The State of the Cloud: What’s Real, What’s Not?

By Jake Sorofman

If you read the IT press these days, you’ll probably notice that the only trend more fashionable than cloud computing is the growing drumbeat of cloud bashers.

This dissent contributes to a healthy debate, keeps vendors in check and helps to deflate sweeping platitudes and empty promises. Some of it is well-argued and thoughtful, but I believe that much or most is the product of bandwagon naysayers trading on the momentum of a narrative—a narrative with a prevailing theme of “cloud computing, the hype machine.”

So, is cloud over-hyped? Yes and no.

On the one hand, incumbents and new entrants have stuck to this trend like seat covers on a Volkswagen. Cloud is an important and potentially transformational macro trend for IT. As a result, throngs of vendors are trying to get a piece of the pie. This has created a cacophony of voices that makes this one noisy space, indeed.

But, in my mind, that doesn’t diminish its value or importance. If you ask me, cloud computing has transformational potential far exceeding the most hyperbolic headlines. Consider what cloud could mean for the entire IT value chain—from how applications are developed, how and where they’re deployed, how compute resources are provisioned and paid for—and what all of this means for developers, business lines, and most notably, corporate IT. It’s enough to make your head spin—particularly as you ponder the notion that cloud may actually be under-hyped.

Personally, I believe that cloud will change everything—it just happens to be very early days, and this trend is still awkwardly finding its voice and its legs.

This is why rPath has organized “State of the Cloud,” a high-profile online panel discussion that explores what’s real and what’s not in the cloud today. Think of it as a close examination of present-state realities and future-state promises.

We’ll hear from today’s end-user practitioners, including Kate Keahey of the U.S. Department of Defense Argonne National Lab and Klemens Wengert on behalf of Wendy’s International. These short case studies will help establish a user context for an interactive discussion led by James Staten of Forrester Research.

The discussion will include some of the most influential voices in cloud computing today, including Lew Moorman, CSO of Rackspace; Michael Crandell, CEO of RightScale; Simon Crosby, CTO of Citrix; and, Erik Troan, CTO of rPath.

The online event takes place on Thursday, March 26th, 2pm ET. It’s free-of-charge, open to the public and promises to be one of the definitive discussions on where we are with this whole cloud thing—what’s real and what’s not? We’ll aim to enlighten.

Forrester’s James Staten will incorporate your questions and Twitter chatter into the dialogue. You can start shaping the dialogue today by sharing your thoughts on Twitter @ #stateofcloud. These comments will directly influence the discussion.

So, what do you see as the state of the cloud? Where are you seeing value today? What are today’s adoption patterns? Where are organizations starting? Does the hype match the promise, or do you think cloud is new lipstick on an old pig? Who stands to win? Who stands to lose? What roles and organizations must change to survive? Join the conversation as we explore the State of the Cloud and separate what’s real and what’s not.

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Jake Sorofman is vice president of marketing for rPath, the pioneer and leader in technology for virtualizing software applications and managing the complete lifecycle of virtual appliances and application images for cloud and virtualized environments. Learn more about rPath at http://www.rpath.com, and contact Jake at jsorofman@rpath.com.

For more resources on Cloud Computing check out: THE CLOUD NETWORK

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Gary E. Smith
Cloud Architect - Doing IT in the Clouds

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