Cloud Control: the secret to cloud computing success
The world of IT has been much abuzz lately around the term "enterprise compute clouds".
The concept isn't new. The idea of being able to arbitrarily create pools of physical machines that are ad-hoc assigned to tasks has been around for years.
But while DataSynapse ("Grid computing") and VMware ("CPU virtualization") have both made the execution easier, and Amazon & Google have shown us it's possible when hosted, there's still a fundamental lack of compute clouds in the enterprise.
Why? Two words: Cloud Control.
Now, cloud control isn't glamorous. It's not VMotion, it is a bad pun, and it somehow evokes odd images of 1950's-era rainmakers in middle-america's dust bowl.
But any IT staffer who's attempted to create anything close to a cloud, using VMware, DataSynapse, or even conventional bare-metal operating systems, will tell you: cloud control software is a necessary companion to any deployment.
What does such software look like, and why is it essential? Two more words: bare metal.
The challenge faced by any of the would-be cloud software providers such as VMware is that they depend on an underlying architecture being in place. Bare metal machines must have been correctly networked and correctly attached to storage, loaded with hypervisor software, and powered on. The same is true of DataSynapse and others.
In short, the existing providers demand a physical cloud be configured and running -- at full capacity -- before a virtual cloud is instantiated.
This is comparable to a rainmaker asking a farmer to install a series of sprinklers so that the rainmaker can make it rain anywhere, on demand.
Obviously, such an approach is untenable -- but with cloud control software like Scalent V/OE, the constraints are relaxed. Scalent has been adopted by DataSynapse and VMware as a complementary partner precisely for this reason. Scalent can take an infrastructure from dead, bare metal -- powered off, non-networked machines -- to a live cloud, ready for others to work their magic, in five minutes.
[Still not convinced? Check out what VMware had to say about Scalent's role in the physical side of the VMware virtual cloud vision, at scalent.com/vmworld08 (page 3)]
So if you're considering an enterprise cloud, give us a shout first, and we'll help you set up your sprinkler system... then you can call the would-be rainmakers.
The concept isn't new. The idea of being able to arbitrarily create pools of physical machines that are ad-hoc assigned to tasks has been around for years.
But while DataSynapse ("Grid computing") and VMware ("CPU virtualization") have both made the execution easier, and Amazon & Google have shown us it's possible when hosted, there's still a fundamental lack of compute clouds in the enterprise.
Why? Two words: Cloud Control.
Now, cloud control isn't glamorous. It's not VMotion, it is a bad pun, and it somehow evokes odd images of 1950's-era rainmakers in middle-america's dust bowl.
But any IT staffer who's attempted to create anything close to a cloud, using VMware, DataSynapse, or even conventional bare-metal operating systems, will tell you: cloud control software is a necessary companion to any deployment.
What does such software look like, and why is it essential? Two more words: bare metal.
The challenge faced by any of the would-be cloud software providers such as VMware is that they depend on an underlying architecture being in place. Bare metal machines must have been correctly networked and correctly attached to storage, loaded with hypervisor software, and powered on. The same is true of DataSynapse and others.
In short, the existing providers demand a physical cloud be configured and running -- at full capacity -- before a virtual cloud is instantiated.
This is comparable to a rainmaker asking a farmer to install a series of sprinklers so that the rainmaker can make it rain anywhere, on demand.
Obviously, such an approach is untenable -- but with cloud control software like Scalent V/OE, the constraints are relaxed. Scalent has been adopted by DataSynapse and VMware as a complementary partner precisely for this reason. Scalent can take an infrastructure from dead, bare metal -- powered off, non-networked machines -- to a live cloud, ready for others to work their magic, in five minutes.
[Still not convinced? Check out what VMware had to say about Scalent's role in the physical side of the VMware virtual cloud vision, at scalent.com/vmworld08 (page 3)]
So if you're considering an enterprise cloud, give us a shout first, and we'll help you set up your sprinkler system... then you can call the would-be rainmakers.
posted by Scalent Systems at 2:15 PM
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