Friday 12 March 2010
The market leader and only European forum for business leaders and strategists in the cloud space, 2nd PoweredbyCloud (www.poweredbycloud.com) which will take place 8-9 February 2010, has been launched today alongside the Cloud Law summit, the first legal forum for cloud computing in Europe.
The organisers, consulting firm BroadGroup, says that two big themes are emerging for debate at the 2010 PoweredByCloud conference: the business and technological case for Private Cloud and the growth and implications of Mobile Cloud services. The forum will offer industry leaders the opportunity to debate the coming changes, position their organizations to take advantage of them, and network with clients and providers in this fast-moving space.
“The second conference occurs as Cloud shifts from early adopters towards mainstream markets and product packages designed for large enterprises promote outsourced Private Cloud,” commented Tim Jackson, chairman of PoweredbyCloud. “The shift is discernible from a Cloud pitched by outsiders, to one promoted by insiders.”
Cloud also holds profound implications for businesses and governments, by raising contentious issues about privacy and security, government regulation, data location and international competition, as well as the implications of the US Patriot Act and EU Data Directive, which will feature in the Cloud Law summit taking place on 10th February 2010.
Mobile cloud and the hosting and delivery of applications promises an explosion of data transactions and revenue opportunities.
“PoweredbyCloud is the selected forum for decision makers from across Europe, and who are likely to be represented in force at the forum. Any company who is evaluating whether to make a commitment to cloud, or serious about talking to the early adopters outside the US already doing so, then the 2010 event is likely to be the best venue to do that.”
With more than 25% of attendees at C level, the European event is attended by the leadership of cloud service providers, enterprise IT, telcos, solution suppliers, government and regulatory agencies, law firms, investors and professional intermediaries.
The organisers are offering an early discount scheme that runs through to the end of December 2000.
enquiries@poweredbycloud.com
In high tech as elsewhere, it’s often a matter of historical accident and political maneuvering that determines which approach wins out in a particular area of technology. And it can be a high-stakes game for the companies involved, with big players often seeking to position their approach as a “standard” even if it’s only standard in the sense of being ubiquitous (think Microsoft Windows) while the smaller guys tend to favor approaches blessed by standards bodies or at least industry corsortia. In cloud computing, we’re seeing almost all the forms of standards-making coming into play with the primary goal of promoting interoperability among different cloud service providers and between private and public clouds. On the de jure side, the most significant standards-making effort is taking place under the auspices of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), an established organization in the management standards space. AMD, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Novell, Red Hat, Savvis, Sun Microsystems, and VMware announced in April 2009 (PDF) that they would comprise the board for an Open Cloud Standards Incubator within the DMTF.
And it’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) that has clearly emerged as the de facto standard for IaaS. The fact that Amazon is one of the first vendors that comes to mind in just about any discussion of public clouds is one indication. Another is the growing ecosystem of companies like RightScale that add additional features to AWS–not uniquely, but first and foremost. We now even have an open-source project and company, Eucalyptus, that lets organizations implement their own clouds that are compatible with many AWS services. This announcement doesn’t fundamentally change the landscape. However, it does give an already well-established IaaS vendor a point of clear differentiation from its biggest competitor.
Reportlinker
Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue.
Reportlinker Adds Can Cloud Computing Help Enterprises Weather the Economic Storm? (Market Focus)
http://www.reportlinker.com/p0120040/Reportlinker-Adds-Can-Cloud-Computing-Help-Enterprises-Weather-the-Economic-Storm-(Market-Focus).html
Introduction
The rapid pace of proliferation of the term “cloud computing” is nothing short of astonishing. However, many doubts remain regarding the exact scope and definition of the term or the long-term impact of the business model it denotes.
Scope
*Defines cloud computing, describes its model of operation and provides a classification of cloud computing services.
*Considers drivers and inhibitors of cloud computing adoption in the context of the current global recession.
*Outlines the emerging competitive landscape for cloud computing services and related technologies.
*Recommends the stance that enterprises, technology vendors and service providers should adopt regarding cloud computing.
Highlights
In merely 18 months the neologism “cloud computing” has gone from obscurity to pervasiveness. Although elusive to define, the emerging paradigm is clearly capturing the imagination of the IT market. Datamonitor believes that the level of interest in the alternative models of IT consumption is driven by the ongoing commoditization of IT technology.
Datamonitor defines cloud computing as an IT consumption pattern that relies on abstracted resources delivered as utility services. Such approach to IT generation, delivery and deployment allows for a more efficient way to carry out IT tasks due to the inherent benefits of services over products.
While the current global recession will accelerate take-up of cloud computing, the nature of computing resources and a slew of migration challenges mean that the adoption will not be universal. Nevertheless, it remains clear to Datamonitor that the cloud computing model will play an increasingly important role in the future.
Reasons to Purchase
*Gain a clear, detailed and comprehensive understanding of the emerging cloud computing paradigm.
*Identify dominant market trends in order to evaluate opportunities created by the shift to cloud computing.
*Optimise your cloud computing strategy to capitalize on the short, medium and long-term opportunities cloud computing will create.
Overview 1
Catalyst 1
Summary 1
Table of Contents 2
Table of figures 2
Table of tables 2
Introduction to Cloud Computing 3
The term cloud computing is quickly becoming ubiquitous 4
Cloud computing is a new pattern of IT consumption but it is proving elusive to define 5
Cloud computing overlaps with many adjacent categories, rendering the definition difficult 5
Cloud computing: an IT consumption pattern based on the delivery of commoditized resources as a service 6
IT commoditization has occurred through the history of computing 6
Cloud computing may resemble the mainframe era, but it is a fundamentally different phenomenon 7
Cloud computing marks the culmination of the commoditization process 7
Outsourcing, hosting and ASP services persist with the management of identifiable resources 8
Electricity provides the most powerful analogy with cloud computing 8
Both electricity and IT are enabling technologies that went from strategic to commodity assets 8
Unlike electricity, computing is a far more complex phenomenon and far less fungible resource 8
The cloud computing taxonomy 9
Software-Platform-Infrastructure (SPI) model offers the basic cloud computing classification 9
Further refinement of the SPI model should not rely on the proliferation of ‘as a Service’ neologisms 10
Detailed taxonomy schemas focus on segmenting the infrastructure layer 10
The fabric/instance spectrum captures variations in the granularity of computing services provision 11
Do private clouds exist? 12
Ownership should not be the central tenet of cloud computing 12
Technologies enabling local or hybrid cloud infrastructures are readily available 12
Economies of scale dictates that the public/private gap will matter, but bridging the divide will be possible 13
Benefits of cloud computing 14
The benefits of cloud computing are the benefits of services over products 14
Cloud computing allows enterprises to focus on their core business processes 14
Cloud computing closes the gap between IT capacity and IT demand 15
Elasticity is not built into the cloud computing model but ease of provisioning mitigates this effect 16
Variable costs and usage-based models are the principal benefits of cloud computing pricing 17
Capex/opex accounting strategies do not describe the full range of cloud computing pricing models 17
Cloud computing is associated with a broad range of pricing models based on variable cost 17
Cloud computing could act as a deflationary force in the enterprise technology IT market 18
The combination of elasticity and utility pricing engenders IT new economics 18
Inhibitors to cloud computing adoption 19
Trust and migration to an unfamiliar model are the primary inhibitors to cloud computing 19
The substitution of products with external services renders the issue of trust extremely acute 19
The question of trust in cloud service providers also relates to the emotional issue of lock-in 19
Until legal implications are better understood trust issues will continue to be raised 19
Each cloud service model is associated with a specific set of trust challenges 20
Cloud service adoption and management challenges are currently potent inhibitors 21
Matching workloads with the optimal mode of IT delivery may be difficult 21
The business case for cloud computing is often compelling, but may be hard to formulate with precision 21
Enterprises’ procurement and spend management practices will have to evolve to accommodate the cloud 21
The migration of business processes to the cloud is not frictionless 22
Cloud services need to remain dynamic without disrupting existing enterprise IT architectures 22
Conclusion: benefits and inhibitors of the cloud computing model 22
Competitive Landscape 23
The roll-out of cloud infrastructures is an opportunity for commodity hardware vendors 23
Migration into the cloud will boost thin clients, netbooks and handhelds 24
Cloud infrastructure services 24
Online retailer Amazon.com has emerged as the early leader in infrastructure provision 24
GoGrid leads the wave of hosting providers offering instance-based cloud computing infrastructure 25
Others could offer cloud infrastructure services, but may prefer to compete in software or platform layers 25
Infrastructure management platforms have emerged as the critical part of the cloud infrastructure stack 25
Cloud platform competitive landscape is particularly vibrant 26
Proprietary development platforms backed by SaaS vendors are proving popular with ISVs and users 26
Platforms supporting generic development frameworks may lend more control to developers 27
A long tail of standalone platforms relies on intuitive proprietary development and execution environments 27
SaaS vendors now feature in virtually every segment of the enterprise application market 28
Datamonitor Opinion 30
Those that manage to harness the cloud computing model stand to benefit 30
Cloud computing is here to stay, albeit not as the sole model of IT consumption 30
The Global Recession will accelerate the adoption of cloud computing 31
An elastic model that relies on flexible, usage-based pricing will be particularly attractive in the downturn 31
Unchecked proliferation and inadequate management of cloud computing services can fuel the backlash 32
Successful vendors will capitalize on short-term opportunities and prepare for long-term implications 32
Vendors may not have to venture into cloud services, but strategic adjustments will be necessary 32
Recommendations 33
Action points for enterprise technology vendors 33
Action points for enterprise IT decision makers 34
APPENDIX 36
Definitions 36
Methodology 36
Further reading 36
Ask the analyst 37
Datamonitor consulting 37
Disclaimer 37
List of Tables
Table 1: A selection of SaaS vendors by solution area, presented in alphabetical order 28
List of Figures
Figure 1: Only one in three CIOs are comfortable with their department’s maintenance workload 3
Figure 2: Cloud computing appeared in the market in 2007 and has risen quickly to universal prominence 4
Figure 3: Cloud computing overlaps with a range of related terms 5
Figure 4: Cloud computing as an IT consumption model 6
Figure 5: Cloud computing can be contextualized as the ongoing service-based commoditization of IT 7
Figure 6: Software-Platform-Infrastructure (SPI): the basic cloud computing taxonomy model 10
Figure 7: A reference cloud computing taxonomy combining the SPI and Youseff-Butrico-DaSilva models 11
Figure 8: Cloud computing services are floating along the fabric/instance provision spectrum 11
Figure 9: A private cloud is analogous to an intranet; public clouds are approximate the scale of the internet 13
Figure 10: Adopting a service-based IT consumption strategy allows greater focus on strategic issues 14
Figure 11: Gap between IT capacity and demand creates inefficiencies 15
Figure 12: Non-concurrent peaks in demand increase the utilization rate of cloud infrastructures 16
Figure 13: The balance of the principal elements of service provider trust shifts with the mode of provision 20
Figure 14: Outline of the cloud computing competitive landscape segmented by the SPI model 23
Figure 15: Enterprises are likely to blend locally managed resources with public clouds 31
To order this report:
Reportlinker Adds Can Cloud Computing Help Enterprises Weather the Economic Storm? (Market Focus)
http://www.reportlinker.com/p0120040/Reportlinker-Adds-Can-Cloud-Computing-Help-Enterprises-Weather-the-Economic-Storm-(Market-Focus).html
VMware announces VMware vSphere(TM) 4
VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, today announced the general availability of VMware vSphere(TM) 4, delivered ahead of schedule and with the support of an extensive partner ecosystem and customers around the globe.
“With VMware vSphere 4, we are once again raising the bar significantly for businesses that desire to dramatically improve IT performance,” said Raghu Raghuram, vice president and general manager, server business unit, VMware. “The cost savings associated with virtualization are undeniable, and as more customers standardize on VMware to drive 100 percent virtualization, they are realizing the additional benefits that our solutions deliver, including increased flexibility and agility.”
VMware vSphere 4 extends the previous generation VMware platform — VMware Infrastructure 3 — along three dimensions: it delivers the efficiency and performance required to run business critical applications in large scale environments, it provides uncompromised control over application security and service levels, and it preserves customer choice of hardware, OS, application architecture and on-premise vs. off-premise application hosting.
VMware vSphere 4 enables transformative capital and operational expenditure cost savings over and above what was previously achievable, including 30 percent increase in consolidation ratios, 50 percent storage savings, and 20 percent additional power savings. With VMware vSphere 4, even the most resource intensive business critical applications will benefit from the built-in service level assurance capabilities for availability, security and scalability.
Customers are already harnessing VMware vSphere 4 to bring the benefits of cloud computing to their datacenters, creating a practical approach to their own private clouds — cloud computing infrastructures
that span internal IT with external cloud service providers.
“VMware vSphere 4 is the core of our cloud computing initiative because it gives us the cost savings and scalability benefits of cloud computing, with the choice to deploy any application or OS without getting locked into any particular architecture,” said Christopher Rence, CIO, FICO.
For more information on how customers such as Alstom, Campbell Clinic, Defense Contract Management Agency, FICO, Harley Davidson Motor Company and Melbourne IT are using the VMware vSphere 4 platform, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vsphere-customers.html.
Upgrade, Pricing and Promotion:
VMware vSphere 4 is available in six editions meeting the requirements, use cases and budgets of customers of all sizes from small businesses to the largest enterprises and government organizations. Prices start at $166 per processor for all in one virtualization solutions for small businesses and go up to VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus priced at $3,495 per processor delivering features to transform the datacenter into an internal private cloud.
For more information on VMware vSphere 4, including feature and function information, customer endorsement and partner support, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/go/vSphere.
For more information on VMware vSphere 4 pricing, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/go/vSphere/buy.
For more information on the upgrade process to VMware vSphere 4, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/go/vsphere-upgrade-center.
For a guided evaluation of VMware vSphere 4 with access to product demos and evaluation guides, both new and existing customers can visit the VMware vSphere Evaluation Center: http://www.vmware.com/go/EvaluatevSphere.
For more information on VMware vSphere Consulting and Education Services, please visit: http://www.vmware.com/services.
About VMware
VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter — bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes. Customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 130,000 customers and more than 24,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC). For more information, visit www.vmware.com.
VMware and VMware vSphere are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
