Netflix reveals challenges in the Cloud
- 10 January, 2011 22:04
- Comments
Technology managers at video distributor Netflix Inc., which last year took a big plunge into the public cloud, have started a remarkably candid blog about their experiences with mission-critical cloud computing.
Netflix redeployed most of its customer-facing applications -- including its Web site, search, recommendations, video streaming and huge data stores -- to Amazon.com Inc.'s cloud service. It's been a "Herculean effort," wrote John Ciancutti, one of three Netflix vice presidents of engineering, in The Netflix Tech Blog ( http://techblog.netflix.com ).
One reason for moving to the cloud was the need to completely rethink IT strategy as the company's business model moved from mailing DVDs to streaming video over the Internet, he said. It made sense to have Amazon handle data center infrastructure so that Netflix engineers could focus on innovation and customer experience.
But Ciancutti acknowledged some big challenges. "There were some dark days as we struggled with the sheer size of the task we'd taken on, and some of the differences between how [Amazon's cloud] operates vs. our own data centers," he wrote.
For example, Netflix must cope with hardware failures and slow response times in the cloud, where IT resources are shared with other tenants. "Co-tenancy is hard," Ciancutti said. To address that problem, Netflix developed a software architecture that it calls "Rambo," in which each application can succeed even if related systems fail, he said.
Read more about data center in Computerworld's Data Center Topic Center.
Recommended
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
- Cloud without Fog - Getting Real Service Visibility in a Cloud Environment
- Cloud Computing for Midsize Businesses: Delivering Innovation and Efficiency
- IBM Solutions for Cloud and Virtualisation in Enterprise Environments
- How Five Hot Trends Are Shaping the Future of Business Analytics
- Open Clouds Under your Control
-
Larry Page wants to see your medical records
-
Dual-Persona Smartphones Not a BYOD Panacea
-
After two-year hiatus, EFF accepts bitcoin donations again
-
CIOs struggle to deliver timely mobile business apps: survey
-
Spiceworks' free management software gets integrated MDM
-
Maximising productivity without sacrificing security
Advances in mobility and client computing technology combined with the ubiquity of the Internet and social media are creating a culture and desire for constant connectivity and anywhere access to information. As these trends extend from the home into the work place, IT managers should consider seriously the opportunities for increased productivity and communication with customers and constituents, as well as understand the increased security risks posed by online, anytime access to private networks and data. Read more. -
Securing the Promise of Virtualisation
For today’s enterprise, this whitepaper identifies three general areas of risk associated with risk; those that are traditionally areas of risk, the hazards that are exclusive to virtualisation and the more recent set of risks that are associated with newly formed hybrid environments. Read more to find out how to keep pace with evolving threats, quicker provisioning and dynamically mobile workloads. -
Best Practice in BYOD
The key trend affecting enterprise mobility today can be summarized in four letters: BYOD – Bring Your Own Device. As the number of end-users bringing devices into your organization grows, so does the need for an effective Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution. Learn how to manage devices across multiple platforms all from a single, centralised and unified management console. Download for more!
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
