Optimization Is for the Clouds

While some enterprises are still unsure of how the cloud will benefit them, conference organizers certainly don't share that trepidation: my calendar is packed with events. I wish I could say that people have agreed on what the cloud is, but no -- not only is cloud computing keeping the events industry afloat, it provides a platform (get it?) for endless debate and gasbaggery.

Since I always enjoy being in the middle of the fray, I'll take my turn. Fundamentally, the cloud is one great big WAN. And where there's a WAN, there's...a...(here it comes)...way! To eliminate inherent performance problems! To provide users that lush, LAN-like experience! (Hm, is that an orchestra swelling in the background somewhere?)

The performance challenges posed by cloud computing are really very similar to those posed by other forms of computing from a distance. Fortunately, you can solve these in much the same way you solved general WAN performance problems you encountered during your data center consolidation project. I'm working on a paper some of the cool things you can with Cloud Steelhead and Amazon EC2. I'd like to float a few of my ideas here.

Optimizing project migration

Many organizations get started with cloud computing by duplicating an important (but not critical) application to the cloud for a period of testing time. If the testing is successful, the on-premise deployment is decommissioned and the cloud deployment becomes primary. Steelhead can help this project succeed in two ways:

• The appliance in your data center and a Cloud Steelhead in your AWS region can accelerate the initial transfer of applications, data, and even full server images using AWS VM Import

• During the testing phase and after migration, the Steelheads will continually optimize communications between users on your network and applications running on instances in the cloud, providing LAN-like performance

Bringing dispersed organizations together

Distributed organizations can dispense with centralized IT altogether and instead deploy everything in the cloud. In some cases, venture capital funding even requires this. The economic and technical benefits are clear: applications can be written to take full advantage of the cloud's capabilities and resources can be added or removed to match demand. Bandwidth usage in these scenarios can be quite high, though. This is an ideal opportunity to combine branch office Steelheads, mobile Steelheads, and Cloud Steelhead together to drive further cost reduction from your monthy telecommunications and cloud transfer charges.

Optimizing cross-region transfer

Cloud Steelheads can communicate with each other, too. Global enterprises using AWS often need to transfer data from one region to another. Because AWS relies on public Internet connections for data transfer between regions, Cloud Steelhead can accelerate these transfers and reduce your bandwidth costs, often by a significant amount. When you configure a Cloud Steelhead in each region, the auto-discovery agent will detect the Steelheads and ensure that cross-region traffic is optimized.

Boosting one cloud with another

You can take advantage of AWS's international peering agreements to accelerate traffic to other cloud providers that don't offer Steelhead as an option in their data centers or on virtual machines. As an example, assume you’re a business based in Australia and you wish to consume PaaS or SaaS style cloud services from a provider whose closest data centers are in Singapore. Even under the best of network conditions, latency between these locations can be unbearably high. It's likely, though, that AWS's Singapore region is topologically very close to your ultimate destination, perhaps with latencies as low as five milliseconds. You can install Steelhead appliances in your Australia office, deploy a few Cloud Steelhead instances in AWS Singapore, and route traffic to and from your ultimate destination via AWS. Users will experience performance almost like that of a LAN because the long-distance, high-latency links are carrying only optimized traffic.

What would you like to do with Cloud Steelhead?

If you're wondering whether Cloud Steelhead would benefit your particular project, drop me a note in the comments below and I'll reply. Cloud Steelhead is an ideal application for compute requirements on Amazon EC2 where users are separated from resources by long distances.