UPDATED 13:45 EDT / APRIL 04 2011

A Cloud for the Future

Guest post by David Messina, Vice President, Product Marketing, Xangati

With so much cloud computing hoopla, it is challenging for all of us in the industry to narrow the technology’s focus and keep it from flying too high in the ether. Luckily, I was able to participate as a panelist last week in one of the more grounded cloud discussions – an ACG Silicon Valley event – that did a great job of converging the hype with reality in a format that highlighted real-world examples and case studies.

Entitled “Cloud – the Next Wave of Application Development and Delivery” and moderated by John Furrier of Silicon Angle, the panel did a great job of engaging the audience while sharing their own customer ‘war’ stories.

When I think of cloud hype, I consider the fact that most enterprises have not moved their tier one applications to the cloud – and most likely won’t be doing so for their legacy applications in the foreseeable future.

When I think of cloud reality, I think of Xangati partners like ICF Systems in Europe who – by developing an entirely new application – successfully implemented the world’s first fully functional trading floor in the cloud. And also VMware who – with more than a little assistance from Xangati – designed and managed a VDI vCloud for both VMworld San Francisco and VMworld Copenhagen – tracking thousands of conference lab sessions in the cloud.

In thinking of cloud reality, I also consider research from Yankee Group indicating that 80 percent of IT today is about keeping ‘the lights on.’ But – by using 80 percent of our resources just to keep things moving – we lose the ability to innovate. Efficiencies and automation need to be in place to change that scenario; otherwise, IT continues to spend 80 percent of its resources simply to maintain the status quo.

Only when we achieve those efficiencies will IT be able to fully leverage the cloud in a way that drives economies of scale and spurs new innovation beyond what currently exists. There’s a new film out – “Limitless.” The premise is that we only access 20 percent of our brain, and the movie’s main character gets a tablet that enables him to utilize the remaining 80 percent – freeing up his brainpower to do a lot more stuff. Too bad IT couldn’t just take a tablet like the guy in the movie!

Unfortunately, the industry hasn’t yet come up with a magic tablet. But we do know that having the correct management model in place for emerging technologies such as virtualization and the cloud can significantly drop that percentage!

Another point worth mentioning from the panel is related to the importance of framing the cloud from the vantage point of end user. Companies need to focus on the value that their solution brings to the user and to the particular business at hand. The panel spent a lot of time delving into actual user stories and addressing this component. Successful delivery to the user really is the next stage of cloud computing, and we need to make sure that the experience meets the expectation.

I want to extend a big thanks to Sheryl Chamberlain of EMC for inviting me on the panel, as well as to EMC for hosting the event. I also enjoyed meeting my other co-panelists – Reza Malekzadeh, Nimbula; Michelle Bonat, RumbaFish; and Rob Bernshteyn, Coupa – all of whom shared valuable insights.

What innovation will we see in the next 10 years? Well, we can always hope for that magic tablet. But if that doesn’t happen, Xangati will continue to develop methodologies for advanced efficiencies to enable IT to leverage new and innovative applications for the cloud – because the cloud is here to stay!


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