24 SEPTEMBER 2014, PORTUGAL – Delivering the keynote at the Net Events EMEA Press & Service Provider Summit in Portugal, Tom Homer, Telstra’s Head of EMEA and the Americas, Global Enterprise & Services said Cloud’s influence would lead to the workplace of the future no longer being a physical location, but instead a dataset.
Providing his vision of how cloud technology will evolve by 2020, Mr Homer predicted that a combination of Web Scale IT, Hybrid Cloud, Personal Cloud, Mobility and the Internet of Things would lead to significant changes.
“We are responding to the evolution of cloud technologies right now and recognise that computer power is required in many different forms. Our world-first collaboration to deliver Cisco’s OpenStack cloud infrastructure platform to customers around the globe is a great example of this and is set to be one of the world’s largest network of cloud computing services.”
According to Mr Homer, new architectural approaches like Web-Scale IT are gaining ground, with Gartner predicting that by 2017 half of global enterprises, up from less than 10 percent in 2013, will be using the model popularised by web giants such as Facebook, Google and eBay.
He did however say that while it is becoming more prevalent, CIOs should be mindful of the legacy: “Companies are still going to demand managed hosting, private cloud and colocation for a long-time and the role for cloud service providers such as Telstra, will be one of orchestration and brokerage to create a ‘cloud of clouds’.”
Mr Homer iterated to the audience that the personal cloud will play a greater role in the enterprise sector in six years’ time: “Employees will bring their own ‘clouds’ into the workplace. At Telstra we are well prepared for this with the formation of the Telstra Software Group, which has made investments into companies such as Box.com.”
During the keynote Homer also spoke about the company’s extension of its Cisco Intercloud partnership to include Hong Kong and Singapore. Unveiled earlier this year, this world-first extends Telstra’s cloud capabilities to deliver Cisco’s OpenStack cloud infrastructure to customers around the globe.
“We continue to execute our hybrid cloud strategy both domestically and globally, partnering with providers of best in class cloud infrastructure. Through our strategic relationship with Cisco, development of the Cisco Intercloud has progressed well in Australia with Telstra customers and partners now trialing the service. Ultimately this will create more choice and flexibility for our customers as they choose their future cloud environments,” said Mr Homer.
“We are diversifying our portfolio at a rapid pace, adding capabilities and exciting products that are relevant to our customer’s businesses. As we continue to expand our cloud services portfolio to a global footprint, at the core we are offering our customers choice and flexibility, making the transition to hybrid and public clouds simpler and easier to manage. Our aim is to take the complexity out of connecting to the cloud.
“We will continue to add market-leading and trusted cloud solutions to address the cloud requirements our customers have, driving greater choice of solutions to offer them the cloud environment that best matches their business needs,” he concluded.
