The Cloudcast #126 - 2013 in Review & 2014 Predictions

Topic 1 - Looking back on 2013, what’s your biggest story or biggest take away? (AWS, OpenStack, NSA)

Topic 2 - Where do you think the industry made the most gains in cloud computing and where do you still see the biggest gaps (or opportunities)? (SDN, IaaS became plumbing)

Topic 3 - As you talk to people in the industry, around the world, how much do you see the spread of the Silicon Valley mindset and technology profile?

Topic 4 - Let’s talk about OpenStack. Was 2013 a good year, a bad year or just a year in the evolution? (Open Source VMware vCloud, who’s making money?)

Topic 5 - Traditional vendors vs. public cloud (which are sometimes the same). Who do you think is better positioned and what do you think each considers “success in 2014”?

Topic 6 - Moving on to 2014, what big things do you expect to happen (if any)? (SDN with VMware & Cisco, OpenStack conslidation)

Topic 7 - We’re getting ready to move into YEAR 4 of The Cloudcast. Can you believe it? What do we have planned for our listeners in the new year?

The Cloudcast #125 - Building Advanced Cloud Services

Guest: Chip Childers (@chipchilders), VP of Product Cumulogic, VP of Apache CloudStack

Topic 1 - What is the latest on Apache CloudStack? How was the CloudStack Collaboration Conference? (Huge thanks to Schuberg Philis for their donation and time!)

Topic 2 - Why do we need services beyond IaaS? What are some examples?

Topic 3 - A little bit about Cumulogic. Where are you seeing traction? What are customers asking for?

Topic 4 - You have a Service Provider background. Tell us a little bit about the build vs. buy decisions and is that changing over time?

Topic 5 - Where do you see the future of services around IaaS? How are products like Cumulogic different from say VMTurbo (guest on Episode 124). How are operations different?

Music credit: Nine Inch Nails (nin.com)

The Cloudcast #124 - Cloud Operations

Topic 1 - VMTurbo isn’t your first go round creating products and companies in this space. Prior to VMTurbo, you created SMARTS which was acquired by EMC. What made you decide to start over and create something from the ground up a second time?

Topic 2 - What common problems are you seeing today? Do you see different problems based on Enterprise vs. SMB? SP’s? What is your view of this space?

Topic 3 - Are your products Open Source (not from what I could tell)? Has Open Source Software and the increasing scopes of projects/Products in OpenStack/CloudStack/vCloud affecting how you see approaches to operations of clouds?

Topic 4 - What CMP (cloud management platform) characteristics do you see the most that are driving adoption of additional management products? Where are the holes today? Monitoring, Multi-Tenancy, Compliance and Security, Application Level Management?

Topic 5 - How do most of your customers get started today? What challenges do they tackle first? Do they hit the low hanging fruit? Do they attack the big issues?

Topic 6 - Do you get many requests for deep API Integration for DevOps or integration with public clouds? Where do you think the private cloud industry will go in 2014?

The Cloudcast - Donuts, Donations and Dummies

"Rewards" - Krispy Kreme Challenge 2014 Donations

Last week we announced that we're starting both our training and fundraising for the 2014 Krispy Kreme Challenge (@k2challenge). 8000+ runners, 5 miles, 12 donuts, uphill both ways. And once that stupidity is over, the event makes a HUGE donation to the NC Children's Hospital (@ncchildrens) - for 2013 it was over $180,000. People might laugh at the participants in the event, and they should since it's blatant gluttony, but the impact they make to those families is significant.

This year we've decided to raise our target goal. Last year it was $2500 and we raised $4310 with your generosity. This year we started our goal at $5000, but we really think we can do quite a bit more ($7500?, $10,000??). The hardest part for Aaron and Brian is asking people for money. We know it all goes to a great cause (100%, every penny), but it's tough for us to ask. So we're borrowing an idea from FundAnything.com and giving "rewards" back to you for your generosity and donations.

Here's how it works. At various levels of giving, we're offering something back.
NOTE: These levels are additive. You get all the things at your level and below it.


$10-$25: Recognition on the podcast, website and big check given to NC Children's Hospital

$50: The Cloudcast t-shirt (the good "softy" ones that are popular at tradeshows now)

$100: Your logo (company, blog, podcast, etc.) on our official race-day shirt

$250: Be a guest co-host on an episode of The Cloudcast

$500 (corporate level): Sponsorship of The Cloudcast for one month (4 shows)

$1000 and beyond: Let's talk, we'll coming up with something awesome!!

The Cloudcast – #123 – Monitoring the Clouds from the Cloud

The Cloudcast #122 - The Clash of the Cloudcasts