16th Feb, 2010. The Cloud 20/20 brought along with it an opportunity to meet up with Mark Hodapp VP, Cloud Engineering at Unisys.Before joining Unisys Mark has over twenty nine years of experience and has ventured with companies like Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Cloud Savvy. At Unisys Mark is responsible for Secure Cloud and Data Center Transformation Product Engineering.
[Unibytes] What were your first Impressions of India?
[Mark] Energy. Growth. Excitement. These were my first impressions of India.
[Unibytes] What did you find most fascinating about India?
[Mark] Bangalore is a very exciting place. I love the food! My wife and I spend time reading through cook books and cooking delicious dishes. Our latest passion is Indian cuisine. The people in India are so energetic, willing to communicate, and are eager to express their thoughts and ideas. The cloud 20/20 was a great initiative showcasing the talent of the country.
[Unibytes] What is your favorite hobby?
[Mark] I love skiing. With a small effort, I can travel downhill fast and conquer huge mountains.
[Unibytes] What do you think is more slippery cloud computing or skiing?
[Mark] I would definitely consider cloud computing as more slippery. The level of marketing hype is very high. Cloud computing offers clear value. We need to be focused on taking advantage of that value.
[Unibytes] What are the three attributes that will make an application, a killer application in the cloud environment?
[Mark] For a cloud application to be considered a “killer application”, it has to scale reliably, be appropriate for the target user, & improve every day to keep the user happy.
[Unibytes] In what ways will the cloud concept transform the IT industry?
[Mark] Cloud’s operational expense model will force software to efficiently utilize cloud resources. Cloud’s commoditization of IT will reduce cost of cloud resources and, the availability of large pools of cloud resources will enable applications to scale to a level never seen before.
[Unibytes] Cloud is ‘elastic and limitless.’ Will this eventually lead to bad habits?
[Mark] Take users of electricity they “pay as they use”. If they do not optimize their usage they will be paying more and their competitors will win. Likewise in a cloud environment, users will be conscious of the cost that they pay. The cloud being efficient, elastic and limitless will, in fact, lead to good and not bad habits.
[Unibytes] How many years will it take for the cloud concept to converge on a universally accepted standard?
[Mark] It may take 5 to 7 years before universally accepted standards of the cloud emerge.
[Unibytes] Do you foresee new industries emerging in the wake of cloud computing, after a span of 5 to 7 years?
[Mark] Every technology shift brings in a new wave creating new companies and disrupting existing companies. We have had companies emerge that have specialized in mainframes, mini computers, personal computers, and the internet. In the future, the Cloud will give birth to new companies and rebirth to existing companies who change to take advantage of the shift.
[Unibytes] Who do you think will be early adopters of the cloud, developing countries or developed countries?
[Mark] Since internet access, power, bandwidth, capacity, etc., are the key ingredients of the Cloud, countries that have the capital to build excellent infrastructure are likely to take the lead in infrastructure as a service. That may favor developed countries, but not necessarily. Once there is Cloud infrastructure, an abundant availability of skilled, trained people will foster the development of software and platform as a service. This may favor developing countries.
[Unibytes] What factors will inhibit or constrain the growth of the Cloud?
[Mark] The growth may be limited by regulatory issues that create artificial boundaries. For example: a country may not allow data from their country to be stored in another country’s facility.
[Unibytes] Your thoughts on security issues related to the cloud?
[Mark] It’s an opportunity to experiment with and learn new technologies. Every innovation poses security risks. The rise of valuables such as gold created security risks. So, did coins, paper money, credit cards, and electronic transactions. Technologies were developed to provide reasonable security allowing them to become widely accepted. Unisys is in a good position with our IP to develop solutions for the cloud’s security issues.
[Unibytes] What are your favorite dishes?
[Mark] I love French, Italian, Indian, South Western, Chinese, and Thai dishes. My wife and I spend most of our weekends cooking at home. We make various daal, tikka and naan dishes. We have much to learn about Indian cooking. Fortunately, my next door neighbor has offered to teach us more about Indian cooking.
[Unibytes] How does Unisys plan to bring in a competitive edge compared to other companies? (In terms of the cloud)
[Mark] Unisys has many strengths. We have a global reach to serve 3000 global customers. We also have Stealth, the world wide datacenters, excellent technology and product partners, and great customer relationships. These create the competitive edge for Unisys. We will be aggressive in cloud middleware/tools and security grand challenges to develop technologies and products for a cloud leadership position.
[Unibytes] Unisys strategy is to use other company products in our offerings. Will we continue this strategy in cloud or develop our own products?
[Mark] We will leverage partners and develop our own IP. Intellectual Property (IP) allows us to generate higher margins and value with our offerings. Leveraging partners allows us to bring complete, broad products to market.
Published in March 2010 - Unibytes.