Cloud execs: Traditional vendors slow adoption

12.11.2010
A group of cloud providers blamed traditional hardware and software companies for their role in discouraging cloud adoption, pointing fingers at Oracle's Mark Hurd, who spoke earlier here.

At the FireGlobal conference in Seattle on Thursday, Hurd said that he doesn't know what the word "cloud" means.

Such comments are designed to slow cloud adoption, said Brian Bershad, director of research and development for Google. "There are all kinds of ways to introduce uncertainty in customers' minds," he said. The biggest threat to how fast the adoption of the cloud happens is the uncertainty and confusion generated by people who don't like the answer, he said.

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Vertically integrated products result in the complete opposite of the simplicity and lower cost that cloud services hope to offer, said Javier Soltero, CTO of VMware. "None of those things come to mind when you think of Oracle," he said.

Some companies that supply infrastructure used in data centers by cloud providers may also feel threatened by cloud services, said Chris Drumgoole, senior vice president at Terremark. In the past, a server company might sell one server to each of four large companies. "Now there's one customer -- me -- buying one server. A lot of people don't like that," he said.