It’s National Pet Month 2015: Is There a Difference Between Pets and Cattle?

Posted by Billy Law-Bregan


Cow

April is national pet month in the U.K.—a time to promote responsible ownership. But, do cattle count as pets?

I’m pretty sure you’ve heard the “Pets and Cattle” analogy before. But, do you know what the differences are between Pets and Cattle? Well, if you are unsure about the analogy, let me enlighten you.

Cloud computing is still in its infancy. So far, we’ve only unlocked a fraction of its potential. Yet, how to put cloud infrastructure to work is still lagging behind. Much of this is down to how IT professionals approach the cloud. In the past, IT professionals understood that servers or data centres limited the running of applications. Then, along came virtual machines.

Virtual machines were a revelation for this generation. They provided flexibility and portability that physical machines didn’t allow. Yet, the administration of the VMs was still modelled on the physical machine mentality. This mentality has severely limited potential cloud growth and development

This is where the Pets and Cattle analogy comes in:

❯ Pets are the traditional VMs.
Each pet has a name. They are expensive. You pay close attention to them for years. When they’re not well, you take them to the vet to help them get better.

❯ You treat Cattle differently.

You’ve got too many to name, so you give them numbers. You put them in a field and watch them from afar and you don’t expect them to live long. When they get sick, you shoot them. If your herd requires it, you replace anything you’ve killed.

So, what is this analogy saying to you? Well, it’s quite simple, really. In essence, it is saying that in order to get the most from your cloud infrastructure, you should be herding cattle and looking after fewer pets.

Is it time to make the Mooove?

What do you think about the Pets and Cattle analogy? Do you think it’s a bit more complicated than we make it out to be? Let us know, leave a comment below! :)

The Third Nottingham AWS Meet Up is Nearly Here.

Posted by Billy Law-Bregan

 

Only 7 days left until the third Nottingham AWS Meetup. Don’t miss out. Sign up now.

When?

Monday, 20th April 2015.

Where?

Antenna Media Centre, Beck Street, Nottingham, NG1 1EQ.

What time?

18.30 – 20.00.

Why?

Chris Davidson, Operations Technical Lead at Reconnix, will talk about how Reconnix used AWS to create a cost-effective, hot standby solution for a client’s website. Taking the client from nothing to a full website in less than 10 minutes using CloudFormation.

The talk will also include a live failover of www.reconnix.com!

We’re also lucky to have a guest speaker: Steve Bowman. Steve is an experienced software developer with over 13 years commercial software development experience. He also runs the Amazon Web Services User Group for Hull & East Yorkshire.

Steve will give an overview of the AWS Lambda service which is currently in preview. This looks like a really exciting new service with all sorts of interesting possible uses.

There will be an introduction to what Lambda can do. How it works, and what it costs. This will also include some examples and demos of how you actually write a Lambda Function.

Remember, if you know someone that might be interested in attending, sign them up and bring them along.

All in all, it’s going to be a great night. Sign up now and make it AWeSome.

Tell us why you’re interested in Amazon Web Services, leave a comment below.

The R.I.S.E. of the Arduino.

Posted by Billy Law-Bregan

Well, Arduino Day went down a storm. Countries all over the world took part in the celebrations.

There were some fantastic creations being showcased and innovative ways of celebrating Arduino Day, from talent labs in Italy and Croatia, to lectures and workshops in Brazil and Syria, and a whole host of things in between.

Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe and David Mellis, core members of the Arduino Team, sent a message to the whole community from the celebration taking place at MIT in Boston:

However, don’t be fooled in to thinking that playing and creating with the Arduino was reserved just for Arduino day. No, people are coming up with some fantastic ideas based on the Arduino all the time. For example, how about this: An Apple ][ Emulator on an Arduino Uno! Or this, an Arduino-powered turntable that plays the phases of the moon.

Here at Reconnix, the R.I.S.E. teams have been busy with their own Arduino projects.

This is the penultimate week for our teams. The teams have been busy finalising their projects. You can definitely tell that the deadline is closing in fast because the teams have been extra secretive, taking precautions not to reveal any ideas that they have created with their Arduino starter kit.

Next Friday is when all will be revealed. The teams will have to down tools and present their creations. Tune in next week to find out what our teams created, and which team won…

Have you created something with the Arduino? Let us know in the comments section below.