John Cowan

This is Part III 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 and Part II here. The feedback and fallout from Part II of this post has been quite interesting.  I thought for sure the bulk of the flack I would have to take would be from the cloud vendor incumbents I said would be relegated to the world of retail cloud business.  But since I posted my perspective I’ve found myself digging in to the nature of the Total Addressable Market (TAM) for the Cloud Brokerage industry. For those of you keeping score at home, I said the market for cloud brokerage is more that 10 times the market for cloud computing software and related services. Yes, 10 times. And it is because this market is so big that cloud broke... (more)

Why I’m Bullish on Cloud in Europe

Geographic expansion has always been a key component to proving out 6fusion’s technological and commercial strategy, but out of the gates we had never really identified where on the map we would choose to go. Europe at the time looked like as good a place as any when traditional filters were applied.  There is a good swath of the market that speaks our language.  It’s not generally too far removed from North America from a support perspective (at least not as far removed as some other regions).  The acumen for cloud is generally pretty high and the potential to tap available tal... (more)

Is Your Organization Living Below the Information Security Poverty Line?

By Steven Wolford, Director of Information Security, 6fusion During the season of politics here in the US, I would like to borrow shamelessly from topics in the political debate with a look towards the state of information security. According to CNN (Poverty Rate Rises as Incomes Decline), the number of US citizens living below what is considered the bare essentials is on the increase. I believe we can say the same for information security programs. According to SANS, the top security controls can be boiled down to 20 Critical Controls (Top 20 Critical Controls). These are regard... (more)

The Cloud Vendor and the Agnostic Intermediary

Abstract: This is Part II in a blog 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 – The Cloud Vendor and the Agnostic Intermediary I gave a presentation a few months back in which I opened with the following statement:  The future of cloud computing has little to do with technology. Sounds crazy, right?  But before you send me to the virtual nuthouse, let me explain. What I think is unclear in the emerging Cloud Br... (more)

Cloud Brokerage and the Future of the IT Utility

Abstract:  Cloud Brokerage is an emerging trend in the broader cloud computing industry.  Opinions differ widely about what it means to be a broker and the significance brokers will have on the future of the industry as a whole.    The reality is that the brokerage model signals the real potential to commoditize the compute utility, which will climax with the genesis of compute as a tradable commodity like soybeans, oil or minerals.  In this four part series we will take a deep dive into the concept of cloud brokerage and connect the dots between the key trends and market demands... (more)