No Silver Bullets: Cloud Issues At Amazon
My worst fears about cloud computing are exactly this scenario discussed in the Wall Street Journal: “Amazon SNAFU Disrupts Websites”
Amazon’s cloud service has been experiencing errors, disrupting the websites of Foursquare, Reddit and Quora and highlighting the risks that come with relying on public cloud offerings. – Cloud Watch
The cloud has a “cloudburst” meaning a failure. You are guaranteed 99% up-time, except this issue takes time. And your particular problem has no more priority than any other user.
Such issues need to be factored into decisions. I am not saying cloud computing is bad. I am just saying it comes with a new set of risks. And those risks should be quantified. What is the cost of uncontrolled downtime? How much better (or worse) would it be with an on-premises solution? etc.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Opportunistic Software Reuse From Canceled Projects
This is a frightening article from IEEE Software entitled Scrapheap Software Development. Its point is that if a significant amount of development has been completed when a project is canceled, that portions of that software can be used to create low-cost systems.
“Salvaging components and functionality from abandoned software projects can provide a rapid, low-cost means to develop new products. Check out these guidelines on opportunistic software reuse.”
But here the assumption is that the developers know what is available in advance.
Scrapheap development requires knowing what scrap is available, where to obtain it, and how to render it useful to the current project.
I am all for software reuse and for reusable components. SEER analysis shows substantial cost savings by reusing software (often 65% or more). But Galorath has evaluated systems where just the reverse engineering to figure out what the existing systems did made them impracticable for reuse… less cost and less risk to start over.
We have also seen great savings, and some great tragedies, with unplanned reuse from existing systems to new systems. That is: where an existing system had components that could be reused but this was not considered by the original developers. But the successful situations used proven software, not abandoned, questionably viable components.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Galorath Values That Guide Our Business Activities
I was preparing a quarterly “State of the Company” presentation for our staff and was reviewing our guiding values in the presentation. I realized these might be of interest to persons outside Galorath as well, so here they are:
- Integrity
- Customer Focus
- Respect
- Discipline (Process)
- Quality
- Communication – internal and external
- Responsibility by employees
- Profit – with the total picture in view
I hope you see these throughout Galorath. Everything from our employees assistance to customers to our dedication to ISO 9001 processes are all driven by these values.
It is interesting that in 2011 some people frown on profit being listed as something that drives activites. Profit is something like food… we have to eat to live. But our goal in life is not to eat but to live our life well. Similarly, we provide quality, relevant products and services. And profit is needed to pay for these things and to share with employees so they can have the quality of life they want. Profit also is needed to fuel growh and hedge for business risks that are taken.
Thank you for reading “Dan on Estimating”, if you would like more information about Galorath’s estimation models, please visit our contact page or call us at +1 310 414-3222.
Project Prediction Infographic
