There is no longer any question that the cloud computing model will be the prevailing style of delivery for computing over the coming decades; Forrester Research predicts that the global market for cloud computing will grow from $40.7 billion in 2011 to more than $241 billion in 2020. Greenfield application development projects can be designed from the outset to benefit from cloud computing features such as elastic scalability, automated provisioning, infrastructure level APIs, object storage services and middleware services such as message queues and key/value stores. However, for existing legacy applications the journey to cloud is not quite so straightforward.

Understanding the impact of factors such as security/compliance, application architecture, integration, the pattern of demand and operational maturity is crucial when performing a cloud feasibility assessment. Additionally, many organizations perceive cost-reduction as one of the primary benefits of adopting a cloud hosting model. In practice however, this is not always an accurate assumption. There are nuances to the financial analysis: public cloud computing is not necessarily cheaper than traditional dedicated hosting. Furthermore, there are considerations around the impact on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), transformation/migration costs and the position of an organization with the IT lifecycle.

During this session, we will explore each of these areas in order to illustrate some of the factors an organization needs to consider when contemplating a migration to the cloud.

Speaker Bio:
Andrew Schroepfer has been the go-to analyst in the hosting industry since its inception in the late 1990s. From his beginnings at Piper Jaffray where he developed and managed the VoIP industry’s primary market statistics, Schroepfer published a 270-page report on the dis-aggregation of communications, which sparked his coverage of the Web hosting industry. He then joined Goldman Sachs as VP and Senior Equity Analyst on the Internet Infrastructure Services industry during the time when Equinix, Loudcloud (now HP), and Webex (now Cisco) were executing their IPOs. In late 2000, Schroepfer founded, led, and later sold Tier 1 Research, the leading specialist research firm on the hosting and data center industry.

Schroepfer currently serves as Vice President, Strategy & Enterprise and has been with Rackspace since July 2009. Before joining Rackspace, he was a technology investor and founded CagedTweets.com, an archiving firm for business use of social media applications like Facebook (/Schroepfer) and Twitter (@shrepfur). He graduated with a B.A. in Accounting & Economics from St. John's University.