Beyond the Network This post the third in a series: To read them in order, start here. Imagine for a moment that if instead of treating each server (or container, or vm) as if it is one or more network hops away, that the server was directly attached to the services and other servers that it needs […]
Category: IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service

The Future of the Network, Part 2
This post is the second in a series: To read them in order, start here. There are three trends that I have seen happening over the past few years that are indirectly or directly influencing the future of networks; The first is the use of FPGAs and ASICs to solve problems around distributed applications and network […]
Defying Data Gravity
How to Defy Data Gravity Since I have changed companies, I have been incredibly busy as of late and my blog has had the appearance of neglect. At a minimum I was trying to do a post or two per week. The tempo will be changing soon to move closer to this…. As a first […]
CLASH – CLoud Admin SHell
It has been several weeks since I have posted to this blog. I would blame this on the holidays, but that would be inaccurate as it has been something far more insidious! What is CLASH? CLASH is a universal shell. What is a universal shell? First, by universal I mean that it is intended to […]
Cloud Escape Velocity – Switching Cloud Providers
The term Escape Velocity is the speed needed to “break free” from a gravitational field without further propulsion according to Wikipedia.org. Data Gravity as explained in THIS previous post is what attracts and builds more Data, Applications, and Services on Clouds. Data Gravity also is what creates a high level of Escape Velocity to move to […]
Data Gravity – in the Clouds
Today Salesforce.com announced Database.com at Dreamforce. I realized that many could be wondering why they decided to do this and more so, why now? The answer is Data Gravity. Consider Data as if it were a Planet or other object with sufficient mass. As Data accumulates (builds mass) there is a greater likelihood that additional […]
Public Cloud Comparison and Calculator v2
After some time away from the Public Cloud Compute Comparison that I did a couple of months ago (which got X hits), I decided to update it based on feedback and new ideas. What follows is a brief walkthrough with instructions on how to use the Calculator. Before I go any further, a brief disclaimer: […]
Walk-through of the VMforce / Cloud OS / OpenPaaS Demo
This post attempts to walk-through the demo that was shown at the Ruby Conference. I was not actually at the conference, but I am reconstructing what happened based on materials and information that was tweeted and the presentation materials. The walk-through above shows a sophisticated PaaS layer (reminding me of the Google AppEngine PaaS) where […]
Where most Enterprise IT Architectures are today
Most Enterprises are architecturally in a rigid and fragile state. This has been caused by years of legacy practices in support of poor code, design patterns, underpowered hardware (which focused on increasing MHz not parallelism/multi-cores). What follows is a brief review of what has led us here and is needed background for the follow-on post […]
CAP Theorem and Clouds
A background on CAP Theorem: CAP Theorem is firmly anchored in the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) movement and is showing promise as a way of classifying different types of Cloud Solution Architectures. What follows is an explanation about CAP Theorem, how it works, and why it is so relevant to anyone looking at Clouds (Public, […]
The Real Path to Clouds
I’ve been spending a great deal of time as of late researching the background and roots of Cloud Computing in an effort to fully understand it. The goal behind this was to understand what Cloud computing is at all levels, and is quite a tall order. I think I have it figured out and am […]
Is it me or is it EngineYard ? Updated – (The Answer is BOTH)
UPDATED: So after doing some additional reading at the suggestion of @drnic, I read what @tmornini said about the changes occurring. What is the stated view of events? EngineYard is growing up. I can believe this as a plausible explanation, I state this because I have personally gone through this type of change at several of the startups […]