Is 99.999% reliability good enough?

Firebrand Announces 2017 Accelerated CloudMASTER® Dates

By G C Network | December 23, 2016

Firebrand, the leader in Accelerated Learning, has recently announced it’s 2017 delivery schedule for their accelerated CloudMASTER® training course. Delivered in partnership with Logical Operations and the NCTA, this unique…

TAP Accelerates Artificial Intelligence

By G C Network | December 21, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock Over the past few years, the use of artificial intelligence has expanded more rapidly than many of us could have imagined. While this may invoke fear and…

Cognitive on Cloud

By G C Network | December 20, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock According to the IBM Institute for Business Value the market will see a rapid adoption of initial cognitive systems. The most likely candidates have moved beyond descriptive…

Europe: NCTA CloudMASTER® Hotspot

By G C Network | November 29, 2016

The ongoing digital transformation continues to generate a steady demand for workers with increasingly sophisticated digital skills. This process is multi-dimensional and workers with these highly specialized skills are very…

Smart Manufacturing Is Cloud Computing

By G C Network | November 27, 2016

As cloud computing simultaneously transforms multiple industries many have wondered about how this trend will affect manufacturing. Often characterized as “staid”, this vertical is not often cited when leading edge…

George Youmans, Jr.: The CloudMASTER Fashionista!

By G C Network | November 23, 2016

So how could a NCTA Certified CloudMASTER accelerate his career in the fashion industry? To answer that question, you would need to catch up with George Youmans, Jr. He has…

Is Cloud Interoperability a Myth?

By G C Network | November 20, 2016

Photo credit: Shutterstock As the industry matures, cloud computing will increasingly rely on interoperability in order to grow and deliver more value to industry. Assuming this is a fact, what…

Should Data Centers Think?

By G C Network | November 10, 2016

As cloud computing becomes the information technology mainstream, data center technology is accelerating at a breakneck speed. Concepts like software define infrastructure, data center analytics and Nonvolatile Memory Express (NVMe)…

For Top Cyber Threats, Look in the Mirror

By G C Network | October 31, 2016

A recent report by Praetorian, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Austin, TX, focused on threats that resulted in data compromise or access to sensitive information. Based on a review of…

Your Choice: Cloud Technician or Digital Transformer

By G C Network | October 28, 2016

The CompTIA Cloud+certification validates the skills and expertise of IT practitioners in implementing and maintaining cloud technologies.  This is exactly what it takes to become a good cloud technician.  In…

According to Reuven Cohen in his recent post, Cloud Failure: The Myth of Nines , the whole concept of reliability may be meaningless.

“In the case of a physical failure such as Flexiscales recent one, the hardware downtime might be small, but the time to restore from a backup might be considerably longer. A minor cloud failure could cause a cascading series of software failures causing further application outage of hours or even days for those who depended on the availability of the given cloud. Meaning your cloud may achive five nines, but your application hosted on it doesn’t.”

I agree. When dealing with a system of systems, like the cloud, component and function SLA’s are meaningless. The cloud architect must brush up on their Bayesian probability theory, plan for failure and ensure that no matter what happens, the users can complete whatever workflow is requested.

“One of the major benefits to using cloud computing is that you can make these types of failover assumptions well before they happen using an emerging global toolset of cloud components. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when, when you take into consideration that application components will fail then you can build an application that features “failure as service”. One that is always available, one with Zero Nines. “

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G C Network