Some of the brightest minds in technology didn’t get cloud at first:
Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?
— Larry Ellison
There’s no way that company exists in a year. (referring to Salesforce.com)
— Tom Siebel
Eventually, it became clear that the cloud wasn’t going anywhere. Quite the contrary, the cloud is now everywhere:
The cloud services companies of all sizes…The cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy. — Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com
You are in good company if you’re working to understand your own cloud options. Yesterday, Internap hosted a webinar entitled “Defining Your Cloud Strategy.” Paul Carmody, Internap’s SVP of Product Management and Business Development, discussed the cloud landscape, the differences between public, private and hybrid clouds and key considerations when selecting a cloud provider.
When asked what type of cloud their business is most interested in, 30% of attendees selected private cloud, 9% chose public cloud and 22% said they were unsure. More interesting is that 39% chose hybrid cloud, indicating that there is strong interest in leveraging the unique strengths of both public and private clouds to support applications and workloads.
The Q&A at the conclusion of the webinar confirmed that while enterprises are actively evaluating, and even experimenting with, the cloud, defining the right cloud strategy for your business can still be challenging.
It’s important to remember that the cloud is a means to an end, not the end in itself. If you want to know more about the webinar, download the presentation. It might just help you define your business needs and chart a path to the cloud that works for you.
