As I hinted in my previous entry, we are readying a service that will enable compute cloud users to utilize spare cycles in cloud server instances that are running interactive or otherwise important “primary” workloads, for running background workloads. The idea behind this service is similar to the idea behind EC2 “spot instances”: provide a cost effective way to run not-time-critical workloads in the cloud. The main benefit of our Silverline service as compared to spot pricing is that it will be less expensive (since we’re using resources you have already provisioned) and that jobs executed under Silverline will not be terminated without notice. The foundation for this service is our Load Manager / Container Virtualization technology, which is well-proven and has been in use at private data centers since 2008.
The service will be available through a new portal. Background applications will transparently be encapsulated in containers prior to execution, while primary applications are not impacted. The background applications will consume resources not needed for primary workloads, but will not change the behavior of the primary workload –guaranteed! To use the service, background applications need to be able to run on the same Operating System as the primary application.
We plan to launch a (free) Beta version of Silverline that will support Amazon EC2 server instances in March, and if you’re interested in trying it out as a Beta user you can sign up here: http://silverline.librato.com/#beta-signup
Powered by Blogger.