‘What is Cloud?’ Stymies Cloud Camp San Diego
Posted by Margaret Dawson on February 10, 2011
At Cloud Camp San Diego last night, there was a sold out crowd and lively discussion. Attendees from the Open Group San Diego Conference going on this week hosted the camp and comprised about a third of the participants. That meant there were more cloud experts or people who thought they were cloud experts than usual.
Packed room for Cloud Camp San Diego
After attendees enjoyed the free beer and pizza, Dave Nielson opened the camp with his standard introduction and overview of the camps and his background. Then, he proceeded to attempt to present his definition of cloud computing. He barely got the words “On Demand” out of his mouth, when the challenges to his definition began, spurred on by his statement that there were NO true cloud platforms before 2006.
First, he had to admit that he was primarily talking about Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service, and that there were, in fact, Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions before 2006. But even that did not put the debate to rest. When the passionate rhetoric over ‘What is the Cloud‘ did not subside, Dave quickly wrapped up his OSSM (on-demand, shared resources, scalable and measurable) definition (pronounced “awesome” – ha ha), and moved on to the guest speakers of the night.
While I, too, can be passionate about defining the cloud, I have learned that it rarely is worth fighting that battle. What the end user wants to know is whether or not your solution provides the capability to solve his or her business challenge. That is why my new motto is: “don’t buy the cloud, buy the solution”. If you think the cloud is the panacea to all your problems, you will be disappointed. However, there are many cloud solutions that are competitive with on-premise solutions from a feature functionality standpoint, plus they provide benefits unique to the cloud - elasticity, cost-effectiveness, start small and grow scalability, on-demand, etc.
The break-out sessions, a key part of the “unconference” model, were varied and interesting. My colleagues and I felt the one on cloud security was the best, which focused primarily on role based access and data protection on multitenant systems. The group talked a bit about establishing a third party standardized mechanism to sort of replicate LDAPs functionality. One idea around using a certificate-chain based authorization mechanism was well received. The group also talked about compliance, such as PCI DSS, and its role in overall cloud security.
If you haven’t been to a Cloud Camp, I’d highly recommend it. In addition to networking with other technical professionals in your area and learning more about the cloud and its relevance to your business, it also now provides cheap entertainment.
Tags: Cloud Camp, Cloud Computing, IaaS, Open Group, PaaS, SaaS
“Don’t buy the cloud, buy the solution” would have been a very good mantra for everyone going into the conference. As a first-time CloudCamp attendee I was very frustrated that the argument over terminology and history eclipsed the reason why most people were there. Dave is a great guy, but I think statements over the Whens and Whats of “The Cloud” belong in a university setting.
After that unfortunate beginning however, I did have a great time listening to the lightning talks and at the breakout sessions. Hope to make my way to another CloudCamp soon.
Comment by Matt Pardee — February 10, 2011 @ 3:44 pm