Outlook 2009: Cloud Computing

BANGALORE, INDIA: Presenting the top five trends in cloud computing, from Narasimha Rao, Country Manager, Akamai, India.

1) Is Cloud Computing “Too Cloudy” for the Enterprise?

Cloud computing has gained significant traction as a concept but not a reality in the enterprise. In reality, few enterprises or upcoming cloud computing offerings will build their own cloud due to TCO Yet cloud computing for SaaS and application delivery has been around for years.

For example, when SaaS providers became mainstream, they needed Akamai’s massively distributed edge network to deliver their applications over the global cloud. As the concept of delivering cloud computing matures, cloud computing vendors will look to Akamai to deliver their offerings. What are the issues, challenges and technologies needed to make cloud computing a reality and how does application acceleration fit into that discussion?

Akamai has the massively distributed edge network, the cloud, to deliver cloud computing to the enterprise.

2) Hey You, Get Off My Cloud!

With so many companies jumping on the cloud computing bandwagon, how is a potential buyer supposed to sort through the noise? If you listened to the industry buzz, it would appear that any and every company has the ability to support cloud computing.

In reality, only a few companies have the ability to build and support a cloud computing infrastructure. But the idea of centralizing computing resources in a cloud outside of the enterprise data center is still appealing. With more than 30,000 servers,

Akamai is among the few that can support a cloud computing environment. Akamai provides the cloud for the delivery of SaaS and application acceleration, today, and will be leveraged for by cloud computing vendors as they emerge.

3) Business Cloud Nine

Much like the early days of the Internet, cloud computing has turned into a land grab for tech vendors. Who owns the cloud?  Who regulates the cloud?  Is the cloud a safe environment to house mission-critical applications? Ultimately, cloud computing is in search of for a vendor to step up and own the cloud—both literally and figuratively. Akamai is already the business cloud with SLAs for SaaS and application acceleration.

Let’s move the generic cloud computing discussion beyond theory to reality.

4) What comes first? The cloud or cloud computing?

Everyone is talking about cloud computing but what about the cloud? Is the unregulated Internet robust enough and safe enough to handle the coming cloud-computing offerings? What about mission-critical business applications? As tech vendors turn cloud computing into a land grab for future business, who’s minding the cloud? Who’s optimized it for business?

Akamai has already built a business cloud infrastructure that offers SLAs for SaaS and application acceleration. How will cloud computing vendors tap into Akamai for success?

5) “Cloudy” Days Ahead? What you need to know?

IT executives are being asked to evaluate the ‘cloud’ to improve business agility while lowering operating and capital costs. Whether for a corporate website, web-enabled business processes, SaaS, SOA, cloud computing, everyone is talking about how the Internet cloud presents new opportunities for delivering enterprise applications and services. Yet very little is known about the “cloud” itself.

How does it work? How does it already play a role today? What new challenges are introduced in-terms of application performance, scale, availability and security?

You will learn about the cloud, the state of the Internet and how it impacts your applications and websites.