Cloudy Times: 15 Scenes From All About The Cloud

It's All About The Cloud

The All About The Cloud conference in San Francisco this week brought together many of the brightest minds in cloud computing and SaaS, with more than 500 delegates on hand from every facet of the industry -- ISVs, SaaS companies, analysts, venture capitalists and more -- to explore cloud computing from top to bottom.

Known for its dense fog, San Francisco was an apt location to dig deeper into the cloud.

Here are 15 things you may have missed at the Software and Information Industry Association's (SIIA) All About The Cloud conference this week.

Let's Get It Started

OpSource CEO and founder Treb Ryan welcomes the crowd. Later, Ryan would detail the changes cloud computing creates in the solution provider ecosystem, highlighting four distinct channels for the cloud to go to market: software vendors; VARs and SIs; telecoms; and value-added developers (VADs).

Engaged

Despite the early start, All About The Cloud attendees paid close attention during morning keynotes, to ensure they didn't miss a thing.

Arriba!

On Monday night, All About The Cloud officially kicked off with a Cinco de Mayo themed welcome reception. Here, a Mariachi band gets the crowd in the spirit.

This Is How We Do It

In the opening keynote, Intuit Senior Vice President and CTO Tayloe Stansbury highlighted how the TurboTax and QuickBooks software maker found success in the cloud and SaaS markets, an area where Intuit expects to bring in $1 billion in revenue this year. How'd they do it? By focusing on the customer and surrounding themselves with a strong partner ecosystem.

I Am Iron Man

Seems there can't be a cloud computing conference these days without some appearance form Iron Man, as Oracle has a stake in Iron Man 2.

Strong Like Iron

Cast Iron Systems took the exhibit hall by storm, highlighting it's SaaS solutions and discussing its recent acquisition by IBM, as Big Blue looks to sharpen its cloud computing chops.

Still 'All In'

Microsoft's Doug Hauger, general manager of Microsoft Windows Azure, the software giant's cloud platform, reaffirmed that Microsoft is "all in" when it comes to cloud computing. According to Hauger, the company has invested more than $2 billion in cloud infrastructure, has 30,000 engineers working on cloud services and is offering public and private cloud flexibility and geo-replicated customer data. Meanwhile, Microsoft has achieved SAS 70 and ISO 27001 compliance and is offering uptime guarantees to prove its cloud offerings are up to snuff.

Integration Station

During a panel discussion on integrating in the cloud, cloud executives discussed the trials and tribulations of tying systems together to create a solid cloud environment.

Shown here, (left to right), are John Rowell, co-founder and CTO of OpSource; David Inbar, director of worldwide marketing and channel development for Pervasive Software; Ron Papas, general manager of Informatica's Cloud Business Unit; Simon Peel, senior vice president of marketing and strategy for Cast Iron Systems; and Paul Daugherty, chief technical architect for Accenture.

The Microsoft Lounge

With the largest presence on the All About The Cloud show floor, Microsoft set up a lounge where attendees could mingle and discuss all things cloud.

Four Flavors

During his keynote presentation, OpSource CEO Treb Ryan discussed the new partner paradigm created by cloud computing. Here is the breakdown: software makers, SIs and VARs, telecoms and value-added developers (VADs).

Bright And Early

Each morning at All About The Cloud, breakfast was served on the show floor, to ensure not a moment was wasted getting to know all of the relevant cloud and SaaS vendors in attendance.

Keep It Private

Here a panel discusses the virtues of private clouds, or on-premise clouds, and why certain enterprises wouldn't want data stored outside of their organizations.

The panel comprised, (from left to right): Phil Wainewright, director, Procullux Ventures; Brian Byun, VP and GM, Cloud, VMware; Jeff Deacon, managing director, Cloud Services, Verizon; Zorawar Biri Singh, VP, IBM Enterprise Initiatives, Cloud Computing, IBM; and Rebecca Lawson, enterprise business marketing, Hewlett-Packard.

Speed Networking

During the opening night of All About The Cloud, the conference played host to a speed networking event. Think of it as speed dating, but instead of potential dates attendees made business contacts.

Consumerize It

LiveOps CEO Maynard Webb took the All About The Cloud stage to highlight the need to consumerize IT and how cloud computing provides the technologies and enables the business processes to change how the world works.

Shreddin'

All About The Cloud attendees were treated to a networking extravaganza at San Francisco's well-known Ruby Skye night club. The event features an Xbox Challenge. Here, an attendee shows off his hot guitar licks during a Rock Band competition.