Cloud computing experts are often extremely chatty and can’t wait to tell you how the cloud will help YOU. Ian Moyse, a renowned cloud expert, came to our attention a few months ago because of his participation in many major IT events held in the UK. He is also a keynote speaker and many of Ian’s presentations can be found online. We were interested in the changes in cloud computing that Ian has observed in the last decade; That’s right. Ian has been part of the transition to the cloud and has seen it from various perspectives, including anti-spam security. “Stopping spam is easy, making sure you don’t stop good mail too, that’s the hard part.” Here is our full interview with Ian Moyse:
How are you using the cloud?
“Personally, I use the cloud for a number of reasons. I use mobile access to data and files using a combination of Box.net, Dropbox and Microsoft Skydrive. Why not? I get a lot more storage for free and hassle-free as it’s all simple and widely accessible, I use email in the cloud and access it from multiple devices, I have a private cloud storage at home using Pogoplug, and I use Google Apps to share personal documents when necessary Often, in fact, I find that I’m using a system or application not realizing it’s the cloud, or not caring until I stop and think about how they’re doing it’s becoming second nature to just use what works and makes your daily life more easy, and with so many software-as-a-service offerings that can be accessed immediately through an entry level freemium model, I think we’ll see an increase in this thought pattern just do it as this type of offering becomes more prevalent . In business, of course, we use our own CRM workbooks in the cloud, our email is hosted on Exchange, and we use Google Apps and Box.net on a daily basis. It has allowed us to grow quickly and focus on the job at hand, and not running the infrastructure for our own business and ending up in shutdown/repair mode. We operate much more efficiently than I’ve seen in other non-cloud businesses, and we certainly have more availability and an easier life when we’re on the go.”
What is your opinion of the main cloud providers? That is, Amazon AWS, Windows Azure, others.
“The fact that we have such major vendors promoting and providing open cloud platforms for everyone to use, and investing so much in, shows where the market is and where it’s going. Amazon has led the way and Microsoft has led the way. continues. As one lowers prices, we see others react. This is good for customers who rely on these platforms and for customers who are served in the cloud, as this will drive more affordable solutions and innovation in our industry, which in turn stimulates activity, purchasing, income, and therefore employment and other benefits We will continue to see more innovation and new start-ups offering solutions from these platforms more affordable and quicker to market Those looking for solutions should also consider that there are also other localized providers available who can participate effectively and not limit their choice to just the big names in the cloud. What the big names are doing is setting the stage and raising awareness, driving market acceptance and the opportunity for more than themselves.”
How has cloud computing changed the enterprise security landscape?
“The cloud has changed the front lines in many aspects of security. It has enabled defenders to have much more power and security intelligence at hand and in real time to combat the increasing volume and speed of threats from The internet has enabled new malware detection methods to be carried out as seen in the FireEye and Webroot approaches and has purchased cloud solutions from new vendors and with the beauty of the cloud comes the fact that many of these Cloud security solutions can be used and provided by mid-market and smaller businesses, allowing them to benefit from the same levels of protection as the enterprise customer, after all, they are under attack from the same threats. Previously, many security-based products were, by definition, too expensive and complex to implement for the average business, so these smaller companies (of which they make up the majority of the market) were left with less protection. how appropriate Now they can pay and use easy to turn on, highly accurate and protective cloud-based security to protect their business assets and employees.”
Any specific recommendations when it comes to server monitoring and security in a cloud environment like Windows Azure? (As well as reminding Microsoft to renew their SSL certificates on time…)
“I think it’s incumbent on providers here to realize that delivering a cloud service has much higher expectations than people do in network solutions, customer expectations are higher, SLAs need to be higher as one of the Cloud value propositions and the ability to deliver to them demand that you ensure a robust, accurate, and responsive monitoring system. Done wrong in the cloud, the effect is much more rapid and pervasive than on the network. does well, the availability, resilience, security and flexibility are much higher.
Server and storage requirements can grow exponentially as businesses begin to aggregate data. How do server monitoring tools keep up with these demands?
“Of course, as cloud server deployments grow, so does the industry around them in search of new tools and approaches. There are a plethora of server monitoring tools available with a growing market bringing more features and endurance for less price. Whereas historically we would have expected a shift towards the CAs, BMCs, NetIQs of this world, there is now a broader selection of newer names to consider. Appdynamics, for example, and Nimsoft (now owned by CA), VMware’s Hiperic, and solutions like Abiquo, which don’t just offer management tools.”
Can you tell us about the most interesting web scaling project you’ve been a part of? (Number of servers, data/traffic handled, etc.)
“I guess the most exciting and challenging space in the cloud for unpredictability was email security. Stopping the dreaded spam, denial-of-service attacks, and unpredictable mass mailing of inbound and outbound customer emails. (now the foundation of Websense’s hosted security platforms) that created one of the first software-as-a-service email filtering solutions We had to handle large volumes of mail with unpredictable spikes and volumes in a cost-effective and highly accurate way Stop spam it’s easy, making sure it doesn’t stop any of the good mail too, that’s the hard part.Customers demanded not only blocking spam, phishing emails and the like, but also the consistency of sending the good stuff accurately. The pressure was always on that switching cloud email filtering services is easy and only requires a change of MX records so customers can really move relatively quickly and easily in case a provider doesn’t maintain high standards. The malicious email market in those days was also pioneering for attackers, so we saw many more changes in their behavior and developed new detection approaches as the market matured. Today cloud email security is pretty standard and many players in the market have been acquired by larger providers such as Messagelabs by Symantec, Blackspider by Websense and most recently Isheriff by Total Defense and Maildistiller by Proofpoint. We also see hosted email providers include it as a standard service (Google uses its purchased Postini and Microsoft uses its purchased Frontbridge services).”
Any project that you would like to promote or trends that you are especially excited about?
“Cloud is driving an incredible opportunity for innovators and while there are some big brands that dominate the relevant markets, such as platforms, security, email and CRM, for example, there is still a huge opportunity for other players. Take CRM, for example. For example, where Salesforce and Microsoft are two big brands with offerings, they’re not right for everyone and often too complex and expensive for small and midsize businesses At Workbooks, we’ve innovated and see many customers choose us over of these systems and they move to us, finding that we have delivered something they don’t have at a greatly reduced cost. The cloud allows a more level competition to play out and will drive greater choice for customers and a reduction in cost, which that will allow smaller companies themselves to use more effective computing power to enable them to compete more effectively in their own given markets.”
How does your team monitor servers to make sure you’re providing reliable service to your customers?
“We have remote server monitoring for all components of our service across multiple data centers, which allows us to identify failures before they impact customers and respond quickly when necessary to any hardware failure that may occur to anyone, even to a cloud provider.The key is that we have the resiliency and hardening in the system that most customers couldn’t afford to build themselves, and if any component fails, it’s transferred to another device, giving us time to respond and replace without impacting customers.In fact, for a good period of time they have delivered 100% to customers, a feat few can boast with CRM and contact management solutions on the market. network. replaced the hardware and reconfigured your system to get it up and running again.”
What are the challenges you face when scaling a few cloud servers to hundreds of servers? What are your thoughts on these challenges?
“If you’ve laid the foundation right and planned to scale from the start, as any good, experienced cloud provider will have, then this is not a problem. Unfortunately, in the cloud space there are many who have embarked on building their first hosted solution and ‘they don’t know what they don’t know’ and they may have to redesign or redesign the line, which becomes really difficult once you’ve reached a certain scale, keep holding on to your foundation, and find a reboot too complex, It’s an expensive and lengthy project. This is the third cloud system our founders have successfully built in over 14 years. Finding a cloud provider that has the inherent expertise at its core is a great asset to the choice What customers can do for longevity.
Ian Moyse, Director of Sales at Workbooks.com, a cloud CRM provider, has over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry, serving on the Eurocloud UK Board of Directors and on the Forum Governing Board. the Cloud Industry (CIF). 25 on the SMB Nation 150 Channel Influencers global list in both 2012 and 2013 and named by TalkinCloud as one of the world’s top 200 cloud channel experts in 2011.