[CS-FSLUG] Cloud applications and missions

[Tim Young]

Hi Micah,
Good to hear from you again.

There are a number of ministries who use cloud servers, and I am sure 
a session on that would be very well received.  This ICCM, we have 
all of our general sessions filled in, but there are still some 
openings in the security track.  So, if you could use the word 
"security" in the title of your session, there would be a place for 
it.  Something along the lines of "securely and effectively utilizing 
cloud servers" would be awesome.  The one major change this year is 
that the sessions are 75 minutes long instead of the normal 45 to 60 
minutes.

The "early bird" registration for ICCM will be closing before long, 
so now is a good time to think about going.

Would be great to see you again,

     - Tim Young

On 4/5/2013 6:57 PM, Micah Yoder wrote:
> 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!
>
>
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