Episode Summary

iland Cloud Technologist Brian Knudtson is joined by guests Jim Millard and Eric Lee for a deep-dive into the flexibility of services offered by cloud providers. They discuss, among other things, the spectrum of flexibility in the cloud, its importance, and how the quest for it can be littered with blindspots. Get ready for a flex on all things flexibility.

Panel

Cloud Conversations

Topic 1

 [03:32] In the vendor and provider space, we often have to pick a place on a spectrum that ranges from Apple’s model of “we will provide a best of breed product and you will come to us” to Dell’s desktop approach of “ultimate customizability and flexibility.” How do different cloud provider types (hyperscalers, VMware-based, private cloud) fit on this spectrum and how do they differentiate?

Topic 2

[14:49] The hyperscalers use the concept of “instance sizing” for their VMs — is that a limitation in flexibility that customers care about?

Topic 3

[23:02] What kind of flexibility are businesses really looking for?

Cloud Bites

[03:45] “I’ve come to agree with the VMware perspective that cloud is not a ‘where’ it’s a ‘how.’” – Jim Millard

[08:06] “If you drink some of the VMware Kool-Aid, the idea is to pick the right tool for that particular solution and we or our competitors or the ecosystem itself will find a way to help keep the sanity at manageable levels.” – Jim Millard 

[10:20] “You have to have some balance of being specific enough in that cloud to take advantage of what that cloud provides with also having the ability to get out of that cloud if there’s a reason you really need to move.” – Eric Lee 

[16:07] “It’s not a lift and shift going to most clouds.” – Eric Lee

[16:37] “You rarely do have the ultimate perfect solution for a given problem that the business throws your way. You always have to make some level of compromise.” – Brian Knudtson 

[28:12] “The ultimate flexibility is having an infrastructure that can be coded so that things can happen automatically.” – Brian Knudtson 

[29:26] “Sometimes migrating a legacy infrastructure does require making some hard decisions that may not be simple and could cause the cloud journey to be very rough and painful to some businesses.” – Brian Knudtson