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?

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.