Cloud Computing Takes Center Stage at Interop

The fall Interop show is underway in New York City this week and, not surprisingly, much of this year’s buzz and activity relates to cloud computing. Even some of the other hot discussion topics, such as disaster recovery, seem to revolve around how those services might be delivered more effectively via the cloud.

Cloud-based companies and solutions were everywhere as I walked the show floor and visited with attendees here today.

Cisco, Microsoft, HP, Dell and the other usual industry giants were all in attendance, of course. But there were also a lot of startups and smaller playerstouting a wide array of next-generation products and services.

Almost invariably, most of those new products and services are being delivered via the cloud. I fully expect the industry’s next household names to emerge from the ranks of these innovative startups, although it would be presumptuous to try to pick the eventual winners now.

We met this morning with analysts from Current Analysis and SMB Research and many of their questions also related to better understanding the cloud-based Web hosting sector, and how we at StrataScale define things like the private cloud [where clients have their own dedicated server infrastructure] versus the public cloud [where that infrastructure is shared].

CEOs these days are asking their CIOs “What’s our cloud strategy?” Often the easy answer is to create “captive” web-based systems that keep all of the IT resources under the company’s exclusive control. In the long run, though, these in-house solutions are unlikely to scale as cost-effectively as true cloud solutions, which benefit from the massive economies of scale enabled by combining and sharing virtual resources.

Microsoft’s Robert Wahbe alluded to these cost efficiencies in one of today’s keynote addresses, which suggested that we’re headed towards a “new era for computing” based on cloud products and services. He predicted, in fact, that the cost of deploying servers in the cloud could soon be 10 times cheaper than deploying traditional servers.

The Rise of Mobile Data

It’s rare these days to attend a conference where mobile computing is not discussed one way or another. Interop is no different. Cisco’s Sujai Hajela stated the obvious in a keynote this morning; “people are falling in love with their mobile devices.” He makes the point that this shift in culture is leading to exploding growth of mobile data. Hajela insightfully noted that IT administrators need to create an infrastructure to support this growth. In fact, infrastructure was a big topic in general on the show floor today.

That’s all for today – Watch this space for more from Interop tomorrow!