Voice of the DBA

Tag: Cloud Computing

  • The Cloud is Nothing New

    Cloud computing doesn’t seem to have any great definition. Like the physical structures is is named for, it is amorphous, with no defined boundaries, and often, without a recognizable shape. There are even a whole host of different acronyms (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), which attempt to provide some differentiation between the services being offered by “cloud vendors”.

    However much of what the cloud does is act like an IT department for hire. They provide us with Virtual Machines we can configure as we like. They provide software services, much like Twitter, or even Google, provide for us. They may provide us a way to deploy some software we write, but ultimately this is nothing magic or new.

    Most of what the “cloud” gives us is a new marketing term that has caught on. From the Microsoft “to the cloud” commercials to the buzz about Amazon’s various AWS services.

    It’s hard to even compare the various services from different companies because we don’t really have a common framework of discussion. The “as”s give us a starting point, but when using the generic “cloud” term, it quickly becomes confusing.

    To date, I haven’t seen much innovation in the cloud. The way the services are priced, packaged, and made available is different than in the past, but the technology is the same. And in many cases, the deployment of much of this technology on virtual machines makes me think of the mainframe days when we carved up the hardware on one large, monolithic machine into various compartments where different applications could be run, or different programs could be deployed.

    The cloud isn’t a lot different, technically, but the way the services are offered to us is new, and the speed at which they can be built, used, and thrown away, is truly stunning.

    The cloud is nothing new, but it can change the way in which make decisions about our investments, and it can change the timing of the IT investments that we choose to make.

  • SQL Server on RDS

    Amazon RDS
    SQL Server 2008 R2 is now on RDS

    A database service in the cloud.

    Imagine being able to connect to SQL Server on a remote machine, without having to administer the underlying OS, and without having to change the database code that you build against your local instance? Amazon has provided that with it’s Relational Database Service (RDS) for Oracle and MySQL, and has just added SQL Server 2008 R2 as well. Red Gate Software and SQLServerCentral are happy to partner with Amazon to announce the launch of this service.

    RDS gives you the chance to deploy a SQL Server instance that’s essentially the same as the one you install on your local servers, allowing you to developer and test the same code you will deploy to the cloud, without compromising the features that are available. There are a few restrictions at the instance level since you don’t have access to the underlying host OS, but the benefit is that you don’t need to administer the OS, and if you just need a database service for an application, this  is one way to get it setup and running quickly. Specify a few parameters, and Amazon will handle the rest. In a few minutes, you have an instance that you can connect to and use. We’ve tested the Red Gate Software tools against RDS and they work just like they work on any other instance.

    The cloud isn’t for every database, and this service won’t work for every type of application, but for many people that need a database and a simple web application deployed, this is a great way to get started with a minimal investment in your public infrastructure. And you can leverage your local SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer instance to develop code that will work, without worrying about the services in the cloud.

    It’s a little scary to me to think about letting go of the control of managing my own database, but there are good capacity limits, security improves, and for many applications, just having a database service available would work great. And they’ll even handle the backups automatically for your new database. How many system administrators have you worked with that didn’t do that?

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Transfer Times in the Cloud

    SQL Azure
    Can you get your data out of the cloud if it goes in?

    There are many reasons not to move your data to the cloud. You might be concerned about the performance of your system, you might be concerned about the reliability of the service, you might worry about any number of regulatory or legal factors, or you might be worried about security. However I think most of those issues aren’t as important as another one: moving your data.

    I like the freedom to choose how I want to run my business. I like to be able to choose to run Oracle, or NoSQL, or SQL Server. I like to be able to purchase my hardware from Dell or HP or Apple. And more importantly, I like to be able to change my mind and move to a new vendor if they have a better product, or if the price saves me money, or if I just change my mind.

    The ability to get my data back is critical to me. Despite all the triple redundancy of Azure and the backups avaible from AWS, I want to be able to move my data if the need arises. There are transfer options, but they might not work as well as expected. A test moving data from AWS to Azure didn’t work as well as expected, which unfortunately, isn’t surprising. Part of this may be Azure and not Amazon, which is a little disappointing.

    I suspect that cloud companies would not be as helpful when you are closing your account as when you first sign up. They have no financial incentive to do so, but I would hope that they would act maturely, and let customers go if they cannot meet their needs. Our requirements may change,  and being able to get our data back is important. If you want to charge a fee to expedite the removal of data, state that up front, but make sure that we can get our data back.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • An Azure Outage

    SQL Azure
    Azure was down recently

    There was a Windows Azure outage on Feb 29, which resulted in the management service being down for about 8 hours. The actual virtual machines that most customers had were unaffected, but the ability to perform management functions was down for a number of customers.

    That’s distressing for customers, and embarrassing for Microsoft, who is spending a lot of resources to promote cloud computing and their Azure services. It lends credence to the fears and concerns of many technology professionals that outsourcing parts of their infrastructure to a cloud provider is a problem.

    However is it a big problem? I’ve had outages in nearly every company I’ve worked, often because of problems in the architectures that are built by those same IT people that disparage the cloud. I’ve found that a few outages were from vendor patches, a few from failures, and a good portion were stupid mistakes, often from a lack of testing. We worked hard to fix things, but we often weren’t able to give management much more of an idea when things would be working than a good status page for Azure would provide.

    It’s easy to disparage outsourced services as less reliable than in-house services, but I’m not sure that’s true. There is definitely a loss of control, but that comes at a cost savings, and the balance between them is something that each company needs to decide. However I think lots of management might prefer in-house infrastructure for a simple reason: it gives them a specific neck to choke, and possibly replace, when things go wrong.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.