2014 - A year of Clear Skies for Cloud Computing

As Cloud Computing goes mainstream and drives the collaboration , commerce, cohesion and social mores in the World, the cloud skies are history and let us ring in 2014 as the Year for Clear Skies for Cloud Computing.
Here are 14 thoughts for 2014 -

1. 2014 will be the year where if you are not in the cloud your IT strategy maybe suspect. 
2. 2014 will be the year when cloud computing will be referred to as computing and be the technology for business and individuals.
3. 2014 will be the year when your health parameters and personal life will be logged in the cloud through the internet of things. 
4. 2014 will be the year when mobility will be pass, phablets will rule the end point device market.
5. 2014 will be when cloud security will not longer a concern, rather the cloud will be engine to secure the digital world.
6. 2014 will be the year when SMAC will be an utility for the CMO.
7. 2014 will be the year when Community Clouds will take center stage. 
8. 2014 will be the year when cloud evangelists be history. 
9. 2014 will be when the highest marketing decibels will be from hardware vendors like IBM, Dell, HP.
10. 2014 will be the year when there will be more successful startups outside the Silicon Valley.
11. 2014 will be the year when countries that do not have cloud connectivity be economically crippled.
12. 2014 will be the year when cloud security solutions will make more money then traditional security solutions.
13. 2014 will be the year of consolidation of cloud service providers, a great year for Merger & Acquisition specialists.
14. 2014 will be the year when the valuation of cloud companies will be more then the value of old economy companies in Wall Street.

Wishing you and your family and colleagues a Wonderful Year with clear skies for (Cloud) Computing. 

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Will 2014 be the year of Community Clouds ?

As the year of SMAC the outlier which changed  the fortunes of business across the world in 2013.
Looking into the crystal glass, we see that next year 2014 will the year of Community Clouds which will change the fortunes of companies which specialize in data center solutions.
We will see community clouds being build by the Fortune 500 companies in a collaborative manner, business across Europe will drive the adoption of Community Clouds in Europe to adhere to the ENISA guidelines.
Cloud Computing now moves beyond cost it is about reliability, economics of scale, security and mutli device support and global standards.
Community clouds will be adopted by the banks of Europe, the pharmaceutical companies of Europe, the European Union and more.
Developing regions in the globe too will adopt cloud computing, Africa will lead the charge with large nations like Brazil, Latin American countries and across the APAC region.

A Bus in Mumbai, A community initiative !

Everyone is worried about privacy in the cloud and the community cloud will allow them to build the trust and reliability and economy of scale they are seeking.
In a world that cannot retreat from Digital footprint, the community cloud will be the way forward and 2014 will be the year of Community clouds.
Companies like HP, IBM , DELL will benefit from this thrust as their hybrid cloud adopters will migrate to community clouds from public clouds.
Public clouds will continue to be fueled for the PUBLIC by social media applications, but enterprises will take refuge in Community clouds.
Are you ready with your road-map for the Community Cloud Explosion in 2014?

IBM should ignore AWS !

Recent advertisements have shown IBM  comparing itself against AWS in the cloud.
Here is the ZDNet article http://www.zdnet.com/ibm-takes-aim-at-amazon-web-services-via-marketing-campaign-7000022805/.
It seems to be a let down for Big Blue who has forgotten its blue blood and is stooping to compare itself to a company which is about a decade old.
If you missed my blog on the Big 5 it is worth a read again, since most of the analogies seems to have panned out, here is the link
http://cloudbus.blogspot.in/2011/04/big-5-in-cloud-computing.html?q=the+big+five

Photo Credit : Sudesh

IBM seems to have forgotten that the Elephant can Dance and only  needs to learn new steps in the world of SMAC and Internet of Things.IBM should not discount its loyal customer base who are there to cheer and support IBM through thick and thin; some customers could also teach IBM to dance to their tunes.

IBM has all the arsenal required, but is reluctant to open its chest and take off to the cloud, IBM's survival is not about beating AWS, it needs to do more to make Wall Street smile.
For one it needs to provide all its software applications on a SAAS model ASAP so that it can change the world of computing.
There is no business application that IBM does not have in its arsenal, but it is internally so divided that it has forgotten that the "Sum of parts is greater than Whole".
It needs to bandy all its application under one SAAS roof and make them available to the world.
Here is what IBM has as per its  own web page.
http://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/wps/servlet/ContentHandler/pw_com_swg_application-specific-licensing-solution-areas

The only element that IBM is missing the inertia to put together a Winning GO TO Market strategy.

Here are some pointers which can put IBM on top of the heap in the cloud war.
a. Selling cloud to the Government is not where the action is , the action is in delivering cloud services to the retail computing user. The Government and large business is a saturated market for IBM, and it needs to focus on the smaller user for future growth. Though winning big deals is always a joy, but the such deals are few. The retail is money on the table, more like the dollar bill on the table before the drink in an US bar, this is real money and now.
b. The Planet story is old, IBM needs to move into the clouds and acquire the speed of Mercury to compete in the world of SMAC which is always turbulent. IBM has to learn new steps, and needs to be quick to respond in  the consumer driven marketplace. They need a ship commander like Captain Spock!
c. IBM has to realize that the action is with the end user and not the CIO; the power user has shifted  and IBM has address this segment.
d. IBM will come on top if it can change direction, it has shown the world before it can do this, it is time for the Titanic to change course, if it does not then 2014 may be the Titanic year for IBM.
e. Shooting at AWS is not doing any good for IBM, it is not an IBM way of doing business. Remember AWS has the first mover advantage, IBM is entering the party late, no use shooting the leader of the pack.
If AWS goes there is a good chance that Cloud Computing may also crumble; a 10 year old will die without being given a chance to be a teenager.
This will not help IBM if it is betting big on cloud computing since it will not have any competition unless it believes Google is competition.
If AWS goes down so would Twitter and Facebook and many more social media sites which we take for granted in our daily lives.
IBM should not behave like the fox n the story "Grapes as Sour",
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Grapes
IBM needs to take the mantle of the wizened elder and understand there is space for all including AWS and IBM in the cloud and  realize that good  wine is not sour grapes.

Do share your thoughts. I am an old IBM fan and wish Big Blue all Success.

The Gold Rush for Secure Clouds

Europe has blown the War Bugle, they will build their own EU clouds and secure their data and applications within the boundaries of Europe.
The Rest of the World will also follow suit in building their own Secure clouds for their business, government and anything else that needs cloud computing.
The Gold Rush is on for Secure Clouds built bottom up, it is going to be a bonanza for leaders who offer virtualisation solutions like VMWare and its competition including Microsoft Azure & others, Data Center Equipment hardware providers  IBM, DELL, HP and CISCO and others.
The marketing teams in these companies that provide the building material for cloud computing are going to be busy and laughing all the way to the bank. Their fears of the cheap Public Cloud will be history and no longer a challenge to their growth and revenues.

Secure Clouds in the Horizon will herald the demise of Public Clouds.

The cloud pundits who understand how to put together a cloud computing environment will be in demand, irrespective of their nationality. Cloud Architects who can deliver secure clouds will be  paid in gold for their skills.
China has shown how to build a secure national cloud by buying the Azure platform from Microsoft other countries will follow.
Open Source Computing may be used by countries who have good cloud computing  talent like India, China and Eastern Europe.
Are you ready for the Gold Rush, even if you do not understand the cloud it is a great time to invest in companies which provide the hardware, software and services in building secure clouds.
It is also time for to dis-invest from Public Clouds and SAAS solutions in the Public Clouds, their demise will be swift once these secure clouds are build, the decline could start from  New Year if the requirement for Secure Clouds becomes stronger
Are you ready for the Gold Rush for Secure Clouds, there is gold for everyone.

Cloud Appliance the Boat for Enterprise Cloud Computing

Cloud Appliances

A cloud appliance is an off the shelf computing  equipment delivered fully assembled and tested, with the software stack loaded and configured. When the appliance is connected to the power and network and turned on, it works. This is one of the easiest methods to build a private cloud as an IAAS deployment, so if you had three cloud appliances in three data centers and a network, all you need is to plug in the three cloud appliances and Presto you have an enterprise (private)  cloud. 

Cloud Appliance the Boat for Enterprise Cloud Computing

all photos in this blog courtesy Ajay Gopal (aj2z on Twitter)

Today's cloud appliance are more matured and can be deployed for connecting to the public cloud thus creating a hybrid cloud. So now you have your enterprise private cloud and you can connect to the large and powerful public cloud using the cloud appliance. 

This allows the the enterprise to use the cloud appliance as a boat to the public cloud and when the enterprise is ready it can discard its own private cloud by pulling the plug on the cloud appliance (Boat).
I call the cloud appliance a  Boat and not a Bridge because the cloud appliance is used like a boat to cross a body of water at the end of the crossing you leave the boat behind whereas a Bridge is a permanent  structure and is a continuous link . 
As understanding the cloud offering and the marriage with the cloud service providers strengthens, the enterprise  can  abandon the boat and board the Mother ship ( Public Cloud). Of course if the business still requires it  can continue to run the enterprise private cloud and leverage on the public cloud thus benefiting from the strength and security  of a hybrid cloud. 
The business/enterprise will decide on what will run on the Public Cloud and what will run on the enterprise (private) cloud.  The Control remains with the business until it Trusts the public cloud . 

Barriers to using the Powerful Public cloud will be overcome with use of Cloud Appliance. 

The introduction of the cloud appliance accelerates the adoption of the public cloud by the enterprise with the comfort of the CIO/CTO  that the team members and technology investments will not be made redundant immediately, rather they will be phased out in a structured and planned time frame. 
Many cloud service providers and appliance vendors  have introduced or have plans to introduce cloud appliances, they include, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, HP, AMAX offers CloudMax, Intalio and OpenBravo Cloud Appliance to name a few. 


IBM's Cloud Appliance
IBM's offering of Cloud Appliance is its  Workload Deployer v3.0 and WebSphere CloudBurst Appliance V2.0.
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/webservers/workload-deployer/features/index.html?S_CMP=wspace

IBM will now be able to offer its Enterprise Customer a ride into Public Cloud Computing offered by IBM which has almost all the popular  Enterprise Applications under its Hood. 

This will allow BIG BLUE an accelerated ride into the cloud computing market and I can sign off by stating that the Elephant has not Forgotten to Dance. 
Footnote: This post was inspired by Mr. Anupam Garg (anupam.gaur@in.ibm.com) of IBM who shared about  IBM's cloud appliance offering at the Mumbai Cloud Camp last week. 

Demise of Messaging is the Advent of Computing

The fortunes of the glorious mobile telephony and  messaging companies RIM the makers of  Black Berry (BB) and Nokia the other awesome company are suddenly losing market share and their bottom lines are hurting.
The new stars are Apple and Samsung, what a difference in about two years, the tablet has come to rule and the handheld mobile is also used for telephony and messaging.
The hand held device is today's replacement for the laptop and heralds the end of tired shoulders and still better laptop burns on where the laptop normally rests.
This is truly the demise of messaging and the advent of computing, with the three pieces the cloud computing service provider, the telco who provides the bandwidth and the endpoint device provided by Apple, Samsung and few others who are ready to ride this change into the world of tablets.
The world is changing and what has this to do with the cloud, the power of these tablets are derived from applications from the cloud, the Facebook, Linkedin and the numerous Apple and Android applications available on the cloud.
Apple has become bolder and launched its icloud, what a way to disrupt the way the world computes and entertains itself.   Samsung already leverages on the cloud offering from Google.
Apple has tried to restrain Samsung with help from the U.S. courts, the marketing warfare is becoming bitter, the swords are out for battle between Apple and Samsung.
Why should Apple be so worried about Samsung, this is because Samsung has succeeded so well without owning the operating system. Samsung owes its tablet success to the Android operating System and to a significant extent to the cloud applications hosted by Google.
Apple has two adversaries Samsung and Google to fight and to add to its woes there are more applications available in the Android marketplace, Apple understands in the long haul it may lose to the Korean giant Samsung which builds its products itself unlike Apple which is dependent of China .
Apple has to beat  the Korean giant Samsung at the earliest to sustain its dominant position.
The next wave of tablet users are not going to be the brand conscious individuals with deep pockets which has been Apple's consumer base, it is going to be users who expect "More for Less" from their devices and investments. This is where Samsung will score over Apple !
This competition will take cloud computing to the next level, with cheaper, faster and better handheld devices from both Apple and Samsung.  This heralds a new epoch in evolution of the  Cloud.
What is left in this game is the consolidation of the internet bandwith providers on wireless the Verizons and others, the next battle will be in owning this wireless bandwidth which is not finite.
So it is time for better compression technology and better bandwidth utilisation from Telcos, Microsoft has done some innovation in this by using the unused TV bandwidths, but they will need to find the telecom carriers to finally move into this spectrum.
These disruptive changes will leave many great companies like RIM, Nokia and Microsoft gasping for breath, the new leaders will be Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, Verizon and many more who have matured in offering cloud computing services and support.
 The battle is moving to the next level when the biggies like Dell, HP, IBM & Cisco catch up by acquisitions or launch of new cloud services, this is good news for cloud computing and the customer.