Cloud and mobile devices go hand-in-hand, with the cloud\r\npowering many of the most popular mobile apps. For the highly mobile IT support\r\nworker, the tables can be turned, with mobile devices doing anything from\r\nchecking logs to restarting crashed services. Thanks to nearly ubiquitous\r\nwireless access, these tasks can be performed whether you’re on the bus or on\r\nthe beach.
Note: This gallery is also available as an article.
When you think of the cloud, it’s nearly impossible not to\r\nthink of Amazon and its portfolio of cloud offerings. AWS Console,\r\nan app delivered by Amazon, provides a fairly comprehensive mobile\r\nrepresentation of its web-based management console.
Like most management apps,\r\nfunctionality is somewhat limited. But having a way to perform key tasks from a\r\nsmartphone instantly might save you from otherwise frustrated users.
Similar to the AWS Console, Nezumi provides\r\nsmartphone and tablet-based administration for Heroku-based cloud applications.\r\nFor the uninitiated, Heroku provides similar services to Amazon’s cloud, but at\r\na higher level of abstraction, allowing you to “push” applications\r\ndirectly to Heroku without worrying about the technical issues like operating\r\nsystem, load balancer, etc.
From an administrative standpoint, Nezumi provides all the\r\ntools you’d conceivably need to administer an existing Heroku application,\r\nincluding a console tool that lets you execute any arbitrary command. While\r\ndealing with a keyboard-intensive console on a smartphone is never fun, in a\r\npinch, Nezumi might save your afternoon on the beach.
Despite a somewhat clunky user\r\ninterface, Server Auditor provides access to esoteric function keys and other optimizations\r\nsome SSH and Telnet clients miss.
The Mandrill app offers great\r\ngraphical eye candy for a quick overview of message volumes, and it allows you\r\nto view details of individual emails sent by the service, which is useful for\r\ndebugging a lost message.
Patrick Gray works for a leading global professional services firm, where he helps companies rapidly invent and launch new businesses. He is the author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology as well as the companion e-book The Breakthrough CIO's Companion. He has spent over two decades providing strategy consulting services to Fortune 500 Companies and the world's top brands across the globe. Patrick can be reached at patrick.gray@prevoyancegroup.com. All opinions are his and may not represent those of his employer.
