Cloud Computing & Virtualization

Author

Marcia Kaufman, COO and Principal Analyst

Sponsored by CloudTran

In highly competitive markets, companies are increasingly turning to cloud computing as a way to improve their ability to react to market changes. Whether we are looking at financial services, healthcare, or retail, cloud computing is becoming a strategic approach. Many industries are grappling with the complexities of ensuring that online transaction applications can be effectively and safely managed in highly distributed cloud environments. Processes and technologies designed for lower transaction volumes operating in siloed environments cannot easily support unbounded transaction volumes operating in cloud and service oriented environments. Organizations with a requirement to run mission-critical online transaction processing (OLTP) applications need to manage these extreme volumes effectively in order to provider optimal service to customers.

In this paper, we present an overview of the requirements for running OLTP applications in multi-processing and cloud environments using a retail ecommerce example. In addition, we provide insight into evolving technology requirements for overcoming scalability challenges in nonmainframe distributed environments. We also will provide a perspective on managing near real-time access to data required to support OLTP transactions in non-mainframe distributed environments.

Authors

Judith Hurwitz, CEO
Marcia Kaufman, COO and Principal Analyst

Sponsored by Red Hat

Cloud computing is a technology deployment approach that has the potential to help organizations better use IT resources to increase flexibility and performance. The underlying automation of cloud-based technology helps organizations access the right computing resource at the right time for an economical price. In addition, cloud-based services can be packaged so that specific workloads can be more easily provisioned through the use of sophisticated automation software. Users of these cloud services are experiencing dramatic improvements in productivity as a result of having consistent access to the right mix of technology to solve business problems. While these productivity improvements result from cloud computing’s ability to lift complexity away from the individual user, the cost and productivity benefits of the cloud depend on a highly sophisticated underlying infrastructure.

One of the most important ways to support the underlying complexity of well-managed cloud computing resources is through the operating system. Operating systems such as Linux are designed to support these requirements so that cloud services and application services do not have to recreate underlying technologies tailored for each specific deployment.

Authors

Judith Hurwitz, President
Marcia Kaufman, COO and Principal Analyst

Insight into the journey to enterprise cloud computing from a quality of service perspective. Many companies have initially looked to virtualization to drive higher utilization of IT resources, lower capital expenses, and enable the scalability required to support business growth. These companies have also focused on standardizing and automating IT environments to reduce costs and improve the quality of service to customers. However, as organizations move from experimental cloud implementations to using the cloud for mission critical workloads, quality of service requirements take on a new dimension. Service issues that may have been overlooked with less critical workloads may become magnified, exposing the company to significant risk. To protect against higher levels of risk it becomes increasingly important to translate existing internal data center policies into policies that make sense in the cloud. Therefore, we will provide insights into the key elements that these organizations need to focus on to ensure that policies for security, governance, and scalability are maintained as mission critical workloads are moved to the cloud.

In addition, we provide an overview of what capabilities IBM Power Systems™ cloud solutions offer to support customers.

Author

Judith Hurwitz, CEO

Sponsored by IBM

The cloud in cloud computing provides the  means through which everything from computing power to computing infrastructure, applications, business processes to personal collaboration can be delivered to the user as a service.

Cloud computing has become one of the most important technical and business trends in decades. Increasingly, companies are turning toward cloud computing as a way of increasing the agility of their computing environment.  Management understands that IT is a business asset that should be able to expand and contract based upon need. They are looking for methods of having the best possible resources at the optimal price without increasing capital expenditures.

The movement toward this increasingly optimized cloud model is part of the movement towards the industrialization of computing. Therefore, cloud computing is helping to transform the way we think about using technology as a business asset and as an agent of change.

Author Robin Bloor

Sponsored by CA

Why and How Virtualization Needs To Be Managed

Virtualization is an excellent technology that was introduced to the IT market at an appropriate time when the majority of applications needed far less than the resources offered by an "off-the shelf" server. Moore's Law had run rampant for decades doubling the capacity and speed of the average server every 18 months. The time finally arrived when there was a major mismatch between the workload that the typical application presented and the resources that the typical low-end server provided. Virtualization technology appeared right on cue when it could be put to excellent use.