Welcome to episode 224 of The CloudPod Podcast – where the forecast is always cloudy! This week, your hosts Justin, Jonathan, and Ryan discuss some major changes at Terraform, including switching from open source to a BSL License. Additionally, we cover updates to Amazon S3, goodies from Storage Day, and Google Gemini vs. Open AI.
To kick off some important general news AWS has partnered with HashiCorp for native Terraform support in Service Catalog. This integration with Terraform Cloud is accessible across all AWS regions with Service Catalog.
For those familiar with tools like N0 and ScaleSet, HashiCorp’s shift is pivotal. Addressing concerns about open-source misuse, they’ve adopted the Business Source License (BSL) for future products. While valuing collaborations, HashiCorp noticed some commercial entities exploiting open-source models without rightful contributions.
They believe it’s time to revisit such models. Notably, many projects are also moving towards proprietary or BSL-like licenses. Their transition means using BSL v1.1 for upcoming products, but libraries, including APIs and SDKs, remain under MPL 2.0.
The BSL, introduced by leaders like Couchbase and Maria DB, covers various actions. For clarity, HashiCorp offers a FAQ.
However, entities like Spacelift and Scaler voiced concerns via the Open TF Manifesto, emphasizing keeping Terraform open source. They view BSL as uncertain legal terrain, urging for open licensing or considering a Terraform fork under major foundations.
For Welcome to AWS Storage Day 2023, AWS highlighted its fifth storage event, emphasizing generative AI/ML. EBS, celebrating its 15th year, manages over 100 trillion I/O operations daily. The new M7i instances stand out, supporting 128 EBS volumes. Ryan and Jonathan emphasized EBS’s continued evolution.
A game-changer was the Mountpoint for Amazon S3. This open-source file client allows seamless integration between the local file system and S3, supporting files up to 5TB and compatibility with all S3 storage classes.
Next, AWS introduced improvements to Amazon S3 Glacier, promising up to an 85% reduction in data restore times at no extra cost. Ryan humorously wondered out loud about the hardware AWS might be using for Glacier based on this development.
Another highlight was the File Release for Amazon FSx for Lustre, optimized for Linux-based tasks. The integration with S3 helps users manage storage efficiently, with the added benefit of FSx Lustre lazy loading for machine learning applications.
AWS also unveiled a logically air-gapped vault for AWS Backup, designed for secure data sharing and faster recovery. Justin and Jonathan stressed the importance of ransomware protection and queried the encryption’s robustness.
In a welcome development, AWS has enhanced the Network Load Balancer’s capability by integrating support for security groups. This enhancement permits users to more effectively filter the incoming traffic that the NLB processes and forwards to applications.
This improvement brings NLB in line with other load balancer patterns, simplifying its use.
Lastly, AWS launched the EC2 M7a General Purpose Instances, powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors, outperforming previous m6a instances by up to 50%. These M7a instances, featuring advanced technologies like AVX-512 and DDR5 memory, offer configurations from m7a.medium 1/4 to m7a.48 xlarge. However, these come at a higher price point.
In GCP news this time, a recent article from The Information discusses Google’s strategy to outpace OpenAI by merging their two major AI units to release machine-learning models called Gemini. This model combines textual capabilities like those in LLMs with the ability to create AI visuals from text prompts.
Beyond textual analysis, Gemini can generate graphics and control software through text or voice commands. Google intends to incorporate Gemini into products such as Bard Chatbot, Google Docs, and Slides. However, app developers will be charged for accessing Gemini via Google Cloud.
James Cham at Bloomberg Beta questions who can match OpenAI. Given Google’s vast data from YouTube and Gemini’s potential to integrate video and audio, many see Google as the potential leader. Jonathan and Ryan discuss market dynamics, emphasizing that early announcements don’t guarantee market dominance and noting Google’s data advantage.
Google also introduced its Pricing API, as per an InfoWorld article, allowing enterprises to monitor cloud costs in real-time, set budgets, and receive alerts. This API, part of Google’s Cloud Billing service, offers features like usage reports and budgeting tools. Some key points from the article include:
Google’s new Pricing API for cloud cost management.
- Real-time insights into cloud costs.
- Features such as budget-setting and wasteful usage detection.
- The API, still in beta, extends Google’s Cloud Billing services.
And that is the week in the cloud! Check out our website, the home of the cloud pod where you can join our newsletter, slack team, send feedback or ask questions at thecloudpod.net or tweet at us with hashtag #thecloudpod.
