The Next Big Thing for Cloud Computing

An exclusive Q&A with Joe Bromley, Systems Consultant at Texas Memory Systems

Q: A very general question first, about Cloud Computing itself: Surely we've heard all of this before in various forms and guises - grid computing / utility computing, etc.? What is different this time - why is everyone so convinced it will now work?
Joe Bromley: Cloud computing has become more affordable, and is now a cost-effective option for the mainstream. In the past, the costs involved with cloud computing made it very difficult for most companies to justify the price. With the continual rise in the power of x86 hardware, and the use of less expensive, and open source, file systems, the infrastructure costs have dropped dramatically over the last five years, and this savings has been passed along to the customers.

Q: What are the three main factors driving companies toward the Cloud?
Bromley: The three main factors are:

1. Cost savings associated with smaller in-house IT staff, less software licensing, and less hardware.
2. Ease of management, customers no longer have to worry about software upgrades, hardware upgrades, migrations, or any of the management that comes with running a datacenter.
3. Having an easy and inexpensive way to store a redundant copy of their data. Many companies will keep the primary copy of their data in-house, and use the Cloud for the redundant copy(ies).

Q: And what are the three main barriers preventing some companies from moving some of the on-premise computing to the Cloud?
Bromley: The three main barriers are:

1. Trust - If a company loses it data, it is very likely that company will go out of business. Many companies would rather manage their own data, and not take the chance of having someone else lose it.
2. Losing their IT staff - Many companies see their IT staff as a competitive advantage against other competitors in their field. One of the best examples is the financial exchanges. IT staff that can trim the latency from their transaction times can add profitability to their companies' bottom lines. Many companies do not want to give up this competitive advantage.
3. Lack of knowledge - For many customers, the Cloud is still just an idea, and they do not know how the Cloud is built and operates. Cloud providers should continue to educate customers on how easy it is to take advantage of their services, and let customers know the hardware that is in place that is being used to serve and protect their data.

Q: How does your own company's offering/s assist CIOs and organizations/companies?
Bromley: We built a high-performance solid state storage appliance that allows companies to cut down the transaction times for their customers, and reduce their own batch processing, reporting, and modeling times. This allows companies to cut costs and increase revenues, helping them to improve the bottom line.

Q: Are there other players in the Cloud ecosystem offering the same - or is your company unique? Why?
Bromley: There are other solid state storage companies in the industry, but TMS is unique because of the level of performance that we can offer. Due to our unique RAID architecture, we offer performance levels that are 5X higher than any other solid state storage company in the industry. This allows Cloud providers to offer higher levels of service, and maintain lower response times to a higher numbers of users.

Q: In the future what do you see as being the next "conquests" by virtualization and/or cloud computing? Are there any unclimbed heights yet in the enterprise? Is for example the convergence of telecoms and the cloud the Next Big Thing, or...?
Bromley: The Next Big Thing for the Cloud is backup and recovery. I believe that the Cloud is an excellent and incredibly cost-effective way for companies to keep a redundant copy of their data. If the production copy of a customer's data goes offline, the company can simply point their users towards the redundant copy in the Cloud. Moving the users to this redundant copy can be quick and easy. With performance available on an "as-needed basis," Cloud providers allow customers to get more performance instantly when the redundant copy of their data becomes the production copy. This allows customers to hold on to their primary copy, and also allows them to use their IT staff as a competitive advantage if they see their IT staff as such. Backup and Recovery is not always sexy, but it is absolutely vital when needed.

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