Google Blogger, a Victim of Data Corruption
May 31, 2011
If Google was a victim of data corruption, what happened to the customers of the cloud based online publishing system?
It seemed that Google might be the latest victim of the recent vicious hacks such as those that recently plagued Sony. However, according to The Inquirer article “Google Says Data Corruption Led to Blogger Outage” offered an explanation for the outage. “During scheduled maintenance on Wednesday night Google’s Blogger team encountered data corruption, which caused the service to crash for many, while others encountered severe bugs such as disappearing posts or error pages.”
Users were unable to make posts for a brief time period. Google was able to solve the problem by restoring their software to an earlier version. The majority of Google Blogger is back up and ready for use. Google should actually be applauded for admitting a problem existed, apologizing, taking care of it quickly and even more surprisingly promising to issue a full report. Recent judgment lapses such as those recently made by Sony have some consumers just waiting to hand the guilty “out to dry.”
April Holmes, May 31, 2011
From ArnoldIT.com, your resource for enterprise search information.
Amazon and Billboard Go Gaga
May 29, 2011
Short honk: Navigate to “How Many Millions Did Amazon Lose on Two Days of 99 Cent Lady Gaga Sales?” Anything missing from the analysis:
Here’s the math: For every unit it sells at 99 cents, Amazon will lose about $7.40, according to Billboard’s calculation. At $7.40 per unit and 430,000 units (10,000 shaved off total digital sales to account for some sales of the deluxe edition), the Gaga-related loss comes to $3.18 million.
I was thinking it might be interesting to include a factor for loss of credibility related to Amazon’s “elasticity”. Obviously Billboard did not think this minor issue relevant. Great ginger beer in New Zealand. Business analysis? Hmmm.
Stephen E Arnold, May 29, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Open Source Meets the Cloud
May 29, 2011
Open source software has become a popular choice for many enterprises. Costs savings, flexibility as well as complete creative control are just a few of the coveted benefits. Cloud computing continues to expand and in many instances the two technologies have crossed paths. According to the InfoWorld.com article “Why the Cloud Can’t Be Separated From Open Source” the number of open source cloud projects has since a noticeable increase since 2005.
Now to fully understand the importance of the open source cloud partnership one must take a look at some of the projects that utilize both technologies and their overall importance to the software world. “The cloud takes the open source tradition of collaboration to the next level, as open source contributors meet the new technical and business challenges presented by the cloud.” Another interesting factor is that open source in some instances actually makes the cloud a more attractive option. “According to Michael Skok of North Bridge venture Partners, a firm specializing in open source funding, one of the chief customer objections to the cloud is the high potential for vendor lock-in.” Open source technology provides an obvious solution to the vendor lock-in dilemma.
OpenStack is one notable program that employs both open source and the cloud and it is utilized by more than 50 organizations including some big names such as Dell, Cisco Systems and NASA. Memcached, a distributed caching system, is used by several companies in the Internet world. Notable companies include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It’s hard to overlook such an impressive list of Internet industry leaders when discussing the significance of cloud and open source. There are other noticeable signs that cloud computing is expanding its boundaries.
According to the Silicon.com article “Cloud Computing Shines A Light On IT Money Pits” at the EMC world conference delegates were introduced to a “pay-per-use delivery model offered by a cloud computing provider that would allow companies to compare the fine detail of IT infrastructure costs and answer the question, Is the service worth paying for?” Businesses will be able to take an in depth look at their IT money flow and determine if they are spending wisely. More importantly companies can get service and product estimates form various companies and compare the results. The conference also provided insight about collaboration with Google that will allow the Google Search Appliance tool to find indexed data within the VNX storage database. With the innovation that continues within the cloud and open source communities, the search industry could find itself “stuck in the cloud.”
April Holmes, May 29, 2011
From ArnoldIT.com, your resource for enterprise search information.
More Cloud Cheerleading
May 27, 2011
“Gartner Identifies Five Ways to Migrate Applications to the Cloud” identifies the options for the IT department when the CIO calmly announces to ‘move some applications to the cloud’. As if it was only a matter of transferring a file from one shelf to the next.
Gartner insists there are many factors to consider when initiating the migration process, including a company’s requirements and architectural principles. Five options plainly identified for relocating to the cloud are as follows: “Rehost on infrastructure as a service (IaaS), refactor for platform as a service (PaaS), revise for IaaS or PaaS, rebuild on PaaS, or replace with software as a service (SaaS)”.
Granted, this article was written from the perspective of application architects. These are, we assume, individuals whose job is not to evaluate if an existing structure should be migrated to the cloud, only how to do so. In light of this, we would like to toss some other factors on the table.
What about the risks? Lady Gaga problems at Amazon. Dead Blogger.com. Sony network problems. Microsoft BPOS Exchange issues. Need I go on?
Cost should be considered. The difference felt in the coffers can be great between top-end and entry level servers, and without a simulation prior to the switch you may not realize what magnitude of power you require.
Security and reliability are also points of interest. Both the ability to extract personal data from the cloud as well as bring the service to a screeching halt has been demonstrated recently with the Sony network breach and AWS breakdown.
There are obviously some great benefits to joining the cloud, but just like any other decision, it is best to view all angles prior to jumping in. It is tough to search for documents or basic information when the cloud takes a couple of days off to recover from sun burn.
Sarah Rogers, May 27, 2011
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Will Office 365 Cloud Issues be 24/7?
May 26, 2011
As I write this, I heard about Amazon’s super reliable, scalable, elastic, whiz bang cloud service struggling to deliver a pop icon’s album to fans. I have concluded that Amazon’s service can fail and not scale. But Amazon is just one cloud marketer struggling to make the dreams of the marketing department into the reality of cloud services as ultra reliable.
Consider Microsoft, please.
If there is one rule left in the business environment, it is that you do not mess with a worker’s email. Perhaps Microsoft did not get that memo? Last week MS’s latest incarnation of its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Office 365, had some serious cloud issues. According to “Microsoft’s Handling of BPOS Outage an Ill Omen for Office 365”, users saw delays totaling up to fifteen hours spread across a three-day span.
The author himself admits that it isn’t so much the outages that are the cause for concern but the manner of handling the issue by Microsoft. Not that the inhabitants of your average cube farm won’t automatically freak out over any interruption in email services, but they could rest easier if they at least had an idea of what was happening behind the scenes.
To calm the harried nerves of its customers, Microsoft created the Online Service Health Dashboard, with an intention to provide up to the minute status of cloud services and tools. If you think you can rest easy now, not so fast. The article said:
The first detailed Dashboard notification I can find on the Tech Center forum is time stamped 9:40 a.m. on Thursday. That’s two full days after the original notice. Dave Thompson notified the world about the problems, via his blog, at 6 p.m. But there were two full days of widespread intermittent email outages without any explanation from Microsoft. Yes, there were service degradation icons on the Dashboard earlier, but no explanations or ETA for a fix.
Call me naive, but what’s the point in having a notification board when it takes two days to post notifications?”
And Google? Well, its vaunted technology failed during its I/O conference when executives were chatting up the reliability of the Google cloud. Blogger.com, however, must have been on break. That service went down for 20 hours.
Welcome to the cloud, a sometimes gray area where you are not privy to the same information on controls and status you would find within an average business enterprise.
That, my friends, can be the trade-off for convenience. Besides, if your company is anything like mine, you wouldn’t be getting much more support from your in-house IT anyway.
But when I can save $11 on a hot new album, I am flexible. For work, I am not so flexible. My hunch is that others may have a similar view. What happens when cloud based search fails? I won’t be able to find my documents. Not good.
Sarah Rogers, May 26, 2011
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Frankie Goes to Cloud Computing: IBM Says, Relax Do Not Worry.
May 24, 2011
I listened to a podcast called Cloud Computing. After the “I am giving important talks” portion of the program, I learned that Amazon’s failure was pretty bad news. In fact, the containment of the failure did not work—and here’s the kicker—again. Okay, a couple of dot points on the Amazon failure line may suggest a trend. The podcast made lemonade from the Amazon lemons under a cloudy sky; specifically, hire us to work on your cloud road map. The subtext, “Our firm Blue Mountain can help heal the wound between business needs and information technology.” This theme is quite like the comments I heard from Googlers a year or so ago. The idea is that any intermediary with some expertise is sort of a problem. The idea is to disintermediate these folks so the MBAs can make better business decisions. You know what that means? Embrace cloud services like Google Docs or Amazon and the back end for mission critical services. Those annoying intermediaries can open a Subway franchise or get into consulting.
The cheerleading does not stop. I read “New Global IBM Study Confirms Cloud Computing Poised to Take Off” and experienced shock of awe. IBM is ramping up its PR activities across a range of business sectors. Does the anticipated aggressiveness of HP and Dell’s push into the enterprise, cause anxiety in IBM Land? I read New Global IBM Study Confirms Cloud Computing Poised to Take Off at Companies. My take is that IBM wants to reinforce the Googley notion that that CIOs positions have evolved from “just another job” to highly respected and valued positions.
The IBM study also showed that four out of five CIO’s see business intelligence and analytics as top priorities since abundant data is available and the strategic use of it is necessary to stay competitive. Working closely with CEOs, their visions are merging…”together, their top three focus areas are strengthening relationships with customers, developing the skills of employees and gaining insight and intelligence from data.” With cloud and business intelligence at the forefront, IBM skillfully weaves yet another PR play…yep… poised like Watson, agile like a mainframe, componentized like Lego blocks.
But is it true?
Sony’s cloud has rained on the consumer product giant’s game parade. Amazon fizzled out, making life tough for some high traffic AWS customers. Microsoft Exchange has been gasping in the rarified Microsoft cloud. Google—the ultimate in cloudy billions—announced whizzy new services as its own cloud based Blogger.com crashed. Great timing. Now what happens when a company’s mission critical data are not available?
IBM hums Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax. Don’t worry.”
Let’s assume IBM puts search in the cloud. How does a company providing support to operations in a war zone if the cloud blows away? Relax. Don’t worry.
I worry. Fail over, security, telco-inspired service level agreements, latency. So I worry. Your mileage may vary.
Stephen E Arnold, May 24, 2011
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Google I/O: Focus or Scatter?
May 16, 2011
Are the developments reported in EWeek’s piece, “Google Cloud Music, Movies Open Google I/O,” indicative of Google’s recent focus? It seems that the two most tout-able Google projects involve a music storage service and a movie rental site. Is it just me, or does Google seem to have little search news at its input/output conference?
With the turmoil over PageRank changes, Google is pushing into markets with a “me too” vengeance. I suppose we can’t blame Google for being a little search-shy right now. However, I don’t believe they will prosper by veering far from their core strength.
Besides, the move into music isn’t without its own complications. The article asserted:
“Unfortunately, like Amazon, Google has not secured music labels’ permission for streaming the songs…Jamie Rosenberg, Google’s director of digital content, argued that its approach is completely legal, that it is simply providing a music storage service for users. However, he allowed that labels were not receptive to Google’s service under its current iteration.
We’ll see which of Google’s many, many initiatives pan out as time goes on. We want to see more emphasis on search and details about the Blogger crash. If Google wants me to use a Chromebook, I want the Google cloud to be there, not offline with apps and content lost in the fog. The Google scatter may be reflections of the cloud coming to earth and reflecting at odd angles.
Cynthia Murrell May 16, 2011
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Google and Its Cloud Outage
May 15, 2011
Short honk: The Google I/O giveaway and “to be” love fest did not provide a forum for a Google cloud outage. With the cloud the pivot on which Google’s future spins, the Blogger.com crash had a low profile. You can read the “Blogger Is Back” story, dated May 13, 2011, to find a modest amount of information about a 20 hour outage. So, Google wants me to build a business on its cloud services. Hmm.
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2011
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BA-Insight Sees Opportunity through Azure Colored Glasses
May 9, 2011
It seems that BA Insight is embracing the media marketing trend as they showcase their new technology on Microsoft Channel 9. The interview and article “Building On Azure: BA Insight” which are located on the Microsoft Channel 9 Web Site provide some interesting details about the new search technology. BA Insight integrated its new search technology into FAST and SharePoint 2010. A passage that caught my attention was:
BA Insight’s advanced user interface, which, among other things, removes the burden of having to download content to assess relevance. Using this technology, individual pages, slides, or worksheets can be previewed without downloading the entirety of any one file.
Cloud computing through Microsoft Office 365 and the Windows Azure Platform allow BA Insight to handle heavy workloads efficiently. The cloud is still a relatively new technology but the possible implications of the technology could provide Microsoft customers with notable options. However, the cloud computing problems that have struck the very popular Amazon do raise doubt but maybe Azure can prove that there is light at the end of the tunnel?
Is the cloud the future of computing? It seems to make sense for organizations struggling to contain computing costs and cope with staffing challenges. However, the assumption is that organizations can afford the bandwidth and the risk of losing a connection when a big deal is in the balance. Google is cheerleading for cloud computing as well.
What happens when a cloud based search system is unavailable? Employees will have to scramble. The big deal may be saved but at what cost? Will senior managers and CFOs listen and act? Sure, until there is an Amazon event. Everything works on paper and in PowerPoint presentations. The real world often behaves in unexpected ways.
Alice Holmes, May 9, 2011
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Google Pushes the Cloud
May 8, 2011
I continue to ponder the Amazon cloud failure. At ArnoldIT.com, we use a combination of methods to deliver our products and services. The Overflight “content with intent” system is a mix of on premises systems and services delivered from various service bureaus in the cloud.
To avoid failure, the trick is redundancy. When one cloud service fails, we have a way to switch to a different service. The ideal is to make this switch over automatic, but in most cases someone, including the chief silly goose, has to baby sit the service. Baby sitting, although annoying, is just one more annoying facet of today’s computing environment. The mainframe was also annoying, so maybe the whole computer thing delivers magic and annoyances.
I read with interest “Google Urges Enterprise to Go 100% Web.” The idea is one of those rah-rah notions that I find amusing. Would that life delivered 100 percent solutions. In my experience, absolutes are death and taxes. The other life activities are slippery enough to warrant Plan B, redundancy, back ups, and contingencies of various types. When I go to a restaurant, I show up. When I set up a “content with intent” system, I immerse my safe in a web of contingency planning and actions. The notion that everything we do at ArnoldIT.com should be 100 percent on the Web strikes me as premature if not wacky.
Here’s the passage that made me realize that Google may have lots of smart people, but it does have some unusual ideas for me:
Most of all, Remley [a Google employee] argued, Google’s services represent an opportunity for IT teams to unburden themselves from patching and maintaining years’ worth of legacy systems. Not only is patching an unproductive use of IT time, but most organizations wind up running about six to eight weeks behind on implementing software patches, he said.
I applaud Google’s confidence in the cloud. Nevertheless, I will put this “100 percent” admonition in the circular file under “Baloney.”
Stephen E Arnold, May 8, 2011
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