A review of the Cloud Computing Panel at VLAB June-17-2009 by Sean Murphy, who found as much knowledge in the audience as on the panel.
Cloud Computing Panel at VLAB June-17-2009
Interesting panel on “Cloud Computing: Creating Value for Web 2.0 Apps” cloud computing tonight at VLAB. Here are a couple of key things I took away:
- Jonathan Bryce, a co-founder at Mosso, gave the history of Rackspace’s incubation of a new model that can disrupt their existing business. At a starting price of $100 a month for a virtual server their price is 1/4 of the Rackspace entry point. It was refreshing to hear that they had the fortitude to follow through.
- It’s clear that cloud computing is also creating value for traditional (web 1.0?) web applications as well.
- Michael Crandell of Rightscale talked about porting apps to Amazon’s EC2 in a matter of a few days to two weeks.
- A fully utilized Amazon virtual host will run about $70/month, Rightscale runs $500/month to manage 20.
- Crandell was articulate and to the point in his answers on the panel, I was not surprised to find that he has written a succinct and informative overview of Cloud Computing (John Willis has a nice table “Cloud Vendors A-Z” that is mentioned in the comments and also worth reading).
- One of the key advantages that a cloud computing infrastructure can offer is the ability to offer a rapidly scalable infrastructure in the face of skyrocketing demand. One success story that was mentioned was Animoto‘s ability to grow from 25,000 users on a Tuesday to 250,000 users two days later. Jeff Barr has the numbers in “Animoto Scaling Through Viral Growth” which shows them managing 400 hosts on Tue-Apr-15 and 3400 hosts by Fri-Apr-18.
- But price/performance, robustness, and built-in disaster recovery should not be overlooked as drivers.
I think we are still very early days on this approach to computing. I was impressed by 3Tera‘s demo at Office 2.0 two years ago, but it was clearly very early days. Today it’s real: even though Amazon’s EC2 is marked beta, there are a number of firms in production and building businesses on it (and many other cloud platforms).
On a side note I had forgotten what an interesting mix of entrepreneurs the VLAB events attract. I had a number of excellent conversations with folks who were serious about enhancing or leveraging this technology in some way. It’s a shame this is the last event until September.
Related Blog Posts
- A Picture Is Worth a Thousand CPU Hours
- Briefing on Cloud Computing Paradigms at IEEE-CNSV May 19
- Notes from July 19 IEEE Cloud Computing Event
- IEEE/NATEA Event on Cloud Computing July 19 at Stanford
- Moore’s Law Enables New Uses For Old Algorithms
Background: Description From VLAB Website
from “Cloud Computing: Creating Value for Web 2.0 Apps” on Internet Archive
Moderator Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President and Co-founder, Socialtext
Speaker: Jonathan Bryce, Co-founder, Mosso, a Rackspace‘s company
Panelists
- Paul McNamara, CEO, Coghead
- Ping Li, Partner, Accel Partners
- Michael Crandell, CEO & Founder, RightScale
- Lydia Leong, Research Director, Gartner
Event Description:
Cloud computing increases capacity and expands computing capabilities without heavy investment in infrastructure, training or software licensing. Most importantly though it democratizes Web 2.0 application development. With the removal of two significant barriers to entry – cost and capacity access – suddenly even small, lesser-funded entrepreneurs can dream big and bring their grand Web 2.0 applications to market.
What are the ramifications of democratization? How are entrepreneurs exploiting cloud computing and leveraging Web 2.0? What challenges do these entrepreneurs face? Are they making money? What are the hot areas of development today and what will the next areas be? Will offerings from these new, small, nimble, creative thinking entrepreneurs change the Web 2.0 user experience? Will cloud computing live up to expectations?
On June 17th, Mosso co-founder Jonathan Bryce and a panel of industry experts, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will discuss these issues and more. Come hear what the Rainmakers of Cloud Computing predict.
Bios:
Ross Mayfield, Chairman, President and Co-founder, Socialtext
Ross Mayfield is the Chairman, President and co-founder of Socialtext, the first wiki company and leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 solutions. A noted blogger and industry expert, he is a serial and social entrepreneur. Mayfield has grown Socialtext to over 4,000 customers and served as CEO from 2002-2007. Socialtext is backed by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, SAP Ventures, Intel Capital and Omidyar Network and prominent Silicon Valley angels.
Previously, Mayfield served as VP of Marketing for a Fujitsu spinout and CEO of an enterprise risk management software company. Mayfield co-founded and served as president of RateXchange (AMEX:RTX), the leading B2B commodity exchange for telecom. Mayfield served as the marketing director of the largest privately held telecommunications group in Eastern Europe and was the internal lead manager of their Initial Public Offering. He also founded an ISP, a web-design company, and has served on a number of Advisory Boards of high tech startups.
Mayfield is a former advisor to the Office of the President of Estonia and began his career in the non-profit sector. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles and completed the Management Development for Entrepreneurs (MDE) program of the Anderson School of Business. He resides in his hometown of Palo Alto with his wife and two children.
Jonathan Bryce, Co-founder, Mosso
Jonathan Bryce started his career working as a web developer for the managed hosting giant, Rackspace. During his tenure at Rackspace, Bryce and co-worker Todd Morey had a vision to build a sophisticated web hosting environment where users and businesses alike could turn to design, develop and deploy their ideal web site – all without being responsible for procuring the technology, installing it or making sure it is built to be always available. This vision, along with help from Rackspace, was turned into Mosso. Currently, Bryce oversees all operations and customer service for over 45,000 managed websites served by Mosso.
McNamara first encountered the business concept that was to become Coghead while he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at El Dorado Ventures. So enamored was he with the potential that he not only invested in the company but joined it as CEO.
Under McNamara’s direction, Coghead set the industry abuzz with its innovative application platform and its disruptive business model. Business 2.0 Magazine declared: “Coghead’s DIY approach could trample the software giants.” PC World noted that Coghead could bring about “the end of installed software.” And the Wall Street Journal declared Coghead’s DIY approach a “turning point in corporate computing.”
No stranger to disruptive business models, McNamara was the first executive hired at Red Hat and a key figure in its meteoric rise to prominence. He structured the company’s industry-shaping relationships with Intel, IBM, Dell, Compaq, Oracle and others; developed Red Hat’s unique business model; and helped guide the company through its successful IPO.
McNamara’s 20+ years of experience have also included management and executive roles at SGI and IBM. Paul received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University.
Ping Li, Partner, Accel Partners
Ping joined Accel in 2004 and focuses primarily on information technology infrastructure (compute, networking, security and storage), as well as digital media solutions. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at BitTorrent, Mochi Media, Mu Security, and YuMe, and he is actively involved in Consentry, Imperva, and Oak Pacific Interactive. Ping was also responsible for Accel’s investment in Reactivity (acquired by Cisco).
Prior to Accel, Ping was a Senior Product Line Manager and Director of Corporate Development at Juniper Networks. He managed Juniper’s M-series router product portfolio that generated revenues over $50 mm/quarter. In addition, Ping worked on Juniper’s acquisition of Netscreen Technologies ($3.5 billion transaction) and led all subsequent security and routing product and R&D integration activities. He also worked as a strategy consultant for Mckinsey & Company, advising technology clients in their growth strategies.
Ping has extensive international experience as well. At Singapore Telecom, he served directly for the executive management team in assessing and investing in Asian growth opportunities. Prior to SingTel, Ping worked at Goldman Sachs Asia, transacting large PTT privatizations and advising telecom clients on complex restructuring and asset divestitures. Ping continues to be active in China investing by working with IDG-Accel China Fund.
Ping holds an A.B. from Harvard University, with honors, and an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Michael Crandell, CEO and Founder, RightScale
Michael has worked as CEO or EVP for 10 years in Internet-based, software-as-a-service companies, including eFax (Internet fax) and Celebros (e-commerce search). Earlier, he founded and ran two software companies in document creation and communications. Michael is equally comfortable with the business and technology sides of a company, and has experience taking a company from early stage to IPO.
Michael received his B.A. from Stanford University with graduate studies at Harvard University.
Lydia Leong, Research Director, Gartner
Lydia Leong is a research director in Enterprise Network Services at Gartner, where she covers Internet infrastructure services, including Internet access, data centers and colocation, Web hosting, cloud computing, content networking, and other emerging Internet-based services. Prior to joining Gartner, she held various technical and management positions in the Internet industry, including director of server engineering at Excite@Home, and director of product engineering and operations at DIGEX/Intermedia Communications. Her prior roles have included product management, systems architecture, operations, deployment and product development.
Lydia studied computer science engineering at the University of Pennsylvania , and computer systems management at the University of Maryland Graduate School of Management and Technology.