Where the Rubber Hits the Road: Real World Cloud Computing Implementations

Editor's Notes

• #3: Source: National Institute of Standards & TechnologyOn-demand self-service. A consumer can provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction. Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through various devices (mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).Resource pooling. Computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned, in some cases automatically, to quickly scale out and scale in. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.Measured Service. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.Transition: There are many diff ways of using cloud computing, each one needs to be examined in light of your business needs.
• #4: “Private Cloud”Resources are dedicated to a customer (not shared with other customers);May be on premises or externally hosted by an external service provider. Example – Manulife“Public Cloud” External computing resources that are shared with other organizations; Externally hosted by a 3rd party service provider and typically dynamically provisioned and billed on a fine-grained utility computing basis Examples - Exchange Online, Amazon EC2, Azure Platform, Salesforce.com, Google App Engine, 3rd-party service provider providing infrastructure services (e.g., virtual machines, storage, etc.) using resources that are shared by different customersKey Points:The primary difference between private cloud and public cloud is whether resources are dedicated or shared.The other attributes of cloud should still be present for private cloud: self-service, shared, elastic, etc.Private cloud cannot match Public cloud wrt economies of scale or in absolute scale.“Hybrid Cloud”Example – Exchange on premise + Exchange online; application where data is local, but app is in public cloud. 
• #5: Amazon offline – hardware failure – Foursquare, Hootsuite, Reddit affectedSony Playstation Network down - hackedGmail – a number of users temporarily lost access to their email due to storage software updateMicrosoft Exchange – outage resulted in e-mail backlogs and delays due to malformed email traffic; separate DNS issue affected Outlook Web Access users.Lessons:The cloud is not magicBe smart – don’t build apps and infrastructure the traditional way and then put them in the cloud. Build for redundancy, use automation, have multiple instances.Cloud computing is maturing but still new – look at options where you can have an offline copy of your data (i.e. Outlook w/ Exchange Online), choose what data you put in the cloud wisely and have a backup.
• #6: 2.3 billion dollars investedMulti-layer security – finger print scanners, card key access – physical and onlineGeo-redundant data – most can’t afford to do this
• #8: Provisioning hardware where underlying fabric is controlled by provider.
• #9: Internal developers ordering computers for test and dev – costing $$, taking months from request to having computer on the floor. Private cloud off-premise at external provider’s datacentre – SLA now 2 hrs; VMs spun up and down on demand; devs provision themselves thru self-service portal.
• #10: Microsoft Azure – live Feb 2010 – followed by SQL Azure, Azure AppFrabic (connects exiting apps to cloud)
• #11: City council member requested that city make recommendations for making data avail to public. CIO decided to est. open data catalog by the time report due.Citizens now more engaged – public can make apps from data. Transit schedules, park information, etc.
• #12: Hotmail, Office 365, Salesforce.com, Gmail
• #13: Coca-Cola:needed a more effective way to collaborate with their employees, to increase their productivity, to enable better flow of information, and to create more time for sales people to engage with customers. worldwide presence required employees and executives to spend numerous hours on the road every week, travelling to internal meetings. implemented BPOS worldwide intranet with messaging and collaboration tools. Employees can access their data and information from any device, boost their productivity and focus on their customers.save travel expenses through online meeting tools and collaboration platforms that span time zones and geographiesCase study: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?casestudyid=4000004584Video: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/US/details/470b9f4c-bac8-4be9-b22a-d1a6953ef6a7
• #14: For years, Starbucks has been running Exchange & SharePoint on premises for employees who work in the company’s HQ….the organization decided to provide e-mail access to its baristas working in the cafes. To accomplish this goal, Starbucks connected its baristas to e-mail in the cloud using Microsoft Exchange Online, while keeping its e-mail for employees at headquarters on premise. This hybrid approach made it possible for IT to accomplish the business goals both quickly and painlessly. From the perspective of Starbucks employees, the experience is seamless. One GAL for both baristas and HQ employees. Starbucks continues to use Microsoft technology on-premises in their corporate headquarters, while rolling out 18,000 laptops using Exchange Online and SharePoint Online to their store managers who use the freewifi to connect.
• #15: The cloud is not magicOne size doesn’t fit all – it gives you choices you didn’t have before.Be smart – don’t build apps and infrastructure the traditional way and then put them in the cloud. Build for redundancy, use automation, have multiple instances.Cloud computing is maturing but still new
• #16: Questions?