Contributions

• Article: Some Thoughts on Cloud Adoption Methodology - February 2010
  Cloud data centers focus on two main areas: time to market and cost management. Technically it provides an abstract platform to deploy services and APIs to manipulate those services. The enabler is automation and the ability to systematically optimize the platforms and services. Granted the focus here is moving forward with a transformational platform but its useful to look backwards to address other challenges beyond technology.
  
  
• Paper: Model-Driven Application Deployment for Cloud Computing Environments - January 2010
  By Jason Carolan and Steve Gaede
  The accepted best practice for creating packages for cloud computing environments is to create a hand-crafted golden master image of the application or service. This golden master can then be versioned, executed, and replicated as determined by the deployment model. While this has been generally accepted as the most efficient approach, it is not. This white paper examines this best practice and demonstrates how a model-based approach can be more efficient, less prone to error, and more secure.
  
  
• Paper: Optimizing Applications for Cloud Computing Environments - November 2009
  Cloud Computing can help you reduce costs, increase flexibility, and reduce risk. You can leverage the cloud to host applications ranging from the business critical to the experimental. But not all applications are suited for cloud computing environments. When deciding whether and how to move an application to the cloud, you must first assess the expected risks and rewards. Once you've determined that an application can run in the cloud, you next should determine whether it can be further optimized to harness the energy of the cloud. This white paper presents a methodology for determining when and how to refactor applications for cloud computing environments.
  
  
• Paper: Prioritized Concerns for Building Cloud Solutions - October 2009
  By Jason Carolan & John Stanford
  The following paper details some of the areas necessary for successful building and adoption of cloud infrastructure today. In many cases, they are imperatives that seem yet to be solved. Central and obvious to cloud environments are the APIs that control the environments, the tools built to support them, and the virtualization, billing, and utility infrastructure. There are many clouds. Clouds should and can talk to other clouds either via orchestration above the cloud or (eventually) by native capability within the cloud. But there are several aspects that are not so obvious. Security, resource management, protocols, and integration between traditional IT environments and a new “cloud-like” model must integrate together.
  
  
• Article: Evolving SDNA and Virtual Data Center Concepts - August 2009
  Cloud Computing continues to evolve. We are seeing more and more critical apps deployed onto and managed via cloud infrastructures and platforms. Another aspect of the evolution is moving beyond the VM to grouping servers and services together and treating them as a virtual data center.
  
  
• Paper: Cloud Computing Infrastructure and Architecture - June 2009
  Cloud computing promises to speed application deployment, increase innovation, and lower costs, all while increasing business agility. But it also transforms the way we design, build, and deliver applications. What are the architectural considerations that enterprises must make when adopting cloud computing technology?
  
  This white paper discusses the nature of cloud computing and how it is transforming the way that enterprises everywhere build and deploy applications. It proceeds to discuss the architectural considerations that cloud architects must make when designing cloud-based applications, and concludes with a discussion of Sun's technologies that support cloud computing.
  
  
• Article: Cloud Serviceability and Architecture - February 2009
  Composite services and clouds are architectural in nature. We can no longer attempt to mediate system events at an element or server level. It must be broader and confer architectural context at nearly every level.
  
  
• Article: Cloud Management, A Continuous Perspective - April 2009
  Clouds are a great example of applying continuous architecture. Continuous architecture is the notion of complex adaptive systems applied to something that historically might have been viewed as static.
  
  
• Article: Some Notes on Defining Cloud Computing - March 2008
  There seems to be some key attributes that describe cloud computing. The challenge is they overlap with other computing definitions, so maintaining distinction and how this overlap is helpful in solving other computing problems is important.
  
  

Blog: Architecture Matters