On Cloud.com – Press Pass

I recently talked with Steve Wexler in email for a story on Cloud.com where he asked for my overall take on the company. Here’s the Press Pass of what I replied, in full:

Cloud.com has a few things going for it: based on their momentum, their software seems to work, which is saying a lot for something as new as cloud computing. Many of the “real cloud” projects out there require a tremendous amount of what we used to call Systems Integration (now “cloud integration”?) work to make up for immature software. From what I’ve heard, Cloud.com seems to be suitably functional for its age.

The other thing that they’ve wisely done (and, I hope, will continue to do) is set a course for merging with OpenStack. I’m not too sure what that will mean, but the overall community around OpenStack is looking hopeful. And, again, while OpenStack isn’t “done” yet, the progress they’re making, so far, is encouraging. Several, though by no means all, large, customer rich, vendors are looking around for cloud stacks to standardize on and the short list is often coming up at VMware, OpenStack (once it gets out of the oven), and one or two more. In that context, aligning itself with OpenStack, in the road-map sense, probably gives Cloud.com a larger future than it’d have if it was still a cloud island.

Disclosure: Cloud.com and Rackspace are clients, as is VMware.