[CS-FSLUG] Cloud applications and missions

[Micah Yoder]

Hello again,

So as I've mentioned a long time ago I work for Rackspace, who is now of 
course a major cloud provider*.  As of a couple months I am certified 
Cloud Savvy, which is supposed to mean I have a clue about how to design 
applications in the cloud.

Many people who come from a dedicated hosting platform will spin up a 
cloud server and install stuff on it just like they did on their 
dedicated server, install their web application on it, and let it go.  
If something acts up they troubleshoot it.  It is expected to last a 
long time.  They might take advantage of virtualization features like 
snapshots, but that's as "cloudy" as they get.

To properly take full advantage of the cloud and use it as intended, you 
need to get a completely different mindset when you're designing 
applications.  Some principles involve:
  -- Everything should be set up via automation, using something like 
Chef or Puppet. You should *never* manually install things or edit the 
configuration settings on production (or even staging) servers.
  -- Use the API, not the control panel, to set up servers and related 
cloud products.
  -- Design for failure. Stuff breaks. If the application can't access 
some database, it should if possible fail over to the replica. If that's 
not possible, fudge something so that the user doesn't notice, if at all 
possible. And do that quickly so the user isn't waiting a long time.  
Also, use load balancers and take out flaky nodes.  If some cloud server 
goes weird in some way, you don't nurse it back to health, you kill it 
and fire up another one (with automation).  All automatically.  (One 
analogy is that cloud servers should be treated like cattle, not like pets!)
  -- Put different services on different sets of cloud servers
  -- Design security in at every layer

Just wanted to throw this out and ask if anyone is working with a 
missions organization that is designing a cloud application.  If so, and 
you want to run something by me, let me know!

Also wonder if it might make sense for me to go to ICCM.  If I could be 
of significant help, I'd consider it.  With any luck I might even be 
able to get Rackspace to sponsor me going there.


* If you're a great Linux or network device guy and want to live in San 
Antonio or Austin, please let me know. We're having a very hard time 
filling our positions!