mark bowker
Senior Analyst

Transitioning to the Private Cloud

Opinion
Nov 3, 20092 mins

More on Cisco, EMC, and VMware's latest play

Cloud computing is nothing more than a self-service consumption model where business workloads are deployed and transparently executed, either internally or somewhere on the Internet, and delivered to businesses that only pay for what they consume. Private cloud, internal cloud, and public cloud make for great marketing lingo, but Cisco, EMC and VMware will spin their wheels and waste valuable time if “cloud” is what they try to sell. Businesses are focused on cost containment, consolidation, improved IT automation, instant access to IT resources, security, compliance, and delivering IT as a consistent predictable service. I’m actually an advocate of cloud computing as it pertains to that definition, but when I speak and ask “Has anyone here adopted cloud computing?” or “Do any of you have plans to adopt cloud computing?” I typically get one or two hands in a room of 1000. There is still plenty of education and awareness that has to take place before a mass market jumps on the band wagon. With today’s Cisco, EMC, and VMware (Acadia) announcement, EMC also launched https://www.privatecloud.com. A nice effort, but still a relatively meaningless term… unless you are a vendor. For more on this, be sure to stop by liquefyingitblog.com.

mark bowker

Senior Analyst Mark Bowker focuses on all things related to virtualization and cloud computing. Mark researches cloud and virtualization technologies and evaluates the impact the solutions have (or will have) on IT strategy and the broader marketplace. His other research areas include data center management, application workload deployment in next-generation data centers, and the external influences driving adoption of data center technologies. Prior to joining ESG, Mark ran the IT organization for a business consulting and technology services company.

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