Dmitry Sotnikov

I knew one software company that failed their SaaS transition because they chose to cut a few corners with the operations. Since they were software engineers, they did not really want to spend time on such mundane tasks as security, auditing, backups and so on. One day they let a disgruntled employee go, the guy went to an internet cafe, logged into the hosting account with the shared admin credentials, and deleted all customer data. There were no backups or data replicas to bring the data back, no personal admin accounts or procedures to prevent such an incident from happening, and even no monitoring to learn about the issue before customers did. This was the end of this SaaS application – it just never recovered. Cloud business is more than just putting some code online (and collecting money ;)) Whether you are offering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) web application... (more)

Cloud Definitions: NIST, Gartner, Forrester

Analysts should love hype – it lets them jump into a hot area and be the thought leaders who everyone has to consult to make any sense out of what is going on in the area. “Cloud” is probably the most hyped word in the industry these days and everyone has a definition of what it is. And despite this being a running joke in the industry, everyone obviously needs definition conversion to happen so we can start speaking the same language here. U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) stepped in and did – from my perspective – something truly amazing: they provided ... (more)

Microsoft’s First Step Toward Cloud Computing

Azure Session at Cloud Expo Pundits talking about how Windows 7 is all about Microsoft competing against Apple, recovering with Vista consumer adoption disaster, or getting people off of XP, are missing one other – extremely important – part of the Windows 7 story. Windows 7 and its server counterpart – Windows Server 2008 R2 – are actually the first real step in Microsoft’s Windows Cloud Story. Before Windows 7 Microsoft could offer some services (such as Exchange Online) from the cloud – but could not provide full enterprise directory, security and so on – now they can. Micros... (more)

Cloud and BPOS sessions at Virtual Tradeshow

Quest Connect is a big online conference put together by Quest, Microsoft, , Dell, NetApp, Vizioncore, Scriptlogic, Techrepublic, Oracle Magazine, Redmond Magazine, and The Code Project. The agenda is packed with a lot of useful material on Windows Server 2008 R2, AD, Identity Management, Exchange 2010, Virtualization, Cloud Computing, SharePoint, SQL, Oracle – see full agenda here – and they include some sessions specifically on cloud computing and Microsoft Online Services. Here are a few: Here or Way Out There? Should Your Active Directory Management Be In Cloud? Available the... (more)

IT Management as a Service: Discussion and Demo

Microsoft’s TechNet EDGE posted a video with quite detailed discussion of Systems Management as a Service concept, example of such a service (Quest OnDemand), how it uses Windows Azure as the underlying technology, the security model behind it, and so on. Obviously a demo is in there as well. Check out the video here. ... (more)