Private Cloud available for Free Download

Rackspace OpenStack Private Cloud available for FREE Download

Do you want a private cloud? Well, it's easy now. And for FREE !

What is OpenStack Private Cloud? Features | Requirements | Download Link

Rackspace has announced the release of Rackspace Private Cloud Software, powered by OpenStack and code-named Alamo.

OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.

Through OpenStack Private Cloud, private cloud computing has been easy than ever before.

Rackspace officials said the software is based on the company's experience in deploying and operating OpenStack-based public and private clouds in a variety of environments, including in Rackspace’s own data centers as well as in external data centers. The Rackspace Private Cloud is backed by an optional support offering.

“We believe that the majority of our customers and cloud users will be running hybrid cloud environments for a long time,” Jim Curry, general manager of the private cloud business at Rackspace, said in a statement. “Today’s announcement allows businesses to utilize their existing investment in their own data center resources to run an open cloud solution for additional control and customization and also take advantage of Rackspace’s data center options.”

Features of OpenStack Private Cloud.

• Ubuntu 12.04 Host Operating System
• KVM Virtualization
• Chef Server
• OpenStack Essex Release - Cloud Software.

Suggested System Requirements

Controller Node

16GB RAM

144GB Disk Space

Dual Socket CPU with dual core or single socket quad core

Compute Node

32GB RAM

144GB Disk Space

Dual Socket CPU with dual core or single socket quad core

Final Words from Rackspace 

Meanwhile, also in a statement, Jesse Robbins, chief community officer at Opscode, said, “The release of Rackspace Private Cloud Software with Opscode Chef included is a result of the great collaboration between Opscode and Rackspace and a testament to the benefits Chef provides for deploying and managing OpenStack-powered clouds."

The new software is the latest addition to the Rackspace Private Cloud suite along with OpenStack Training and Support services.

Download Link -   Click here to get a free Private Cloud

PS - The Complete Review of the OpenStack Private Cloud + Demo Video --- Soon on Cloud Hack Blog

Small businesses - Main Target for Cloud Computing

Small Businesses - Cloud saves a lot of Money.

The Cloud Computing paradigm has been here for a while and the main users have been the medium - sized businesses. Most of the small scale businesses are deploying both hardware and software in the Cloud. Leading vendors are SalesForce, Google, Rackspace, DropBox and many others.

Major benefits from Cloud - for Small Businesses - 

• Cloud-based file-sharing
• Email with dedicated domain.
• Productivity applications Like word-processors, spreadsheet applications, calender, video conferencing, chat and work collaboration.
• e-Marketing

A survey was conducted by IT social network Spiceworks on behalf of cloud solutions vendor EMC.

The main remark of the survey has been -

Majority of the small scale businesses are using cloud-based file sharing services, such as Dropbox, Box, and others, are easy to use and employee-friendly. However, IT departments remain concerned about the security, compliance and reliability challenges these services can present.

Keep Clouding. 

Top Basic Benefits of using Cloud

Top basic benefits of deploying Cloud for your Organisation.

When we need to go "CLOUD"? What are the Benefits?

1. Reduced Cost - Cloud technology is paid incrementally, saving organizations money. No need buy your own hardware.
2. Increased Storage - Organizations can store more data than on private computer systems.
3. Highly Automated - No longer do IT personnel need to worry about keeping software up to date.
4. Flexible -  Cloud computing offers much more flexibility than past computing methods.
5. More Mobility - Employees can access information wherever they are, rather than having to remain at their desks.
6. Allow IT to shift Focus - No longer having to worry about constant server updates and other computing issues, government organizations will be free to concentrate on innovation.

Keep Clouding...

India Government Goes Cloud

Indian Government Goes "CLOUD"

Big news for Indian Cloud Geeks

Yesterday, the Economic Times stated that, Indian government has decided to place some critical Information on dedicated private clouds.

The government is planning to establish a national level cloud based network connecting the individual state level data centers. Indian IT department has sent proposals to national IT giants like Hewlett Packard (HP), IBM, Cisco (CSCO) and Dell to set up and maintain private clouds in each state.

Indian Government goes "CLOUD"

Here's what Economic Times have to say - 

"India’s Department of Information Technology is planning to set up a national cloud based network that connects all state data centers which would make that the backbone of national e-governance plan, which when completed would deliver many government to citizen and government business services via the internet. In effect, each of the 28 states and 7 union territories will now have a private cloud of their own. The Department of IT has invited proposals from IT companies like Hewlett Packard (HP), IBM, Cisco (CSCO) and Dell to set up and maintain private clouds in each state. The move may cost the government less than (around 100 million rupees), and will help the exchequer prevent waste of money on duplication of resources.”

Keep Clouding. 

Practical Steps to build a private Cloud - Worth a try.

Practical Steps to build a private Cloud

Try and see what it takes to build a private Cloud using Open Source Tools

It's time to build your own cloud!

I have tried many ways of building a private Cloud and deploying certain application in it.

There are many Open Source Technologies available to do it. (Remember, i am talking about Open Source SDK's available in the internet using which we can develop a private cloud, not some cloud based application available for free. We shall talk about some freely available cloud apps in future posts.)

Some of them are here. For each of them, i have included a User Experience Level/ Difficulty level/ Complexity Constraint involved -

• Eucalyptus - Eucalyptus enables the creation of on-premise Infrastructure as a Service clouds, with no requirements for retooling the organization's existing IT infrastructure or for introducing any specialized hardware. The Eucalyptus Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform maintains high fidelity with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API, allowing support for both on-premise and hybrid IaaS clouds.
  User Experience Level - 5/10
  
• OpenStack - OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.
  User Experience Level - 9/10
  
  
• Cloud Stack - CloudStack is an open source cloud operating system which delivers public cloud computing similar to Amazon EC2 but using your own hardware. CloudStack provides orchestration of your virtualized resources into one homogeneous environment where you can delegate the creation to users of the virtual machines using the self-service CloudStack portal. This package is available for use in Ubuntu 10.04 and RedHat Linux (Cent OS) platforms.
  User Experience Level - 8/10
  
  
• Xen Cloud Platform Project -The Xen Cloud Platform (XCP) is an open source enterprise-ready server virtualization and cloud computing platform, delivering the Xen Hypervisor with support for a range of guest operating systems including Windows® and Linux® network and storage support, management tools in a single, tested installable image, which is also called XCP appliance.
  User Experience Level - 10/10
  
• OpenNebula.org - OpenNebula.org is an open-source project developing the industry standard solution for building and managing virtualized enterprise data centers and cloud infrastructures.
  User Experience Level - 5/10
  

Out of all the above 5 technologies, Eucalyptus is the one you can go with if you are building a private cloud for the first time. Well, if you are done with it, then try using Open Stack. Since all the above software's are open source, their websites have very good documentation regarding the steps to create and deploy your own cloud. However, i have included 2 technical papers for starters - you can readily deploy your own private cloud - follow the steps.

1.  Deploying an Open Source Private Cloud using Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud(Eucalyptus Fork).
   Requirements -
   1 Machine(2gb RAM, 160 GM HDD), Virtualization Compatible Hardware, VM Hyper-visor like VMware, XEN, Sun Virtual Box.
   3 Virtual Machines to run(minimum) - 1 Cloud Controller, 1 Cluster Controller and 1 Node Controller.
   
2.  Deploying a Private Cloud using Eucalyptus and Xen Hyper-visor.
   Same Configuration.
   

Feel free to post your comments and queries. I am always open to interaction.

Keep Clouding,

Jade Nagaraja

NASA uses Cloud to land on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Mar's Mission uses Cloud Computing

Curiosity goes "Cloud" to land on Mars

Just Think how "NASA" is keeping up with Mar's Mission data - Cloud !

Few day ago, NASA sent one of the biggest services out there for the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Science Laboratory missions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory used cloud services to capture and store images and metadata collected during the trip to Mars.

Till now, Cloud Computing was used to send/transmit data packets across the world. Now NASA goes one-step beyond that and used Amazon Web Services to transmit data/Pictures across Solar System (From Mars to Earth). Believe it or not. It works. And the margin for Error is 0 %.

   

One step on Mar's , Giant Leap for Cloud Computing ?

What does Amazon Web Services have to say?

"Science data is growing at an exponential rate. Some upcoming instruments will produce terabytes of data every single day," Such a deluge would have left NASA "out of data center space," making the ability to provision cloud-based machines invaluable. As NASA uses the cloud to solve its own puzzles, opportunities for other applications naturally arise.

"We can provision a supercomputing cluster in the cloud that would qualify as one of the top 500 in the world" at a cost of "a couple hundred dollars an hour," AWS said. "Think of the possibilities."

More data, More Storage, More Cost, Difficult to manage --> Problemo ?
Solution --> Go Cloud !! :-)

Future of Cloud Computing - What's next?

Future of Cloud Computing? 

What's next? What's your opinion? Post your Comments.

Recently, Google unveiled Google Fiber, broadband Internet that is 100 times faster than what we currently have today. Now it's been tested. Faster Internet speed means larger files can be stored and downloaded from the cloud.

Read more about it -

Google Fiber shows speeds 100 times faster than regular a cable Internet

The future of cloud computing is certainly exciting, but moving more of our lives online means we will inevitably have to consider 

• privacy, 
• security, 
• ownership and even 
• energy consumption. 

About the author - 

Jade Nagaraja

Personal Blog : http://jadenagaraja.com/

About : http://jadenagaraja.com/about/

Risks of Cloud Computing

Risks in Cloud Computing?

Is Cloud Computing worth the Risk?

We have several books and corporate websites providing pros/ advantages/ benefits of using Cloud services. Let's straight away focus on its cons.

Moving everything to the cloud seems inevitable at this point, but as more people rely on the cloud services, security risks will naturally be heightened.

Recent Security breaches in Cloud Computing.

Wired senior writer Mat Honan reported that because of what was initially fraudulent phone calls, several of his online accounts were breached, including his iCloud account. Honan's iPhone, iPad and MacBook were remotely wiped because the hack had access to his iCloud account.

Other Cloud Hack Links -

CNET: Journalist blames Apple for allowing iCloud hack

Apple, Amazon make changes after journalist's hack

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has doubts about cloud computing

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently expressed his doubts about cloud computing, saying that "the more we transfer everything onto the web, onto the cloud, the less we're going to have control over it."

Soon after Google launched Google Drive, questions were raised over who owns the files uploaded to the service. The reality is that users own their content, but Google can use it for the purposes listed in their terms of service - below.

"Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours.

When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps)."

However, that doesn't mean the search engine giant will frivolously use your photos and documents for promotional purposes. The simple truth is we don't know what Google might do with our data.

Continued .. Next Post -> Future of Cloud Computing? What's next?

"CLOUD" Computing for Everyone - Explained

Cloud Computing for Everyone.

What actually is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing makes it possible to access photos, videos or documents from any computer with an Internet connection.  

Most people use a form of cloud computing everyday, but the term has yet to become instilled in everyone's lexicon. 

Think of the cloud as a disk drive that is owned by a company like Google or Apple, which stores all of your files in a remote location - typically at a server farm. The cloud makes it possible to access photos, videos or documents from any computer with an Internet connection.

This video (Taken from Go Grid) provides a complete picture about "Cloud Computing" in a simplified way. Everyone can understand it.

Many of us use cloud computing everyday, with sites like Facebook, Netflix or Gmail. Photos and videos are stored on Facebook servers, which are retrieved from any computer with an Internet connection.

We can store documents, photos or videos online with services like Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive or Amazon Cloud Drive.

Going a step further, Apple's iCloud, Dropbox and Google Drive actually sync files between multiple devices and the cloud. If iCloud is enabled and you take a photo with your iPhone, it will automatically show up on your iPad and MacBook.

Coming up - Next Post - Risks of Cloud Computing.