This week we took advantage of the need to set up some of our project software to get some solid, hands-on experience working with Amazon Elastic Compute Clouds and Elastic Block Storage.
With a suitable base Amazon Machine Image selected, we created a virtual instance, then installed and configured our software.
It was amazing to see how easy it was to create resources out of thin air, and how convincing the visualization is. Once in the virtual environment, it’s practically impossible to detect any difference from working with a physical machine. These are still the early days of “computing-as-utility”, yet it’s marvelous to see how well-developed the tools and support are.
In fact, the most difficult part of the whole task had nothing to do with the virtual nature of our hardware, but is an unavoidable chore in any environment. Installing software on any server –virtual or physical– often requires the skills and knowledge of a System Administrator. Most organizations with physical hardware have already been forced to acquire such skills, but might be tempted to believe that by getting rid of their hardware, they no longer need the skilled personnel. This is certainly not the case, and System Administrators can sleep well tonight, knowing their jobs are safe.
This will be an important point to remember as our project progresses: acquiring computing resources is easy; getting them to perform some useful purpose is not.
ceswp
This is a great way to follow along with what you guys are up to.