Not a big surprise but much of the <a href="http://www.vmworld.com/index.jspa" target="_blank">VMWorld 2010 </a>conference was spent discussing "what is the cloud? and "how we will get there?.  There are specific answers and roadmaps to the second question but the first still is difficult to answer but simple at the same time.  The "Cloud" is end user computing on any device, anywhere the user needs it.  It allows the user to abstract the applications they use from the devices they carry.  Paul Maritz, President and CEO of VMWare stated that (paraphrased) "The new IT needs to be end user focused instead of device focused, and to do this we need to build better applications that are cloud ready and can be delivered from any framework to any device."  This means that we have to start now in thinking about applications for the future or the future of legacy applications and how they will move to and operate within this new IT.  Here is how most people will get there in reference to the second question. (Two Phases)<!--more-->
<ol>
	<li>Private Clouds:  Datacenter Virtualization, consolidating the physical world in private datacenters and creating applications and systems to support legacy applications.</li>
	<li>Public Clouds:  Application Virtualization of business specific and legacy applications, Business Automation, Cost effectiveness.</li>
</ol>
Phase 1 I would venture (if you are still reading to this point) is already in progress at your organization.  It consists of IT Production changes by virtualizing business systems and expands to virtualizaing Tier 1 applications (SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, etc...).  This is a critical phase in which we are tailoring our private clouds and the applications they host to be ready for the public cloud and to achieve all the numerous challenges it presents (Security mainly).

 Phase 2 is what Phase 1 is in preparation for and consists of taking those applications and unwiring them from the systems they run on.  Utilizing virtual appliances to create application isolation environments that can be run in any location and moved application specific from host to host, datacenter to datacenter.  Packaging applications using tools like<a href="http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/" target="_blank">VMWare ThinApp</a> to create manageable "Package Once, Deploy Everywhere" thinapp packages for applications like Outlook, Firefox, Adobe, etc... so users can access their applications from anywhere instead of on a specific machine.  This allows admins to manage once, deploy everywhere as well.  Once these applications are there end users and IT administrators can be free from device restrictions and security concerns about these devices.  Secure the application in the cloud and allow the end user to authenticate and utilize it on their Mobile Phone, IPad, Netbook, Laptop, Holographic Pendant/Robotic Arm/Brain Monitoring device (had to be there, telepathy is not as far away as you would think.)

All of this as stated by Rick Jackson, CMO, VMWare Inc. is targeted at "Optimizing IT production for business consumption".  I took this to mean that in the new IT the end user will be empowered and the everyday admin will rest easier not having to administer the device specific complaints fielded due to legacy applications.  This in turn leads to lower cost of ownership involved in IT assets (devices) and maintenance (application delivery).  Greater automation of IT resources and increased redundancy/recovery provided by the cloud architecture.

Stay tuned for more to come as I work through all the specifics.