TACC HPC Cluster nodes
Photo by M.Christian

For Technology Start-ups and Established Businesses, the offering of cloud services from Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the few excellent solutions available for businesses that require and prefer to have a cloud infrastructure solution thus benefiting from its well-document cloud advantages.  It follows that AWS is a pay-per-use service, which allows an universal usage of great computing resources which sits well on business plans due to its readiness, flexibility and cost effectiveness.  Nevertheless, AWS are not easy for start-ups to configure well and efficiently, furthermore established businesses tend to spend too much time on optimizations with spiralling costs. Although there a few tools by third parties that help minimize the risk using data analysis from resources.

Below we present the best tips to know when using AWS (Amazong Web Services).

  • Select the right size of instances, there are a variety of types and sizes however choosing the appropriate size will keep costs realistic to the tasks at hand.
  • Select the correct number of instances for provision, in order to avoid large clusters which will reflect on load balancing issues. AWS permits for an on-demand flexibility planning, so that cluster nodes are not required to run initially in case peak loads occur. Nevertheless, nodes can be added either manually or automatically.
  • Selection advantages for the different instance types that AWS offers,  such as general-purpose servers, CPU or memory intensive workloads, I/O performance, and size. In general, instances tend to be chosen on types are too big for the requirements thus increasing the cost.
  • Leaving instances running idle. One amazing advantage of AWS is the ability to choose and provision instances based on the operational needs of your business. It’s simply a matter of adding a new server through a simple wizard. However, as a by-product of this flexibility, users easily lose track of their instances and forgot to turn them off, like leaving a room with the lights on. This results in confusion, wasted time trying to figure out the process, and spiraling costs.
  • Swift de-selection process on stale resources. If follows that volumes should only be kept if there is a requirement for usage in a near future, subsquently keeping costs only within the necessary resources and not paying for stale resources which can increase considerably the total cost.
  • Few EBS virtual copies which AWS allows to do quite easily, thus safeguarding data and recording backups.  On the other hand, if taking too many EBS volume snapshots,  will lead to considerable complexity in backups and generate higher than needed storage costs.
  • Saving costs by freeing elastic IPs,  AWS charges for elastic IPs when they’re not in use.
  • Use of multiple Availability Zones, these Zones distribute workload across multiple data centers within a given region, to minimize any possible outage.

{ 1 comment }

solar_system
Photo by Royalty-free image collection

With ChronoZoom anyone from their web browsers can explore the entirety of cosmic history. By clicking different epochs we can learn about events that have occurred throughout history and subsequently until today.  Curious about the formation of the earth? Jump into the “Earth and Solar System” section to watch historian David Christian insight.

This project was built using the new technology of Microsoft’s  Azure and HTML5, as a result it’s fast and sufficient adaptable for viewing using an iPad or Android device for convenient interaction and learn the vast library of past developments.

The ChronoZoom project is the brainchild of Professor Walter Alvarez and a former student of his named Roland Saekow.  Alvarez is perhaps best known for working with his father to put forth the theory that dinosaurs were eradicated 65 million years ago because of a massive asteroid strike, but his path crossed with Saekow’s while he was teaching a course called Big History at UC Berkeley.

ChronoZoom is an innovative tool which is still in beta.

{ 0 comments }

Cloud Computing Basics for Business

December 6, 2011

Here is given a brief introduction to cloud computing, as it consists of delivering services via the world wide web. Business users are capable of accessing resources and services from a variety of providers. Businesses are able to have a dynamic resource allocation into their IT infrastructure on a usage capacity on-demand, as a result [...]

Read the full article →

New Weekly TV Show

July 31, 2011

A new show is being started by YODspica TV. The show will go live sometime in September or October, it will include speacial guests, reviews on latest technology, social media tools and business interviews with discussions about Wales as a place to do business. Furthermore, it will be a new way of promoting local talent [...]

Read the full article →