Tag Archive for ‘Google’ rss

The Cloud Power Surge

Posted by Tom Lounibos on Jan 27, 2010. Leave a Comment

Access to infinite compute power is one of cloud computing’s more outlandish and yet most impactful visions. After three years in the Cloud, are we any closer to infinite compute power? Probably not! But some recent developments seem to suggest that real progress is being made in expanding the compute capacity of the Cloud.

Today, there are very few cloud applications that require more then a few servers at any given time. Which explains why there’s been only a minimal amount of discussion about existing cloud capacity. That said, there are a few very popular cloud-based applications that have clearly pushed the envelope of the existing cloud server supply. Companies such as Animoto, Google, Twitter and SOASTA have all stretched the existing fabric of cloud capacity. Their applications require (at times) thousands of cloud servers to handle sudden or unpredictable spikes in web traffic, or in SOASTA’s case, that they create for testing purposes — always bending but not breaking the existing cloud capacity. This should all change in 2010 when demand for cloud servers is expected to explode — leaving all to wonder — will we eventually discover the limits of the cloud’s capacity?

Thankfully, help is on the way. In the next few months there will be a virtual “power surge” in new cloud capacity with at least 8-10 new, on-demand cloud data centers opening up around the world as Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Rackspace (as well as a few yet to be announced vendors) enter and expand into the existing Cloud market. In doing so they will add a much needed power boost to a very fast growing Cloud marketplace. A market that, in the past three years, has been largely defined by the technology and business innovation of a single vendor — Amazon (AWS) — whose impact can never be underestimated. However, for this marketplace to be viable and flourish, there must be more then one dominant player. The continued emergence of new vendors marks a critical milestone in cloud computing’s short history.

The Cloud is about to grow up.

TechCRUNCH: The Gorillas are NOW in the Room

Posted by Tom Lounibos on Feb 28, 2009. Leave a Comment

Last November at a cloud computing conference here in the Valley, I mentioned to a friend that what I found most significant about that specific conference  was who wasn’t in the room. Of course, Amazon was there giving their terrific pitch, but none of the traditional giants were there in any significant way. Where were Microsoft, IBM, SUN, Google, HP, Dell, Oracle, and  Yahoo? After all, each had been making “place setting” pronouncements in the previous months regarding their emerging cloud offerings. There weren’t any CTO’s (except for Werner), no big name sponsorships, no big booths full of sales guys chatting up their new cloud offerings. They were all missing from this action . . . and, subsequently, the action was missing from that conference.  I felt a little like I was attending a John McCain town hall meeting when I knew O’Bama was packing a stadium in a city somewhere close by. Something was missing.

Well NOT anymore. Yesterday’s Cloud Computing conference put on by TechCrunch was cloud computing’s version of Oscar Night.  This time, all the Gorillas were in the same room, at the same time, and NOW all talking cloud.  In fact, loudly proclaiming “Software is Dead”, “Cloud is the new .com”,  ”Cloud is the Future of Technology”, etc.  Each statement made even more significant by who was making them . . . the CTOs of Google, Microsoft, SUN, Facebook, Rackspace, and even the CEO of Salesforce.com.  All proclaiming their long lasting love of the Cloud and cloud services. Now, all sitting at the same table smiling and making nice (although some did poke fun at each other a few times), laying out the future of cloud computing.  There were a few MIA’s even from this conference,  most notably  IBM and HP.  But, all in all, it was quite an impressive group as it was an illustrative moment in time for cloud computing. It was, for many young start-ups, a few large firms like Amazon, and  visionaries like Reuven Cohen who have been toiling for years on bringing us first Elastic then Cloud Computing . . . validation!  A significant sign that the Cloud “game” is changing.  I fully expect that this change will pick up some significant momentum on a global scale in the coming months. After all, everyone knows that you can’t start the really big party until the Gorillas arrive!

contact me at: tlounibos@soasta.com; twitter.com/lounibos

Cloud Adoption: It’s All About the Application

Posted by Tom Lounibos on Feb 26, 2009. 1 Comment

There has been a lot of  discussion recently about cloud adoption. Will the enterprise ever move to the Cloud? Will the Federal government move toward the Cloud to reduce spending? Is the Cloud ready for “prime time” in regards to security, interoperability, and control? These are all great topics and areas that do require our focus in the years to come. However, to some extent they are missing the point of what is actually happening in the real world. In a recent report posted by InformationWeek that surveyed 500 CIOs, over half the respondents in the U.S. indicated they are “already using cloud computing”. These were CIOs responding, not developers on Amazon or Google! Another recent survey found over 67% of U.S. companies “already” use cloud computing in the form of Gmail, calendaring, or CRM.  For all the posturing and positioning about the future of cloud computing, it appears the future is now at least for some companies.   Moving to the Cloud seems to depends more on the Application, then it does the Cloud platform!

contact me at: tlounibos@soasta.com; twitter.com/lounibos

Email Us!
Subscribe to our Feed!
Join us on LinkedIn
Find us on Facebook
Follow our Tweets
See our pics