Cloud and indoor positioning- A recipe in the making

Cloud computing is reshaping the IT and Telecommunications landscape, and the way we think of provisioning. On the other hand indoor-positioning with its technology agility and innovative prospects for location based services, will enable new forms of developer productivity. The question is how far mobile location can benefit from cloud computing?

Environment
Telco clouds are now on the move, and many telecom companies are building infrastructures around cloud computing e.g. SAIL (Scalable and Adaptive Internet soLutions) project to enable networks of the future. The other noteworthy dimension is M2M and cloud computing. Cloud computing is core value proposition for smart phones, and thereby for M2M. The connection has already being made and analysed by companies like Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (M2M Cloud Platform-Cumulocity).

Developers
The second aspect is that developers now love to work in the cloud especially in a multi-cloud environments. The reasons for that are ease of provisioning, resource utilisation, and scalability in the cloud. Developers like to work with APIs creating new applications and services that don’t die with load fluctuations on the network.

The new mix
Right now location-based-services companies are utilising cloud largely for storage. Apart from storage what computational and platform benefits LBS can gain from? One such approach must be provisioning of a service platform where developers can plugin their code through location-based enablements provided by companies like Qubulus using there industry leading Qubulus Positioning System. In this space new APIs targeting at developer productivity will enable a plathora of indoor positioning services. So the new mix is location-based cloud-enabled developer platform.
Now think of combining indoor positioning, M2M, cloud computing, developer agility, and unified service provisioning. Then the customer will be served best.

Verizon-Terremark Cloud Computing Offerings!

Verizon-Terremark:
Cloud Products:

1. vCloud Express

a- Pay as you go
b- Get started with a credit card
c- scalable development platform

2. Enterprise Cloud TM

a- Robust Security Suite
b- Dedicated resource pools
c- Integration with Private Networks

3. vCloud Datacenter

a- Hybrid Cloud Compatible
b- Dedicated resource pools
c- Manage with vCloud Director

Terremark Enterprise Cloud TM
a- vmware enabled, clustered hypervisor, HA,
b- Yearly subscription based, means NOT pay-as-you-go
c- Basic package contains 5 GHz and 10 GB RAM
d- Multiple NICs allowed
e- Switches can be created, bridge and routing facility
f- All the functionalities of vCloud Express included
g- Maximum server size allowed is 4 VPUs and 16 GB RAM
h- VMware .vmdk files cannot be exported from private network to Enterprise Cloud (Not yet supported)
i- LAN-LAN connection from private network to Enterprise Cloud can be made
j- Integrated HA firewalls availabe, Private vLANs
k- Infinicenter Management Console
l- No auto-scaling as in AWS (readers! please confirm)

vCloud Express:
a- API access available (RESTful)
b- Web interface, CLI interface
c- Virtualization technology is VMware + clustered hypervisor with VMware vSphere and VMware HA
d- Up to 8 Virtual processor units, upto 16GB virtual ram
e- Hardware load balancing
f- Persistant storage available—just like Amazon’s EBS
g- Horizontal (add servers) and vertical (add RAM) server scaling
h- Blank server available to install OS from ISO
i- Only 1 NIC is allowed. (http://bit.ly/kYBf7o)
j- IPSec and PPTP supported

vCloudExpress Architecture

vCloud DataCenter
a- Enterprise-class solution
b- Hybrid Cloud
c- VMware vCloud Director Integration
d- Local VMware VMs can be run on this service
e- Available in limited beta
f- Would be an extension of Terremark Enterprise Cloud

Cloud Projections for a near future-factualFiction

Hi all,
Cloud is now getting mature enough to tell the big bosses in big companies to take some big radical decisions, because its the big time now.
Introduction

So what should we expect from the rain-bucket i.e. cloud? I am going to write about what implications the current trending will bring, what sort of new models can emerge, what opportunities can come, and what threats might stream with it.
Mainframe to Client/server had a generational impact and a generational shift in mentality. It also shaped the world with its opportunities, and challenges. Then came the convergence and the life-of-all became inter-meshed. Then came the marriage of telecom sector with the IT sector. Then came the tilting of social-media from vertical to an awesome horizontal. Now its time to go back to the old days of electricity.

Cloud trends across multiple service architectures:

I am trying to think not to write in a manner that this blog-post becomes again a mundane appraisal of cloud computing. But an inspection to see the trends and what tweaks we can introduce and what implications that would bring, is the issue here.
The IT companies have no doubt set the trend for others to follow suite, and showed tremendousness business-case opportunity for those who were sceptic in the first place. Telecom sector along with its IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem), SIP, SS7 Stacks or INs (Intelligent Networks), WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), Femtocells, and LTE (Long Term Evolution) has mesmerised Operators to use their Pipes to service customers at other service levels e.g. finance, medical, engineering, etc. Now IT and Telecommunications sector has the opportunity to be in the same room, and play the metal for the audience. Lets try our IF mentality i.e. IF this happens then this can happen and IF not then that.
Cloud service providers will be able to make cloud data centers in each country in a near future, lets say 2-3 years. Currently we have few datacenters in multiple countries BUT China, India, Canada, Nepal, Mexico, Brazil, Pakistan, Russia still don’t have that much to office in terms of cloud provisioning for the public. So if that happens, it will push certain behaviour in non-IT sectors. Telecom companies that are in every country perhaps multiple in each country, will be able to make cloud applications/services which are specialised with respect to locality, aggregation, security, and performance characteristics. Added to this flavour will be the horizontal aspect of social media. Added to this is the ease of access and broadband speeds that consumers will have in two to three years will grant throttle perspective to cloud computing where SOA will gets its out-of-the-box access, creation, maintenance, and serviceability from enterprise level to bare metal consumer level.

Lets dig up the protos:

Spot Cloud, Storms in Clouds, intercloud, API explosion, and multiple implementations has already started a shift in academia to get to the standardisation stage for clouds. IEEE has opened its hands to get the standardisation outputs, IETF is on its DOING to get it standardised, and Orange, Ericsson Research Labs, and AT&T are moving in the directions of how to standardise their own or public implementations of clouds using their initiatives e.g. SAIL (Scalable and Adaptive Internet Solutions) by Ericsson.
Now comes the BIG V i.e. virtualization. Distributed virtualization is gaining more strengths and fluid nature and easy management of VMs will boost another layer of virtualization to be formed. This layer will have tendencies to form SOA models from within this layer. So the front ends to this will be used in enterprises to have their own machines flowing in their own distributed virtualization pool and a much more generic output will come with architecture independence. I will touch this somewhat later in a new post.

Security concerns never die

Security concerns as they are now in the market are pretty much natural but have lack of judgemental treatment. If enterprises will not solve this psychological milestone or cloudKnot, then we will see more PRIVATE then PUBLIC in the next few years. If they solve it then TESTING in the cloud will be augmented with application delivery with Telecom Pipes coming IN and OUT of the public clouds too. Currently not possible, but this radical step might be in the way. But be cautious, the main security threat will COME at that time. I guess the concerned guys know what this prick (myself) is writing here.

Have a nice day.
Enjoy

Shopaholic’s approach to buying services from the Cloud

Compulsive shopping done in stores is the coolest thing for a guy like me. And discounts are like conditioning for the buying recipe. But what will I do if I were to buy services instead of hard-stuff. If I can transition then I can imagine how others simple-people-like-me can do the same.
So it would be good for those who are projecting billions of dollars in revenue from billions of connected devices and consumer-cloud-transformation scenarios.

1- Adventure + Need:

I would first look at the app. store then go through apps then would try each what meets my eye. Thats what I normally do. Not so beneficial SO I would have to transition my buying habits since it wastes my time too by going through trillions of apps out there. I would equate my adventure to my needs. I hate trial versions-and I hope/predict all my shopaholic friends do the same. So if companies out there can turn me in without the trial-version type service then I would be happy to take a look. So trial versions really kill my adventure part. Maybe they can give me a bit of a service or prep my need a bit BUT if they ruin my adventure then I am not buying it. So think a new strategy apart from trial versions.

2- LOVE-TO-GO-SHOPPING:

The best thing about the best-of-the-best stores is that they make YOU move. So If apps make me move that would be an awesome thing but thats an OPTION not a requirments from my-kinda-shopaholic. Let me give you an example IF you can’t find an example. Groupon moved me to move. Signing up on their service gives me more than sitting on computer/belly-top. BUT its kind of really hard for app developers who work inside cloud to make people move. So I would suggest partnerships with Groupon, livingSocial, and Google Offers. Concerned guys know what I mean.

3- B2B-to-B2C:

Shopaholic’s aren’t just the guls-n-guys who don’t have roles, they can be giving services to others. So a I would love to see a service that help me service others. For that Shopaholic is willing to pay and more than willing to pay if its pay-as-you-go. You know what I mean? Definetly.

4- Sharing is caring:

Shopaholic buys the things which others can see, comprehend, applaud, OR atleast take-notice. So apps developers have to think out-of-the-box to make such a kind of service that an end-user is able to do ‘Sharing is Caring’ kind of stuff. So social media, augmented reallity, and seamlessness is very very important for me.

Shopaholic will be back—right now gotta go on a Groupon Prix.

6 Phases of successful migration of Enterprise Apps to the Cloud

NOTE: This post is a sort of my abstract version with comments for a great document available here http://media.amazonwebservices.com/CloudMigration-main.pdf

Phase 1: Cloud Assessment Phase:

In this phase ask yourself these questions:

a- Whats the difference in Cost, Security, and Complience in your Data Center Reilm and Cloud Reilm?

b- Do you have a business case in hand? And Who in your organization knows about this and how much? Are the implementors aware of what part they have to play?

c- When you talk about Cloud, you have to take COMPUTE, STORAGE, AND TRANSPORT in mind. Have you got any plans for that? How will you handle compute, storage, and transport? A pre-assessment study should yield a start-off plan. Else application metering in compute domain, storage domain, and transport domain is necessary factor in Cloud for Enterprises expecially Telecom Enterprises.

d- Your security advisory and auditing advisory should have an assessment plan before hand for the Cloud, have you involved them OR you are just thinking of feeling the good guts?

e- Have you characterized the sensitivity of the Data that will be ported or kept?

f- Have you classified your enterprise application based on its dependencies and risk?

Dependencies: 1- Applications with Top-Secret, Secret, or public Data sets

2- Applications with low, medium, or High complience requirements

3- Aplications that are internal-only, partner-only, and customer-facing

4- Applications with low, medium, and high coupling

5- Applications with strict and relaxed licensing

Phase 2: Proof of Concept Phase:

In this phase consider the following points:

a- The goal here is to learn about the Cloud provider while you are in direct contact with it. Deploy a simple app and then see the output.

b- Approach your assumptions with real measured data of an example installment/deployment

c- Start with a small Public Dataset that depends on an application which has similar dependencies as your enterprise application

d- The purpose of the proof of concept is that you wet your hands and make a case for critical next-step evaluation based on phase 1.

Phase 3: Data Migration Phase

In this phase consider following points:

a- Involve Enterprise Architect into the equation. 

b- Evaluate Cloud storage options against your local-storage options

c- NoSQL or Relation Database?

d- Estimate the effort required to migrate data to the Cloud.

e- Get some metering software like OpenCore 6.1 that will measure latency, and response-time of read-write data on datasets.

f- If you don't have data or you only deal with real time non-persistance data, have a coke and enjoy the next phase. 

Phase 4: Application Migration Phase

a- Learn about forklift migration strategy and hybrid migration strategy. What you choose is important.

b- Is your application stateless or stateful?

c- In forklift you port entire application at once with minimal code changes and it deals with stateless apps

d- In hybrid approache you can move parts of the application one at a time. 

Phase 5: Leverage the Cloud Phase

This is the phase where your application lies in the cloud as you planned. In this phase consider the followings:

a- Now you think of auto-scaling, edge caching your static content, auto-recovery, and elasticity.

b- How about business continuity with the new knowledge at hand about cloud-aware applicatoin?

c- Network level parameter estimation should be considered also. Connectivity constraints should be put to desk.

Phase 6: Optimization Phase

In this phase consider following:

a- How will you optimize the application in terms of cost savings?

b- You pay as you go means if your application is highly optimzation, you will have to pay less too.

c- Get your highly qualified software architects and solutions manager to think about new ways to optimize using code optimization, dataset optimization etc.

d- You can get alot of help for optimization if you run metering and code-probing softwares on your application in the cloud.

e- Improve caching

Conclusion

If you do all of the above, you have successfully migrated the enterprise application to the cloud, BUT still you need to rethink factors according to your business case or organizational plan.