The application of cloud computing must match the needs of the enterprise

"The business of the enterprise once the server is dead has stopped. You asked me why I didn't allow the server to live forever. At that time, there was no 'cloud computing' ah..." China Aviation Technology International Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "AVIC International") advances its informatization Zhu Dongbian, the director of the office, said that he had opened his hands and opened his hands. This was his image assumption before the appearance of "cloud computing" for reporters.

When the "cloud computing" roared, companies built their own private cloud but faced with a difficult situation. The CIO of a large-scale state-owned enterprise publicly questioned at an information conference: "Each time a meeting is a lively service, most of them are software service providers. Until now, no enterprise has built a private cloud. At this time, it built a private company. Clouds do not fly?"

It was in such speculation and questioning that AVIC International chose a bold attempt to build its own private cloud. In fact, Zhu Dong probably did not realize at this time that AVIC International’s exploratory pioneering initiative had inadvertently opened up private enterprises. The “Pandora Box” in the cloud field has made the company's promising but non-breaking private cloud area break in AVIC International.

"We have mastered the private cloud placement techniques. Nowadays, the relationship between information systems and servers on the private cloud is like the Monkey King in Journey to the West and his own hair. It is the Monkey King who has died and the Monkey King is dead. I can never die forever.” Zhu Dong’s image is to evaluate the private cloud built by AVIC International.

The "substitute"

In 2007, AVIC International began to implement the ERP model of “big concentration”. All local and overseas branches have unified the servers to the headquarters one after another. “The servers of all the company's businesses are concentrated in me,” said Zhu Dong. “From there I didn't sleep for a day and I felt like I had buried an invisible bomb. I didn't know when it would be detonated."

In fact, the corporate nature of AVIC International has already determined the complexity and arduousness of enterprise informationization. AVIC International’s core business is the import and export of aviation technology and products required by the national defense and civil aviation. In addition to aviation products, there are bulk exports of government products, exports of ships and large-scale complete sets of equipment, general trading operations, and electronics manufacturing, retail, watch and clock, real estate, hotel and property management, and mineral resources. FIYTA watches, Shennan circuit boards, and Tianma LCD panels are produced by the company's affiliated companies. In Zhu Dong’s words, “the business of the company seems to be a bit miscellaneous.”

AVIC International is a multi-regional large-scale group company with multiple business forms. It has 12 subsidiaries in the country, more than 60 overseas institutions in more than 30 countries and regions in the world, 7 listed companies, and more than 50,000 employees. The scale of assets exceeds 100 billion yuan, and annual sales revenue reaches 60 billion yuan.

Zhu Dong knew clearly that such a large-scale state-owned enterprise implements the "large concentration" ERP model throughout the company, meaning that all the company's business will be coordinated and operated by the headquarters' servers. If the headquarters's server fails due to uncontrollable factors such as earthquakes, Then the entire business operation of the company will face a severe test of lockout.

"If one day, the server's 'snap', a failure and collapsed, then what should we do?" Before the ERP system went online, Zhu Dong kept thinking, trying to find a perfect solution.

In order to avoid the "invisible bomb" being detonated, AVIC International installed a real-time disaster recovery system 30 kilometers away from the headquarters. In another computer room a few tens of kilometers away, there is a system identical to the ERP system in the headquarters computer room, and the data on every server in the business headquarters will be transmitted in real time. This is equivalent to the server for the headquarters. I found a substitute."

Under the careful deployment of Zhu Dong and others, it seems that everything is controllable. However, the problems exposed in a highly realistic information system disaster recovery exercise that was initiated voluntarily caused Zhu Dong to be splashed with cold water. Throughout his coolness, he was highly suspicious of the safety of the existing disaster recovery system.

The disaster recovery system is usually in a semi-dormant state. Although it is alive but cannot work, it can only accept data. The company does a little business and transmits a bit of data. Zhu Dong knows that it takes time to actually start the system. How much time is spent is the core purpose of disaster recovery drills.

One day in 2008, when AVIC International's informatization system was operating normally and as usual, the system suddenly broke down. In order to ensure that the entire company is able to work more than 50,000 people, Zhu Dong immediately ordered the engineers under his command. The backup system in the computer room 30 kilometers away from the headquarters was started. However, the time passed in one minute and one minute. The engineer jerked his feet in anxious manner. Zhu Dong's heart became tighter and tighter. He stared at the computer screen for one minute and one second. The time is passing. It was not until 1 hour and 40 minutes later that the disaster recovery system was officially started and all businesses started to operate normally. This is a scene of an emergency drill for a "substitute". Although it was only an exercise, Zhu Dong had to think carefully. "With my elaborate preparation and layout in place, it takes another 1 hour and 40 minutes to start the disaster recovery system. Then in the unprepared emergency situation, I still don't know when it will start.” This made Zhu Dong’s nerves tighten again. “The backup system's 'alternate' function is really bad.”

At the same time, there is a problem that makes Zhu Dong quite a headache, that is, there are uncontrollable factors in the data transmission process. During the process of data transmission from the headquarters server to the disaster recovery system, often third-party construction will cut off the line, or the telecommunications and Netcom will have their own problems. This will cause the company's dedicated line system to stagnate for half an hour, and stop the data transmission. However, when this happens, new data cannot be transmitted and the data in the disaster recovery system is still in the old state. "At this point, the data of the backup system is not the same as the data of the official system, which means there is an error." Zhu Dong told reporters.

With the continuous promotion of ERP system by AVIC International, Zhu Dong Yue feels like "a dancer on the tip of the knife." He dances cautiously at every moment, but he does not know when he will be stabbed with a sharp knife.

In that year, "cloud computing" has not risen yet. The self-built disaster recovery system is just the next step, but it is also the only way to minimize possible losses. When the "cloud computing" really came, Zhu Dong felt that happiness really knocked.

"Testing Fields" involving the cloud "When discovering the cloud's favorable 'weapons', my first consideration was to use it to dismantle the invisible bombs under the large-scale centralized ERP model." Zhu Dong has had a strong influence on cloud computing since 2009. interest of.

Cloud computing quickly shines in the macro field. Public cloud, private cloud and other words have become the focus of attention. However, many large state-owned enterprises are skeptical about the safety of public clouds, but also self-built companies. There are many doubts about the private cloud, and even the large state-owned enterprise CIO complained to reporters. “Although it is not difficult for companies to build their own private cloud, it is also in a stage where they are ignorant and unable to start.”

Once Zhu Dong also constantly asked himself, what exactly is "cloud computing"? He is very confused, because a variety of complex viewpoints are filled with it, and even "cloud computing" experts can hardly explain this issue. He also asked himself: “Is it necessary for me to build my own private cloud?” He still finds it difficult to answer himself because no one company has taken this step and there is no valuable case for reference in the industry.

“So, do you want to get involved in the private cloud of the enterprise?” Zhu Dong asked himself for the third time. In order to answer many questions of his own, he led IT engineers to devote a lot of energy to research, analysis, and demonstration in order to study private enterprises. Whether the cloud is good for the enterprise in the end or not, the survey results prove that the private cloud is of great benefit to the enterprise. However, given the many questions that remain unsolved by the entire industry, does AVIC International continue to wait and see or make bold attempts? "We considered it very simple at that time. As long as it was good for the company, we would do it." Zhu Dong was very grateful for the company's unanimous support for this project.

So, from the beginning of 2010, Zhu Dong took the ERP system that he had promoted throughout the company to the manager of his department, and he focused 80% on the private cloud of the enterprise. At the beginning, Zhu Dong took a small-scale, less-funded test form. At that time, they were prepared to do both: First, if the test was successful, the whole company would officially launch a private cloud; second, if it was unsuccessful, due to the The investment in manpower is not too big, and it can be used as a "preceding lesson" in the future informationization. "Now it seems that this model is available for other companies to refer to." Zhu Dong is quite pleased to recall.

The prevailing view is that virtualization is the foundation of cloud computing, and some enterprises are preparing for virtualization in order to realize the transition to cloud computing. However, Chu Dong deployed the cloud system is surprising, "virtualization is not the only way for companies to deploy cloud platform. Without virtualization can also implement the cloud architecture."

However, Zhu Dong also used virtualization as a prerequisite for cloud platform deployment. However, after continuous exploration and trials, they found that the company uses physical machines scattered throughout the country. When the user requests to come in, the user does not know where the request is allocated and which server responds. However, the characteristics of the cloud are all available, and it has no effect on the implementation of the cloud. Virtualization is useful, but it can also be deployed when there are more application requirements.

“Others generally have more speculations and believe that virtualization is an indispensable prerequisite for doing cloud computing. We have tried to implement both virtualization and non-virtualization.” Zhu Dong is very happy to share experience, he believes, “the physical server cluster It can also be used as a resource pool to dynamically allocate resources and assign different tasks to each server.The advantages of virtual machines are that they can be separated from the physical form of specific servers and can be deployed more flexibly. Multiple servers are deployed on the server to flexibly add or remove systems, regardless of the number of physical machines, which is the only difference between physical machines and virtual machines.Therefore, the deployment of cloud platforms does not absolutely depend on virtualization. Does not mean that the cloud is implemented."

“We accidentally hit the road by mistake and actually have some luck.” In Zhu Dong’s view, the company’s ERP system is faced with two kinds of technology choices. One is to buy a bigger one. The other is to buy a PC server. During the demonstration process, they found that the company’s information system needs such technologies as clusters and loads that are added as needed, and the company’s wise decision is ultimately to choose a PC server. Practice has proved that building a private cloud for a company and using a larger minicomputer requires full use of resources. It will be necessary to embark on the road to virtualization, which is obviously more complex than taking the PC server.

As AVIC International has not made large-scale changes or replacements in hardware, it has not invested large sums of money. On the other hand, the crystallization of these efforts has come from the company's own exploration and practice, and has not cooperated with related software service companies. As a result, the transition between the company and the private cloud platform has become much easier.

In October 2010, AVIC International’s first ERP system was officially moved to a private cloud. In December of that year, the company’s second ERP system was also moved to a private cloud. At the beginning of this year, the company went single sign-on and unified. The identity management system combines these two systems with the ERP system, and then moves the ERP system with single sign-on and unified identity management system to the private cloud. "This is more complicated," Zhu Dong added. "But it will eventually be realized."

The most cost-effective way Wang Li (a pseudonym) who worked in the integrated department of the Export Administration Department of the AVIC International Government recently discovered that the ERP system, which is inseparable from his office, has been operating very steadily. A notification that the system needs to be patched has been issued at a rate of three to five. cancelled.

In the past, every time a company issued a patch for the system, it had to send a notice covering the entire country and overseas organizations, informing them that at some point, it was not allowed to do business on the system and it was necessary to apply patches. "Now that there is a cloud platform, the system can be tossed at any time to respond at any time. The entire system will never be interrupted," Zhu Dong told reporters.

After the cloud platform was established, the "invisible bomb" that Zhu Dong had always worried about was also easily dismantled. Although the company still implements a large-scale centralized ERP system, but the server is no longer just the headquarters, Zhu Dong said with excitement. "The cloud is distributed in the place where I designed it. Where do I want it to be, where is this problem? It has been technically solved. At present, we have placed the cloud at the headquarters and in the computer room 30 kilometers away."

What makes Zhu Dong quite excited is that if the headquarters server fails, it will have no effect on the operation of the system. For example, a user at an overseas branch made a business on an ERP system and the cloud automatically assigned which server responded to his operation. Because all servers are alive, any server is broken at this time, and it does not affect the remaining servers to continue working.

The private cloud platform also brings other unexpected benefits to the enterprise. In the past, the company needed to purchase a server for about 1.5 million yuan, because it was necessary to consider the long-term operation, so it was necessary to leave about 20% to 30% of the space, and this design space is more than 400,000 yuan in the system operation. It is basically useless and it belongs to emergency backup. However, this part of the designed air space is still part of the cost. In addition, although these idle parts do not work, but its CPU must work, memory and hard disk must turn, must consume power. This part consumes the corresponding electric power, and the air conditioner that matches the electric power also needs to consume electricity, and these all cause the increase of the cost. And this is just a server waste of costs. Since building a corporate private cloud, these problems have been solved. "How much to buy, when to use new resources, buy one to plug it in." Zhu Dong said easily.

The private cloud's hardware investment in computing resource updates is also more economical than the original model. A few months ago, Zhu Dong and others made a cost-input test on the update of computing resources. At that time, the design was IBM3650m3, two CPUs, each CPU was six cores, 20G memory was probably plus five hard disks, and the cost was 60,000. yuan. With 10 such devices, the cost of equipment designed for computing 120 CPUs is only 600,000 yuan, which is significantly lower than the investment of one or two million yuan in the original model. “The most important thing is that the funds for updating computing resources are invested at any time according to their needs, instead of being pre-invested in the original model at the beginning of design. When and when they spend, how much is spent, this model is seen as It is a good way for companies to really save money.” Zhu Dong said happily.

The news of AVIC's initial success in the private cloud of enterprises has spread like wildfire in the industry. The problem of private cloud building that makes enterprises optimistic but has no breakthrough has dawned. Recently, Zhu Dong is particularly busy. He not only has to be busy with the company's various information systems, but is also invited to participate in a series of CIO forum activities organized by the industry, and he is unabashedly sharing his experiences with many CIOs who are eager to build their own private cloud.

But Zhu Dong believes that not all companies are suitable for private clouds. “Corporate CIOs need to have a deep understanding of what a cloud really is and what it can bring to the enterprise. It also needs an in-depth understanding of the company’s own needs to match the two. If the cloud can better meet the needs of the company at this stage, , then the cloud is a good choice; if the matching is not high, then the cloud may not be the best choice."