Over the last decade the internet has evolved from being a collection of individual static content driven websites to an integrated eco-system of services and solutions. In 10 years many businesses have evolved from simply having a website, to completely operating their business via multiple always on and available , ‘cloud’ based resources.
Over the last decade the internet has evolved from being a collection of individual static content driven websites to an integrated eco-system of services and solutions.
In 10 years many businesses have evolved from simply having a website, to completely operating their business via multiple always on and available , ‘cloud’ based resources.
It’s more than a bunch of fancy ecommerce sites – Service Providers are developing and delivering solutions that offer up flexible infrastructure, platforms of all shapes and sizes and rich, integrated applications – I think its fair to say that the cloud OS hasn’t just arrived – it’s thriving. There are a growing number of Service Providers in this marketplace but it is already dominated by one solution – Amazon Web Services.
They are all competing to deliver the cloud OS to the customer, trying to find a niche trying to offer a better deal. But there’s a big difference in Service Providers who open their minds and work with Amazon, to those who choose to compete against them.
Amazon is in the position that Microsoft was with the desktop OS in the late 90’s, just imagine developing a service or application yourself back then and choosing NOT working with standards based around the market leader.
Your documents would be formatted differently, it would be tricky to share data and working with other organisations would take up more time than need be. You would find most people would actually choose what everyone else does – services that interact and exploit the market leading service – because for both the consumer and business, it seems the safer bet and keeps them employable.
Successful (now legacy) IT vendors built their services around the Microsoft marketplace, not ignore it, simply because it offered more customer opportunities to exploit.
Now apply that to delivering a cloud OS or application today – Service Providers that are developing their own services that do not integrate with or work with the market leader are missing a huge opportunity and are likely to have limited success – at best they will probably remain a niche player in the market.
We have just launched Abiquo v2.6, which allows organisations to ‘connect up’ their existing private infrastructure and cloud resources with Amazon AWS. Abiquo networking concepts are immediately aligned with Amazon Virtual Private Cloud networks, and what is traditionally seen as a major obstacle for enterprises no longer exists – this means that hybrid cloud, and more importantly hybrid applications, become real possibilities for enterprises and Service Providers alike.