I attended the 8th international Cloud Computing Expo in NYC (June 6th – June 9th 2011). There were over 7000 attendees with curiosity and enthusiasm about the technology. See my article for more details. Many informative workshops were being offered and many small businesses had exhibits that displayed show their services and products.
Cloud Computing is in at its early stages of development. I was reminded how fast a small business can pick up a new technology and run with it. I think the reason is that small businesses have less internal structure and resistance. The future of the company may be at stake for every decision being made.
The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit on June 10th was a success. It attracted 1000+ registrations and had to have a change of venue to the Hilton in Manhattan in order to accommodate the crowd. I was very impressed with the presentations and how well the event was organized. At the registration, we were given a memory stick with all of the presentations and an Amazon credit($20) for taking their survey. A week later, I received a reminder that the presentations were available on line and a request to take their survey.
Amazon demonstrated leadership with vision and an ability to execute. In the opening keynote, Dr. Werner Vogels (CTO) stated “The key to our success is listening to our customers”. AWS – Amazon Web Services (what people now call “the Cloud”) has been leading the way in Cloud Computing since 2006. Innovation hasn’t stopped since then. They truly are listening to the needs of their customers.
Did you know that Barnes and Noble started an on-line business about the same time as Amazon? Starting with an on-line book retail selling business in the mid 1990th, Amazon had taken advantage of the internet for their business model. In 1997, Barnes and Noble committed to attack Amazon’s leadership. Today, Amazon has developed a broad retail product line and has also developed its leadership in Cloud Computing Infrastructure with hundreds of thousands registered customers in over 190 countries while Barnes and Noble is struggling to survive.