Last month's update introduced the ability to label servers with a special color. enStratus assigns no meaning to this color. Instead, you can label a server with a color and place any meaning you like on that color.
From our perspective, one of the most compelling uses of labels is to help control VM sprawl.
VM sprawl happens when people indiscriminately start up virtual machines in the cloud but hesitate to shut them down. Basically, it's much easier to start virtual machines in the cloud than it is to shut them down. Starting a VM is never something destructive; shutting one down is. People consequently hesitate to terminate a cloud instance unless they know for certain that its termination won't have any negative consequences.
enStratus color labels can help you color code your cloud servers so that it's easier to tell what servers can be shut down.
For example, you might establish a process that any unlabeled servers in the cloud can be terminated by any administrator 48 hours after launch. If you want a server to live longer than 48 hours without someone else shutting it down, you must assign it a label. Some labels may represent production systems, while others may represent test or R&D. These colors not only make it easier to kill off servers that were meant for temporary lives, it also makes the process of reviewing what survives simpler.
In the December update, we will expand the presence of labels to machine images and provide the ability to set a label when you launch an instance.
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