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Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Nati Shalom, CTO Of GigaSpaces (Part 1)

By guest author Shaloo Shalini

In the following interview, Sramana and Nati Shalom discuss several key aspects of cloud computing, including the role of Microsoft Azure, improvisations in sales cycles, standards, analytics, and the opening of new markets and entrepreneurial opportunities in the cloud.

Nati Shalom is the CTO and founder of GigaSpaces and heads the Israeli Grid consortium. He has more then ten years of experience with distributed technology and architecture, namely CORBA, Jini, J2EE, Grid, and SOA. As a technology visionary he’s a frequent presenter at industry conferences and is actively involved in evangelizing space-based architecture and data grid patterns. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Fred van den Bosch, CEO Of Librato (Part 7)

By guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: In a private cloud you have more of an option of doing virtualization?

FB: The question is whether the private cloud will start following the same model or will it follow a different paradigm eventually, one that is more efficient in terms of resource utilization and resource sharing. If that is the case, what problem is that going to present in terms of coexistence of private and public clouds, and how are people going to deal with that problem? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Mark Settle, CIO Of BMC (Part 7)

By guest authors Shaloo Shalini and Pablo Chacin

SM: Let’s switch the discussion to security. What are your prime focus areas with respect to cloud security?

MS: We are a bit of an anomaly with respect to security. We are in a B2B business, and we don’t handle a lot of personal information or credit card information or even customer financial information other than the final orders and things like that. It is not the same as handling a lot of third-party information which needs to be secured, as it would be in the case of a financial service or retail industry. I want to be careful when I pontificate here. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Fred van den Bosch, CEO Of Librato (Part 6)

By guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: In the cloud, what entrepreneurship opportunities would you recommend to entrepreneurs looking for problems to solve?

FB: Well, there are entrepreneurship opportunities on the consumer and provider sides of cloud-based services. Clearly, cloud computing is a great gift for entrepreneurs in the sense that they can build and scale companies without having to worry about significant capital investment. In terms of providing services, clearly, security is an area. There is opportunity for companies that can help enterprises to bridge the private and public cloud. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Fred van den Bosch, CEO Of Librato (Part 5)

By guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: This may not be relevant for small  or mid-sized companies, but in general, how do you view private clouds?

FB: Well, it seems to me that private clouds, as a concept, have value in the sense they create better alienation between the IT organization and the services it provides to the business and the rest of the organization. It will become easier to define service levels and to measure the quality of services (QoS) being delivered by the IT organization with private clouds. There will be better accountability. It will be easier to charge back the actual expenses to different parts of a business organization. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Mark Settle, CIO Of BMC (Part 6)

By guest authors Shaloo Shalini and Pablo Chacin

SM: What role do you see for a private cloud to have in your data center? Could it eventually become a substitute?

MS: When I think of private cloud, I think of more virtualization technology to get more utilization out of existing assets. That is journey or crusade most CIOs are on, even if they haven’t embraced the terminology “private cloud.” >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Mark Settle, CIO Of BMC (Part 5)

By guest authors Shaloo Shalini and Pablo Chacin

SM: Let me push back a bit on that. Because in the scenario where you already have an application that was in the licensed software model, you have fully integrated it, fully depreciated it, and so forth. But the vendor is no longer adding a lot of functionality once they switch to a cloud-based delivery model. All the innovation on that application front is happening on their cloud model. In that case, isn’t your infrastructure for that particular application falling behind? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Fred van den Bosch, CEO Of Librato (Part 4)

By guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: Based on your estimates on utilization rates and patterns, do you see IaaS as a replacement for or complementary to existing infrastructure?

FB: I think it depends on the size of the organization. Many small and mid-sized companies will probably choose to not have their own IT infrastructure. I can speak for my own company. I would prefer not to have an IT infrastructure in-house. >>>