The way AWS Storage Gateway works is by securely storing data as a snapshot image within S3, then porting that data to the AWS Elastic Block Storage service if desired. Once there, users can process that data using Amazon EC2 cloud computing instances. Storage Gateway keeps data on local gear while asynchronously uploading it to Amazon’s cloud. This lets companies leverage the cloud when they need it, but helps eliminate latency concerns that come with uploading large amounts of data to the cloud for backup, as well as with using local storage and cloud-based resources.
Cloudbursting:
One of the more interesting attributes of cloud computing is the ability to invoke compute-intensive resources as a service. Rather than having to acquire and deploy IT infrastructure to handle peak loads or processing requirements, IT organizations can “rightsize” their IT investments to handle their average workload requirements. Any time their computing requirements exceed those average workload limits, they can invoke additional compute capacity in the cloud using a process known as “cloudbursting.”
It’s still early days in terms of the mainstream adoption of “cloudbursting,” but the concept is already leading to the creation of some new business models. For example, Pixar has announced that it is partnering with GreenButton and Microsoft to deliver a new rendering service in the cloud that will be managed by GreenButton using its namesake cloud management software running on the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.
The basic idea, says GreenButton CEO Scott Houston, is to make it a lot more affordable for film studios, advertising agencies or anybody else using Pixar’s RenderMan software to access the compute resources needed to create animated films in 3D. According to Houston, the new Pixar service should significantly lower the cost of making these films, which, in turn, should make the technology more accessible.
Obviously, the Pixar offering is only one instance of a cloudbursting application. The cloudbursting concept could easily be applied across any number of vertical industries, which should result in a number of new and interesting business models in 2012 that could never have been enabled without the cloud.
The Digital Agenda Commissioner for Europe, Neelie Kroes, has announced that the European Commission will give €10m towards a new Cloud Computing Partnership, to try and help aid “flagging economies” on the continent.
The announcement was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday, amidst considerable hype surrounding Europe’s current financial perils.
The Partnership will involve a new European-wide IT procurement process, much in the vein of the UK’s current G-Cloud initiative, which Kroes hopes will push new secure and cost-effective strategy towards cloud adoption on the continent.
Kroes spoke in relation to new EU data protection laws outlined earlier this week by EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, which will give people and organisations the right to ask for personal data to be deleted from servers hosted by third parties, who will have to comply unless they have “legitimate” grounds to retain it.
However, some industry experts are sceptical about the proposed changes, with the US Patriot Act creating a potential loophole if the data is hosted by an American cloud provider and meaning the US government could still have the power to examine any data it deemed incriminating, even on foreign shores.
“In the first phase, the Partnership will come up with common requirements for Cloud procurement. For this it will look at standards; it will look at security; it will look at ensuring competition, not lock-in.
“In the second phase the Partnership will deliver proof of concept solutions for the common requirements.
“In the third phase reference implementations will be built.”
Jeff: 7 Ways to Do big Data right using cloud
DaaS Defined: Author – Bob Violino on InfoWorld
An emerging type of service called data as a service, or DaaS, promises to help companies wanting to tap the “big data” floating in the “Internet of things” for competitive advantage and innovation. With DaaS, organizations can gain access to information they need on an on-demand basis, much like they acquire applications via software as a service (SaaS) and storage, servers, and networking components through infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Data is stored by the service provider and accessible to users from the Internet.
1. Create a "data mind-set" - a significant IT cultural shit need to occur
2. But don't neglect infrastructure - if any org planning to leverage DaaS with persisting data in-house, you need to leverage IaaS capabilities
3. Try before you buy, check references, and insist on SLAs - basically trust, but verify with current customers of DaaS vendors
4. Build a strong governance mechanism - This is where adopters of DaaS need to focus much on. Without a clear data governance practice, you are bound to get in to a lot of data quality issues that will cripple your business intelligence and operational processes
With DaaS, extremely large amounts of data come in to organizations from a variety of sources and with varying degrees of criticality and requirements for privacy and security.
Organizations need to have strong governance around standards, guidelines, and policies related to DaaS. "Data governance plays a critical role in data services, ensuring that applications, users, and processes get the right data which they have access to and [that] the data is trusted,"
5. Emphasize data quality - Ensure that DaaS data quality is measure and know how its measures so you can determine quality of the data you are paying for.
6. Ramp up your analytics skills - Last week, I talked much about this area and you can refer to last week podcast, but the basic message here is, apply the data using analytics tools & resources.
7. Know when to use DaaS and how to measure results
