Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Cloud computing and the US Open

September 16, 2009 – I logged plenty of TV hours watching U.S. Open tennis (not to mention NFL season openers) over the last few weeks, all in attempt to gain some respite from the IT world. However, I was subjected to IBM’s cloud computing ad for what seemed like dozens of times during the Open. (Big Blue seems to be sparing football fans from the same torture.)

A guy comes on the screen and asks, “What is cloud computing?,” piquing my interest, albeit to a very minor degree.

So, with a huge international TV audience at its disposal, IBM’s response is: “A cloud is a workload-optimized service management platform enabling new consumption and delivery models.”

Just as I’m about to say “What?” a young girl comes on the screen and says, “It’s what?”

The remainder of the ad doesn’t de-obfuscate cloud computing any further. (In fact, it makes it cloudier.)

To the degree that tennis fans were in the mood for a good definition of cloud computing, they’re just as confused about it now as they were with the Serena Williams foot-fault call and ensuing diatribe.

I have no idea what the TV networks get for 30-second spots during the U.S. Open, but that didn’t seem to be money well spent.

But it could have been worse: I could have been subjected to TV spots about cloud storage. (Yeh, right, like cloud storage providers have that kind of cash sitting around.)

In any case, if you are interested in cloud storage, check out the recently-posted “Cloud storage opportunities and challenges” by Margalla Communications analyst Saqib Jang. Saqib delves into end-user and cloud-provider requirements in the areas of scalability, privacy, data protection, manageability and security.

You can also find some fresh videos, blogs and articles on cloud computing and cloud storage at Glasshouse Technologies’ Web site.

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