Some examples of this momentum include:
- This past month, Google set up a cloud computing application store called the Google Apps Marketplace that enables business cloud applications to be purchased and deployed, launching with offerings from companies like Intuit, with NetSuite and SuccessFactors.
- Mergers and Acquisitions continue to occur in this area, such as Computer Associates snapping up NimSoft and 3Tera as standalone business lines in their Cloud Products and Solutions set of offerings.
- Amazon continues to roll out new layers of its cloud computing offerings such as its RDS cloud relational database model built on top of MySQL, and its Virtual Private Cloud product.
- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer declared recently that Microsoft is "all in" with the cloud and is also on the verge of a new set of announcements in both cloud applications and infrastructure to going along with its Azure cloud platform.
- Opsource is an example of companies now rolling out their "enteprise class" cloud offerings with increased performance and security specialized for the enterprise.
- Vendors such as Rackspace, Rightscale, Terremark, Joyent and others are beefing up cloud computing offerings.
- Physical cloud data centers continue popping up all over the place to support this consolidation of computing power, pushing the limits of computing power that will be able to delivered on demand.
- Virtualization still tends to be one of the hottest topics over beers for IT professionals, at least in my personal experience.
- Other derivative cloud models such as our data-as-a-service model continue to increase in adoption.
I could go on and on about how the potential energy continues to build, but I think there are very few with unbiased opinions that are doubting the new age. The "ability to do more with less more quickly" element that is present in this new paradigm is very exciting, not just for entrepreneurs who can launch new innovative companies now on the cheap, but also for enterprise professionals looking to evolve their internal solutions at a much faster pace.
2010 will be an exciting buildout year for the cloud. Hold on to your seats!
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