Over the last month, I attended both the RSA Security Show and Digital Signage Expo. As a Business Development Manager on the Dell OEM Solutions team, I’m constantly attending events to seek out opportunities, network, and learn more about new technology showcased at the shows. One of the unique commonalities that kept appearing at both shows was the continued buzz around “The Cloud”.
Many of the exhibitors at the RSA show were looking to move to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based model if they were not already trying it out in one form or another. Being a security show I naturally assumed that security on the cloud would be an issue. They were more concerned with “how” to implement their solution on a cloud based model rather than securing their application and the data within the cloud. Those not dealing with the public sector were not interested in a private data center but more interested in a cost effective solution implemented on and using public cloud. Those dealing with Federal agencies in particular have to have a private data center so that data remains in country and not spread throughout the globe causing a security risk.
The attendees and exhibitors at the Digital Signage Expo appeared to be a little more advanced with utilizing cloud technology. Many of the exhibitors had already implemented a solution and in some cases were looking to utilize content creation and distribution through the Cloud. Most of the conversations here were discussing content distribution and delivery management.
On the hardware side, the media players out there were numerous, small (with the trend to go even smaller), varied (as in many manufacturers represented), and cheap. One other item of interest was Samsung’s PCoIP Solution. Basically, it is their technology utilizing a company out of Canada’s chipset (Teradici) on their PCoIP Monitors to move all data and applications to host servers in a secure data center managed by the IT dept. Working with VMWare, they are poised using their PCoIP monitors to set up remote “workstations” or zero client devices in multi seat environments. Essentially the IT department can manage the application as if they were sitting there at the monitor with keyboard and mouse plugged in. The technology allows for fast transfers of data as if you were sitting at the desk, and it’s encrypted for security. The target market for a solution like this is in an environment where there are 500+ seats or more. Pretty interesting.
All in all, appliances are still here to stay, but most exhibitors that had an appliance were interested in exploring the opportunity of being able to add additional value for their customers. Being able to apply application updates via the cloud along with the ability to control any hardware updates or changes remotely with minimal impact to their customers businesses is a win-win for everyone.
As an OEM, what questions do you have about the cloud? What are your concerns? Lets continue the conversation in the comments or contact us directly.