CA and 3Tera share a common vision for the future of cloud computing, and we are excited about the opportunities that this acquisition will create for our customers, partners and their cloud users.

This is a historic moment in Cloud Computing. The significance of this acquisition is a heck of a lot more than just a land grab in a hot space. We are confident that as a team, CA and 3Tera, will extend our leadership of the cloud computing platform market.

We are honored, given the plethora of Cloud Computing companies that have emerged in the last few years, that CA has chosen us. We really are!

It would probably be arrogant to suggest that we, in turn, chose CA. So I won’t suggest that. But the fact is, we had many options for the future and this is the one that excited us the most.

Now, there are only two kinds of people thinking about Cloud Computing: those who believe it is the future of information technology and those who are in complete denial.

I’ve been around a long time, probably longer than most of the readers of this post. During this time, I have seen three major paradigm shifts in IT.

For my first 20 years in this game, Moore’s Law was, as it always has been, and still will be for a while, in effect. Computers became exponentially more powerful, faster and cheaper. But, for those 20 years it was big central computers doing everything.

So, the first paradigm shift was away from these big centralized systems to client server or distributed systems. There were those who had the vision that inexpensive work stations and servers, connected over a network, would take on much of the load that the big central computers were processing. And there were also those who were in denial.

The second big shift was the rise of the browser and eCommerce. Some of you may be surprised that I did not say the Internet. The fact is, though, Internet technology was around for years before there was a consumer-based Internet, deployed by the government as a way to interconnect various agencies. It was known as the ArpaNet. The browser put a user friendly graphical user interface on top of it and eCommerce was born.

There were those who had a vision that the Internet would be a common way for businesses and consumers to communicate and become widely used for effecting financial transactions. And there were those who were in denial.

The third shift is Cloud Computing. Computing is pervasive. It is no longer something used and accessed by an elite few. Computing is as much a part of life as telephone, television, electricity, etc.

So, the natural evolution of computing is for it to become a utility that anyone can tap into, like other utilities, consuming only what one needs–no more, no less– but always having enough available capacity when needed.

This is Cloud Computing – the encapsulation of applications as autonomous services, abstracted from infrastructure that its users do not care about, except that it’s available and reliable when needed – services that can be available anytime, anywhere, when called upon.

There are those who believe Cloud is the future and there are those in denial.

Like distributed systems, which became pervasive when the ability to precisely manage networks of servers and work stations became available; and, like the Internet, which became pervasive when the ability to manage dynamic web sites securely with high performance; so will go Cloud Computing.

I’ve heard some compare what is going on now to the internet bubble of the ‘90s. I’ve actually heard it referred to as the Cloud bubble. The big difference between the Internet bubble and the Cloud bubble is that today’s economy doesn’t dictate the kind of crazy valuations we saw in the ‘90s (or maybe today’s economy is just more realistic than that of the Internet bubble).

But they have something very significant in common, I believe.

During the Internet bubble, everyone and his brother with a web site, from giant infrastructure companies to retailers of boutique niche products, were perceived to be the future. When the dust settled though, most couldn’t maintain their value – except for the Internet infrastructure providers, that is. It was not just anyone with an Internet presence. It was mostly those who enabled the Internet – who provided the infrastructure to deal with it – to manage it!

Just as everyone tried to stake a claim to a piece of the Internet in the ‘90s, now there are a gazillion companies with Cloud presence. When the dust settles, though, the long term value will be retained for the shareholders of the companies that provide the infrastructure, enabling capabilities and management of Cloud Computing.

CA is a management company. Their mission has always been and remains centered on the management of information technology. Their ability to adapt and manage each generation of technology has enabled them to thrive through all of these shifts.

While there are several management vendors out there, we see most figuring out how to shoehorn customers’ needs into what they already have. But tails can only wag dogs for a short period of time. The big winners will be those who adapt and evolve what they have into real, more than wannabe, Cloud Computing management.

That’s the historic statement. CA has drawn that line in the sand, and we’re thrilled to be part of it.

The leading innovator of IT management technology and the leading innovator of Cloud Computing technology are now one and the same!

]]> http://blog.3tera.com/computing/mainstream-it-buys-into-cloud-computing-ca-to-acquire-3tera-a-message-from-barry-x-lynn-ceo-3tera/feed/ http://blog.3tera.com/computing/204/ http://blog.3tera.com/computing/204/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:50:37 +0000 barmijo http://blog.3tera.com/?p=204 Almost from the moment we brought out AppLogic a little over three years ago it was clear that the market for cloud computing would be global. More than half of all registrations have been international, and they come from all over the world; Japan, Australia, England, Spain, UAE, Nigeria, South Africa, Korea, China, Hungary, Russia - you name it.

So it comes as no surprise then, that our two of our most innovative international partners are teaming up to provide solutions. Xseed in Japan and ScaleUp in Germany are working together in creating the framework for a globally connected cloud leveraging 3tera’s AppLogic cloud computing platform. We’re looking forward to doing our part, learning from their experiences to build an even better platform for the future.

You can read a bit further on the Cloud Computing Journal http://bit.ly/ci8LYU.

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.

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?

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.