Per usual, James Urquhart published a thought provoking post on cloud computing and geopolitics. Recently, as part of my 100-day cloud watch, I’ve pointed out the importance of cloud computing environment location in respect to data residence. In his post, James goes further, or perhaps better stated, starts earlier. Raising awareness on the paths that data travels, to reach its destination:
“How would an application operator deploy applications at a minimum "distance" from users in a network sense, without finding themselves passing data through a country that would jeopardize the safety of that data? Again, the path your data takes between two physical locations may not be the path you expected.
You are already seeing some examples of how the governments and corporations are trying to mold the Internet and "the cloud" to fit into human geopolitical realities. Countries like China, Iran, Pakistan, and others have demonstrated their willingness to control the Internet transoms over their nation’s borders, and to apply technology to controlling the "border traffic" at those crossing points.”
In his post, James makes some great observations on computing versus world boundaries, and poses a challenge for cloud computing, networking, business and political leaders:
“What’s missing, however, is any form of formal infrastructure within the Internet/Intercloud itself to "automate" mapping the human world to the computer world. Is this even possible, I often wonder. Can we (or, more to the point, should we) try to "codify" the laws and regulations of the world into digital form, allowing computer networks and applications to self-regulate?
What would the political fallout of such a system be?
In cloud computing, "virtual" geography and "physical" geography are both extremely important, and it’s up to humans to keep the two aligned. Because this is complex and prone to error, it may be one of the great business opportunities to come out of the disruption that cloud computing is wreaking on IT practices.”
Read his post. Remember it’s not just the destination, but also the journey that counts.
Tagged as:
geopolitics,
intercloud,
James Urquhart,
location
Posted by brenda michelson at 11:38 am in 100-days, Cloud Watch, adoption, data, networks | Permalink
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Inspired by a Reuven Cohen post, James discusses the paradox of green and cloud computing. On the surface, cloud computing appears to be environmentally friendly due to the economies of scale offered by cloud computing resources and facilities. However, the ease of consumption has actually increased total compute, and therefore energy, utilization. James quoting Reuven’s post:
“We now have the ability to run our applications on thousands of servers, but previously this wasn’t even possible. To say it another way, we can potentially use several years worth of energy in literary a few hours, where previously this wasn’t even an option. So in direct contrast, hypothetically we’re using more resources, not less. On the flip side, if we bought those thousand servers and had them running (underutilized), the power usage would be significantly higher. But then again, buying those servers would have been out reach for most, so it’s not a fair comparison. There we are–back, at where we started. You may use 80 percent less energy per unit, but have 1,000 percent more capacity, which at the end of the day means you’re using more, not less energy.”
After citing observations from Simon Wardley and Krishnan Subramanian, James concludes:
“…the increased efficiency of the hardware components in most cloud data centers and the increased utilization of these components mean that we are almost certainly doing more work per unit of energy consumed than before. However, I think we’ll have to wait awhile before there is evidence of the overall effect of cloud computing on the planet…one way or the other.”
Interesting to consider how efficiency and ease of access are changing behavior. The next question I suppose, is what’s the outcome (productivity) garnered by the increased consumption? Is it value-add? Or, compute-gluttony?
Tagged as:
James Urquhart,
Reuven Cohen
Posted by brenda michelson at 10:42 am in Cloud Watch, sustainability | Permalink
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This morning’s focus in on the business case for cloud computing, ROI & migration. "What’s the promise? Despite the downsides, there’s little doubt that on-demand computing services are the future of both consumer and enterprise IT.”
First up in a panel discussion: The Case for Cloud Infrastructure: On-Demand Economics
Moderator:
John Willis, Owner, Zabovo
Panelists:
- Paul Mockapetris, Chairman and Chief Scientist, Nominium, Inc.
- James Urquhart, Cisco, Technology Strategist, Data Center Solutions team
- Neil Cohen, Director of Product Marketing, Akamai
- Joe Weinman, Strategic Solution Sales, AT&T Signature Client Group
more >>
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Akamai,
archives,
AT&T,
Cisco,
Interop,
James Urquhart,
Joe Weinman,
John Willis,
live coverage,
Neil Cohen,
Nominium,
Paul Mockapetris
Posted by brenda michelson at 1:09 pm in Blog, economics, elasticity & scale, use cases | Permalink
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This evening, we are at Cloud Camp. For background, check out this interview with Cloud Camp co-founder Dave Nielsen. Dave is also our host today.
The lightening rounds are done. For insights, search on twitter with either of these tags: #cloudcamp #cloudcampinterop
Now, Dave is building an un-panel session. He started with 5 empty chairs and no questions. Filled the chairs with folks who raised hands to “Folks that know a lot about cloud computing”. No one admitted expertise. Now, he’s asking the audience to build a list of 10 questions.
more >>
Tagged as:
archives,
CloudCamp,
Dave Nielsen,
DMTF,
Interop,
James Urquhart,
John Willis,
live coverage,
RightScale
Posted by brenda michelson at 9:41 pm in Blog, compliance, data, fundamentals, security, standards | Permalink
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