Cloud is the technology that knows no boundaries, but contrary to this, the entire cloud community, including CNME’s Joe Lipscombe, descended upon the JW Marriot in Dubai last month for the Cloud World Forum, MENA.
Paul Maritz, CEO, VMware, once said: “Cloud is about how you do computing, not where you do computing.” However, last month absolutely everything cloud was under one roof.
Over the past few years, cloud computing has been the major talking point in every business room, every technology magazine, every IT office, and every relevant conference in the world. Though cloud computing isn’t exactly new, it’s presence and adoption is not something many have recognised since before the last few years. The traction has been overwhelming.
You only need to go back as far as 2008 to realise this, when this quote was said: “The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop? We’ll make cloud computing announcements. I’m not going to fight this thing. But I don’t understand what we would do differently in the light of cloud.”
The self-proclaimed idiot in question was none other than Oracle’s CEO and innovation royal, Larry Ellison. However, at least he’s been consistent. Famously, Ellison has made many more comments about his understanding of the cloud since then, whether you’re supposed to believe those comments or not, I don’t know.
However, the one thing we can all agree on is that cloud computing is not just another tech term dropped into the IT pool, messed around with, hyped up, and fished out, no. Cloud computing is the future of IT, and, inevitably, the future of business.
Why this is, is the next question. What kind of technology attracts Etisalat, Microsoft, du, ASG, Google, over 700 delegates, and the biggest speaking line-up I can remember to a single event? Cloud.
If you’re a small or medium business which is desperate to ride the cloud train, but is still slightly confused about how to purchase the correct ticket, you came to the right place. Experienced CIOs, CISOs, cloud directors, and specialists delivered insightful and relevant presentations on the important areas of cloud – which now, in the Middle East, have finally moved from being around what cloud really is to what cloud can really do, and how businesses then go and do it.
“Look at the change in your lifestyle – you’re mobile, with your smart device, you’re always connected to your business. Your responsiveness to your employees, suppliers, and customers is much higher. Now, extend that to your applications by putting them into the cloud and you get the same benefit,” said Arun Tewary, CIO, Emirates Flight Catering, speaking at the event.
“At this point I’m becoming convinced that we’ll use this technology more. When it first started there was a lot of scepticism because it wasn’t very clear. But now, industry has put a lot of focus on this and it’s becoming mature,” he continued.
However, Tewary does still have his concerns about core applications being in the cloud, which he was willing to defend during a panel discussion during the event.
“My concerns aren’t related to security or wireless, my concern is that the reality is that any organisation’s core applications will have their own local flavour,” he said.
“I’m not able to visualise how to make that work with shared people in separate locations. Therefore, I will continue to work my core applications in-house.”
Educating the masses
Events, such the Cloud World Forum, are highly beneficial for end-users and customers who are trying to learn more about cloud offers, managing the cloud, and have their concerns addressed. However, a broader education of a vendor led technology may be hard to come by.
University of Wollongong’s manager of information technology and telecommunications services, Joseph Aninias, claims that talking cloud through marketing is not helping anyone.
“Events like this are helpful for education on the cloud – how to manage financial aspects, etc. But there isn’t any solid information you can find over the net, because it’s all driven by Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft. Then you’ve got the groups who call themselves solutions providers, they will do everything for you, whilst speaking a bit about all of these groups at once. It’s a push and pull scenario at this time,” he fears.
However, with the right understanding and guidance, deploying cloud solutions can be extremely beneficial, such was the theme of the event.
“My private cloud has completely changed the education environment in terms of management. Delivering computers, applications, and desktops has significantly changed. For example, building a server would take around two to three hours – now we’re looking at around one hour, less, if it’s a basic one,” said Aninias.
Cloud World Forum 2013 was another example of the constant interest in cloud computing. End-users have continuously pushed for more and more information on cloud services and the options continue to grow. The uptake, it appears, will keep increasing in the Middle East and as the CIOs have stated, cloud will be the defining technology carrying us into the next era.
