Many companies today make use of a MySQL database as an integral part of their business operations.  Yet, these same companies do not utilize a simple, but powerful feature of MySQL: database replication.  We see clients avoiding the use of replication all too often, and it’s worth understanding that setting up MySQL replication isn’t all that complicated. (more…)

Even though Cloud Computing has been around for several years, 2013 is shaping up to be the “Year of the Cloud”. Not unlike the periods when we experienced the emergence of PC’s, network operating systems, data mining tools and of course the Internet. Each technology paradigm shift comes with a “Getting to know” period when standards are not yet established and understanding what it means to my business is not all that clear. With Cloud Computing, organizations we knew as software or consulting companies are suddenly cloud companies. Marketing departments have incorporated the cloud verbiage into their advertising and promotional materials. Whether this makes them a legitimate cloud service provider depends on the company’s ability to create a business value to license their software or provide services that are secure, reliable, cost effective or have an ROI.

When trying to understand cloud computing, the good news is that not all things have changed. If you pull back the curtains, cloud computing leverages hardware, software, databases, security/disaster recovery tools & methodologies that are used inside company firewalls. However, there’s also a trend to take advantage of commodity hardware that clouds tend to be built upon and architect *entirely* differently. This will be transparent to the customer.

What has changed is the where your business applications are executed, stored, managed from and by whom. Cloud computing gives customers choices to be private, public or hybrid. There is no “Best” choice. Finding the platform that fits your company is best accomplished through performing an assessment of your business applications processes and constraints.

This period is a great opportunity for companies to take a look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of their technology assets. They can then identify candidates for Cloud Computing Assessments.

The criteria can be many. A platform may be nearing the end of a lease. You have to decide whether to renew. Looking at a Cloud alternative is a great way to inventory your processes, procedures and cost. Systems going through growth can be considered as cloud candidates. It becomes increasingly hard to manage growth while allocating resources in a timely manner. Cloud computing takes care of this.

Security is the biggest flag raised when it come to cloud computing. The tools, rules and guidelines that are in place inside the company firewall are the same in the cloud. Companies will have to define the levels of security they want in place. For companies that are sensitive to releasing control of their credentials or access points, they can choose to control that portion of the platform. With all the raised awareness of security threats, it’s a good time to review and design your security framework.

We are learning some “Cloud Lessons” from the early adopters. Refinements will be made through continuous improvement initiatives that will yield some best practices.

To determine if you are a SasS, PaaS, IaaS, Private, Public or Hybrid, you just need to pick an application or business requirement that needs attention and get an assessment. Isn’t this the way we’ve always done it?

Let Bitlancer help you Engineer for the Cloud with our FREE Engineering in the Cloud guide.

Are you more likely to take the toll road when you have EZ-Pass or Fast Lane?  Are you more likely to splurge on that steak dinner when you’ve got the plastic credit card to pay with instead of hard-earned cash?  Cloud computing is the credit card of the 21st Century — on demand resources, on demand gratification, and worst of all, on demand spending.  Typically and traditionally, when companies run their own data center, or manage co-located hardware, they are much more sensitive to changes and new expenses.  While cloud computing helps to reduce the overhead involved with upfront expenses and waiting for new hardware to be delivered and deployed, the on-demand aspect of cloud computing can sometimes cause a “Wild Wild West” effect — lots of spending, fairly little auditing, and very little cost control. (more…)

Some of our clients have asked us recently for an overview of our MySQL health check service.  I wanted to take some time and summarize the MySQL health check service and some of the steps we take.

Bitlancer health checks are a monthly review of one or more MySQL servers in a customer’s environment.  We have a large checklist that covers many critical installation and configuration issues, along with other less critical issues that can potentially cause problems down the road.  We look for low-hanging fruit and perform a detailed investigation of potential optimizations, needed performance tuning, and long-term planning strategies.  We generate detailed reports of immediately actionable items and impending future problems.  For recurring MySQL health checks, reports are delivered monthly with comparisons from previous months to outline growth and possible upcoming bottlenecks.  Our health checks can prevent costly, unexpected server maintenances and the need for disaster recovery by finding problems ahead of time.  With verification of proper backups, we can help prevent downtime, data loss, and respective recovery costs. If you’re looking to supplement your in-house MySQL talent, or you lack in-house MySQL expertise, our MySQL health check would likely beneficial to you.  Find out for free if our health check services are right for you. (more…)

The argument for building a custom website has become increasingly hard to make, given the ever-expanding flexibility and functionality of WordPress.  Now, for a software company or a company whose product itself is a website with unique functionality, then building a custom website may still be the easier and more cost-effective way to approach the project.  For any business which does not fall into that category, WordPress almost certainly saves substantial time and money.  Additionally, each plug-in can be easily managed through the WordPress dashboard, the ease of which cannot be understated.  Blogging with WordPress requires little elaboration, but here are some notable functions that have become very simple and effective: (more…)