I admit I had my obsession with All Things Cloud back in the day.
Like so many others, I found the industry move to cloud fascinating on so many levels: new technology models, new operational models, new application models, new consumption models, etc.
I wrote endless, lengthy blog posts attempting to explore every nook and cranny. Even to this day, the topic continues to intrigue me.
One of the things I spent much time considering was what I dubbed the "cloud supply chain".
As an example, supply chains in the physical world are responsible for transforming raw materials into finished goods we all consume. Every company along the way specializes at what they do best at, and cooperates with others who are good at other things. It's rare when you see a single company responsible for everything from raw materials to customer service.
Cloud services should be no different, I thought.
Specialized players -- each with different strengths -- could and should combine into supply chains to create more value than any single player alone.
Today, VMware's vCloud Air service announced a strategic partnership with Google's Cloud Platform Services. Customers of vCloud Air can now use select Google Cloud Platform services relatively transparently: with a single contract, and a single point of support.
It's a great example of a cloud supply chain -- but will we see more?
And the bigger question, still not answered: what will be the dominant industry model that serves enterprise IT?
You can go read all about it here, here and here -- but if you're pressed for time: vCloud Air customers can now use selected Google Cloud Platform services directly from vCloud Air, using their existing contract and support agreements.
The services announced under this agreement include:
• Google Cloud Storage– distributed low-cost object storage service
• Google BigQuery – a real-time analytics service suitable for ad-hoc business intelligence queries across billions of rows of data in seconds
• Google Cloud Datastore– a schema-less NoSQL database service
• Google Cloud DNS– a globally-distributed low-latency DNS service
As VMware and Google typically sell to different customers, both parties clearly benefit. VMware gets the benefit of Google's services for vCloud Air, and Google gets a convenient route to market to enterprise IT. Customers get the convenience of a single provider selling and supporting an expanded set of services.
Why This Is Interesting To Me
In one sense, I see this as a battle in strategic alternatives.
Amazon's basic message is "we can do it all for you". There is no notion of a cloud services supply chain here: Amazon produces, sells and delivers all of the cloud services in its portfolio. And, historically, this has done well for them.
On the other hand, cloud service providers such as VMware and Google whose message is "here is what we do well, here is what our partners do well, we'll make it easy for you use it all together".
Without getting into a debate as to which approach is "better", an argument can be made for the most likely long-term successful model: a cloud services supply chain. Why? As in the physical world, specialization and focus matters. It's very hard for any company -- regardless of size -- to service every potential customer with everything they might need -- and to be really good at every aspect.
Why should cloud services be any different?
Where You Are In The Supply Chain Matters
If you look at supply chains in the physical world, you'll quickly realize the most influential position is being closest to the ultimate consumer or customer.
For example, big retailers (e.g. Walmart) have largely dictated supply chain terms to consumer goods manufacturers for decades.
When it comes to delivering enterprise IT services, being close to the customer really matters. So much of enterprise IT is "high touch" -- skilled people on both sides of the table working towards a common goal.
In the case of VMware, there's more than that. VMware products define a data center computing experience: the technology as well as the operational model. The design goal for vCloud Air is to replicate and improve that familiar experience using a cloud services model. Put differently, VMware is not only close to the customer, they're close to the operational model that much of IT is using today.
And, thus, I would argue occupying a fortunate spot in the cloud services supply chain market that is starting to emerge.
What We Might See In The Future
I recently succumbed to upgrading my iPhone from a battle-scarred 4S to a new iPhone 6. The migration? Completely painless. The user experience? Utterly familiar but with a few new cool features.
Just what I wanted -- exactly what I was familiar with, but better.
I never really considered an Android-based phone, or any other alternative. Too much hassle, and I already liked what I had. Based on Apple's recent quarterly results, it seems I was not alone in my thinking.
I can make a strong argument that as enterprise IT groups start to adopt more cloud services, many will be looking for the same thing: what they're familiar with, only better.
And an awful lot of IT professionals are familiar with VMware products and the experience they deliver.
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Good information blog......
Posted by: thinklayer | July 25, 2015 at 06:18 AM