Raise your hand if you think cloud interoperability is not a problem.
Right. Those of you with raised hands are excused; we obviously see the market very differently. Too differently.
For the rest of you – those of you who do see problems, and wish that we could more seamlessly migrate from cloud service to another, and would like to see better interoperability if not true standards – please read on.
I’ve hinted for a few weeks now that we were going to take a more active hand in cloud interop and standards after having bemoaned it in our analysis, and I’m pleased to say that we’re prepared to announce our first effort in that regard. You remember how I said there were a few things that kept me working during my traditional Christmas/New Year’s breaks? Well, this was one of them.
In conjunction with old friend David Berlind and Cloud Camp’s Dave Nielsen, we have pulled together an event that is independent from but will directly precede next week’s Cloud Connect show. Starting at 10 AM a week from today, we’ll be gathering many of the most important players in the cloud computing industry for a conversation on interoperability.
This is by no means the first such conversation of this type, but we’re hopeful that by continuing to prod the conversation, and by engaging with some of our large and small vendor customers, we at RedMonk can do our part with Dave and David to try and help move the conversation forward. While I will be nominally responsible for running the event – and, as usual, will push were I can for pragmatism over academic ideals – the important voices, ultimately, will be those of the participants.
So if you believe that you have something to contribute to the cloud interoperability conversation, and would like to join the likes of 10Gen, 3tera, Appistry, Aptana, Canonical, Cisco, Cloudera, CohesiveFT, Eclipse, EMC, Eucalyptus, GoGrid, Google, IBM, Joyent, Rackspace, Replicate, Rightscale, rPath, Salesforce.com, VMware and some folks I’m sure I’m forgetting, please drop either myself, David Berlind, or Dave Nielsen a note requesting a spot. While we’re not looking to exclude any potential contributors, we do need to gate participation; first because of the facility arrangements but more importantly to keep the conversations productive and fluid.
One quick addition: If you are with one of the mentioned organizations, please check before showing up, as we’re capping attendance at three reps per firm.
Anyway, the logistics are as follows:
Date: Tuesday, January 20th
Time: 10 AM – 3 PM
Venue: Computer History Museum
Location: Mountain View, CA
Cost: Free for registered attendees
I’ll have more to say following the event, of course, and I’m at your disposal for any questions. In addition, if you can’t or won’t attend but have suggestions for areas of interoperability that you’d like to see, feel free to add them as a comment or send me a message, and I’ll try and see that they are at least discussed.
P.S. Because some of you asked, yes, sponsorship opportunities are still available: ping me. While the focus has obviously been on securing the necessary critical mass, commited and helpful organizations such as the Eclipse Foundation are joining us to help advance this important cause. Thanks guys!
