The next Cloud Feature - Frequent Flyer program to lock you in

I am participating in a Route to the Cloud webinar tomorrow and one the points I want to make is whether you want to be cloud independent or not is an important decision.  What fool would want to be locked into a cloud?  In fact GigaOm's Barb Darrow just posted on the issue of lock-in preventing movement to the cloud.

Fear of lock-in dampens cloud adoption

by Barb Darrow

photo: Flickr/ Moyan_Brenn

SUMMARY:

Data portability — the ability to move your information between clouds (or in and out of clouds) with relative ease — is a key concern of companies considering a cloud move.

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It’s become a truism to say that data is the new gold –but that doesn’t mean there are easy answers about where to store this gold. For now, many corporate customers will hold back on full cloud computing adoption until they’re convinced that they can move their data off a given cloud as easily as they put it there in the first place. Face it: fear of vendor lock-in is not limited to the on-premises IT world and it’s time enlightened vendors get this problem in hand.

What would motivate people to accept a lock-in?  Frequent Flyer program.  The human behavior to get points is ingrained in people.  

Can you imagine if AWS launched a point program for the amount of Cloud Services used and gave program owners the ability the redeem points for Amazon.com merchandise?  Users would then have the incentive to have larger AWS bills and loyalty to a cloud provider is common.

No one in the cloud service has a frequent flyer program, and this probably will never happen.  Note: this is a what if AWS launched a frequent flyer program, not they have.  

This may sound crazy, but we have all seen people who go through extreme lengths for Frequent Flyer Points.  You cloud kind of do this already if you set up a Amazon.com Rewards Visa card.  If you spent a $1,000/month on AWS that would be 3 points/$1 = 3,000 points / 100 points/$1 = $30.  You spend $10,000 a month on AWS.  Not hard to do. You get $300 a month in your account.

Companies tried to take away an employees frequent flyer points, but that didn't work.

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Choosing a Path to the Cloud?

Moving to the cloud is assumed for almost all IT departments.  Choosing the path for you and what you take with you is not as clear.

On Feb 27, 2013 10-11a PT, I will be an webinar panel to discuss the routes that people can take.

What’s your best route to the cloud?

As organizations of all sizes make their move to the cloud, they are looking for ways to gain control over the chaos of ad hoc, unplanned and unmanaged adoption of cloud services. No single path is right for every company and thus a growing assortment of services is emerging to suit every use case. These range from direct peering, to one-stop-shops that offer it all, which is great as long as you like their flavor, to cloud services brokerages offering migration to specific cloud apps, to colo and hosting providers creating cloud exchanges or marketplaces where users can connect directly to best of breed cloud services all within the same data center.

123 spots left for Netflix's Open Source Open House Feb 06, 2013

GigaOm's Barb Darrow posted on Netflix's Open Source announcements, including an open house event where 77 of 200 spots are fill, leaving 123 open.

Netflix wants open-source developers, cloud alternatives

by Barb Darrow

7 HOURS AGO

4 Comments

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SUMMARY:

Want to hear about the latest and greatest in Netflix’s home-grown technology? The company will host an open-source open house for developers on February 6. The goal is to recruit top-flight developers and to encourage construction of alternatives to Amazon Web Services.

Netflix released anthor monkey theme tool.

Most recently,  it open-sourcedJanitor Monkey to automate the cleanup of unused cloud resources. In all, Netflix has put source code for sixteen Netflix-built AWS tools on Github, Cockcroft said.

Janitor Monkey is a much funner name than garbage collection.

Janitor Monkey - Keeping the Cloud Tidy and Clean

 

 

By Michael Fu and Cory Bennett, Engineering Tools 

One of the great advantages of moving from a private datacenter into the cloud is that you have quick and easy access to nearly limitless new resources. Innovation and experimentation friction is greatly reduced: to push out a new application release you can quickly build up a new cluster, to get more storage just attach a new volume, to backup your data just make a snapshot, to test out a new idea just create new instances and get to work. The downside of this flexbility is that it is pretty easy to lose track of the cloud resources that are no longer needed or used. Perhaps you forgot to delete the cluster with the previous version of your application, or forgot to destroy the volume when you no longer needed the extra disk. Taking snapshots is great for backups, but do you really need them from 12 months ago? It's not just forgetfulness that can cause problems. API and network errors can cause your request to delete an unused volume to get lost. 

Goldilock's Storage Solution, not too cold, not too hot - Pogoplug adds Amazon Glacier

Last week I got a chance to talk to PogoPlug CEO Dan Putterman.  And, what came to mind is Pogoplug's Amazon Glacier integration is a Goldilocks story.  Not too hot (expensive, yet fast).  Not too cold (cheaper, but slow).  Something just right which is a mix of hot and cold.

Daniel Putterman

President and CEO

Daniel, our fearless leader, President and CEO, is an industry-leading digital media entrepreneur. He founded Mediabolic in 1999 and served as CEO until its sale to Macrovision (now Rovi) in 2007. Mediabolic's software now powers millions of next generation digital consumer electronics devices. Additionally, he founded MaxInfo, the first collaborative Web media design software for the Internet (and acquired by NetManage), as well as EoExchange, a multimedia search engine for the Web. Over the last 20 years, Daniel has worked as an entrepreneur advocate, and has invested and teamed with colleagues to launch numerous Silicon Valley companies.

Daniel spent the earlier part of his career in senior management positions at Borland International and Symantec Corporation, where he was responsible for product management, business development and worldwide evangelism. He is a passionate and outgoing speaker on technology trends and issues. His dog, Riso, is our office mascot, troublemaker and vacuum cleaner.

It's one of the things I like about blogging is getting a 1/2 hr to talk to executives about their product from my home office, and learn a bit more. 

The press announcement that PogoPlug released this morning is for integration with Amazon Glacier.

September 06, 2012 09:00 ET

Pogoplug Introduces New Cloud Storage Service Using Amazon Glacier

New Service Combines Safe, Affordable Cloud Backup With Instant Access and Sharing

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 6, 2012) - Pogoplug today announced its new cloud storage service for families and small businesses. The service seamlessly integrates Amazon's Glacier storage with Pogoplug-enabled storage in the home or office. The combination provides the most affordable and safest multi-user cloud backup, with instant access and sharing from anywhere on the Internet.

"Amazon is revolutionizing cloud storage with Glacier. Our new offering provides the missing link by eliminating the three to five hour retrieval time intrinsic to Glacier -- making all content instantly accessible," said Daniel Putterman, CEO of Pogoplug. "By keeping data synchronized between Amazon Glacier and a Pogoplug device in the home or office, we are offering unprecedented pricing for safe, fast cloud storage."

The Amazon Glacier support provides a tiered storage strategy with your local PogoPlug device, Amazon S3, and Glacier.  This range gives the benefits of hot local storage, cloud for Internet access speeds, and cold tape back-up for peace of mind. 

Part of geeking out with Dan was discussing Mac Time Machine support and how his device compares to the Drobo-FS I have in my office.

Not you don't have to store everything in the cloud if you don't have the Internet bandwidth.

Archive

Once your data is safely stored on your Pogoplug, with one click you can choose to have a second copy of all or part of your data automatically and continuously archived to Pogoplug’s secure cloud. This additional backup protects your most critical files in case of a disaster at home, keeping your data twice as safe.

I am kind of surprised how much press there is one the announcement, but that is the benefit of being one of the first with Amazon Glacier support. 

Pogoplug adds Amazon Glacier-based cloud storage, includes gratis devices ... Engadget - ‎3 hours ago‎ Pogoplug Team plans enable businesses to leverage existing servers or computers for backup, private cloud storage and team collaboration. Each Pogoplug Team plan includes a fully customizable user interface, and up to 5 terabytes of offsite cloud storage.   Pogoplug debuts first consumer cloud service to utilize Amazon Glacier BetaNews - ‎3 hours ago‎ Consumer and enterprise cloud storage company Pogoplug on Thursday announced it has integrated Amazon Glacier long-term archival storage into the Pogoplug service. In its usual fashion, Pogoplug mirrors content from your local drives in the cloud and ...   Pogoplug hooks up with Amazon Glacier for cheap cloud storage VentureBeat - ‎3 hours ago‎ Backup storage provider Pogoplug has integrated with Amazon's new Glacier cloud storage in a move to make the personal backup storage more affordable and reliable, the company announced today. Pogoplug competes with consumer cloud backup and ...   Pogoplug taps Amazon Glacier for archiving GigaOM - ‎3 hours ago‎ Pogoplug's Team Service lets businesses use an existing server as shared and secure storage for authorized users, and a small Pogoplug device brings similar capabilities to home users. Now those Pogoplug devices, using the Amazon Glacier API, will ...   Pogoplug adds cloud caution with Amazon Glacier SlashGear - ‎3 hours ago‎ Pogoplug continues to push its own interpretation of cloud storage, revealing today a new service integrating with Amazon Glacier for a combination of local and remote backup. The deal sees users able to keep copies of their files both at home or the office, ...   Bridging Hot And Cold Cloud Storage InformationWeek - ‎2 hours ago‎ Pogoplug had been quietly developing a way to plug a major hole in its service--namely, what happens when your personal cloud dies or you accidentally delete an important folder? Enter Glacier, a service seemingly tailor made for products like Pogoplug ...   PogoPlug Crushing Competition with 1TB of Cloud Storage for $99 a Year Gotta Be Mobile - ‎3 hours ago‎ PogoPlug offers some unique ways to do cloud storage using your own hard drives by interfacing with their software, website and PogoPlug devices, but they took a huge leap forward today announcing new PogoPlug with Amazon Glacier built-in. This gives ...   Pogoplug partners with Amazon to offer affordable cloud storage family plans TECH.BLORGE.com - ‎34 minutes ago‎ Pogoplug is pairing up with Amazon to offer not only its own storage devices but also online archival storage. That means that your information will be accessible even if your hard drive dies, gets a nasty virus, or you just upgrade your computer. They are also ...   Pogoplug launches Amazon Glacier-powered cloud storage service The Next Web - ‎3 hours ago‎ It's only been a couple weeks since Amazon launched its low-cost Glacier service for infrequently accessed data, but storage solutions provider Pogoplug is ready to take advantage of it. The company's Family and Team services both make use of Glacier ...   Pogoplug Unveils New Family And Small Business Cloud Storage Solutions ... Geeky gadgets - ‎3 hours ago‎ PogoPlug has launched a new service this week designed to provide families and small businesses with a Cloud storage solution which utilises Amazon's Glacier storage services. The new packages start from $29 a year for unlimited private cloud storage at ...

Netflix open sources its middle-tier load balancer, Why?

GigaOm's Barb Darrow reports on Netflix's latest open sourcing of its middle tier load balancer.

According to the blog:

In AWS cloud, because of its inherent nature, servers come and go. Unlike the traditional load balancers which work with servers with well known IP addresses and host names, in AWS load balancing requires much more sophistication in registering and de-registering servers with the load balancer on the fly. Since AWS does not yet provide a middle tier load balancer, Eureka fills a big gap in that area.

The consistency of Netflix open sourcing its infrastructure makes it a pattern.  And, to understand the a pattern you need to ask what problems is Netflix trying to solve.  Why is Netflix sharing its infrastructure?

1. The process of open sourcing the code gets the developers to clean up their code and document.  There is some bad open source code out there, but there is also some very good.  The Netflix team takes pride in their sharing, so they want it to look good. 
2. Sharing this infrastructure makes Netflix an active member of the open source community.
3. The open source community then comments and makes input on Netflix contributions which are resources not  paid for.
4. The above makes the developers feel good about their participation in solving plumbing type (fundamental infrastructure) of problems that are not critical for protecting their IP.
5. The above allows Netflix to recruit new people.  Note almost every one of these postings ends with sentence, and we are hiring more people.  Finding really good people is a priority for Netflix.
6. Netflix gets positive PR consistently at conferences as they get mentioned for sharing and innovating in their IT infrastructure.

There are probably many more, but you get the basic idea.