Solution Providers Need Flexibility in the Cloud

From a solution provider’s perspective putting all the piece parts together to create a cloud computing platform can be complex. To simplify it there has been a lot discussion about the need for turnkey cloud computing platforms. But the problem with many of those approaches is that they tend to force compromises when it comes to flexibility. In particular, many solution providers don’t like to have all their proverbial technology eggs in one vendor basket.

That’s what makes a new mCloud Data Center Unit (DCU) reference platform from Morphlabs, which was announced at the Interop 2011 conference, worth some investigation. MorphLabs, a provider of systems management software for cloud computing environments, has partnered with Arista Networks, BroadBand Tower, Citrix Systems, CoreSite Realty Corp. and Nexenta Systems to define a set of repeatable reference architectures that solution providers can leverage to build a cloud computing environment.

That architecture, which includes 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches from Arista and application delivery controllers from Citrix, is meant to be just flexible enough to give solution providers a solid foundation for building a cloud computing platform without overly limiting their options by making them too dependent on single vendor, says Morphlabs CEO Winston Damarillo.

This is obviously a time of great transition in IT. Vendors usually try to take advantage of such moments to push solution providers to standardize on their entire suite of data center products and technologies. While that may sound attractive in terms of reducing the number of vendors that need to be managed, the fact remains that we don’t know where the next great advance in any given technology sector is going to come from. And if you’ve bet everything on one vendor, the odds are pretty high that any one of a hundred other vendors are going to invent something that could leave your vendor of preference playing catch-up for years to come.