Cloud Computing Needs To Embrace the Linux Model, Says Rackspace CTO

Nerval's Lobster writes "Companies are rushing to lock customer data into their specific walled gardens, Rackspace CTO John Engates argued in an interview after a Cloud Expo keynote in Silicon Valley. That makes it more important than ever to ensure that the cloud undergirding all the various functions of daily life remains open. 'These companies have grown up in the era of enterprise software and they're addicted to enterprise software margins, magnitudes more profitable than what we make as a hosting company,' he said. 'Now you have software companies embracing cloud computing and taking the same enterprise-software playbook they've had for years and trying to run it in the cloud.' Ultimately, he added, cloud computing needs to adopt the Linux model. 'Linux opened it up and gave you vendor choice, with numerous vendors bringing their own strengths to the table.'"

Comments

Did I miss his point?

[NemoinSpace]

Or did i get it totally?
'These companies have grown up in the era of enterprise software and they're addicted to enterprise software margins, magnitudes more profitable than what we make as a hosting company,'
which translates into: I have picked the wrong business model, and someone should fix it for me.

Re:Did I miss his point?

[mrbluze]

... I have picked the wrong business model, and someone should fix it for me.

You have it right. The cloud companies are charging an unrealistic premium for their services without offering genuine security. Should regular hosting companies worry yet? I don't think so, not until someone offers a cloud computing system that does not, by default, leave its encryption keys lying around on the host server.

Re:Did I miss his point?

[Hylandr]

Because it's a waste of time.

Rackspace is trying to keep everyone focused on the hype of the cloud, to keep racking in your dough.

One "Cloud Server" with 16Gig of Ram and 4 Procs with rackspace would cost me $700+ .

I can get a third of a cabinet from CoreNap for less than $400 Month. I can fill that space with vastly more powerful hardware for about 5k. ( Shopping Smart )

Now lets do the math assuming a hardware life cycle of 5 years.
400 x 12 == 4,800 ( one year )
4,800 * 5 == 24,000 ( Five years )

hardware: $5,000
52 weeks in a year times 5 years == 260 weeks.

Spread the cost of the hardware over 5 years. ( Cash outright or lease )
$5,000 / 260 weeks. == .01923 per week for the hardware.

Not worth adding to the 24,000 you will spend over the next 5 years, compared to the 42,000 you will spend for a single inferior server instance at Rackspace.

And you're not eliminating engineers by going to the cloud. You still need admins.

- Dan.

Re:Did I miss his point?

[Hylandr]

I agree on both your points.

It's a good place to fire up something to experiment with, and a good place for new companies just starting out.

But there are large enterprises that have completely missed the memo regarding static collocation vs the cloud.

- Dan.

"Linux Model"

[Microlith]

I'd love to see some of these cloud storage services start opening up their protocols instead of relying on security through obscurity. I have a dropbox account, and I'd rather like to be able to use it on Linux without a silly proprietary daemon (and also on non-x86 platforms.)

Re:"Linux Model"

[icebraining]

The Dropbox share is part of the file system. They don't mount a virtual fs or anything, they just create a directory and sync the files in and to it when anything changes.

Re:Linux model?

[ackthpt]

I guess some people have a problem with their computing history. Oh well, I don't expect much anymore.

He's refering to Bob J. Linux, not that operating system developed by the Torvalds bloke. It means security through obscurity, obfuscation, cruft, API's not being closely adhered to, code bloat, empire building, gaping security holes, finger pointing, denial of overwhelming evidence, fat bonuses for executives based upon their ability to get it without actually adding anything to the product or company, outsourcing to Elbonia and ultimately winning marketshare with bikini models in your advertising.

Works everytime.

Walled Garden...?

[interval1066]

Didn't Compuserv through AOL try this a long time ago? And didn't it work great until users discovered the internet?

quote and translation

[HPHatecraft]

Ultimately, he added, cloud computing needs to adopt the Linux model.

Translation: "Please, please, please don't use EC2. Oh yeah, and Amazon beats its wife."

Re:*cough*

[Iniamyen]

CLOUD = CLOUD Local Operation and Usability Debatable?

I could come up with a better one given time.

Don't all major vendors support most platforms?

[turp182]

Hmm. All of the major cloud vendors support pretty much every platform. I happen to have an MSDN Ultimate subscription through work and we're investigating Azure as a result (1,500 hours per month of computer time for free for each Ultimate account).

I will admit that I code in C# so the platform integrates well. It only took me two days to learn the platform basics and setup a computational system with queues and a dedicated cache (one WebRole, one CacheRole, multiple WorkerRoles to process work units).

I'm working on the job unit system now, pretty complicated algorithm, although the design lends itself to distributed analysis.

Anyway, the major vendors support all of the major platforms. Choose one based on trust and performance (and integration if you please).