Spinning Guyro

How Many Sites Really Use Amazon EC2?

Over at the InfiBase blog, we just published some data that tries to answer the lingering question of who is really adopting cloud computing technologies? This is a result of some internal research we've been running and it seems only fair to share our findings with the cloud computing community.

Interesting, Geva Perry shared some interesting findings on RackSpace's cloud revenues in a blog post I ran into earlier today - but noted that "Amazon, whose cloud services are perhaps the most significant indicators of cloud adoption, is intentionally -- and quite effectively -- hiding the finances behind AWS". This remains true, and although we can't hope to estimate Amazon's financials, I hope that our numbers can cast some light into the size and growth of Amazon's elastic compute cloud.

Email In The Cloud - Not Just For Startups

CNET reports on a recent large Google Apps deal, in which Valeo - which can hardly be described as a high-tech or startup company - is switching it's 30,000 users to Gmail. This adds to a recent conversation I had in which I learned that a large multinational company is switching its 60,000 users in over 100 countries to Windows Live Mail.

In both cases, the reason is simple: reduce expenses, increase focus. Valeo manufactures components for cars and trucks. Why should they need an Exchange expert on their payroll? These are the kinds of expertise which only benefit from being delivered en masse by a large provider. A company focused on IT delivery can address complex issues such as high availability, backups and performance much better than in-house IT ever will.

What Is Cloud Computing?

The elevator pitch for cloud computing is a tricky one. In recent weeks I've found myself, when asked, struggling to define the cloud to the average user. Sure, many people in and around IT, or who like to keep up with the latest trends are aware of cloud computing - but what about the rest? I'm referring to the average Internet user, technologically able and even skilled - just not in and around IT.

My challenge, therefore, is to collect definitions of the cloud. The definition should be quite short. It should refrain from assuming familiarity with terms such as virtualization, elasticity, grid computing, etc.

How do YOU define cloud computing? Add your own definitions in the comments.

• Inspired by Nicholas Carr: Cloud computing is the new utility: in the early 1900s, people stopped generating power individually at home and hooked up to the large electrical utilities. In the early 2000s, people are switching over from running applications and servers individually and instead  hooking up to large providers - the cloud. The logic behind producing electricity en masse now applies to computing.
• Cloud computing is outsourcing of IT - from applications and servers down to the server room itself. You usually pay only for what you use in practice and can scale up and down rapidly.
• Remember when you once used Outlook and now have a Gmail account? That was the cloud's first step. It's grown to encompass everything down to the server level: you don't need to own your own servers any more - you just rent computing power by the hour and someone else takes care of the dirty work.
• Utility computing is old - centralized mainframes and time-shared systems have been around for decades. Everything was managed at one location and you just had a dumb terminal. The reason that it's now back - big time - is that the Internet and high bandwidth mean it can be achieved on a massive, global scale like never before.

The following definitions are accurate, but probably inappropriate for a non-IT audience. I'm including them for completeness -

• Wikipedia: Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.
  
• Thorsten von Eicken: Most computer savvy folks actually have a pretty good idea of what the term "cloud computing" means: outsourced, pay-as-you-go, on-demand, somewhere in the Internet, etc."
• Jan Pritzker: Clouds are vast resource pools with on-demand resource allocation; Clouds are virtualized; Clouds tend to be priced like utilities.

Doing the Impossible

Terry Pratchett's book Going Postal would seem to be the last place I would find inspiration for startup life. Yet it was there that I ran into this fantastic quote which I couldn't resist sharing -

Never promise to do the possible. Anyone could do the possible. You should promise to do the impossible, because sometimes the impossible is possible, if you could find the right way, and at least you could often extend the limits of the possible. And if you failed, well, it had been impossible.

HostMonk - our new hosting comparison service

I have been buying and using hosting services of all shapes and sizes for years now. Doing it again recently for the umpteenth time, my partners and I realized that there is no comprehensive, impartial website you can use to compare products like you would do for shoes, MP3 players or your next laptop. Where is "the Shopping.com of hosting"?

If you need something and it isn't there, you should go out and do it. So, we set out to create HostMonk - an impartial, data-oriented hosting comparison site.

We're just getting started, and the hundreds of packages we have listed are impressive - but of course only the tip of the iceberg. The feedback from people in the the industry has been incredibly positive so far, and it seems there is a real thirst for a service like this.

Let's see where this takes us :-)

Multiple Profiles for TweetDeck - Introducing MultiTweetDeck

TweetDeck has been my favorite Twitter client for a while. I was astonished to find recently, when setting up a new Twitter profile for a project I'm working on, that there is no way to manage multiple Twitter profiles using TweetDeck. There have been many requests, but no solution...

... until now!

MultiTweetDeck is a small tool I wrote (using the fantastic AutoIt). It lets you create and switch between multiple profiles on your TweetDeck installation (no simultaneous sessions though, I'm afraid).

Please note that this is still alpha quality, fresh from the oven - so use with care! Feel free to leave a comment or Tweet me @guyro about any problems you encounter. I hope the TweetDeck team will eventually add support for multiple profiles and make this tool obsolete. Until then -

Download MultiTweetDeck v0.20

Update: v0.20 now customizes the title of the TweetDeck version with the profile name.

What are people saying about MultiTweetDeck?

Keep Your Arms And Legs Inside The Ride At All Times

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Okay, that's a little melodramatic, and it isn't technically today. Anyway, these are definitely the first few weeks of a new chapter.

Source: Flickr / TimmyGUNZ

After years working, having fun and learning a lot with the incredible team at Collactive, I am taking my first step into the world beyond, to start my own venture.

People talk about the roller coaster that is entrepreneurship. For a while I have been standing by the rides, gazing in awe at the people spinning above me. Right now, the feeling I have is that excitement/fear/anticipation you get when you finally get on the ride and lock yourself in (click!). The roller coaster has barely started moving. It hasn't climbed, or fallen, or twisted yet. There's only thing you are certain of - that you can't get off anymore.

Here goes nothing.

How Not To Search For Blogs

ReadWriteWeb's recent roundup of blog search engines got me thinking how much we really need a solution for blog search. The major players here are simply, well, not quite there yet. I've had plenty of quality time with both Google Blog Search and Technorati and both have their fair share of problems.

Google Blog Search is the quick'n'dirty one - it works fast but includes all sorts of things that aren't really blogs (such as comment feeds). Additionally, there is no real ranking so it leaves you to sort the wheat from the chaff. Google Blogsearch alerts are pretty good, though.

Technorati, on the other hand, has a decent database but has too many bugs. The highlight is the "Sorry, an error has occurred" pages I see way too often. How can a respectable Alexa 500 site live with these problems? It's even worse than the Twitter fail whale!

I admit I haven't dabbled enough in IceRocket or Ask.com Blogsearch so I won't have anything intelligent to say about them. I will definitely give them a shot.

So what's your solution for blog search?

Richard Branson - Business Stripped Bare (pt 2)

A while ago I wrote about Richard Branson's book, Business Stripped Bare. I didn't make good on my promise to share parts of the book as I encountered them. However, two months, 328 pages (and two other books) later - I will at least sum up what I learned.

The book is not your average business motivation/self-help book. The vast majority is dedicated to accounts of Virgin's successes and failures, and the events that led up to them. If you are looking for yet another business how-to book, this is not for you. However, through the stories, the ideology behind the entrepreneur becomes clear. A highlighted quote now and then delivers the punchline.

Business Stripped Bare is not the most gripping book I've read (and, admittedly, I took a detour to read a fiction book sometime in the middle). Its free-flowing narrative may leave your attention straying. It does, however, offer a unique insight into the mind and work of one of Britain's most fascinating entrepreneurs.

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Innovation is what you get when you capitalize on luck, when you get up from behind your desk and go and see where ideas and people lead you."

If Programming Languages Were Religions

Great find here: If Programming Languages Were Religions

Let's see, this makes me a Jew who spent years studying Islam, only to convert to Fundamental Christianity, after which I got deeply involved in Voodoo which defines me to this day. Nevertheless, recent years have taken me through Wicca to the path of enlightenment that is Neo-Paganism. Oh, and I really hate Humanism. (I always felt Humanism vs. Voodoo was a religious affair at the heart of it.)