Federal agencies are excitedly ‘upgrading’ to cloud computing through today’s launch of Apps.gov. The new website brings the promise of cloud IT services to all federal agencies, and the hip new app service includes everything ranging from professional business applications, cloud IT services, productivity apps, to the ever so popular social media apps! With many of the services being offered by either Google or salesforce.com, the movement to cloud computing is expected to reduce government operational costs as well as increase productivity within Federal agencies.

Cloud computing, in which information and software are stored in centralized units that can be accessed by any number of devices simultaneously, is the next big thing in IT according to a blog authored by Kundra. He went on to state that the website Apps.gov is an all encompassing site for cloud services, due to the way it consolidates services which are currently available. This is set to revolutionize the operation of IT and save taxpayers money.

A whopping $75 billion is spent by the government each year on information technology, says Kundra at the Whitehouse bog post. Yet the procurement processes and security procedures prevalent in this time and age can use up a lot of time that could have been otherwise used in other endeavors, and are even redundant at times. Kundra writes that the practices of the past have often ended up in an inefficiency across the federal government of purchased IT capabilities. Kundra adds, ‘These barriers will be addressed – it is a priority. We will improve the methods employed by the government in leveraging new technology’.

Due to release in the year 2010, Google is working on a “government cloud”, also known as a “G Cloud“. The program will work in much the same way that Google Apps works, though will be made to suit the US federal state and local governments. FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act – stating procedures on running federal government information applications) approval is currently being sought by Google for their Google Apps software. According to Matthew Glotzbach, director of product management for Google Enterprise, the process is close to done and soon we will know whether Google will be authorized to use FISMA.

Learn more about transaction monitoring from our blog post:

Web Applications Monitoring Best Practices: Transactions Monitoring

Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS, gives business access to vital web architecture, such as storage space, servers, and connections, without the business need of purchasing and managing this internet infrastructure themselves. Because of the economies of scale and specialization involved, this can be to the benefit of both the business providing the infrastructure and the one using it. In particular, IaaS allows an internet business a way to develop and grow on demand. Both PaaS and SaaS clouds are grounded in IaaS clouds, as the company providing the software as service is also providing the infrastructure to run the software. Choosing to use an IaaS cloud demands a willingness to put up with complexity, but with that complexity comes flexibility. Amazon EC2 and Rackspace Cloud are examples of IaaS.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) clouds are created, many times inside IaaS Clouds by specialists to render the scalability and deployment of any application trivial and to help make your expenses scalable and predictable. Some examples of a PaaS system include: Mosso, Google App Engine, and Force.com. The chief benefit of a service like this is that for as little as no money you can initiate your application with no stress more than basic development and maybe a little porting if you are dealing with an existing app. Furthermore, PaaS allows a lot of scalability by design because it is based on cloud computing as defined earlier in the article. If you want a lean operations staff, a PaaS can be very useful if your app will capitulate. The most important negative of using a PaaS Cloud provider is that these services may implement some restrictions or trade-offs that will not work with your product under any circumstances.

Software as a Service (SaaS) is relatively mature, and the phrase’s use predates that of cloud computing. Cloud applications allow the cloud to be leveraged for software architecture, reducing the burdens of maintenance, support, and operations by having the application run on computers belonging to the vendor. GMail and Salesforce are among examples of SaaS run as clouds, but not all SaaS has to be based in cloud computing.

See more about cloud computing/SaaS definitions at our Cleaning Up a SaaS Terminology Mess
post.

The packet analyzer is computer software, and sometimes hardware, that can intercept and also log digital network traffic. As data streams flow through the network, the packet analyzer captures each information packet and will decode and analyze the content (according to the appropriate RFC or other specifications). Packet analyzers are sometimes referred to as network analyzers, protocol analyzers, and sniffers.

Packet sniffers are versatile applications. For network maintenance, you can use packet sniffers to monitor network usage, gather and report network statistics, and debug client/ server communications and network protocol implementations. Security uses include the ability to analyze network problems and detect network intrusion attempt. In an offensive mode, packet sniffers allow you to gather information for effecting a network intrusion and spy on other network users. More controversial uses include the ability to collect sensitive information, such as passwords (depending on any content encryption methods which may be in use, and reverse engineer proprietary protocols used over the network.

Tcpdump is a popular packet analyzer with a command-line interface. It is used to capture and display TCP/IP packets (as well as other protocols) on the monitoring system’s network segment. This program is frequently used to troubleshoot network applications, but it can also be used to debug problems with the network itself, usually by detecting problems with the network routing configuration. Tcpdump can also be used to intercept network communications originating from another computer. By running tcpdump on a computer acting as a router or gateway, the user can display unencrypted information (such as that sent with TELNET or HTTP) including login IDs, passwords, URL requests, website content, and any other unencrypted data.

Wireshark, which was originally known as Ethereal, was renamed in May 2006 because of trademark issues. Wireshark is used for network troubleshooting, analysis, software and communications development and education. Even though Wireshark is similar to tcpdump, it has much more information sorting and filtering options as well as a graphical front end. The user is able to see all of the traffic that is being sent over the network, which is usually Ethernet, even though support is being added for other networks.

Ettercap is a network protocol analyzer and security auditing tool for Windows and UNIX. Ettercap can capture traffic, including passwords, on a network segment and it can be used to perform active eavesdropping. The software supports active and passive analysis of a number of common protocols, including encrypted protocols, and provides other network and host analysis features as well. Ettercap has four operating modes: 1) IP-based monitoring, in which packets are filtered by IP source and destination; 2) MAC-based monitoring, where packets are filtered by MAC address (this mode is useful for analyzing connections through a gateway); 3) ARP-based, which uses ARP poisoning to monitor a full-duplex switched LAN connection between two hosts; 4) PublicARP-based, which also uses ARP poisoning on a switched LAN, but is intended for monitoring half-duplex traffic between a victim host and other servers.

Red Hat announces the launch of the most recent edition of its benchmark open source operating system, RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5.4, with plenty of features to admire in this latest commercial Linux. A big plus is that virtualization is built right into this system. This RHEL version integrates KVM, Kernel-based Virtual Machine, which – in contrast to VMWare or XenServer – is built right into the operating system rather than as an add-on format. In fact, just as the name implies, it is incorporated directly within the Linux kernel.

Red Hats’ KVM can run up to sixteen virtual machines having up to 256 GB of RAM each. Because they function like a real machine would, you can use the normal RHEL management tools to make them work. Paravirtualized disk and network drivers have been incorporated into the LREL 5.4 for even better I/O performance. Even though Xen based virtualization is completely supported, the KVM hypervisor will only function correctly when used with the regular/non-Xen kernel.

RHEL’s also improved SystemTap toolset for performance monitoring will make it even easier for you to keep track of your C++ applications. With SystemTap, you can write instrumentation for a live running kernel with its simple command line interface and scripting language. A bigger library of internal “tapset” scripts, and newly published samples, are also available to assist with reuse and abstraction.

When you think of “the cloud” in IT, what benefits to your organization come to mind? With this “outsourced virtualization”, it certainly makes IT operations greener and prevents bottlenecks; it also helps organizations concentrate less on IT operations and more on their core functions. Analysts agree that going “to the cloud” is the first step towards the IT infrastructure of the future. Compared to traditional operations, moving your IT infrastructure into “the cloud” helps you deliver computing power within your organization in a much more efficient way, both financially and logistically – not to mention the benefits of not being responsible for upgrading outdated hardware and software on a regular basis.

Previously we talked about Cloud/SaaS apps advantages for clients, but what Cloud will mean regarding systems management and monitoring is as follows: Small and mid size businesses are looking for two sorts of services regarding systems management: performance and external end to end uptime, led by such companies as Gomez and Keynote; and network monitoring and servers, minus the big four with big enterprise focus-for this space, clients usually think of Adventnet (now Zoho), Solarwinds, and open sources vendors such as Zabbix, Nagios, and Zenoss. Though the first category is natural for Cloud apps since they have to be out of a corporate firewall, the second one is usually conventional software.

Our customers have told us that they have two primary needs. First, they need easy and quick way to monitor their networks and servers through a centralized application utilizing all benefits of multiple tenant architecture, benefits we’ve described in past posts. Some vendors generate an instance of each application from the cloud infrastructure, from Amazon or some other vendor. However, these are not true cloud applications, comparable to those operated by Salesforce.com. IT engineers and managers will benefit from faster deployment, lower initial capital requirements, and easily scalable architectures that will allow them to grow a little bit at a time.

Secondly, internal servers and network monitoring needs to be merged with external end-to-end monitoring. This should be done in a single product which delivers a consolidated view of overall system performance. External monitoring is focused on business transactions and end-user experience tied to service level agreements provided to third parties whilst IT Staff were responsible for the internal functions of server and network monitoring. The role of IT in business is gaining more importance with time as IT goals become more aligned with overall business goals.

System administrators may wonder what benefits they will reap from a changeover to centralized systems monitoring in the cloud. We tell them they will have better speed of deployment and more control and visibility. They can take advantage of proactive monitoring and early notification. Some technologies and administrators would have liked but couldn’t have considered because of high cost and complexity will now be available. It is safe to say that the control over end-user experience administrators will have with consolidated monitoring will ease a lot of their workload. In short, they can put their efforts where their skills are best used and gain recognition and admiration from their supervisors.

Press Release

San Jose 31 Aug, 2009 Monitis Inc., a premier provider of centralized systems monitoring in the cloud, today announces a new important release for its on-demand load testing service. New version of Monitis’ WebLoadTester allows database performance management and load testing from the cloud.

The new release of the Monitis’ WebLoadTester allows generation of the load for popular databases such as open source MySQL, Oracle, MS SQL, DB2 and others from the cloud. Usually it is the database that interferes with performance bottlenecks in the system and often just a single SQL query will be able to destroy the performance of the whole application. WebLoadTester makes database performance tuning simpler and affordable for application developers, database administrators (DBA), performance and quality engineers.

Applications load and performance testing are considered by many to be the “killer application”for cloud computing. WebLoadTester already supports both static and script based http load tests and supports SOAP load testing for service oriented architectures (SOA). WebLoadTester makes the load testing affordable for all kinds of businesses. The price per test is estimated to be as low as $4.18 per test with the use of  Monitis load tester. A user just has to enter the parameters of a database connection and queries, which he/she is keen to load and test metrics for. With a single click the load test will get started and the performance report will be generated. Then through e-mails it will be sent to the users and will be reachable on the web. These tests can be saved and recurrently executed by the users.

Professional Web testing requires effective resource monitoring. Monitis systems performance monitoring oversees utilization of resources such as databases, application servers, load balancers, and firewalls. During load tests, usage information about these resources can be collected and analyzed. When problems arise, you will need information about how resources are used throughout the entire structure of your Web application. “Our goal is to provide our customers an easy and cost efficient centralized performance management in the cloud, so that there is no need of purchasing, deploying and maintaining multiple servers, tools and services.” says Hovhannes Avoyan, CEO of Monitis.

About Monitis Performance Monitor

Monitis Performance Monitor is an industry leading comprehensive, affordable, scalable, fault and performance management platform.  Monitis Performance Monitor monitors, collects and analyzes information from websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices providing users with a comprehensive view of their system health.  Open sourced Monitis plug-in with powerful API’s allow the users to extend Monitis powerful monitoring and management capabilities.  Users can be assured of always on reliable service as Monitis Performance Monitor is deployed across the world providing resilient service.

About Monitis

Monitis is a leading provider of affordable performance monitoring and management in the cloud. More than 50,000 customers spanning small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and education institutions have chosen Monitis to reduce system downtime, improve IT administrator productivity, and reduce operational expenditure.  Monitis is radically changing system monitoring and management landscape by providing easy to use, affordable, flexible (deployment configurations include: shared, internal cloud and external cloud), and simple to manage SaaS performance monitoring and management solution. For more information, please visit http://www.monitis.com

Press Release

San Jose 26 Aug, 2009 Monitis Inc., a leading provider of hosted enterprise-class systems management software, launched a new cloud monitoring service. Monitis provides user-friendly, cost-effective systems monitoring through a software-as-service approach. Monitis’ on-demand cloud monitoring service is now enhanced through Amazon S3 monitoring. This new ability, Monitis S3 Monitoring, lets the customers independently monitor their S3 usage and storage, and notifies customers when they reach prescribed thresholds. Monitis thus provides its customers with greater access and control over the cloud infrastructure.

The Simple Storage Service, or S3, is an online storage service, offered by Amazon’s Web Services division. Amazon S3 uses a simple web interface to provide unlimited data storage. This was the first web service that Amazon offered to the public, first in the United States in March 2006 and then in Europe in November 2007. Amazon has charged users monthly by the gigabyte, with additional charge for each get or put request and for bandwidth used to send and receive stored data. There are an estimated 52 billion objects stored on Amazon S3 as of March 2009. S3 also includes image and web hosting and a back-up for its storage.

Monitis already provides EC2 monitoring, and now adds S3 storage service monitoring as well. This gives Monitis the ability to show its users graphical displays illustrating the number of objects in each virtual folder (known as buckets), their total size, the number of virtual folders, and the number of objects in each bucket etc. Users can set notification rules for each metric that Monitis monitors. They can choose to be notified by Twitter, instant messaging, SMS, and/or email when any threshold is reached.

Monitis is an independent service that can be used by business administrators and IT managers to monitor and exercise control over their Amazon cloud usage. Cloud computing customers do not typically own the physical assets that store their software. Instead, cloud computing customers usually pay for only what they use, and enjoy the cloud resource as a service. Cloud customers need more visibility into the cloud than other service users, to make sure that their software is running properly. The Monitis cloud monitoring system allows customers this transparency, giving users management and monitoring capabilities comparable to those enjoyed with in-house systems.

According to Hovhannes Avoyan, CEO of Monitis, “On-demand cloud computing is at high demand now and needs for cloud monitoring is explicit. We cannot ignore the request and we provide fast, easy, affordable tool to address these needs”. Users who sign up for Monitis receive access to Monitis Cloud, which is a web-centric on-demand software that does not require any downloads. This is a service beneficial to those who provide IT services, and businesses ranging from small to enterprise-level.

About Monitis Performance Monitor

Monitis Performance Monitor is an industry leading comprehensive, affordable, scalable, fault and performance management platform.  Monitis Performance Monitor monitors, collects and analyzes information from websites, servers, routers, switches, VoIP devices, DNS, databases, processes and any other IP devices providing users with a comprehensive view of their system health.  Open sourced Monitis plug-in with powerful API’s allow tbe users to extend Monitis powerful monitoring and management capabilities.  Users can be assured of always on reliable service as Monitis Performance Monitor is deployed across the world providing resilient service.

About Monitis

Monitis is a leading provider of affordable performance monitoring and management solution. More than 50,000 customers spanning small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and education institutions have chosen Monitis to reduce system downtime, improve IT administrator productivity, and reduce operational expenditure.  Monitis is radically changing system monitoring and management landscape by providing easy to use, affordable, flexible (deployment configurations include: shared, internal cloud and external cloud), and simple to manage SaaS performance monitoring and management solution. For more information, please visit http://www.monitis.com

External Monitoring

• Tabbed wizard
• OR/AND conditions for Failures From option
• WebMap view

Internal Monitoring

• Agent snapshot for Windows
• Agent snapshot for OpenSolaris
• Agent snapshot for FreeBSD

General

• Per tab date change possibility
• Maintenance times exclusion in weekly reports