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I’m on Cloud Nine for Cloud Services
November 12th, 2009 by Frank M. Grillo
My head has been in the cloud(s).
Sorry I have been away for so long, and I really don't have a good excuse. I've had a lot on my mind to share, but I've just procrastinated.
In the past month there has been a remarkable trend - the term "cloud computing" is showing up everywhere in the mainstream. The Wall Street Journal has published at least three different articles on the topic and both IBM and Cisco are running television ads in prime time about "the cloud." So it's probably safe to say that The Cloud has gone mainstream.
What does that mean exactly? Well, honestly I am not sure. And I doubt I'd trust anyone who said they were absolutely sure of a cloud definition. What I am sure about is that the concept of "the cloud" holds interest for a broad array of user communities, but what the actual benefits will be and how to achieve them are a long way from being clearly defined.
In August, I had the opportunity to deliver my usual shtick to a CIO of a large law firm. When the pitch was over and after a robust Q&A session, this CIO asked me a question that I usually don't hear. Essentially, he asked, "so what's next?" It was an amazingly intuitive question. Once he moved his firm to hosted unified communications, he wanted to know what more of his infrastructure could be positioned in the cloud and how could Cypress Communications help him get there?
Liberated from the constraints placed on me by the PowerPoint deck I am forced to use (just kidding Heather) I went off leash. I painted a picture of a managed IT infrastructure...where, since the WAN and LAN were both already managed by the hosted provider (i.e. Cypress) it would be logical and evolutionary to continue to move more and more stuff to the cloud. I suggested starting with Exchange, SharePoint, OCS and BES Servers, followed by archiving and centralized managed security. Ultimate "cloud nine" comes when the firm abandons ownership of any servers in favor of a fully hosted and virtualized nirvana!
About two hours after the appointment ended, this same gentleman called my cell. The G100 -- CIOs of the 100 largest law firms -- were having a session to kick off the International Legal Technology Association Conference (ILTA) in August, and the topic was cloud computing. "And if I was interested, he would like to propose that Cypress present our concepts of the cloud -- alongside Google and Microsoft." Now, how cool is that? (Of course, I said YES!)
Fast forward two weeks -- after a prescreening session with the folks that chair the G100 -- there I stood just north of Washington D.C., in a room filled with about 40 CIOs of the largest law firms in the world. I'm presenting a Cypress road map to cloud computing. (And yes, for the record, I now have a PowerPoint produced by the Cypress marketing department to keep me on the straight and narrow.)
I can honestly say I have never had a presentation more favorably received or one that more actively engaged audience members than this one. I greatly enjoy being told by many CIOs after the session that we handily bested both of the other two presenters by having a practical vision to what cloud computing meant and how we would bring people to it.
And viola! A Cypress roadmap that was up until this point more concept and theory became solidified into the story and vision we have started using. We're cloud people more than ever now - and I really like it! Or should I say...I'm on "cloud nine"!