Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: cloud computing (Page 1 of 3)

‘Glue’ is a Cloud Conference That’s Different – It’s for *Developers* (and some interesting new twists on the next one)

GlueConf-logo You may know I've attended the Glue Conference in Denver since its inception.  I've reported on both of those great events, in May 2009 and May 2010.  The last one I live-blogged, and that is luckily archived here.  The '09 event, however, I only covered by live tweeting — i.e., all my coverage was done on Twitter — so good luck finding that archive. And it was probably a couple-hundred "posts" long, too. Shees…

Anyway, the next Glue is coming up in May 2011, and I certainly plan to be there — live-blogging, not live-tweeting!  So, why would I be talking about that event now, when it's several months out?  Well, because I have some important *advance* news about it for all my developer friends, whether you're involved in a cloud-based startup or not.  Here's the deal:

Eric Norlin runs the event (and sister event Defrag, this month), and makes clear Glue is aimed at developers. That makes it different from other "cloud computing” conferences, which he thinks is a big echo chamber. "Glue seeks to explore the connective tissue of the web and IT infrastructure," says Norlin. EricNorlin-Defrag2007 "That connective tissue can be called a lot of things — service oriented architecture, web services, APIs, cloud computing, etc. Call it what you will, developers know that it’s not the name that counts, it’s the building of the application, and the underlying infrastructure that supports it."

Norlin says his goal with Gluecon has been really simple: to make it *the* gathering place for developers in the API/cloud space. "With that goal in mind, we’re setting out this year to change the game for developer conferences," he says. "And the only way that I know to change the game is to open things up in such a way as to get maximum involvement from the community. As such, I’m extremely happy to announce that Alcatel-Lucent is signing on to be the Community Underwriter and Partner Sponsor of Gluecon 2011."

So, what does that mean for the event?  It's this: Alcatel-Lucent (which runs OpenAPIservice.com) will be underwriting 15 companies to have demo pods at Glue 2011. The participation of these companies will be based solely on merit, not the ability to pay for an exhibit, says Norlin.

"We’re announcing that 15 companies will be selected to have completely free demo space at Gluecon. The demo pod will include passes to the show, signage, Internet — everything you need. Just show up with a laptop."

To select the companies, Norlin says he and Alcatel-Lucent have put together a top-notch selection committee: Chris Shipley (Guidewire Group), Mathew Ingram (of MESH and GigaOM), John Musser (Programmable Web), Laura Merling (Alcatel-Lucent), Alex Williams (ReadWriteWeb), Jeff Lawson (Twilio), Jeff Hammond (Forrester), Ian Glazer (Gartner), Ben Kepes (Diversity.net), Krish Subramanian (CloudAve), Vinod Kurpad (Best Buy), Seth Levine (Foundry Group), and Eric Norlin.

"The process will be simple," says Norlin. "We'll accept applications for the 15 spots, and every person on the selection committee gets to vote for their favorite 15 companies. The top 15 vote-getters will have a demo pod."  He points out that Alcatel-Lucent will have just one vote (two if you count Programmable Web, which is owned by Alcatel-Lucent), but not nearly enough to swing a decision. The company wants to maintain the credibility and neutrality of Glue, Norlin says.  He points out the selection committee purposely includes analysts (Guidewire, Gartner, and Forrester), journalists (GigaOM and ReadWriteWeb), a manager inside a large corporation (Best Buy), and even other company CEOs (Jeff Lawson of Twilio) to help run through this process. Alcatel-Lucent’s involvement, he says, is altruistic: enlarge the size and interaction around this developer community — "and everyone benefits."  Other exhibitors will be still be able to secure exhibitor space, Norlin adds.

But wait — there's more. "We’ll be doing some awesome things leading up to Glue — like holding 'hackathons' around the country, and then flying the winners to Gluecon to participate in a major league hackathon at the conference. And that’ll just be the beginning – stay tuned," he says.

PREDICTION:  Minnesota friends, I'm going out on a limb and predicting that one of these hackathons will be held right here in the Twin Cities.

"I’m excited because I feel like we have the ability to really change the game with this one." says Norlin.  "If you take away the company-specific conferences — Google I/O, Twitter, F8 — there really just aren’t that many national-level gathering spots for developers in the cloud/API space. There are a lot of 'business level' and 'workshop' conferences that happen around cloud computing, but we’re talking about developers.  And even where there are developer gatherings in the cloud/API space, the ability to pay has always been a limiting factor for startups and companies wanting to show their wares and exhibit. That ends with Gluecon 2011!  Now, developers in the cloud/API space will have the ability to participate in a pure meritocracy. Wow the selection committee, and you’re in."

Norlin sums up: "At the end of the day, what I want to see is 500-plus developers coming to Gluecon to build apps, figure out cloud infrastructure, scaling, security, and solve the tough problems around API construction, usage, and maintenance."

How does one apply?  The process starts here.

Gluecon 2011 will cover a broad spectrum of cloud/API topics that matter to developers — "from Hadoop to Clojure to Active API event processing to Cloud Scaling to Big Data databases (of both the NoSQL and SQL variety) to web protocols (activity streams, PUSH, etc)," says Norlin. "We’re going deeper, getting more technical than ever, bringing in a third day of workshops, just generally stepping up and kicking ass."

So, my developer friends, you think you can hang with the big boys and girls at Gluecon? Well, now you can apply for a Gluecon demo pod, and prove it.  (Want more info?  Email Eric at enorlinATmac.com.)

See you at Gluecon in May!

UPDATE: Just after I posted, this popped up on ReadWriteWeb: Weekly Poll: What Cities Should Be Chosen for GlueCon Hackathon Tour?  So, get busy all you Minnesota tech supporters out there, vote for the Twin Cities!!

 

 

Structure Conference: A Chat with John Hagel III about Risk vs. Reward in the Cloud

JohnHagel-Structure0610 I was delighted to run into John Hagel III as I hustled through the exhibit room at Structure during the final afternoon break.  I’ve had the opportunity to meet John a couple of times over the years at tech conferences, and hear him speak on more than a few occasions. Deloitte-CenterForTheEdge He is one of the most respected authors and speakers out there on technology and management issues, and always one of my favorites. John has a very impressive background (see above link) and is currently Director and Co-Chairman (with John Seely Brown) of Deloitte Consulting’s Center for the Edge.

John had been part of the opening panel on the first day: “Cloudonomics: The Value of the Cloud” (video here), which was fantastic. I actually tweeted that it made the whole trip worth it — which Om Malik immediately retweeted.  Meaning I could’ve left then and been happy. But I of course stayed for the whole enchilada — and chatting with John was just one of the great side benefits of doing so.

Download or listen to Graeme’s interview with John Hagel about the role of risk vs. reward in enterprise cloud adoption… (MP3)”

Structure Conference: A Chat with Tien Tzou, CEO of Zuora

TienTzou-Zuora On the afternoon of the second day at Structure, I had set up an appointment to interview the founder and CEO of a growing cloud enabler, Zuora. I'd met Tien a couple of times before — last saw him at another cloud conference, back in May, the AlwaysOn "OnDemand100" event.  Tien founded Zuora after nine years at Salesforce.com — he was one of the “original forces” there, joining in 1999 as the 11th employee. Zuora-logo (More about Tien here at the Zuora management page. He even served as CMO of Salesforce at one time!)  

I wanted to have Tien tell me about an announcement they made at Structure, concerning what they call "the first on-demand commerce solution for cloud businesses": Z-Commerce for the Cloud.

Download or listen to Graeme's interview with Tien Tzou about how he sees Zuora powering growth for cloud businesses.. (MP3)"

Gluecon 2010: A Chat With Mark Carlson About the State of Cloud Storage and the CDMI Standard

SNIA-cloud-logo I first met Mark at #CloudCampDenver on the evening before the Glue Conference (the event was also called CloudCamp @ Gluecon).  Mark volunteered to head up the breakout group on cloud storage, and he facilitated that quite well. I knew I'd want to interview him before Gluecon was over, with his great background in storage. 
MarkCarlson-Gluecon
I didn't understand till later that he was also Chair of the Cloud Storage Work Group within SNIA. Mark's long career in storage includes 12 years with Sun (recently acquired by Oracle).  His title is now Principal Cloud Strategist at Oracle. Follow Mark on Twitter here: @macsun.

Mark is one of the key guys behind SNIA's relatively new Cloud Storage Initiative, the mission of which is stated as "working together toward enabling easier cloud solutions deployment." A big part of this initiative is the new Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) Standard, which was the topic of Mark's presentation at the Glue Conference on Thursday afternoon, just prior to my interview with him (link below).

The Cloud Storage Initiative has a full slate of activities planned for 2010, including one that Mark is very much involved in: the 2010 Storage Developers Conference, being held September 20-23 in Santa Clara, CA. 
SNIA-SDC-logo
Now in its seventh year, this event is surely being energized by the seemingly never-ending buzz of "cloud" — which Mark's ultimate boss, Larry Ellison, once called "the orange that's the new pink." (Makes me laugh out loud every time I think of that video clip.) Cloud storage is now being touted by virtually all the traditional storage vendors, and certainly a whole bunch of startups. The SDC event brings together developers, engineers, architects, product/program managers, technical marketing managers, and C-level storage execs as well.  I sure hope I have a chance to get there and cover this event. It would be great to live-blog the proceedings, as I did at Glue.

To stay connected with what's going with SNIA's cloud storage initiative, here are some key links:

1) Join the Google Group

2) Follow the Twitter account: @SNIAcloud

3) Subscribe to the SNIA Cloud Storage blog

4) Engage with others on Google Buzz


Download or listen to Graeme's interview with Mark Carlson about cloud storage, the CDMI standard, and the upcoming Storage Developers Conference (MP3)"


Gluecon 2010: A Chat With OxygenCloud


OxygenCloud-logo OxygenCloud wants to solve corporate end-users' file management problems with cloud storage. To date, the latter has been used mostly by developers creating applications, not by corporate IT to address end-user file management. Thus, the company says cloud storage lacks easy end-user access, security, and the IT admin tools needed for corporate deployment.

But OxygenCloud is out to change that, by way of a company file network that brings all storage clouds the company uses — public and private — to the desktop of the corporate end-user. 
OxygenCloud-diagram From an intuitive desktop interface, users can access any file, in any cloud, as if it were in local storage.  These files can be shared with anyone, including external users, within an encrypted and secure environment. 

A spinout of LeapFile, OxygenCloud describes itself as a "cloud storage broker."  Its customers can store and secure their files using any cloud provider.  Its service combines these multiple public and private
OxygenCloud-Peter+Alex clouds into a single synthetic cloud, allowing users to balance their cost and performance requirements. Here's my interview with Peter Chang, CEO, shown at left in the photo, with Alex Teu, director of business development.

Download or listen to Graeme's interview with OxygenCloud (MP3)"


« Older posts