Rack Pack Blog

All for One Cloud and One Cloud for All

Posted by Rack Packer - 19/07/10 at 03:07:28 pm

Today has seen the vision of an open source cloud move one step closer with the launch of the OpenStack project.

 

The project has the backing of over 25 leading technology companies and NASA, and is designed to foster the emergence of technology standards and cloud interoperability. The project’s key aim is to enable anyone to turn physical hardware into scalable and extensible cloud environments. OpenStack is not itself a cloud provider, rather it is a software offering that lets the end user build a cloud, either for public or private use.

 

An OpenStack Design Summit was held July 13-16 in Austin, where more than 100 technical advisors, developers and founding members joined to validate the code and ratify the project roadmap.  Much of the code tested is written in Python, using the Tornado and Twisted frameworks.

 

 An open cloud is essential if the long promised benefits of cloud computing are to be fully realised. The success of the cloud will be ultimately determined by the levels of choice and freedom that it offers the end user. Choice and freedom equals innovation, flexibility and usability. An open cloud will provide the tools to enable end users to build and customise their own computing clouds to suit their specific needs, budgets and timescales. And more importantly no one or entity owns it.

 

The internet would not be what it is today, had it not been built on open and interoperable standards. The cloud’s success will be driven by a global connected community delivering applications and media using a cloud that fosters creativity and openness. A truly open cloud will encourage tomorrow’s innovators to innovate today.

 

The industry does not want, or need, a digital sky dominated by proprietary clouds from a few deep pocketed large computing brands, it needs to ensure that people have a diversity of potential suppliers of cloud-based services – competition is healthy and needed.

 

It is a theme that Joaquín Almunia, vice president of the European Commission, strongly voiced earlier this month when he stated: “Fostering openness and preventing closed markets and unfair competition is key to the development of innovative digital media and technology in Europe. Open and interoperable environments drive down the cost of innovation.”

 

For the cloud to be truly ‘open’ code standardisation is a fundamental requirement, one of the key aims for OpenStack, and the reason so many founder member ‘competing’ companies have put aside their traditional rivalries, is to establish a common standard base.

 

It is essential that end users enjoy total interoperability, making it easier for them to connect clouds together, moving data between and off them when they choose – rather than being locked in to one providers cloud.  

 

If end user needs to change providers, and sometimes this can be an enforced choice: a merger or acquisition or as a result of a new regulation; they need to be able to do so easily. Resources that may have been spent on difficult migrations can instead be spent on core business development.

 

One of the value propositions of the open cloud model is the ability to scale resources as needed. An open interface will enable end users to build out new and existing systems at speed and with agility. And if we look at perhaps the biggest perceived barrier to cloud adoption, the issue of security and data integrity, we can see that the open source model enables the end user to take advantage of a commercial partner’s scale and infrastructure, whilst tailoring the code to ensure that their valuable assets don’t leave the in house environment.  The true hybrid cloud.

 

In essence the OpenStack project is attempting to deliver a type of co-operative cloud that enables economies of scale to build whilst returning control back to the community that built it. In theory OpenStack could extend the benefits of open source into the full computing stack and that could result in the largest single cloud ecosystem next to the Web itself. A claim too far? Only time will tell.

 

Finally, OpenStack should not be confused with the ‘Open Cloud Manifesto’ initiative that was heralded with much fanfare in March 2009. This saw IBM lead dozens of major tech companies in calling for open cloud standards. However the call was not heeded by all the perceived major cloud players, with rival Microsoft Corp dismissing the effort and accusing IBM of seeking to exert control of the field, whilst Amazon.com Inc and Google Inc, Salesforce.com Inc were all conspicuously absent from a list of companies endorsing it.

 

So what’s different with OpenStack? OpenStack is attempting to build interoperability in public, not behind closed doors, and without any exclusionary practices. Such environments are not conducive to building trust and a spirit of co-operation, both of which are key ingredients of developing a successful standard.

 

Oh and yes and with OpenStack you can actually download the code now.

iomart Hosting proves colocation business worth for managed services company

Posted by Rack Packer - 09/12/09 at 03:12:07 pm

Like many fast growing companies situated outside of the UK’s main metropolitan areas, Tectrade faced an uphill battle to continually provide guaranteed network resilience and redundancy to clients. The managed services company was housing its own IT infrastructure at its HQ site in Godalming, Surrey and was suffering from bandwidth and power issues, with its data centre reaching near capacity.

The solution was to issue a tender seeking a third party data centre and managed hosting provider. iomart Hosting won that tender and now provides Tectrade with managed colocation (molo for short!) services from its Tier 3 City of London data centre. Tectrade is now running a remote managed backup/recovery service for its customers using iomart Hosting’s London data centre as the primary site and is utilizing its own original site in Godalming as a failover.

Should the business continue to expand at its current rate, Tectrade plans to utilise iomart Hosting’s Glasgow data centre facility in the near future for additional computing resource. This will provide Tectrade with further peace of mind, by giving them an additional non English data centre presence (different power providers for example).

Alex Fagioli, Technical Director of Tectrade, said:” We’ve experienced a number of network challenges, power and cooling system problems as our data centre in Godalming has filled up. iomart Hosting’s central London location data centre gives us a much better power supply, huge amounts of bandwidth, the tightest security and a 100 per cent uptime guarantee that’s actually written in to the contract. We now feel a lot more comfortable than we did.”

Alex added:” iomart Hosting might not have been the cheapest but it was the intangibles they brought to the table that really won us over. The account manager we have worked with was first class and our initial site visit was phenomenal. We have been very impressed.”
Once again the Tectrade/iomart Hosting deal proves that power is definitely the new black, as computing demand grows so does power consumption and cooling – and we are seeing more and more companies find that their existing infrastructure struggles to keep apace with the demand.

The colocation market is seen as one of the most mature technology market sectors, and yet it is currently also one of the fastest growing. Organisations of all sizes are desperate to secure access to guaranteed access to bandwidth, power and space, and this has been traditionally sourced at an in house level. But with demands on the power suppliers to provide new national infrastructure for UK Plc - enhanced transport systems, Olympic villages for example – we have said good bye to the days when you could simply order new circuits and expect the local power company to turn up and install them. And it’s a headache that companies have identified, and are only too happy to offload, with 39% of global organisations already outsourcing data centre services to third parties.

But it is not just lack of power that is causing this shift in attitude. Organisations are now realising that there are real fiscal benefits to be derived from allowing their equipment and services to be maintained, serviced and managed by the third party operator without detriment to their core business. But and it’s a big Huge but, you must sit down and study the providers Service Level Agreement before committing to anything.

The SLA is an absolutely vital component in a successful outsourcing partnership. You need to understand what you are being provided with and what can you expect if you do not receive the service as stated. When Alex of Tectrade stated “..and a 100 per cent uptime guarantee that’s actually written in to the contract. We now feel a lot more comfortable than we did.” he was basically saying that the SLA was a vital component in his decision making process.

Outsourcing will not suit every business need but it does provide a proven method of reducing costs whilst maintaining core business continuity, and during a credit crunch in particular that’s a mighty compelling argument in its favour

A Domain Name Campaign, Easyspace and Sir Roger..a picture tells a 1000 words!

Posted by Rack Packer - 12/10/09 at 04:10:31 pm

A few ’select’ images taken on launch day of the Easyspace Domain Names for a Domain Campaign. And in case you’re interested the location for the shoot was the Kelvin Grove Museum in Glasgow and the ’stuffed’ elephant is the world famous ‘Sir Roger’ (I kid you not…the exhibit is known as Sir Roger the Elephant!)

Easyspace launches ‘Domain Names for A Domain’ campaign to save Asian Elephant

Posted by Rack Packer - 12/10/09 at 09:10:25 am

Just Say No to dot.Gone!

Our sister company, Easyspace has today launched a campaign aimed at raising the awareness of the plight of the Asian Elephant.

Under the banner ‘Say No to dot. gone’ Easyspace will donate 5 pence for every domain name it sells over the next six months to elephant family , the only UK charity dedicated to the plight of the endangered Asian elephant.

Our colleague, Errol Vanderhorst, managing director of Easyspace said: “Easyspace has been associated with the Asian elephant ever since we adopted it as our company logo back in 2002. Concern about the destruction of its habitat led us to thinking about what practical steps could we take to raise awareness of its plight.”

“As a domain name provider, we felt that the term ‘dot.gone’ tied us in perfectly with the Asian elephant’s fight for survival. If we do not act now there is a very real possibility that the Asian Elephant will be extinct in the wild within the next forty years.”

Errol added: “It’s the important work that elephant family does in preserving the Asian elephant’s natural domain that has made it such a perfect partner and recipient for the funds raised through our ‘Domain Names for a Domain’ campaign.”

The campaign was launched under the watchful eye of Sir Roger, the famous Asian elephant which is one of Culture & Sport Glasgow’s most popular exhibits at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. The six month campaign will culminate in Easyspace sponsoring an elephant at next spring’s Elephant Parade in London.

Ruth Powys, director of elephant family said:” The Domain Names for a Domain campaign is the perfect public symmetry for what we are trying to do as a charity. The money Easyspace raise will help us to buy up land to connect two forest fragments in Kerala in India to create an elephant corridor. We are so excited to have their support.”

Rather shockingly, the Asian elephant’s population has decreased by 165,000 in the past decade alone, and estimates suggest that if action is not taken now, the Asian elephant could be extinct by 2050.

A campaign has been created for Twitter users and if you wish to show your support you can add a ‘Just Say No to dotGone’ twibbon to your avatar here:
http://twibbon.com/easyspace

Errol and ‘Sir Roger’ at the launch of the campaign in Glasgow’s Kelvin Grove Museum.

iomart wins top business award for BT Deal

Posted by Rack Packer - 08/09/09 at 10:09:56 am

It is always nice when you win an award, any award, but it is doubly satisfying when the award is given by your peer group.

Last Thursday, iomart Group plc, the parent company of iomart Hosting, received the top award for small/mid-sized deal of the year at last night’s Business Insider Deals and Dealmakers Awards.

The award was presented for the Group’s disposal of its non core business Ufindus to deal to BT for £20 million. The deal was described by the judges as a “superbly planned execution” of a plan which was “conceived to allow the Group to focus on its core data centre and hosting business.”

Angus MacSween, CEO of the iomart Group, collected the award and stated: ““The most satisfying element of the sale, and one which has been reflected in the judge’s comments, was that this deal was the direct result of a plan which was executed to the letter. It is testament to the efforts of all of those involved that the deal progressed so smoothly from beginning to end, with all parties being delighted with the outcome.”

iomart Group was also named as runner up in the overall Deal of the Year category and Sale of the Year.

Another surprising, and wonderful, aspect of the evening was the menu. Having taken a pre dinner bet on a starter of spongy salmon roulade (with a sweet red pepper jus), followed by a chicken breast in a ‘piquant’ white wine sauce and finished with a highly decorative white/dark chocolate mousse with some ‘Banksy stylie’ artwork drizzled across it, I was pleasantly proved wrong on all counts. The menu of red mullet, lamb filet and baked Alaska was delightful.

Angus MacSween, CEO iomart Group, collects the Mid Size Deal of the Year Award from Gerrard Kelly, Director of Investment Scottish Enterprise.