In cloud you do things cloud’s way

In cloud you do things cloud’s way

Lately Amazon, AWS approached us to do a proof-of-concept (POC) on their cloud platform to validate if it is good enough to host an enterprise applications. And I am delighted that this POC on Amazon, AWS has scraped many of our if and but’s about cloud.

To brief about POC, we chose ResutSpace3 as an application to be tested on AWS. And the selection of RS3 was simply for the reason, that we (ISST) hold good experience around its architecture, functionality and infrastructure. In addition, the enterprise class multi-tier architecture with stringent non-functional requirements such as high availability, performance, DR, etc. made it a super fit.

Some of the highlights and our experience about AWS

1. The architecture portability from the way it’s currently implemented in Physical infrastructure to cloud infrastructure was easy and smooth. Almost all dedicated components such as Firewall, LB were easily replaced by virtualised components on AWS platform except storage, where we need do some tweaking
2. In less than weeks’ time, entire public infrastructure was up and running. [Important to mention that we had implemented a primary site (US) and DR site (Singapore) on public cloud]
3. The results of all these tests we ran were equally good, and at instance even better. However we couldn’t run comparative performance tests, because testing on live wasn’t allowed for comparisons.
4. And this entire 5 week of POC was done with-in the credit of USD 500 provided by Amazon excluding our efforts.

This implementation has invalidated many of our assumptions that cloud is not feasible for complex architecture implementations. For e.g.
1. Concept of storage or shared storage required to implement a cluster be it a web, application or DB cluster.
2. Storage requirement of single volumes or multiple volumes (in terabytes)
3. Online backups and restore
4. Security controls, logical segmentation of devices etc.

And, finally the important lesson we learned, in cloud you do things cloud way. Architecture on cloud is something needs to be drawn from scratch and not to do a pure one to one mapping.

At times during implementation we felt that there are caveats in cloud, but then we got the answers and ways to resolve it. Our whitepaper is yet to be published by AWS, but this whole activity has given us lots of confidence and knowledge of cloud.

Manpreet

IPractice Team Event 19th May 2011 | “Jim Corbett National Park”

IPractice Team Event | “Jim Corbett National Park”

For a long time, iPractice had planned for an overnight team event, but due to some reasons this idea never saw light. Well, this time with more enthusiastic people on board, leadership agreed for an overnight team event. And after detailed consideration of choices (dehradun,jim corbett, Kanatal etc.), Jim Corbett came out to be the best fit. Our organisers had a tough challenge in hand to arrange logistics and ensure maximum participation, beling this an out of station trip.

As planned, we started from Sapient CG office on Thursday night. The active participation started reflecting even before people got in the bus, in form of stashing away the bottles for the journey, which eventually put us 45 minutes past the schedule. After going through a few more pickup points like Akshardham, Patparganj and Indrapuram Shipra mall on our way to Jim Corbett, it was almost midnight by the time our bus was capacity packed and brimming with enthusiasm of the iPractice team. The total distance of Jim Corbett from Sapient Gurgaon office is approximately 350 KM and our schedule time to reach at destination was 07:00 AM (Friday).

The Delhi Volvo Bus

Our Organisers had hired a bus, popularly known as Delhi Volvo bus, which it actually isn’t, but the bus in no means is less than a Volvo bus, if not more. Soon the air conditioner converted the bus into a virtual icebox, and as planned, our team had an effective counter solution to it in form of Tuborg beer cans. The beer started to flow and so did songs, a session of Antakshri came into being and ran for about 2 & half hours. The songs sung in the Antakshari session were altered down by people as per their convenience, opposite team would pick up their song from any letter in the last song, which resulted in a crazy jugalbandi and loud laughters. Especially the over energetic Rishi Tiwari sung from wherever he loves to and it was difficult to hold him back (blame it on the booze). Rohit sang all home cooked and did good fusion of different songs, we gave him name of famous Band-Baje-Wala. No side won in the Antakshri, In the meantime bus reached at first milestone (“Tadka”).

Tadka is a good Punjabi restaurant after Gajjrola city. The crowd at Tadka seemed like a bus full of urbane Delhi party goers had lost their way and landed up at this quaint dhaba. Pretty girls with low waist jeans and guys with hair plaits was a funny misfit considering the environment of the dhaba. Anyway we had yummy Aloo and paneer pranthas with tea, and journey resumed after a break of about 40-45 minutes. Around, 4 O’Clock, lights went off and most folks went to sleep for rest of the hours, except Bhullar, clicking pictures of snoring one’s. Stinking pair of socks made few one’s sleepless, I heard Wasim yelling about foul smell. We are yet to discover the owner for the same

Infinity Resort

Infinity resort is beautiful private property, full of mango trees spread across 4 or 5 acres of land on the bank of KOSI River with lush green trees all over. There are around 40 rooms with all modern facilities, and magnificent view of river, mountains from balcony. River view definitely is far better if you plan to come post monsoon season. People from different track were put together in every room to induce the openness & interaction. Post check-in, bunch of folks including me couldn’t resist jumping into the pool, and splashed the water as much as we could. Manish arrived in best costume (Jazzy cap, goggles etc.) ended up struggling in shallow water.

Abhishek (4) let everyone know the schedule of breakfast, lunch & dinner. And in next 30 minutes, everyone showed up in resort’s only restaurant though quiet large and has open terrace towards river side. It was a buffet, mix of continental and Indian breakfast, people were understandably hungry which added to the already delicious taste of the food and I am sure everyone enjoyed & stuffed first meal of the day.

Anuj readout the itinerary of activities planned for rest of the day. The entire group was divided in to 4 teams to perform team building activities.

“Treasure Hunt” – This outdoor activity was organised by resort people. As all teams comes together in open ground, separate questionnaire were handed over to each time to answer, along with a target to find maximum hidden eggs. Finding small eggs in the rugged terrain of the large area turned out to be an excruciating search, with people probing the wild weeds with wooden sticks and walking till the banks of KOSI for search of their lucky egg. Team 3 found the most eggs and were closest to answer the questionnaire correctly.

“Tug of the war” – This was the most exhaustive activity, and left good scars of hard work on everyone’s hands or at least for those who made effort to stretch real hard. Team 1 were undoubted winner, they not only exhibit power and co-ordination but shown enough courage to fight three games back to back, many thanks to referee, Anuj Khanna for his wrong decision.

The outdoor activities and scorching heat brought the energy level bit down and next activity (i.e. cricket) was postponed for later. In the meantime folks enjoyed playing cards in their room having another round of Tuborg. Couple of folks, I’ll refrain myself to reveal names; prefer to go for nap. Seems, last night’s outage of RS2 didn’t let them sleep well. We had lunch around 02:00PM and thereafter Anuj & Abhishek called everyone to gather in a large indoor hall for next round of activities. Everyone came down except Deepak, because he couldn’t go against the wish of a nap especially after heavy lunch. Few more guys were towed down to indoor activities, and one of them was Manish. Though he remained half-awake most of the time and his eyes continuously blinked like some traffic signal light.

“Balloon Tower” – This exercise was about building a tower of inflated balloon. A packet of balloon and cello-tape were given to each team. Team 4 showed a creative piece of work and erected tallest tower of balloons. Perhaps controversy erupted because; structure didn’t look like a tower, instead some plant hanging from ceiling. Though verdict is contentious, they still be called winner by Anuj& Abhishek.

“Skit Play” – Each team has been given a different act to play and it was judged by Wasim& Siba. Act of “Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani” played by Team 3 was the most hilarious and won maximum applaud. Rishi Tiwari did an impressive role of “karam jali bahu” with a makeshift sari tied around him, which kept on falling off even after much effort and roused loud laughter and hoots from the crowd. Seems like a regular client of daily soap opera, but the goofs making him inappropriate for the family audience!

Tea session was called out!

While Wasim, Manish, Siba & I stayed back in rooms, few folks went out to play cricket and some were spotted on riverside clicking pictures. Details of the cricket sessions weren’t captured, I guess the game didn’t last enough to finish, someone ran away with either bat or ball. Bhullar didn’t miss the opportunity to get massage in Wild SPA of the resort for barely 1100/-, the retail price was 2500/-, all credit to his negotiation sills! Some team members enjoyed staying in the pool till late evening.

“DJ Night” - iPractice rocked the floor on the beats of Bollywood Indian music. Ashish Gupta’s UP style “Kurta Pyjama” and dancing skills was unmatched. Deepak Khanna looked amazingly fresh and did some steps of Adnan Sami. Bhullar, all-time favorite of ISST didn’t left the floor even for one minute. Wasim learned some Bhangra steps too, although he swiftly blended them in his Luckhnowi style. It was indeed a great-great time and fun on the floor, many other danced on the floor holding cans & bottles.

Famous saying "You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on", I didn’t found anyone holding the floor. We expect better performance next time :-)

The team also had a birthday cake, no one was sure the reason of its existence but everyone managed to gorge on the delicious treat and the dance resumed.

Dinner was served in the same buffet style at resort’s restaurant till mid night. Team enjoyed the food and had multiple rounds of sweet-dish.

The next biggest activity was jungle safari, planned for early morning (06:00 a.m.). I found people really enthusiastic to go and click pictures of wild animals with their indigenous gear of digital SLR’s, cyber- shots cameras and tripods etc. Let’s see what happen there too.

“Jungle Safari” – Siba’s phone kept on ringing till it died and rang again, and this time it was mine. “Wasim yelled to wake up and get ready for Safari”. While I had different plans, I asked Siba to get ready, which he managed to do so in next 60 minutes. I believe they all left for Jungle Safari around 06:00. I slept for another couple hours and enjoyed the great weather sitting in the balcony of my room. They were back around 09:00, remorse was well shown; they didn’t come across any wild animal, except a dog, which are anyways found in abundance in Gurgaon, and few odd deer barely visible through the thick bushes. The only tiger people saw was on resort’s banners and the Corbett promotional, tees; however they did click pictures of footprints of a tiger which they were not convinced of either. Some said it’s a bluff, nobody knows the truth except the tiger

In the absence of wild animals, what team really enjoyed was the great weather. It was windy and cloudy morning with drizzle and adds to it is a long ride in open jeep. Pictures of safari were awesome, thanks to our photographers Wasim and Shariq.

On return from Safari, team had a breakfast and packed their bag packs. Time has come to say good bye to the beautiful place, I wish if we could have stay longer. In the meantime, Anuj & Wasim settled the payments with resort guys.

Team had about half an hour of shopping extravaganza at some local shop, and people bought tees and other souvenirs with a tiger & Jim Corbett printed on it.

The trip back to Delhi was as equally enjoyable; prolonged feedback session by Wasim, which made people sleep but his periodic anecdotes got people laughing and applauding too, as everybody say that [think twice, before giving microphone to Wasim] and overall general “GUP SHUP” was indeed good fun.

Bus stopped for lunch at some dhaba named “Sughandh”. It was a lucky day for the owner when we consumed almost al this ration for the day. Entire cutlery comes out to feed us, 39 orders of Chach, tandoor wala sweated to deliver166 tandoori roti in 30 minutes. The food tasted best that we ever had it could be the influence of our gastric juice which was longing for food for last 6 hours. I would recommend this over Talka (minus the beautiful crowd) as it was hygienic, simple, and efficient. Post lunch, joke and comic sessions breaked-out. Jokes and stand-up comedy by Himanshu, Pavan, Bhullar & Ashish’s, really made people tumbled from their seats…real ahhh moments.

We were safe and steady back home, exactly after 48 hours of team event.Being the first overnight trip, it had huge challenges in-terms of arrangement for logistics, participation, motivation, coordination, food/drinks, activities and safety etc. Beside the participation by all, the core credit for the success of this event goes to our oragnisers who went extra mile and work untiringly to make it possible.

Big thanks to our organiser –

1. Anuj Khanna (Planning, Procurement, accommodation, food, drinks, activities, finance)
2. Abhishek Singh (Planning, Backup & Standby Strategy, coordination, activities)
3. Sachin Khanna (Budget)
4. Amit Bhardwaj (Transport arrangements)
5. Mohammad Wasim (Photography & Leadership)
6. Shariq Iqbal (Photography)
   
   PS: Sincere apologies, if I missed anyone above)

Corporate Summit at Amity University

Sapient was invited to participate in a corporate summit organized by Amity University (www.amity.edu) at Noida, India on 05^th May 2011. The purpose of the summit was to enable students and faculties to interact with industry experts and learn about emerging trends, innovations & technologies in the IT industry. The main topics discussed were - Virtualization & Cloud Computing, Digital Marketing & e-Commerce, Network & Cyber Security.

The summit kicked off with key notes from dignitaries and board members of the University. Major General K.J Singh officially opened the summit with his speech. He reiterated the valuable mission of Shri Ashok Chauhan, founder of Amity University, stating the importance of higher education and infrastructure for students to help them achieve the best in life.

The first session was on Virtualization, Cloud Computing & Storage. Speakers from SapientNitro, Microsoft, CA technologies and Scribboard shared their views with the students of the University. Sapient’s speaker Manpreet Singh Brar, gave a high level overview of Public Cloud & Cloud Computing, showcasing the benefits of virtualization. He also talked about Sapient’s private cloud offering (SapeCloud aka EnvOD). Speaker from Microsoft demonstrated highlights on Azure platform (Public Cloud) and it’s adaptability from small business to large enterprise customers.

…In the panel discussion, Manpreet emphasized on being diligent and cautious in adopting cloud, stating - “With all the benefits I talked about, does this mean to get on the cloud straight away? No. Make sure you spend time to map business requirements with technologies and understand the long term cost of ownership. Be cautious and patient in assessing technology architecture & services end to end”.

The topic covered in the second session was Digital e-Commerce, ERP and Business Intelligence. Speakers from SapientNitro, IBM education and TCS participated in the discussion. Mohammad Wasim, Director, SapientNitro presented a crusty overview of evolution of commerce in digital space and highlights of multichannel marketing & commerce (MC2). The session was hugely appreciated and applauded by all students and faculties. The audience showed willingness to know more about Sapient’s work & culture.

…Over lunch, Wasim shared his views on the purpose of the summit - "Having attended a couple of graduate institute seminars, I feel responsible to guide and mentor folks coming out of the college. Specifically on this one, technology is changing at such a drastic pace and our education system still imparts knowledge of yesteryears. There is a huge gap between what organizations expect and what fresh talents entering the industry are capable of. Because of this, there is a huge efficiency loss. Our effort and responsibility should be to enable faculty to impart relevant education".

Another speaker form Sapient, Bupesh Kaw, opened the world of Business Intelligence (BI) and how BI helps organizations to do better business.

The summit concluded with post lunch sessions on Network & Security, and Mobile Systems. Speakers from CSC Corp, HCL Comnet, Gale Networks, Inspira, GlobalLogic and Samsung India presented their views in this session.

Cloud Computing | Amaon AWS EC2 Outage

Lesson Learned from recent AWS EC2 outage on April 21st, 2011.

More complex systems are less stable. We need to build solution for failure and that exactly is the response to situation like this one. Majority of the folks who survived this outage or has minimal impacts has few commonalties to share:

1. Solution should be spread across multiple availability zones ( In literal means these are physical datacenters)

2. For mission critical application such as banking, heath care, government. Spread your solution to multiple regions, there are 5 regions in which AWS operates:

a. US East Region

b. US West Region

c. EU West Region

d. Singapore

e. Tokyo (Lately experienced the impact of Tsunami) ..

And for mission critical applications, existence of DR is must. We all know it.

3. Spread across multiple providers, you may choose to deploy solutions across multiple players for more resilience.

4. It is rather imperative that you must understand AWS thoroughly prior to deploy the solution. EBS which seems failed this time is equivalent to RAID 1/5/6/10 etc. So for mission critical applications and high availability solution, look for spot instances instead of EBS instances.

Outages of this sort are learning curve for providers, system integrator (SI's) and consumers. Cloud computing is just an tool like any other and its leverage is in our hands.

Will it happen again, I am sure it will !

Though there will be less outages as we progress on and becomes more proficient to manage our solution on public cloud.