Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

vcloud

May the Force be with you

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Over the last couple of days a lot of info has been floating around about VMforce. VMforce is a coalition between Salesforce.com and VMware.  Combine VMware virtualization and cloud technology with Springsource TCServer and managed /hosted by one of the industryleaders in SaaS Salesforce.com and you will have one powerful enterprise ready cloud. To prevent any misunderstandings: Springsource is the framework that enables the Java apps to be uploaded directly to the Cloud and run the app.

VMforce will be the first enterprise cloud for Java developers . With VMforce, Java developers can build apps that are instantly social and available on mobile devices in real time. And it’s all in the cloud, so there’s no hardware to manage and no software stack to install, patch, tune, or upgrade. Building Java apps on VMforce is easy!

  • Use the standard Spring Eclipse-based IDE
  • Code your app with standard Java, including POJOs, JSPs, and Servlets
  • Deploy your app to VMforce with 1 click

With VMforce, every Java developer is now a cloud developer.

I received the following links to several videos on youtube which are worth watching if you want to get familiar with what VMforce has to offer”

  1. What is VMforce?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpO6whOCAmQ
  2. VMforce Customer testimonials
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7haezCV9mc
  3. Paul Maritz (VMware)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnFZFbwGoT4
  4. Marc Benioff (Salesforce.com)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw8nLx1CPRA
  5. Parker Harris(Salesforce.com) and Rod Johnson(VMware)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWe6Zdvz4Q4
  6. Dave Smoley CIO of Flextronics
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wex5bChEsAc

Storage Tiering in the Cloud? Just some thoughts…

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When discussing design considerations for a Cloud environment there are always a few “hot” topics. Two of these usually stand out: Network and Storage.

This is not only the case with Cloud environments but with virtualization in general. I guess where Cloud differentiates itself from a regular virtual environment is storage tiering. A simple reason to implement storage tiering is cost. Running every virtual machine on the same storage is not very cost effective and will ultimately increase the prices per unit, whether that unit is a VM or consumption model based is not even important at this point.

Many storage vendors offer an automated storage tiering concept. These typically migrate virtual disks or “blocks” based on load pattern. This might be a viable solution for your enterprise environment but is that also the case for a Cloud provider? Or better said for the customers running their workload within the Cloud?

Would you want your virtual disks, or blocks, to be migrate when the storage subsystem of your provider feels it should? Or would you prefer a predictable performance? I guess I am hoping that you, as possible customers, could answer this question. Personally I prefer to get what I paid for. If I have paid for raid-5 on 15.6K disks I want to be able to use that performance when my application requires it.

Now you might say, well with the auto migration mechanism Arrays have these days you will be on fast storage before you know it, but is this actually the case? (Think EMC’s FAST, Compellent’s Data Progression or 3Par’s Adaptive Optimization)  Many of these mechanisms will move data around when a threshold has been exceeded within a specific time frame. This might be too late, your job might have already completed. Now I am not, most definitely not, an expert on automated storage tiering, but I wonder who will benefit and when in the Cloud space? Maybe even more important, what if my mechanism chooses to move me to fast storage… will my Cloud service provide bill me for this?

I know I am not answering any questions here and I guess this is one of those posts which rises more questions… I would like to open the floor to anyone who wants to share his thoughts.

Want to be part of the vCloud Team?

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If you are based in EMEA and are up for a challenge you might want to check out the following job roles as the VMware vCloud Services Team is still looking for highly motivated and skilled people! Just drop me (duncan @ yellow-bricks.com) an email when you are interested and I will make sure your resume will end up in the right spot!

  • Senior Engagement Project Manager -TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware Cloud Services Engagement Program Manager within the Cloud Services team, you will be acting as a thought leader for a specific segment of Cloud Service Providers as well as Enterprise accounts developing on-premise clouds. You will manage VMware Cloud services engagements, have strong contacts within the accounts you support, and support the sales teams building pipeline for the customer segment for which you are responsible.
  • Senior Engagement Project Manager -TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware Cloud Services Engagement Program Manager within the Cloud Services team, you will be acting as a thought leader for a specific segment of Cloud Service Providers as well as Enterprise accounts developing on-premise clouds. You will manage VMware Cloud services engagements, have strong contacts within the accounts you support, and support the sales teams building pipeline for the customer segment for which you are responsible.
  • Consulting Architect-TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware TS Cloud Services Architect, you will provide customers technical leadership in the installation, configuration, and implementation of VMware-based cloud solutions. You will help to document best practices in developing and deploying VMware solutions, and feed them into our knowledge base for best practices by customers and partners. This group gives the architect the opportunity to work in most of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world.
  • Senior Consultant-TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware TS Cloud Services Consultant, you will provide customers technical leadership in the installation, configuration, and implementation of VMware-based cloud solutions. You will help to document best practices in developing and deploying VMware solutions, and feed them into our knowledge base for best practices by customers and partners. This group gives the consultant the opportunity to work in most of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world.
  • Senior Consultant-TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware TS Cloud Services Consultant, you will provide customers technical leadership in the installation, configuration, and implementation of VMware-based cloud solutions. You will help to document best practices in developing and deploying VMware solutions, and feed them into our knowledge base for best practices by customers and partners. This group gives the consultant the opportunity to work in most of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world.
  • Senior Consultant-TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware TS Cloud Services Consultant, you will provide customers technical leadership in the installation, configuration, and implementation of VMware-based cloud solutions. You will help to document best practices in developing and deploying VMware solutions, and feed them into our knowledge base for best practices by customers and partners. This group gives the consultant the opportunity to work in most of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world.
  • Senior Consultant-TS Cloud Services
    As a VMware TS Cloud Services Consultant, you will provide customers technical leadership in the installation, configuration, and implementation of VMware-based cloud solutions. You will help to document best practices in developing and deploying VMware solutions, and feed them into our knowledge base for best practices by customers and partners. This group gives the consultant the opportunity to work in most of the top Fortune 500 companies in the world.

Time for a change…

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A lot of announcements have been done lately(Scott Lowe’s for instance) so I could not stay behind. I will be joining the VMware Advanced Services department as the Cloud Architect for EMEA.

As you can imagine I am thrilled that I have been given this huge opportunity and will be transitioning to this new position over the upcoming weeks. I will be focusing on public clouds primarily; of course in combination with VMware vSphere and a new upcoming product which has already been revealed as Redwood, but not officially announced.

Like I said months ago, blogging does change your life for the better and working hard does pay off. Let’s get ready to rrrrruuuuummmmmbbbbblllllleeeeee!

VMware vCloud API Preview!

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Every year a day before VMworld announcements start to appear online and of course it also happened this year. VMware just released the preview version of the VMware vCloud API.

Source
The vCloud API is an interface for providing and consuming virtual resources from the cloud. It enables deploying and managing virtualized workloads in internal and external clouds. The vCloud API allows for upload and download of vApps along with their instantiation, deployment and operation.

  • RESTful with full programmatic control
  • OVF standards based
  • Platform independent
  • Pure virtual
  • Supports multi-tenancy

Version: Technology Preview (ver 0.8)

Target Platform: Platform independent

Keep in mind it is still a technology preview, alpha version of the API, but if you are building an internal or external cloud it’s definitely worth looking into. There’s a FAQ available here and there’s a forum on VMTN to be found here.