The Cloudcast #126 - 2013 in Review & 2014 Predictions

Topic 1 - Looking back on 2013, what’s your biggest story or biggest take away? (AWS, OpenStack, NSA)

Topic 2 - Where do you think the industry made the most gains in cloud computing and where do you still see the biggest gaps (or opportunities)? (SDN, IaaS became plumbing)

Topic 3 - As you talk to people in the industry, around the world, how much do you see the spread of the Silicon Valley mindset and technology profile?

Topic 4 - Let’s talk about OpenStack. Was 2013 a good year, a bad year or just a year in the evolution? (Open Source VMware vCloud, who’s making money?)

Topic 5 - Traditional vendors vs. public cloud (which are sometimes the same). Who do you think is better positioned and what do you think each considers “success in 2014”?

Topic 6 - Moving on to 2014, what big things do you expect to happen (if any)? (SDN with VMware & Cisco, OpenStack conslidation)

Topic 7 - We’re getting ready to move into YEAR 4 of The Cloudcast. Can you believe it? What do we have planned for our listeners in the new year?

The Cloudcast #125 - Building Advanced Cloud Services

Guest: Chip Childers (@chipchilders), VP of Product Cumulogic, VP of Apache CloudStack

Topic 1 - What is the latest on Apache CloudStack? How was the CloudStack Collaboration Conference? (Huge thanks to Schuberg Philis for their donation and time!)

Topic 2 - Why do we need services beyond IaaS? What are some examples?

Topic 3 - A little bit about Cumulogic. Where are you seeing traction? What are customers asking for?

Topic 4 - You have a Service Provider background. Tell us a little bit about the build vs. buy decisions and is that changing over time?

Topic 5 - Where do you see the future of services around IaaS? How are products like Cumulogic different from say VMTurbo (guest on Episode 124). How are operations different?

Music credit: Nine Inch Nails (nin.com)

The Cloudcast #124 - Cloud Operations

Topic 1 - VMTurbo isn’t your first go round creating products and companies in this space. Prior to VMTurbo, you created SMARTS which was acquired by EMC. What made you decide to start over and create something from the ground up a second time?

Topic 2 - What common problems are you seeing today? Do you see different problems based on Enterprise vs. SMB? SP’s? What is your view of this space?

Topic 3 - Are your products Open Source (not from what I could tell)? Has Open Source Software and the increasing scopes of projects/Products in OpenStack/CloudStack/vCloud affecting how you see approaches to operations of clouds?

Topic 4 - What CMP (cloud management platform) characteristics do you see the most that are driving adoption of additional management products? Where are the holes today? Monitoring, Multi-Tenancy, Compliance and Security, Application Level Management?

Topic 5 - How do most of your customers get started today? What challenges do they tackle first? Do they hit the low hanging fruit? Do they attack the big issues?

Topic 6 - Do you get many requests for deep API Integration for DevOps or integration with public clouds? Where do you think the private cloud industry will go in 2014?

The Cloudcast - Donuts, Donations and Dummies

"Rewards" - Krispy Kreme Challenge 2014 Donations

Last week we announced that we're starting both our training and fundraising for the 2014 Krispy Kreme Challenge (@k2challenge). 8000+ runners, 5 miles, 12 donuts, uphill both ways. And once that stupidity is over, the event makes a HUGE donation to the NC Children's Hospital (@ncchildrens) - for 2013 it was over $180,000. People might laugh at the participants in the event, and they should since it's blatant gluttony, but the impact they make to those families is significant.

This year we've decided to raise our target goal. Last year it was $2500 and we raised $4310 with your generosity. This year we started our goal at $5000, but we really think we can do quite a bit more ($7500?, $10,000??). The hardest part for Aaron and Brian is asking people for money. We know it all goes to a great cause (100%, every penny), but it's tough for us to ask. So we're borrowing an idea from FundAnything.com and giving "rewards" back to you for your generosity and donations.

Here's how it works. At various levels of giving, we're offering something back.
NOTE: These levels are additive. You get all the things at your level and below it.


$10-$25: Recognition on the podcast, website and big check given to NC Children's Hospital

$50: The Cloudcast t-shirt (the good "softy" ones that are popular at tradeshows now)

$100: Your logo (company, blog, podcast, etc.) on our official race-day shirt

$250: Be a guest co-host on an episode of The Cloudcast

$500 (corporate level): Sponsorship of The Cloudcast for one month (4 shows)

$1000 and beyond: Let's talk, we'll coming up with something awesome!!

The Cloudcast – #123 – Monitoring the Clouds from the Cloud

The Cloudcast #122 - The Clash of the Cloudcasts

Team Cloudcast - Charity Challenge for NC Children's Hospital

It's that time of year again. The time when we all begin to give thanks for our health, our families and the good things that life provides for us. Aaron and Brian know they are extremely lucky to have their own health, as well as their health of their daughters. But not everyone is so lucky. Sometimes children get sick, and more than just the kind of sick that keeps them home from school with the sniffles. The children that have extremely illnesses need the help of outstanding medical facilities like the NC Children's Hospital. Words can't describe the amazing work that the doctors, nurses and administrators at this facility do for both the children and their families.

Once again in 2014 (February), we will be running in the Krispy Kreme Challenge, which is not only an incredibly fun event but also serves as an outstanding fundraiser for the NC Children's Hospital. If you life the show, we'd be incredibly appreciative if you'd consider making a donation on behalf of Team Cloudcast. In 2013 we raised $4300, and in 2014 we have a goal of $5000. With your help, we can exceed those goals and make an even bigger difference in 2014. And if you're in the US, donations are tax deductible.

On behalf of Team Cloudcast, we want to thank you in advance for your generosity and support. As much as we love giving back to our industry with the latest Cloud Computing trends, this event is far and away the most important thing we do each year. Collectively, if we're able to make even a small difference for an sick child or their family, then that's a real game-changer!

Thank you,
Aaron & Brian

The Cloudcast – #121 – Does SaaS need better Security?

The Cloudcast #120 - OpenStack DBaaS

The Cloudcast #119 - OpenStack Neutron and Nuage Networks

The Cloudcast #118 - OpenStack VMware Interop and Nicira SDN

The Cloudcast #117 - OpenStack API Deep Dive

The Cloudcast - #116 - Managed OpenStack and Cloud Foundry

The Cloudcast - #115 - Real World OpenStack

The Cloudcast - #114 - Evolving to SDN DevOps

The Mobilecast - #18 - BYOD for Everybody

New Whiteboard Videos - SDN, OpenStack, CloudStack, OpenSource

Following the whiteboard videos we made at CloudOpen, we got inspired to make a new set of whiteboard videos that covered some topics that we hadn't discussed before or needed to be updated. We also decided to include Aaron Delp (@aarondelp) in the videos this time. All of The Cloudcast whiteboard videos can be found on our YouTube Channel. Any suggestions for new topics are always welcomed.

Aaron kicks off the first couple videos by reviewing the architecture of both Apache Cloudstack (Citrix CloudPlatform) and OpenStack "Havana" (which we covered quite a bit lately - here, here, here).

The Cloudcast – #113 – Is Data Center Management a House of Cards?

New Whiteboard Videos - Saltstack, Swift, OpenDaylight, OpenStack, VMware

It's been several months since we've updated The Cloudcast's YouTube Channel. We apologize for the lack of updates. We're planning to create a new set of whiteboard videos later this week, but in the interim, we wanted to shared four new videos that were created last week at LinuxCon and CloudOpen.

Thomas Hatch (Creator of SaltStack) - SaltStack Architecture





John Dickinson (PTL for Project Swift; Swiftstack) - Swift Architecture

The Cloudcast #112 - The Journey From VMware to OpenStack Part 2

The Cloudcast - #111 - Real World Puppet Manifest Development

The Cloudcast - #110 - Overcoming PaaS Deployment Barriers

The Cloudcast - #109 - Canonical's Plan to Rule the World and Bacon

The Cloudcast - #108 - OpenStack Neutron and SDN

The Cloudcast - #107 - CoreOS and Linux Containers

The Cloudcast - #106 - Xen Project Updates

The Cloudcast - #105 - OpenDaylight & SDN Evolution

The Cloudcast - #104 - DevOps and SaltStack

The Cloudcast - #103 - OpenStack Summit, Training & User-Feedback

The Cloudcast - #102 - OpenStack Foundation and Piston Cloud

The Cloudcast - #101 - Software Defined Storage

The Mobilecast - #17 - Blackberry, What's Next?

Live!! The Cloudcast at LinuxCon and CloudOpen

Since we started the show in 2011, we've never really done anything "official". Next week, that all changes. We've been invited by the Linux Foundation to be the official podcast of LinuxCon and Cloud Open in New Orleans. This has been in the works for several weeks, but it was announced earlier today. 

We'll be recording shows all day Monday through Wednesday. We'll have both our audio and video recording equipment, so if you're attending the show, feel free to stop by and either be a guest (timeslots permitting), listen to some great guest, or share some knowledge with us on the whiteboard.

[Recording with be in the Celestin Foyer near the trade booths at the Hyatt Regency New Orleans]

Our current guest list looks like this, and I'm sure we'll be adding more as the week goes along:

• John Mark Walker, Joe Brockmeier - RedHat - Gluster and OSS Storage
• Joshua McKenty - Piston Cloud - OpenStack
• Kyle Mestery - Cisco - OpenDaylight Project (SDN)
• Eben Upton - Raspberry Pi 
• Thomas Hatch - SaltStack
• Jim Zemlin - Linux Foundation
• Brandon Philips - CoreOS
• Chris Dibona - Google

We'll be posting shows online throughout the day. It's going to be a great event, with tons of great topics to discuss and tons of really smart people. We're excited to be there and we'd love to meet people if they are a fan of the show. 

The Mobilecast - #16 - The Enterprise Mobility Management Space

The Mobilecast - #15 - The Apple Announcements

The Cloudcast – #100 – Constipated Unicorns and Cloud Bollocks

The Mobilecast - #14 - The Microsoft + Nokia Deal

The Cloudcast - #99 - Exploring Network Virtualization

The Mobilecast - #13 - Mobile Security

Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on The Cloudcast

This past week, both Aaron Delp (@aarondelp) and Brian Gracely (@bgracely) were named to the "Top 100 Cloud Computing Experts on Twitter" list. A quick scan of the list reveals that 20% have been guests on The Cloudcast over the last two years, with many others that hopefully will be on very soon (lots of scheduling challenges to overcome). We consider ourselves very lucky to have created a platform that allows us to engage with many of the experts in our industry. As we soon move beyond Eps.100 and into our third year, we promise to focus not only on the thought-leaders, but also on many of the people doing amazing things behind the scenes (eg. operators and software developers) at the most innovative cloud computing companies.

NOTE: Many other guests of the show were mentioned in the comments section of the Top 100 list.

1. Randy Bias, @randybias - Eps.36
2. James Urquhart, @jamesurquhart - Eps.21 and Eps.34
3. George Reese, @georgereese - Eps.19
4. Ben Kepes, @benkepes - Eps.46
5. Simon Wardley, @swardley - Eps.51
6. James Watters, @wattersjames - Eps.63
7. Dave McCrory, @mccrory - Eps.17, Eps.37, Eps.82
8. Mark Collier,@sparkycollier - Eps.94
9. Botchagalupe, @botchagalupe - Eps.58 
10. Sinclair Schuller, @sschuller - Eps.29 and Eps.76
11. Rodney Rogers, @rjrogers87 - Eps.39
12. Christian Riley, @reillyusa - Eps.3, Eps.12, Eps.32 
13. John Mark Troyer, @jtroyer - Geek Whispers episode
14. Andi Mann, @AndiMann - Eps.22
15. Brian Gracely, @bgracely
16. Ed Saipetch, @edsai - Eps.8, Eps.68
17. Vanessa Alvarez, @vanessaAlvarez1 - Eps.6, Eps.26, Eps.41
18. Cody Bunch, @cody_bunch - Eps.93
19. Vaughn Stewart, @vStewed - Eps.67
20. Aaron Delp, @aarondelp

The Mobilecast - #12 - Data Ingestion

Topic 1 – What is the Data ingestion problem and how it came from FUIT

Topic 2 – How people work, it’s not trying to be nefarious

Topic 3 – How do we manage content

Topic 4 – Identity and personas

Topic 5 – maybe there is a way to use auditing

Topic 6 – Christmas lights

The Cloudcast - #98 - Real-life AWS Apps and DevOps

The Cloudcast - #97 - Docker and PaaS Containers

The Cloudcast - #96 - Swift - More than OpenStack

Links

• SwiftStack - http://www.swiftstack.com/
• Joe’s OpenStack Swift Book on Amazon
• SwiftStack YouTube Channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/SwiftStackVideos

Topic 1 – Joe, who are you?  You’ve been at CloudScaling & Engine Yard prior to your current gig at SwiftStack.  Author of a book on Swift.

Topic 2 - (Everything is Open and a Stack in the name, run us through some basics of terminology) Project vs. Product has come up a lot recently.  Tell me about Swift 1.9 as a project first (Global Clusters).  Private Cloud Storage as a product and just an OpenStack project?

Topic 3 – Object vs. File or Block?  Start at the lowest level, what kind of hardware?  What kind of software protections?  Discuss the ring vs. controller.  Geo-disbursement.  Scale out by de-coupling the controller from the actual storage nodes (SAN dual-head analogy).  How does it compare to others (i.e. Gluster, Ceph, Basho, etc.) & what makes it unique?

Topic 4 – Storage Efficiency?  Deduplication?  Actual Storage Algorithms?  Governance? Compliance?

Topic 5 - Use Cases?  Performance?  When is it a good fit?  When is it a bad fit?

The Mobilecast - #11 - An EMM Primer

The Mobilecast - #10 - VMware End User Computing

Note: After our recording the podcast, VMware announced how they are addressing iOS7 changes in their tools. You can find the information here: http://cto.vmware.com/vmwares-strategy-for-ios-7-and-industry-implications/

The Cloudcast - #95 - Ansible - Next Generation DevOps Tools

Links

AnsibleWorks - http://www.ansibleworks.com/

Topic 1 – Michael, you’ve got a very interesting background.  First off, you’re a Raleigh person, not a Silicon Valley guy.  You “grew up” at Red Hat and prior to Ansible you created Cobbler and even have some patents to your name in this space. Give everyone a little background.

Topic 2 - For those that aren’t familiar with Cobbler, what is it and why did you invent it?

Topic 3 – Let’s move on to Ansible, I attended your session today (my impressions).  What is Ansible and why AnsibleWorks?  Probably the first question you get, why Ansible and not Puppet/Chef?  Seems to be Configuration Management, App Delivery & CI (Continuous Integration or Delivery) all in one? Infrastructure as code - rPath and Bronto?  What is AnsibleWorks AWX?

Topic 4 – You were just on FLOSS Weekly and you are speaking here at OSCON, The product is under a GPL license.  does that differentiate you in the market?

Topic 5 - Technical Details - No Agent, talks SSH and can be written in anything that returns JSON?

The Cloudcast - #94 - OpenStack Turns Three

Links

• OpenStack Foundation - http://www.openstack.org/foundation/
• RackSpace Unlocked.io RoadShow - http://unlocked.io/#home

Topic 1 – Mark, tell us a little bit about your role in the Foundation and also about the greater foundation as an entity as well.  Wayne, you don’t work for the RackSpace Hybrid Cloud Team, what is your role and how is it different?

Topic 2 - Mark, we’ve probably all heard a good bit about OpenStack as a product and it is constantly evolving as we lead up to the Havana release.  Tonight is the “official” 3rd Birthday party here at OSCON.  How has the Foundation grown over the years and how has it evolved?  How did you manage the explosive growth?

Topic 3 – Project vs. Product vs. Service vs. Service Provider confusion- (I’m talking project today)  Your take?  What would you say are the keys to the success of the project?

Topic 4 – Do Again?  Not Do Again?  Hong Kong for next Summit?

Topic 5 - Wayne, you are doing something cool, this unlocked.io roadshow program.  I took a look at the slides and this isn’t about pushing a product, this feels like more of an education on devops and cloud era application and workload development

The Cloudcast - #93 - The Journey from VMware to OpenStack

Cody’s Blogs, Books, Videos and Podcasts

• vCenter Orchestrator Book – http://www.vmware.com/go/vmwarepress
• OpenStack Security Guide - http://www.openstack.org/blog/2013/07/openstack-security-guide-now-available/
• OpenStack Cloud Computing Cookbook v2 - http://www.packtpub.com/openstack-cloud-computing-cookbook-second-edition/book
• Blog - http://ProfessionalVMware.com
• OpenStack Blog - http://openstack.prov12n.com
• Tech Editor - Managing VMware Infrastructure with Windows PowerShell
• Tech Editor - VMware VI and vSphere SDK: Managing the VMware Infrastructure and vSphere

Topic 1 – Let’s start with your background, how you got so involved with the VMware world and how it’s recently transitioned to being OpenStack centric.

Topic 2 - Technically (and religiously), VMware and OpenStack are very different. How did you go about making the transition? Many of our listeners are trying to figure out where the start, what to learn, etc.

Topic 3 – What is vBrownbag and how has it evolved (globally) from VMware-centric to adding the OpenStack elements? How has the transition gone and any insight into how it’s going worldwide?

Topic 4 – Talk about the OpenStack book you’ve been writing, and how that process (community-based, intense week of group writing) has been different than other books you’ve written.

Behind the Mic: The Cloudcast on Geek Whisperers

This past week we sat down with The Geek Whispers podcast team (Amy Lewis (@commsninja), John Troyer (@jtroyer), Matthew Brender (@mjbrender)) to talk about how we created The Cloudcast (.net) and the behind-the-scenes details on how the sausage factory actually works. It was somewhat of an Inception moment to be talking about the making of podcasts on a podcast, while podcasting with podcasting people.

Geek Whisperers Eps.13 - How to Create a Successful Podcast

Their podcast focuses on the intersection of Enterprise Technology and Social Media and they do an excellent job highlighting how the technical community can better leverage the various aspects of social media to enhance careers, build networks and improve their companies. We highly recommend adding the show to your regular podcast listening lists.

The Cloudcast - #92 - Captain Morgan and the Real-Time Web

The Cloudcast - #91 - CloudStack Collab - Users Helping Users

Apache CloudStack: http://cloudstack.apache.org/

CloudStack Collab Conference: http://www.cloudstackcollab.org/

Topic 1 – Talk about the conference

Topic 2 - State of Project

Topic 3 – That is it like “working” on and leading an open source project?  How is an ASF project different from other organizations and foundations?

Topic 4 – What was in 4.1? What is coming in 4.2?  Date and Features?

Topic 5 - Customers, Companies

Topic 6 – Where do you see both the market and project going?

The Cloudcast - #90 - Six Weeks to a Cloud

Topic 1 – We can’t name your site but it is a very large web company everyone has heard of, but give us your background...

Topic 2 - You are seeing what is in Silicon Valley (Hadoop, Cassandra)

Topic 3 – templates, automation - What were users looking for?  What were the demands?

Topic 4 – How did your cloud start?  (Hack Days - In january) - $10,000 and 6 weeks to work on your project (His project was that the cloud was needed and ready for production in just 6 weeks)

Topic 5 - Where was your head at and what products did you look at?  What use cases?   How hard does your large environment push products?  What were the barriers to entry?

Topic 6 – How do you keep up with cloud computing and still do your day job?  Why did you chose CloudStack for your cloud?