Is Cloud Computing just a fad?

AFCEA: Cyberspace at the Cross Roads

By G C Network | December 1, 2009

Starting December 2, 2009, the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) will be putting on a two-day cyberspace conference. Titled “Cyberspace at the Cross Roads: The Intersection of Cyber,…

“Cloud” Shows Promise during Navy Trident Warrior

By G C Network | November 17, 2009

Last month as part of the Navy’s annual Trident Warrior exercise, Dataline, LLC successfully demonstrated that a standard shipboard communications infrastructure could be used to manage a commercial cloud infrastructure-as-a-service…

Government Cloud Computing Value Survey

By G C Network | November 15, 2009

As part of a continuing Government Cloud computing education program, Dataline, LLC has released a Government Cloud Computing Value Survey. This online resource has been designed as an aid to…

“Hyper-Standardized” Cloud Computing Environment a Plus for DISA

By G C Network | November 9, 2009

Henry Sienkiewcz, DISA Computer Services Technical Director, credits the cloud computing “hyper-standardized” environment for the improvement they have been able to deliver through their cloud computing initiative. During remarks at…

Army Deputy CIO Cites Army/DISA Cloud Computing Partnership

By G C Network | November 8, 2009

This week’s Federal Executive Forum taping highlighted collaboration between DISA and the Army on the service’s transition to cloud computing. Army Deputy Chief Information Officer Mike Krieger called it a…

Navy CIO Discusses Cloud Computing

By G C Network | November 6, 2009

During this week’s Federal Executive Forum taping, Navy CIO Robert Carey discussed his views on cloud computing. Stating that the NGEN and CANES (Navy Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services)…

DoD, DHS and FBI Highlight Identity Management Interoperability

By G C Network | October 25, 2009

During this week’s Federal Executive Forum, key decision makers from DoD, DHS and FBI highlighted identity management interoperability as their key priority for 2010. Panelist included: Robert Mocny, Acting Director,…

EuroCloud Launches !!

By G C Network | October 22, 2009

Congratulations to Pierre-Jose Billotte for the successful launch of EuroCloud !! Established as a pan European network, EuroCloud are communities that represent a knowledgeable network of companies engaged local and…

Government Cloud Economics

By G C Network | October 17, 2009

In the The Economics of Cloud Computing, Gwen Morton and Ted Alford have published an EXCELLENT economic evaluation of the federal government’s push to cloud computing. Anyone interested in this…

Deputy CIA CIO Newest Ulitzer Author

By G C Network | October 13, 2009

Jill Tummler Singer, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is now a Ulitzer author. Appointed in November 2006, Ms Singer is responsible for ensuring CIA has…

Last week I attended an IBM SOA event in Northern Virginia. While there, I was discussiing the merits of cloud computing with some interested attendees. Their key question was if cloud computing was just a fad or did it represent a disruptive change in the marketplace.

I personally believe that cloud computing is real and that this new view on infrastructure really is disruptive. To me, hardware (server and storage) virtualization technology, the virtualization of applications through SOA and the virtualization of data connectivity through ad hoc networking, makes cloud computing technology more than just a fad. While this concept isn’t new, technology to implement the concept is. Besides, would IBM invest so much into such an initiative without doing some due diligence of its own?

Last year, IBM demonstrated Blue Cloud in Shanghai which was the result of an initiative from IBM’s Almaden Research Center architecture. Blue Cloud was built on Xen and PowerVM virtualized Linux and a Hadoop parallel workload scheduling. Blue Cloud was also used to adopt service oriented architecture, Web 2.0 applications and other new technology breakthroughs.

Last year in his blog, Larry Dignan, the Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of TechRepublic said that the big takeaway then was ” The cloud is going corporate. And this enterprise relationship will be built on trust.”

I trust that IBM continues to do its due diligence, and this is definitely not a fad.

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G C Network