This article is a sequel to yesterdays article in which I answered the frequently asked questions about cloud server hosting.

Today just answer frequently asked questions in a relatively simple way:
1. Do I need constant Internet for such applications ?

In theory no, but depends on the application designer. For example, with Gmail, you can enable an option that lets you use Gmail in your web browser even after you’re not connected to the Internet (it is using Google Gears, but soon will be with HTML 5 with the ease of Web Storage). It means that even without the Internet, you can read the emails that are synchronized at the time of disconnecting from the network, and even respond to them (even if those emails you write will not be sent until you reconnect to the web).

However, today this cannot be done with Yahoo Mail or Hotmail, and the same could happen with some applications that require constant connection to the web.

The good news is that it is becoming clear to many companies that this is going to be the type of work that we are going to do in the near future, so you can look forward to seeing more and more types of web applications that work on both online and offline mode.

2. Do I need to buy a new PC to take advantage of these services ?

In the case of Google Chrome OS, a device for the official answer is yes, because Google creates technical specifications with manufacturers of hardware that make these applications work much more efficiently with such devices, with hardware acceleration, and without the need for a heavy traditional operating system from web browser and the hardware.

However, in the case of Chrome OS, where Open Source is a third-party version that can be installed in almost any PC, Laptop or Netbook, directly on top of other hardware and operating systems like Windows, OS X or Linux (although in these cases is very possible that the performance is slower).

On the other hand, remember that as the developers of these Web applications adhere to open Web standards, such applications should work without problems not only in the Chrome browser, and Chrome OS, but also with any web browser that supports these modern standards (especially HTML 5).

Google has made clear that everything you do in Chrome OS, you can also access it from a common web browser on another system. So for example you create a spreadsheet in Google Docs on your netbook with Chrome OS, and later continue editing it in one of cyber-cafes from a Firefox browser, and then continue later from a Mac in Safari, and in all cases work on the same version of the document in Google Docs.

3. Do I need to pay for remote computing and storage services ?
That depends on the provider of such services. In Google’s case, it’s all for free, but use advertising as their way of income. This is for example, what happens with GMail, where I offer several gigabytes of space, but you see ads outside emails.

However, no doubt emerging versions “Pro” or “Business” which will provide other benefits, such as removing advertising, host the data on your own domain, more storage, version control (so that if you make an editing mistake, you can return “back” to earlier versions, etc.).

4. Could Google monopolize the Internet with Chrome OS in the same way Microsoft did with Windows ?

Chrome OS is based on open standards, and it is an open specification, which means that nothing prevents someone else to develop their own version according to the standards and offer the same services of Google, or Apple and Microsoft from their web browser into its operating systems, or to see versions of Firefox and Opera compatible with this mode but that store data in their repositories.

What I worry is that Google should keep data (such as spreadsheets and emails) in a proprietary format, as this would make one dependent on Google, but that’s not the case today (and according to Google, not in the future), which means it’s trivial to get your data from Google, and take you to another provider.

My view on this is that Google knows quite well that we live in a new world where these issues are discussed openly, and even the most typical users are alerted to these issues, so their strategy is not to corner the users, but to provide the best experience possible for them to stay with the company voluntarily.

5. I’ve heard the term Cloud Computing, Grid Computing, Utility Computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS or Software-as-a-Service) What is the difference between these terms ?

It is just a detail of semantics and all revolve around the same concepts, only a more specific way than others.

Cloud computing is just a generic term which means “things happen in the Internet out of your PC, either store data or do calculations processing. This is the most generic term that is most happening at the moment.

Grid computing is nothing more than a specific case where an application is designed to make computations and massively distributed in the Cloud web hosting. That is, an application like Folding @ Home, use the collective power of tens, thousands or millions of machines distributed over the Internet to speed up a calculation parallelizable.

Utility computing model is nothing more than a collection of model utilities such as water or electricity, where you pay according to consumption. So for example, under this scheme you can charge per hour of use of a remote CPU, or per user per day, or GigaByte storage, or a combination thereof.

And as for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), this is just to say that using a remote software as a service provided by your web browser, instead of a locally installed software. A good example is Google Docs.

6. Are there any standards for Cloud Computing? ” Can I host my data from one cloud to another ?

Due to the recent interest in these services, it is still too early for universal standards exist for Computing and Storage in the Cloud, however, started with an effort called Open Cloud Consortium (OCC) where the idea is to create standards that allow you to move freely between the service provider to another.

However, we must clarify that this is still in its infancy, and it is now trivial to move your data from the previous cloud hosting provider to another one. For now the best bet is to stay attached to standards as open as possible to allow in the future to extract data from one place and easily transfer you to another. One example is Google Docs that allows you to export your data in formats such as Word, Excel, etc.

7. Is it possible to host a local tag on my network ?

Certainly, though no doubt this would negate many of the benefits you will get from the cloud hosting, but otherwise you have a lot more control of your data. However, by now almost all such solutions are proprietary and created as consultants, or by the same technology departments of large enterprises for their own use. However, this is a space that will undoubtedly have many competitors in the near future.

8. Is it possible to extend my home network to a cloud ?

Certainly. ESDS for example, offers a service called Virtual Private Cloud. What it does is it creates an extension of your LAN to virtual servers, including using your own IP network configuration.

That is, by using VPN. But what does it means?

VPN (Virtual Private Networks) are commonly known as technologies that provide one or more network connections (logical network) on top of another network (eg internet). Despite the fact that communications are carried across networks with unknown lower level of confidence (eg, over a public network), the level of confidence in the construction of logical network does not depend on the level of confidence in the underlying networks through the use of cryptography (encryption, authentication, public key infrastructure, facilities to protect against repetition and change transmitted through a logical network communications).

ESDS makes you believe all the machines in your network that ESDS’s servers are also on your network, so you can use these VPC to install your applications, and grow your network without the need to maintain those servers, and get nearly instant scalability if demand for such applications increase.

9. Is it cheaper to use service of Cloud Computing in a local ?

That depends entirely on your company and your needs, including size, number of employees, infrastructure, etc.. For some companies that already have a solid foundation that works with very few problems, maybe not worthwhile, but likewise many others have much to gain.

Usually things that are an easy decision to move to the cloud are things like cloud web hosting servers and cloud email hosting servers. But applications should be studied, unless the company has several branches, it might be worthwhile to save high costs of interconnection and leased line of Internet.

10. How much are these services ?

Depends on the supplier, but can range from free (version “Standard” of Google Docs, for example), even a few hundred rupees a day. To give you an idea, ESDS Data Center currently charges (depending on the power of the virtual server you want) the range of Rs. 2,199.00 INR to Rs. 3,299.00 INR a month for basic servers and to about Rs. 27,180.00 INR for very high capacity servers.

1. Is it possible to install all that I want in Cloud Hosting Services ?

Ans. Yes, you can install all that you want because you have the complete root access for Linux or Administrator for Windows.

2. Is it possible to install my own Operating System (OS) ?

Ans. Yes, we can install your Operating System if it is compatible with our Cloud Hosting Services infrastructure.

3. What is the difference between Cloud Servers and a dedicated server?

Ans. With ESDS Cloud Hosting Services you can setup one in a few minutes rather than waiting for a physical server deployment. You can also resize the plan and bring up multiple Cloud Servers quickly and easily for much less money. Dedicated servers usually involve contracts andsetup fees while they take time to alter the RAM, etc.

4. Are Cloud Servers just a VPS?

Ans. Well, they are not. You can re-size Cloud Hosting Services plans as per requirement through our control panel.

With most VPS, you are not guaranteed about the resources that you are paying for, which means that, other customers may breach on your allotted resources.

5. Is bandwidth free between Cloud Servers?

Ans. Yes, a private IP will be provided for each Cloud Hosting Services that offers free bandwidth between them.

6. I’m pretty much familiar with control panels like Plesk and Cpanel. Is it possible to use those control panels with the your Cloud Hosting  Services ?

Ans. Yes, for sure, we do offer cPanel in our cloud virtual infrastructure.

There is a dupe: “Administrators are divided into two categories – those who do not backup and those who are already doing.”

My personal statistics survey shows that, for the vCenter Server,  Admin takes 80% risk for being in the second category.

It is not critically important to Backup vCenter. What would happen if vCenter is down and not up?

As a first approximation, nothing.

Because even without vCenter, virtual machines continue to work with Storage service requests.

The network sends data packets.

However, one of the following could be unavailable until vCenter return to the system (even new):

1. Ceases to collect statistics of performance, one that is available on the tab Performance.
2. Not going to proceed with the infrastructure – the tab Events.
3. Stop working alarm.
4. Drs cluster stop working.
5. DPM, if so, will cease to work.
6. vMotion and all other migration will no longer be possible.
7. Will cease to work integrated with vCenter program: Converter, Update Manager, Data Recovery.
8. If the switches are distributed, changing their settings will be disabled.
9. In part, this concerns Cisco Nexus 1000V.
10. Not be able to quickly find and insert a virtual machine, if it lies on some of the large number of servers.
11. Will not be able to deploy VM from template

Most likely, we will survive without it, even if we are not able to quickly raise vCenter from scratch.

However, in so doing, we lose:

1. Performance statistics for upto a year – that’s bad for the analysis and infrastructure planning.
2. Lost events with the infrastructure – the tab Events.
3. Lost alarm, we have created manually, and change the existing default (setting warning in the first place).
4. VApp lost clusters and resource pools drs
5. Lose the right cluster, drs
6. Will cease to work integrate with vCenter program: Converter, Update Manager, Data Recovery (you may have to do something else). Some require to reinstall.
7. If the switches are distributed, then their configuration will be lost – that is, when a new vCenter will connect to the server, ESXi create a new distributed virtual switch.
8. In part, this concerns the Cisco Nexus 1000V.
9. Lost certificates.
10. If you are installing vCenter we pointed out the use of ports other than the default – we lose these values.

Moral – we’d better Prestressing and implement same database vCenter backup.

The fact is that if the backup was performed by means of the base before(for example, SQL Express with two clicks in Management Studio Express), it now appears in VMware native tool – Data Migration Tool. This command line is a utility for the distribution of vCenter 4.1, although it works with vCenter since version 2.5.

With it you can save:

• Certificates SSL;
• Ports;
• Data licensing;
• If the database is a SQL Express on the same machine, the backup will be included and the database (for SQL, Oracle and DB2 will still backup the database separately);
• Configuration (not the patch) Update Manager, if installed on the same machine.

When restoring, a backup of the tool itself should establish vCenter, and its configuration.

The utility is intended primarily for migration from the old to the new version vCenter. This is especially true for those who will be on old vCenter on a 32-bit OS, wanting to upgrade to 4.1 on 64bit OS.

This tool will be useful for backup of vCenter and as well as for SQL Express database.

As you know, by means of VMware ThinApp, which is part of the solution for desktop virtualization VMware View 4.5, you can make the delivery of virtualized applications to users.

That is, the application is packaged into a single exe-file and deployed on user workstations using msi-installer (see here how it’s done with the VMware View 4.5). It is very convenient for mass deployment and maintenance applications. Remember this product Thinstall, through which made pre-installed applications? So ThinApp – this is it is only now under the name VMware.

But there is another way to deliver applications with VMware ThinApp – an opportunity to launch their users with a shared network folder (SMB Share):

In this case, unlike the first method of deployment of virtualized applications (on the local drives of workstations), this method can deliver the application on the workstation in blocks – as demand application of the data. Approximately as follows:

However, when we annex VMware ThinApp runs constantly, and many users use it – then how do we update it (eg a web browser, packed in a file firefox.exe)?

In fact, there is an interesting mechanism: you can put in a folder with the application of its updated version, but with the extension is not *. exe, and *. 1 – and all new connections will use it!

That is:

1. You pack application firefox.exe using VMware ThinApp and put it on the SMB Share.

2. Create desktop users a shortcut pointing to \ \ <server> \ <share> \ Firefox.exe.

3. Users begin to use it – the file is locked firefox.exe.

4. You create a new package with the help of VMware ThinApp, call it firefox.1

5. All users connect to the old firefox, but the new treatment to firefox.exe – redirected to a file firefox.1 – and users use the updated application.

6. If you need another update – make a package called firefox.2 etc.

7. If you want to revert to previous version – make package firefox.3, which is assembled from a previous version of the application.

If users stop using firefox.1, started using firefox.2, firefox.1 can be removed. But! Never delete firefox.exe, since it indicates an application shortcut on the desktop user.

A Public Cloud offer its services to anyone on the Internet, while a Private Cloud provides services to a selected group of users and resides within a network owner or a corporate data center, with the implicit advantage of being managed IT staff of the company. A system that uses both Public and Private Cloud Systems is sometimes called a Hybrid.

The main obstacle for companies adopting the Public massive Cloud Computing is the theme of protection of user data. The concern is the possibility, by the service provider or attackers, to gain access to corporate data is not encrypted, whether on disk, in memory or transmitted over the network. Another criticism is the inability to monitor and control hardware and software on which virtual machines are created, or to make audit of security and reliability as those required in the U.S.

The main objective of the Private Cloud Hosting platforms is to optimize IT resources involved in the cycle of corporate provisioning, delivery, monitoring and control of business-critical applications: the elasticity of supply storage, processing and networking, on-demand access to systems, self-provisioning by the user or workgroup, through a centralized management dashboard unified system administrators, workgroup managers and end users.

The lessons derived from the first substantial experience in the use of Public Cloud, have made progress rapidly to a new breed of enterprise applications, where flexibility, integration with critical business applications and independence from hardware vendors and software become key factors in the Private Cloud successful implementations in the coming years. According to Some analysts, the Private Cloud Computing is the future of corporate IT.