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Top 10 List: What is Cloud?

May 22nd, 2009

Admittedly, I’m not an expert on cloud. But after 3 days at EMC World 2009- and perhaps a few months of heavy immersion and indoctrination prior - a pretty clear picture is forming in my head. The clouds are lifting (or forming, depending on how you look at it).

Head in the Cloud?

This past Tuesday at the show, Howard Elias (President, EMC Global Services and Resource Management Software Group) hosted a tremendous panel on “Clouds and the Future of Enterprise IT.” He was joined by EMC executives Chris Gahagan, Mike Feinberg, Jeff Nick, and VMware VP Dan Chu. Together, they painted a holistic view of cloud - where it is and where it’s going. And combined with numerous discussions with customers, partners, and colleagues - a top 10 list began to form. I did take furious notes, but have left out specific attributions as many of the comments came in dialog and the interactions.

This One Goes to 11

Cloud is Architecture: It’s the ability to use capacity as needed and give it back with internal to external federation.
Cloud is a Journey: As noted in a previous blog, this metaphor permeates the evolutionary nature of the cloud with the disconnecting of physical infrastructure from the application world. It requires management at a service-level not the device level - thus requiring you to think about IT management differently.
Cloud is Virtualization: Just keep virtualizing and one day you’ll wake up in the cloud. Virtualization is clearly the first leg of the journey but requires you to go beyond just server to include network and storage. Network virtualization allows multiple protocols to run over the same medium, with the rapid developments around FCOE being a great proof point.
Cloud is Federation: By federating across internal cloud (virtualized data center) and external cloud, the true elasticity of computing becomes a reality. Balance that with proper security to maintain privacy and transparency and practical federation can happen
Cloud is Open: Or at least it should be. Between manifestos and rampant debates, it’s hard to argue with the concept of being able to evolve your existing applications without rewriting them to a proprietary architecture. With opennes comes choice and a true marketplace.
Cloud is an Overflow Mechanism: The analogy of cloud as an attic was brought up by the panel - it’s there when you need it, you can access it quickly but only when your current capacity maxes out. Sounds like my garage these days!
Cloud is Choice: If virtualization is all about efficiency of the infrastructure, when you mix in the right combination of automation, security, process and federation - you now have the choice to elastically expand and contract your resource pools based on application loads, service levels, and cost - a perfect market has developed.
Cloud is a Catalyst: Virtualization brings new levels of native automation, simplicity, and speed. But don’t stop there. Virtualization and cloud should be the catalyst to change the way you manage IT. Embrace new tools and processes that take advantage of this new layer and raise IT management to a new level - breaking away from an older generation of tools meant to manage an older generation of technology.
Cloud is OPEX, Too: It’s not all about Capex. That was the first wave of capital expenditure benefits that consolidation brought. Great. Now it’s time for Phase II - operational expenses - how to get the equivalent Opex benefit to match or exceed your Capex benefit (see No. 8).
Cloud is Here: With EMC Atmos announcements, the VMware VSphere and EMC V-Max launches, and the wide range of emerging virtualization management tools designed for the virtualized data center, the CLOUD IS HERE. And building on that are a variety of SaaS, service provider, and technology advancements. EMC World
2009 has had many proof points to add to the chorus.

"But THIS List Goes to 11..."
Cloud is One Louder: Yes, this list goes to 11. Rock on!