The Wisdom of the Clouds

If you are a value-added reseller or systems integrator today--a member of the so-called "channel"--you are keenly aware of the new reality that cloud computing is bringing to bear. In cloud, your traditional technology suppliers are now interfacing directly with the customer, and the channel's "value add" of customer relationship management, technology delivery, and solutions development is being seriously threatened.

Or at least so it seems on the surface. Thomas Bittman, a vice president and distinguished analyst covering cloud computing at Gartner, wrote a post recently that I thought summed up the reality facing … Read more

Last week, I attended the Cloud Connect Conference and Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., which is one of the biggest gatherings of cloud thought leaders and practitioners of the year. What I took away from that week was both a firm confirmation of the concepts I have covered in the past, and a surprising revelation of the maturity of some organizations with respect to those practices.

Most notably, there is a growing gap between the culture and practices of organizations that have embraced cloud as a primary IT model, and those that are trying to fit the cloud into their … Read more

In my last post, I gave you an outline of what I see as the three biggest "killer apps" of cloud computing. There is, however, another facet to the cloud story that I think is very exciting right now: innovation on the core technical and operational models that form the basis of distributed computing.

What I mean by that is this: cloud has made new ways of acquiring and consuming infrastructure, platforms, and applications readily available to an increasingly broad market of potential users. The financial model--pay-as-you-go--makes failure much, much cheaper than it was with models in which … Read more

The year 2010 will probably be remembered at the year that cloud computing "shaped" itself into a tangible concept, at least amongst those of us who care. 2011, on the other hand, will likely be the year in which IT figures out how to actually use cloud concepts.

Of course there are success stories dating back two or more years, but what is happening so far in 2011 is a growing body of businesses, data, and applications that were born and cultivated in the cloud. Add to that the online and conference communities forming around cloud and new … Read more

The announcement of the latest release from open-source cloud-management software project OpenStack is remarkable in many ways. The rapidly growing OpenStack community is gaining ground on a mature platform--this release adds image management and support for unlimited object sizes in its object storage service software--and there were a number of new IT vendors added to the list of supporters.

ZDNet UK covered the basics of the announcement, so I won't pick it apart here. Rather, I want to focus on one of the most interesting aspects of many of the vendors announcing their participation with this release.

Namely, several … Read more

Energy analogies abound with respect to cloud computing and its effect on enterprise IT operations and economics. Nick Carr's seminal work, "The Big Switch," laid out the case for why computing will be subject to many of the same forces as the electricity market was in the early 20th century. While I've pointed out the analogy isn't perfect, I will say there are often interesting parallels that are worth exploring.

One example is the ongoing discussion about the effect of cheaper computing on the reduction (or lack thereof) of future IT expenditures. Simon Wardley, a … Read more

In part 1 of this two-part series, I highlighted my thoughts on why the long-term future of the cloud, at least for consumer and small business, belongs to integrated "one-stop" cloud suites, and why Microsoft and Google are the two companies best positioned for this opportunity. However, I was also clear that success in this space for both companies is far from guaranteed.

The truth is that several potential competitors could overtake either--or both--companies, if they should fail to execute successfully. Here are some of my favorites, and a few that should be contenders but really aren't, … Read more

I am often asked which companies I think will be the most dominant names in IT 10 years from now, thanks to cloud computing. My answer often surprises those who ask; not because the two companies I believe will be the most recongnized names in cloud-based IT services aren't considered players today, but rather because of why I believe they will be so recongized.

In this, the first of two posts exploring the companies that can best exploit the cloud model, I'll identify those two companies and explain why they best fit the needs of a large percentage … Read more

What a year 2010 has been for cloud computing.

We've seen an amazing year of innovation, disruption, and adoption--one I personally think will go down in history as one of the most significant years in computing history. Without a doubt, a significant new tool has been added to the IT toolbox, and its one that will eventually replace most of the tools we know today.

Don't agree with me? Well, with the help of my generous Twitter community--and in the spirit of the season here in the US--I've assembled 12 innovations and announcements from 2010 that had … Read more