Managing your Cloud with Confidence

Page 1© nimsoft, all rights reserved@nimsoft & @mrivingt@nimsoft & @mrivingt

Mark Rivington, CTO, Nimsoft

Managing your Cloud with Confidence

Page 2© nimsoft, all rights reserved@nimsoft & @mrivingt

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


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.


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


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


Solution Overview


Public and Private Clouds

vCloud DirectorNRE Coalition

HP Bladesystem Matrix

IT Landscape Today


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


Cloud Layers

“Abstraction”

“Virtualization”

ApplicationPrivate Virtual Data Center

Virtualized Infrastructure

Physical Infrastructureand Components


Cloud Layers – Visibility

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http://www.naval-technology.com

“Abstraction”

“Virtualization”

ApplicationPrivate Virtual Data Center

Virtualized Infrastructure

Physical Infrastructureand Components


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

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3


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


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 …


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


A Model for IaaS Monitoring


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.


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


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


Softlayer as an example






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


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


Visualization of the whole stack is key


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


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 •


Thank you

Technology

Managing your Cloud with Confidence