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SymetriQ at Cloud Computing World Forum 2011
2011-07-11 15:38:13
The 3rd Annual Cloud Computing World Forum took place on June 21st and 22nd at Olympia in London. SymetriQ were a Silver Sponsor of the event, which as expected, was a very well organised and attended event.
We spoke to potential clients from all over the UK and indeed the rest of the world. Amongst those who dropped by the SymetriQ stand were attendees from Canada, the U.S., Italy, Spain and Kenya amongst others.
Two trends were particularly notable: firstly, the conversations with clients had really moved on from last year's event. 2010 was more about information gathering for attendees, whereas this year, many already had some exposure to using cloud technology and were looking for advice on specific projects.
This demonstrates that Cloud Computing truly has entered the mainstream. The financial and operational reasons for keeping large amounts of hardware on site now are very difficult to see and in fact only exist in some limited instances.
The second trend, unfortunately was not quite so positive - 'cloudwashing', as it has become known was rife at the event, with many datacentre, ISP and SI's proudly displaying literature about their 'Cloud' services. A cursory glance under the bonnet of many of these proved that it was not true cloud in any sense.
Many had fixed configurations, minimum contracts, no elasticity and so on. Thankfully, the majority of attendees that we spoke to were able to see through the hype and separate the true Cloud providers from the rebadged colo, with some virtualisation thrown in. As discussed several times in this blog, without these key components of Cloud computing, end users cannot hope to attain the many benefits available.
Our Co-Founder, Phil Huber, raised this point during a panel session on day one, which also included our friends at Onyx and also Philipp Starrett, Head of Infrastructure at Barclays bank. Philipp Starrett was a bit of a Public Cloud sceptic, which did make for some interesting conversation. Much of what he said made a lot of sense in terms of financial organisations. The standards do not yet exist to put sensitive financial data into a Public Cloud, but for most other organisations there are far less obstacles. Phil Huber also made a good, if slightly controversial point about the amount of 'Cloudwashing' on display at the event.
Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile event. Thanks to everyone who dropped by the SymetriQ stand - we will be in touch!
Johnny Paterson
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