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Mark Rivington, CTO, Nimsoft
Managing your Cloud with Confidence
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Agenda� Introductions – personal and Nimsoft� The IT Landscape today� Particular management challenges in the new world of cloud computing � Specific approaches to managing the data center plus cloud and cloud
services� Focused on monitoring and performance management� With reference to real world customer examples
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Personal IntroductionMark RivingtonCTOMark has deep knowledge of the systems and network management vendor space having served in numerous technical and marketing roles at key software organizations over the last twenty years. At Candle, Boole & Babbage, BMC and RiverSoft, Mark gathered significant understanding of how management software can be developed and deployed to maximize customer returns in terms of business benefit.
In his current role this understanding helps drive the direction of the Nimsoft technology towards maximum customer benefit.
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Nimsoft Introduction� Origins in Europe c. 1998� 2002 – Entry to US Market through reseller� 2004 – Nimsoft formed with HQ in California� Very rapid adoption in the market
� Technological and commercial advantage� Flexible pricing - Subscription or perpetual� Message Bus and APIs
� 2010 � On-Demand option� 1000+ customers in 36 countries� ~50/50 split between Enterprise and Service
Providers� CA acquisition March 17th 2010� Rationale – new market areas� 120+ new customers� 150+ new employees� New products for the Nimsoft portfolio
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Nimsoft IT Management-as-a-Service� New Target Market� Mid-market Enterprise � Service Providers
� New Offering� Unified IT Management:
Monitoring & Service Mgmt� Nimsoft Watchmouse� Right-sized functionality� Faster time to value
� New Delivery Model� SaaS and on premise
� New Business Model� Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)� Customer Success� Inside sales focus
On-Premise SaaSNimsoft Unified Management Portal
NimsoftService Desk
NimsoftMonitor
Nimsoft Unified Manager
Nimso
ft Ope
n APIs
Nimsoft Open APIs
Nimsoft Watchmouse
ITMaaS for Today’s IT
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Solution Overview
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Public and Private Clouds
vCloud DirectorNRE Coalition
HP Bladesystem Matrix
IT Landscape Today
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The Cloud Effect on IT Systems Management� Traditional systems management is based on complete control of
all components and resources� The physical datacenter embodied this principle of control� The cloud dissipates the datacenter and disseminates control
beyond organizational boundaries� Now the “datacenter” is a heterogeneous mix of disparate
computing environments� Controlling across cloud boundaries is the challenge
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Cloud Layers
“Abstraction”
“Virtualization”
ApplicationPrivate Virtual Data Center
Virtualized Infrastructure
Physical Infrastructureand Components
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Cloud Layers – Visibility
1
2
3
http://www.naval-technology.com
“Abstraction”
“Virtualization”
ApplicationPrivate Virtual Data Center
Virtualized Infrastructure
Physical Infrastructureand Components
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Cloud Types and Visibility� Public Cloud� SaaS and PaaS� IaaS� For the benefit of the consumer� For the service provider
themselves� Private Cloud� In the traditional private
datacenter� Provided by service providers
� DataCenter� Full Visibility
12
3
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Monitoring SaaS / PaaS ServicesIn depth visibility into the performance, availability and status of your instances› SaaS and PaaS� URL and web service response� End user experience – passive & synthetic� Transaction performance counters
� # transactions, latency, service time� Analysis & predictive reporting
� Subscription status� SLA measurement and reporting
› SaaS - You don’t “own” the application� Specific SaaS application APIs
› PaaS – You do “own” the application� Application instrumentation� Application frameworks generally expose specific
performance metrics
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Monitoring IaaS infrastructure (consumer)Exposed by Cloud APIs:› Virtual server instances - Network,
CPU, Storage details - read/write› Additional global IaaS offering
performance� Server start up times� Availability of servers / instance
types – by location� Usage data
You’ll need more:› Just as a datacenter:� Detailed Server Monitoring� Application – Exchange, SharePoint,
AD, Notes, DB, etc.� Web Server – IIS, Apache,
WebSphere, WebLogic etc.� Multi-tier web application views� End user experience and
transactions� Plus workflow, automation, usage
metering, integration with Service Desk, CMDB …
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Monitoring must behave well in the Cloud• Zero touch configuration &
deployment of monitoring for new instances
• Registration & graceful de-registration of agents
• Management policies obtained at instantiation time (no stale images)
• Connect to management server & begin reporting
• Connect securely back to data centers if they exist
Server Instance
Register
Report
De-register
Policy
Cloud Hub
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A Model for IaaS Monitoring
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A Customer Example of Active Management� Brand name consumer media streaming company� Highly asymmetric workloads and user demands � Heavily utilized datacenters� Capital intensive datacenter costs� Early users of Public IaaS � Shift to Operational Expense� Used monitoring to determine and
control overspill in to the cloud
© 2009 Nimsoft. All rights reserved.
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Monitoring IaaS infrastructure (Service Provider)� Key requirement is to offer self service
monitoring of cloud instances to the consumer� Graduated levels of monitoring service with
appropriate pricing� Monitoring must be driven through provisioning� Multi-tenancy & Scalability are vital� Performance & availability data must be
accessible through CSP Portal� Direct data access or portal to portal integration
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Provisioning drives Monitoring� It is all about the APIs� Template (e.g. good, better,
best) monitoring policies deployed at instantiation� Modifiable through specific
API calls� Driven entirely through
external automation or provisioning system
Data
Datacenter Virtualization End User Experience
Cloud and SaaS
Power and Facilities
Custom
Presentation InformationReporting – Dashboards – Portals and Widgets
AP
I
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Softlayer as an example
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Softlayer as an example
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Softlayer as an example
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Private Cloud• Effectively a combination of consumer and service provider IaaS
monitoring requirements� Plus classical datacenter monitoring for internal private cloud
infrastructure• Need to Support specific branded infrastructure stack solutions e.g. VCE
Vblock
vCloud DirectorNRE Coalition
HP Bladesystem Matrix
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Vblock Specific Monitoring (as an example) � Discovery and Deployment� Auto-discovery, auto-monitoring, pre-built templates
� Operational� Under usage, over-commitment identification� Vblock root cause analysis
� Chassis� Monitoring of all aspects of the rack
� Compute� Cisco UCS blades and elements
� Storage� EMC’s CLARiiON™, Symmetrix™ and Celera
� Networking and interconnects� Cisco routers, SAN switches and Nexus™ soft switches
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Visualization of the whole stack is key
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An example customer of Private Cloud monitoring
� Global Investment Bank� Long term user of “other 3” systems
management suite� Moving from physical to virtual to private
cloud� Transformation from 6 weeks to 6 minutes in
terms of server delivery� Needed a more flexible monitoring solution � Key was integration with new configuration
management application� Self Service monitoring is vital to private
cloud� Currently has 25,000 servers under
management and is still growing
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Review of cloud types and monitoring requirementsIaaS PaaS SaaS Private
Self service • • • •Integration with config/provisioning/ etc. • • • •Zero Touch Monitoring Activation • • • •Very High Scalability • • • •Dynamic Registration • • • •Data Aggregation and Reporting • • • •Multi-Tenancy • • • VariesEnd User Monitoring
� Synthetic Transactions� Real User Monitoring
• • Varies
URL and Web Service Response Monitoring • • VariesApplication Specific Instrumentation
� Application dashboards� URL data gathering� App. Specific metrics
• • Varies
SLA reporting for customers • • VariesCompliance SLA/SLO reporting on business impact • • VariesIntegration with existing Datacenter monitoring •
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Thank you