By Adaire Hahn

Q: What is “Cloud Computing” exactly and how does this impact big business as well as small businesses.

A: Cloud Computing is a relatively new term for a set of things that have been going on for a while now. An emerging definition from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) “Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable and reliable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal consumer management effort or service provider interaction.” This means we are moving to a model of Pay-per-use for things like software and this extends to compute resources such as storage and processing resources. For example,  if you need to add new services or increase capacity, you can quickly add them, use them and release them when you are done. This shift in technology usage will allow for rapid deployment of new capabilities at a much reduced start-up cost. It is having impacts on all sizes of business from the small business, which may have a few computers, to very large organizations which need extra capacity or new capabilities in a hurry.

Think about the guy who sets up the next big web socialization tool like facebook and over night they go from 500 users to 50,000 users. Cloud computing will allow them to scale-up their resources as needed without having to wait days or weeks to purchase additional hardware and be burdened with all of the setup costs. Conversely, if a company sees a huge drop off in activity due to competition and the economy they can just as easily scale back without having to deal with how to get rid of their excess equipment.

Q: Would you please explain VMware and DMTF and their roles?

A:  I am president of an industry consortium called the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). According to its web site, the DMTF “enables more effective management of millions of IT systems worldwide by bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on the development, validation and promotion of systems management standards. The group spans the industry with 160 member companies and organizations, and more than 4,000 active participants crossing 43 countries. The DMTF board of directors is led by 16 innovative, industry-leading technology companies. They include Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); Broadcom Corporation; CA; Citrix; Dell; EMC; Fujitsu; HP; Hitachi, Ltd.; IBM; Intel Corporation; Microsoft Corporation; Novell; Oracle; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; and VMware. With this deep and broad reach, DMTF creates standards that enable interoperable IT management. DMTF management standards are critical to enabling management interoperability among multi-vendor systems, tools and solutions within the enterprise. Information about DMTF technologies and activities can be found at http://www.dmtf.org.” My role requires me to be in charge of day-to-day operations of the organization including signing all contracts, approving all invoices to be paid, and I am the sole industry spokesperson for the organization. I have been involved in the organization since about 1993 and have lead many of the work groups and was an original member of the Technology Development Committee that created the Common Information Model. I have also been involved in the creation of the server, desktop and virtualization management initiatives and also the newly launched work on Open Cloud Standards.

My other full time job is as Director of Standards Architecture in the office of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer). “VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop  to the data center—bringing cloud computing to businesses of all sizes. Customers rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2008 revenues of $1.9 billion, more than 130,000 customers and more than 22,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is majority-owned by EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC).” My role is to be responsible for all of the standards activities in which VMware participates, as well as our strategic direction of VMware as it relates to open interfaces and standards.

Q: Is Cloud Computing the Green Technology wave we are heading into?

A: Energy efficiency of data centers and IT equipment is a big issue. According to the EPA, it is estimated that this sector consumed about 61 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2006 (1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption) for a total electricity cost of about $4.5 billion. This estimated level of electricity consumption is more than the electricity consumed by the nation’s color televisions and similar to the amount of electricity consumed by approximately 5.8 million average U.S. households.
Cloud computing infrastructures are usually built upon virtualization technology which allows a single physical server to support multiple virtual servers. This server consolidation has already saved millions of kilowatt hours. Each server that is removed from a data center can reduce carbon emissions by up to 4 tons per year or the equivalent of taking 1.5 cars off of the road. In fact PG&E and many other power companies around the world will pay huge energy rebates that may total in millions of dollars to companies who virtualize their infrastructures as their energy usages may reduce by 50 to 80 percent.

Q: You mentioned briefly that some colleges could take free courses with DMTF at available colleges. Could you explain that a little?

A: The DMTF values input from the academic world and is open to providing information to faculty and students who are studying and researching management standards. The Academic Alliance membership is a free membership for individuals of accredited institutions of higher learning.

Academic Alliance Members have access to the DMTF members-only Web pages and member email lists. Academic Alliance Members are eligible to participate in DMTF working groups as non-voting members, and in the DMTF Marketing and Technical Committees as non-voting members.