VMware and the one question that matters most in cloud marketing

Grazed from GigaOM.  Author: James Urquhart.

I wrote in July about how cloud computing isn’t the same for every enterprise, and the true implications of this have been becoming clearer to many over the last several months. VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Service, in particular, offers a view of an entirely different cloud story targeted at a largely different buyer audience than the likes of Amazon, Microsoft or Google.

What VMware’s story most demonstrates to me is the one question that matters more than any other when it comes to cloud buying patterns: To what extent does a company engage in software development to define its business?  The answer to this question will determine the mix of technologies and services that company will demand — at least for the next few years…

It starts with buyers

Before I explain, let me first ask a key question to people marketing cloud products and services. It’s pretty simple, actually: Who are your buyers, and how are they buying?  When it comes to so-called enterprise IT, I would argue there are actually two key buyers these days: traditional IT operations, and “the business,” which includes software developers building applications to enhance the business (or even be the business). These two buyers act differently, and they want to buy different things…

Read more from the source @ http://gigaom.com/2013/09/29/vmware-and-the-one-question-that-matters-most-in-cloud-marketing/