Cloud Computing: What You Need to Know About PaaS

Cloud computing discussions invariably begin with the “IPS” taxonomy: Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service and Software as a Service. This taxonomy has the virtue of being comprehensible and neatly partitioning assessment requirements:

The Challenges PaaS Presents

Why would one call PaaS a significant challenge for users? Simply because the undoubted power and productivity of these platforms brings a new set of issues to enterprises that they may not realize until well after they’ve deployed a number of applications.

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Here are some of the things IT leaders should think about as they begin to evaluate their PaaS options:

1. Lock-in. Using a PaaS framework entwines your functionality with the CSP framework far more than installing your application into a provider’s virtual machine. Attempting to extract an application when it is internally dependent upon services the provider presents requires deep inspection of code–not just installing a tarball into a different provider. The productivity you gain by leveraging the PaaS provider’s offerings is matched by the dependence you suffer by being locked into the specifics of the offering. I’m less disposed than many to see lock-in as purely negative, as in my experience organizations embrace lock-in because it provides significant benefits. But it’s important to go into this with one’s eye open because it definitely represents a higher level of lock-in.

2. Complexity. Every PaaS provider puts its set of functionality together differently, with its framework constructed according to its view of how applications should be designed. Trying to determine how best to write and run your application in a PaaS environment is not trivial. For sure, it’s a big step away from traditional on-premise environments.

3. CSP (cloud services provider) differentiation. As noted above, a number of PaaS frameworks claim to provide a layer of abstraction that hides the details of the cloud provider from the application developer. Setting aside the likelihood of this application abstraction really working, it overlooks the meta-application functionality that can lock one in as surely as anything. Much of this functionality will be provided by the CSP–think monitoring and payment systems, for example–and will focus on operations, not application writing. CSPs will use this level of functionality to differentiate themselves, with the net effect of locking you in at the operations level rather than the code level. Don’t think this won’t happen. The first thought a cloud provider has is, “How do I differentiate myself from other CSPs?” because they all fear becoming the computing equivalent of a “dumb pipe.”

4. New skills. Your application developers will need to learn a new framework and how to develop applications for it. While many early cloud adopters are blessed with highly skilled development personnel that build new skills quickly, in the rest of the industry, getting organizations up to speed with something new is a human capital challenge.

5. Mapping existing practices to new frameworks. Most organizations have defined frameworks, methodologies and operational practices. These will have to be evaluated in light of a new framework and modified accordingly. In effect, this issue already exists with IaaS cloud offerings; it will just be exacerbated as the richness of the new framework presents more touch points for mapping.

Intel Joins the Windows 8 Developer Push

IDF takes place at the same time as BUILD, and the Wintel alliance (for now) is linking arms to reach out to developers Microsoft 70-640 Training .”.

If you’re going to Intel’s Developer Forum next week and want to know what’s up with Windows 8, good news: you don’t have to jet down to Anaheim, Microsoft has got you covered at IDF, too.

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As we all know, the Microsoft BUILD conference takes place next week in Anaheim, California (just across the street from Disneyland). BUILD is a rollup of PDC and WinHEC, so it’s the show for developers to attend. At the same time, Intel is hosting the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.

This may present a quandary for some people, but thankfully, Microsoft and Intel are coordinating this rather well. For those of you attending IDF, you can get yourself at least some info on Windows 8. As for a beta, well, we still don’t know if one will come out at BUILD (although I’d be shocked if it didn’t happen). The most likely scenario is that you can register to get the beta while at IDF.

The information comes courtesy of Intel’s IDF site, which lists a few notable sessions involving Microsoft (click on the Technical Session Catalog and search for Microsoft). The biggest one comes on Wednesday, where Microsoft will deliver a session on Windows 8 called “Microsoft Windows 8 on Intel Architecture.” This session will be the look at Windows 8 and discuss “the work both companies are undertaking to deliver this new compute experience.”

Most of the sessions are reserved for Thursday, the last day of IDF. I’ve seen how attendance falls off on day 3 of IDF and question whether that’s a good idea, but maybe it was all they had Microsoft Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training.

The two companies will host a session called “Hot Topic Q&A: Intel and Microsoft – Windows 8.” Microsoft will have three representatives, Intel will have two engineers.

Another session on Thursday will be “Microsoft Windows Platform Evolution and UEFI Requirements.” UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and will finally replace the creaky old BIOS firmware that has been in PCs for more than 30 years. The session will talk about the latest Windows 8 platform requirements including UEFI boot and security features.

The final session on Thursday will be “Integrating Intel Platform Capabilities on Microsoft Windows Security Architecture.” Intel will detail improvements in the Windows security architecture and how Intel hardware will work with the next-generation of Windows.

Sure sounds like a beta is coming, doesn’t it?

Microsoft's 5 biggest weaknesses

Search, mobile devices, the Web and even the desktop represent challenges for Redmond

For all its success as the world's biggest maker of PC operating systems and office programs, Microsoft's position as the dominant provider of software to consumers is at risk.

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2. Browsers

Once upon a time, Microsoft's Internet Explorer commanded greater than 90% market share, dominating the Web browser market as much as Windows dominates PCs today. The Microsoft monopoly earned itself antitrust penalties by beating Netscape into submission, but it wasn't until the rise of Mozilla's Firefox (a descendant of Netscape) and Google's Chrome that the monopoly would be broken.

Nowadays, Microsoft loses browser share almost every single month, dropping to 52.71% in total number of users, according to Net Applications, and to 42.45% in total page views, according to StatCounter. The discrepancy between numbers of users and amount of usage suggests that the Web's heaviest users are the ones who replace the default Internet Explorer with Firefox and Chrome.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 took steps forward in speed, the user interface, and ability to display sophisticated content like HTML5, and Microsoft is moving to a faster release schedule that brings improvements to users on a more regular basis. Perhaps just as important, Microsoft has made IE9 available only on the newest versions of Windows, arguing that creating browsers that work across all types of computers drives quality down by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

In other words, Microsoft says Google's Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox are hobbled because they run across Windows, Mac, Linux and older, less capable versions of Windows such as XP. Microsoft wants you to believe that unless you buy a new version of Windows, you won't get the best browsing experience.


"In the future, the browser is only as good as the operating system and the device it runs on," IE Senior Director Ryan Gavin argued several months ago. "We have to think about these things as being integrated."

Internet Explorer itself isn't a moneymaker for Microsoft, although it can be used to direct consumers to Microsoft's online services. Theoretically, someone who tries out Chrome and likes it better than IE is a potential customer for other Google products, and someone who tries out Safari and likes it may become enamored with Apple.

Because of the move from locally installed applications to the Web, the browser is becoming "the portal into your world," says IDC analyst Al Gillen. "The reason Microsoft wants to fight movement is if you can wrestle the browser away from Microsoft, the more your interface to the rest of the world becomes your browser, and you worry more about what browser you're running than what operating system you're running."

Microsoft's response: Microsoft declined to answer questions about Internet Explorer, but pointed to a blog post by executive Roger Capriotti, who notes that IE9 is gaining popularity among Windows 7 users and business customers.
3. Mobile phones and tablets

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously laughed at Apple's iPhone in 2007, saying, "It's the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which means it's not a very good email machine. ... We have great Windows Mobile devices in the market today. I look at that and say I like our strategy, I like it a lot. We're selling millions and millions and millions of phones a year. Apple is selling zero phones a year."

Training for MCTS 70-640 Certification

I’ve taken quite an extended break from my last CCNA certification. After much thought, I’ve stepped back and decided to go towards a Microsoft certification. In particular, I will be training myself for the Microsoft MCITP: Enterprise Administrator.

The prerequisites for the MCITP: Enterprise Administrator are 70-640 Training, 70-642, 70-643, 70-647 and either 70-680 or 70-620 or 70-624.

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Right now I am starting off with the 70-640. At my organization we already have some Windows Server 2008 machines deployed but I’d like to get an expert grasp with this technology. I’d like to acquire more knowledge in creating solutions and deploying. The maintaining part is natural to me.

The tools I will be using to train myself for the MCTS 70-640:

* Sybex MCTS Windows Server 2008 Active Directory Configuration Study Guide by William Panek and James Chellis

* Various online material from Microsoft and Techexams

* Practice tests from the Sybex book

* Lab environment – physical or virtual

Since I do have a couple years experience working with Windows Server I will be putting myself on a fast track study guide. I plan on finishing the book and labs within 2 months and shortly after completing some practice tests I will take the real certification exam.

The most challenging part of all this will be managing time and resources. With full dedication I have no doubt that I can acquire this new knowledge and become Free MCTS Training and MCTS Online Training certified through Microsoft.

Gmail or Exchange? Six questions to help you make the right choice

Summary: There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all e-mail solution. After a long evaluation process, I’m happily using three different e-mail systems. Here’s how and why I chose each one.

When it comes to e-mail, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. I’ve learned that lesson emphatically over the last year as I’ve tested a variety of different e-mail solutions for myself and for various friends and clients.

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The top-secret Technology Reviewers Handbook says that after all that evaluating I’m supposed to pick a winner. But there is no clear winner. Instead, I’m happily using three different e-mail systems:

My business e-mail i running on a hosted Exchange account at Intermedia. My wife’s business account is hosted on the same server. (I’ve written previously about my reasons for choosing Exchange 2010; I switched to Intermedia earlier this year because they offered Exchange 2010 when other hosted Exchange providers were still offering Exchange 2007.)
I have a single user account at Office 365 for several upcoming projects, where features other than e-mail were the deciding factor.
I’m playing Google Apps administrator for an out-of-state client who needed a free, easy e-mail solution that would work well with his new Android phone.

Why three different solutions? Because each client (including myself) had different needs. I sorted them out by asking a series of questions and thought it might be useful to share my decision tree here.

A note: If you live in the United States, your options should be the same as the ones I write about in this post. In other countries, some services might not be available, and others might be offered at different prices. In addition, I do not cover the many educational offerings available for students and others associated with an educational institution.

1. Do you want a store-and-forward server or one that syncs your messages in the cloud?

Most Internet service providers offer POP3 mailboxes. They’re usually a standard feature with cheap web-hosting plans, too. These accounts use store-and-forward servers that assume you’re downloading your messages to a local store and deleting them off the server immediately. The server isn’t designed to keep an archive. Your master copy of any message is local.

By contrast, cloud-based mail products store your messages on a server so that you can access your e-mail—all of it, new and old—via a web browser. You can usually sync the server’s message store with a local PC or device, using Exchange ActiveSync or IMAP.

For this question, I think there’s only one correct answer. If you work in a big corporation, a central server that stores every user’s messages is a key part of a legally acceptable archiving policy. But a cloud-based server is also a good idea even if you’re a one-person organization. If you have more than one device (smartphone and PC, maybe a notebook, maybe a tablet), keeping everything in sync with a POP3 account is impossible. I still have a few POP3 accounts associated with some domains I own, but I forward all incoming messages from those accounts to a cloud-based account.

2. Do you need a custom domain?

I’m a firm believer in owning your own domain—especially for business mail. You might be perfectly happy to use a generic webmail address as your calling card to the rest of the world. (Just don’t adopt an address from your ISP as your primary e-mail account. If you move or change service providers, that address will become useless.)

The free Google Apps offering allows you to assign your custom domain to Google Apps. Hotmail offers this feature, too, but the domain management tools in Windows Live Admin Center made me want to scream in frustration. For my out-of-state clients, it took a few hours to get their custom domain working with Google Apps, but after those initial hiccups were out of the way it’s been problem-free.

Naturally, all of the paid services—hosted Exchange, Office 365, and Google Apps—offer excellent integration with custom domains. For Office 365 and Intermedia, I had a choice of turning an entire domain over or just defining mail exchange (MX) records. If you know your way around DNS configuration, this is a straightforward task. If you don’t, be prepared to ask for help (or take a crash course in DNS management).

Here’s the DNS manager for an Office 365 P plan. Note that you must set up the MX records with an external DNS service and can’t edit them here:

And here’s the custom DNS manager that Intermedia customers find in the HostPilot control panel:

3. Do you plan to use Microsoft Outlook?

If you live in Outlook, then your primary account should be on an Exchange 2010 server. Period. Full stop.

The combination of Outlook and Exchange offers great online and offline support. That’s true whether you’re using Microsoft’s Office 365 or a hosted Exchange option like Intermedia’s. Hotmail accounts work well after you install the Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector.

My experience with accessing Gmail and Google Apps accounts via Microsoft Outlook has been consistently bad—so bad that I won’t use the two products together. I won’t recommend that combination for anyone else, either. If you have a Gmail account and you want offline access, you can use the Offline settings in Google’s Chrome browser or try a third-party client program other than Outlook.

How Apple's iPad is changing the computer world

With or without Steve Jobs, Apple's [AAPL] iPad isn't just a PC replacement, it's a completely new solution that will define the next-generation of computing, no matter how long the analysts take to recognize the device as more than the equivalent of a PC.

iMusical iYouth

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It shows 24-students in a music class at a UK school working together with an adult music teacher (Neil Johnston) to create a release-quality track using 24 iPads.(You can buy the song on iTunes in the US right here.)

The song is completely original, and guitars are linked to the iPad using Apogee Jam while drums and vocals are recorded through iRig Mic and M-audio midi keyboards, themselves all plugged into iPads.

"The iPad is a breakthrough device for the classroom because the opportunities are endless for app integration within an education curriculum," Neil Johnston (@storevanmusic), the music teacher featured in the video above, said to me. "For us, with music, the iPad now allows all students to be engaged in the learning and performing process."

All aboard

This is a big deal, because it boosts inclusion, he explains. "Before, the kid who struggled to play an instrument was given a triangle and told to sit out of the limelight, trying to keep in time. Now that kid, can open up GarageBand and press some chords on a guitar or piano. That kid is now involved with their classmates, that kid is engaged, having a great time, and learning too! Our project was never about replacing real instruments, it was about an engaging music lesson, where every student had a role to play and could take part."

Johnston will fly across to the US this fall to tour New York and beyond, where he'll be hosting sessions inside Apple retail stores, I hear. Watch this space for details.

This isn't the first remarkable use of an iPad in music, or in the classroom. Look around and you'll find many, many more (including three at the end of this story), but it is an interesting reflection on just how much impact a device which is under two years old has already had across so many industries.

The evolution of both the PC and the Post-PC will both go down on the world-changing track record of Apple's ex-CEO, Steve Jobs. However, the significance will extend far beyond that: Apple is defining the new generation of computing.

Incidentally, the UK experiment above prompted Sting to say: "I'm very impressed... Your use of studio as classroom and technology as teacher is exactly what we need to maintain music as a vital part of the curriculum."

[ABOVE: An iPad orchestra plays us to the post-PC future.]

This is the real deal

iPads and similar devices will become the defacto way that people use computers. Laptops are too big and smart phones too small. For many, the iPad is the perfect size -- but the key to the future isn't the technology -- that must become ever more pervasive, but the apps. Apple's app empire is its key differentiation, raising the value of its solutions far above those from everyone else.

HP's move to launch a fire sale on its TouchPad will soon be emulated by all the other tablet vendors (bar Apple) who will perhaps realize that it isn't enough to talk about tech specs, and make sure a device runs Flash (which no one really likes), but you need to resonate with consumers.

And the way to resonate with consumers is to create devices which offer all the creative possibilities of a child's toy, alongside all the productive capabilities of a Mac and all the time-wasting potential of a television, a good book, or radio. And you get all this with the iPad, iTunes and, in future, the iCloud ecosystem.

No one wins a price war

Price is a factor. The HP fire sale saw a few foolish customers waste a hundred dollars or so on a device which will never see a software update, and which has no app market. The sale has raised some cash to offset HP's losses, but customers will quickly tire of a device they can't upgrade, and can't purchase software for. Though some may enjoy installing Linux on the things, that hardly constitutes a mass market.

The success of the sale ably illustrates that there is space in the market for a cheap tablet -- but can you make a cheap tablet? I don't think so. Those cheaper devices just don't have the build quality, the operating system, the screen, the interface, they just don't match up. Also, last time I looked, components were hard to find...

This means that for the present, Apple will maintain its tablet market lead until 2013 at the earliest. Given the company has today begun manufacturing components for next year's iPad 3, there's no end in sight for innovation yet.

What would Steve do?

That's because people at Apple ask themselves one thing in the morning and one thing at night these days, "What would Steve do?"

Reflect on this: The interesting thing about a company collectively and individually asking itself that question is that the result might actually be a post-Jobs renaissance of innovation, as even the guy in the back room suddenly comes up with a great idea.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Do what you love. That's a statement of philosophy that can't be matched by any dry focus-group-led discussion on Megahertz or memory.

2017: When PCs go the way of the dinosaur?

Today, In-Stat predicted that the global tablet market will reach 250 million shipments by 2017. It's a seemingly big number, but its real significance is bigger: How much will tablets displace PC sales?

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Right now the global install base of PCs is about 1 billion units. Shipments have been above 300 million PCs per year, but they're way down in mature markets, still strong in some emerging markets and losing sales to tablets, according to both Gartner and IDC. Is there market sustainable enough for 300 million PCs and 250 million tablets? I'm the wrong person to answer, having already proclaimed -- to the chagrin of many Betanews commenters -- that the "PC era is over."

The synopsis to In-Stat's report -- "The Reality and Ramifications of Tablets" -- focuses more on how consumer electronics devices are impacted. In-Stat sent me data sheets with no data, but questions and other info that let me see the report doesn't take the PC into the equation.

It is the PC that will matter more to many Betanews readers managing IT departments.
Two months ago, I asked: "Are tablets a fad?". In-Stat's data surely suggests otherwise. Then there are Gartner and IDC, which, respectively, forecast 69.8 million and 53.5 million this year.

Much depends on overlap. How much can tablets replace PCs? Many of our readers don't see that happening. Maybe, but Windows 8 is coming, and I'm expecting a juicy developer beta to drop during next month's BUILD conference. Microsoft is clearly targeting Windows 8 for tablets as well as desktop and portable PCs -- and it's what analyst firms Gartner and IDC consider a "full" OS rather than a mobile.

In context of Microsoft entering the tablet market in a big-OS way and with its core market being businesses, there's good reason to rethink the PC's future -- not just in the hands of Apple or Android tablets but Microsoft leading businesses down a hybrid path. Whatever, tablets are maturing fast and the overlap with PC functionally can only get greater (with Windows 8 part of that equation).

I don't see enough room for both tablets and PCs in 2017. Something has to give. Either tablets must cannibalize PC sales or a hybrid product emerges, something that absolutely could happen in a post-Windows 7 world, with Windows 8 driving new form factors. That 250 million is a mighty big number. But many analysts made big predictions about netbooks, which sales have collapsed before tablets. It may be that Microsoft and its hardware partners can similarly upset the current tablet market with Windows 8. If not, we have a date, or thereabouts, for PC's obsolescence: 2017.

In the here and now, In-Stat sees tablets encroaching on consumer electronics devices. "The tablet market and its associated ecosystem are still evolving. Over the next few generations we will see more differentiation between devices that are targeting different market segments and usage models. In addition, competitive device and service pricing will bring tablets into the mainstream consumer and enterprise markets", Jim McGregor, In-Stat chief technology strategist, says in a statement.

"Tablets are joining an array of smart-connected devices that allow users almost unlimited access to content and communications", he continues. "These new devices mark a significant change in the value change of the electronics industry where the content and applications are now the key differentiators and innovation drivers".

In-Stat sees Android and iOS coming to dominate 90 percent of the tablet market during the forecast period, with Windows pulling up the rear. Tablets 9 inches to 11 inches will make up 56 percent of the total tablet market in 2017.