Derrick Harris
Cloud Innovation Happens Outside Silicon Valley, Too
Post Date: October 30, 2008 @ 6:52 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

I'm heading to Toronto this weekend to be part of a panel on cloud computing at a conference called "Powering Innovation: A National Summit," co-sponsored by Canadian research networks CANARIE and ORION. Although my presentation will focus on the enterprise, the overall focus of the conference takes me back to the early research focus of GRIDtoday -- and I think that's a good thing. Just as the enterprise is struggling with cloud computing and how to best leverage its myriad benefits, so, too, is the research sector.

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Derrick Harris
Windows + Amazon + Azure = A Fascinating 2009
Post Date: October 28, 2008 @ 12:15 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

I'm going to keep this quick: the cloud computing market has changed drastically in the past week. It will be some time before we know what the effects will be, but Microsoft announcing its cloud computing platform and Amazon taking EC2 out of beta (and adding Windows support and an SLA) definitely are game-changers.

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Derrick Harris
Appistry Does Cloud Transition Right; Mosso Gets Political
Post Date: October 27, 2008 @ 12:17 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

Appistry is enabling GoGrid and SkyTap customers to choose Appistry-powered virtual servers, and it is doing it right. From a license perspective, the company is working with the providers to ensure hourly billing for the Appistry images, and the software already is a natural fit for the cloud. And Mosso announced yet another Web site customer that has big potential but few resources.

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Derrick Harris
A Cloud Computing 'Hallelujah!'
Post Date: October 21, 2008 @ 1:49 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

IDC got it right. Hopefully, a major analyst firm making this distinction will help dispell some of the myths and confusion surrounding the cloud. I've been trying recently to differentiate between cloud computing and cloud services, so I was thrilled when I read that IDC predicts cloud services not cloud computing will be a $42 billion industry by 2012.

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Derrick Harris
Google Is Not a Cloud Computing Leader
Post Date: October 17, 2008 @ 12:54 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

There, I said it. And I'll stand by it as long as we're talking about the enterprise. Google is a Web company and is targeting Web users. And even it acknowledges that App Engine is a work in progress. When Google decides to target the enterprise, I think we'll know. I just want to stop hearing about "the Googles and the Amazons" in reference to cloud leaders.

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Derrick Harris
The Cloud Shift: Don't Forget ISVs
Post Date: October 15, 2008 @ 6:21 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

Most cloud computing talk centers around whether users will make the switch -- and rightfully so -- but don't think the whole paradigm begins and ends with what end-users want. ISVs are interested, too, and the more they switch to SaaS delivery models, the more real the cloud becomes.

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Derrick Harris
This 'Stateless' Computing Seems Familiar ...
Post Date: October 13, 2008 @ 8:21 AM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

You might have seen the news on Thursday that Merrill Lynch is using IBM's iDataPlex servers as part of its "stateless computing" strategy. But these stripped-down-yet-optimized boxes are part of IBM's "cloud computing" initiative ... so what gives?

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Derrick Harris
SaaS: Is It Really Cloud Computing?
Post Date: October 07, 2008 @ 4:09 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

Here are some quick thoughts on a couple of yesterday's cloud computing announcements. What these show us are two distinct trends: (1) cloud computing is becoming increasingly viable; and (2) the word "cloud" to describe SaaS is creeping dangerously close to lethal levels.

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Derrick Harris
Putting Windows in the Cloud
Post Date: October 02, 2008 @ 11:20 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

It's as if we literally cannot go through a week without some breakthough announcements in cloud computing. On Wednesday, that news was that both 3Tera and (drum roll, please) Amazon are bringing Windows support into their cloud offerings. (I know, I know: GoGrid has been offering Windows virtual servers for some time -- but Amazon being the cloud poster child and all ...)

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Derrick Harris
Big Energy, Big IT, Big Denial
Post Date: September 29, 2008 @ 11:27 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
Blog: The Essence of 'On-Demand'

Although I'm not the first one to say it, I'm going to say it nonethess: Larry Ellison has a point about cloud computing being "gibberish." But what Ellison -- like oil and coal stalwarts in the energy sector -- fails to understand (or refuses to acknowledge publicly) is that the long-term benefits of "fashionable" trends like clean energy and cloud computing are so strong they all but guarantee success.

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