor with several new software platforms.  It's going to take it a while to mature to the point where a lot of businesses are comfortable depending on them.  For limited use and if you're careful though I think they're ready now for those that want to be on the leading edge.