The Coming Wave and Existential Intelligence (EI) – Episode 33 (Cloud Provisioning) – EVERYTHING CONNECTED

This is Episode 33 of our review of the “The Coming Wave” and Numorpho Cybernetic Systems (NUMO) progression into Actionable Intelligence as a prelude to what we call Existential Intelligence.

The cloud has become a ubiquitous part of our progression in the past decade. From an initial phase of trepidation, where businesses especially banks and the financial institutions were wary of externalizing their data, we see today that practically everyone except for the air gapped and older defense related manufacturing industrial base have embraced cloud provisioning as the basis to not only manage 3rd party interactions but also internally manage their back office and business operations.

INTERLUDE: DIGITAL INDIA AND THE CLOUD
A few years ago the Indian Prime Minister visited the Bay area that is chockfull of Indian Entrepreneurs (called NRIs – Non-resident Indians).

So, they invited him and his entourage to a conference to showcase how they could make the Indian system smarter using Cloud technologies. Called Digital India, the conference was meant to educate the Indian government team on the latest on-line technologies and how they could streamline the government functions and peoples’ management, especially when it comes to multiple languages, a single universal ID and enable on-line tax payments.

So, they are giving this spiel, and the Indian team is glued to every word, making notes…..

But there was this information minister sitting in the corner who is viewing all this skeptically. After the presentation he gets up and asks: “It’s all good and great that you can do this on the cloud, but I have one question. You know in India we have 3 seasons and one of them is Monsoon. What happens to this information in the cloud when it rains?”

In this episode we will talk with Claude.ai from Anthropic about the cloud, its origins, its provisioning, its current state and why it is going to be the most important component of the coming wave especially with the talk of AGI and its implications. We will gather a list of eminent founders and travel back in time to 1990 when the foundations of the internet and the web were at a fledgling state and talk about the “coming wave” of digital especially the cloud. Then we will move to 2015 and to 2030 and see what progress has occurred and what changes/shifts/pivots took place.

THE CAST OF CHARACTERS (NOT IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)

Nitin Uchil, founder and CEO of Numorpho Cybernetic Systems, and prompter and moderator for this session
Thomas J. Watson IBM Cloud – Thomas J. Watson Sr., was the founder and CEO of IBM (International Business Machines). He is credited with turning IBM from a failing machine parts company into a leading technology corporation. His leadership style was known for its emphasis on education, loyalty, and customer service. He also came up with the phrase “Think,” which became IBM’s slogan.
Jeff Bezos @ AWS – Jeff Bezos is the founder, chairman, and former CEO of Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world. He is widely considered one of the most influential business leaders and innovators of our time.
Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore in 1994, operating out of his garage in Seattle. Over the years, he has transformed the company into a global e-commerce giant, offering a wide range of products and services, including streaming video, cloud computing, and digital publishing.
Bezos is also known for his relentless focus on customer satisfaction and innovation, as evidenced by Amazon’s infamous “customer obsession” policy. His business philosophy emphasizes long-term thinking and a willingness to take risks and invest in new ventures.
Beyond Amazon, Bezos is also known for his philanthropy, his ownership of The Washington Post, and his interest in space travel. In 2000, he founded Blue Origin, a spaceflight company that aims to make space travel more accessible and affordable.
All in all, Jeff Bezos is a tech titan and visionary whose influence continues to shape the business world.
Bill Gates @ Azure – Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the most influential entrepreneurs of the 20th century, is an American business magnate, investor, author, and philanthropist.
Gates was born in Seattle, Washington in 1955, and he co-founded Microsoft Corporation in 1975 with Paul Allen, starting what would become one of the most successful software companies in history. He served as the CEO of Microsoft until 2000 and held the position of chairman until 2014.
Gates is best known for his contributions to the personal computer revolution, which brought computing into the homes of millions of people around the world. Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office productivity software suite are still widely used today.
In 2000, Gates stepped away from Microsoft to focus on philanthropy and global health initiatives through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which he co-founded with his wife, Melinda Gates.
Gates is not only one of the wealthiest people in the world but also one of the most generous philanthropists, donating billions of dollars to causes ranging from education and global health to clean energy.
Larry Ellison @ Oracle Cloud – Larry Ellison is a tech industry legend known for his role as the co-founder and longtime CEO of Oracle, one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world.
Born in New York City in 1944, Ellison dropped out of college twice before starting Oracle in 1977 with Bob Miner and Ed Oates. Oracle rose to prominence by developing its popular relational database management system, which is still widely used today.
Ellison is known for his aggressive and controversial business tactics, as well as his personal extravagance, including his ownership of several luxury yachts and properties. He is also known for his philanthropy, donating large sums to medical research and education initiatives.
In addition to his role at Oracle, Ellison has been involved in a number of other business ventures, including real estate, retail, and even professional sailing. He is known for his fierce competitiveness and ambition, and his business acumen has made him one of the richest people in the world.
Larry Page @ Google Cloud – Larry Page is an American entrepreneur, computer scientist, and co-founder of Google, the world’s most popular search engine and one of the largest technology companies in the world.
Born in 1973 in Michigan, Page studied computer engineering at the University of Michigan and met co-founder Sergey Brin while pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford University. In 1996, they began collaborating on a search engine that used hyperlinks to determine the importance of a given web page, which they initially called “BackRub” before renaming it Google in 1997.
Page served as Google’s CEO from 1997 to 2001 and from 2011 to 2015, and is widely regarded as one of the most innovative minds in Silicon Valley. He was instrumental in the development of many of Google’s most popular products, including Gmail, AdWords, and Google Maps.
Page is known for his “shoot for the moon” philosophy, and he has used his immense wealth to fund cutting-edge research in areas like renewable energy, space exploration, and artificial intelligence.
Overall, Larry Page’s vision and drive have had a profound impact on the technology industry and the world as a whole.
Side Bar
- Steve Jobs – Steve Jobs was a legendary American entrepreneur, innovator, and co-founder of Apple Inc., which revolutionized personal computing and the way people interact with technology.
  Jobs was born in San Francisco, California in 1955 and was adopted by Paul and Clara Jobs. In the 1970s, he co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak and led the company to become a major player in the personal computer market with the introduction of the Apple II. After being forced out of Apple in 1985, he founded NeXT Computer and later acquired Pixar, which became a major animation studio under his leadership.
  In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple and oversaw the company’s remarkable turnaround and rise to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. During this time, Apple introduced some of its most iconic products, including the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, which changed the landscape of the consumer electronics industry.
  Jobs was a visionary and a masterful marketer who deeply understood the importance of design and user experience. He was known for his strong, sometimes abrasive personality, but he was also a charismatic leader and a powerful force for innovation.
- Marc Benioff – Marc Benioff is an American businessman, philanthropist, and the CEO and co-founder of Salesforce, a cloud computing company known for its customer relationship management (CRM) software.
  Born in San Francisco in 1964, Benioff developed an interest in technology at an early age, and he began programming at the age of 13. After graduating from the University of Southern California, he worked at Oracle for 13 years before leaving to found Salesforce in 1999.
  Under Benioff’s leadership, Salesforce has grown into one of the world’s largest cloud computing companies, with annual revenue of over $21 billion. He has also been a vocal advocate for corporate philanthropy and responsible capitalism, introducing the “1-1-1” model at Salesforce, which commits the company to giving 1% of its equity, 1% of its products, and 1% of its employees’ time to charitable causes.
  Beyond Salesforce, Benioff has become a prominent voice in the tech industry on issues like data privacy, the future of work, and the ethical use of technology.
- Jensen Huang – Jensen Huang is a Taiwanese-American entrepreneur and computer scientist, best known for being the co-founder and CEO of Nvidia, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of graphics processing units (GPUs) and a leading company in the field of artificial intelligence.
  Born in 1963 in Tainan, Taiwan, Huang immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of nine. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.
  In 1993, Huang co-founded Nvidia with Chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem. Under his leadership, the company has grown from a small start-up into a major player in the semiconductor industry, with a market capitalization of over $400 billion.
  Huang has been instrumental in Nvidia’s transition from a graphics company into a leader in AI and machine learning, with the company’s GPUs being used in everything from gaming and virtual reality to autonomous vehicles and supercomputing.
  In addition to his work at Nvidia, Huang is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and he has received numerous awards for his contributions to technology and innovation.

DISCLAIMER: The statements made by the “real” characters in the course of this conversation are LLM AI generated!

Traditional enterprise systems relied on a team of Information Technology personnel to manage, develop and provide service and support to the applications and tools that run the business. Since the Systems were contained in the Enterprises Data Center, it was limited in its ability to aggregate vast diverse information and provide support for intelligent planning and insights for new products and services. Contemporary ecosystem compositions require a new means of computing that are scalable, flexible and connected. Cloud Computing is this fundamental transition in the evolution of Ecosystems. Measurable benefits such as lower costs, greater agility and better resource utilization spurred initial adoption.

Hi Claude. Let’s converse about the cloud (infrastructure not the one in the sky) today. Can you give me a background and the history of its underpinnings?

Sure, here’s a brief overview of the history and background of cloud computing infrastructure:

The concept of cloud computing originated in the 1960s with large-scale mainframe computing. The idea was that computing power could be provided as a utility like electricity rather than locally owned hardware. However, the technology wasn’t quite ready for widespread adoption.
The concept reemerged in the late 1990s when companies like Amazon and Salesforce began offering web-based services for businesses to run applications over the internet instead of on their own servers. This allowed for more flexibility, scalability, and cost savings.
The term “cloud computing” started gaining popularity around 2006 when Amazon launched its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) as a commercial web service allowing small companies to rent compute capacity. This allowed easy scaling of computing needs up and down as required. Other services like S3 for storage soon followed.
Over the next few years, more companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and others launched their own cloud computing platforms and services. The technology really took off as businesses realized the cost savings and flexibility of not having to maintain their own data centers and hardware.

Key innovations that enabled cloud computing to develop:

High speed internet and broadband adoption
Powerful low cost servers and hardware components
Virtualization technology allowing multiple virtual servers to run on one physical server
Development of distributed computing architectures
Universal connectivity protocols and APIs for managing remote systems
Improved security and identity management capabilities

Today, cloud computing has become the norm with many businesses now running their computing platforms, infrastructure, and applications primarily from public cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. This has allowed smaller companies to compete by leveraging powerful on-demand services.

What are the key differences between a Data Center based application stack and a cloud provisioning?

There are some fundamental differences between traditional data center-based application stacks and cloud-provisioned applications:

Hardware – In data centers you own and manage your own physical servers and hardware. In the cloud, the hardware is owned and managed by the cloud provider. You simply provision the compute, storage, and network capacity you need.
Scalability – Scaling up in data centers requires purchasing and deploying new servers. Cloud infrastructure allows near instant auto-scaling to handle spikes and changes in traffic/demand.
Management – You’re responsible for all hardware management and maintenance in a data center model. The cloud provider handles this for you, reducing your admin workload.
Costs – You pay for what you use in the cloud based on consumption. Data centers require huge upfront capital expenditures even if the capacity isn’t fully utilized.
Agility – It takes weeks or months to deploy new data center capacity. Cloud infrastructure can be spun up and down on-demand in minutes.
Resiliency – Cloud providers offer built-in redundancy and failover services across multiple regions. Achieving that resiliency on your own is complex and costly.
Access – Cloud providers offer secure Internet-based access from anywhere. Data centers require dedicated access lines and VPNs.

So in summary, cloud computing offers greater agility, scalability, resilience and cost-efficiency compared to traditional on-premises data centers and hardware ownership models. The tradeoff is you relinquish direct control over the infrastructure environment.

From a governance and change management perspective, what should one be mindful of when transitioning to the cloud?

Here are some key governance and change management considerations when transitioning to the cloud:

Security – Evaluate cloud provider security controls, encryption standards, access controls, and compliance with regulations. Update security policies and controls for the new environment.
Identity management – Establish roles and access controls aligned with the cloud operating model. Centralize identity management and implement single sign-on.
Business continuity – Assess how backup, disaster recovery, and failover will work in the cloud. Test redundancy across availability zones/regions.
Monitoring and alerting – Implement tools for visibility across cloud resources and apps. Collect logs and metrics for anomaly detection. Set up alerts for critical events.
Policy enforcement – Use tools like CloudTrail to capture API calls and ensure compliance with security and access policies.
Cost management – Track cloud spend across services and departments. Set budgets and alerts to control “spend sprawl”. Right-size resources to match demand.
Legacy dependencies – Identify integration points between cloud apps and on-prem systems. Plan migrations of legacy systems over time.
Process adaptation – Adapt ITIL, DevOps, and agile processes for cloud operating model. Standardize architectures and configure infrastructure as code.
Organizational change – Evaluate skill gaps and training needs. Plan for new cloud roles and responsibilities across teams.
SLAs and performance – Ensure cloud SLAs match business requirements. Test system performance for different cloud instance types.
Vendor management – Evaluate provider management capabilities, roadmap, and long-term viability. Maintain escrow access to data.

How do you account for technical debt when it comes to the cloud? More specifically, a business that is running on traditional legacy systems may find it difficult to lift and shift to the cloud since they are based on old antiquated applications that may no longer be available or work on the cloud?

Technical debt and legacy systems are major considerations when moving legacy applications to the cloud. Here are some strategies to deal with technical debt:

Application portfolio analysis – Catalog all existing apps, databases, interfaces and map out dependencies. Prioritize based on business value.
Cloud readiness assessment – For each application, evaluate cloud readiness based on factors like architecture, dependencies, security needs etc.
Refactoring – Incrementally refactor monolithic apps into cloud-native microservices. This makes lifting and shifting easier over time.
Re-platforming – Sometimes it’s better to re-build apps on cloud-native stacks like serverless, containers, and PaaS if extensive re-factoring isn’t feasible.
Retain legacy – Keep legacy systems running if needed and integrate using APIs and messaging. This avoids risky big-bang migrations.
Data migration – Use ETL, replication, and data services to migrate data to cloud data platforms.
Rearchitect DBs – Re-architect monolithic databases for scale-out cloud native options like DynamoDB.
Staff training – Train existing developers on modern cloud architectures, services and tools to build new cloud-native apps.
Hiring – Bring on extra staff or partners with cloud and modern app expertise to supplement gaps.
Cost analysis – Weigh the ROI of refactoring vs re-platforming vs retaining each legacy system.
Prioritization – Sequence migration projects based on business impact, cost/effort, and inter-dependencies.

With proper analysis and planning, technical debt and legacy systems can be modernized over time even if a big bang migration isn’t feasible. A phased approach prevents business disruption.

What are the key things that need to be considered when migrating data to the cloud?

Here are some key considerations when migrating data to the cloud:

Data security – Evaluate encryption, access controls, isolation policies, and regulatory compliance needs for sensitive data.
Data volume – Assess how much data will be migrated and bandwidth requirements. Use snowball devices if needed for large data sets.
Data integrity – Validate data for completeness, correctness, and consistency before and after migration.
Migration tools – Use native cloud tools like AWS Database Migration Service as well as third-party options.
Migration method – Choose between bulk data transfers, real-time syncing, or maintaining connectivity between old and new during transition.
Data optimization – Reshape data models for cloud native storage like S3, DynamoDB etc. Optimize for scalability.
Backup/restore – Test backup and restore processes for cloud-based data. Ensure availability SLAs can be met.
Caching layers – Implement caching mechanisms like CloudFront to optimize data access from cloud storage.
Cost management – Architect data tiers based on access patterns to optimize costs. Set policies to expire unused data.
Monitoring – Monitor data access patterns and costs. Tune architecture as needed.
Legacy integrations – Retain access to legacy data stores if needed. Use tools like Data Virtualization.
Data governance – Update data security, compliance, and retention policies for the new environment.

A phased migration approach is often best to minimize downtime and validate each step. Migrating data to the cloud opens up opportunities for easier scalability, availability, and analytics.

Public or Private cloud? What are the pros and cons and is there a hybrid approach?

There are pros and cons to public, private, and hybrid cloud approaches:

Public Cloud:

Pros:

High scalability and agility – Spin up resources on demand
Pay-as-you-go pricing – No upfront infrastructure costs
Managed services – Leverage cloud provider’s expertise

Cons:

Less customization control – Can’t customize hardware/networks
Security risks – Multi-tenant environment
Vendor lock-in – Not easy to switch later

Private Cloud:

Pros:

Improved security – Resources are dedicated to you
Customization – Tailor infrastructure to needs
Control – Full control over resources and management

Cons:

Higher upfront costs – Buying and managing own hardware
Scaling limitations – Constrained by fixed physical capacity

Hybrid Cloud:

Pros:

Best of both worlds – Keep critical systems on-prem while leveraging public cloud
Flexibility – Move workloads between private and public as needed
Cost efficiency – Only pay for public cloud when extra capacity needed

Cons:

Increased complexity – Integrating across environments has overhead
Split skills – Need expertise working across both models

In general, public cloud offers more agility while private offers more control. Hybrid provides a middle ground but also comes with integration challenges. The best approach depends on budget, in-house skills, security needs and workload characteristics.

If there is need to move from one cloud to the other – AWS to Azure for example, what are the key things to account for?

Migrating from one cloud provider to another like AWS to Azure involves some key considerations:

Application compatibility – Assess if apps will work on target cloud’s OS, runtimes, and services. Refactor if needed.
Data migration – Migrate storage to target cloud’s storage service like going from S3 to Azure Blob Storage.
Network topology – Recreate connectivity, VPCs, subnets, routing in target cloud’s console.
IAM and access controls – Recreate users, groups, roles and permissions on the new provider.
Automation and orchestration – Redeploy automation scripts, CI/CD pipelines, and management tools on the new platform.
Cost analysis – Calculate total cost of migration and compare ongoing costs between providers.
Licensing and contracts – Assess license transfers, contract termination fees for moving away from current vendor.
High availability – Build in redundancy across regions/zones on new provider to match HA architecture.
Security controls – Evaluate if current controls can be replicated or need to be adapted for the new architecture.
Staff skills – Train team on new platform or hire staff with needed skills.
Testing and validation – Rigorously test application functionality, performance, security after migration.
Backup and disaster recovery – Ensure backup, failover, and restore procedures work on new provider.
Monitoring and observability – Deploy new monitoring, logging, and tracing to maintain visibility.

With careful planning and execution, changing cloud providers is quite possible. The hardest parts are re-architecting for the target cloud’s unique offerings and re-implementing operational, management and automation processes.

At the beginning of our talk, you had mentioned some of the cloud provisioning platforms. Let’s assume that we are in a hypothetical conference in 1990 before the advent of the cloud where the founders of the key companies that deal with today’s cloud offerings are talking about the future of information technology.

We will have Thomas Watson for IBM, Bill Gates for Microsoft, Larry Ellison for Oracle, Larry Page for Google, and Jeff Bezos for Amazon. Nitin Uchil (me), the Founder and CEO of Numorpho Cybernetic Systems will be the moderator for the proceedings.

We will talk about the coming wave (in this case it is cloud platforms and cloud computing). Can you start us off?

(in a dramatic, announcer voice)

Nitin: Welcome technologists, to this special conference on the future of information technology! I’m Nitin Uchil, CEO of Numorpho Cybernetic Systems, and I’ll be moderating today’s discussion with these pioneers of the industry.

We’ve gathered these visionaries here today in 1990 to peer into the future and envision the coming wave of cloud computing. While clouds currently just refer to the puffy white things in the sky, we foresee a day when the next big paradigm shift will be computing delivered via “the cloud.”

Let’s start off by asking Thomas Watson of IBM to share his thoughts. Thomas, what do you foresee as the potential of delivering computing power as a utility? How does a mainframe giant adapt?

Watson: (mimicking a deeper voice) Thank you Nitin. At IBM we see great potential in a computing utility model. The mainframe has already pioneered time-sharing and virtualization of compute resources. We foresee this evolving to on-demand provisioning of standardized compute, storage and network resources remotely over a network. Companies can consume what they need instead of building huge datacenters. There are of course challenges around security, reliability and performance we’ll need to solve.

Nitin: Fascinating, Thomas. Now over to you Bill Gates. Microsoft is dominating the PC software market – how do you view this shift to cloud computing?

Gates: Microsoft absolutely plans to be a leader in cloud technologies. Even with the success of Windows and Office, we recognize that the future is about empowering any device to access computing power and software remotely. We’ll need to adapt Windows and our apps to make them cloud-aware while also building new cloud-native services. This will enable innovative new user experiences and lower costs for businesses. Of course, trust and security will be critical to earn user confidence in this new model. We look forward to contributing major advancements.

Nitin: Thank you for the perspective, Bill. Larry Ellison of Oracle – how do you see cloud impacting the database and enterprise software markets?

Ellison: At Oracle, we fully intend to make the Oracle database and our business applications cloud-ready. Cloud computing opens up opportunities to deliver our products in new innovative models like database-as-a-service and SaaS apps. However, transitioning enterprise customers to the cloud is a monumental shift – there are concerns around security, availability, and latency we’ll need to address. We’ll make cloud a priority but still see many customers wanting to own and control their critical systems on-premises.

Nitin: Larry brings up good points on the critical issues of security and continuity for enterprise customers. Let’s go to Larry Page of Google now. Larry, Google is known for search – how do you see this playing into the cloud?

Page: Google has always been focused on large-scale computing and data analysis. We see tremendous potential in providing platforms and infrastructure in the cloud. Technologies like containerization and machine learning will enable new intelligent cloud services. However, yes there are absolutely huge technology and ethical challenges around privacy, security and transparency that we need to get right to earn trust. We intend to lead the way.

Nitin: Thanks Larry. Finally, over to Jeff Bezos of Amazon – your bookselling site seems an unlikely pioneer in cloud computing. What’s your vision here?

Bezos: At Amazon, our expertise is in building highly robust, scalable systems to handle massive scale and strict SLAs. We see an opportunity to productize this infrastructure and allow other companies to run their computing on it. Companies won’t need to build their own server farms anymore. We’ll take care of security, redundancy, uptime and make the infrastructure elastic to handle spikes and growth. It will enable unprecedented innovation. The tagline will be – need compute power? There’s an API for that! Cloud computing aligns perfectly with our culture of customer obsession and long-term thinking.

Nitin: Outstanding insights! Clearly this panel sees the huge potential of cloud computing, even though the challenges are formidable. We see an exciting future ahead. Thank you all for your visionary thinking today!

Now, let’s talk about hardware. Remember it is 1990. What would be the need based on Moore’s laws progression to achieve scalability, throughput and usability for provisioning a cloud platform? Let’s have Nitin ask the question and let’s have the group respond based on their company’s perspective.

Excellent, let’s go back to 1990 and discuss the hardware needs and implications here:

Nitin: Thanks again panel. Now let’s dive into the hardware and infrastructure considerations for making this cloud computing vision a reality. As we know, Moore’s Law predicts computing power to double every couple of years. By the time cloud technology goes mainstream, what kind of hardware capabilities will we need? Let’s start with Thomas Watson of IBM.

Watson: To deliver the scalability, throughput and useability needed, the advances in processor speed, storage density, memory capacity and network bandwidth over the next decade will be crucial. We’ll need servers with multi-core CPUs, terabyte+ hard drives, and gigabits per second interconnectivity between data centers.”

Nitin: Great perspective Thomas. Bill Gates, what hardware breakthroughs do you anticipate?

Gates: I agree, you’ll need highly parallel computing power and networks with huge capacity. However, equally important is lower cost, commodity hardware and universal standards. Enterprise-grade hardware won’t cut it. You’ll need high-volume, cheap, replaceable servers built on open standards to make the economics work.

Nitin: Excellent point Bill. Larry Ellison, what are your thoughts on making databases scale in this environment?

Ellison: To make databases work, we’ll need shared-everything parallel architectures to distribute load across cheap nodes along with near real-time synchronization. Advanced clustering and virtualization will also help optimize hardware usage for cloud databases.

Nitin: Larry Page, what about making search and analytics scalable in the cloud?

Page: Analyzing web-scale datasets will require massively distributed processing frameworks like MapReduce running on thousands of low-cost nodes. Network speed will be critical to transfer data to CPUs fast enough to drive insights from huge datasets.

Nitin: And finally, to Jeff Bezos – what infrastructure considerations for Amazon providing the cloud directly?

Bezos: Redundancy and fault-tolerance will be critical so no one customer impacts others. We’ll need multiple availability zones and auto-scaling server farms with automated provisioning and deprovisioning of compute and storage.

Nitin: Fascinating! Clearly advanced hardware and infrastructure architecture is essential to realizing the promise of cloud computing…

In 1990s there was a lot of evolution that took place in the applications landscape particularly to account for digital transformations – from monolith to heterogeneous, from singular to tiered (backend-middleware-frontend), SOA and MVC architecture. Before getting back to the conference, can you summarize this application landscape of the 1990s and its progression to today.

You’re right, the 1990s saw major evolution in application architectures and development approaches, laying the foundations for cloud-native apps today:

Monolithic apps – Early software was monolithic with tightly coupled UIs, business logic and data access in one big application. Hard to scale and change.
N-tier architecture – Applications moved to 3-tier models separating UI, business logic and data tiers for better flexibility. Allowed componentization.
Distributed computing – Distributed objects, RPCs, and CORBA allowed distributed application components to communicate across networks.
Web apps and SOA – HTTP, web browsers and app servers like Tomcat allowed new web-based and service-oriented architectures.
Object-oriented programming – OOP, classes, interfaces and languages like C++, Java enabled modular, reusable code.
Agile – Lightweight agile software development improved speed and adaptability vs waterfall processes.
Open source – Linux, MySQL, Perl, Ruby etc. provided free building blocks to assemble solutions.
Virtualization – VMWare and virt allowed multiple OSes to run on shared hardware efficiently.

These foundations enabled monoliths to be broken down into specialized services and enabled greater scale, security and velocity. They paved the way for cloud-native microservices, serverless, web/mobile apps and DevOps processes. The same principles hold true at massive cloud scale today.

With this context, we can now resume the hypothetical 1990s cloud computing conference and discuss how these software innovations might integrate with the cloud vision. Please feel free to continue the conversation!

Thank you, Claude (what would I have done without you!). Yes, let’s get back to the conference. Can we have Nitin ask the group about the 7-layer OSI stack and where accommodations need to be made from current 1990 state to get to a composable architecture for the cloud. Let’s assume that the founders are tech savvy folks.

Nitin: Welcome back everyone. Let’s dive into the networking side of things now. As we know, the OSI model defines 7 layers (shown in the overhead projection above) for computer networking – physical, data link, network, transport, session, presentation and application.

Given the architectures we’ve discussed, what enhancements will we need across these layers to make cloud computing feasible? I imagine the physical, data link, and network layers will need greater bandwidth and throughput. Let’s start with Thomas Watson on the transport layer and above.

Watson: For transport, security and reliability will be critical. We’ll need encrypted TCP/IP with robust connection handling given the unpredictable nature of network disruptions in a cloud model. Session and presentation may need rethinking to make sessions stateless and portable across nodes.

Nitin: Excellent. Larry Ellison – thoughts on the application layer? How do we rearchitect apps?

Ellison: Monolithic app stacks won’t fly. We’ll need decentralized microservices that can scale independently. APIs and asynchronous messaging will be crucial to enable these disparate services to communicate and coordinate workflows. For this purpose, we are building what we call the Fusion architecture which is a composite of different applications that conjoin together:

Nitin: Bill Gates, what about optimizations at the networking layers?

Gates: We’ll need much more dynamic routing, load balancing and intelligent request distribution to handle massive traffic across global data centers. Software defined networking and network virtualization will help provide more flexible control.

Nitin: And finally, Larry Page can you give us your perspective on the security implications across the layers?

Page: Security will require a zero-trust model and encryption across all layers. Perimeter defenses won’t be enough. Granular identity management, access controls and activity monitoring will need to be built in at each layer.

Nitin: Super insights! It’s clear there is a lot of work needed to rethink networks and systems for the cloud. With the right collaboration though, we can make this vision a reality!

Jeff Bezos was on a break. Can we have him pitch in based on what he sees as the future AWS?

Absolutely, let’s have Jeff Bezos chime in with his vision for AWS:

Nitin: Thanks for joining back in Jeff. We just had an invigorating discussion on cloud architecture considerations. Given your unique position at Amazon, how do you envision the future AWS cloud platform evolving to enable this computing revolution?

Bezos: At AWS, we envision building the most flexible, robust and easy-to-use cloud computing platform to allow any company to innovate without limitations. Some key services we see providing are:

EC2 – elastic virtual machine compute to spawn servers instantly
S3 – durable, scalable object storage
Route 53 – reliable DNS and traffic flow management
CloudFront – content delivery network for high performance
Lambda – serverless functions to run code without servers
RDS – managed databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL
SQS – message queuing to decouple distributed systems
CloudWatch – monitoring, logging and alerting

The key is making complex infrastructure easy and effortless. We want companies to focus on developing great products rather than installing hardware and managing data centers. We’re excited to unleash a new generation of innovation!”

Nitin: Outstanding vision Jeff! AWS as you describe it will provide the essential building blocks powering the future of cloud computing. Just imagine the possibilities this will unlock!

Thank you again to all the panelists for your incredible insights today. It’s been a glimpse into the future of revolutionary technologies still decades away. But with visionaries like yourselves paving the way, we know cloud computing is poised to change the world!

Ok great. We have talked about hardware, and we have had insights on how to develop the application stack. Can we ask the group to talk about access and security? Hacking, identity theft and digital stealing were probably unknown in 1990. Let’s see what the group comes up with.

Excellent, security is crucial to discuss as we envision cloud computing:

Nitin: As we continue, I want to shift the discussion to security and access management in the cloud. While hacking, identity theft and digital stealing are not huge issues yet in 1990, they likely will be at global cloud scale. What security precautions should we take?

Gates: Security will need to be multi-layered, involving policies, encryption, access controls, and hardware protections. We must architect for malicious attack scenarios from the start.

Watson: I agree, building security in from day one will be crucial. We’ll need capabilities like isolated virtual networks, customer data encryption, robust identity management and activity auditing.

Ellison: For databases and applications, we’ll need to leverage emerging capabilities like data masking, database firewalls, app sandboxes, and fine-grained access controls.

Page: Transparency will be key – users must be fully aware of the data collected and how it is secured. We need to earn trust through responsible data stewardship.

Bezos: Customers shouldn’t compromise security for convenience. We’ll make robust security measures like MFA, role-based access, and DDoS protection seamless and user-friendly.

Nitin: Fantastic perspectives, everyone. This gives me confidence that with diligent planning, we can build security into the very fabric of cloud computing from the ground up. The opportunities of this new paradigm outweigh the risks when handled responsibly. Thank you again for contributing your wisdom! I’m excited to see these visions of the future become reality in the decades to come.

Now let’s talk about skill sets needed. What new things should the workforce be learning? What does it mean to outsource? What are the implications for the existing data center folks? Can we have Nitin ask this of the group?

Nitin: As we envision this cloud computing future, it’s clear there will be major impacts on the workforce in terms of skills and roles. What skillsets do you foresee being most important for the next generation of IT professionals working in the cloud paradigm?

Watson: Understanding distributed systems, virtualization, containers, APIs and automation will be essential. Software engineering and DevOps skills will be highly valued.

Gates: Agreed, also data science, statistics, and machine learning skills to derive insights from massive datasets in the cloud.”

Ellison: Cloud architects who can securely design distributed, resilient, and scalable systems will be key.

Bezos: Customer obsession skills like user experience design, product management, and customer support will ensure we build what customers need.

Page: And of course, solid computer science fundamentals – algorithms, networking, operating systems – to efficiently leverage the cloud.

Nitin: Very insightful! And what about existing data center professionals whose skills are very hardware-focused – mainframe operators, network admins, etc. How will their roles need to evolve?

Watson: Virtualization and automation means less hands-on physical management. These experts should reskill to architect and manage virtual resources.

Gates: Understanding software-defined infrastructure and programming for infrastructure-as-code will be important.

Ellison: Adapt existing operational experience to cloud management platforms and ensure continuity for critical legacy systems.

Nitin: Outstanding perspectives. It’s clear there are big changes ahead in IT skills, but also opportunities to adapt and lead transformation.

Let the conference time travel to 2015 where the companies now have cloud offerings. Can Nitin ask each of the participants to detail how their cloud offering is different from the other?

Great, let’s imagine fast-forwarding the conference to 2015 where these cloud platforms now exist:

Nitin: Welcome back everyone to 2015! I’m excited to hear how your companies’ cloud offerings have evolved. Let’s go around and have each of you explain what makes your cloud platform unique. Thomas Watson, let’s start with IBM Cloud.

Watson: IBM Cloud focuses on enterprise needs like security, performance and supporting legacy workloads. Our strength is around mature services for AI, blockchain, and hybrid cloud integrations. We have also implemented “Watson” an intelligent agent to help and guide users as they navigate the application landscape. This is our precursor to the coming wave that will be made up of AI systems.

Nitin: Excellent. Over to you, Bill Gates on Microsoft Azure.

Gates: Azure is the natural cloud choice for the Windows ecosystem with seamless integrations. Our strength lies in hybrid capabilities, developer tools, and support for legacy Microsoft workloads. And to Watson’s point of adding intelligence, we have a Cognitive Toolkit included as part of the Azure Cloud. My successor, Satya Nadella is reviewing this startup called OpenAI that seems to be doing some interesting work with AI.

Nitin: Larry Ellison, how about the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure?

Ellison: OCI is purpose-built for enterprise databases and apps with high security, low latency networking, and isolated bare metal compute. We make migrating Oracle workloads seamless.

Nitin: Jeff Bezos, I’m sure AWS has grown vastly since we last met.

Bezos: AWS offers the broadest and deepest set of cloud services with 175+ features. We innovate rapidly on behalf of customers. Companies big and small trust AWS for the most comprehensive cloud platform.

Nitin: And finally, Larry Page on Google’s Cloud Platform?

Page: GCP excels at analytics, machine learning and leveraging Google’s engineering expertise. We help customers build smart, data-driven applications using breakthrough technologies. Using our TensorFlow machine learning platform, we are adding intelligence to our computing framework.

Nitin: Amazing to see how each cloud platform evolved around your company’s strengths while meeting diverse customer needs. Exciting times ahead in cloud computing!

This is turning to be like the move “Back to the Future”, so let’s step it up another notch, shall we. Imagine it is 2030 and the folks in the conference are stepping out of their time travel vehicle. AI is now as ubiquitous as the cloud was in 2015. What changes would the founders see in each of their companies as we step into this future with AGI, synthetic biology, quantum computing, nanotech and composite materials are part of the norm. Can we have Nitin talk to the founders about this new future?

Nitin: (in movie trailer voice) In a world where technology has radically evolved… Let’s imagine the conference time travelling to 2030!

(normal voice)

Welcome to 2030 everyone! As we step out of our time machine, I’m sure you notice many changes in the world of technology. Let’s go around one more time and describe how your companies and cloud platforms have evolved to stay on the leading edge.

Thomas Watson, how is IBM Cloud leveraging innovations like AI, quantum computing, nanotech and synthetic biology?

Watson: IBM has fully integrated AI into managing and optimizing cloud infrastructure. Quantum computing provides unprecedented power for complex computations. We leverage nanotech for sustainable, high-density computing.

Nitin: Fantastic! Bill Gates, how has Microsoft Azure adapted to this future?

Gates: Azure provides an intelligent cloud platform optimized by AI, with ubiquitous natural language interfaces. Users can request complex cloud resources conversationally. Quantum cryptography keeps data highly secure.

Nitin: Amazing! Larry Ellison, how about Oracle in this future?

Ellison: Autonomous cloud operations leverage AI to self-patch, tune, scale and repair infrastructure without downtime. Quantum algorithms massively accelerate Oracle’s distributed databases.

Nitin: Impressive! Jeff Bezos, I imagine AWS is on the cutting edge.

Bezos: Customers now code complex cloud workflows in quantum-resistant blockchain languages automatically compiled to nano-photonic circuits, woven into server fabric made of diamondoid composite.

Nitin: Mind-blowing! Finally Larry Page, how has Google Cloud Platform advanced?

Page: GCP provides a post-silicon quantum computing platform optimized for AI workloads and online learning across interconnected planetary data centers.

Nitin: Incredible to imagine where technology may lead us! While the future promises exponential change, one thing remains certain – with visionary leadership, human-centric technology improves lives. Thank you all for your insights not just today, but for decades to come!

Thank you Claude. Can we have Nitin give some closing remarks on this wonderful time travel journey with technology?

It’s been an absolute pleasure imagining this technology time travel journey! Here are some closing thoughts:

Nitin: Well, my friends, our time travel journey through the decades has come to an end – how time has passed!. It’s been remarkable to glimpse the genesis of cloud computing firsthand and witness the prescient visions you each shared.

From humble beginnings delivering computing as a utility, we now stand in an era of AI, quantum, and technologies beyond imagination. Your companies have navigated relentless change to lead transformations yet remain committed to progress for humanity.

The exponential growth of technology means change is the only constant. With each leap to the future, new skills must be learned and new challenges overcome. But by working together and centering human values, the possibilities ahead can outweigh the risks.

I am honored to have accompanied you all on this journey. More than ever, we need technology leaders with compassion, conscience and moral courage to steward innovation ethically.

I am confident the future is in good hands with visionaries like yourselves at the helm. Here’s to pioneering the future with optimism, openness and care for one another.

Safe travels back to your own timelines! This is Nitin signing off.

Thank you, Claude. Nitin’s company, Numorpho Cybernetic Systems’ premise is to solve the hard problem of automation. We do this by using a blend of people, process and technology unified to provide the basis for innovation, optimization, and harmonization. Our purpose and goal are to enable product innovation, orchestrate industrial processes, facilitate infrastructure (re)builds, transportation enhancements and sustainable smart cities, and create smart wearables and electric mobility products. It is the end of 2023. What, in terms of the cloud and the coming wave should Nitin be thinking about to progress his company based on the excellent insights these founders have given about their own journeys?

Some key insights Nitin should take away to guide Numorpho’s cloud and technology strategy based on the founders’ wisdom:

Adopt a cloud-first mindset for flexibility, scalability and efficiency. But integrate judiciously with legacy systems during transition.
Architect systems for resilience, security and fault-tolerance from the ground up, not as an afterthought.
Build competencies in cutting-edge areas like AI, blockchain, quantum, robotics to stay ahead of the curve. But focus innovation on solving human needs.
Structure data and platforms for portability and interoperability so as not to be locked into specific technologies or vendors.
Invest in continuous skills development in areas like software engineering, data science, product design to nurture talent.
Automate infrastructure, operations and testing to optimize efficiency but retain human oversight.
Collaborate with partners, academia and visionaries outside the industry to gain new perspectives.
Stay nimble, be willing to adapt business models and architecture to capitalize on technology shifts.
Balance data utilization for innovation with responsible data stewardship to maintain trust.
Keep the human context front and center as technology grows more complex and autonomous.
Be transparent about tradeoffs, risks and ethical implications of emerging technologies.

By blending technological innovation with ethical leadership, Numorpho can leverage the cloud and AI revolution to achieve great progress for many years to come!

In the time capsule there are three more founders – Steve Jobs from Apple, Marc Benioff from Salesforce and Jensen Huang from Nvidia (just like the teasers in the end credits of Marvel movies), but their stories and more are for another day! But what of their technologies, growth and business perspective should Nitin impart into Numorpho?

Excellent point! Even though we didn’t get to speak directly with them in our time travel journey, there are certainly important insights Nitin can gain from the technology advancements driven by Apple, Salesforce and Nvidia:

From Apple and Steve Jobs:

Keep user experience and design excellence a top priority, not just engineering. Build intuitive, easy-to-use products.
Leverage vertical integration of hardware and software for tighter integration. Control full technology stack.
Build a cohesive brand and ecosystem that users identify with emotionally, not just products.

From Salesforce and Marc Benioff:

Drive innovation and growth through cloud-based software-as-a-service business models.
Focus on customer success and satisfaction to drive loyalty and retention.
Leverage ecosystems of app developers, partners and marketplaces to extend platform value.

From Nvidia and Jensen Huang:

Invest early in game-changing but emerging technologies like AI, deep learning and GPU computing.
Build specialized hardware architecture optimized for target high-growth applications like gaming and AI.
Lead with engineering talent and R&D firepower to solve complex problems ahead of competition.

By studying these additional industry leaders, Nitin can incorporate the best of user-centric design, cloud software delivery, customer obsession and engineering vision into Numorpho’s strategy. This synthesis will position the company for continued impact and leadership.

<- Back to Episode 33 On to Episode 34 ->

NITIN UCHIL Founder, CEO & Technical Evangelist
nitin.uchil@numorpho.com

References:

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman