Windows7 in cloud computing environment

If the enterprise is anxious to upgrade to Windows 7, then compatibility is a critical issue in the smooth deployment of the system. However, the testing of the operating system requires additional hardware and IT staff involvement, so this time is a time-consuming and consuming task.

However, because of the Windows upgrade cycle, by deploying new systems, IT staff have new choices and can save a portion of their time and money.

For now, using virtualization software to test Windows 7 can speed up processes and save costs. Many IT groups use internal test and development labs for this purpose and use virtual servers and VMware's lab Management software for Windows 7 testing. While this process still requires some physical servers and IT staff, it is more effective than testing on actual physical servers.

As mentioned above is the practice of the general enterprise, and Ellie Mae Software leasing company adopted a different approach, which makes Ellie Mae is the first to use the Seattle Skytap Company's cloud Computing Laboratory test Windows 7 Company.

Ellie Mae The company is headquartered in California State Pleasanton, and does not intend to deploy Windows 7 immediately on a large scale within the company, but begins testing its leased software in Windows 7 environments to ensure that the software that Ellie Mae leases out is available and well used.

"It is quite certain that some of our customers will be able to use it quickly after Windows 7 release October 22." "said Ron Yun, head of quality assurance at Ellie Mae Company.

Ellie Mae Select Skytap's cloud Computing Lab virtual SaaS (software online service) application to deploy Windows 7, which should be tested by the Pleasanton and Beijing quality assurance teams. Ron Yun says his Ellie Mae Lab has about 20 machines, but it's too labor-intensive and expensive to test Windows 7 in a physics lab.

In Skytap's cloud computing lab, Ron Yun can deploy a number of Windows 7 virtual machines, and he wants to do it with a monthly fee of $250 per month for 1000-hour tests.

"It's like a huge black box, I don't know what's going on inside, but I know they are easy to configure and modify virtual machines through the user interface. "said Ron Yun.

Need a cloud computing test lab

Skytap The cloud Computing Lab, built on VMware infrastructure based enterprise applications, is one of the few cloud environments that can run and test Windows 7. Skytap wants more companies to test.

But with the advent of Windows 7 and the growing number of companies deploying or joining cloud computing, the "intersection" of the two is increasing.

"The lab is dynamic. "So the user may not have enough resources in one test cycle, or too many resources in one test cycle," Roza said. For this reason, we believe that it is necessary to establish a professional cloud computing environment for it lab testing in a region. ”

Roza The points out that the Skytap cloud service is a "hybrid" cloud Platform, where the cloud is not an island, but an extension of the internal physics lab. Users have the flexibility to import VMware images through secure VPN channels into the cloud computing environment before returning to their in-house labs.

As for Skytap's competitors, such as Amazon's EC2 cloud service, Microsoft is about to launch a cloud operating system, Windows Azure, which is less than Skytap offers, Roza said.

"EC 2 is powerful, but it is a platform for small e-business enterprises, not for large enterprises." "This does not match the positioning of VMware products, and VMware's 85% customers are corporate users," Roza said. If you want to input and output virtual machines, Amazon is not very suitable for you. ”

As for Microsoft's Windows Azure, it can only be suitable for companies planning Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualization software. Roza said.

Deploy Windows 7 in just a few minutes

To the satisfaction of Ron Yun of Ellie Mae: Skytap's cloud computing lab makes its quality assurance labs virtually free of maintenance.

The only disadvantage is that there is no control over the use of hardware in a cloud environment, Ron Yun said. "I made the assumption that Skytap is maintaining the normal operation of its datacenter hardware, but I am not aware of such situations as CPU speed or disk speed." ”

But Ron Yun also said he would take a marginal risk test of Windows 7 at the Physics lab at Ellie Mae's headquarters to ensure that physical machines actually support Windows 7. And in this respect, he just doesn't have enough time and resources.

With Skytap virtual machine support, Ron Yun's quality assurance team configures and deploys a Windows 7 system that takes only a few minutes, not days or weeks. "Efficiency gains can save us thousands of of dollars," he said. "said Ron Yun.