Docker

We've been saying for a while... To anyone awake enough to listen... That VMs are just a workaround and developers are too lazy (or not bright enough!) to code for multiple processors and cores, so instead the answer was to scale #os to utilise the advances in processor and machine size - in our opinion it has filled a gap talent wasn't there to fill, our included.

So, along comes #Docker... With an excellent talk by Adrian Mouat at the Trifork meetup.

Now you might say this #tech has existed for a while, but has it?

We hear so many organisations say they are "#virtualised", but really are they? Have they just moved there sloth-like infrastructure management onto virtual machines? Does that really offer a step change difference? No.

#Docker is by no means mature or #enterprise ready, but it is the best step in the direction, being the Monty Python funny walk amongst the dullness that catches the eye.

Right now a fledgling container come environment, less than #VM, but more more macho than a process, it allows a similar host (Linux only right now, as all the best server tech) to host a set of #Docker containers that have their own layer of file and process (may or may not be persisted). The contains holds any dependencies it needs, so is guaranteed to run, without no nasty dependency gotchas - but remember as this is thin, it must have the same host/kernel.

The packages themselves are build in layers, you utilise and existing OS from the Docker community (some official, others not) starting with OS, then DB before services, so your WorkdPress image is just a small deta on top of those - the Container Engine handles all of this, including one-time loading of libraries, sharing these between containers.

Processes are native to the host, but limited in context, the community has a fresh approach and is open about the potential vulnerabilities obvious here. For further access, capabilites can be enabled to provide a more exciting experience to the container, say GPU access.

So far just 64-bit #linux the geek in me says yay, but the corporate slave ask for #windows, I'm told a way off, but I recall there was some #vms mysticism built into #windowNT that set it aside from #windows3, so maybe it might just be doable, after all @citrix managed it.

In a way it's what #Apple have with the #iOS app-ecosystem, but grown up and not monetised based on lock-in.

Oh, and it's quick, very. Being so light weight there is no tear-down, while there is nothing much to create beyond invocation and the setting of a limited context.

Community additions are coming t hick and fast, subuser.org is like a secured package manager, but rather than traditional binary installs, it gives containers that provide functionality you need segregated from the host.

Supporting systems is a lighter story just now, persistent storage is there, even the ability to share storage between running containers, but working with virtualised networking will be up to you,me specially as networking is achieved by port mapping in the main.

Now #AWS and #Azure are doing container hosting, price-wise it will be fun to see how the costing compares with traditional VM and computer resource, as Docker should make this cheaper.

No news on #Windows and #Mac versions, but no big surprise there, though the benefits of installing say #MicrosoftOffice without a VM, or and registry bashing seems massive, plus the new .NET DLL hell  (the revenge) would be wiped out.

Big circles again in #IT, isn't this like the days of mainframes, which had thin hypervisors and sandboxed process space - well yes, but these circles in tech are always a good thing...

It's about time...

So, we have a new identity, you might say grown-up - to express the right mix of seriousness (vision, strategy and architecture) as well as fluidity (agile, lean-startup, anti-bankruptcy) so as to produce something that can work. From abacus to the mysterious concept of cloud, from a new approach to the way you exercise iyour #IT muscle, coming up with a solutions to a problem, technical or not, or just some good honest answers without the #BS or $¥£€ this industry is so fond of spouting.

Whether that be at start-up or multi-billion level, we don't see any real difference. The usual consultancy suspects will tell you there is - so we're here with a fresh approach, controversial maybe (hopefully!), with our thoughts on how you can tackle the age old problems of #hashtag #IT and the people who make that happen (or not).

Our belief is that the aforementioned #IT isn't really a part of a modern fluid business, rather the complexity of it, combined with high salaries, day rates and extortionate consultancy rates has made it more important than it really it. Our surmise is that it is utility...

Do you get worried about the toilet paper in your corporate bathroom?

Quite frankly, who gives a shit!

We have better things to do, very few of us have to worry about hairdressing, but those that do are often artists.

Our fanatical belief is that #IT is going that way, so why pay for an overpaid nerd with headphones that cost more than your house, when instead you can get some creativity into your business and fresh thinking, getting well away from that utility toilet duty, after all, do you care?

We're here to bring together aspects of business, the best bits of IT (less than 20% at best) and look to how this glues together for businesses of the future; whether they are institutions keen to go with the new flow, or start-ups with g-string funding package - the strategy is not that different.

The @enterpriseperspective can benefit all those who want to suceed and have fun while doing it...

Amazon Web Services

So, tonight [Thurs 28th Nov] we've been mostly enjoying a few cheeky white wines courtesy of our favourite voicemail invader, Rupert Murdoch, at News UK.

Alas it was not to meet the as-yet-not-British man himself, but we did get to hang out with some #AWS groupies 17 floors up, with a great view that would surely inspire a hand to write somehat right of centre, with an overuse of puns.

First observation was that #AWS must be successful and work well, unlike the usual skinny hard-working #geekdom, here we have some exhibiting the accumulated girth of the easy life, like the pale landed gentry of old. They extolled the virtues of the burgeoning cloud platform and hoped they could style out the increasingly common move from #PowerPoint / #KeyNote / #Prezzi, to somewhat 90s looking #HTML5 #slideware, but let us not go parallel, as the content was good... While the wine was cheap and crisps did not hide the evil Cheese and Onion in their midst.

#AWS is moving and quick, in respouse to to the #dev community in part, but mostly to customers who have a good relationship with the vendor, each release seems to see the missing asks from last time around make an appearance, further simplifying the move from on-prem.

What was missing though is a dollar ticker, each Amazon slide showed more and more #Visio prettiness (no cloud version of that yet!) but along with that extravagance was no idea of value, in a #newLabour kind of credit control method, the idea was to ignore spend that multiple load balances, secondary virtual appliances and content distribution might add. They may be micro payments, but it doesn't take long for them to add up - recent analysis show in some cases #cloud costs are very close to #on-prem.

However, features are good, but so heavily biased towards infrastructure folks, not development geeks, which I see a major different to #Azure which prays to another section of the unwashed novelty T-Shirt adorned aficionados.

This is not to say features are bad, as deployment, cost, security andpacking are covered, #Docker too, but to my mind we miss the solutions invention, where #Azure comes out better. #AWS solves the issues with tin and wire really well, but less so the focus on what business really wants. Articulating the real value of #cloud to a senior exec in a way that aligns to their business is a challenge few seem to be able to meet,

Maturity is sprouting liked the first gentleman's garden though and it is the way forward, especially with #Docker, as we are less tied to the #AWS way of doing things and their #APIs, but still #Amazon rules these standards in many cases, becoming the #Apple and #Microsoft (of old) in this economy.

Positive though was our feeling, it's great to see how different mindsets see the technology addressing things and approaches taken to dispose of data centres, when perhaps not the easiest solution, are very inventive - what we are seeing isn't #DevOps, rather a new and invigorated breed of #virtualInfrastructure experts with a drive seen missing from the #BAU teams in the last decade, solving business problems using #IT as they should be, rather than trying to squeeze the square-shaped business into round #IT hole as we often see.

While there are still considerations for e,ploy inn the #cloud, the blockers are minimal for most businesses, so the tide has certainly swung - it does leave us yearning for some in-depth dark-fibre, cooling, mass-storage and other skills require for the hyper-data-centres that will replace corporate ones now - those skills will provide a heft salary or day rate for the few that need them.