INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
CUSTOMERS . . . EXPECT THE INFORMATION
AND ABILITY TO TRANSACT TO BE THERE
WHEN THEY WANT IT . . . IT’S FRIGHTENINGLY
EASY TO MOVE FROM YOU TO YOUR
COMPETITOR IF YOU DON’T OFFER IT.
Paul Mattes, VP of Global Cloud
Group, Veeam
ALEXA, CORTANA
AND SIRI ARE
DEMONSTRATING
THE POWER
AND POTENTIAL
IMPACT OF AI IN
EVERYDAY LIFE.
cloud increasingly requires a multi-cloud
approach and a corresponding portfolio
of management and operational tools.
Software providers understand this and
will continue to improve their offerings
to make seamless integration across the
cloud landscape a reality.
• Cloud-native applications will surge
as enterprises of all sizes and ISVs
(independent software vendors) hone their
ability to define and deliver applications/
solutions that are conceived and
architected to take advantage of cloud
platforms. The cost, scale and efficiency
benefits of cloud native applications are
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INTELLIGENTCIO
now too compelling to ignore and with
swift advances in essential technologies like
micro services and supporting development
tools, cloud native applications will
accelerate into the mainstream.
• Cloud scale database services (e.g.
Azure Cosmos, Google Cloud Spanner
and services from AWS) will enable
hyper-scale, highly distributed and
mission-critical applications to become
reality; they will also further increase the
appetite for infusing data and analytics
into every application delivered in the
cloud. Compelling characteristics such
as low-latency, scale out and geo-
distribution will provide the type of
horsepower IOT and numerous other
global-scale applications require.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled
through cloud platforms will begin
permeating across enterprises, industries
and applications. While we aren’t quite
at the level of HAL from 2001: A Space
Odyssey, technologies like Alexa, Cortana
and Siri are demonstrating the power
and potential impact of AI in everyday
life. For businesses, the capabilities
of machine learning, powered by
petabytes of data and insanely fast
compute resources will impact consumer
experiences, biotech research, financial
modelling and other applications.
So what does this all mean for us?
Customers and users the world over won’t
care what your problems are: they expect
the information and ability to transact
to be there when they want it, and it’s
frighteningly easy to move from you to your
competitor if you don’t offer it.
We haven’t even scratched the surface of
what will change cloud computing. AI and
machine learning is already weighing in on
marketing and sales by synthesising Big Data
and analytics. Soon it will be responsible for
hopping spontaneously between clouds to
ensure the continued delivery of your data
or service.
But availability is about much more than
consumers and e-commerce. Far-flung
colleagues, more automation and the new
flexibility they enable will further change the
world we work and live in and, we already
expect our work assets and services to be
always-on.
Availability isn’t a choice, it’s a base
requirement and the time for it is now.
About the author
Paul Mattes currently leads the Veeam
Global Cloud Group, which is responsible for
accelerating the company’s strategic growth
in availability solutions and leveraging
private, managed, hybrid and public clouds.
Paul has over 25 years of experience in a
diverse set of disciplines, including enterprise
sales and services leadership, strategic
business consulting, software architecture
and engineering and data centre
operations. He has worked across a wide
range of industries, including health care,
pharmaceutical research, financial services,
retail and manufacturing.
Prior to joining Veeam, Paul was the general
manager for cloud and enterprise sales
for the Americas at Microsoft. His teams
delivered advanced workload solutions for
Azure, big data and analytics, the Internet
of Things (IoT) and Azure Site Recovery.
During his 13 plus years at Microsoft, he
held positions of increasing responsibility
across the company in groups that included
developer and platform evangelism,
enterprise sales, industry solutions
development and R&D. n
www.intelligentcio.com