Cloud Computing: This Week’s Forecast

What’s happening next at TalkinCloud and across the cloud computing industry? Here’s a look at a few of the stories, themes and developments we’ll be chasing during the business week Monday, December 13 through Friday, December 17, 2010.

The potential lineup includes…

Monday, Dec. 13:

• Breakfast with CA Technologies. The company has been working to adjust its software licensing model to better support SaaS partners and managed services providers. We’ll seek an update on the transition.
• We’re watching Dell‘s takeover negotiations with Compellent, the storage area network and data center virtualization specialist. Sounds like there’s a potential private cloud play here for Dell.
• TalkinCloud FastChat Video with SoftLayer CTO Duke Skarda discusses the recent merger with The Planet, creating a massive managed hosting provider and cloud platform provider. We’ll talk partner program, too.

Tuesday, Dec. 14:

• TalkinCloud FastChat Video with Doug Merritt, SAP’s executive VP for On Demand Solutions. We’ll discuss SAP Business ByDesign, the SaaS platform that some channel partners are promoting to end customers.

Wednesday, Dec. 15:

• Avnet will host a financial analyst meeting in New York. I suspect the distributor will speak mostly about the SolutionsPath practices for channel partners. But we’ll seek an update on the distributor’s cloud strategy.
• Separately, we’ll have a TalkinCloud FastChat offering multiple distributor perspectives — including Avnet VP Tim FitzGerald, Ingram Micro Managed Services and Cloud VP Renee Bergeron and Parallels‘ Joshua Beil (describing a SaaS project with Tech Data in Europe).
• Speaking of distributors and the cloud: We’re keeping close tabs on Synnex, which is looking to combine some SaaS efforts with some new managed services efforts. Our sister site, MSPmentor, has been chasing the Synnex rumors since early November.

Thursday, Dec. 16:

• Accenture, the big IT consulting firm, is expected to announce quarterly earnings results. We’ll listen in to learn if the company is experiencing any IT outsourcing trends tied to cloud computing.

Friday, Dec. 17:

• At least one well-known SaaS company is making multiple executive appointments. No cause for panic. The potential moves seem to be growth-related and channel-centric. We expect details either this week or the week of Dec. 20.

That’s all for now. Got a cloud computing-related tip to share for the week of Dec. 20-24? Post a comment or send me an email (Joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com) and maybe we’ll include it in our TalkinCloud’s next weekly forecast.

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