James Higginbotham

API Architect

#GlueCon 2014 Keynote: The Case for Application Driven Cloud Computing – Adam Davis, Chief Architect, Cloud Computing, Citi

2 minute read

Keynote: The Case for Application Driven Cloud Computing – Adam Davis, Chief Architect, Cloud Computing, Citi

  • When Adam started out in the industry, dev and ops had no separation
  • Eventually silos, processes, and standards created the separation
  • Henry Ford widely regarded as the one that perfected (not invented) the assembly line
  • Heavy standardization and limited deviation generated consistency
  • They went from colors to black to ensure that the paint dried fast enough during assembly (consessions to enable speed over customization)
  • Ford got the assembly down from 12.5 hrs to 93 min with less manpower
  • After standardization comes automation
  • “Automation needs to be fit for purpose and not constrained by the procedure it replaces”
  • For the enterprise, we now have automated silos with fewer people (but still there)
  • There is efficiency, but not victory
  • “If we are going to invest in architecting our applications differently for cloud-scale, shouldn’t we re-architect how we host them?”
  • Arguments ensue with automation platforms as they often have good intentions but miss the point
  • We are building cloud platforms but they are template-driven by machine templates (machine types, roles, networking)
  • Does Application drive infrastructure or Infrastructure drive Application delivery?
  • “IT orgs are chartered with adding value through delivery of business applications”
  • There are too many layers of indirection (top-to-bottom: app -to- PaaS -to- IaaS -to- software defined compute, network, storage)
  • This causes a loss of fidelity at each level, removing the ability to know things about what is below and to have guarantees
  • “We’ve made great strides in autonomic infrastructure” – software-defined everything and autonomic infrastructure agents
  • But there is an opportunity to do it in a different way
  • Even the hardware (e.g. network switches) is being managed by agents like Chef as they often run Linux
  • “What if we had autonomic application management?”
  • What could we do? Lots of cool things, but it requires a change in the model
  • Back to Henry Ford model, it is controlled but we now need an independent model
  • “Aren’t our platforms just software? Can’t we just change how we do things?”
  • IaaS is there for templates and abstraction, but the platform should be able to talk to the resources directly
  • If applications could communicate diretly with the platforms and infrastructure, IaaS isn’t needed
  • But we can’t change the world all at once – it will take time to convert them
  • It is estimated to take 22 years to shift the industry
  • Perhaps a parallel management model is required to help accelerate the change
  • Apps -to- lightweight platforms -to- software defined resources
  • This would provide a new ecosystem to allow developers to take control of their applications
  • OASIS CAMP might be one to consider: https://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=camp
  • Q: Where is the OS in this stack? A: The OS in this model diminishes in responsibility (see Docker, Red Hat)

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