Cloud computing is rapidly evolving, and the best way to keep up with the cloud computing trends is by knowing what the “trend setters” are doing. This week’s cloud business news roundup features some cloud vendors’ plans that will reshape the cloud in one way or another.
We kick off with probably the hottest topic of the week – about the leaked HP cloud “secret” plans… from one of HP Executives, Scott McClellan – HP’s chief technologist and interim vice president of engineering.
As reported by The Register, in his LinkedIn account, Scott updates his profile with HP’s “secret” plans, such as:
- Offering “object storage” service.
- Offering “compute,” “networking,” and “block storage” service.
- Managing common/shared services.
- Revamped HP cloud website to offer better content, APIs and front-end.
This is a leak because HP actually intends to reveal the company’s cloud plans and strategy at VMware’s VMworld conference in August 2011. Nevertheless, HP’s leaked cloud plans will give us (including HP’s competitors) some ideas on what a cloud vendor is doing to capture the growing cloud market.
Some other interesting plans from this week’s roundup include the following:
Cisco plans to reorganize to simplify business operations and focus on customer segmentation
Over the next four months, Cisco will work on the reorganization with the new sales organization already in operational by July 31, 2011. Cisco’s sales, service and engineering departments will be streamlined to simplify business operations. Moreover, the reorganization will also have Cisco’s worldwide operations to be divided into three geographical regions: Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and Asia pacific/Japan/Greater China.
Apple acquires iCloud.com domain name – Apple’s future plans involve cloud services?
Apple indicates that the company is joining in the cloud race with its rivals – Google, Amazon and Microsoft – by purchasing a domain name – iCloud.com – from Xcerion, a Swedish company, for a whopping $4.5 million on May 2, 2011.
The domain name purchase, along with Apple’s recent job post title “Cloud Systems Software Engineer” and rumors that Apple’s data center in North Carolina is meant to host cloud data and information are strong indicators of Apple’s cloud plan in the future.
Amazon will launch iPad tablet PC rival
Beware – Amazon’s plan to enter the tablet PC arena is underway. With some strong indicators, such as Amazon’s Android store, “Honeycomb”-friendly apps and cloud computing-related endeavors like Cloud Drive, Amazon is set to enter the market strong. The most recent report even tells us that Amazon has placed orders with an OEM.
Cloud vendors’ landgrabs are cloud customers’ benefits
As big companies are reorganizing and innovating, cloud customers can expect to benefits from all the competitions. More affordable and accessible cloud services are present today – there are plenty of options to choose from.
Let us hope that the cloud bubble won’t burst like the dot-com bubble burst a decade ago.
