[ Cloud Computing ] Re: Role of Windows Appliances and Cloud

Chris –

 

Today, Windows Appliances are really only viable in private clouds, and even there I don't see much ISV interest in offering Windows apps as appliances.

 

Is this because of the licensing issues for MSFT – is this a catch-22? Chicken – Egg type situation?

 

If I can rent a Windows AMI on EC2  ( or elsewhere ) – I could then use App Virtualization to encapsulate an App – wrapping the required executables, registry, libraries, configuration, even data , services, and identity – and move  it lock, stock, and barrel up to that running EC2 instance – no rewriting/recoding.   If the App level virtualization catches app data and state – then the App can be moved back.

 

The enterprise today has lots of platforms – not all x86 – not all linux ( still HP UX, Solaris, AIX  out there ) – and certainly not all Windows.  

 

However in the SMB/SME space – it can be that Windows is the dominant one -  and there will be “legacy” apps that use IIS or Apache and some that use MySQL and some that use SQL Server or Oracle, there will be ASP.Net and J2EE.  Can the public cloud providers really accommodate the variability of all of these?   I think that virtualizing at the App level can accommodate these variances – and lead to an Application level – vs Machine level – virtual appliance….

 

The black box nature of a Virt. Appliance cuts both ways – good that there’s nothing to worryabout inside the box – however – because what’s inside the box is not controlled by IT or known to be in compliance with IT / Security policy – that’s bad. App based appliances leave control over the basic OS Image to the enterprise – and control of the App to the ISV….

 

Just starting to think this thru – but these are my initial thoughts. ….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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From: cloud-computing@googlegroups.com [mailto:cloud-computing@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Chris Sears
Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 2:16 PM
To: cloud-computing@googlegroups.com
Subject: [ Cloud Computing ] Re: Role of Windows Appliances and Cloud

 

 

What if any role is there for Windows Appliances to enable organization to move their pre-existing windows apps up to a cloud like EC2?  

Today, Windows Appliances are really only viable in private clouds, and even there I don't see much ISV interest in offering Windows apps as appliances.

The major reason for this is Microsoft licensing. Like most traditional software companies, their licensing policies are not conducive to either appliance or cloud use cases. With open source OSs, software vendors have total freedom to create an appliance version of their app, bundled with a customized version of an OS, and then distribute/sell/rent it however they like, without their customers worrying about license compliance issues. After all, the appeal of appliances is their self-contained, black-box nature. If the end user has to open up the appliance "box" and make sure they're not violating liceses for whatever is inside, the model breaks down. Without doing special licensing deals with MS, that's largely what you would have with Windows appliances.

Another major problem with porting existing applications (not just Windows app) to EC2 and other similar clouds is that they are built on traditional operating environment assumptions that no longer apply in the cloud. The major example of this is the lack of local disk persistance on EC2 instances. Others include a variety of network challenges, like dynamic IPs and DNS and VPN connectivity to on-premise private networks to access Active Directory or other corporate systems.

These issues can certainly be overcome, but it requires a nontrivial investment in either rewritting the app or creating wrappers or support systems that hide the environmental differences from the app. In either case, it's a fair amount of pain for not much gain.

Instead of fighting to create EC2 appliances, Windows ISV will probably be looking into Azure, which would still require significant rewritting to port a traditional app to, but at least it's an environment which Microsoft is fully supporting, both from marketing and licensing standpoints.

 - Chris

http://twitter.com/csears

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