I’ll be speaking on a panel at Cisco Live on July 1.  I’m looking forward to talking about the new demands on network infrastructure, and whether or not the enterprise is ready for seamless cloud.  Frankly, so much of the discussion about cloud is for SMEs (or regarding apps) and so little is about the readiness of cloud for the enterprise that it is refreshing for Cisco Live to embrace this topic.

Even the mention of “private cloud” gets negative reactions from some of the clouderati.   I heard: “No such thing” yesterday on a cloud pundit call.  Yet at the end of the day enterprises will be assessing when, where and what can be delivered from any cloud versus a private cloud and the answers will have a significant impact on the evolution of cloud computing.

While I think Amazon and Google have done well delivering undifferentiated services via subsidized business models, it is fair to ask when and how can enterprises take to the clouds.  IMHO it’s when the network is ready.

You can view the session abstract here: Seamless Enterprise Extension to Cloud (SEEC) - Ready for Primetime?

Read more...

Senior tech execs from Cisco, Infoblox, Microsoft, VMware, ServiceMesh and (former) Sun share their perspectives on cloud computing and network requirements at May 2010's Future in Review at Terranea.

Read more...

The Future in Review panel last week on the demands that virtualization and cloud are putting on networks was a sobering contrast to the surge of cloud computing conferences and announcements. Senior executives from VMware, Cisco, Microsoft, ServiceMesh and a former cloud CTO from Sun all explained how networks would need to evolve and automate in order to address new challenges. Is network automation the new virtualization?

Read more...

This bog is inspired by a pair of recent blogs from Interop and Infoblox's recent acquisition of Netcordia.

If you drew a triangle and placed Cisco, Microsoft and VMware, respectively, at each corner you would have a good idea of where the center of power is regarding the future direction of the IT industry and the emergence of cloud computing.  And plenty of well-heeled tech companies would love to keep this status quo in tact for as long as possible, simply because they’ve run out of steam and are counting on complexity and lock-in to postpone the revolution.

Read more...

The acquisition of Netcordia extends Infoblox leadership in the IPAM and DNS and DHCP appliance category into the billion dollar NCCM category.  It is a bold move that sets the stage for network automation by supplementing existing DDI and NCCM solutions with complementary layer 2 and 3 data for more visibility, control and closed loop processes.

Read more...