Continued from Part 1: Verizon Terremark chief sees enterprise cloud services chasm coming
From the editor: In Part 2 of this Q&A, Kerry Bailey, president of Verizon Terremark, delves further into enterprise cloud issues, including cloud security, the cloud ecosystem and how Verizon-Terremark plans to use hybrid clouds.
Are you still hearing that enterprises won't move apps to the cloud because it isn't secure enough?
Bailey: The two messages we always hear are whether cloud performance will be adequate for the business and whether [the cloud is] secure enough. Those messages are really about [enterprise IT] losing control. We have a large security business, and we can show a customer that when you put controls around a cloud in a highly secure environment, you actually have more security than when systems are distributed. Security is our differentiator, and it's why we took the security assets within Verizon and moved them into Terremark in June to answer that exact question.
What applications are enterprises willing to move to the cloud first?
Bailey: They started with variable workloads, websites, e-commerce sites and development workloads. In the last 12 months, we have seen a significant amount of ERP and CRM application movement. Not every company feels that email or even their ERP system is their differentiator, so moving SAP to the cloud, for example, follows the commodity applications.
What do cloud providers need from the ecosystem in terms of equipment or solutions to speed cloud evolution?
Bailey: The infrastructure layers are in pretty good shape to interact with the orchestration layer we built to orchestrate millions of servers across our public cloud. The focus now is that companies are putting traditional apps on this very dynamic infrastructure. Application companies are desperately trying to get their apps cloud ready. We're going to see more of an applications focus in the ecosystem, while infrastructure is going to be divided up into who can do enterprise cloud and who can't.
Do you think hybrid clouds will be the winner with large enterprises?
Bailey: We absolutely believe in the hybrid cloud, but we see it a little differently than a lot of providers. Enterprises feel that all these cloud companies are trying to get them to rewrite their apps into their cloud operating system and platform, which would lock them in. We will let our customer migrate, and we believe that will happen in the hybrid cloud, where we'll provide our connections to our cloud and back to their private cloud, or to their behind-the-firewall solution. We want them to be able to move back and forth when they need processing and workload capabilities. So we think hybrid is almost a tool to prevent cloud lock-in, and we're investing in it as a top strategic mission.