Who are the Cloud Computing Leaders?

If you're trying to build an enterprise/provider-class cloud, you should be looking at OpSource (http://www.opsource.net). If you're looking to minimize or avoid building and/or managing a complex infrastructure for IT service management, you should look at Service-now.com (http://www.service-now.com). If you're looking to deploy cloud-based applications relatively quickly, you should look at Salesforce.com, its Force.com platform and its broad ecosystem of partners and application and service providers (http://www.salesforce.com). And if you're looking for pre-configured, pre-integrated cloud/virtualization building blocks, you should look at the Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) Coalition, a subject of a discussion at Focus -- "Can Vendors Make Virtualization Easier for Your Business?" at http://www.focus.com/questions/hosting-bandwidth/can-vendors-make-virtualizat.... Clearly, a wealth (if not an overabundance) of choices, which make assessing and prioritizing your business needs a critical first step towards making the best possible decision. Good luck, Steve -- and do let the Focus community know how you fare in your efforts!

What odes ipass have to do with Cloud Computing? This type of post just makes your company look bad.

Make sure you are sufficiently informed about the various types of cloud computing as well as the positives and negatives of this technology structure. Here are a few links worth reading:

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
Cloud Computing Explained http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/164933/cloud_computing_explaine...
Cloud Computing Trends (3 part series) http://edgewatertech.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/cloud-computing-trends-thinking...
Gartner Study http://www.infoworld.com/d/security-central/gartner-seven-cloud-computing-sec...
Cloud Goes Boom http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/10/cloud_goes_boom.htm...
Data Security Proof http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/cio-it-strategy/cloud-computing-if-our-data-is-se...

Edwin, I'm in the process of figuring that out. I wanted to get a few examples and proceed from there. Thank you for your answers and provided links.

The site below describes all the Cloud Computing Leaders. Found it pretty helpful.

http://www.cloudcomputingleaders.net

Top Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers:
- Amazon
- Rackspace
- Softlayer
- GoGrid
- Terremark
- Navisite
- Opsource

Top Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) providers:
- Microsoft Azure
- Salesforce Force.com
- Google AppEngine
- Apple's app store

Top Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers:
- Salesforce.com
- Quickbooks.com

Top Enabling Cloud technologies:
- VMware
- Citrix Xen
- CA
- Parallels

A good list of over 50 Cloud Computing providers.
http://www.cloudtweaks.com/cloud-vendors/

Some Are:

Nimbus
Amazon
NetSuite
Cloudshare
Wolf Frameworks
RightScale
Cirrhus9
Joyent
Enomaly

Amazon's platform seems to be fairly rounded, and they continue to add functionality. I beleive they just had an announcement of additional SQL support in the last week or two...

There are interesting newcomers to the field every day. There were some good additions to the cloud in Australia starting up in Canberra recently. They are selling under the auspices of keep your cloud in your own legal jurisdiction.

We have a lot of business in the Rackspace cloud facilities.

There are some good articles and reports on Champion Cloud Services, including "Who Wants Cloud and Why?" and "What Does the Cloud Mean? Choice".
http://www.championcloudservices.com/Blog/

I'm looking for security services and modularity especially acceptable in the DoD spaces. Any ideas on companies to look at?

I would reach out to Rick Donnelly 800-771-7000 ( Government and commercial security policies, standards and models)

Hi Steve,
Cloud Technology Partners has produced reviews of each of the cloud computing leaders at: http://cloudtp.com/cloud-computing-companies/cloud-computing-leaders
We are also reviewing the rest of the vendors in the space and the open source options at: http://cloudtp.com/cloud-computing-companies/companies-watch

Hope this helps.... and if you need consulting services, give us a call.

Cheers,

--Erik Sebesta

For the Googles, Amazons and EBays, "data" was too cumbersome for the old database paradigm.
http://bygsoft.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/cloudy-combo-google-app-engine-and-am...

I would also direct the community to our other Focus resources. You'll find a package of our cloud computing research at - http://bit.ly/aHTsUN as well as full listing of all Focus cloud computing content at http://www.focus.com/content/tag/cloud-computing/.

ReliaCloud (http://www.reliacloud.com) is a new cloud computing provider focused on the SMB market. They also are coming out with a partner program that allows you to resell their cloud server and storage products.

How about http://www.xen.org? This is the open-source product that 3tera and most of the other Linux-based Cloud Computing offerings are built on. Most of the companies listed mentioned above simply offer hosted hardware running Xen. For a Windows cloud, take a look that MS Hypervisor or VMWare.

Atum specializes in virtualizing IT infrastructures. Please take a look at their website http://www.atum.com to find out more information, to get a free analysis or a free trial.

Thanks :)

Cloud computing is basically the use of virtualized servers via the internet. Hardly new, but for some reason is the thing of the moment.

Not quite sure where Amazon EC2 comes in - I thought that was a massively distributed computing platform, for complex mathematical processing?

There are many so called leaders in the industry. But the truth is when looking for a provider you need to find the one that meets your requirements and beware of hidden costs or being tied into an annual contract. Check your service level agreement, make sure you know the location and hopefully find a provider or supplier near you. Your business deserves good service and medium or small business Solution providers are more apt to listen and respond to your needs not to mention be there when you need assistance.

I agree with Jen,

It is multi-variable equation to the best-fit cloud hosting provider.

One of the most important parameters, or the lack of it, is managed support with cloud hosters.

Cheers!

@Robin,

One. Hosting your applications on a server in a specialized data center saves costs. :)

If you needed one or two servers (or 5 for that matter) hosting them in your office will need a 24x7 monitoring team, a support team, in addition to the cost of a robust 24x7 infrastructure.

The data center standards have evolved - any tier data centers, today, have multiple internet connection redundancy.

- Rudhir

I would say that Amazon and VMware defined the first era. The question is who will define the next era.

http://www.ctoedge.com/content/end-beginning-virtualization

Our company is taking cloud computing services from an American cloud computing and application hosting service provider - Real Time Data Services. This company is currently hosting for us three business applications on cloud at a very reasonable price. It provides hosting solutions for all popular business applications. This cloud computing service provider is reliable, competent, and experienced in hosting applications on cloud. It provides free 24 by 7 tech support.
For more information, see: http://www.myrealdata.com/cloud-computing.html

Ask yourself this: what do you gain by putting your apps on a remote server, instead of doing it in-house?

You now rely on your internet connection. What will you do if it fails?