Cloud Automation: Even Cattle Need Care

August 6, 2014 Off By David

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Scott S. Lowe.

Managing virtual machines in the cloud doesn’t mean interpreting the pets vs. cattle meme literally. It requires automating systems and processes to care for the herd. In the cloud world, the "pets vs. cattle" meme is everywhere. It’s almost universally used as the means to differentiate cloud implementations from so-called traditional virtualization environments. For those who aren’t familiar with this analogy, here’s the short version:

In traditional virtualization, VMs are like pets. Administrators give them unique names and care for them if they get "sick." In other words, administrators or application owners get attached to their VMs. In cloud environments, instances are like cattle. They are given generic names like instance-048, and they are a dime a dozen. If an instance gets "sick," then you just shoot it in the head (destroy the instance and spin up a new one). In other words, instances are disposable and replaceable, so don’t get attached…

Unfortunately, some nuance is lost when a discussion is boiled down to this sort of "black or white" comparison. In particular, I think many people tend to focus on the care aspect — do I care for my VM or shoot my instance in the head and spin up a new one? Focusing on this aspect of the theme tends to cause organizations to question the need for any sort of maintenance on their workloads. After all, if it gets sick, we just destroy the VM and spin up a new one, right?..

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-infrastructure/cloud-automation-even-cattle-need-care/a/d-id/1297800?_mc=RSS_NWC_EDT