Jari Koister, CTO ofGroupSwim, presented and participated in a panel at CloudCamp in Cologne, Germany. The camp was organized in conjunction with the Webhosting Day, one of Europe’s largest events for that sector. In addition to GroupSwim, a number of leading cloud computing companies presented, including Martin Buhr of Amazon, Michael Crandell CEO of Rightscale and Kristof De Spiegeleer Cloud Visionary of SUN, and founder of Q-Layer which was acquired by SUN.
It was interesting how strategies and products have evolved over the last 12 months, and how many more example of applications of cloud computing exist today. At GroupSwim, we leverage cloud computing to provide scale, reduce cost and enable innovation in our product.
My biggest take ways were:
- It is really starting to happen and large enterprises are seriously considering using cloud computing. The most realistic areas of early adoption are primarily the SaaS level applications and the infrastructure level.
- Hosting companies are trying to figure out what to do to avoid being out-maneuvered by new cloud computing solutions.
- Large IT companies like SUN and HP are trying to reposition their products as private cloud products. It is clear there is quite some work to be done in articulating both the positioning and value of such products.
- There is an opportunity for companies that try to reduce the complexity of applying cloud computing. However, it will be a difficult to generalize such solutions for anything except those systems that adhere to standard blueprints.
I think CloudCamp is a great format for companies who want to use cloud computing, learn and share experiences. The Camp is a mix of presentations, unconferences and panels and provides for a great way to share ideas in this new and exiting space. Here are the slides I presented. Let me know what you think.
Tags: collaboration, GroupSwim, Software, Enterprise, Cloud, AmazonS3, EC2
