Cloud offers a new delivery model for businesses to take advantage of. It can optimize their speed and delivery of IT capabilities. It offers an additional tool to drive innovation, and enables CIOs to utilize and take advantage of the scale of cloud infrastructures at a cost that otherwise would be unobtainable.

— The 6 Questions Of The Cloud: Stephen Elliot, IDC

Chat-256Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks leading up to the 2014 NexGen Cloud Conference, we will be publishing exclusive interviews with many of the speakers scheduled to appear at the conference. We have prepared six questions for each speaker related to the cloud and cloud services for solution providers, and they have been generous enough to share their answers. 

Below the interview, you can learn more about registering for the conference, and check out links to all of the previous interviews in the series.

Meet The Speaker

1. Why is it so important for tech companies to embrace the cloud?

Cloud offers a new delivery model for business and technology organizations to take advantage of. It can optimize their speed and delivery of IT capabilities. It offers an additional tool to drive innovation, and enables CIOs to utilize and take advantage of the scale of cloud infrastructures at a cost that otherwise would be unobtainable.

2. How does IDC’s expect its market research in SDN will most help accelerate the future of the cloud for today’s solution providers?

It’s early for most CIOs on the topic of SDN. However, there remains the promise of cost savings and avoidance as SDN technology continues to mature, and IT organizations better understand the impact on existing legacy infrastructure, application development and delivery, and processes.

3. Which of the six pillars of the cloud should service providers be most concerned with adding to their portfolio?

There are a few key areas that CIOs and their teams should be focused on when it comes to Cloud.

  • Having a security plan and a deep understanding of the level of risks that an leadership team is willing to take is critical.
  • Do cloud for business impact. Have key business and technology metrics that can drive a clear cloud strategy and a set of obtainable goals that answers the question of why the cloud delivery model is better.
  • CIOs should plan for a cloud exit before they sign their initial cloud vendor agreement as it provides a exit roadmap should the customer ever have to migrate off the cloud platform.
  • Understand what type of workloads fit within the cloud discussion and what type of architecture supports that workload requirements (security, latency, performance, cost, management, etc.)

For cloud, all networks are not created equal. CIOs should understand what type of network model is used, how their data will traverse the various networks, and what that means to performance, security threats, latency, political implications, regulations and compliance, etc.

4. What partners have been instrumental in helping IDC take its steps forward with cloud technology?

I can’t say.

Chat-256Editor’s Note: To learn what partners have been instrumental in helping Netrepid take its steps forward with cloud technology, please check out our interview from Monday with our President/CEO Sam Coyl.

5. What excites you the most about the NexGen Cloud Conference? Why did you decide to get involved?

This is a great conference to help the audience better understand Software Defined Data Centers — where they are today and where they are headed.

6. Can you give me a preview of what attendees are going to learn about optimizing and transforming their IT during your presentation at NexGen?

The goal is to provide a comprehensive view for IT organizations and channels on the topic of Software Defined Datacenters, both from a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

Get Answers To The ‘6 ?’s Of The Cloud’ From More NexGen Cloud Con Speakers:

To register for the NexGen Cloud Conference, please visit nexgencloudcon.comClick here to view the full list of speakers scheduled to appear at the conference.

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