Cloud lock-in a bigger issue than security Before LabSlice I was employed as a Security Architect for a major bank. Banks, government departments and health providers are naturally suspicious of technology solutions that they do not fully control. This is why cloud security is frequently listed as a concern for big industry, typically followed by operational uptime concerns. What you can’t control with your big budget is usually what you fear will backfire and cause you trouble. But that’s not my stance. In general there is little that differentiates normal security concerns from cloud security concerns, and the big players (Amazon, Google and Microsoft) can
simon
Using the Amazon cloud is a challenge, partly due to the overwhelming number of terms that must be understood to just get your servers up and running. Below is a taxonomy break-down that you can use as a reference for getting started with the Amazon cloud.: Cloud Computing: A self-service environment for the creation of highly-scalable applications, with the immediate availability of compute power and granular levels of billing. Amazon Web Services (AWS): A set of services delivered by Amazon that can be used to meet your needs for a cloud-based application. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): A service, accessible through either a console or
Cloud security: Keeping those keys safe Jack Murgia, from Cloud Controllers, sent me an interesting query last week: “How does LabSlice ensure that the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Access Keys remain secure within the application?” This is a great question, as the AWS Access Keys are the keys to the house for any business using the Amazon Web Services cloud. It’s true that our application stores more keys than most (we provide an AWS management service that utilizes our customers’ keys), but you will more than likely find keys used within your application, whether to upload files to cloud storage (S3)
IaaS and PaaS to disappear by 2012 Cloud computing comes with its own unique acronyms, which can at times make it a confusing space to work in. The two key acronyms people know are: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): The provider gives you on-demand access to compute infrastructure, with console access (RDP or SSH) to a server that you completely own. Application administrators can request as many servers as necessary to meet the scalability needs of their application. IaaS is typified by the Amazon Web Services cloud. Platform as a Service (PaaS): In this case the provider gives you on-demand
Reducing Your Amazon EC2 Cloud Charges The Biggest difference between standard web hosting and cloud-based hosting can be seen when you get the monthly bill. A standard web host, like GoDaddy, will charge you a flat monthly fee and give you access to a single, fixed server. Whereas a cloud-based host, like Amazon EC2 will charge you at a granular level for each compute asset you use, whether it’s bandwidth, CPU or storage. This can lead to a confusing monthly bill (ever tried to use Amazon’s “simple” cost calculator?), but also offers the opportunities to save money by being more astute with your resource
Does Gartner understand cloud computing? By Simon Ellis of Labslice – CloudTweaks Contributor I like the Gartner Magic Quadrant. It provides for a quick overview of a specific domain, lists the key players and assigns them a high-level effectiveness rank. It’s a great tool, and also a very dangerous one. For those who understand a domain it provides reinforcement and a third-party perspective. And for those who don’t, it affords a quick way to select a vendor or choose a technology — the modern equivalent of “no-one gets fired for selecting IBM”. Having placed many IaaS bets as a cloud
The 2010 cloud computing winner Who was the 2010 cloud computing winner? It’s a subjective topic. And you’re really comparing apples to oranges. There are SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offerings, all serving different customer needs. Some vendors are established, while others are only just getting started. And of-course, people tend to declare a technology they are familiar with as a winner. To identify a winning technology it’s usually best to go straight to the market and see what people are actually using. Winning technologies get adopted, new jobs get created and specialized skills get requested for. Below is the job
