I attended a recent TAG Enterprise 2.0 Society meeting (un-conference).  During the discussions one of the participants asked “how do we go about starting to use cloud computing?”   The first thought that came to mind was ‘you already are’.  If you socialize on Facebook or LinkedIn, if you collaborate/network using Ning or Google Groups, if you Twitter, if you get your Email via Gmail or Hotmail, or if you use Saleforce.com then you are already using cloud computing – using applications/services that, in some form, run in the cloud.

A recent Newsroom release Gartner Research predicted that by 2012 (just two or three years hence), cloud computing will become so pervasive that “20 percent of business will own no IT assets”. No matter how you slice it that is a pretty bold statement to make (even for Gartner). 
I don’t know if I believe that 20 percent of businesses will have no IT assets (by 2010).  I believe that there are significant issues that will preclude business from putting 100% of their IT assets in the cloud.  These include security of data (that is stored in the cloud), control and management of resources, and the risks of lock-in to cloud platform vendors. 
What seems more plausible are reports by ZDNet and Datamonitor which predict that within the next few years up to 80% of Fortune 500 companies will utilize cloud computing application services (i.e. SaaS applications), and up to 30% will purchase cloud computing system infrastructure services.
In the near term, I see cloud computing as more of an implementation strategy.  Enterprise computing assets and resources (including social computing software and social media) that are currently implemented within enterprise datacenters will migrate into the cloud.
The shift toward cloud services hosted outside the enterprise’s firewall will cause a major shift in how enterprises develop and implement their overall IT strategies and, in particular, their Enterprise Social Computing strategies.
This shift toward and the eventual wide spread adoption of cloud computing by the enterprise will be driven by a number of factors

Cost (computing resources)
Late last year (2009) Amazon, Google and Azure lowered their published pricing for reserved computing instances (computing cores).  Amazon’s rate for a single CPU, continuously available cloud computing instance was little as 4 cents an hour (effective hourly rate based on 7×24 usage) for customers that sign up for a three year contract.
Single year contract rates were about 20% higher.  Pricing for on-demand instances (no upfront payments or long term commitments) was about two and a half to three times the three year contract rates.
A rough calculation says that a cloud data center of 10, single core servers (at a three year contract rates) could be operated around the clock under $0.50 an hour, or just under $3,500 a year (about $350 per server per year).  And that includes data center facilities, power, cooling, and basic operations.  Pretty impressive numbers!

Commoditization of Cloud Computing
And if the costs of cloud computing weren’t low enough Amazon announced pricing for EC2 ‘spot instances’.  This pricing model will usher in the beginnings of a trading market for many types of cloud computing resources: support services, storage, computing power, and data management.
Under the old model you had to pay a fixed price that you negotiated with a bulk vendor or a private supplier.  Now in the new spot market you can look that the latest price of available cloud capacity and place a bid for it.  It your bid is the highest, then the capacity is yours. Currently this is available from Amazon’s EC2 Cloud Exchange.

Leveling the playing field for startups and SMBs
One of the most important aspects of cloud computing is that SMBs can afford to do things they could not have afforded to do before;  they can do new, exciting, innovative things – not just the same old things for less money.
In the past, when SMBs needed to build a new IT infrastructure (or significantly upgrade the current one) they often could not afford to buy large amounts of hardware and the latest/greatest enterprise software. 
In the cloud you pay for the hardware and software that you need in bite-sized chunks. Now the SMBs can afford clustered, production-ready databases and application servers, and world class, enterprise software (via SaaS).  Having equivalent technology can help ‘level the playing field’ when competing against large enterprises. 
New Products and Services
The availability of large amounts of computer processing power and data storage will allow innovative companies to create products and services that either weren’t possible before or were not economically feasible to deploy and scale.
In the past, business ideas that required prohibitive amounts of computing power and data storage may not have been implemented due to technical restrictions or cost-effectiveness.  Many of these ideas can now be realized in the cloud.

Reliability
Most cloud computing vendors offer three and a half nines of service level availability – annual percentage uptime of 99.95% (or about 4 ½ hours down time per year).  If applications can be deployed to clusters of servers then downtimes will be greatly reduced.
Note:  ‘Five nines’ of SLA is said to available from a few vendors.  However, upon closer reading of their offerings you may find wording such as “we are committed to using all commercially reasonable efforts to achieve at least 99.999 percent availability for each user every month.”
As always, read the SLAs very carefully.

Agility
Cloud computing enables two types of ‘agility’.  The first is time to realization; how fast you can see that an idea is working or is not working.  Cloud computing support the rapid acquisition, provisioning, and deployment of supporting resources (potentially much faster than in traditional TI environments). 
The second type of agility is flexibility (aka elasticity) of computing and service resources.  Elasticity can reduce the need to over-provision.  The enterprise can start small, and then scale up when demand goes up.  And, if they have been prudent with their contractual obligations, they can scale down when resources are no longer needed.

Cloud Vendors – The New and the Old
The early leaders Amazon, Google and Microsoft have been joined by big names like HP, IBM, Dell, and Cisco; even Oracle has gotten into the game. They are utilizing existing strengths to create successful cloud computing products and services for their customers and partners.
There is new generation of companies that are developing cloud offerings – see The Top 150 Players in Cloud Computing.  These new companies are likely to be more nimble and move more quickly than the current leaders.  We are already seeing a number of new, innovative approaches (technologies, business models, and openness) to cloud based services. 

It is not an exaggeration to say that ‘the IT industry landscape will be remade by cloud computing’.

Registration: goto the TAG Enterprise 2.0 Society Home

Web 2.0 is here to stay, but evolving the Enterprise to respond is no small feat. What can we do to ensure that we’re leveraging the conversation to the best end? Using Ariba, Inc. as a case study, let’s talk about assembling the tools, troops and know-how that will position us as industry leaders and offer the greatest value to our customers. Presentation highlights include:

- Selecting and leveraging the right technologies
- Listening, engaging and facilitating the dialogue
- Addressing resource constraints and IP concerns
- Social Media measurement and ROI

Bio
Elizabeth Hill is director of internet marketing for Ariba, the leading provider of SaaS spend management solutions. She leads the teams responsible for Ariba’s websites, search strategy and Web 2.0 programs. Elizabeth has spent 15 years learning about all facets of doing business on the web. She has extensive experience building and optimizing both consumer and B2B websites and a deep background in SEO and web analytics.

“Cloud and Virtualiztion Security”
Taylor Banks
Owner at KnowThreat

“More Cloud Security”
Special Guest

Who should attend?
Anyone who is working for startups that is thinking about using the cloud should attend.
The cloud has removed the barrier to entry to own a data center.  However it has not removed the need for control and management of resources or the need to secure enterprise data.

Cost of Cloud Computing Resources
Late last year (2009) Amazon, Google and Azure lowered their published pricing for reserved computing instances (computing cores).  Amazon’s rate for a single CPU, continuously available cloud computing instance was little as 4 cents an hour (effective hourly rate based on 7×24 usage) for customers that sign up for a three year contract.
Single year contract rates were about 20% higher.  Pricing for on-demand instances (no upfront payments or long-term commitments) was about two and a half to three times the three year contract rate.
A rough calculation says that a cloud data center of 10, single core servers (at the three year contract rates) could be operated around the clock under $0.50 an hour, or just under $3,500 a year (that includes servers, data center facilities, power, cooling, and basic operations). That’s about $350 per server per year – pretty impressive!

Commoditization of Cloud Computing
And if the costs of cloud computing weren’t low enough Amazon announced pricing for EC2 ‘spot instances’.  This pricing model will usher in the beginnings of a trading market for many types of cloud computing resources: support services, storage, computing power, and data management.
Under the old model you had to pay a fixed price that you negotiated with a bulk vendor or a private supplier.  Now in the new spot market you can look that the latest price of available cloud capacity and place a bid for it.  It your bid is the highest, then the capacity is yours. Currently this is available from Amazon’s EC2 Cloud Exchange.

For more information goto: http://www.tagforstem.org/web-challenge-2010

I believe that the best part of all of this is the number of conversations that have started and continued (see Scott posting on The Answer is Blowing in the Wind).  Some may say/think that all of this chatter is keeping us from getting ‘real work’ done, but I would not agree.

Whether you’re a Fortune 1000 company or a couple of guys in a garage, or basement or down at Ignition Alley – the business of business is relationships. Those relationships do not happen in a vacuum. They happen when like minded people meet, dialog, and connect (find a common interest or purpose).

With the exception of a few people, groups and organizations, I have found that Atlanta’s technology and startup communities are not very well connected – not as well connected as they could/should be.  And I am not alone in that opinion.
Last year Dan Breznitz presented the results of his study the ‘communal roots of entrepreneurial-technological growth’.  The study showed that the leaders (board members and C-level/SPV exces) of the Atlanta’s technology companies are not well connected.  The leaders had few, if any, significant business, personal, fraternal relationships with leaders in other organizations.  And this included local ‘technology’ law firms/lawyers and venture/angle capital firms.
The key premise of the study/presentation (and much of the questions and discussions) was that ‘unless a local high-technology industry develops rich multiple, locally centered social networks (which embed companies in the region) [technology] cluster development will stagnate’.  Furthermore, those factors are more important to the development and growth of technology clusters than ‘factor availability’ such as the supply of highly educated labor, availability of capital, infrastructures and environment.
You may not completely agree with the conclusions of Dan’s work, but his premise and argumentation were compelling.

I do agree with the observations that have been made by Lance, Paul and others that we need to focus on “things like creating products, getting customers, and building companies” and on “the nuts and bolts of building startups”.
However, when we have our sleeves rolled up, our heads down and are burning the midnight oil we need to bear in mind that the success of our endeavors depends as much on the wise cultivation and utilization of our personal and business relationship as it does on our own creativity, ingenuity and industriousness.

There are so many free web-based tools available, used by students every day.  But some of these tools like email, texting, and more, can be put to greater use.

The 2009 Webchallenge, “FREE YOUR COMMUNITY!” is about using free and/or open source technologies to benefit your local community.  Some examples are:

·        build a website for a student group or local non-profit

·        create an online newspaper for a support group

·        use text-messaging to broadcast to adults about job opportunities

There are 3 categories of competition, for all levels of technology developers:

Free Tech:  Gmail, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Google Maps, Blogger and more.  You can find plenty of examples where people have used one of these tools to create something that their community benefitted from.

Open Source:  Websitebaker, Moodle, Joomla, WordPress, etc.  These are softwares that are free to download and install.  Technically more challenging, but they can be put to use without knowing how to program anything.  An example of this could be a school newspaper, such as the local www.northgwinnett.com/blackandred.

Custom Code:  Using the listed technologies or creating programs from scratch, participants in this category would create customized applications to serve their community.  While all 3 categories will have a priority on the effectiveness for the community, this category will also recognize the technical sophistication of the product.

There is huge interest for Startup Weekend in Atlanta.  The city garnered over 1,700 votes on the Startup Weekend City Vote page.  I expect this event to sell out in short order.  It costs $39.99 to register which basically helps offset the costs of putting on the event.  If you want to attend but the forty bills is beyond your means let me know and we will figure something out.

This year the number of participants will be increased to over 100.  We are able to do this as the format is changing from last year.  We will not be focusing on a single concept as we did with last year with Skribit.  This year we will move as many concepts forward as the community is willing to support, hence we can have more people involved without getting too many cooks in one kitchen.

If you want to play I suggest you register soon.  This is going to sell out quick.

Post from Lance Weatherby – http://atlanta2.startupweekend.com/