Cloud business model more valuable than functionality?

From Dark Star VP Rob Tholemeier:

"By implementing cloud computing technologies, your company can generate cost-effective, repeatable services.

The really big thing about the cloud is not 'cloud computing technologies' but the cloud computing BUSINESS MODEL.

The latter reduces costs for the consumers (IT spending) and reduces revenue and profits for the vendors (IBM).

IBM is NOT pushing cloud computing any more than Microsoft is.  It would be stupid for them to do it as it's antithetical to their hardware business.

At some point in the future, we will look back on the quaint period when businesses actually bought computers and owned and ran data centers."

The Mainframe Oasis

We are finding day by day that the only secure platform for digital business is the good ol' dusty powerhouse of mainframe computing.

From computerworld.com

Unpatched Apache flaw allows access to internal network

Security researcher reveals how to bypass older patch for an Apache reverse proxy vulnerability

By Lucian Constantin

November 25, 2011 08:43 AM ET

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IDG News Service - A yet-to-be-patched flaw discovered in the Apache HTTP server allows attackers to access protected resources on internal networks if some rewrite rules are not defined properly.

The vulnerability affects Apache installations that operate in reverse proxy mode, a type of configuration used for load balancing, caching and other operations that involve the distribution of resources over multiple servers.

In order to set up Apache HTTPD to run as a reverse proxy, server administrators use specialized modules like mod_proxy and mod_rewrite.

Security researchers from Qualys warn that if certain rules are not configured correctly, attackers can trick servers into performing unauthorized requests to access internal resources.

The problem isn't new and a vulnerability that allowed similar attacks was addressed back in October. However, while reviewing the patch for it, Qualys researcher Prutha Parikh realized that it can be bypassed due to a bug in the procedure for URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme stripping. The scheme is the URI part that comes before the colon ":" character, such as http, ftp or file.

One relatively common rewrite and proxying rule is "^(.*) http://internal_host$1", which redirects the request to the machine internal_host.  However, if this is used and the server receives, for example, a request for "host::port" (with two colons), the "host:" part is stripped and the rest is appended to http://internal_host in order to forward it internally.

The problem is that in this case, the remaining part is ":port", therefore transforming the forwarded request into http://internal_host:port, an unintended behavior that can result in the exposure of a protected resource.

In order to mitigate the problem server administrators should add a forward slash before $1 in the rewrite rule, the correct form being "^(.*) http://internal_host/$1", Parikh said.

The Apache developers are aware of the problem and are currently discussing the best method of fixing it.  One possibility would be to strengthen the previous patch in the server code in order to reject such requests, however, there's no certainty that other bypass methods won't be discovered.

"We could try improve that fix, but I think it would be simpler to change the translate_name hooks in mod_proxy and mod_rewrite to enforce the requirement in the 'right' place," said Red Hat senior software engineer Joe Orton on the Apache dev mailing list.  Orton proposed a patch that is currently being reviewed by the other developers.

Mainframe is a cloud

There continue to be a multitude of issues with cloud computing solutions on platforms other than mainframes.  Security breaches, significant losses of data and downtime are just several of the issues that continue to plague these solutions.

So why has there not been a faster push to mainframe cloud computing?  It's not the new thing - it's not exciting.  No, but it works.

A Computerworld article from March of this year really hit home and continues to be spot on.

"Mention cloud computing to a mainframe professional, and he's likely to roll his eyes. Cloud is just a new name -- and a lot of hype -- for what mainframes have done for years, he'll say."

Everything old is new again.  Through the years, we have enhanced that which has always worked, put more current labeling and packaging on it, and had it continue to work.  Mainframe cloud computing is no different.

According to Jon Toigh, CEO of  Toigo Partners International, "A mainframe is a cloud."  Toigo, defines a cloud as a resource that can be dynamically provisioned -- that is, allocated and de-allocated on demand -- and made available within a company with security and good management controls, "then all of that exists already in a mainframe," he says.


Judith Hurwitz, President And CEO, Hurwitz & Associates states: "The mainframe platform has scalability and partitioning built in at its core."


Marist College is a poster child for IBM mainframes.  The college also runs other applications on an IBM P-Series midrange computer and IBM blades as well. But the mainframes are "the real engine," says Bill Thirsk, Marist's vice president of information technology and CIO.


Marist is getting big cost benefits from virtualizing on the mainframe. The college avoids purchasing extra server hardware, plus it saves on space, power and IT staff to manage the data center. It not only avoids having to pay extra for each application it adds to the mainframe, but also benefits from increased utilization of the mainframe, resulting in a very good return on assets, says Thirsk. He calls Marist's setup a cloud.


Marist's cloud is starting to get some attention. "Four years ago, when I started talking about this, everybody looked at me like I was crazy," Thirsk says, but as the years have passed, others have taken an interest in Marist's computing environment. He notes that he has hosted lots of visitors eager to learn what the college is doing, including representatives from 21 companies and several universities last year. "We're talking to a college in the Middle East that has over 200,000 students," he says. "There's only one way to meet that load -- with a mainframe."

Approval rating of congress

If you want a little laugh watch this clip until paris hilton is mentioned.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#45297659

Thanks Arron for the contribution Aivars Lode

GE invests $1B in "industrial internet"

Until they put a mainframe in the cloud, can they really make that claim?

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SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) – General Electric, a maker of power plants, jet engines and medical imaging equipment, said Thursday that it is investing $1 billion in a new software headquarters in Silicon Valley.

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The company plans to hire 400 software-related staffers to develop what it calls the "Industrial Internet." The headquarters will be in San Ramon, about a half-hour drive east of Oakland, in leased space at the Bishop Ranch office complex.

The Fairfield, Conn.-based industrial giant is hoping to attract technology experts who live in the so-called East Bay region of the greater San Francisco area, but may not like the long commute to the South Bay, which is home to leading technology companies such as Google(GOOG), Apple (APPL) and Intel (INTC).

GE (GE), which has 300,000 employees around the world, already has 5,000 software workers. The new center will focus on innovating software that runs increasingly intelligent machines and equipment.

"It's equipment being connected onto a network and the ability to gather that information, analyze it and act upon it," Bill Ruh, a GE vice president who is leading the initiative, said in an interview. "That's what we think of as the Industrial Internet."

GE has hired 50 workers already and plans to add another 350 over the next 18 months, Ruh said.

Mainframes to run Windows in December

From COMPUTERWORLD.CO.NZ
BY PATRICK THIBODEAU | FRAMINGHAM | MONDAY, 7 NOVEMBER, 2011

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IBM mainframes are on the verge of managing Windows applications, crossing one of the last big system divides in data centers.

IBM, which had previously announced its intent to deliver this capability as part of its zEnterprise 196 mainframe , said the Windows management function will become available on Dec. 16.

The need for the new capability has been sought in data centers -- there are many Windows-based applications, including many made by IBM, that interact with mainframes to access data. Such applications must now be managed separately.

IBM said the new support for Windows will boost the security and speed of mainframe-based corporate environments. It will provide users with the ability to connect systems on a private network, to avoid other network hops, and to have integrated management.

Greg Lotko, business line executive of IBM's System z Division, said the addition of Windows support "is really recognizing that the world is heterogeneous." The System z platform now supports z/OS, Linux, Unix and Windows, he added.

Joe Clabby, an analyst at Clabby Analytics, sees benefits for users.

System z is known for its ability to run transaction and batch workloads, while Linux is good for Java workloads. But the other thing that System z does is extend its governance out to the zBX blades "and that makes it easier to integrate and work with that data."

Clabby said combined management capabilities will reduce the labor required to run mainframe environments with multiple operating systems. "If you can manage this as a single architecture, it saves money," he said.

Jean Bozman, an analyst at IDC, said Windows support will allow for very fast connections between the Windows apps and the mainframe. "You will get faster performance and end-to-end management," she said.

Bozman said IBM's decision to provide Windows support confirms IBM's view that the distributed and mainframe worlds are becoming closer.

Patrick Thibodeau covers SaaS and enterprise applications, outsourcing, government IT policies, data centers and IT workforce issues for Computerworld. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @DCgov , or subscribe to Patrick's RSS feed . His e-mail address ispthibodeau@computerworld.com .

Read more about mainframes and supercomputers in Computerworld's Mainframes and Supercomputers Topic Center.