Cloud Computing Lessons from the Movies

With the Oscars coming up, it's a good time to reflect on the role movies play in our lives. We can learn a lot from the movies, and not just life lessons but lessons about Cloud Computing as well. Sometimes it’s the dialogue or the plot that is inspiring, and other times, just the title. Here are some examples.

1. The Godfather: “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” This describes the co-opetition that goes on between competitors like Microsoft, Amazon and VMware. Amazon wants to be your one-stop-shop to host your server computing needs. Often that requires running Windows Server on their AWS EC2 instances. Likewise, VMware (owned by hardware maker Dell/EMC) has earned their revenues from hardware and software running in the data center, but are trying to remain relevant in the cloud, through partnerships with AWS. 
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The name alone was one of the reasons we screened this at the most recent Take Your Kids to Work Day here at CloudCheckr, but the movie demonstrates that you need to be careful what you wish for. Free food from the sky sounds great, but you can easily get overrun with resources. You can have too much of a good thing. You need to prevent Cloud Sprawl. Measure so you can manage. That’s our mantra at CloudCheckr.
3. It’s a Wonderful Life: This Frank Capra classic is one of my all-time favorites and not just because it takes place near Rochester, NY where CloudCheckr is based. Jimmy Stewart’s character sees what the world would be like without him and realizes it would be a mistake. A good Cloud Management Platform can show you potential Reserved Instance purchase scenarios, including Full Upfront, Partial Upfront or No Upfront payment options, so you can decide which path to take, if any. And before you make a one or even three year commitment, CloudCheckr lets you base those decisions on 30, 60, 90, or even 180 days (a full six months) of history!
4. Gone With the Wind: This is another classic, with so many memorable lines. Rhett Butler states “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Too many of us don’t give a damn, until it’s too late. Consider permissions on cloud storage. Sometimes users override the default private settings, leaving confidential data exposed to the public. It turns out, you need to give a damn, after all! In the same film, Scarlett O’hara exclaims “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!” With the cloud, you can dial up or down performance and CloudCheckr’s heat maps and utilization reports ensure that no application is starved for performance.
5. Breaking In: Gabrielle Union is a mother to be reckoned with, as she must break-in to a well-fortified home where her own children are being held hostage. If you’ve ever been a victim of ransomware, you can relate to the struggle of not having access to your own data. The lesson is that you should always backup your data... something you can't easily do with your kids!
6. Tucker: The Man and His Dream: Martin Landau’s character says his mother told him not to get too close to people, as he’d catch their dreams. Sure enough, he caught Tucker’s dream of a safe, reliable, high performance automobile. Later, he realized she really said “You’ll catch their germs!” Well, she was right that isolation is key to avoid spreading germs. Cloud providers offer virtualization and even dedicated hosts to keep their clients isolated from each other.
7. Groundhog Day: Insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting different results, and in this movie, Bill Murray’s character repeats the same day over and over until he learns to help those around him. He creates a mental checklist and improves himself. You too can follow Best Practice Checks (like the 550+ in CloudCheckr) and optimize your infrastructure so you stop repeating bad habits!
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark: The last scene of the movie shows the priceless piece of history being hidden away in a sprawling warehouse. Don’t they know, it belongs in a museum! When you have so many resources, you lose track of them and they go underutilized. That’s why you need a tool that automatically takes inventory, tracks utilization, and makes recommendations.
9. Get Out: This modern thriller tells a powerful story of a seemingly pleasant environment full of friendly faces hiding a terrible underlying reality. Not to be glib about the serious subject matter, but there are lessons to be learned. Much like the frog that is slowly boiled in water versus one that immediately jumps out when placed in a vat of boiled water, we can get too comfortable until it’s too late. It’s easy to keep adding equipment to your data center because it’s what we’ve grown comfortable with. But it is holding you hostage and preventing you from enjoying freedom.
10. Avengers: Infinity War: Spoiler Alert! This one is relatively new, so do not read on if you have not seen the film yet! Thanos’ mission is to maximize resources by making sure the supply matches the demand. He knows he cannot do this without all of the Infinity Stones. Likewise, for effective Cloud Management, you need Cost Optimization, Billing and Invoicing, Security Best Practices and Compliance. What you really want is an “all of the above solution” like CloudCheckr! Now, Thanos takes the easy (and evil) way out by eliminating half of the population, i.e. the demand, but wouldn’t the more logical solution be to use the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to double the resources? Just sayin’.

What movies have taught you lessons? Tweet us (@CloudCheckr) your favorites on Twitter with hashtag #CloudMovies! And maybe you can claim your Netflix bill as a tax deduction?