The cloud computing juggernaut picked up additional momentum in 2009 as both old and new technology companies unveiled their plans to offer cloud computing services. Amazon continues to dominate the market for cloud computing and storage services. Many Software-as-a-Service providers use Amazon's cloud to provide their infrastructure services rather than build their own. And RackSpace Cloud, despite several embarrassing service outages in the fall, is picking up market momentum as a provider of cloud computing services. Google, the other 800-pound gorilla of cloud computing, suffered a self-inflicted outage when scheduled server maintenance overloaded some routers causing a Gmail outage for a short period of time. No Cloud Service Provider (CSP) seems immune to glitches but overall uptime performance is very good despite the tremendous influx of new customers moving their IT services into the cloud. CSPs will keep pushing the envelope of what they can do in order to accommodate the growing demand for cloud services.
The big news in November was Google's preview release of Chrome OS, which could be the first cloud-focused operating system. The formal release of Chrome OS is not anticipated until the end of 2010. You can download this early preview release of Chrome OS and run it on bare metal or as a virtual machine. Some industry pundits were a bit underwhelmed by their first look at Chrome OS, but it is typical of Google not to introduce a lot of visual clutter whether it be the Google search engine or the Chrome browser. In Google's universe, less is always more. The Chrome OS is built on Ubuntu Linux and the UI is the Chrome browser. It starts up fast and leaves behind more traditional OS concerns with local file management and applications. After all, if Chrome is going to be a cloud OS then the expectation is you will always be operating somewhere in the cloud. Acer was the first hardware manufacturer to announce support for Chrome OS. Google itself has announced that it will ship a Google branded netbook running Chrome OS later in 2010 when Chrome OS is expected to be released. Google will still need to build a stable of hardware OEMs to propel Chrome OS into prime time when it is shipped. Stay tuned in 2010 as Chrome OS development continues.
Microsoft spent most of 2009 moving their Windows Azure cloud platform and services to the starting gate. Beginning on January 1st, 2010 Windows Azure will be open for business. The first 30 days will be free, as in free beer, and then the meter will start running on February 1st. This seems like a relatively short period of time for Microsoft to allow developers to try Windows Azure and generate some buzz around it. Personally, I think it would be better for Microsoft to extend the free trial to 60 or 90 days to allow more people to get behind the wheel of Windows Azure. Note: Microsoft did not take my advice but Microsoft's Steve Ballmer announced in early March, 2010, that he was betting the company on cloud computing and even though the company did not expect to earn any profits on their cloud services for a couple of years, Microsoft would be focusing 90 percent of their workforce on various cloud computing initiatives. The last time I heard some at Microsoft talk about betting the company it was back in 1995 when Bill Gates famously issued his Internet memo to Microsoft employees. Microsoft had been caught unprepared when the popularity of the Internet gained serious momentum. And now that cloud computing has gained serious momentum we see Microsoft preparing to do another about face to "embrace and extend" cloud computing. Only this time Microsoft will not be able to bully or intimidate its OEM partners or customers. Today people and organizations have choices when it comes to choosing Cloud Service Providers. Microsoft will be unable to "cut off their air supply" like they did to Netscape years ago.
Novell finally made some interesting cloud-related product announcements in the waning weeks of 2009 after their July announcement of Novell Cloud Security Service. The company has largely been a "no show" when it comes to the cloud and many observers, including this one, took Novell's management to task for lagging behind in the race to the cloud. For its part, Novell announced that its next generation collaboration environment, named Pulse, will be federated with Google Wave. Wave itself is just attracting the attention of developers and for Novell to make this announcement shows that they are trying to get ahead of the curve with Pulse. Pulse will be in private beta for the first half of 2010 after which Novell expects to launch Pulse as a cloud service and later as a premises-based or private cloud service.
The other big Novell news had to do with virtualized workload management services, which was addressed in an eight-product portfolio announcement. This seemed like a lot of products to get your head around and I'm not sure I completely have it figured out yet. Novell would be smart to diagram it out so we can "see" how these eight products presumably fit together. With so many moving parts it will be up to Novell to provide a management interface that brings it all together. This is an ambitious task for Novell and something they will have to execute on really well if they plan on convincing customers that their "vendor agnostic" approach to workload management is what they need. Curiously, this announcement was followed by another Novell press release a few days later which announced the reorganization of Novell's four operating groups into just two.
Note: In late January, Dr. Jeff Jaffee, Novell's CTO, announced he was leaving the company to take a job as CEO at W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in Cambridge, MA. W3C is where "World Wide Web" inventor Tim Berners-Lee hangs out. And in early March, Elliott Associates, a Novell stockholder and hedge fund operator, submitted an offer to Novell's BOD to purchase the company for $2B. Things are in flux at Novell and who knows how it will affect the company's plans for their ambitious technology releases this year.
What end of 2009 blog entry would be complete without news on the SCO v. Novell who really owns the Unix and Unixware copyrights court case? SCO got a reprieve in the middle of 2009 when an appeals court ruled that the question of copyright ownership, which was decided by a judge in Novell's favor in August 2007, should be decided by a jury. The only good news in this legal soap opera is SCO filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the bankruptcy attorney dismissed the litigious Daryl McBride as SCO CEO. Note: The jury trial began on March 8th, 2010, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Looks like 2010 will definitely be the end of this saga.
May your 2010 be cloudy and bright.
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