I tend to read a lot about cloud computing in my spare time. It’s an interesting topic and there’s no shortage of reading material as it is a very hot topic in many circles. I still find it strange that the definition of cloud computing continues to expand at a time when it should be contracting. I’m a firm believer that the technology is available, but vendors are hesitant to take advantage of it for various reasons; cost, fear of change, security, etc. Anyway, here are some of things that crossed my path over the past several days that I think fall into the “cloud” category.
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Tag: Cloud Computing
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Musings on the “cloud”
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Sabotaging an idea – hybrid clouds?
InformationWeek: “What if, instead, applications throughout the data center could run at closer to 90% utilization, with the workload spikes sent to cloud service providers (a process called “cloudbursting”)? What if 85% of data center space and capital expenses could be recouped, with a small portion of that savings allocated for the expense of sending those bursts of computing to the public cloud? This tantalizing possibility–enterprise IT organizations managing an internal cloud that meshes seamlessly with a public cloud, which charges on a pay-as-you-go basis–embodies the promise of the amorphous term cloud computing. Step one with virtualization has been server consolidation. The much bigger benefit will come with the ability to move workloads on and off premises. “Anyone can build a private cloud,” says Rejesh Ramchandani, a senior manager of cloud computing at Sun Microsystems. “The gain comes if you can leverage the hybrid model.”†– So much for the purity of the cloud. I’ve read several articles lately that refer to “hybrid†or “private†clouds. Crud, my hard drive at home is a “private cloud”. I can partition it, virtualize it, and grant other users access to it. The very idea of a dynamically scalable and virtualized service over the internet disappears quickly when you begin to tie these services to local infrastructure. Having data reside locally for a short period of time to improve retrieval makes sense, but that information should eventually move to the cloud where it stays until needed again. The article above goes on to talk about the lack of standardization in the development of the cloud model. It sounds like everyone is headed in a different direction. I really hope the trend doesn’t continue as I think carving the cloud up into different models to suit your needs will only dilute a really good idea. Creating hybrid and private clouds will ultimately lead to another group of segregated services and a complete waste of the theoretical advantages of the cloud.
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US Army utilizing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to standardize methodology
InformationWeek: “The pilot program has already shown the way toward more consistency in environmental reporting and given the Army baseline data for forecasting, but Davis is looking for more, especially in the way of greenhouse gasses. “As we begin to understand and appreciate the benefits of this information technology, we can calculate our greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately our carbon boot print,” he said. “I want something we can audit later on, something that’s not just a back of an envelope calculation.” The Army’s choice of multi-tenant SaaS for its pilot is notable, as the military has been reluctant to use Web-based systems in other cases, especially with operational data such as on-installation emissions. “The reaction of some of our customers is, ‘Oh my gosh, on the Internet?’ ” John Garing, director of strategic planning at the Defense Information Systems Agency, said in an interview earlier this year.†– You know you’re behind the times when the US military is outpacing you in non-weapons related technology. Doh!
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Moving storage around in the “cloud”
ByteandSwitch:†One of the great theoretical advantages of cloud computing is the implied portability – users can move data in and among cloud resources easily, and the cloud itself may move data between and among resources without the customer being aware that anything has changed. In practice, cloud data can prove just as firmly rooted in physical location as any “traditional” data resource – but that could be changing with the rise of applications like NetApp’s new Data ONTAP 8 cloud storage system.†– The article goes on to say that the Data Motion system “allows data mobility with no downtime required for storage-subsystem expansion or scheduled maintenance,†That’s a nice thing to have as the ability to shuffle data around without affecting end users is important, but don’t you think it’s a little weird to talk about moving data from one cloud to another. I thought the whole point of the cloud environment was to eliminate the need for things like this. Anyone? -
Hybrid cloud to speed things up?
ByteandSwitch: “Every week or so one major internet service or another goes down for a moment, Amazon S3, Google Apps, Twitter etc… Let’s face it, if you store data in the cloud there are a hundred variables between you and your data and if any one of those variables decides to, well, be variable, then you may not be able to get to your data for a period of time. This does not mean that you can’t use the cloud, it means that you can’t put data that you are going to need immediate access to solely in the cloud. What this does mean is using a hybrid model for cloud storage. As we demonstrate in our latest video “What is Hybrid Cloud Storage?” a hybrid cloud is an appliance that is placed on the customer’s site to act as a intermediary storage location for data that is in route to the cloud. The appliance serves many purposes: translation from CIFS/NFS to more internet friendly protocols, local cache for rapid restores of last copy of a backup or archive and as a place to get to data that would otherwise be inaccessible due to some sort of connection issue.â€
– This actually makes perfect sense to me. One issue that often comes up when discussing a cloud environment, besides access to data, is speed. We have started using thin clients here at the hospital in place of desktop machines, and there is little doubt that performance has suffered. With the option discussed in the article above, data would move quickly between you and the local environment while in use, but slowly moved into the cloud in the background. I like it.
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“What’d I miss?” – Week of August 16th
As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting.
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At least developers think cloud apps are important
InformationWeek: “Software developers believe developing applications to run on private clouds will become one of their main tasks over the coming year. Out of 500 surveyed, 48.9% said they expect to be doing cloud applications within the year. The Cloud Development survey is the first by Evans Data, an independent research firm that conducts periodic surveys of developers. A total of 29.7% said they are current working on applications for private cloud environments. Another 19.2% said they expect to be engaged in cloud development within the next 12 months. The largest group of respondents, 48%, said they think that Java is the best language for developing in the cloud; Microsoft’s C# was the number two pick. Evans Data surveys have tended to slant somewhat toward Java developers, since participants self-select or sign up to participate in numbers that are not precisely reflective of what languages are in use throughout the world of programming.” – This survey is of particular interest because software developers tend to heard the reset of us toward the future of computing. How do you think the iPhone became so popular; developers embraced the technology and began writing applications that can do everything from updating your Twitter page to helping physicians with their EMRs. It’s inline with Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will comeâ€. However, I find it strange that Java is the language of choice with Microsoft C# (c-sharp) coming in second. I’ve had a lot of issues with Java applications in the past secondary to version control. I think I’ll stick with the limited C# knowledge that I have and expand on it. My brother has been trying to get me to learn C# for years. It’s on my to-do list, just below win-the-lottery.
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Self destructing data for the cloud
One of the most frequently cited reasons for not utilizing cloud based storage is security. While the self-destructing data solution described below wouldn’t work for healthcare secondary to the need to archive information for long periods of time, it would certainly work for any personal data sent or received over the internet. The ability to put a time-bomb in a document is appealing. Read on to find out more.
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Thoughts on the “cloudâ€
ByteandSwitch.com:†‘Most IT executives are sold on the benefits of cloud computing, but many of their colleagues who are business decision makers still need convincing on the value of the technology, according to a survey released Monday [August 3, 2009]. A total of 28% of IT execs are planning to deploy private computing clouds by the end of 2009, according to the survey results. The most-cited benefit (41%) of private cloud computing is its perceived ability to improve efficiency. Other benefits mentioned were: “resource scalability,” cited by 18%; “cutting costs,” 17%; “experimenting with cloud computing,” 15%; and “improving IT responsiveness,” 9%. The survey, conducted by grid and cloud provider Platform Computing, detected a major stumbling block for deployment: 76% of the IT executives believe that business decision makers don’t understand the potential value of private clouds.†– One of the most difficult things to do in healthcare is to change the culture of the practitioners around you. I’ve died on many hills when “we’ve always done it that way†was the only argument against planning and implementing a new strategy. Based on current trends in interoperability, storage requirements, and limited IT labor pools, “the cloud†model will become more prevalent in healthcare. Even now, companies like Rackspace (the rackspace cloud) and Amazon (Amazon S3) are leveraging themselves against a future that includes cloud services. In addition, a recent article in InformationWeek regarding the storage of medical images makes an indirect case for cloud computing in healthcare. As storage space for medical images increases and providers demand easy access to images from any location, the idea of storing the information in the cloud becomes an attractive solution. Advantages include on demand storage, built in backup plans, outsourced support services, and decreased hardware costs; making it an ideal solution for storage hogs like CT scans, MRIs, etc. -
The Future of the IT Industry
John Suffolk: “Following on from recent blogs, publications and presentation on the Government’s IT strategy I have been asked a number of times what my thoughts are on how this will play out in the IT industry over the next ten years…I think we are all in for a shock, a big shock because IT and service provision will be dramatically different and I’m not convinced the IT industry is facing up to the new reality. Consider a world where:
– The concept of desktop disappears as a predominant model…
– Things like ERP become a sequence of transactions….
– The number of data centres will be dramatically reduced….
– Public and private clouds will be pervasive….
– The combined cloud model and the application store opens up the IT market….So those operating on the IT world will need to decide what their true competences will be.  Where can they shine and get recognition for being outstanding.”
The blog is quite insightful and I believe an accurate look at where IT is headed. In addition I think the healthcare industry will see more outsourced IT support as we move toward a cloud model. Hospitals will be tied less to software and hardware support, instead providing informatics experts responsible for developing workflow and effective use of purchased services. Some hospitals have begun adopting this model already, and expect to see greater adoption in the future.
