For fifty bucks a month, YLastic has come out with a great interface to allow you to manage all your cloud computing interfaces on your web site.
YLastic is a great new startup in Atlanta that aims to make your experience with AWS more GUI, and easier to understand for those who are used to the GUI environment. From picking the kind of Kernel you want to run, to message queuing, as well as being able to set logging, copying the MD5 hash of the file (a must have for security engineers), as well as a number of other services, this product just made everyone’s life easier.
The other good thing about this is that it will allow your information security folks to make exact copies on their own, without having to understand how the cloud works, or where all the arcane bits are. The other interesting part was setting up the logging level on access for the objects. You can also send cloud alerts to your Google Talk, Twitter account, or Jabber IM. While not a secure solution, you can set an alert level that will let you know when you have to go take a look at the system.
In going through the screen casts, you can also get a good idea on how easy it will be to set up your logging of events either to an instance of your system management system, or to an external source (using a VPN) for easier monitoring. While Operating System and Applications purists will tell you that the command prompt is the only way to go, the reality is that many people do their work through the GUI.
Having something like the YLastic product will make the company’s job easier by lowering the level of training that service desk, or less trained personnel will need to do their job. It looks like a cool tool, with many different things that people can use it for. It also makes it look like this will help AWS administration fall in line with the GUI interfaces that people are used to. Base AWS command line interaction is not removed by using this product, but it does lower the bar for education and training in using AWS and opens the door to more support with less training in the future.
You can read their blog here.
