Delivering on the Promise of Cloud
Cloud Application Platform players like VMware are increasingly becoming critical partners in launching new Cloud services in a completely new virtual environment where past headaches surrounding geography, hardware, integration and roll-out speed for new services simply evaporate.
The cloud conundrum
There are certainly as many flavors of cloud services as there are customers who want to use the services. But by and large, Kumar says there are only a few areas CSPs want to address when facing
the cloud conundrum. Foremost are those looking to the cloud to give them a more agile IT department with increased standardization to build, run and manage applications so that new services can
be rolled out more quickly, efficiently and reliably.
"A lean application platform environment can help these service providers adapt to change much more quickly," he adds.
An IT department freed from just keeping the lights on can be a powerful business asset. Rather than focusing on maintaining equipment and clunky old technologies, the IT departments of the
future will be squarely focused on creating and distributing new services, leaving the day-to-day infrastructure and application platform upkeep to software-defined solutions.
"IT has become the true partner of the business team," says Kumar. "IT departments know they're spending a fortune on hardware and heavy middleware products that are time-consuming to deploy, and
struggling through rolling out new services. In our lean vFabric cloud application platform environment, IT can focus on creating service-differentiating apps and solving other business
challenges. The future of IT is this hybrid cloud model."
Cloud crosses with big and fast data
Next are the CSPs who want to leverage the rich data coming across the network and BSS/OSS to do more with analytics in real time. In-line memory grids can provide fast-data business solutions
with elastic-cloud enablement that provides a holistic, real-time view of operations. The information can be leveraged for all sorts of business functions. For example, real-time customer data
can boost marketing campaigns, in some instances more than tenfold if VMware's experience is any indication.
"Cloud crosses with big and fast data," Kumar says. "Mobility of the environment and ability of the cloud to work across ecosystems are key to the success of analytics. With these solutions you
can handle those cloud-enabled apps as data is rapidly coming in from many sources across multiple geographies."
The final group is the CSPs that want to evolve into a different kind of carrier, one that delivers a new generation of services. There is a larger level of provider emerging that will, through
the sheer ubiquity of connectivity, become the portal to the customer for all sorts of IT and data services. By leveraging cloud-enabled platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and new big-and-fast-data
solutions, service providers can create original, innovative service offerings as a new business model.
"Frameworks provide functionality without the worry about integration across different devices, from desktops to mobile," says Kumar. "An agile cloud model allows for the opportunity to bring in
new partners as part of that ecosystem. All of these new systems require a more adaptable application environment."
Pivotal Initiative
VMware's partnership with EMC is one example of how this ecosystem is coming to fruition. Through its Pivotal Initiative, VMware is leveraging its resources and best-of-breed Big Data, cloud and
mobility solutions to create an environment nimble enough to keep up with the lightning-fast pace of business evolution.
