John Cowan

My watered down translation of Long Tail theory is simply the notion that the aggregate sum of stuff buyers take in small, infrequent quantities will invariably outstrip the aggregate sum of the most popular counterparts. Research evidence is beginning to corroborate what we saw some three years ago: There is a Long Tail in Cloud Computing. Consider some well accepted research points from IDC and others of late: The Cloud Computing market will hit USD $42 Billion by 2012 Of that, more than 50% will comprise business process applications (the stuff we all use daily to run companies big and small) So, I can infer then that some $20 Billion will comprise the 2012 feed bag from which all the little cloud computing piggies will line up at the trough to consume. Not a bad market, from 10,000 feet away. But here's the thing. The cloud computing market is already becoming pre... (more)

Cloud Computing Is the Next Great Land Rush and It Is Happening Now

Cloud Computing is the next great land rush and it is happening now.  All the major technology companies have their offerings.  And it seems like everyone is entering the market – even the hosting companies want in on the land rush. In theory, migration to the Cloud makes business sense; you’re enabling companies to rent computing power that would cost them too much to buy.  I won’t bore you with yet another blog post on the ‘what is it’ topic.  There is a great synopsis of Cloud Computing published by Mache Creeger and I recommend checking it out.  In our model, we’re allowing ... (more)

Microsoft Azure Pricing Adds to Cloud Confusion

The long awaited Microsoft Azure pricnig model was announced recently. For a while I really thought Microsoft would use its fashionably late arrival to Cloud Computing to build upon the short comings of other vendors and maybe take advantage of the opportunity to establish a leadership position in Cloud Pricing. Alas, yesterday I discovered that Microsoft will instead add to the confusion when it comes to Cloud Pricing. Here is a snippet of what they announced: Azure pricing is a disappointment on three counts: It isn’t true utility or consumption computing pricing because the c... (more)

Cloud Brokerage: The Immovable Asset Becomes Movable

This is Part IV in a series by 6fusion Co-founder and CEO John Cowan on the emerging trend of Cloud Brokerage and the impact it will have on the technology industry and markets. Be sure to check out Part I of the series here, Part II here, and Part III here. The IT industry to me looks a lot like the commercial airline industry did many years ago and I think the latter is rife with lessons about the power of a true commodity market. For those of you keeping score, late last year American Airlines’ parent AMR declared bankruptcy.  The Chapter 11 filing of the once largest airline ... (more)

How One Service Provider is Making Money from the Cloud

As you may or may not be aware, 6fusion is a channel focused company. That means we work exclusively with IT service providers of one variety or another to make the transition from legacy service models to a service model rooted in cloud computing. Our core technology is an algorithm that creates a single unit of measurement for the computing resources you need to run practically any application. You can check out our site to find out more, as this post isn’t intended to be a product pitch. But I thought I would take a few minutes to let readers know a bit more behind the video w... (more)