linuxit.comhttp://www.linuxit.com/linux-blog/bid/348037/Get-Ready-for-Cloud-Preparing-Your-Ecommerce-Platform-for-Cloud-Enablement

Posted by David Marshall on Thu, Jun 26,2014

Get Ready for Cloud: Preparing Your Ecommerce Platform forCloud Enablement

How to prepare your eCommerce platform for Cloud enablement; first steps organisations need to takewhen preparing for the Cloud.

eCommerce is booming

As site visitor numbers rise, organisations need to expand rapidly to stay ahead and maintain good service levelsat peak times. Adding extra hardware in your own data centre can only get you so far and expanding premisescan be a very expensive business. Expanding into Cloud is the smart move; let Amazon, Rackspace or otherspecialist Platform-as-a-Service organisations like LinuxIT worry about buildings and hardware while you growyour eCommerce business.

Consolidate and virtualise

Most systems start small and grow: hardware is added; different operating systems or versions are installed;different configurations are used to suit hardware and software - it all gets a bit messy. Adding a bunch of Cloudservers to a system that already has problems is asking for trouble. The first step is to consolidate your existingsystem around a Standard Operating Environment (SOE) running on virtual servers. Then additional virtualservers in the Cloud can be added easily.

SOE and SOEMP

It's easy to start with an SOE, but configuration drift can set in as people implement new servers and tweak olderones. You need an SOE Management Platform that can manage all your servers in-house, or Cloud-based. RedHat Satellite Server and Puppet are ideal for managing your eCommerce platform.

Systems management software

Systems management applications like Spacewalk or Red Hat Satellite lets you manage tens, hundreds orthousands of Linux systems as easily as one.

Watch the video now: Red Hat Satellite 5.6

Automation software

Configuration management tools such as Puppet automation software automates repetitive tasks so you canquickly deploy critical applications and manage change, scaling from 10s of servers to 1000s, on-premise, or inthe cloud. Puppet is widely used by major organisations including many running eCommerce platforms.

Virtualisation

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is part of the mainline Linux kernel.

● Can run virtual instances of Linux, Windows, Solaris, and BSD guests.

● Runs on x86 and x86-64 systems with hardware supporting virtualisation extensions.

● Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) is built on top of KVM .

Consider private cloud capability

Rather than just looking at public Cloud, organisations should consider private or hybrid Cloud. OpenStack is aglobal collaboration of cloud computing organisations founded by RackSpace and NASA. Red Hat EnterpriseLinux OpenStack Platform provides a stable, reliable, and secure foundation, along with the support needed torun in demanding, massive-scale enterprise environments enabling private Cloud capability.

Who is going to do all this?

An experienced open hybrid Cloud management specialist can provide the support and know-how to implement aStandard Operation Environment, consolidate your existing systems and use the relevant management tools,making the move to Cloud a simple one and deliver an open hybrid Cloud solution.

Discover how to increase agility with the Cloud without making sacrifices. Getyour free eGuide now: Cloud is the future: how to become hybrid Cloud enabledon Linux

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