Cloud Computing

John Engates

CTO, Rackspace

Presented:

Rackspace Customer Conference, 2008

October 29, 2008

Safe Harbor Statement

This presentation contains "forward-looking" statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If the risks or uncertainties ever materialize or the assumptions prove incorrect, our results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including, but not limited to, any statements about historical results that may suggest trends for our business; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations or product and service offerings; any statements of expectation or belief regarding future events, potential markets or market size, technology developments, and any statements of assumptions underlying any of the items mentioned. These statements are based on estimates and information available to us at the time of this presentation and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from our current expectations as a result of many factors, including but not limited to: the unpredictable nature of our rapidly evolving market and quarterly fluctuations in our business; the effects of competition; changes in the economy, technological and competitive factors, regulatory factors, and other risks that are described in our report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2008, filed with the SEC on September 10, 2008. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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Quiz

S3

EC2

Bonus…

SSDS

What will IT look like in 5-10 years?

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What does IT look like today?

• Data Centers• Servers• Storage• Firewalls• Network Gear• Virtualization• Operating Systems• Databases• Application Servers• Code

The Stuff

• Deployment• Change Management• Security Patching• Monitoring• Backup• Maintenance• Break-Fix• Help Desk• SLAs• Compliance

The Things you have to do with the Stuff

What’s next?

“The bulk of business computing will shift out of private data centers to the ‘cloud’ .”

- Nicholas Carr

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Cloud

Where did this term come from?

Cloud ComputingDefinition

According to Gartner:

Cloud computing is a “style of computing where massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ across the Internet to multiple external customers.”

A few defining characteristics of Cloud

•IT infrastructure, a web service, or an application delivered as a service

•Accessible via the Internet•Utility pricing (pay for what you use)•Multi-tenant•Scales automatically to adjust for demand*

* Sometimes this is up to you to do

So what…

Why cloud computing?

Why now?

We Have Problems…

Scaling the old fashioned way doesn’t work

Bigger, newer data centers are more efficient

Internet-Scale Architectures

We Have Better Tools

Services

Hosted Platforms

Centralized datacenters

Distributed computing

Scalable architectures

Simple – Reliable – Fast

Energy Efficient

Relatively Cheap

Our Future is Cloudy!

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.“--Arthur C. Clarke, “Profiles of the Future”

Categories of Cloud Computing

1. Application Clouds (SaaS)

2. Platform Clouds (PaaS)

3. Infrastructure Clouds (IaaS)

Application Clouds (SaaS)

• Ease of Use– Low Complexity

• Flexibility– Minimal Control

• Typical Consumers– End Users

• Examples– Mail Trust– Salesforce.com– TurboTax Online– Microsoft Online Services

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Platform Clouds (PaaS)

• Ease of Use– Medium Complexity

• Flexibility– Medium Control

• Typical Consumers– Developers

• Examples– Rackspace/Mosso Hosting Cloud– Google AppEngine– Force.com

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Infrastructure Clouds (IaaS)

• Ease of Use– High Complexity

• Flexibility– Maximum Control

• Typical Consumers– Developers– System Administrators

• Examples– Rackspace/Mosso Cloud Files– EC2, S3– Microsoft SSDS– FlexiScale– GoGrid

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Who has a Cloud…?

•Rackspace!•Amazon Web Services•Google•Salesforce.com•Microsoft•GoGrid•Flexiscale•Lots of others…

Should I be using the cloud?

That depends…

Reasons to use the Cloud

•Low barrier to entry

•Rapid time to market

•Scale up – scale down

•Pay as you grow

•More scalable

•More reliable?

•Cheaper?

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What are the barriers to adoption of Cloud?

•Security•Speed of light•Customization•Control•Applications not architected for cloud•Immaturity•Skills required•Pricing model / cost / relationship

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How is running a cloud different than traditional IT?

•Larger scale

•Shared

•Commodity servers

•DC design

•Distributed software

•High expectations

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Rackspace in the Cloud

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Cloud Sites

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Cloud Files

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Cloud Servers

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My Predictions

• The era of the IT closet or 5k sq. ft. data center is almost over

• If you still have a data center, you’ll eventually have a cloud in it

• The next generation of OSS and commercial software will look more cloudy

• Cloud standards will emerge over the next two years

• Your apps will eventually run seamlessly across internal and external (private and public) cloud resources

• Server virtualization won’t matter

• You’ll still have IT problems!

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What next?

• Everyone will have and/or use a cloud

• Clouds will specialize

• Tools are evolving making it easier to use

• Service levels will get better

• Prices will stabilize

• Software will adapt to the cloud

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http://cloud.rackspace.com

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