Cloud computing is here and it is real. It is helping businesses lower costs and be more agile. It is allowing startups to lower their setup costs and large enterprises to do R&D faster. It is being used by companies in financial services, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, media, and many others. And B.C. is developing a rich ecosystem of cloud computing companies that you may not know about yet.
For those unfamiliar with the term, cloud computing is the name given to the IT industry's shift towards delivering IT as services. This is only another phase-shift, one of many that the computer industry has already experienced. Using mainframes as a starting point (which offered computing at the "center"), we then moved to minis, then PCs (computing at the edge), then client/server (computing moved back to the center), then the web (computing at both ends), server virtualization (abstracting the applications and software from the hardware underneath), and now automation and self-service.
So where are the opportunities?
With every major phase shift, a lot of things need to be rebuilt. When the industry moved to server virtualization, all of the major infrastructure tools had to be rebuilt. Out of that chaos, VMWare came from nowhere and gained 80% marketshare against its closest competitor Microsoft. And many small companies were born and did great things. That opportunity is now ahead of us again as all of the industry ecosystem is refactored once again. What is up for grabs? Everything: storage, computing, management, billing systems, security, cross-cloud management tools, SOA tools, databases and analytics systems, testing tools and deployment tools. It's a complete ten year rebuild, just like the last cycle. Some stuff will move forward untouched but much of it has to be refactored.
How do you learn more?
With such major transitions, there are a lot of questions. Is this next wave safe? Can I trust my data in the cloud? Why would I give up the server under my desk or in the server room? What is harder? What is easier? How do I separate the noise from the signal? Which vendors will win...and which will fail? Can I really trust Google or Salesforce or Microsoft to own and manage all of my infrastructure? How will I move from Private to Public? Is public computing really public? Is private cloud really cloud?
No matter who you are: an established business owner/manager running a company, a startup team building new products, a CIO, a systems administrator, or a developer, I'd like to invite you to Vancouver's first Cloud Camp, which will be held on March 13, 2010 at Discovery Park.
The event is free and includes coffee and lunch. It runs from 9am-4pm and we will mostly likely gather an informal group together to go for drinks and food somewhere downtown in the evening for those interested in continuing the conversation. Please come with your questions, your concerns, and your ideas. We look forward to seeing you there. http://www.cloudcamp.org/vancouver.
Date: March 13, 2010, from 9:00am to 4:00pm (with a voluntary ad-hoc social event and drinks afterwards at a location TBA).
Location: Discovery Park, 887 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC
Contact Details: Troy Angrignon, Cloud Camp Vancouver Co-Chair, troy@troyangrignon.com, Office: 604-551-8275
Website: www.cloudcamp.org/vancouver
Organizing Committee: Troy Angrignon, Jenny Yang (Stealth cloud co.), Trevor Orsztynowicz (LayerBoom)
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)