Citrix has announced a XenServer upgrade, featuring what it calls “enhanced integration” with Apache OpenStack. Its goals are facilitated load balancing and security.
Meanwhile, a recent report from one of those big analyst companies cautions buyers to beware of OpenStack, as it may just be a front for a new era of vendor lock-in.
Oh, and Oracle just bought another company and has announced its latest cloud strategy, which appears to be of the all-in, metered, and efficient nature.
I’m reminded once again of the location at the tip of my home state of Illinois where the mighty, brown Mississippi meets the slightly less mighty, blue Ohio River. The two co-exist side by side for a short distance, gradually browning, before the Mississippi takes over a short distance further downstream.
In my metaphor here, the Mississippi plays the role of traditional enterprise IT, with the Ohio playing the role of cloud computing. Everything appears to be merging into one large stream, in which all the cool new stuff is gradually being submerged.
But what’s the alternative? A couple of years ago, cloud computing proponents promised the age of the grid, in which IT would be delivered and measured like electricity or water. Now, it seems we may settle for a more efficient use of processors and storage, and even in that case at the literal and physical expense of running these machines hotter than what’s been normal for decades.
I’ll be checking my theory out at the upcoming Cloud Expo in Santa Clara. I know I’ll talk to people who remain fiercely resolute about their cloud-computing strategy and offerings, and committed to changing the norms of enterprise IT. Others will be continuing to work to deliver cloud-as-a-utility to companies of all sizes, including the SMBs for whom cloud is a potential field-leveler.
But what’s really happening? Are we already deep into an era of industry consolidation? Will enterprise IT really look dramatically different 20 years from now than it does today?