Cloud Innovation Summit – Day 2 highlights…

Debate Session – DC Shootout – the quest for the killer infrastructure.

Introduced and chaired by Sean Hackett, 451 Group. Panel members: Dell, HP, IBM, and Nuage Networks.

Presentation highlights: Forecast to 2016; public cloud CAGR 39%, private 21%.  DCs are at the virtualization stage (61%) and will evolve to automation followed by orchestration. Current roadblocks are politics, budget, time and staff.  Legacy network architecture seriously constrained; network functionality migrating from hardware to software.

The changing DC challenges the network. (1) Consolidation; (2) virtualization; (3) multi-tenancy; (4) applications are more complex; (5) rapid price / performance improvements in commodity servers; (6) hybrid cloud architecture.

Highlights of responses from panel members:

Dell: an open foundation for the software-defined infrastructure and an SDN migration path strategy.

HP: network simplification and a value proposition based on agility, monetization and lower TCO; plus their FlexNetwork architecture.

IBM: a software defined environment that comprises a software-defined computer, software-defined storage and software-defined networks.

Nuage Networks: a new approach to networking; change from the network as the product to application delivery as the product.  NFV as a use case for SDN.

Debate Session – Managing Mobility.

Introduced and chaired by Michael Howard, Infonetics Research. Panel members: AirWatch, HP, Meru Networks and Mobiletron.

Presentation highlights: Wireless devices going through the roof; smartphones doubling by 2017, tablets tripling; are they finding their way into enterprise networks? – they are! Traditionally companies controlled the devices employees use, now the majority allow BYOD.

Highlights of responses from panel members:

AirWatch: different levels of BYOD, not a binary anymore; constraints and governance still apply.

HP: users have choices, a headache for IT, wireless management needed but it must be easy for employees to get into the environment.

IBM: major shift after introduction of the iPad, more wireless capacity needed, fewer wireline ports needed.

Mobiletron: big culture change; employees concerned about the mix of private and business usage on their devices.

Debate Session – Sugaring the SDN/NFV Pill. 

Introduced and chaired by Shin Umeda, Dell’Oro Group. Panel members: Cyan, Dell, Ericsson, Infinera, Iometrix, Juniper and Spirent.

Presentation highlights: Virtualization only just beginning; a complex transition with many parts; a complex process, mistakes will be made and a lot of money will be spent; what can vendors do to keep the ball rolling along the right path?

Highlights of responses from panel members:

Iometrix: Cloud Ethernet Forum will define cloud services; NFV tests in lab before deployment by members.

Spirent. Administration and operation not there; proof of concept needed.

Dell: concept is not hard to grasp, too many boxes doing a single task.

Ericsson: it’s a cultural transformation, needs to be part of an enterprise task.

Infinera: agreement with Ericsson, software will run on commodity servers.

Juniper: need to scale and reduce complexity; lots of special purpose devices that only do one thing.

Cyan: focus shifting from hardware to software; the constraints have gone away; mash ups will be enabled.

Guest speaker presentation by Steve Wylie, UBM Tech. Cloud Adoption in the Enterprise – Distilling the Facts from the Hype. 

Steve’s presentation covered the annual enterprise cloud adoption tracking survey, which is fact-based research focused on enterprise cloud market and all layers of the cloud stack. The key findings separated Cloud Hype and Cloud Reality, for example, enterprises are still experimenting with the cloud (hype); enterprises are investing significantly (reality). The research also showed that 58% of enterprises are spending greater than 10% of their IT budget on cloud solutions and services and SaaS continues to drive adoption. 56% view the cloud as a strategic differentiator that enables operational excellence and accelerated innovation and security remains the primary driver for private cloud adoption.

Debate Session – Above the Clouds – a helicopter view on where we’re heading. Introduced and chaired by Sean Hackett, 451 Group. Panel members: Gigamon, Juniper, Nuage and Wedge.

The final session asked the panel what they see as the key messages. Presentation highlights: Agility, Cost and Simplicity are the messages that should be communicated to CIOs, who are control freaks; therefore it needs to be handled in a more elegant way.  Localized clouds can be optimized for specific tasks.

 

Blog post written by Bob Emmerson

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