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Cloud computing is revolutionizing the way companies of all sizes structure their IT departments and prioritize their information.
But as Datamation reports, HP and other vendors are still sorting out how this fast-changing paradigm shift in IT management will impact enterprise budgets.
“Think of it becoming like a unit of measure, like buying a rack of servers,” said Lee Kedrie, chief brand officer and evangelist at HP Global Technology Consulting. “You can buy a pod” or container that houses the private cloud infrastructure.
This kind of standardization promises to help smooth enterprise adoption of cloud systems that currently don’t conform to traditional infrastructure resource management and billing systems. For example, a key benefit of the cloud is that you only use and pay for what you need. But in a traditional data center, IT budgets a set amount of storage and servers based on projected needs.
SAN FRANCISCO — Computer giant HP (NYSE: HPQ) firmly believes in the future of cloud computing, but in a panel session for the media here at the VMworld conference Tuesday, company executives put the oft-hyped cloud in perspective.
“These are the early days of cloud computing, maybe equivalent to when the World Wide Web first started appearing on the Internet,” said HP technology director Nigel Cook. “You’re going to see change and pretty rapid growth ahead.”
A few of the areas Cook sees changing near term is a move to standardizing how users interact with the cloud and also how it’s priced. “How you buy the cloud is going to evolve dramatically as people move random selections of storage and servers,” he said, pointing to the growth of interest in so-called private clouds to replace traditional data centers.
