Barry X Lynn, Chairman and CEO, and Peter Nickolov, President, COO and CTO of 3Tera

In this exclusive interview, HostReview asks 3Tera's Barry Lynn and Peter Nickolov questions about their company's cloud computing platform and general internet technology trends.

1.       The "cloud" isattracting much attention these days. How would you explain the term to anaudience without a significant technology background?

CloudComputing is massively scalable (both up and down) information technology forgeneral purpose computing, available as a utility.  Like other utilities,Cloud Computing enables anyone to access to world class technology on apay-for-what-you-use basis.

2.       Which new technologies andpractices do you think make storage and computing in the cloud possible?

Thisis a good question, because cloud data centers obviously aren’t run liketraditional data centers. There are a few basic technical underpinnings:

Firstis storage. Unlike traditional deployments where specific servers are dedicatedto an application, servers in a cloud data center can become part of anyapplication. Therefore each server must be able to access any data. Thisrequires rethinking storage, because traditional SANs don’t provide sufficientbandwidth.

Secondis security. Cloud users by definition share infrastructure, but the questionis at what level. Some services share servers between users, but at 3tera we choseto temporarily dedicate servers to users for improved security.

Thirdis infrastructure. Most online applications aren’t comprised of a single pieceof software, but an integration of software and infrastructure like storage,networking, and middleware. Cloud providers have to determine how to providethat infrastructure. At 3tera, we’ve developed technology that enables users todefine infrastructure for applications themselves. Our infrastructure editor isone of the defining characteristics of our AppLogic system.

3.      Some people say computing in the cloud issimply a return to the time of big iron and terminals. How would you commentsuch a view?

Theonly thing “big iron and terminals” has in common with Cloud Computing is thatcomputing resources are accessed remotely.  But Cloud Computing is farfrom only about access.   It’s about deployment – the ability to puttogether an application and have it ready to run immediately without goingthrough the steps of hardware provisioning, infrastructure configuring,etc.  The difference, in short, is like the difference between having toengineer a custom solution for every phone call you make vs. just picking upthe phone, getting a dial tone, and calling.

4.       Please tell us about3Tera's joint work with Layered Tech.

Toomany companies are trying to be both technology developer and service operator,but these are really very different skillsets. Therefore, in order to providethe best service to users, we decided to partner with companies that likeLayered Technologies that specialize in building data centers and operatingthousands of servers. We now have partners in eight countries on fourcontinents, but Layered was our first data center partner, and still operatesmore AppLogic resources than anyone else.

5.       What benefits does yourCloud Computing solution provide?  What payment options do you offer?

Agreat deal of what’s written about Cloud Computing focuses on getting serverson-demand because it’s simple to understand. However, this is just theproverbial tip of the iceberg.

AsI mentioned above, AppLogic users can integrate distributed application intoportable, scalable systems while retaining all their existing code andmiddleware. The result is the application becomes packaged, and can be operatedas a unit. Users can start, stop, backup, scale or even migrate an applicationwith a single command. Therefore, in addition to the capital expense saved forservers, running systems this way obviously creates enormous savings in laboras well.

Moreimportantly, though, these complex operations are no longer risky. If they needto double resources, they simply do. If they need presence in Europe or Asiathey simply migrate a copy of the app there. As the task teams and six monthproject plans vanish, operations becomes much more flexible and adaptable tobusiness needs.

6.       What differentiates 3Tera'soffering from existing solutions?

Afew questions back I brought up the issue of how Cloud Computing providers dealwith infrastructure beyond the simple virtual server. Some vendors have simplychosen to ignore the need. Others have pre-provisioned certain elements ofinfrastructure like security zones or load balancers and provide users an APIto access them. Only 3tera has tackled the more fundamental issue of packaginginfrastructure with the application. It’s this core technical difference thatsimplifies operations and makes them more flexible.

Onthe business side, while most vendors are trying to build their own cloud,3tera is in the business of enabling Cloud Computing. We partner with datacenter operators throughout the world. Our partners can offer standard AppLogic“virtual private data centers,” virtual private servers, storage services,hosted software stacks like Ruby on Rails, and other services. Some have usedAppLogic as the foundation for other services, from voice over IP to SaaS. Inessence, different cloud providers address different customer needs andAppLogic helps them build on a robust platform rather than building yet anothercloud from scratch.

Wealso offer enterprise licenses for AppLogic so users can have the same servicesin their data centers as well as in the cloud. Whether they choose to designand test applications in the cloud and then run them in their data centers, orare looking for the ability to burst out of their data center when needs exceedcapacity, Cloud Computing enables more flexible operations.

7.       There have been a few notableglitches in cloud services, for example in Amazon's S3. In the same time,stability is essential to the enterprise; how does your offering ensure uptime?

CloudComputing isn’t a substitute for good architecture. We’ve designed our systemto offer full redundancy and work with data center operators in differentgeographical areas to make it easier for users to architect their systems formaximum availability. We’ve also introduced our disaster recovery suite ofappliance to make the task of business continuity a simple drag and dropoperation.

It’shuman nature to perceive isolated failures of one “brand” of a certaintechnology to be inherent in that technology.  But this should not be thecase, especially, for or against Cloud Computing.  Actually, common sensedictates that the very nature of Cloud Computing exhibits much higheravailability potential than traditional data center infrastructure.  Itenables simple distribution of whole applications and the ability to copyapplications and their resources in full state and store them, move them,recover them as easy as it is to do that with simple files in a moretraditional environment.  But regardless of the nature of Cloud Computing,this only will be true of a “Cloud done right”.  If the architecture ofthe Cloud platform is flawed, then the Cloud will be flawed.

8.       Can smaller companies witha limited amount of technical knowledge use your service to setup their ownservers and sites?

Ofcourse.  AppLogic includes an ever expanding set of ready pre-configuredsoftware stacks like LAMP, .NET, Ruby on Rails, SugarCRM, and others that makeit easier to deploy scalable applications.

9.       Finally, do you foreseewide adoption of Cloud Computing offerings?

Yes.  However, while Cloud Computing is revolutionarytechnologically, its adoption, over time, will be evolutionary.  While thetransition started with companies running web based services in the cloud totake advantage of the scalability, more and more users turning to Cloud Computingboth in the public web and behind their firewalls because it offers improvedtime to market and complete disaster recovery.  Eventually, CloudComputing’s economics will lead folks to develop new applications and deployexisting applications in Clouds.  As Cloud storage services evolve, thatsame migration will happen to the data.  At that point, the “owned” datacenter has no more purpose.