Practical Technology

for practical people.

August 1, 2013
by sjvn01
0 comments

Chef: Cooking up great cloud servers

If you really want to make the most of a cloud, you need cloud configuration management software such as Puppet,  Ansible, or Chef. With these, instead of your system operators sweating over management programs meant for single, standalone servers, they can spin off dozens or hundreds of server instances in less time than it will take you to read this article.

I’ve already talked about Puppet, perhaps the most popular of these development/operators (DevOps) tools. Chef may not have quite as many fans, but with companies such as Facebook, Ancestry.com, and big data powerhouse Splunk using it, by anyone’s reckoning, Chef is is a serious DevOps program.
Chef: Cooking up great cloud servers. More >

August 1, 2013
by sjvn01
0 comments

The trouble with VDI

When I wear my IT hat, I like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). With it you can easily and securely deploy complete desktops from servers to your users. Well, in theory, I like it. In practice, it’s often another matter.

I was reminded of why VDI drives me crazy at times in an excellent review of VDI programs by Tom Henderson and Lars Johnson. They found multiple problems that I’ve gotten to know all too well over the years.

The trouble with VDI. More >

July 31, 2013
by sjvn01
0 comments

Using Open Source Methods in a Private Company

Let’s say your business doesn’t have one bit of interest in sharing its internal code with the outside world. Does that mean that open source methods of programming can’t do you any good? Camille Fournier, Director of Engineering for retailer Rent the Runway, Apache ZooKeeper committer, and former Goldman Sachs VP, believes adopting open source software development methods can help even your organization.

At OSCon, the major open source convention in Portland, OR, Fournier opened her session, “Internal Open Source: Running internal projects with open source methods,” by observing that while “open source software is everywhere,” not all companies have adopted it.

“Most companies, big and small, have some code that is shared by many but owned by few. It may be in the form of useful libraries for common tasks like logging and configuration. It may be in the form of internal services that cross business functions,” she said. “Managing these libraries and services often falls onto the teams that originally created them, or on a core tech team that owns all shared software. This model has many drawbacks: slow changes, a lack of transparency for users, and a tendency to cause bottlenecks for other developers.”

Using Open Source Methods in a Private Company. More >

July 29, 2013
by sjvn01
0 comments

Big data, metadata, and traffic analysis: What the NSA is really doing

What I find most remarkable about all the hubbub about the National Security Agency’s Prism program is how little new “news” there is to Edward Snowden’s “revelations.”

After all, the NSA’s mission has been to intercept communications and break codes ever since it was founded in 1952. Combine that with the Patriot Act, and anyone who’s bothered to read the books of NSA expert James Bamford over the last few years won’t find anything in the least bit surprising about Prism.

It’s possible, of course, that the NSA is doing something technically interesting, like intercepting and breaking SSL-protected Internet communications. But the NSA doesn’t have to bother with deciphering your PGP-protected love notes to your sweetie to know what you’re up to. No, they can combine their age old techniques of working with metadata and traffic analysis with 21st century big data analysis to have a darn good idea of what you, along with everyone else, are doing.

It’s not just the NSA, though. Big Internet businesses have been using the same techniques to deliver customized Web experiences to you for almost twenty years.

Big data, metadata, and traffic analysis: What the NSA is really doing. More >