GigaOM contributor James Urquhart shares some of the best books, blogs and other information on the concepts of devops and complex IT systems. Read more »
In his latest post on next-generation systems design, James Urquhart discusses the different types of PaaS offerings and why it matters that some are composable and others are contextual. Read more »
James Urquhart continues his look into whether companies sacrifice stability by designing systems that value adaptability over strict top-down command and control. This is called the stability-resiliency tradeoff and, he argues, many complex systems benefit from adaptability. Read more »
James Urquhart explains the concept of anti-fragility and how modern IT departments are trying to achieve through a variety of means, including the implementation of devops. However, he cautions, anti-fragility might not the answer for every system. Read more »
James Urquhart kicks off a discussion about system resiliency by outlining the key concepts — devops, complex adaptive systems and anti-fragility — that affect it in the cloud computing era. Read more »
IT departments need not go away in a computing world increasingly concerned with cloud computing and complex service-oriented systems, but they will have to change. IT has to let go of trying to control everything and focus on coordinating and enhancing things that other people control. Read more »
In 2011, I predicted Microsoft and Google were poised to own the cloud computing market in the next decade. Eighteen months later, Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.com seem like the ones that really have what it takes to dominate over the long haul. Read more »
Cloud computing and distributed applications are part of a greater shift to building out an ecosystem with inter-dependent parts. This may seem obvious, but what is less obvious is how the industry will interoperate and develop systems that let information flow through the ecosystem. Read more »
This week’s announcement by Google of its new Compute Engine cloud offering is a big deal, but most commentators are missing the real reason Google will get some stalwart Amazon customers to give Compute Engine a try. Performance, not scale, could be Google’s real differentiator. Read more »
Given my current obsession with understanding everything I can about how cloud computing is beginning to look, feel and behave like a variety of other complex adaptive systems, I’ve started paying close attention to the widespread practice (outside of IT, it seems) of systems thinking. Defined […] Read more »
The need for enterprise architecture was spurred by the need to gain control over an increasingly complex computing environment, and an increasingly large backlog of data and feature needs. But those needs are changing with cloud computing, and so is the job of the enterprise architect. Read more »
The most common terms in some discussions about the future of cloud computing include DevOps and it’s controversial sibling, NoOps. While the practices behind these terms are critical to understand as the nature of IT operations shifts, the terms themselves are less than helpful. Read more »
Everybody who has watched The Terminator knows about Skynet, the computing system that becomes self-aware and decides to destroy humanity. But I look at cloud computing and automated systems and I fear something much more depressing: the total leisure paradise of the movie Wall-E. Read more »
For the most part, cloud-related laws on the books or in the works right now are almost entirely about data, and data has “gravity.” The more important it is, the more likely services and applications are going to move to the data, rather than vice versa. Read more »
If you are looking to cloud computing to simplify your IT environment, I’m afraid I have bad news for you. For every problem eliminated by choosing cloud, it just creates more problems you remain accountable for— and perhaps some that you never had to face before. Read more »
The world of words gets in the way of conversations between IT and the business all the time. Cloud computing is no exception. Words such as “application” and “service” mean different things to different people, but perhaps there’s room for consensus on some core principles. Read more »
As I find myself honored with the opportunity to contribute regularly to GigaOM’s cloud coverage, I find myself thinking a lot about what I’ve learned in those five years. So, for my first post, I thought I’d walk through my most important observations to date. Read more »
