Page 141 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

O VERCOMING RESISTANCE T O THE CL OUD

ketplace undergoes a shakeout and everybody can tell who
the winners are. If there’s any reconciliation to be done, let it
follow the marketplace decision.
At this event, Lewis defended virtualization vendors’ prac-
tices as better than in the past. Citrix has aligned its format
with Microsoft’s VHD, Microsoft and Red Hat have agreed to

support each other’s operating systems in virtual machines,
and the DMTF has published OVF, with everyone’s assent.
“We see our software partners working more cooperatively
than they have in years. Agreements are being reached and al-
liances are being made,” she said.
I concluded a blog entry on these responses by noting
how easy it is for strong technology vendors to agree that it’s

reasonable to pursue their own interests, despite the fact that
a simple remedy to a customer problem was at hand.
“Knowledgeable parties inside ongoing software concerns
may have a disdain for those users, those small minded indi-
viduals, who just can’t understand why things need to be done
the way they are. But I for one say bring on those revolting end
users. After this gang, I’d like to hear from them.” I still think
an end user revolt is one of the few ways to get powerful ven-
dors to listen.

Rather than let this issue lie dormant, cloud users should
acquaint themselves with several open source code options
that are exerting pressure on the proprietary nature of cloud
computing. In some cases, open source code will provide a
means of knocking down closed doors and building a private
cloud that interoperates with a proprietary one, regardless of

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