Why are APIs so important in clouds? Do APIs have to be open? How fast or slow will standardization in the cloud be? Why is ensuring high availability for the cloud service critical?
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, will answer these questions and address cloud standards, APIs and the critical question: Will we end up with one, two or more competing cloud standards? And, how will this affect the evolution and adoption of cloud comput...| By Elizabeth White | Article Rating: |
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| May 15, 2010 08:00 AM EDT | Reads: |
4,564 |
Cloud Expo Europe €550 Savings here!
Cloud Expo West $800 Savings here!
"Cloud is setting expectations among end users for a fast hands-on experience," stated Kevin Epstein, VP of Marketing at CloudShare, in this exclusive post-show interview with Cloud Expo Chair Jeremy Geelan.
As CloudShare is "a fan of ubiquity and democratization of IT," Epstein notes that "surrounded by Clouds - looks like computing heaven to us."
Explore Cloud Expo Sponsorship & Exhibit Opportunities !
Cloud Computing Journal: A very general question first, about Cloud Computing itself: Surely we've heard all of this before in various forms and guises - grid computing / utility computing, etc.? What is different this time - why is everyone so convinced it will now work?
Epstein: Proof is in ease of use - and corresponding actual usage. We have both.
Remember that the vision of "utility" computing was that it would be like plugging in a toaster; power would just be there. But even existing public clouds to-date haven't made getting resources that easy, and add to the complexity by charging for every element (machines, software licenses, bandwidth, storage, etc.).
In contrast, with CloudShare, we've watched average IT users who've never used "Cloud" before sign up and set up six networked servers in five minutes - then issue 10 copies in 60 seconds.
It's fast. It's easy. It's free. The thousands of virtual machines created by our Pro users would suggest it's working.
Cloud Computing Journal: What are the three main factors driving CIOs toward the Cloud?
Epstein: We believe flexibility, responsiveness, and cost considerations make Clouds attractive to CIOs.
Consider what Steven Peltzman, CIO of MOMA, recently said about CloudShare:
"CloudShare is the easiest way I've seen to get started with Cloud Computing. Click and there's extra copies of your servers in the Cloud. Pay for what you use and shut it off again. I recommend CloudShare if you want to lower the IT total cost of ownership, make better use of your skilled (and unskilled) staff, and get things done faster."
Cloud Computing Journal: And what are the three main barriers preventing some CIOs from moving some of the on-premise computing to the Cloud?
Epstein: Based on a survey we did, it's -not- "Security," as is so commonly cited.
The researcher we hired cites the top three factors respondents cited as "Very Important" to have in a Cloud provider as:
- Support for their existing in-house IT architecture, including unmodified operating systems, applications and network topology (71 percent)
- An all-inclusive business model that includes servers, bandwidth and storage, rather than a 'nickel-and-diming' approach (57 percent).
- "Point-and-click" level of ease of use (54 percent).
http://www.cloudshare.com/News/10-03-22/New_Survey_Reveals_Change_in_Cloud_Computing_Drivers.aspx
Cloud Computing Journal: How does your own company's offering/s assist CIOs and organizations/companies?
Epstein: Cloud is setting expectations among end users for a fast hands-on experience. Why do I need to wait for email? I have Gmail. Why wait for CRM? I have Salesforce.com - it's adding a bit of pressure to IT.
We're there for the IT folks - we let them provide their existing systems, that they know how to administer and run, but we let them do that as-is in the cloud, so they get the instant access, global access, backup, reliability, etc. (and get it very, very quickly)
The CloudShare IT experience is like the VMware IT experience; it's intuitive because you interact with the cloud/virtual machines just like you interact with your local/physical environment today.
As Steven Peltzman said above - we're fast, easy, and save you money. Not a bad start...
Cloud Computing Journal: Are there other players in the Cloud ecosystem offering the same - or is your company unique? Why?
Epstein: We feel a little bit like we imagine WebEx felt in the early days. After all, when WebEx started, there were many "streaming media" companies.
Few people understood why WebEx was different - why it wasn't just a hosted media server with a web portal.
There are many would-be Cloud companies, and hosting companies. But we can't name another one that combines our ease of use, our ease of Cloud entry (our patented FastUpload feature moves your local VMs into the Cloud in 15 minutes), and our analytics and management platform.
But don't take our word for it - we're also the only Cloud company that offers the basic service for individuals for free (at http://cloudshare.com/pro )
Cloud Computing Journal: We hear talk of a Cloud Revolution and also of a Cloud "evolution" - either way, what kind of time span are we talking about, do you think. In other words, for how long is Cloud Computing going to exert its pull on the minds, hearts, and budgets of all involved in modern-day Enterprise IT?
Epstein: Here at CloudShare, we're a fan of ubiquity and democratization of IT.
Consider that email, the most ubiquitous internet tool, was once a mysterious thing, available only after you were given "an account" on the corporate system?
Remember that cell phones were once a status symbol, because so few people had them?
We want Cloud to be as easy to use and ubiquitous as Webex for PowerPoint, or mobile phones and Gmail.
Anyone, at any time, should be able to put copies of their IT in the cloud, instantly - be it for sales, tech support, training, remote sites, QA use, you name it.
So we'd suggest that Cloud Computing isn't a Revolution or an "evolution," but more of a tectonic shift. The Internet is here; now, it's going always-on / always-available to individuals, via wireless devices... and the computers to which those devices connect constitute the Cloud.
Surrounded by Clouds - looks like computing heaven to us. :)

A Rock Star Faculty, Top Keynotes, Sessions, and Top Delegates!
Cloud Expo 2010 West, November 1-4, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, California will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading Cloud industry players in the world.
The growth and success of Cloud Computing will be on display at the upcoming Cloud Expo conferences and exhibitions in Prague June 21-22 and Santa Clara November 1-4.
The recent Cloud Expo at the Javits Center in New York City was the largest Cloud Computing conference ever produced, more sponsors, exhibitors and delegates than all other Cloud events of the year combined!

All main layers of the Cloud ecosystem will be represented in the6th and 7th International Cloud Expo - the infrastructure players, the platform providers, and those offering applications, and they'll all be here to speak, sponsor, exhibit and network.
"Cloud Expo was announced on February 24, 2007, the day the term ‘cloud computing' was coined," said Fuat Kircaali, founder and chairman of SYS-CON Events, Inc. "Cloud has become synonymous with ‘computing' and ‘software' in two short years, and this event has become the new PC Expo, Comdex, and InternetWorld of our decade. By 2012, more than 50,000 delegates per year will be attending Cloud Expo."

Sponsorship Opportunities
for Cloud Expo Prague and Santa Clara
Cloud Expo 2010 Europe and Cloud Expo 2010 West "show prospectus" have shipped. Sponsorship, exhibit, and keynote opportunities can be obtained from Carmen Gonzalez by email at events (at) sys-con.com, or by phone 201 802 3021.
Early Bird Registration Options
for Cloud Expo Prague and Santa Clara
Cloud Expo delegates can pre-register for the Cloud Expo Europe with €550+ savings here and for Cloud Expo West with $800+ savings here.
About SYS-CON Media & Events
SYS-CON Media (www.sys-con.com) has since 1994 been connecting technology companies and customers through a comprehensive content stream at www.sys-con.com - featuring over forty focused subject areas, from Cloud Computing to Web Security - interwoven with market-leading full-scale conferences produced by SYS-CON Events. The company's internationally recognized brands include among others Cloud Computing Expo (www.CloudComputingExpo.com), Virtualization Conference & Expo (www.VirtualizationConference.com), Government IT Conference & Expo (www.GovITExpo.com), Cloud Computing Bootcamp (www.CloudComputingBootcamp.com), and UlitzerLive! New Media Conference & Expo (http://events.sys-con.com).
Cloud Expo, Cloud Expo East, Cloud Expo West, Cloud Expo Silicon Valley, Cloud Expo Europe, Cloud Expo Tokyo, Cloud Expo Prague, Cloud Expo Hong Kong, Cloud Expo Sao Paolo are trademarks and /or registered trademarks (USPTO serial number 85009040) of Cloud Expo, Inc.
Published May 15, 2010 Reads 4,564
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More Stories By Elizabeth White
Elizabeth is an assistant news editor at SYS-CON Events, Inc. where annual high-energy conferences are created with industry-leading players. Elizabeth works on the SYS-CON Events team behind Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, Virtualization Conference & Expo, GovIT Expo, and the UlitzerLive! New-Media Conference & Expo.
Why are APIs so important in clouds? Do APIs have to be open? How fast or slow will standardization in the cloud be? Why is ensuring high availability for the cloud service critical?
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, will answer these questions and address cloud standards, APIs and the critical question: Will we end up with one, two or more competing cloud standards? And, how will this affect the evolution and adoption of cloud comput...Feb. 13, 2012 02:42 PM EST Reads: 330 |
By Elizabeth White Very few trends in IT have generated as much buzz as cloud computing. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Mark Hinkle, Director, Cloud Computing Community at Citrix, will cut through the hype and quickly clarify the ontology for cloud computing. The bulk of the conversation will focus on the open source software that can be used to build compute clouds (infrastructure-as-a-service) and the complementary open source management tools that can be combined to automate the management...Feb. 13, 2012 01:21 PM EST Reads: 538 |
By Pat Romanski The proliferation of device connectivity is redefining the functionality requirements and capabilities of many embedded systems as more and more of these devices look to leverage the “Cloud.” While many commercial software and hardware component vendors have begun to realign their value propositions to satisfy growing demand, commercial-off-the-shelf products (COTS) alone cannot meet every OEM’s needs. As a result, the Embedded Cloud has injected a new level of uncertainty and a new competitive ...Feb. 13, 2012 11:06 AM EST Reads: 400 |
By Elizabeth White Hardware and chemistry improvements will make the $1,000 human genome a reality soon. While the massive amount of genomics data that will be generated represents a huge opportunity to advance personal medicine, it also presents an enormous big data challenge.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Dr Andreas Sundquist, CEO of DNAnexus, will discuss how the cloud will address these issues by enabling the management, storage, sharing and analysis of the world’s DNA data and how it ...Feb. 13, 2012 09:37 AM EST Reads: 476 |
By Jeremy Geelan With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else h...Feb. 13, 2012 08:45 AM EST Reads: 590 |
By Jeremy Geelan With Big Data Expo 2012 New York (co-located with 10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...Feb. 13, 2012 08:15 AM EST Reads: 651 |
By Elizabeth White In 2011, Apache Hadoop received tremendous attention for helping organizations cost-effectively capitalize on their big data. Hadoop is now disrupting the business of analyzing data.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Eric Baldeschwieler, Co-Founder & CEO of Hortonworks, will look at the current state of the Hadoop project, lessons learned by deploying it at scale, and the roadmap for its future.
Big Data Track attendees will learn about the exciting developments that have ...Feb. 13, 2012 08:15 AM EST Reads: 1,027 |
By Pat Romanski The focus of Java EE 7 is on the cloud, and specifically it aims to bring Platform-as-a-Service providers and application developers together so that portable applications can be deployed on any cloud infrastructure and reap all its benefits in terms of scalability, elasticity, multitenancy, etc. The existing specifications in the platform such as JPA, Servlets, EJB, and others will be updated to meet these requirements.
Java EE 7 continues the ease of development push that characterized prior ...Feb. 13, 2012 08:00 AM EST Reads: 1,960 |
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Very few trends in IT have generated as much buzz as cloud computing. In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Mark Hinkle, Director, Cloud Computing Community at Citrix, will cut through the hype and quickly clarify the ontology for cloud computing. The bulk of the conversation will focus on the open source software that can be used to build compute clouds (infrastructure-as-a-service) and the complementary open source management tools that can be combined to automate the management...
The proliferation of device connectivity is redefining the functionality requirements and capabilities of many embedded systems as more and more of these devices look to leverage the “Cloud.” While many commercial software and hardware component vendors have begun to realign their value propositions to satisfy growing demand, commercial-off-the-shelf products (COTS) alone cannot meet every OEM’s needs. As a result, the Embedded Cloud has injected a new level of uncertainty and a new competitive ...
Hardware and chemistry improvements will make the $1,000 human genome a reality soon. While the massive amount of genomics data that will be generated represents a huge opportunity to advance personal medicine, it also presents an enormous big data challenge.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Dr Andreas Sundquist, CEO of DNAnexus, will discuss how the cloud will address these issues by enabling the management, storage, sharing and analysis of the world’s DNA data and how it ...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else h...
With Big Data Expo 2012 New York (co-located with 10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
In 2011, Apache Hadoop received tremendous attention for helping organizations cost-effectively capitalize on their big data. Hadoop is now disrupting the business of analyzing data.
In his session at the 10th International Cloud Expo, Eric Baldeschwieler, Co-Founder & CEO of Hortonworks, will look at the current state of the Hadoop project, lessons learned by deploying it at scale, and the roadmap for its future.
Big Data Track attendees will learn about the exciting developments that have ...
The focus of Java EE 7 is on the cloud, and specifically it aims to bring Platform-as-a-Service providers and application developers together so that portable applications can be deployed on any cloud infrastructure and reap all its benefits in terms of scalability, elasticity, multitenancy, etc. The existing specifications in the platform such as JPA, Servlets, EJB, and others will be updated to meet these requirements.
Java EE 7 continues the ease of development push that characterized prior ...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else h...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) just four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
We have technical and strategy sessions for you every day from June 11 through June 14 dealing with every nook and cranny of Cloud Computing and Big Data, but what of those who are presenting? Who are they, where do they work, what else h...
They all automatically combine disaster recovery with backup, since the backups are stored offsite at the cloud provider’s data center.
The better cloud backup options completely automate both backup and restore, removing what historically has been a complex, order-and process-intensive, manual tas...
Tokens are at the center of API access control in the Enterprise. Token management, the process through which the lifecycle of these tokens is governed emerges as an important aspect of Enterprise API Management.
While some of this information is created during OAuth handshakes, some of it continue...
IT departments and data centers are used to seeing demand for resources surge. In recent years, this has been especially evident in the area of data storage. No matter what you want to call it – “data explosion,” or something else – you can’t deny the fact that organizations simply have a greater ne...
As the name suggests one of the key factors of ‘Enterprise Cloud’ is that it’s intended for the enterprise market, in particular the enterprise applications that they use such as SAP, Oracle and JD Edwards amongst others. Where Cloud Computing overlaps with this sector is ‘En...
Last week we ran our ‘MaaS’ webinar – Municipality as a Service, and we’re now finalizing all the individual presentations to be available via the follow on newsletter that’s being launched : MunicipalCloud.biz.
One of these presentations is from Paul Bellows of Yellow Pencil: 6-page PDF
Specializ...
To quote my friend Stevie Chambers (@stevie_chambers), "I feel like a new room has opened in my memory palace."
That was exactly how I felt after finishing my recent The Cloudcast (.net) podcast with Sam Ramji (@sramji) and Christian Reilly (@reillyusa), where we discussed the role of APIs in the e...
What do these two vulnerabilities have in common?
Apache Killer.
Post of Doom.
Right, they’re platform-based vulnerabilities. Meaning they are vulnerabilities peculiar to the web or application server platform upon which applications are deployed. Mitigations for such vulnerabilities generally ...
PaaS v2.0 should be more open than the current implementations, and cultivate tools communities. But the focus on open development stacks is ignoring the second aspect of PaaS - the management of live applications after they are built. PaaS providers need to allow for communication of SLA and busine...
The National Science Foundation released their report on cloud computing. It can be found here. The intent of this report is to provide information that guides funding programs. The NSF used NIST’s guidance on cloud computing to inform their research and decision making. This report will be instrume...
Although it can feel like you’re playing an intense game of Buzzword Bingo, the key way to approach new technologies like Cloud Computing is to marry them up with other hot topics, like social media and big data.
Typically these aren’t entirely different domains more so simply different perspective...




