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News

• Relational databases aren't right for the cloud

  I attended the Cloud Connect 2010 conference in Santa Clara, California, one of the first major gatherings of the year on cloud computing. One of the main topics that came up is not using relational databases for data persistence. Called the "NoSQL" movement, it is about leveraging more efficient databases that are perhaps able to handle larger data sets more effectively. I have already written about the "big data" efforts that are emerging around cloud, but this is a more fundamental movement to drive data back to more primitive, but perhaps some more efficient models and physical storage approaches.
  NoSQL systems work with data in memory, typically, or uploading chunks of data from many disks in parallel. The issue is that "traditional" relational databases do not provide the same models and, thus, the same performance. While this was fine in the days of databases with a few gigabytes of data, many cloud computing databases are blowing past a terabyte, and we will see huge databases supporting cloud-based systems going forward. Relational databases for operations on large data sets are contraindicated, because SQL queries tend to consume many CPU cycles and thrash the disk as they process data.
  If you think we have heard this song before, you are correct. Object and XML databases made some inroads back in the 1990s, but many enterprises kept the relational databases around, such as Oracle, Sybase, and Informix, despite the fact that many nonrelational databases did indeed provide better performance. However, the cost and risks of moving from relational databases, as well as the relatively small sizes of the databases, kept it pretty much a relational world.
  However, the cloud changes everything. The requirement to process huge amounts of data in the cloud is leading to new approaches to database processing, based on older models. MapReduce, the fundamental way Hadoop processes data, is based on the older "share-nothing" database processing model from years ago, but now we have the processing power, the disk space and the bandwidth.
  I believe the movement to cloud computing will indeed reduce the use of relational databases. It is nothing we have not heard before, but this time we have a true need.
  When this column was posted online, it attracted the following comment: "Its always been the same. You want to process high volumes of data with large CPU requirements? Don't use a database. You want resilience, recoverability, reliability, consistency and a language that allows those without a PhD in machine code to join data up in new ways - ways not intended by the original design? You need a database. Yes, there's an overhead, go figure. But if it won't scale, you're either using a duff relational database or a duff designer. Built right, a set of relational tables will take 10 times as long to process 10 times the amount of data in a join. That's scalability. Anything claiming more is likely to be wool pulling or smoke and mirrors. (Also applies to your article's talk about a new database that can do memory-caching of data and pull data from many disks at a time. Any relational database which cannot do that does not deserve to be called a database)."

• Start-ups offer cloud-based data management tools

  Two start-ups launching at the recent DEMO Spring 2010 conference in Silcon Valley are offering cloud-based alternatives to traditional database management systems, saying today's databases are too expensive and too difficult for business users to understand.

• Today's IT infrastructure requires new cost calculations

  As IT infrastructures become increasingly converged and components increasingly interdependent, IT administrators are still not factoring in the collateral impact of individual changes to the IT environment, says one executive.
  Joe Wolke, director of IT strategy for Illinois-based IT consulting firm Forsythe Solutions Group, says that while technology trends like virtualisation, storage consolidation, cloud computing and hosted applications serve to streamline IT functions, they also change the traditional IT equation.
  "In many ways they are making infrastructure less complex, but are making the model for identifying direct costs much more complex," says Wolke.
  Changes to the IT environment like adding a new application, business unit or geographic location will have a greater impact than is immediately observable. The foundational issue of running IT as a business, says Wolke, is ensuring costs are transparent and comprehensible to users.
  He says it is critical to align the lifecycle of a new application with that of the associated physical assets. This means recognising that storage and servers required for the application may not have the same lifespan, so all costs must be accounted for down the road.
  Wolke suggests organisations develop "collateral impact metrics" to measure and account for the impact that radiates throughout the IT environment. "If I add 10 more users to the network, what is the impact on the network?" he says.
  Factoring in costs of collateral impact should also happen at the project management phase as applications are being developed. While an organisation's impact metric might state that a new application for 1000 users will require five help desk people, that number will surely rise to fit the initial learning curve, says Wolke.
  On a more granular level, building new applications deserves the same degree of collateral impact planning. Coding is dependent on various components including bits of code, and small applications and licensing from third parties that must be made part of a disaster recovery plan, says Wolke. "There is much more dependency. Applications don't stand alone anymore," he says.
  A new study from Forrester Research shows that application developers and their project managers are not keeping up with the times. Mike Gualtieri, senior analyst with Forrester, says IT pros aren't necessarily adjusting to what is the new reality of a tough economy and the popularity of certain technology trends.
  The Forrester research recommends five changes to application development professionals:
  * Embrace the cloud: Developers must understand how to design and architect applications differently to take advantage of the cloud especially when it comes to cloud-specific strategies for scaling data. "Data is the Achilles heel of cloud computing when it comes to application development," says Gualtieri.
  * Find your inner startup: The unrelenting focus of startups is to make money, so developers should take that lean approach in tough times even if they work for a large enterprise. "It is really about focus, about trying to get beyond all the processes, politics and management that normally occur as an organization grows," says Gualtieri.
  * Favour flexibility and cost over platform loyalty: Enterprise IT is typically driven by the procurement department's decree to stick to a particular vendor stack. Entertain other options like smaller vendors or open source, says Gualtieri. "They are potentially cheaper and give you more flexibility rather than waiting a year for a large enterprise software vendor to get what you need," he says.
  * Become passionate about user experience: Users want an app experience that is valuable, easy and aesthetically pleasing, and application development teams must catch on to that ever-growing demand.
  * Coach your talent: Project managers often view their developers as "automatons on an assembly line," but software is a creative art, like making a movie, says Gualtieri. IT skills selection must align with the needs of the specific project. "If this is a customer-facing web site, it is a different skill set than a departmental application," he says.

• IBM adding development and test offering to public cloud

  IBM will soon offer software development and testing services through its public cloud, adding to a private cloud option launched in June 2009, the company said Tuesday.

• European IT managers not gazing into the cloud

  Barely one in five of European IT managers think that cloud computing represents a game-changing change in methodology for enterprises.

• RightNow tries to change SaaS contract, pricing game

  CRM vendor RightNow announced a new SaaS (software as a service) pricing and licensing model on Thursday that it says provides customers with fairer, clearer deals. The company also issued a "Cloud Challenge" to competitors, urging them to adopt similar principles.

• Ballmer says he has bet the company on the cloud

  Seventy percent of the 40,000 people who work on software at Microsoft are in some way working in the cloud, CEO Steve Ballmer said Thursday at the University of Washington.

• Oracle and Sun to push private cloud solutions

  The Oracle and Sun Microsystems road map [[artnid: 333300|due to be announced this week by Larry Ellison]] will likely include moves to forge the pair into a solutions provider in the vein of IBM and HP, according to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan.

• Cerf urges standards for cloud computing

  Vint Cerf, a co-designer of the Internet's TCP/IP protocols and considered a father of the Internet itself, emphasized the need for data portability standards for cloud computing during an appearance on Thursday evening.

• Benioff trumpets Force.com platform's success

  Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff on Thursday attempted to cement an image of the vendor as a full-blown application development platform provider, not merely a purveyor of SaaS (software-as-a-service) applications.

• Vendors say 'cloud', users think 'elastic'

  Strong differences in thinking remain about the benefits and uses of cloud computing — and even its definition, according to local users and vendors.

• Better definitions of cloud services needed says Forrester

  Businesses should recognise the different types of cloud computing before they embark on a cloud project. That's according to Forrester Research, which has just produced a report looking at the types of cloud technology that are available.

• Beware cloud lock-in: BMC CTO

  Cloud management tools may be being used by cloud providers to lock organisations in to specific hardware and services, according to the US chief technology officer (CTO) of BMC, Kia Behnia.

• Vendor group forms cloud storage initiative

  The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced today the formation of the Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI) in order to establish a lexicon of cloud-computing terminology, publish use cases, white papers and technical specifications, and to create reference implementation models for grid-storage architectures.

• CIA endorses cloud computing, but only internally

  WASHINGTON -- One of the U.S. government's strongest advocates of cloud computing is also one of its most secretive operations: the Central Intelligence Agency. But the CIA has adopted cloud computing in a big way, and the agency believes that the cloud approach makes IT environments more flexible and secure.