Thinking Out Cloud

Amazon Reserved Instances Update

Back in March, when Amazon first came out with reserved instances for EC2 (instances you can pre-pay at a discount for a period of 1 or 3 years) I posted Amazon Reserved Instances: Do They Make Business Sense? In that post I also made available a public Zoho spreadsheet with a simple calculator that allows figuring out whether reserved instances make sense for you or not.

In August, Amazon announced lower pricing for Amazon EC2 reserved instances, so I created an updated spreadsheet (if this cuts off in your browser click here):

I also created a version for the European prices (full, editable version here):

The break-even point for 1-year instances is 3,250 hours, or about 4.5 months (assuming you are running the instances 24/7). The break-even point for 3-year reserved instances is 5,000 hours, or about 7 months (assuming you are running the instances 24/7).

Several of the companies I have been working with have a substantial pool of instances constantly running. And although they are accounting for reserved instances in their business plans to demonstrate the long-term benefits of the gross margins they allow, they seem hesitant to actually pay for reserved instances. These calculations demonstrate that they are probably being too risk averse as in their case, the platforms/apps are sure to be running for at least 7 months and there are substantial cost-savings involved.

Are you considering or already running reserved instances? What is the use case and what are the pros and cons? Please share in the comments.

CloudCamp in the Cloud - Oct 22

The organizers of the very successful CloudCamp events have put together a new virtual event called CloudCamp in the Cloud, which takes place next week. I've been to a few physical CloudCamps and they are great events, so I expect this online one to be good as well. Worth attending.

Here are the details:

CloudCamp, organizer of the community-based cloud computing unconference series, today announced that it’s 
taking its popular event series virtual with the forthcoming “CloudCamp in the Cloud CloudCamp in the Cloud, to be held Thursday, October 22, 2009 from 12 noon to 3 pm Eastern Standard Time, builds upon the original live CloudCamp format providing a free and open place for the introduction and advancement of cloud computing. Using an online meeting format, attendees will exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies.

There are a number of opportunities to get involved with CloudCamp in the Cloud:

• ATTEND – Attending CloudCamp in the Cloud is free, fun and informative. Register now at http://bit.ly/UKbc1.
• PRESENT – CloudCamp in the Cloud encourages community presentations. If you have a cloud-related topic to discuss, visit the http://bit.ly/2NNh5l page to submit a proposal.
• SPONSOR – CloudCamp depends on corporate sponsors who provide financial assistance and other valuable donations. Current CloudCamp in the Cloud sponsors include Citrix, Enomaly and Appistry. If you would like to sponsor CloudCamp in the Cloud, please contact Reuven Cohen.
• ORGANIZE – CloudCamp is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization. If you'd like to help facilitate CloudCamp in the Cloud, letting us know about your interest by emailing [email protected].
• SPREAD THE WORD – Help share the news about CloudCamp in the Cloud, by retweeting this announcement (hashtag: #cloudcamp), blogging about the event, and linking to the main information page at http://bit.ly/3wBgyI.
  

Related Links
[1] http://bit.ly/UKbc1 [CloudCamp in the Cloud Registration]
[2] http://twitter.com/cloudcamp [CloudCamp on Twitter]
[3] http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10128776220 [CloudCamp on Facebook]

Contacts
Program

• Dave Nielsen, (415) 531-6674, dave -at- platformd -dot- com
  

Sponsorships:

• Reuven Cohen, (212) 203 4734 x102, ruv -at- enomaly -dot- com
  

Media:

• Sam Charrington, (415) 727-1850, sam -at- appistry -dot- com
  

About CloudCamp
CloudCamp was formed in 2008 in order to provide a common ground for the introduction and advancement of cloud computing. Through a series of local CloudCamp events, attendees can exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies. CloudCamp has served over 5,000 CloudCampers in more than 50 events all over world, in cities like Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bangalore, Berlin, London, New York, San Francisco, Stockholm and Singapore.

Yahoo and Cloudera Discuss Hadoop Next Week

My friend Dekel Tankel sent me some information about the next Hadoop user group, which takes place at the Yahoo campus in Santa Clara on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. Sounds like an interesting line up and agenda:

6-6:15 - Socializing and Beers

6:15-6:45 - Mumak - Using Simulation for Large-scale Distributed System Verification and Debugging
Hong Tang - Yahoo!

Large-scale distributed systems such as MapReduce are notoriously hard to verify & debug. An effective approach to address many of these challenges is through simulation. In this talk, I am going to present Mumak, a MapReduce simulator, including its design and implementation, early experience how it is useful, and point out some future work.

6:45-7:15 - Cloudera Desktop in Detail
Philip Zeyliger, Cloudera

7:15-7:45 - Karmasphere Studio: A graphical IDE for Hadoop

7:45-8:00 Q&A and Open Discussion

RSVP here.

The Purpose-Driven Cloud: Part 3 - Domain-Specific Clouds

This is the third post in the series I described in The Purpose-Driven Cloud. the series is an attempt to categorize the various cloud platforms available today (and that may be available in the future). Each installment examines one of the dimensions that differentiates various cloud platforms. Previous posts discussed the Usability-Driven Cloud and Framework-Based Clouds. This post is about: -

Domain-Specific Clouds

Unlike general purpose clouds, such as IaaS clouds (for example, Amazon Web Services) and PaaS clouds (e.g., Google App Engine), domain-specific clouds are cloud platforms intended for developing apps (or components of apps) with a particular kind of functionality.

The example that epitomizes this concept is Twilio -- a cloud platform focused entirely on telephony and voice applications, as I described in detail in What's Really Exciting About Cloud Computing.

Other examples include testing clouds (SOASTA, SkyTap) and ITStructures' PoC, Demo and Training Cloud.

The rumor is that OpsCode is working on an IT automation domain-specific cloud using Chef, the domain-specific programming language the company is promoting.

Other domain-specific clouds are sure to follow, as well as industry-specific clouds, which will be the topic of the next post in this series.