What is UCS

For a great article explaining UCS, see here: http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid80_gci1366109,00.html

Basically, UCS is:

• Computing (servers) +
• Network +
• Storage

It is all of these, often delivered in a big server rack, or even trailer. You buy a crap-ton of hardware and you can now virtualize a very large data center, network, storage, and all. Cisco has a new product coming out, carrying the same name, Cisco UCS.

Centralized vs Decentralized
The article above equates this new "architecture" as similar to the mainframe movement. Over the years, computing has seen a move from Centralized -> Decentralized -> Centralized. UCS centralizes it, giving you one vendor to call, to fix it all. This can be bad for certain customers, because you can become locked in to a vendor. It can be great for others, who just want stuff to work.

My take - Hybridize
In the move to cloud and virtual environments, I think that UCS begins to solidify and standardize the data-room back-end. This will allow more competition and easier management of large datacenters. At the same time, it can also hold back innovative and smart employees, departments, or organizations. Those looking to do new things, and to have their systems work the way *they* want them to, may want to weight their options carefully. You might pay more in overhead costs for a custom heterogeneous network and server farm, but you might get more intellectual output if you think your company is up to it. I like to take the opinion that taking from a little of many methods, a hybrid approach, can get the best of all worlds. Maybe you implement a UCS system for a small subset of purposes, while keeping your existing network. This way you could get your toes wet.

Tata for now.

Interest in cloud and virtualization

I am gaining an interest over the past few years, in cloud technologies. I work for Zenoss Inc, a systems monitoring product. Zenoss monitors cloud resources that I help support, and I have recently implemented Zenoss out in an amazon ec2 instance. Next hoping that I can use their VPC technology, a method to use a VPN-like connection to make your local enterprise network think that the cloud server is internal to your private network. That way I can get the cloudbox to monitor internal resources, yet is implemented out in the public cloud. I am starting to realize that amazons ec2 and rackspaces cloud solution are basically hosted virtualization solutions - like vmware is a private virtualization solution.

Some questions that I want to find more information on, are: What cloud, virtual, saas, iaas solutions do others use for customers or internally? Do you mostly implement saas solutions for small companies (vs not as much for large customers)? I hear that Microsoft is getting into the cloud atmosphere. I am not a huge microsoft fan, but am interested to see what they are doing. I am curious as to how cloud technologies can be more than a flash in the pan, and truly propel our society.

Jailbreak / tether iPhone while on the go

Why:
You might be on the go and wanting to go ahead and get tethering to work, or to do some exploration of the jailbreak world. I found myself in a car, with wife driving, wanting to get tethering going so I could work on my laptop. The iphone has internet, but laptop does not.

Also these instructions can be used to get any internet-accessible file from your iphone to your computer.

The following instructions were done on a iphone of version 3.1.2, and mac OS X 10.6.2

What you need:

1. iphone with internet access (can be 3g, 2g, or anything)
   
2. mac or pc computer
   
3. USB cable for iphone -> computer
   
4. Willing to jailbreak your iphone (no other way to do it anywmore)
   

How to do it:

1. Download the file to do a jailbreak
   
• Download the free app 'Downloads Lite'
• Open 'Downloads Lite' app and browse to http://www.blackra1n.com
  
• Download the file blackra1n.zip for PC or Mac Note: The download on this site did not work for me. I ended up googling for it and finding it elsewhere. It was like 500-600k in size.
  
2. Get the file to your computer
   
• Now we have to get this file to your computer. The 'Downloads Lite' program has a feature that lets it become a http or ftp server, if its on a wifi network.
  
• On a mac, you can create your own wifi network. Basically, your computer acts as a wifi router.
  
• To do this, click on the wifi icon in the upper right near the clock. It looks like a set of half circles.
  
• Click 'Create Network...'
  
• Give your network any name, such as "MyMacBook"; set channel to "Automatic"; Hit OK
  
• Go to your iphone Settings 'Wi-Fi' button
• Select the network that you made above ex: "MyMacBook"
  
• Open 'Downloads Lite' app and go to the 'Settings' section; Set 'File Sharing' to ON
  
• Note the URL that looks something like "http://blah:8080"; It will have numbers instead of blah
  
• Enter this URL into your computers web browser. I had to use Firefox, not safari.
• Down the blackra1n.zip file to your computer, from the Downloads Lite interface.
  
3. Jailbreak phone
   
• You can verify the zip file on mac by using the command "unzip -l blackra1n.zip" If its good, you will see 8-10 files. If its bad, it will say it couldnt read it.
  
• Unzip the file
  
• Plug in iPhone with USB cable, into computer and phone
  
• Quit iTunes or iPhoto if open
  
• Run Blackra1n application
  
• Click the single button in the program to start the jailbreak
  
• Restart phone, as instructed; now you are jailbroken
  


4. Get needed components
   
• Open the Blackra1n app on your iphone
  
• Have it install Cydia, the popular jailbreak app store
  
• Run newly installed Cydia app
  
• Go to Manage > Add a Repo source
  
• Add http://apt.iphone-storage.de
  
• Browse to the added repo, to see the applications that this repo provides
  
• Browse down to the 'T' section and look for "Tethering 3G"; Install it
  
• Restart iphone
  


5. Install a mobileconfig
   
• On your iPhone, go to http://www.iphone-notes.de/mobileconfig/ in Safari
  
• Choose your country, and appropriate mobileconfig
  
• Install the downloaded mobileconfig once given option
  
• Restart iPhone once again
  


6. Use tethering
   
• Remember to turn off your custom network on your mac or pc. In fact, you wont need wifi on when you tether.
  
• Assure that iPhone is plugged into USB -> computer Note: You can also do this all with bluetooth, but I have not tested this
  
• On iPhone, go to Settings > General > Network > Tethering to turn tethering on
  
• Mac should instantly detect a new network type. You can check this out in System Preferences > Network on a Mac
  
• The new network entry for the iPhone should say that it is connected and list an IP address when clicked-on
  
• You are tethered! Browse to a webpage or open chat!