http://www.twitter.com/GeorgeReese
Author and founder of Valtira and enStratus.
Areas of Expertise:
- java
- mysql
- amazon ec2
- content management
- marketing
- internationalization
- cloud computing
- amazon web services
- consulting
- speaking
- training
- writing
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Recent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
George blogs at:
http://oreilly.com/blogs/
The Hole in VMware's Whole Cloud Strategy
June 30 2012
Microsoft and Google moving into the IaaS space is the clearest signal the market has seen that Platform as a Service just isn't ready for the big leagues yet. These moves may even indicate that PaaS isn't the grand future of cloud everyone has been predicting, but instead just a… read moreObject/NoSQL Mapping for Riak with Dasein Persist
May 29 2012
One of the more snarky things you will hear said about NoSQL databases is that they are "write-only" databases or "no query" databases. It is fair to say that NoSQL databases are often challenging to pull data from when you are doing more than fetching values by their keys. The… read moreOctober 12 2011
API versioning is something a lot of API designers don't worry about until the second version of their API. API versioning, however, is a controversial subject with strong opinions on both version representation and behavior. read moreThe EC2 API as a Defacto Standard
August 09 2011
The argument for EC2 as a defacto standard is, at some level, the same as it is for any defacto standard: through the EC2 API, you eliminate the need for others to learn some custom API and you can leverage the existing, sizable ecosystem. But there is no such thing… read moreThe Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of REST APIs
June 04 2011
I've never seen a perfect REST API. But I have seen some of the most horrible mistakes repeated over and over again by people building heavily consumed APIs. Here's a list of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of REST API design. read moreThe AWS Outage: The Cloud's Shining Moment
April 23 2011
So many cloud pundits are piling on to the misfortunes of Amazon Web Services this week as a response to the massive failures in the AWS Virginia region. If you think this week exposed weakness in the cloud, you don't get it: it was the cloud's shining moment, exposing the… read moreThe Whole Cloud, Part II: Suitability for the Cloud
April 16 2011
In my discussion of the Whole Cloud, I assumed as fact that a mature cloud computing infrastructure leverages all kinds of clouds. Given the amount of energy put into arguments on the subject, it's obviously not a given to most people. Today, I want to talk about how these different… read moreApril 15 2011
A few companies are currently well positioned to create a view of cloud computing that encompasses all aspects of cloud from IaaS to SaaS, public cloud and private cloud, internal and external. A mature cloud infrastructure, however, will be made up of all pieces of the cloud puzzle. read moreA Proposal for Cloud State Notifications
April 02 2011
The cloud ecosystem needs a mechanism besides polling that enables monitoring, management, and automation tools to learn about changes in the state of cloud resources. This proposal attempts to define a simple protocol for notifying those tools through a push notifications system rather than polling. read moreCloud Culture: How Cloud Attitudes Differ in Europe and North America
December 31 2010
Based on the work I have been doing in cloud computing Europe, Asia/Pacific, and North America, people have been regularly asking me the questions, "How are attitudes towards cloud computing different in Europe?" and "How has cloud adoption differed in Europe from it's adoption in the United States?" In the… read moreCloud 2011: The Year of the Network
December 22 2010
In spite of all the innovation that's happened in the recent years in the cloud, cloud networking remains in the dark ages. I expect that 2011 will prove to be the year of the network in the cloud. read moreThe Delusion of Private Cloud Security
August 07 2010
The perennial debate on private cloud vs. public cloud continues to flare up anywhere cloud computing is being discussed. One of the most often repeated myths favoring private cloud deployments is that they are "more secure" than public clouds. It's complete nonsense. read moreJuly 01 2010
Getting your brain around all of the components of cloud computing is a huge challenge. There are so many players, and a number of them are performing functions entirely new to IT. A few months ago, I put together a mind map of the cloud computing space I use to… read moreFailure Is a Feature of Reality
May 14 2010
All systems fail. In the computing world, the best we can hope for is the creation of redundant systems and backup systems that help minimize the impact of those failures. Where people run into trouble in the cloud is when they believe that "putting a system in the cloud" means… read moreUnderstanding the Cloud Landscape
April 29 2010
Making sense out of all of the components of cloud computing confuses even many of the major analysts. It's easy to understand how Google, Amazon, or SalesForce.com fit into the picture. But who is Eucalyptus and what do they do? Does CohesiveFT compete with enStratus or does it complement enStratus?… read moreThe Five Levels of Cloud Computing
March 24 2010
We're at an immature stage in the development of cloud computing. Today, the cloud represents the exception to way organizations manage technology. As the decade progresses, cloud computing will mature and evolve into the core of all IT systems along the path described in these five levels of cloud computing. read moreFebruary 25 2010
Should public cloud providers reach into the guest operating system to perform various functions? I've always held that a public cloud provider should treat the border between the hypervisor and guest operating system as a sacred barrier that should never be breached. The fear in public cloud computing is giving… read moreHow Much Is the Fear of Cloud Security Worth?
February 21 2010
It's absurd to talk about the cloud as being "more secure" or "less secure" than an internal data center. In fact, for most needs, a cloud infrastructure can be secured appropriately to an organization's risk profile. Even if you are concerned about the security issues with cloud computing, it's highly… read moreTowards Event-Driven Cloud APIs
February 16 2010
The traditional request/response API model that exists for nearly every single cloud provider API is a very wasteful model that eats up computing resources both with the cloud provider and with systems interested in monitoring for changes in the cloud infrastructure. Instead, cloud providers should move to an event-driven API… read moreDasein Cloud and the vCloud API
January 20 2010
Dasein Cloud has introduced support for VMware's vCloud API. Because it is so different from other cloud APIs, the vCloud implementation for Dasein Cloud provides an excellent example of how Dasein Cloud is able to provide a rich experience for each cloud it supports without sacrificing abstraction. read moreJanuary 13 2010
In the cloud computing era, just about every small/medium-sized business task has a cloud-based solution. There's simply no longer any need to own a server, and purchasing desktop software should be the exception and not the rule. read moreCloud Forensics using EBS Boot Volumes
January 03 2010
In December, Amazon introduced a new feature for their cloud: EBS Boot Volumes. An EBS boot volume essentially provides the ability to boot from a virtual SAN. This new approach to booting virtual machines offers up a wealth of new capabilities in the Amazon Cloud. Among the security uses of… read morePrinciples for Standardized REST Authentication
December 26 2009
I'm tired of wasting brain cycles figuring out whether a given vendor requires you to sign your query before or after you URL encode your parameters and I am fed up with vendors who insist on using interactive user credentials to authenticate API calls. Here's a set of standards that… read moreOctober 15 2009
I've attended a number of CloudCamps around the world, and the question as to whether systems administrators are relevant in the post-cloud world always seems to come up. Let's put this silly question to bed: your cloud needs a sys admin. read moreFour Tips for Avoiding VM Sprawl in the Public Cloud
October 03 2009
You moved into the cloud to save some money. Now it's the first of the month and you're looking at your latest cloud provider bill. It's not at all what you planned. Welcome to the world of VM sprawl, the dark side of cloud computing. read moreAugust 15 2009
The Dasein Cloud API is the next step in the drive towards Open cloud programming standards. This Open Source API enables programmers to write cloud management applications in Java against a single API that supports multiple clouds. read moreFreemium Services and the Economics of Social Networking
July 05 2009
Social networking sites face a unique economic challenge when it comes to monetizing the value they create. Any attempt to capture a piece of the value they create inevitably damages that value. read moreThe First Step into the Cloud: Which Kinds of Applications Make the Most Sense?
June 24 2009
A key to successfully integrating the public cloud into your IT infrastructure is identifying a first application that will provide you with measurable results and learnings that can apply to future deployments without putting your business at risk. IT annoyances make the ideal first cloud projects. read moreA Quick Look at Amazon CloudWatch, Load Balancing, and Auto-Scaling
June 01 2009
Amazon recently made available to the public three new services that will have a huge impact on the way people architect systems to be deployed in the Amazon cloud. I have put together my first look thoughts on these new offerings. read moreThe Five Laws of Implementing a Login Solution
May 20 2009
Don't write your own. But whether your decide to write your own or implement a third-party solution, make sure it follows these five rules no matter what the risk profile of your application. read moreGoogle's Failings Say Little about Cloud Computing
May 16 2009
Every time an individual cloud vendor suffers a failure like last week's networking issues with Google, mindless bloggers rush out to suggest the failures of one company represent failures of cloud computing in general. It's time to hold this logical fallacy up to the light and learn what we really… read moreTransparency: The Key to Cloud Security
April 19 2009
If your cloud provider refuses to answer any specific question about their security architecture related to your security requirements, run--don't walk--away from that vendor read moreUsing the Cloud for Disaster Recovery
April 12 2009
Few companies have a solid disaster recovery plan and fewer companies actually verify their DR plans are working. One of the often missed benefits of cloud computing is that it makes rapid disaster recovery with minimal data loss extremely cost effective and enables the automation of those processes that can… read moreThe Varieties of Openness Worth Wanting in the Cloud
March 27 2009
All of the vendors in the cloud space have paid lip service to the idea of Openness in the cloud; and most everyone believes that being "Open" is a "good thing". In an environment in which few people agree on the specifics of defining the term "cloud computing", what exactly… read moreThe Weakness of Commodity Server to Cloud Server Cost Comparisons
March 19 2009
Though the conventional wisdom on the Internet is that the economic benefits of cloud computing fail for applications with steady usage needs, the reality is that the commodity-server to cloud-server comparisons on which this wisdom is based are flawed. The reality is that the cloud often provides compelling economic benefits… read moreFebruary 26 2009
Compliance is the most significant issue confronting organizations looking at a move into the cloud. Here are a number of recommended architectures that should provide PCI compliance for pure-cloud infrastructures. read moreJanuary 18 2009
Twitter is the only social media tool that has proven itself in the business arena. While some tools have serviced niche uses for specific industries, Twitter's global appeal to business and the amount of value it adds are unmatched. The irony of this situation is that any attempt to recapture… read moreCloud Tips: Sending Email from an EC2 Instance
January 16 2009
Many email systems mark email coming from an SMTP server in the Amazon cloud as spam. As a result, you can't use traditional mail delivery techniques for sending out form submissions or program alerts from the cloud. In this cloud tip, I describe how you can successfully send legitimate email… read moreWhy the AWS Console is Good for Cloud Tool Vendors
January 09 2009
The release of the Amazon Web Services console has had a number of people predicting doom for cloud tools providers. On the contrary, by removing a barrier to experimentation that has kept people out of the cloud, the Amazon Web Services console should bring more people in the cloud and… read moreDecember 24 2008
The importance of the differences among web application platforms like .NET, JSP, PHP, etc. drops dramatically under the cloud computing paradigm. Which architecture you choose really comes down to one question: what kind of programming and support resources do you have? If the answer is "Microsoft technologies", however, you should… read moreDecember 13 2008
Like most of us, I have been in the cloud longer than I have thought about being "in the cloud". But it took the need for a significant capital investment in hardware to drive Valtira into cloud computing using Amazon Web Services like Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. Our journey… read moreThree Criteria for Being a Cloud Service
December 08 2008
You may agree or disagree with those criteria. When I talk about cloud computing, that's what I mean. The expression "cloud computing" is confusing a lot of people. I use three criteria when talking about cloud computing to separate cloud services from other kinds of services. I think they capture… read moreOn Why I Don't Like Auto-Scaling in the Cloud
December 06 2008
Cloud environments like Amazon EC2 have the ability to dynamically add and remove capacity based on your actual demand. Some tools extend this capability into auto-scaling. Auto-scaling, however, can be dangerous and often serves as a crutch for poor capacity planning. read moreKey Security Issues for the Amazon Cloud
November 30 2008
This follow-on article to the Twenty Rules for Amazon Cloud Security examines six real security concerns that gave rise to the 20 rules. read moreTwenty Rules for Amazon Cloud Security
November 27 2008
The Amazon EC2 cloud computing model introduces new classes of security concerns as you look to deploying web applications into the cloud. These twenty rules for Amazon Cloud security will help you protect the integrity of your cloud deployments from many different kinds of security threats. read moreIncreasing Availability in the Amazon Cloud
November 10 2008
If you have done any experimentation in the cloud, you have likely realized that virtual server instances in the Amazon cloud are much less reliable than their real world counterparts. How do you compare availability in the cloud to a physical infrastructure and leverage the cloud to increase overall availability. read moreThe Economics of Cloud Computing
October 24 2008
Cloud computing has been "the next cool thing" for at least the past 18 months. The current economic climate, however, may be the thing that accelerates the maturity of the technology and drives mainstream adoption in 2009. read moreConsiderations in Building Web Applications for the Amazon Cloud
October 18 2008
I have been helping a number of clients lately migrate part or all of their infrastructure over into the Amazon Cloud. The biggest concern I am seeing relates to whether or not their existing web applications will work OK in... read moreRecent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
Webcast: Cloud Independence with Dasein Cloud
July 30, 2010
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Cost: Free Dasein Cloud is an Open Source Java API that enables write-once, run against any cloud programming. With Dasein Cloud, you can run the same application across any number of supported clouds without ...
Webcast: Getting Started with Amazon Web Services
April 08, 2009
Duration: Approximately 60 minutes. Cost: Free Amazon has rapidly established itself as the major player in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) domain of cloud computing. Author of Cloud Application Architectures and enStratus founder and CTO ...
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