What’s in a name? Comprehending the scope of Cloud Computing

By: Scott Shadley - Thoughts and Opinions within are MINE...

Redshift, Blob, Heroku.

Isn't Blob the name of a bad B Movie?

Heroku, Is that "bless you" in Japanese?

Does Redshift have anything to do with Photography?

Three names of products from different solution providers for cloud-based architectures. As we take a look back to Microsoft Ignite, where Azure was center stage, to the current event du jour, AWS re:Invent, I can’t help but be baffled by the number of truly unique services being supported.

These are all questions many IT Managers looking to outsource to the cloud seem to be facing today. Looking beyond just the disaggregation of hardware from the software (and who really owns what), there are many challenges and twice as many solutions available today.

Does this mean a consolidation is coming? Is the competitive nature of big hyper-scale solutions more productive or more distracting? This is the type of thing I ask myself when I consider the scope of the cloud. Just because it has a cool name, does it solve the needs faced by organizations. I would be willing to bet that many people looking at what we call the ‘cloud’ today do not realize the interlinking and sole sourcing that can come to be or exist. We used to be worried about being leashed by expensive hardware platforms, even “Mainframes”. Now we say, ‘just move to the cloud’. It’s easy, right? After all, this Mainframe was at one of the recent shows (Disclaimer: Not me, but my good friend Travis).

Not exactly...

Moving to the cloud and the architectures supported therein is important, especially with the advent of the Software-Defined-Anything (SDx), but there is still a concern around how to satisfy the long term need of an enterprise. Imagine, in the ‘old days’ (circa 5 years ago), the argument was around do we buy (INSERT favorite Big Iron Box Brand Here)? Now just a few short years later, there are so many more logos and names of companies, let alone software solutions.

 Do I need Software-Defined-Networking (SDN)? Which brand, Is there one brand? What about Software-Define-Storage (SDS)? I can’t even complete a finite list of these solutions available. Don’t worry, if you like your ‘big brand’ names that is not a problem, they too all have a solution or recently acquired one. 

Should we even begin to talk about Anything-as-a-Service (xaaS)? Do you need Software? Application? Support? Platform? Infrastructure? All of these are available today, and likely most were on the floor of Ignite and re:Invent offering cloud customers a plethora of solutions.

Techopedia explains Anything as a Service (XaaS)

The core idea behind XaaS and other cloud services is that businesses can cut costs and get specific kinds of personal resources by purchasing services from providers on a subscription basis. Before the emergence of XaaS and cloud services, businesses often had to buy the licensed software products and install them on site. They had to buy hardware and link it together to create expanded networks. They had to do all security work on site, and they had to provide expensive server setups and other infrastructure for all of their business processes.

So where am I going with this?

We all know that Mode 2 is en vogue, and that owning hardware is so 5 years ago. But what most people never really notice (or even really care about) is what is truly holding their data. That is where my colleagues and I come in to play. Whether you decide public, private or hybrid, the cloud needs memory. (DDR3, DDR4, GDDR, NVDIMM) Micron has you covered and you probably didn’t even know it. Unless of course you are a private cloud, but even then the logo on the module could mask the vendor too. On the storage side, you need bulk and speed to address those workload requirements. All of that amazing data you have, need, gather, analyze and even sell likely resides on platforms created, developed, delivered and sold to your cloud solution expert.

We once joked ‘There is no cloud, it’s just Micron SSDs’ (and Micron even made it a sticker), there is probably more truth to that than one might realize. For me, ‘seeding’ the cloud with flash storage and persistent memory is an exhilarating place to be.

So go ahead, embrace the cloud, shun the hardware solutions in the basement data center, move it all over to (INSERT your favorite NAME here). We will gladly be there to support your needs with solutions that comprehend, anticipate and enhance your experience. If you rather update the basement, great, we got you covered there too!

Have a great end of the year, drive for new and innovative ways to utilize your cloud, your memory, your storage, and your data, there are some amazing solutions available to manage it all for you.

Take your Blob storage, warehouse it through a Redfish filter, and share it with Heroku (If that is even possible :)) and know that there are friends out there storing that data safely away.