Performance comparison of clouds without moving apps

Working with Srikanth Kandula and Ming Zhang of Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA, Yang and Li have developed a suite of benchmarking tools that make it possible to compare the performance of different cloud platforms without moving applications between them. These tools use algorithms to measure the speed of computation, and shuttle data around to test the speed at which new copies of an application are created, the speed at which data can be stored and retrieved, the speed at which it can be shuttled between applications inside the same cloud, and the responsiveness of a cloud to network requests from distant places.
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They are building software that captures the performance of an application when running on a local server and then creates a dummy version of it on several clouds to compare how they hold up. The dummy doesn't actually perform the function of the software, but it exerts the same computational, storage, and network demands. "Without actually migrating the app, I could just try out that representation of what it does," says Yang.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25815/page1/

Cloudkick has been acquired by Rackspace!

... as posted in the Cloudkick site ...

Why did Rackspace acquire Cloudkick?

From the beginning, Cloudkick has been obsessed with making life easier for system administrators as they deploy and manage infrastructure and applications on the cloud. In a short time, they established their position as one of the most advanced business-to-business focused start-ups in the cloud computing space and the system administrators tools they provide are recognized as best in the market. As Rackspace continues help customers manage their move to the cloud, Cloudkick will play an important role in improving the Fanatical Support® Rackspace already offers its customers. Rackspace’s mission is to be recognized as one of the world’s great service companies and we believe Cloudkick aligns very well with this mission.

https://www.cloudkick.com/acquisition-faq

Cloud broker - new word?

... One of his biggest concerns now is to make sure the various cloud services work well together—and are compatible with existing systems...

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In the future, companies may hook up with more than a dozen different cloud services providers. Brokers would serve as intermediaries, offering such services as customization, integration, security, and aggregation. Through 2014, cloud service brokerage will generate more than $5 billion in sales—up from less than $50 million this year—making it the fastest growing area of cloud computing, Gartner said earlier this year.

The need for brokers is compounded by the lack of standards in the cloud services industry, which means that information can't travel between different services without specially written code to translate among them. "If companies integrate it themselves, they have no hope of saving money," says Daryl Plummer, group vice-president of Gartner Research. In general, cloud services appeal to companies because they're less expensive than buying hardware and software.

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http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2010/tc2010126_515410.htm

Who Has the Most Web Servers? - May 14 2009

There was a milestone buried deep within the earnings tables in this week’s first quarter results from Rackspace: "the San Antonio company has become one of a select number of companies that have more than 50,000 servers. Rackspace reports that as of March 30 the company’s data centers house 50,038 servers, up from 47,518 at the end of 2008. Of the companies that publicly report their server counts, only European hosts 1&1 Internet and OVH have more than Rackspace. Here’s a look at some of the providers with high server counts, gleaned from public reports and partial data from a recent Netcraft server count report:"

• 1&1 Internet: 55,000 servers (company)
• OVH: 55,000 servers (company)
• Rackspace: 50,038 servers (company)
• The Planet: 48,500 servers (company)
• Akamai Technologies: 48,000 servers (company)
• SBC Communications: 29,193 servers (Netcraft)
• Verizon: 25,788 servers (Netcraft)
• Time Warner Cable: 24,817 servers (Netcraft)
• SoftLayer: 21,000 servers (company)
• AT&T: 20,268 servers (Netcraft)
• Peer1/ServerBeach: 10,277 servers (company)
• iWeb: 10,000 servers (company)

VMware Expands vCloud Portfolio With Zimbra

"Zimbra is a great example of the type of scalable 'cloud era' solutions that can span smaller, on-premise implementations to the cloud. It will be a building block in an expanding portfolio of solutions that can be offered as a virtual appliance or by a cloud service provider. We are excited to welcome the Zimbra team and community to the VMware family."

VMware is obviously looking to build out its stack of cloud infrastructure.