OK, I have a budget, a computing task, a storage task, and even some smart people around me. I don't want to run these tasks on a server in my basement, at the university, or on my existing providers. My existing provider offers quick and virtualized services, but not quick enough - or enough. I want more storage - ran out. To get more from my current U.S.-based provider, I need to provision a new server, take it offline for part of a day, and buy all sorts of new services. I just want more storage than my laptop has.
At the same time, I would like to move more media processing from local computers to computers elsewhere. I know if I was a university researcher I could get access to the grid. I would need a computer science degree to figure it out, but there are a few folks like that around too.
However, I call around, I search around, I talk to people I know. The solutions offered are not as varied as you might think. There are lots of companies, but mostly the same managed service solutions. I want to use Amazon. Let's hire a summer
It seems I'm not alone. David Vellante writes that he is Desperately Seeking Cloud Computing. If David and I don't find anybody that builds consulting and managed services around cloud computing we may need to start a support group together, Entrepreneurs Seeking Evaporation Into Cloud. We won't solve any problems, but at least we won't be alone. Course we could end up creating a huge consulting business.
However, for now, I'm reaching out, not to entrepreneurs with the same problem or that want to start a consulting business, but to any technologist that can help me get an application onto EC2 and storage onto S3. And then do the same for Google App Engine and one other cloud/grid type service. The only requirement is a report and demo on how they did it. It needs to be completed in 4 weeks. If you are up to the challenge let me know, I want to figure out before David does so I can phone him and sell him exactly what he needs.
About Trevor Doerksen Trevor Doerksen is CEO & Founder of MoboVivo, Inc., and business development consultant for Cybera Inc. He has been at the intersection of media and technology for nearly 20 years. He has investigated and developed large-scale implementations of streaming video and Internet TV for government and industry. MoboVivo was the first company in Canada to sell television programming online.
We actually do exactly what you're looking for today, and have been doing it for the last 8 years. Whether it's one application, all your applications, or the complete company, companies like IVDesk have been hosting applications that are being accessed via the Internet via Citrix and RDP.
Not as sexy as all your apps as web based .NET or Java applications, but our solution get delivered to businesses everywhere. We host and run all of a companies applications and provide access from everywhere. Cost effective, 24x7 support, the works.
Our belief is that by providing a company the ability to host all their applications in a low cost monthly model, we offer the technology of a Fortune 500 company to small and mid-sized businesses.
You can take a look at www.IVDesk.com and make it a reality with no servers, no large startup fees, etc.
Big need that's being underserved and Google Apps just doesn't deliver.
I would enjoy being a helping hand with your effort to launch an application in the cloud. Everything I do now is "in the cloud": VoIP, web hosting, databases, etc. You'll find that I rank very well on Google for "ec2 consulting".
Kudos to the Cloud Crowd for Re-Inventing the Wheel!
One thing 30 years in the IT industry has taught me is that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Another is that the only memory we seem to access is short-term. A third is that techno-marketeers rely on that, so they can put labels like "revolutionary" and "innovative" on platforms, products and services that are mere re-inventions of the wheel ... and often poor copies at that.
A good example is all the latest buzz about "Cloud Computing" in general and "SaaS" (software as a service) in particular:
Both terms are bogus. The only true cloud computing takes place in aircraft. What they're actually referring to by "the cloud" is a large-scale and often remotely and/or centrally managed hardware platform. We have had those since the dawn of automated IT. IBM calls them "mainframes":
The only innovation offered by today's cloud crowd is actually more of a speculation, i.e. that server farms can deliver the same solid performance as Big Iron. And even that's not original. Anyone remember Datapoint's ARCnet, or DEC's VAXclusters? Whatever happened to those guys, anyway...?
And as for SaaS, selling the sizzle while keeping the steak is a marketing ploy most rightfully accredited to society's oldest profession. Its first application in IT was (and for many still is) known as the "service bureau". And I don't mean the contemporary service bureau (mis)conception labelled "Service 2.0" by a Wikipedia contributor whose historical perspective is apparently constrained to four years:
Instead, I mean the computer service bureau industry that spawned ADAPSO (the Association of Data Processing Service Organizations) in 1960, and whose chronology comprises a notable part of the IEEE's "Annals of the History of Computing":
So ... for any of you slide rule-toting, pocket-protected keypunch-card cowboys who may be just coming out of a fifty-year coma, let me give you a quick IT update:
1. "Mainframe" is now "Cloud" (with concomitant ethereal substance).
2. "Terminal" is now "Web Browser" (with much cooler games, and infinitely more distractions).
3. "Service Bureau" is now "Saas" (but app upgrades are just as painful, and custom mods equally elusive).
4. Most IT buzzwords boil down to techno-hyped BS (just as they always have).
Hi Trevor, we at CohesiveFT would love to help you and anyone else in this position. You can use our 'Elastic Server' web service to achieve your goals extremely easily and quickly - certainly in time to create your report! Go to www.ElasticServer.com and you can provision servers for multiple clouds / VM formats in minutes. Your application can be saved as a 'recipe' so that it is portable across clouds both public and 'private' ie. VM based. Through a management console you can see what is running, configure security, etc. A longer description of this, albeit somewhat technical in style, is here: http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/04/elasticserver .... Or just check out the service on our site. Any questions or problems please contact me (firstname, secondname, at cohesiveft dot com). Best wishes, and good luck, alexis richardson
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