What do we have to look forward to in 2009 and beyond?   Most industry leaders agree Cloud Computing – moving from traditional data centers to virtual servers is the future.   In a post on New Years Day Jeff Kaplan offered his predictions for 2009.  Leading his list: On-Demand Services Move From Why To How.  He said:
 
“Now that SaaS has achieved widespread market penetration and the idea of cloud computing has become popularized in the business as well as trade press, the discussion will shift in 2009 from why organizations should adopt SaaS/cloud computing services to how to do it effectively.”
 
As BlueLock heads into our third year in existence, we are certainly seeing this transition as we engage in more conversations about the implementation of Cloud Computing and virtual solutions.  Cloud Computing is not a cookie-cutter process and we encourage conversations about the best ways to adopt managed services to optimize IT operations.
 
It is important for IT/business decision-makers to evaluate the functionality and financial viability of the various solutions.  They should be asking questions about the integration and security requirements; performance monitoring, disaster recovery capability, and service level compliance.  Ultimately they must have a means to measure the economic impact and business benefits of these services.
 
This need to make informed decisions was the driving factor behind our decision to host a CloudCamp here in Indianapolis.  We hope to bring together business leaders and technologists for a lively discussion on both the technical and business applications of Cloud Computing.