September 2009
19 posts
Web Application Security at the Edge is More... →
If one of the drivers for moving to cloud-based applications is reducing costs, you should think twice about the placement of application security solutions. There’s almost no way to avoid an…
Despite Rumors to the Contrary F5 Remains In the... →
We interrupt your regularly scheduled dose of geek for a brief but important message Every year a variety of application delivery vendors sit around, wringing their hands, waiting for Gartner to…
Infrastructure Integration: Metadata versus API →
Infrastructure 2.0 requires collaboration. Collaboration requires the ability to communicate. The ability to communicate requires integration. But how that integration will happen may shape the…
Your Network is Not My Network →
Back in the day when I was actually allowed to write code for customers the pat answer to any code being returned from QA because of problems was a flat “but it works on my machine.” Alright,…
WILS: The Concise Guide to *-Load Balancing →
Understanding the various types of load balancing When someone says “load balancing” the immediate reaction is usually to think of pools of servers and applications being load balanced to provide…
Load Balancing on the Inside →
Business critical internal processing systems often require high-availability and fault tolerance, too. Load balancing and application delivery is almost always associated with scaling out…
Cloud Computing versus Cloud Data Centers →
Isolation of resources in “the cloud” is moving providers toward hosted data centers and away from shared resource computing. Do we need to go back to the future and re-examine mainframe computing…
Does a Dynamic Infrastructure Need ARP for... →
There’s more than one way to address the rapid rate of change in infrastructure supporting a dynamic environment. We spend a lot of time talking about how software and systems and standards are…
If Load Balancers Are Dead Why Do We Keep Talking... →
Commoditized from solution to feature, from feature to function, load balancing is no longer a solution but rather a function of more advanced solutions that’s still an integral component for…
AJAX and Network-Side Scripting →
AJAX enables the use of network-side scripting enabled application delivery solutions to offload client-side functionality and improve capacity and performance of dynamic (Web 2.0/AJAX)…
WILS: Network Load Balancing versus Application... →
Are you load balancing servers or applications? Network traffic or application requests? If your strategy to application availability is network-based you might need a change in direction (up the…
The Cloud Metastructure Hubub →
How Infrastructure 2.0 might leverage publish-subscribe technology like PubSubHubub to enable portability of applications across clouds and data centers
Tower of Babel by…
IT Myths and Legends: Sharing Servers →
Sharing is core to a successful cloud implementation but not something every organization does well. How do you encourage business stakeholders to play well with others? In most…
WILS: Automation versus Orchestration →
Infrastructure 2.0 is not just about automation, but rather is about the orchestration of processes, which are actually two different things: the former is little more than advanced scripting, the…
Log Files Do Not Improve Security →
Logs are for auditing, accountability, and tracking down offenders – not for providing real-time security A new law signed into effect in February 2009 requires that health care providers and…
Impact of Load Balancing on SOAPy and RESTful... →
A load balancing algorithm can make or break your application’s performance and availability It is a (wrong) belief that “users” of cloud computing and before that “users” of corporate data…
If Your Users See an HTTP Error Code You’re... →
There is no reason in a modern web application for users to see a white error page Sightings of the Twitter “fail whale” are, these days, fewer and far between. That’s a good thing. What’s…
How to Build a Cloud Without Using Virtualization →
Leveraging Java EE and dynamic infrastructure to enable a shared resource, on-demand scalable infrastructure – without server virtualization Many pundits and experts allude to architectures that…
Securing the Other Side of the Cloud →
Why would miscreants bother with other routes when they can go straight to the source? People concerned with security of the cloud are generally worried about illegitimate access of…
August 2009
27 posts
Migrate a live application across clouds with no... →
F5 and VMware demonstrate live migration of a virtualized application across clouds without downtime or user disruption Cloud is reaching the peak of possibilities and that (often) means…
Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Makes Internal Cloud... →
How to leverage a “private virtual cloud” such as Amazon VPC with your own dynamic infrastructure A couple of blog posts on Amazon’s recent announcement of its VPC (Virtual…
The End of DNS As We Know It →
DNS wasn’t meant to handle hybrid cloud architectures and on-demand routing When you start distributing services (workloads, applications) across multiple locations, a la cloud…
WILS: Cloud Changes How But Not What →
Cloud changes how we deliver applications but we’re still delivering applications With all the hype around cloud it’s easy to get caught up in deployment models and architectures and how much…
The Virtual Public-Private Cloud Connection →
Secure, optimized tunnels to a remote site, e.g. the cloud. Haven’t we been here before? In the continuing discussion around Business Intelligence in the cloud comes a more better (yes I did,…
Cloud Computing’s (not so) Best Kept Secret →
Cloud providers know the secret to a successful cloud computing implementation is integration between the infrastructure and virtualization Ever notice that cloud providers are v e r y reluctant…
If You Focus on Products You’ll Miss the... →
The real power behind cloud is processes, and those don’t come out of a box VMworld, in case you’ve been out of touch, is approaching fairly quickly. As with any trade…
Virtual Machine Density as the New Measure of IT... →
You’re going to need a dynamic infrastructure lest you effectively negate the gains achieved by higher VM densities In the continuing saga of “do more with less” comes a new phrase that’s being…
We Don’t Know What Cloud Is But What... →
Survey says IT still doesn’t agree on the definition of cloud – private or public – but everybody is doing it Every organization with a stake in cloud computing’s predicted billions of dollar…
The Bandwidth of Sneakernet to the Cloud →
Just what is the bandwidth of a van full of hard drives traveling 300 miles at a speed of 65 mph? After a short Twitter discussion based on this post which suggested Ye Olde Sneakernet is the…
WILS: Application Acceleration versus Optimization →
Why do application delivery vendors talk about both? Aren’t they the same thing? In general, acceleration implies that something will be done to the application: caching, compression, etc… The…
The Myth of 100% IT Efficiency →
Idle resources will always need to exist, especially in a cloud architecture With IT focused on efficiency – for reduction in operating expenses and in the interests of creating a greener…
Amazon Compliance Confession About Customers, Not... →
Amazon EC2 and S3 are no more or less safe than they were last week despite hype around PCI compliance admission The recent admission/announcement that “Amazon EC2 is not PCI compliant” (this is…
How do you get the benefits of shared resources in... →
I was recording a podcast last week on the subject of cloud with an emphasis on security and of course we talked in general about cloud and definitions. During the discussion the subject of “private…
Putting the Cloud Before the Horse →
Without processes the cloud is not a cloud So you’ve virtualized your application infrastructure using VMware or Microsoft or the “virtualization solution de jour.” You…
The Business Intelligence--Cloud Paradox →
Simultaneously one of the best use-cases for cloud as well as the worst. What’s IT to do? David Linthicum, SOA and cloud pundit and all-around interesting technology guy, recently …
WILS: InfoSec Needs to Focus on Access not... →
Back when I was developing GIS data translation software I had to fight security all the time. My desktop was so locked down I couldn’t compile the code because I didn’t even have appropriate…
WILS: InfoSec Needs to Focus on Access not... →
Dear Developer: Step Away from the Keyboard →
When it comes to availability, coding a solution is just delaying the inevitable Jonathan Howell, in Five Things That Will Kill Your Site – an excellent read, by the way, for all web…
Cloud is Not a Big Switch →
Why Carr’s analogy doesn’t describe today’s cloud environments and how SOA can get us closer to what he describes Back when cloud first starting drifting in to obscure the computing landscape…
Taking Down Twitter as easy as D.N.S. →
If they can take down Twitter via DNS, they can take your site, too. Everyone is talking about the DoS (Denial of Service) attack on Twitter but most of them are missing what really happened….
Do you have the right aaS? →
This isn’t all or nothing – focus on the right cloud model for each application and not the entire data center There’s a lot of discussion about why you should choose one cloud computing model…
Cloud Changes Cost of Attacks →
For some companies there’s never been a quantifiable financial impact from attacks. Cloud may change that. One of the frustrations with information security is that it’s always difficult – if not…
A Formula for Quantifying Productivity of Web... →
Ever wanted to prove or understand how the network impacts productivity? There is a formula for that… We often talk in abstract terms about the affects of application performance on productivity….
WILS: Applications Should Be Like Sith Lords →
When you’re thinking about deploying an application it would be good to remember Yoda’s words regarding the Sith: Always two there are, a master and an apprentice. ALWAYS TWO THERE ARE
Write It Like Seth →
If you happened to read my post this morning (WILS: Applications Should Be Like Sith Lords) you might be wondering if the cat got my tongue this morning or if perhaps I’ve lost the ability to …
Cloud Computing Makes Servers Obsolete →
The concept of a server needs to go the way of the dodo One of the reasons I enjoy Twitter is that quite frequently – if you’re following the right people – you’ll see a tweet that is absolutely…
July 2009
17 posts
Two Different Sock(et)s →
The importance of a full-proxy architecture to application delivery, security, cloud computing, and virtualization People often describe the act of changing focus from one related…
Denied! →
Context, it’s always about context (or the lack thereof) I received a call recently that most people have probably received: our banking institution just wanted to verify that yes, that was …
Beware the Availability Rat Hole in the Cloud →
Availability means more than the dread “d” word The focus on making servers unhackable to prevent service disruption (that’s such a politic way of saying the dread “d” word –…
I Can Has UR .htaccess File →
Notice that isn’t a question, it’s a statement of fact Twitter is having a bad month. After it was blamed, albeit incorrectly, for a breach leading to the disclosure of both…