Cloud dynamics

Organizations are looking for radical new ways to consume information technology, and the centerpiece of that — cloud computing — will be top of their agendas for most of the next decade. That was the unifying message from keynote speakers at VISIT 2010, Fujitsu Forum Europe in late 2010.

Richard Christou, who heads the ICT giant’s business globally (outside of Japan), outlined how the core advantage of cloud is versatility. “It’s a dynamic infrastructure that flexes and changes as the requirements of the information you’re processing change. The promise is that we can do new things that have never been done before.”

One of those is Fujitsu’s blueprint fora human-centric intelligent society. This aims to address many of the most pressing problems in society by gathering and processing vast amounts of data drawn from ubiquitous, connected sensors. Sectors such as farming, traffic management and healthcare are especially suitable for such applications.

However, only companies with broad international reach and scale will be able to deliver cloud services to larger customers, argued Christou. “We need data centers, networks and physical infrastructure spanning the globe to deliver this properly. We need experts in applications, consulting, and so on in local regions. And we also need deep technological knowledge.”

Also taking the stage at the Munich event, Rolf Schwirz, recently appointed CEO of Fujitsu Technology Solutions, explained the importance he places on understanding what customers expect from cloud computing. His first priority after taking on his new role was to seek input from customers on their strategic goals.

“When I talked to them, I found they are looking for new ways to consume IT,” he said. Top requirements, he stated, are pay-per-use pricing, scalability, 24/7 reliability, quality and guaranteed data protection. He explained how Fujitsu has invested heavily in data centers around the world, and has defined a global cloud standard to connect these to each other in order to meet scalability demands.

Dr. Joseph Reger, CTO of Fujitsu Technology Solutions, who chaired a panel discussion at the event, predicted that the next decade will be the “years of cloud computing.” However, he acknowledged the fact that the excitement around cloud — and the huge business opportunities it can create — will ultimately stifle the voice of the skeptics.

“Data privacy is a big issue for most people,” he said, pointing to the results of a recent Fujitsu global survey of people’s attitudes towards the cloud. “And Fujitsu is taking this very seriously. But even though a lot of debates are raging, there is no doubt anymore that cloud computing will play an important part
in our lives.”

In the same discussion, Sean Doherty, CTO Enterprise Security Group at software security specialist Symantec, also highlighted the data protection issue. “A top concern is: How can I trust that my data in the cloud is safe?” he said. “We’ve got to establish a continuous chain of trust, from the user all the way back to their data and the processors that are working on that data.”

He argued that the world has yet to see a large public cloud provider suffer a catastrophic event like going bust or having a disaster at a major data center; but when this does happen, and some customers come out of it well because they have planned contingencies, trust will grow.

He also suggested technologies that create new kinds of business models will be required. “You could imagine, within the next decade, storage and compute being bought in real time by brokerage services so that your data center’s overflow will go out into the public cloud,” he said.

On the same panel, David Smith, CIO and CTO at Fujitsu UK and Ireland, called for technology and services that could provide an end-to-end view of business processes in the cloud. “I’d like to have something that allows me to manage [all of that], with all of the IT that is part of it — whether that’s public cloud, private cloud, or whatever. I want to see the end-to-end process.”

Smith stressed there was no need for a Big Bang approach to cloud computing. In his opinion, it makes sense to start with steps such as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), before putting the largest parts of your IT into the cloud. “And you’ll need to be open and pragmatic around questions like, ‘If this doesn’t work, what do I do next? How can I back out?’ A level of flexibility will always be required,” he added.

Responding to the public-versus-private cloud debate raised by his fellow panel members, Fujitsu’s global CTO Marc Silvester stated his belief that the future will consist of a plethora of interlinked clouds. “I think we’re going to see clouds that are brand-led, clouds that are industry-specific, and clouds that are centralized around a community like healthcare or government,” he said. “It’s our job as an industry to provide the technology to enable them all to join up, and for the regulatory considerations to be managed and traced.”

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