Cloud Computing Event NYC

"What makes Cloud Computing more likely to be successful today are both technological and attitudinal changes in the market," noted Tom Trainer, Director of Product Marketing at Gluster, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. "First, commodity computing and storage and virtualization techniques mean that these services can be delivered at price points that make it more than economically feasible," Trainer continued. "Second, Internet bandwidths make it possible to upload large amounts of data to and from these cloud-based infrastructures, easing the choice of platform."

Cloud Computing Journal: A very general question first, about Cloud Computing itself: Surely we've heard all of this before in various forms and guises - grid computing / utility computing, etc.? What is different this time - why is everyone so convinced it will now work?

Tom Trainer: There are certainly some similarities between Cloud Computing and previous instantiations of web-based computing. What makes it more likely to be successful today are both technological and attitudinal changes in the market. First, commodity computing and storage and virtualization techniques mean that these services can be delivered at price points that make it more than economically feasible. It is economically desirable. Second, Internet bandwidths make it possible to upload large amounts of data to and from these cloud-based infrastructures, easing the choice of platform. Organizations and individuals are far more comfortable with the concept of moving data into the cloud. While these two factors as well as others won't ensure success of cloud computing and storage models, they certainly will help

Cloud Computing Journal: What are the three main factors driving companies toward the Cloud?

Trainer: The driving factors can depend on industry and technical requirements and so may vary from company to company. That said, we have seen three primary drivers: flexibility, price, and ease of use. Cloud computing offers extremely flexible computing and storage for organizations. Because hardware can be more fully utilized with reduced or zero overhead, the costs for operating in this environment can be compelling. Finally cloud infrastructures have become more straightforward to utilize, making it easier for more organizations to take advantage of them.

Cloud Computing Journal: And what are the three main barriers preventing some companies from moving some of the on-premise computing to the Cloud?

Trainer: Again the barriers will differ from industry and use case but three we see are the requirement to rewrite applications due to storage requirements, the overall cost of storage, and the skills developed in the on-premise data center are not easily transferable to the cloud. New cloud-based information management skill sets must be learned and put into practice.

Cloud Views

• In this Network World article, Beth Schultz provides six tough questions you should ask your next IaaS vendor.
• In this InfoWorld article, David Linthicum explores why ‘The cloud won’t save you money, and that’s OK.’
• CA Technologies published a Cloud Leaders iPad app that features Q&A profiles and videos of cloud thought leaders and cloud service providers.
• IT is increasingly being bypassed in cloud implementations: this Computerworld article published the results of a survey of C-level executives and business unit leaders. 20 percent of respondents had gone around IT to provision cloud services (why? 61% said it was easier, 50% said it would be faster, and 60% said that the policies to prohibit such actions aren’t real deterrents). On a related topic, this WindowsPro article explores ‘Is cloud computing really killing IT pro jobs?’ (read why Sean Deuby thinks it won’t).