The Cloud has changed the data center industry, and some people think the cloud means the end of data centers. I am reminded of the popular wise man Homer Simpson's phrase. D'oh
InformationWeek reports on the revelation that the Cloud is not the end of the enterprise data center.
VMware: Enterprises Still Need Data Centers
VMware's Gelsinger tells VMworld that cloud services can't yet handle tough compliance, governance and service level requirements.
The insight is here.
He didn't make this assertion in his keynote address at VMworld Monday or in his press conference on Tuesday. Gelsinger's prediction of legacy data center longevity happened after Marc Andreessen, former Netscape developer and now a venture capitalist, stated in an executive roundtable on the first day of VMworld that Silicon Valley startups shun building their own data centers.
"It's extremely rare to see a capital expense budget in a Silicon Valley startup anymore. It consists of four laptops [and cloud computing]," Andreessen said.
Gelsinger responded, "We disagree. People who say put everything into the cloud have never met a highly regulated customer. A lot of people like Graeme [Graeme Hay, head of infrastructure architecture at Credit Swisse] have real service-level agreements, real governance, real compliance needs that can't be easily met in the cloud."
Those who think the Cloud means the end of the enterprise data center will have a Homer Simpson moment, "D'oh". Those who think the cloud doesn't create a threat for the enterprise data center will have a "D'oh" moment. The smart are realizing the Public Cloud breaks the monopoly of enterprise data centers, and it means customers now have a choice. Actually many choices as companies see opportunity to compete against the enterprise IT groups.