RightScale

RightScale (www.rightscale.com) has focused on creating a transparent platform that embraces open standards, giving you the tools to avoid lock-in. The RightScale Cloud Management Platform lets you choose freely from a variety of programming languages, development environments, data stores, and software stacks. You choose the components and at any time you can make changes, add additional components, or move it all back into your own data center.Your freedom to choose extends to the cloud provider or infrastructure as a service (IaaS) layer as well. You can select the best cloud infrastructure for your application, migrate to a new one, or split deployments across multiple clouds�public or private�all from within RightScale�s single management environment. With new cloud providers emerging...

Elastra

Elastra (www.elastra.com) is a company with an interesting kind of cloud-based middleware. It was founded by serial entrepreneur Kirill Sheynkman, who successfully sold companies to IBM and to BEA. Elastra is funded by Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, an experienced venture capital firm who invests almost exclusively in software and middleware and lately has been investing heavily in Software as a Service (SAAS) and in cloud computing. John Hummer sits on their board.Elastra aims to help you easily overcome the challenges of scalability in the cloud, by making it seem almost transparent to you:The Elastra Cloud Server gives your IT organization the ability to:� Rapidly model and provision application infrastructure� Automate changes to the system deployment process�Efficiently utilize internal,...

3Tera

3Tera, acquired by CA in June 2010, offers Cloudware (www.3tera.com/Cloud-computing), an architecture providing an open framework to allow the development of a cloud computing environment that�s open enough to work on nearly any Web/enterprise application. The absence of cloud computing standards have led to vendor lock-in, where each cloud vendor offers a proprietary cloud. Cloudware is a big step toward bridging clouds and creating standards that will lead to an open environment for clouds, providing customers with mix-and-match capability and freedom of movement.3Tera presents its vision of �Utility Computing� on its Web site:3Tera�s AppLogic grid operating system eliminates the binding of software to hardware through self-contained software components called virtual appliances. Combined...

Abiquo

Abiquo is a complete solution designed from the ground-up to provide next generation Cloud management. Abiquo provides features like virtual to virtual conversion; reportedly, it is easy to implement and operate and facilitates managing thousands of virtual machines, without relinquishing control of the physical infrastructure.Authorized users and groups are empowered to manage their own virtual enterprises within allocated resource limits. New virtual machines or pre-built appliances can be deployed in seconds, dramatically improving efficiency and allowing you to regain business agility.Source: http://www.abiquo.com/products/abiquo-overview.phpAbiquo manages all aspects of the virtualization infrastructure, including the physical cores, network and storage resources. It is vendor agnostic,...

Zend

Zend Technologies [www.zend.com], the PHP Company, launched the Simple API for Cloud Application Services project, a new open source initiative that allows developers to use common application services in the cloud, while enabling them to unlock value-added features available from individual providers. The project aims to facilitate the development of cloud applications that can access services on all major cloud platforms. Zend, IBM, Microsoft, Nirvanix, Rackspace and GoGrid are co-founding contributors to this community project.The Simple Cloud API project empowers developers to use one interface to interact with a variety of cloud application services, enabling them to more easily access new technologies from cloud vendors. The first deliverables will include interfaces for file storage,...

CohesiveFT

CohesiveFT states that it �provides customers with a cloud container approach that protects them from un-needed differentiation and vendor lock-in.�CohesiveFT has been providing enterprise-grade virtualization and cloud products since 2006 (Elastic Server and VPN-Cubed). . . . Our Cloud Container process is an experience informed methodology proven to take . . . the relevant aspects of their existing physical infrastructure, and create a Cloud Container Solution to enable the rapid on-demand deployment of the cluster topology in cloud environments. CohesiveFT's founders bring enterprise technology expertise to their products and claim to be focused on delivering cloud "on-boarding solutions" for companies with a suite of three products: Elastic Server� for template based assembly of virtual...

Internet Technology: Will the Trend Continue?

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Ubuntu�s Cloud Strategy

Ubuntu (http://cloud.ubuntu.com/) adopted the following approach (as outlined by Simon Wardley of the Linux distribution�s commercial sponsor, Canonical):� make the cloud simple.� focus on one layer of the computing stack (infrastructure) to begin with.� help drive standardization (a key requirements of this shift towards a service world) by adopted public de-facto standards.� provide open source systems to avoid lock-in issues.� actively work to mitigate risks and concerns over cloud by giving our users options.Source: http://blog.gardeviance.org/2010/03/cloud-computing-madesimple.htmlUbuntu�s approach, Wardley continues,. . . was based around the adoption of Amazon EC2/S3 and EBS as the public de facto standard . . . We provided images for use on Amazon EC2 (public cloud) and the technology...

Cloud-Optimized Linux

Vendors have sensed that as migration to the cloud accelerates, there is an opportunity for cloud-optimized versions of Linux. Three early entries in this category are Peppermint, CloudLinux, and Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. CloudLinuxCloudLinux states that it is �. . . optimized for Web hosting, so it improves the stability of your servers, which helps to reduce churn related to downtime and outages.� CloudLinux is an operating system (OS) that is commercially supported and interchangeable with the most popular RPM-based distribution on the market. RPM is the baseline package format of the Linux Standard Base (LSB), which is a joint project of several Linux distributions under the organizational structure of the Linux Foundation. Its goal is to standardize the software system structure, including...

Microsoft Visual Studio and Other Cloud Development Environments

Today, most new (full-bodied) applications are developed for the enterprise either using Microsoft�s .Net architecture with Visual Studio or in the C++, Java or Python languages using other tools. Simpler projects or parts of projects may be coded in PHP or PERL (CGI scripts), and run in a J2EE container, if necessary, so they can integrate well with Java; they may also be coded in JavaScript. Some developers are fanatical about C# and Ruby. Considerable in-house development is done with cascading style sheets (CSSs) and ASP.Net, a Web framework. ASP.Net applications need to be hosted on a Windows hosting provider; there are many.Programs developing with .Net tools will (after recompilation) run most directly in the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. They also will run in the cloud on a Windows...

Turning Your PC into a DVR with Windows 7

So, you have an edition of Windows 7 with Media Center but no TV tuner card installed? You are missing out on the main Media Center experience. With the help of this section and an inexpensive TV tuner card, I show you how to turn your PC into a fully functional DVR that will give any TiVo set top box big competition.Before you can get started, there are some minimum system requirements that I must go over so that you will be able to watch TV on your computer. Your computer must have a video card with at least 128MB of RAM. To support the best appearance your video card must also support the Aero Glass effect.The most important aspect of adding a tuner to your PC is picking one that is compatible with Windows 7 Media Center. Several tuner cards are on the market, but not all are compatible...

Turning Your PC into a DVR with Windows 7

So, you have an edition of Windows 7 with Media Center but no TV tuner card installed? You are missing out on the main Media Center experience. With the help of this section and an inexpensive TV tuner card, I show you how to turn your PC into a fully functional DVR that will give any TiVo set top box big competition.Before you can get started, there are some minimum system requirements that I must go over so that you will be able to watch TV on your computer. Your computer must have a video card with at least 128MB of RAM. To support the best appearance your video card must also support the Aero Glass effect.The most important aspect of adding a tuner to your PC is picking one that is compatible with Windows 7 Media Center. Several tuner cards are on the market, but not all are compatible...

Preventing Vendor Lock-In as You Migrate to the Cloud

To prevent being locked in to a single vendor, you need to ensure that the architecture you have selected can run on multiple clouds, and that the data can be easily migrated from Cloud A to Cloud B. While that sounds trite and simple, it�s still true. And in theory, it�s not hard. But as usual, God (or the Devil; take your pick) is in the details.Totally new development without any use of legacy code is the easy case, but it is not so common; we all carry around the accumulated baggage of the past. However, should you be fortunate enough to have this luxury, I would suggest developing on Eucalyptus (see the later section on this platform) or OpenStack, a new open source effort led by Rackspace and NASA, and using one or more of the most favored languages for cloud development, namely C++,...

Tweaking Windows 7 Search

One of the most useful new features in Windows 7 is the Search box that is in every Explorer window and many other applications. This Search box enables you to sort through your files like never before. Looking for all text files in a folder? Just type *.txt into the Search box and press Enter. Almost instantly you will begin to see a list of all text files in the current directory you are viewing.Looking for all Word documents that refer to a specific company or person? Just go to your Documents folder and search for the name and press Enter. Windows Search can also look at the filenames, but it will also search the contents of your files. This is possible because Windows Search has built-in readers for many of the most popular file types.As you can see, Windows Search is a comprehensive...

Changing the Look of Windows 7 Via WindowBlinds

Before visual styles were a part of Windows, only one way existed to change the way Windows looked: via the WindowBlinds program from Stardock (www.WindowBlinds.net). WindowBlinds is a classic Windows customization program. When it first came out, it transformed the boring gray interface of Windows into an attractive and colorful experience. Now that Windows 7 includes its own skinning engine, products that have their own skinning engines, such as WindowBlinds, seem less necessary. So, why am I even mentioning this application? Because the Microsoft engine will only run skins digitally signed from Microsoft unless you use a utility to get around the limitation. Additionally, the quality of visual styles available for WindowBlinds typically is better than the hacked visual styles available.Using...

Removing the Shortcut Arrow from Icons on the Desktop

One thing that I always hate about Windows is the shortcut arrow. Sure, it is good to be able to tell if a shortcut is actually a shortcut, but I think that I know that the applications that I put on my desktop are already shortcuts. Also, the shortcut indicator that Windows uses does not look appealing, in my opinion. With a simple registry hack, it is possible to replace that shortcut icon overlay with any icon. This allows you to create your own icon using any popular icon editor and use it as an overlay on any shortcut.I created a green arrow that I like to use as my shortcut icon overlay. You can grab it from the Windows 7 Tweaks web site at Tweaks.com/books/ win7tweaks. Use the following steps to change the icon shortcut overlay:1. Click the Start button, type regedit in the Search box,...