Cloud Expo 2010

I'm off to Seoul, South Korea next week, but before I leave I wanted to give you a little holiday gift, yes, the gift of my prognostication.

Before I do, as anyone who routinely reads my blog will understand, all I pretty much do is attempt predict the future.

As an entrepreneur that has always been a key part of my successes & failures. (That and I also seem to be an eternal optimist) Generally my view of the future is not shaped by selecting any particular point in time but instead done from what I see from my ever changing vantage point in the present.

Cloud Expo New York will draw more than 5,000 delegates on April 9-21, 2010 at te Jacob Javits Convention Center

Before I dive into my predictions, I first must give you my ideology. It is my belief that before you can predict the future, you must first understand the past. In turn by understanding the past you are able to visualize your ideal future and more importantly the way to get there. The future is not predetermined, but rather guided by the decisions we as global collective make today. (Cheesy, but hey -- I'm predicting the future.)

Anytime Data - Real Time, Anytime and Anywhere
As we continue our long march into the world of Cloud Computing and Internet centric applications in 2010 I believe that real time information (data) will be the most important asset any business large or small can have. With the sudden influx of Cloud resources those who learn to tap into this wealth of data and do so the most efficiently will ultimately succeed.

The one thing that Moore's Law and software development has taught us over the last 30 years is the more compute resource we have available the more we use. I see this holding true, except now we're not limited to any single CPU or Data Center. The future of computing will be about the speed in which we can make decisions (data analysis). This will be enabled by on an endless supply of real time information being gathered by a worldwide network consisting of both human and automated sources. The world has become one giant computer network with the Internet the glue that holds it together.

Emergent Clouds
As I've written about previously, I believe that the biggest technological business opportunities are not found in the established western countries, but instead are found in the new crop of upstart economies in regions such as Asia, South America and even Africa. The primary reason being these emerging economies have large population bases and more importantly they don't have the legacy infrastructure that most Western economies suffer from. These regions offer in a very real sense a greenfield opportunity. These (fast growing) emerging economies have an opportunity to choose the latest & best technology solutions without regard for how it may effect legacy systems -- since there really isn't any. In 2010 as we emerge from the recession I believe that we'll start to see these regions quickly become the brightest, biggest and fastest growth opportunities. Help equip these economies and you'll equip yourself for a profitable future.

Technological Convergence
Lately I've come to understand that beyond just being a buzzword, for me Cloud Computing has come to represent the convergence of many technologies. A kind of technological evolution where many existing IT systems, processes and applications have come together -- brought about by the Internet as both an operational as well as a delivery model.

This may be obvious to some, but in 2010 I see the use of Cloud Computing continuing to be developed and utilized in many different more radical contexts. Things we've never thought possible are now being made possible by the rapid advancements being brought about by near limitless access to compute resources. Any one individual in any one basement is now able to compete with the largest companies. What we're seeing for the first time are the barriers to large scale, compute intensive innovation being made available to all. It won't be those with the most money who win, but instead those with the best ideas.

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