Cloud

Updated 2:20 p.m. PDT, with comment from Microsoft and at 2:35 with more details on where that draft came from.

For those who want to find out what all the cloud-computing fuss is about, a copy of the Open Cloud Manifesto is now online.

After a flowery introduction, the document talks about a couple of key concepts, including the ability for data and applications from one cloud vendor to be able to be ported to another cloud vendor. It also calls for interoperability from one cloud vendor to another, as well as consistent ways to meter and … Read more

Updated with a link to the Open Cloud Manifesto document.

The cloud-computing field may be in its infancy, but there is a fight breaking out at the preschool.

A group of Web services providers, reportedly including IBM, is set to unveil a "manifesto" next week that lays out a number of principles for open cloud computing. Two of the biggest names in the field, though, say they aren't signing on.

Microsoft posted blog message to that effect on Wednesday night, while Amazon.com on Friday said it, too, is not among the companies signing the document.

"… Read more

My co-host on the Overcast podcast, Geva Perry, has published a very compelling post arguing for the demise of the traditional enterprise sale--the deal brokered by the highly extroverted, commissioned sales rep with the help of a team of sales engineers, marketers, consultants, and so on over the course of 6 to 18 months.

Geva established his case by relating the observations of venture capitalist Charlie Federman:

I met today separately with two successful CEOs who, unprompted, told me they were de-emphasizing their marketing/sales efforts to enterprise accounts; one company is in the application arena, and the other … Read more

Add Canonical to the roster of companies offering technology to help enterprise customers build their own cloud-computing setups. But unlike most of the better-known players in this nascent market, the twist here is that the technology will be supplied by an open-source shop.

Canonical is best known as being the commercial sponsor of the Ubuntu operating system, a computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux. With 8 million to 10 million users, Ubuntu has enjoyed success in no small part because of its ease of use.

Next month the company will offer the first details on plans to roll … Read more

Editors' note: This is a guest post.

Every time that I see an article touting how great cloud computing is, I always chuckle and think to myself, "been there, done that."

Those who remember the emergence of the Internet era as a mainstream venue (circa 1995 to 2000) may also recall a company called Loudcloud, founded by Netscape pioneer Marc Andreessen. It is my opinion that you can trace the road that led to the current cloud-computing era back to Loudcloud's founding.

It started in 1999, when four visionaries who met while at Netscape--Marc Andreessen, Ben … Read more

WASHINGTON--The United States could secure economic and technological dominance in the burgeoning realm of cloud computing, or it could fall behind the rest of the world, depending on how Congress may choose to regulate industry, experts said Friday.

Meanwhile, as cloud computing becomes more commonplace in the lives of everyday consumers, the new federal chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, said Friday he is reviewing what policies are necessary to ensure the federal government does not fall behind.

The federal government should play a role in fostering the country's cloud-computing industry by assigning a task force or some other form … Read more

NetSuite on Thursday unveiled its SuiteCloud Ecosystem, expanding its on-demand enterprise software service to include cloud computing.

The company, which hosts enterprise software on demand, is branching out to allow customers the ability to push their core operations into the clouds.

As part of its SuiteCloud Ecosystem, NetSuite is launching a developer program, SuiteCloud Developer Network, and an online cloud-computing application marketplace, SuiteApp.com.

The SuiteCloud platform will be built on core NetSuite enterprise resource management (ERP) software, as well as its customer relationship management (CRM) and e-commerce offerings.

NetSuite is delving into cloud computing at a time when this … Read more

WASHINGTON--The dice were hot, and Will Carroll was playing his cards just right. After leading his team to a solid second-place finish in a fast-paced, complex cloud computing "war game," Carroll seemed like a true management whiz.

The only hitch was, once the 90-minute exercise was over, the term "cloud computing" still left Carroll a bit mystified about what it really meant.

With a tabletop design resembling a fusion of craps and Monopoly, the management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton last week lured government workers into playing a game designed to introduce them to the concept … Read more

I read on Wednesday that Sun Microsystems plans to release open-source application programming interfaces for its soon-to-launch cloud services. The obvious question in my mind is, why wouldn't Sun just support Amazon's APIs, which have become the de facto standard?

The short answer is that Amazon filed a very broad patent titled "Distributed storage system with Web services client interface" related to its Simple Storage Service (S3), and it's not clear if the company will eventually take legal action against those using the APIs in their own products.

We can argue all day about the … Read more