Clouds for the Military – A Linchpin Technology

Two applications areas for which cloud computing holds the most promise are in the related areas of intelligence and military applications.

Even if you are not already intimately familiar with the types of computing problems that dominate these application areas, it’s easy enough to see how cloud computing – and of course I mean all sorts of clouds, with a particular emphasis on private clouds – can help.

After all, the very attributes of clouds that are so attractive to startups and enterprise alike – easy sense of scale, flexibility, low cost, and more – have tremendous appeal for intelligence and military applications as well.

A Military Perspective
I was recently interviewed for a story that’s appearing In the current issue of Military Information Technology. entitled “COMPUTING IN THE CLOUDS”. The story covers a number of cloud initiatives, with a focus on some things that are working and challenges that are looming.

Here is a cool quote from the story:

Appistry offers a linchpin technology for cloud computing, called the Enterprise Application Fabric, a cloud application platform for developing and managing large-scale, selfhealing cloud applications rapidly on commodity hardware.

Why Is Appistry a “Linchpin Technology”?
In this quote the story captures precisely one of the concerns of both those pioneering and those contemplating cloud applications in military and intelligence – sure the inherent scale and flexibility are great, but what about the complexity?

Speaking from the IC side of the house, streaming full-motion video from a Predator UAV or a satellite image are huge files to deal with in terms of storage, processing and transport to a soldier in motion…

However, a disadvantage is the added complexity of virtualization, which is inherent in cloud architecture (em. added). “When we virtualize in a cloud, it is more difficult to unwind the problem should it arise. As virtualization increases, logical complexity grows,” Pierce pointed out.

- Ken Pierce, DIA-DS/C4ISR

He went on to say that his organization is already well-positioned to handle the added complexity – but what else can he really say?

The Real Value of a Cloud Application Platform
It is precisely in aggressively taking out complexity – both operational and development – while maintaining all of the goodness of clouds that this emerging thing the industry has begun calling a cloud application platform. delivers the goods.

As you might expect, Appistry EAF as it exists today makes an excellent cloud application platform, and stuff that we’re hard at work on – even as we speak – will expand that lead.

And that is why Appistry is becoming a “linchpin technology”.