Hybrid Cloud Computing Strategies: Deploying Enterprise Applications

Cloud Computing Journal: How fast will the last remaining barriers to enterprise-wide cloud adoption melt away – are secure public clouds feasible, for example, or only private ones?

Lawrence Guillory: We believe that "cloud" as a specialized concept will rapidly give way to cloud as simply a dominant enterprise IT paradigm, where public and private cloud resources both have roles in an enterprise’s virtual data center. Private data centers and clouds will have a permanent role, especially if we’re talking about enterprise adoption of cloud for security sensitive applications. Private cloud is a very appealing concept to many enterprises that have security and privacy concerns, but it’s more of an evolutionary step in data center virtualization and lacks many of the financial benefits of public cloud. If enterprises want to see truly transformational change in their virtual data centers, they will need to incorporate both cloud paradigms and embrace hybrid strategies.

We believe that many enterprises will start by implementing low-risk private clouds and test the public cloud waters with public cloud-specific applications and services. As the benefits and flaws of each materialize and as enterprise applications and management tools for the cloud mature, we believe enterprises will look more and more to hybrid strategies for deploying enterprise applications in order to marry the benefits of both cloud paradigms. Supported by clearly defined best practices and tools to rapidly deploy and test apps in the cloud, an increasingly large percentage of IT will run in some kind of cloud infrastructure within the next three years or so.

Cloud Computing Journal: What is the biggest new dimension of consumer cloud computing? Is it Cloud Telecoms, Cloud TV, Cloud Music, or what?

Guillory: All three are moving fast. We believe that Cloud Telecoms are becoming a common denominator driving a lot of the other innovation. Cloud Music and Cloud TV are helping drive "cloud" mainstream, bringing the terms and concepts into everyday vernacular. Of course Cloud TV in particular faces a number of challenges as they negotiate licensing terms with established media powerhouses that are struggling to adapt their businesses to the new paradigm. But just as the music industry finally figured it out and is now seeing sales and profit levels rise again, so will the video content providers.

Cloud Computing Journal: How much of an influence on cloud adoption is the US Government’s continuing support of cloud strategies for all government agencies?

Guillory: Whenever the US Government throws its weight behind something, you do guarantee a certain amount of momentum. But there’s no guarantee whether you’ll end up with viable business solutions or land in a morass of bureaucracy. To capitalize on government support, cloud players have to deliver the ROI and business agility that are driving cloud adoption in the first place.

Cloud Computing Journal: What impact does the arrival of Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, IBM, Cisco and the other giants have on the smaller cloud players?

Guillory: It remains to be seen whether a rising tide will float all boats or swamp the small ones. But for now there appears to be enough demand for providers who specialize in a particular sector or offer individualized "high touch" services to maintain a robust market for different types and sizes of players. As with all emerging markets, there is a natural consolidation process as the larger players subsume the innovators, but a few new key players should emerge as long-term rivals to the established giants.

Cloud Computing Journal: What can Cloud Expo attendees expect to see from you in Santa Clara?

Guillory: Racemi will be talking about and demonstrating our new SaaS migration tool, "Cloud Path," which allows users to quickly and easily migrate servers from their local data center to a public cloud provider of their choice. The process is about as simple as uploading a video to YouTube, and we’ll be registering users for our free public beta at Cloud Expo.