In between meeting with customers, Crowdchatting with our communities and hosting theCUBE, the Wikibon research team finds time to meet and discuss trends and topics regarding digital business transformation and technology markets. We look at things from the standpoints of business, Internet of Things, big data, application, cloud and infrastructure modernization. We use the results of our research meetings to explore new research topics, further current research projects and share insights. This is the inaugural summary of findings from these regular meetings, which we plan to publish every Monday.

Recently, we talked about the new information we’ve gleaned from client conversations about the evolution of what Wikibon calls “True Private Cloud.” TPC is an approach to bringing cloud capabilities on premises in a way that ties the control plane across multiple locations. Why “true” private cloud? Because too many vendors have been introducing “private cloud” options that use similar technologies, but provide none of the plasticity, pay-as-you-go or simplified administration benefits of the cloud. The objective of TPC is a common public and private approach to provisioning, managing and delivering cloud services.

Recently, Wikibon analysts hosted theCUBE broadcasts at important cloud-related events, including Open Stack Summit, Dell EMC World and Red Hat Summit. The 40-plus interviews with industry, partner and user executives highlight a common theme: True Private Cloud computing is going to be a central feature of technology evolution. It’s a conversation that’s heating up.

“The Open Stack Foundation at the Open Stack Summit suggested that most Open Stack deployments – perhaps as high as 80 percent – are done on premises.” – Stu Miniman, Wikibon analyst and theCUBE host

We expect that the issue of hybrid cloud computing will dominate several issues pertaining to cloud deployment:

• End-to-end latency emerges as an “open” question. Two factors are certain to impact cloud system performance: integrating public and private cloud deployment; and running a single workload across cloud services from multiple vendors. We think end-to-end performance is going to emerge as a key metric in cloud decision making.

“Oracle has thrown down the end-to-end cloud gauntlet. They claim that they’ll be able to offer a cloud service that can serve any user, anywhere, with any workload in 150 milliseconds – if the workload stays within the Oracle cloud.” – Peter Burris, Wikibon analyst

• Containers are presumed to be part of any hybrid cloud solution. While infrastructure pros focus on questions regarding SaaS and IaaS, developers have begun adopting cloud approaches through containers. Docker, rkt and Microsoft containers, for example, are picking up steam. And which management environment is getting the most attention on theCUBE? Kubernetes.

“Kubernetes is one of those enabling technologies that seems ready to live in and span Google, Microsoft or even Amazon Web Services clouds, as well as private data centers.” – Stu Miniman

• Cloud partnerships that solve real challenges. AWS is forging important new relationships with technology forces such as VMware Inc. and Red Hat Inc. The VMware/AWS partnership was announced last October, but little has been said about it since, including at Dell EMC World. However, we expect a major “coming out” party will take place at VMworld in late August. Another cloud partnership that bears watching? AWS and Red Hat.

“The biggest announcement coming out of Red Hat Summit was a deeper integration between Red Hat’s Open Shift and AWS.” – Stu Miniman

In the near term, users need to focus on technology architecture through two essential lenses. First is the lens of direction modern application development, which increasingly is dominated by containers. Second is the lens of end-to-end latency, especially in situations involving the edge. Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp. have the best end-to-end story to tell right now, but that could change in a heartbeat at VMworld if VMware and AWS live up to expectations.

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