We’ve crossed a very significant chasm.

What chasm is that?  You may ask. Enterprises?  Mainstream IT?  Government?  Telcos? Yes, all of those are gaining traction by the second, but we have crossed one that is far more  significant. We received an email last week that asked, “Could you please tell me about cloud computing, what it does, why does it help, and what does your company do with it?” Good question!  Why is this so significant?  It came from a fifth grader learning about Cloud Computing.

Is the world taking Cloud Computing seriously?  It better be.

Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders.  The fact that fifth graders and elementary school teachers are aware of Cloud Computing, and learning/teaching it, is probably the most strategic chasm that we have ever crossed and ever will.

And something even better happened as a result of this.  I thought hard of how to tell a fifth grader what the benefits of Cloud Computing are, and I came up with an answer that, in a nutshell, says it all.

Cloud Computing helps people spend more time solving the problems they need to solve, and doing the things they have to do with computing, rather than thinking about the technology.

I don’t know why, but I am still surprised when I hear the following question. What’s the difference between virtualization and Cloud? To me, it’s like asking the question – What’s the difference between a hammer and carpentry? The latter is a comprehensive craft. The former is one of many tools used by the craftsmen who practice it.

Simple – right? So why does that question occur at all?

It occurs, in my opinion, for two reasons, one right and one not so right.

The first reason is that all of the server virtualization vendors of any significance are also introducing Cloud offerings to the market. So, people are naturally associating the two (and rightfully so, just like one would associate hammers and carpentry). The difference is, though, no one thinks hammers and carpentry are the same thing.

So, the not so right reason – There are Cloud computing laggards out there who would like us to think that virtualization and Cloud are similar because they have embraced virtualization technology and do not want to appear out of step. As a result, there is a ton of noise in the market that is very hard to sort through.

So, how do I suggest one sorts through this noise?

When faced with a potential Cloud solution, ask a few questions about it.

Does it help me provision and deploy virtual machines on demand? If the answer is no, I’d ask why are you even looking at it? But if the answer is yes, just deploying VMs on demand does not a Cloud make.

Does it enable the encapsulation and on demand deployment of multiple VMs as a single entity? If rather than managing VMs, you want to manage frequently used “appliances” that are comprised of multiple VMs (e.g. a specific app server, a specific messaging system and a specific database server), can you do it? If the answer is yes, you are on your way to a real Cloud solution.

Does it enable the encapsulation and on demand deployment of whole software stacks (e.g. LAMP, Ruby on Rails, .NET, etc.)? If the answer is yes, you are certainly in the Cloud.

But, do you want more? Does it enable encapsulation and on demand deployment of entire multi-tiered apps? If yes, you have a very powerful Cloud solution.

More? Does it enable the encapsulation of the apps along with everything they need to run – network, storage, infrastructure, configurations, policies, documentation, etc., etc., etc.? If yes, then you have the most complete Cloud solution of all.

So, you might sense a theme here – Encapsulation. Yes. Encapsulation is key, but it is only half of the story. Encapsulation itself results in many benefits, especially operational cost savings and decreased time to market. But encapsulation alone does not make a Cloud. It does not create portability. It does not create the ability, by itself, to deploy anywhere, any time.

What’s the second half of the story? Abstraction. Not only do the most comprehensive Cloud solutions have to provide unlimited granularity of encapsulation, but they must completely abstract what is encapsulated from the physical resources (machines) they run on, so that they can run anytime, anywhere there are available idle resources.

In short, you do not measure a Cloud solution by how it does virtualization. You measure it by the granularity of its encapsulation capabilities and its ability to abstract VMs, stacks, apps/services and entire data centers from the physical resources they run on.

So, what is the future of virtualization and where is it going in 2010?

Virtualization is going the way of the hammer. It will be a necessary commodity for the Cloud, just like the hammer is a necessary commodity for the carpenter.

Now, before all the virtualization vendors get their shorts in a knot and start screaming at me that I am implying that all virtualization is the same, I am not. I acknowledge that some have features others do not, some outperform others, etc. But, can you tell who the best carpenter is only by knowing what brand of hammer he uses?

We’ll be completing the Disaster Recovery Suite of appliance with the release of NASR early next month, included in the production release of 2.7. NASR offers the replication of file storage between two instances of NASR, and they can be in the same app, in different VPDCs or even in different data centers.

In conjunction with INSSLR and MYSQLR, NASR offers a complete drag-and-drop disaster recovery solution for LAMP stack applications. Future releases will include additional data bases and complete stack templates.

Once in a while, as you go about the routines of a normal workday, a number jumps out of the stream of consciousness and catches your attention. That’s exactly what happened today while one of our support engineers was working with a client on a new application. When checking system status he suddenly realized the client’s private cloud had been running continuously for almost two years.

While two years uptime in IT isn’t earth shattering, in the realm of cloud computing two years uninterupted service is noteworthy. IMHO that’s particularly true in a week that’s seen a couple private cloud announcements hard on the heels of another recent cloud outage. Private clouds aren’t simply about network addresses, they’re about control. It’s about giving the operations team the ability to affect uptime for their application.

It’s sometimes hard to remember that when we originally introduced the concept of private clouds many folks scoffed. Blog posts declared “If it’s not public, it’s not a cloud!” As this cloud turns two, though, pressure from users has made the need for security and control of operations clear. More vendors are looking to offer private clouds and the resulting competition will produce better services for clients. Next year, as this cloud turns three, I expect we’ll see a much broader set of applications in the cloud as a result.

Just in case you’re wondering if this cloud is an anomally, the second longest continuously running AppLogic private cloud is at 559 days . . . and counting. 

We had a great turn out at the Cloud Operators AppLogic Bootcamp, with a great deal of interest in another from folks for who weren’t able to attend. Therefore, we’re excited to announce the next AppLogic Bootcamp will be October 13th to 15th in Tysons Corner, Virginia. This time we’ll be focusing on building, operating, and scaling your applications in the cloud:

Day 1: Basic AppLogic for Cloud Applications
Take full advantage of the AppLogic platform to design, architect and deploy applications. It also provides an introduction to the AppLogic architecture, appliance and application template catalog. Topics include:

Day 2: Intermediate AppLogic for Cloud Applications
Learn how to monitor, scale, customize and provide fault tolerance for applications.

Day 3: Advanced AppLogic for Cloud Applications
Create custom catalog appliances and templates as well as advanced labs.

You can get more information or sign up here.

You may or may not have seen the recent press release.  Bill Coleman, IT/Silicon Valley luminary, Founder and CEO of BEA Systems, has joined 3Tera’s Advisory Board.

Yes, this alone is a great testimonial to what we have accomplished in our field.  Getting dignitaries such as Bill does not come easy.  But here’s the best part - this has a lot more than just marquee value (and I doubt that Bill would have joined us if all we wanted was marquee value).  Bill, especially since his most recent stint as Founder and CEO of Cassatt Systems, is an extremely knowledgeable visionary in the area of utility and Cloud Computing; and, data center automation.

So, Bill will be extremely valuable, reviewing and tweaking both our business plans and technology as we forge ahead to maintain our lead at enabling Cloud Computing in enterprises and service providers.

Needless to say, we are extremely happy to have Bill on Board.

Today was the first day of the AppLogic Bootcamp, and the partners and users that attended are recieving training in using and operating grids. With the success of the Bootcamp we’ll be adding additional venues soon.

As our ecosystems of partners around the world grows, we want to ensure we’re providing the most up to date technical and market data to help service providers succeed. The latest addition is AppLogic Bootcamp, an intensive three-day hands-on training program for IT professionals who maintain and provision AppLogic based cloud computing infrastructure. The course is designed specifically to give service providers and advanced enterprise users a deep and clear understanding of the features and capabilities this powerful cloud computing platform provides.

Audience
Specifically designed for IT Administrators, Data Center Staff, System Administrators, Systems Integrators

At Course Completion
After completing this course, students will be able to:
− Install AppLogic in local and remote datacenters
− Add and remove resources
− Obtain and apply hot-fixes
− Integrate external hardware into cloud systems
− Use metering data for billing and charge-backs
− Perform crash recovery and debugging
− Configure a virtual run-book
− Build and use appliances
− Create template applications

Prerequisites
Course attendees should be familiar with datacenter OSs, Linux command line utilities/operations such as yum, screen, vi, ifconfig, ping, nslookup, ssh, rsync and scp. In addition, attendees should have knowledge of:
− L2 and L3 networking configuration, routing, VLAN and STP
− Use of public key-based authentication for ssh access to servers
− SSL certificates and DNS setup
− Disk layout, partitioning schemas, RAID configurations
− Local and remote server management

When and Where
The first Bootcamp will be June 23 through 25, 2009 at the Double Tree Hotel in Irvine, CA and you can sign up here.

I’m often asked by prospective users what level of CPU utilization AppLogic achieves. Of course, the  question is understandable given virtualization caught on as server consolidation to combat low utilization. However, this question skirts the real point. The more important issue to be solved is how much hardware is required for a given task and utilization addresses only half the equation because it assumes the code (OS, middleware, and application) are fixed. In many cases that’s been true . . .  but it shouldn’t be.

Sun’s JeOS project, Just enough Operating System, is targeting the OS in that equation. Recognizing that much of modern operating systems isn’t required in a virtualized environment, their goal is to strip out what’s not needed in a virtual appliance. The result should be a small fast OS tailored to virtual environments.

We’ve had Linux variants slimmed down for use in physical appliances for some time. I’ve used them in load balancers, switches, routers, and firewalls. IMHO, though, Sun’s onto something in trying to create a more general purpose OS tailored for vritualization. As soon as we get the next release of AppLogic out, we’ll give it a try.

NIH is one of the best known acronyms in our industry. However, for those unfamiliar with it, NIH stands for Not Invented Here, and refers to the tendency of engineering teams to devalue technology from outside sources. Unfortunately, NIH is alive and well in many parts of tech, and nowhere is it more prevalent than in Cloud Computing. Seems some folks just never learn that no single company can be all things to all people. Paul Miller wrote a great post on this after reading our AppStore announcement (so good that I borrowed his title) and he got me thinking.

We’ve lived through this cycle since the beginning of the computer business. IBM in the 70’s would deny service and support if you had any peripheral attached that wasn’t theirs, from a disk drive to a terminal (remember those)? Apple rocked the computer world in-part by building a completely open system that anyone could write code build peripherals for. Within a few years their were more applications available for the Apple II than any other computer in the world. When IBM introduced the original PC, the team learned from Apple and so the specs and OS were completely open and a whole industry grew to support and promote it. After th PC industry grew large, though, IBM tried to pull back with the introduction of Microchannel, but the industry turned it’s back on them and built an open platform. More recently we’ve seen digital rights management beaten down by consumers in favor of openly copyable MP3s. So, now we come to Cloud Computing and we once again see companies trying to close the system. It’s their language, their data center, their API. And, once again, I don’t think it’ll work.

Opening up is hard. Customers often do things with your system that you don’t expect. How will the system react? How can you test adequately? How can you offer support? How can you assure uptime? These are all valid concerns, but they don’t outweigh the advantages of being open. For customers, being open means they can add other vendors products to yours, offering more complete solution sets, and the ability to move solutions to meet business needs. For vendors, customers will show you new markets, introduce you to new partners, and also let you know where your product is deficient.

At 3tera, we never assumed we could build a worldwide cloud ourselves. That was part of the reason we chose to work with service providers, and as a result we have a user footprint that stretches around the globe. We don’t speak many of the languages of our customers, but our partners do. We also decided not to require APIs for accessing storage or networking and instead did the extra engineering work to properly virtualize IO. As a result customer constantly surprise us with what software they’re able to run on AppLogic. For instaqnce, we never envisioned someone using AppLogic as a phone switch, but a customer did.

With AppStore we want to make the cloud more accessible to a broader set of solutions for customers. Software developers will be able to publish their products, users will be able to drag and drop that technology into their applications, and we’ll connect the two. ISVs can tell who’s using their product, and users will be able to get support. It’s the quitessential town marketplace. Will there be challenges along the way, of course, but in the end customers will get the best system.