Here is a 1/26/2010 blog entry about cloud computing and Ants. They've been considering this for quite some time, and who knows what Frank brings to the table that is new. Boy, looking over the blog again reminds me how there is never a sure thing. Awards, great partnership with IBM, big customers with critical applications, and then BOOM. I'm still not exactly sure what happened. I mean, how do you get that far along and then find a software issue that stops everything???Arrgghhhhhhh. Venting.
"Last week I shared news of the Microsoft-HP cloud computing development pact. This week I would like to take a few minutes to explain what this development and the larger cloud computing movement means to ANTs and where our services fit into the mix.
It is important to understand the challenges associated with enterprise usage of cloud computing offerings. Last week Bernard Golden shared his thoughts in a thoughtful piece, The Case Against Cloud Computing, Part One. Golden says that cloud computing is not ready for prime time and enterprise use quite yet. He sites various conversations with business leaders and IT leaders that are disillusioned about the prospect of a migration to the cloud.
Why? Migration of enterprise applications and databases.
As is the case with the traditional RDBMS capability and portability are in seriously short supply in cloud computing solutions. While the concept of cloud computing seems intriguing and presents organizational advantages on paper, many enterprise customers soon become dissuaded from any cloud solutions when the realities of application and data migration are brought into full view.
I agree with Golden on this point. Cloud computing solutions like Amazon Web Service, Salesforce.com and Google App Engine are, indeed, in their infancy as commercially viable products.
However, I believe that migration is not as high of a hurdle as some have suggested. Our ACS product makes possible and affordable migrations that were also thought to be far too complex and far too costly only a few years ago. Data’s value today is often only as great as its portability and compatibility. Understanding this reality of today’s networked world, ANTs is committed to developing solutions for the pressing enterprise IT needs of today’s organization, cloud computing included.
In summary, cloud computing is an important trend that we will keep monitoring and implement the right strategy to help customers move their enterprise applications and databases to the cloud."
Joe Kozak.
