Sunshine and Business Insight on Day 3 at Cloud Expo
Posted by Stuart Lisk on November 4, 2010
Day three of the 7th International Cloud Computing Expo did not have to compete with any election or championship baseball game, but it did have to deal with the morning after from a number of vendor-sponsored cocktail parties. This led to quiet morning sessions with few attendees.
It was too bad, as the content at the sessions I attended seemed a step up and better suited to address business issues rather than the technology or products. One of the most insightful statements of the day was by Al Bender of Unisys during his late-day session, titled: “Public vs Private Cloud: Which Version of Cloud Computing Will You Adopt?”, when he said, “Cloud computing is about business and not the technology.”
Hubspan bloggers and execs have been saying this for months, and Max and Margaret made this their opening point in their Monday session on cloud computing platforms. It seems so obvious, and yet so few people talk about this.
I believe Al’s presentation should have been scheduled earlier in the week to help attendees understand the premise of why a cloud implementation can solve today’s enterprise business problems. Unlike other speakers that seemed to fall prey to the typical XaaS options, Al discussed the differences in the different type of public and private clouds and how they all may have a play in a company’s strategy.
Unfortunately, other speakers of the day spent more time giving product pitches, such as the session on “Defining your Cloud Strategy and Roadmap.” It should have been called “Microsoft Windows Azure Is For You No Matter What Your Needs Are”. This speaker spent no time discussing cloud strategy and roadmapping for success, but instead used his entire time reviewing Azure’s features and benefits. Now, I am sure Windows Azure is a fine platform, but this session exasperated the already product commercial heavy sessions at this conference about which I have tweeted and Hubspan has previously blogged.
But enough negativity – I also want to give kudos to the morning Keynote session by Pete Malcolm from Abiquo, titled: “The Key to Enterprise Cloud Adoption? It’s a Matter of Business Policy”. Even though he did spend time reviewing Abiquo’s solution, he at least started with the problem and then explained how his products addressed business policies that needed to be instituted in the cloud. It was well done, and the product inclusions were subtle.
On a side note, the weather has been great in Santa Clara; warm and sunny. Wonderful for the conference sponsored lunches out in the courtyard. And activity and interest in the exhibit hall remained high, with folks wanting to learn more about many different solutions there, including Hubspan’s.
Tags: Abiquo, Cloud Computing Expo, Private Clouds, Unisys, Windows Azure
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