Open source technologies may have previously conjured images of geeks poring over code to modify and compile, and companies too poor to afford the real thing, but open source offerings are now driving new developments and spawning technological revolutions.  Cloud computing is following suit and opening its code, technology, platforms and forums to the masses.

OpenStack is the moniker given to the project that involves such names as Rackspace, NASA, Citrix and Dell, and it hopes to unite the cloud computing arena behind one community-driven platform.  The project specifically deals with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and cloud storage.    Rackspace is donating its code to the OpenStack project and NASA’s Nebula coordinates and powers arguably one of the most robust cloud services out there.  It is being released under the Apache 2.0 license.

Current public cloud computing providers boast specific and unique platforms to manage data and applications.  While this adds exclusive features, it also creates a culture of vendor lock-in, proprietary formats and customer hesitance.  Their open source counterparts give developers and end users an opportunity to deploy an infrastructure based on a community-driven software stack.  While the platform is still young, massive adoption across cloud vendors and private cloud users would mean great success; and draw more enterprise clients to the cloud for services.  Prospective clients would also be able to evaluate cloud service platforms based on the value of their services and not their core technology.

Interoperability between platforms would also be a key factor for enterprises seeking to utilize multiple public cloud providers for redundancy in the same way that many of us depend on multiple telecommunication carriers.

It’s clear that businesses and government entities are leery of current public cloud services, but many are still taking advantage of cost-savings and accessibility with private clouds.  The OpenStack initiative could potentially draw more public and private cloud clients; businesses are building private clouds first for their more sensitive data and could easily bridge their existing infrastructure to public cloud services as data needs increase and security fears are calmed.  Users of Amazon’s cloud product, EC2, can currently use open-source Eucalyptus to build a private cloud and easily integrate with EC2 for public cloud needs.  Making OpenStack open source and interoperable will develop the same private/public cloud relations for many other cloud vendors.

Many question how vibrant the OpenStack community will be, and how the open source initiative will affect competition in price and services.  It appears that OpenStack will draw users from the technology community, but it’s unclear how much public cloud providers will push OpenStack when users come their way, and how large the user group will extend beyond already cloud-savvy users.

I’m excited to see where OpenStack goes and how it drives the technologies and market, and expect that this is just the first of many movements regarding cloud management.

              

My wife loves to tell people how we happened upon the parcel of land that is now Infrastructure Technology Solutions (ITS); we simply followed the fiber.

No, we didn’t drive around Eastern Iowa aimlessly following neon orange fiber markers – we simply took note of which fiber ran where in the areas that could support a data center.  Multiple fiber providers happened to intersect on one parcel of land and provided the redundancy we sought, and the land happened to be for sale.

During the purchasing process we also discovered that two power companies served the parcel, which sweetened the deal immensely.

ITS is fortunate in its find: broadband availability in Eastern Iowa can be spotty, especially in rural areas and smaller communities.  Finding multiple providers to service one municipality is especially rare.

Leading up to the release of the National Broadband Plan, cities in Iowa began announcing plans to compete in Google’s “think big with a gig” contest that utilizes dark fiber Google began quietly purchasing in 2005.  Ames, Des Moines and Iowa City have all released grassroots web campaigns to woo Google and make a case for the awesome things their city could do with faster and more affordable broadband.

If Google’s gig doesn’t choose your city, perhaps the US Government will.  Below we have listed several of the main goals of the National Broadband Plan (from http://www.broadband.gov/) recently released by the FCC, and shared our thoughts and experiences where appropriate.  We would love to hear yours, as well.

Goal No. 1: At least 100 million U.S. homes should have affordable access to actual download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and actual upload speeds of at least 50 megabits per second.

Do you know what your current download and upload speeds are, and what that even means?  We use the websites www.speedtest.net and www.speakeasy.net/speedtest to test bandwidth when we are testing equipment and setups.

Most LAN networks were, and many still are, 100 megabits/second.  Picture moving around the internet at the speed that you could move around a snappy network at school or at the office – nice, right? Adding the component of Cloud Computing makes more robust bandwidth even more exciting – you could have a snappy, LAN-like connection with your data no matter where it is stored.

Even more importantly, downloading information at 100 megabits per seconds also means that you can stream your Netflix or download your iTunes movies fluently.

Goal No. 2: The United States should lead the world in mobile innovation, with the fastest and most extensive wireless networks of any nation.

Doing business at the speed of light…does that mean we can finally get iPhones in this area?

Goal No. 3: Every American should have affordable access to robust broadband service, and the means and skills to subscribe if they so choose.

Goal No. 4: Every community should have affordable access to at least 1 gigabit per second broadband service to anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals, and government buildings.

Schools can currently take advantage of e-Rate – a government program that provides up to a 90% discount for schools and libraries that qualify based on free/reduced-lunch numbers and rural/urban location.

However, schools applying for E-Rate discounts cannot use equipment funded by those monies to provided internet access to communities, whether acting as an ISP or opening the computer lab for after-hours users.

If E-Rate funding increased (something we haven’t seen in ten years), could schools with powerful broadband connectivity become an internet hub for their communities?  If so, how would schools handle the filter settings they must comply with when accepting E-Rate funding.  Would second-hand users of the school broadband be limited by the same filters?

Goal No. 5: To ensure the safety of American communities, every first responder should have access to a nationwide, wireless, interoperable broadband public safety network.

Goal No. 6: To ensure that America leads in the clean energy economy, every American should be able to use broadband to track and manage their real-time energy consumption.

It will be interesting to see how providers and government entities prepare to address nationwide broadband concerns, and how that impacts businesses, communities and consumers.

              

Cloud Computing has been a hot term in the recent past.  There are so many services that can be offered through or hosted in the cloud that many small/medium-sized businesses are unsure of where to start.

A wonderful example of utilizing cloud services to cut costs, increase reliability and performance is to follow the lead of seven Colorado counties.

According to the report, Pueblo County, Colorado employed the talents of their existing IT department to write custom programs for county assessor and treasurer services.

In 2008, six other counties in Colorado signed up to use these same programs, all hosted out of the Pueblo County cloud.  All seven of the counties were facing rising software and hardware costs before turning to these hosted solutions.

Pueblo County is currently predicting a $200,000 profit from these services, and is using the funds to update their own software and hardware.  Pueblo County didn’t see success without a cost, though.  The code was rewritten six times in one year to accommodate each County’s setup.

All seven counties are pleased with this cloud based solution, especially because they are saving money on software and hardware costs, while still using an enhanced product.

Several other State and City governments are following suit. In October, 2009, The City of Los Angeles announced that they would be adopting Google Apps. and hosting 30,000 email accounts through the Google cloud.

The State governments of Utah and Michigan are also planning to create cloud services that can be utilized by other local governments within their states, much like the Colorado example.

And what about your small/medium business or organization, how you can harness the energy of the cloud?  Start by thinking about files or systems that could be centrally located.  Hosting these in the cloud can encourage collaboration between your employees, clients and vendors.

If your business would like more information on cloud services, don’t hesitate to contact us.

              

There has been a lot of buzz recently about the decision for the FTC to investigate cloud computing.

The FTC reports that the purpose of their investigation is to protect consumers’ privacy and data.  While privacy and data security are valid concerns with cloud computing, people and business have been utilizing online systems for data storage for years.  Privacy and data security should be nothing new to the IT field.

However, cloud computing is often used as a means to lower capital costs in businesses and speed deployment of applications and products.  New cloud offerings are springing up daily, and there is little precedent to follow when it comes to security.

There are many different areas of cloud computing – meant for various applications.  Cloud computing benefits can be huge, but it is not a one size fits all solution to computing.  Consumers of these technologies need to make sure they are educated  as to the benefits and risks of cloud computing.