WEBVTT - Cloudy With a Chance of IBM Think 2019 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:14.000 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.520 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.640 How Stuff Works and I heart radio and a love 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.920 of all things tech, and I am at the IBM 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:27.320 Think two thousand nineteen conference in San Francisco, California. So 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:30.080 if the audio sounds a little odd, is because we're 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:35.120 recording this from my hotel room in rainy San Francisco. 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:37.520 IBM invited me out here to get a good look 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:39.880 at the technologies the company has been working on to 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:43.120 transform the back end of businesses around the world in 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.920 an effort to make those businesses more effective and more powerful. 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.960 And I'm sharing what I found while I was at 0:00:50.040 --> 0:00:53.320 that conference, and in this episode, I'm going to talk 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.400 about cloud computing, which is fitting because of the reigning 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.560 of cats and dogs in San Francisco with in gusts 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:02.920 of more than forty miles per hour, so it's a 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.120 pretty blustery day for cloud computing. Before I jump into 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.200 what IBM is talking about specifically, I figure it's a 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:13.440 good idea to do a rundown of what cloud computing is, 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.680 just as a reminder, cloud computing is sort of like 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:21.120 computing on demand. It's being able to take advantage of 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:25.800 powerful computers and massive storage over a network connection. Typically, 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.360 the computers that are actually doing all the work are 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:32.360 in a data center, possibly miles or even countries away. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.200 The user, whether it's a big company or an average individual, 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.160 interacts with this through some sort of interface. When you 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:43.360 run an application, that application isn't actually running on your device, 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:47.080 at least not completely, but rather is running on a 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:50.200 computer in that cloud system and returning the results to you. 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:53.080 And it helps to have an example, So I'm going 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.400 to use one that I think helps illustrate what is 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.760 going on and the challenges that are involved with cloud computing. 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:01.880 Let's take the example of an m m O RPG, 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.360 or a massively multiplayer online role playing game. These are 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.440 games in which you use the game's interface to log 0:02:09.480 --> 0:02:12.480 into a server and connect with the game world before 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:17.040 you go on your merry way smashing or faces or whatever. 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.840 You're doing your online with hundreds or maybe even thousands 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.440 of other people who are doing similar things and smashing 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.360 orc faces. You can interact with those people. Maybe you 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.200 work with them, maybe you work against them, maybe you 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.040 just bust out some sweet dance moves while you wait 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.320 for a quest to populate. But clearly, all these other 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.080 people aren't on your computer. They're not connecting directly to 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.280 your PC. They're playing the game and controlling characters. But 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.560 those commands couldn't possibly be coming through onto your machine 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:51.720 unless you're running the world's most powerful supercomputer, because otherwise 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:53.720 you're gaming rig would just give up if it had 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:57.919 to handle all of that processing instead. The game running 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.320 on your computer is kind of like a poor role 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.320 into an instance being run on some other machine, specifically 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:07.240 the server you logged into at the beginning of the game. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.480 Other players are also logged into the server, and the 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.720 server is keeping track of where everyone is in relation 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.840 to the game world and in relation to other players. 0:03:17.360 --> 0:03:20.519 The server is processing the command streams from each player, 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:23.760 whether it's a command to get to work, face smashing 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.680 or to do the moonwalk. It's relaying all those commands 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:31.280 out to the respective client computers so that everyone sees 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.600 the correct respective reactions in the game world. The game 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.920 itself is running in the cloud. Your computer is still 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:43.080 running some processes to like rendering graphics, for example, but 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.480 much of the rest is offloaded to the distant computer, 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:49.280 and you can easily imagine some of the challenges that 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:52.520 come along with this, such as latency. That's the delay 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.520 between when you send the command and when you see 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.760 it executed on screen. Well, latency goes well beyond just gaming. 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.360 It can be in any kind of application. However, that's 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.080 just one challenge. There are a lot more than just that, 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.880 and we'll touch on those now. There are different types 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.960 of cloud computing, and you'll typically hear about it in 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:17.240 terms of public cloud versus private cloud, and then there's 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:20.880 the hybrid cloud. So what the heck is the difference. Well, 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.880 let's start with the simplest first. A public cloud is 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.520 a system in which a third party provider is responsible 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.640 for the data centers that you use. You're using someone 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:35.120 else's computers. In other words, IBM does this, as does Google, 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:39.400 Amazon and lots of others. Typically, this is a paper 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.600 use model of cloud computing, and that clients pay the 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:47.279 providers for the use of those computing and storage services. However, 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.320 it also means that the client gives up some of 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.640 that data management to the provider, and there is a 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.920 real concern about data security. The idea that if the 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.200 data isn't under your constant control. There's a day jew 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.360 that could get away from you. Whether or not that 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.240 fear is justified as dependent upon the provider obviously, but 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.320 it's always there. A private cloud is typically defined as 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:13.760 when a company uses its own data centers and manages 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.520 them to behave the same way a public cloud would, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:21.360 but typically there's some added security features, added privacy features. 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.159 They might be working with a third party provider for 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.640 the private cloud software, but they get to maintain the 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.279 whole thing themselves. While private clouds can be hosted on 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.560 site at headquarters, it's also possible to have a private 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:40.200 hosting environment within a larger cloud provider. In theory, it 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.960 would behave like a public cloud to everyone else. The 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.920 cost for a private cloud approach tends to be a 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.560 flat feed based on the capacity required, and so it 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.800 is a predictable, consistent cost as opposed to the on demand, 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.680 dynamic version with public clouds. A private cloud has its 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:02.880 own challenges. One, the company owning the private cloud has 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:07.560 to continually invest in it. It costs money to maintain, manage, 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.719 and operate the cloud. Over time, it becomes necessary to 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.120 replace older computers, and you have to carefully manage the 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.159 information to transfer it over to new systems. Many companies 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:22.320 use both public and private clouds. Some information may be 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:25.880 so important, whether because it's mission critical information, or it 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.400 represents personal data of customers, or both that moving to 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.520 a pure public cloud approach is not practical or logical. 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.680 Of course, it's not really that clear cut. It gets 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.520 way messier than that. For one thing, Larger companies rarely 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.560 rely on just one type of cloud computing or storage, 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:46.960 which leads us to what is called the hybrid cloud. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:50.960 I wasn't quite sure what a hybrid cloud really was 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.080 when I was on my way to think two thousand nineteen, 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:57.279 but fortunately I had a chance to speak with Hillary Hunter, 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.880 an IBM Fellow, which by the way, is the high 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:03.839 honor IBM grants to top researchers, scientists, engineers, and like. 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.120 And she's also the chief Technology Officer and VP of 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.920 cloud computing and hybrid cloud. I figured if anyone had 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:13.600 a great definition for hybrid cloud, it would be her. 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.120 Here's what she had to say. I'm here with Hillary 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:22.800 Hunter and IBM fellow, chief Technology officer expert in all 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.360 things cloud. You were the person I needed to go 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:29.080 to to ask a very important question. Now, my listeners 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:33.520 are the general public, and we're just now seeing kind 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.760 of a mainstream understanding of the general concept of cloud computing, 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:40.760 and then we have to go and complicate matters with 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:44.120 hybrid cloud. So could you please explain to me what 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.520 the hybrid cloud actually means. Yeah, So, people tend to 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.400 think about the cloud is the place that they store 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.800 their documents or store their pictures. From a consumer perspective 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.760 of your general audience, UM, the cloud is certainly a place, 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:00.480 you know, with a lot of compute orders in it 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.320 and a lot of storage capacity UM. But from a 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:07.200 business perspective, from an enterprise perspective, it's also a way 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.760 of doing your software, way of doing your computing UM. 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:13.320 And when we talk about hybrid cloud, what we're doing 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:16.320 is taking those capabilities that we refer to as cloud 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:20.840 native function UM specific software. You'll hear the terms kubernet 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:23.240 Ease and Docker and other things like that. Those are 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.600 kind of the software pieces that define what it means 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.640 to be using a cloud UM, and with hybrid cloud, 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.840 we're taking that and enabling people to also use that 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.320 same software, that same computing method and capability on their 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.800 premises as well, and so rather than having a traditional 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.720 type of a computer system UM that works in a 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.000 certain way with a certain set of software, you can 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:49.839 take those same computers or by new computers UM and 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:52.760 use Docker and kubernet Ees and these other things that 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.160 UM constitute cloud native software programming. And you can use 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.600 that where you are where you're doing business. UM. You know, 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:03.000 in your storageing and factoring sites. UM. You can use 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.520 that in your traditional enterprise data centers that you're using 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.120 to run your financial operations or other things like that. UM. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:12.000 And so you can do your processing of credit card 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.280 transactions UM you know very you know, securely and in 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.360 the location that you want to do it UM, but 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.520 using cloud type of software UM. So hybrid cloud UM 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:25.839 just refers to using both public clouds, which consumers are 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.120 more familiar with because of their music and their files 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.839 and their pictures and stuff, UM, but also being able 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:35.600 to use that same underline software that's driving cloud technology 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:38.640 at your place of business. And obviously that would be 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:45.239 helpful if you are working with extremely mission critical information, 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.960 or maybe it's the private information of individuals, maybe it's 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.880 a g d p R concerned. It's these sort of 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.760 things that people have to take into account that you 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:01.200 might not want that data on a third party public cloud. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.200 Is that correct? Yeah, so that's a good way to 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.880 think about it. There are many reasons, UM, It's not 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.320 just one reason why someone might have a private cloud 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.760 UM and hybrid is that combination of public and private clouds. UM. 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.080 Some of the reasons you mentioned related to data policies. 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.520 Certain countries want certain types of data UM in order 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:25.040 to protect consumers in particular kept within their countries. UM. 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:27.280 So some companies will choose to use a public cloud 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.960 provider in their country, or they'll choose to then implement 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:32.600 their I T implement their software UM in their own 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:34.679 data center in a cloud way so that that data 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.320 stays within you know, what the government has defined as 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.040 the boundaries. Other things have to do with you know, 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.720 just the process of updating and upgrading what you're doing right, 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.480 so you know, you can take an existing server that 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.760 you already own and you can put UM private cloud 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:54.679 software on it also and start to create new capabilities 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:57.400 related to you know, AI or data processing and other 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.840 things like that and mix and intermingled with your existing 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.080 business function. So there's a lot of reasons why people 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.359 end up using private cloud technology. Some of it is geographic, 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.960 some of it's you know, data is concerned. Certainly though 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:13.600 it's possible in a public cloud to set up very 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:17.080 secure environments, and so sometimes what people do actually is 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.319 make their own private cloud inside of a public cloud. UM. 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:22.240 And so that's kind of where this whole story tends 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.520 to get a little complicated and technical. UM. But you know, 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.520 it's not necessarily only security UM. It can be lots 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:31.760 of policy things are just you know, the computers that 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.400 people already own and moving that forward into a more 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:39.360 modern software construct. Now you've mentioned security, and you've mentioned 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.640 the complex nature of this this uh, this new landscape 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.840 that we're looking at. I imagine those present certain challenges 0:11:46.880 --> 0:11:52.439 when you're talking about managing the data across these different clouds, 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.240 and perhaps you have an application that needs to pull 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:00.560 from different clusters and different clouds. So from I understand, 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:04.200 that's one of those big areas of development at IBM. 0:12:04.280 --> 0:12:07.720 Is that correct? Absolutely? Yeah. So when we're talking about 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:12.040 cloud based UM workloads, cloud Blace deployment, I kept coming 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:14.320 back to, you know, what the software side of cloud 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.440 is in addition to kind of the hardware and storage. UM. 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.000 What we're talking about is the ability to quickly create 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.200 function and then deploy that function where you need to 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.400 have it deployed UM to update it in response to 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:31.160 changes in your business or changes in the software capability UM, 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:35.800 changes in compliance, changes in regulations UM. So cloud also 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.520 enables you to create function and push it out to 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:43.000 these different locations UM. And one of the challenges that 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.360 that introduces is how do I then manage multiple clouds? 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:51.240 How do I know what software is running where? UM? 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:53.960 Am I spending the amount that I want to spend 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.800 in a certain cloud? UM? Is everything been patched and 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.200 updated according to the latest vulnerabilit ease or according to 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:05.520 my latest capabilities UM, the latest AI technologies, whatever it 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:08.360 is that I want to deploy. So we have something 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.280 that we call Multi Cloud Manager UM and i'd be 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:15.079 as Multi Cloud Manager enables a single dashboard across these 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:18.760 different clouds, so you can see what's going on, you 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.840 can set policies, you can ensure that you're meeting you know, 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.960 compliance and other constraints UM. And that really then helps 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.080 simplify the fact that the world really is hybrid. It 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.240 isn't just one public cloud sitting somewhere that everyone is 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:36.560 using people are adopting private cloud because of you know, 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:41.079 the software advantages, the agility, the new capabilities that that brings. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.520 So that is the reality. The world is hybrid, and 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.600 so once it's hybrid, we want to simplify the visibility 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.320 to what's going on and simplify the complexity and the 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.920 control of what's going on in this in this hybrid 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:58.680 cloud era. Gosh, well, Hillary Hunter, I am so thankful 0:13:58.840 --> 0:14:00.680 that I got a chance to speak with you. You've 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.120 really helped clear things up. This was an area that 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.160 I'm very familiar with cloud computing in general, but the 0:14:08.240 --> 0:14:10.920 more I was getting into this new world, and I 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:12.920 believe this might have been the first time this conference 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.120 the first time I heard the term Kubernetes, and I 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:18.040 went on a deep rabbit hole around that to get 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.920 an understanding. I feel like I've got a much better 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.960 grasp of that. So thank you so much, absolutely, And 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:27.600 if you want any more. Description of kubernet is, the 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:29.640 way I like to think about it is it's sort 0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:32.800 of the orchestra conductor. Right. So those two words we 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:36.040 were talking about before and in containers and Kubernetes, we 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.320 call kubernet is actually orchestration software for a good reason, 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.280 and that you know, you've got all this stuff and containers, 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.080 that's your cloud workload, and someone's got to coordinate running it, 0:14:46.120 --> 0:14:47.920 and how much of it runs, and kind of how 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.200 loud and quiet it is. And so the orchestra conductor 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.400 is a useful analogy. So Kuberneti is that orchestration orchestration 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.120 layer for the cloud. Fantastic, My listeners know, there's very 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.040 little I love are than an analogy except maybe a pun. 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:04.840 So I think that's the perfect way to end this interview. 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.600 Thank you so much, thanks for having me pleasure being here. 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:12.360 This gets more critical the more highly regulated and industry is. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.800 According to IBM, the average large corporation has about sixty 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:19.160 of its data in the public cloud and in the 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.760 private cloud, but for more heavily regulated companies, the opposite 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:26.160 tends to be true. Private clouds might hold six of 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.360 their data and public clouds, So the more regulated the industry, 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.400 the more data ends up in private clouds. For companies 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:36.120 operating in the European Union, which recently put the g 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.600 d p R rules in place, these sorts of concerns 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:42.440 are absolutely critical, as violating GDPR rules results in stiff 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.680 financial penalties and restrictions. One other term we should define 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:50.200 is the edge, not the guy from you too, I'm 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:54.200 talking about edge computing. This is a somewhat vague term 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:56.800 and that it can mean different things to different people, 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.680 but in general, the edge is defined as being geographically 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:04.200 close to the request or the source of data. See. 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.800 Cloud computing has a big limitation, and that is the 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.640 speed of light. That's the fastest anything can go. And 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.239 if you're dependent upon a centralized data center that's hundreds 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.560 or thousands of miles away, your request has to travel 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.920 all the way there, and then the response has to 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.760 travel all the way back, and that can come across 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.520 as latency. Edge computing means building in some computational power 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.560 or features into the devices that connect users to the 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.640 cloud itself. In other words, some of the work gets 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:37.960 done on the mobile device or the computer or personal 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:41.440 voice assistant or whatever you're using, as opposed to the 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.120 model where everything just gets sent up to the cloud, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.160 process there and then sent back again. In our m 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.600 M O RPG example, the graphics rendering may be done 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:54.280 at the edge on the gamer's own computer. Next, I'm 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.000 going to cover something that was a total enigma to 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.480 me heading into Think two thousand nineteen, which would kubernettes. 0:17:02.120 --> 0:17:13.439 But first, let's take a quick break, all right, I 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:17.760 need to talk about Kubernetes, and Hillary mentioned this briefly 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.879 in our conversation, but I really wanted to kind of 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.600 get down to it. Those developers out there in the 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.159 audience likely already know what I'm talking about, but I 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.479 gotta be honest with you, guys. I don't think I 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:32.480 had ever encountered the term before going to Think two 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:35.439 thousand nineteen, and it took a lot of smiling and 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:37.720 nodding to cover up the fact that I was frantically 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.080 googling what the heck it was? So, what the heck 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.439 is it? And why is it important? First to understand Kubernetes, 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.480 we actually have to take a step back and talk 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.280 about a concept called virtual machines. Then work our way 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.440 up to containers and stick with me. For though they're 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.639 being madness, yet there is method in it. So a 0:17:57.720 --> 0:17:59.920 virtual machine is kind of what it sounds like. It's 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.520 a simulated, emulated, or otherwise virtual representation of a computer. 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.720 You might create a virtual machine in order to run 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:11.960 specific software. For example, let's say it's a personal computer, approach. 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.560 You have a Mac computer and you want to run 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.040 virtual Windows machine on your Mac computer so that you 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.880 can run and access Windows based software, or you might 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.679 want a separate virtual machine to run new applications. The 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.480 virtual machine is sequestered from other parts of the computer, 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.040 so it won't affect the other parts of the computer. 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:36.480 You have a nice development and test environment within which 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:39.120 you can build, run and break stuff, and it's not 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.720 going to affect everything else on that physical machine. But 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:46.120 virtual machines are resource hungry and they're not always practical, 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:51.440 so there's an alternative called containers. Containers are much more 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:56.680 light than virtual machines, meaning they require far fewer resources. 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.000 They can sequester features, and because of this, they are 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.239 rate for the rapid development and deployment of applications. An 0:19:04.280 --> 0:19:08.679 application might provide numerous services, and each service or feature 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.440 can live inside a container, so while one team of 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:16.080 developers is working on their specific service, other teams can 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.119 work independently and each service is inside a different container 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:25.119 as Docker. A particular flavor of containers defines it quote 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.760 package software into standardized units for development, shipment, and deployment. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.080 A container is a standard unit of software that packages 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:37.399 upcode and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.800 and reliably from one computing environment to another. A DOCTOR 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.639 container image is a lightweight, stand alone executable package of 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:50.840 software that includes everything needed to run an application code, runtime, 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:56.119 system tools, system libraries, and settings end quote. So developers 0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:01.040 can deploy these containers across different clusters of computers, whether 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:06.040 they're actual physical computers or virtual machines. The applications depend 0:20:06.119 --> 0:20:10.480 upon the services within these containers to present all the information, 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.480 but to manage that you need some sort of strategy 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:18.080 to oversee the containers. In general, it's called container orchestration. 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:23.040 It's all about deploying, managing, scaling, and networking containers and 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.000 container based applications, and that's what will bring us to Kubernetes. 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:32.440 Kubernetes is a container orchestration open source project. You heard 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:36.040 Hillary describe it as being an actual sort of orchestra 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.800 conductor as an analogy. It's a system that automates deployment 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:44.680 and management of multi container applications and can do so 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.399 at scale. The project works with Doctor containers, but also 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.560 any other containers that are based on the Open Container 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:56.040 Initiative or o c I, which standardizes the container format. 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.520 More importantly for this episode, Kubernetes has effectively become the 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:05.680 standard for application deployment environments and strategies across numerous clouds, 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:08.600 and it can scale up or down as demand warrants. 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.760 The architecture of Kubernetes depends upon certain abstractions. At the 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.320 top level of abstraction, you have the Kubernetes clusters. These 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:20.200 refer to the actual machines or virtual machines in the 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:25.560 Kubernetes systems and the containers managed by Kubernetes. In those clusters, 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.600 the cluster must have a master which is the command 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.520 and control center for the Kubernetes machines. You can actually 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:34.640 have multiple machines capable of running Master jobs, but only 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.840 one may be active at any given time. Within a 0:21:37.920 --> 0:21:42.040 cluster are nodes, which represent individual physical machines or virtual machines, 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.800 and within the nodes are pods, the most basic objects 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:49.040 in Kubernetes. A pod is a single instance of a 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:53.560 process or instance of an application. The containers themselves exist 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.400 within pods, and a pod may have one or more containers, 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.240 but the pod is really the basic unit. To do 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:03.600 anything meaning full in Kubernetes itself. Now it gets more technical, 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:05.320 but I think this is enough for us to get 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:07.840 understanding of the system and the whole point, like I 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:10.760 mentioned above, is to have a platform for the deployment 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.439 and maintenance of applications that run multiple services. It's a 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:18.680 dynamic approach that can scale up or down as demand requires. 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.240 Another thing that Kubernetes introduces is the argument for open source. 0:22:23.680 --> 0:22:26.560 I'll talk more about open source in a related podcast, 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:28.840 but it's a great time to touch on the idea here. 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:32.560 Open source is an approach to development that is in 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:36.400 opposition to the proprietary approach that a lot of companies take, 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:40.000 and the goal of both strategies is ultimately the same 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.359 to develop technology that hopefully works, but the way it 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.359 happens is very different. With a proprietary approach, everything is 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:50.800 locked down. A company has dedicated developers and engineers, or 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:54.080 they've contracted with people who are dedicated to a specific project, 0:22:54.560 --> 0:22:58.000 and those people develop the technology, which is typically patented 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:00.760 or kept as a trade secret. Now this means that 0:23:00.760 --> 0:23:02.919 if anyone else wants to make use of that technology, 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:05.679 whether it's hardware or software, they have to license it 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:08.080 from the entity that created the tech in the first place. 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.240 Or they have to figure out a different way to 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:14.640 essentially accomplish the same result without copying the original design. 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.080 Apple is an example of this approach. They take the 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:22.240 proprietary approach almost every single time. The company maintains a 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.439 tight control over its own hardware and software. The company 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.080 is famous for this and doesn't tend to look kindly 0:23:28.119 --> 0:23:31.199 on those who attempt to circumvent the proprietary nature of 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:33.760 Apple's technology. Now, I don't mean to say this is 0:23:33.800 --> 0:23:36.840