Last week I had the opportunity to interview John Engates, CTO of Rackspace after his appearance on the Cloud Supersession at HITEC in Austin, TX. In the interview we cover a topics such as:

• Compare and contrast Cloud v. Virtualization strategies
• Advice for customers struggling with how to justify ROI for the cloud when they have existing infrastructure investments
• Security in the cloud
• OpenStack for private and hybrid clouds

The cloud computing “supersession” was moderated by Horseshoe Bay Resort CIO, Lyle Worthington and featured Infor’s Senior Vice President of R&D Javier Buzzalino, PAR Springer-Miller President and CEO Larry Hall and Charles Henderson, Trustwave’s Director of Application Security Services in addition to Engates.  You can find a link to my article recapping the session on Tnooz.

Lots of mobile platform announcements this week and that’s even before the Mobile World Congress kicked off. But some big travel industry news too, leading off with…

1. ITA Software renewed its agreement with Orbitz thorugh 2015. This is the first contract that was renewed since the announced acquisition by Google.  This should definitely help clear the way for DOJ approval.
2. Nokia chooses Microsoft for future smartphone OS platform in a move that wasn’t all that surprising.  Well except maybe to this ex-Nokia guy who is more bitter than 4-day old coffee grinds. Some may argue that Nokia should have licensed Android as WP7 has a teeney-tiney market share, but could Nokia have competed on an even field with HTC, Samsung and Motorola selling a modestly different version of the same phone?  At least being one of the few with a WP7 phone gives them a chance to appear different in the marketplace. Scoble agrees. Then again, what HP unveiled the other day makes this an even more difficult task.  Either way, the markets didn’t react well to the news.
3. Many people, including myself, have been advocating for HTML5 and promoting the mobile web over apps. But TechCrunch’s MG Seigler points out that while it all sounds nice, apps are still where the action is.
4. HP re-launches the WebOS platform it got when it bought Palm. All of the elements that make WebOS a delight (I do own an original Palm Pre) are there and improved upon. The only problem is that WebOS has almost no apps to speak of (see previous item). Getting developer mindshare is going to be a problem. And while they brought on a high-powered guy to take on the challenge, it might only be enough to leapfrog RIM. But that’s a pretty low bar. BTW, in retrospect, I think my first take on the HP/Palm acquisition was pretty on target.
5. Traditional web search is increasingly important and feels more and more like a system to be gamed – fairly or not. Here’s an interesting article in the NY Times that delves into the ‘black hat’ shenanigans that JC Penny used to dominate search. Fair tactics? No. But great results as Penny had one of its best recent quarters. The most interesting question about what happened is posed on the last page of the article: “Is it possible that Google was willing to countenance an extensive black-hat campaign because it helped one of its larger advertisers?”
6. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber looks into his crystal ball and sees what Apple will do next in response to the recent announcements from Google, HP, Microsoft and RIM.
7. Cloud provider Rackspace bought Anso Labs, one of the key figures behind the open source PaaS project known as OpenStack, also championed by Rackspace. Many rushed to wonder whether Rackspace will dominate the OpenStack community the way some complain Oracle and IBM have done with Java. Personally I don’t think so. I think Rackspace sees this as a way to maintain leadership in the cloud space and create mindshare with developers.  I believe OpenStack could be a really valuable platform for those looking to move to the cloud, especially those that may deploy on different IaaS providers across multiple geographies.
8. Mary Meeker who was the stat queen while at Morgan Stanley keeps the info flowing at Kleiner, Perkins. Check out her latest presentation.
9. After much pomp and circumstance, Amadeus finally sells Opodo to private equity firms AXA and Permira in a deal valued at €450M.
10. Google touts their new WebM CODEC as the open source future of web video…until MPEG-LA questions whether WebM is based on patents they control. It’s telling that thus far Google hasn’t agreed to indemnify others who use the WebM codec. As an old Vorlon friend of mine used to say: “And so it begins”.

Sorry for the late post, just trying to get things done before the end of the year like everyone else

1. Google is starting to do what every company has feared…biasing results based on the promotion of their own content, not the “authority” and quality of the results. TripAdvisor is the first to feel their wrath, perhaps as a result of their blockade of their content to Google Places.
2. Bing held its “Search Summit”, adding a bunch of features that make it easier for users to get stuff done in search (hmmm, they actually have a theme going when you consider they’re Windows Phone7 ads) using contextual search and natural search techniques.  Pretty cool stuff happening again in Redmond. The natural flight search seems very similar to the kind of stuff that Apple bought Siri for. Apple better get its iTravel app out there soon. Enough with the patents already…ship something.
3. Is Twitter really the next customer service platform or is it just hype? There are great success stories like Comcast Cares and Best Buy’s TwelpForce for sure.  But how broad of an impact is it making? Forrester’s Diane Clarkson has a theory.  I wonder if it aligns with your experiences.
4. All smartphone browsers are not created equal…even across all the variants that are based on Webkit.  A must read for those of you developing mobile web sites.
5. OK, maybe now it’s starting to feel a little bit like a bubble. I mean a company with a lot of users, but limited monetization strategy raising $200M at a $3.7 Billion, with a “B”, valuation? Well maybe until you realize the company we’re talking about is Twitter.
6. In yet another escalation in their battle with American Airlines over AA’s direct connect strategy with Orbitz as the battlefield, Travelport is planning to bias flight results against AA by adding surcharge fees for bookings.  Just really interesting to watch as the world turns.
7. I wouldn’t put this into the “xxx is dead meme”, but Forrester’s Mike Gualtieri may be on to something here. And for all the enterprises who have invested a lot in Java, be sure to read this piece. But as Mike rightly states, there is no need for a stampede away from Java, but it may be time to re-think Java as a go-forward platform.
8. Amadeus’ Martin Collings, delivers an impressive piece as he lays out five convergence trends that will impact online travel in the next year. Well worth reading.
9. Rackspace buys cloud management player, CloudKick.  Rackspace, already known for their customer service orientation, and a provider of cloud and hosting services to many major web properties, has been quietly building up quite the portfolio of cloud management tools and notably introduced the OpenStack platform (a collaboration with NASA). As Cloud Ave’s Krishnan Subramainian implies, Rackspace is lining themselves up a value-added IaaS player, rather than getting caught in the commodity game.
10. Carol Bartz has yet to really explain what Yahoo is and their recent decision to sunset Delicious confuses us even further. TechCrunch’s MG Siegler thinks that this horribly mishandled announcement has killed customer confidence in Yahoo! as a reliable business. On the other hand, GigaOM’s Mathew Ingram believes that it’s better for Yahoo to focus on fewer things and eschew the “we’ll be all things to all people” approach that got Yahoo in this mess to begin with. But as they define what they are not, I still don’t have a clear picture of what Yahoo wants to be.

The only issue more overblown than Cloud Security may be this one. I was reading yet another post on the topic today and felt compelled to write this.

The premise the Lock-In Boogeymen are selling is that because of the proprietary APIs and mechanisms that are used in many of the large cloud computing (e.g. IaaS and PaaS) providers to optimize performance and scalability, you’re locking yourself in to that vendor.  While there is an element of truth to that concept, the implication is that if you don’t adopt the cloud you won’t have that issue.  Nothing can be further from the truth.

If you decide to eschew the cloud for a traditional on-premise/internal solution you are still making the following commitments:

• What technology stack to do I want to align myself with? Java or .NET? Oracle or IBM?
• What development environment do I want to standardize on? Eclipse? VSTS? SpringSource?
• Putting down big dollars up front and committing to medium- to long-term high-cost maintenance agreements for the foundational software that you’re going to develop upon.
• Even more big dollars on computing infrastructure…which is about the only thing that depreciates faster than the value of the car you just drove off the lot.
• And let’s not forget the money you have to spend on the network monitoring and management tools for that hardware.

All of these decisions – and the related upfront costs – dictate that you’re going to stay on your chosen platform for a fairly long time. 5 years? 8? 10? Is that any shorter of a horizon than you have when deciding to adopt the cloud?

<don’t see many hands raised>

And it’s not like there isn’t ANY portability in the cloud either. Rackspace’s OpenStack platform leaves you completely free to take your app to any other environment – including bringing it back in house – simply by deploying their open-sourced framework on another provider or datacenter.  Both Google and Salesforce have adopted VM/SpringSource as their IDE so it’s (relatively) easy to move back and forth. I mean there will be work to do, but it’s not like you have to re-architect and re-write your entire app.

And further there are a host of integration platforms (Dell/Boomi, IBM/Cast Iron Systems, Pervasive, Informatica) that you can utilize to mitigate the portability issue further. And I believe that you’ll see even more movement towards portability and interoperability of clouds in the future.

So what’s your POV? Comments always welcome.

Hot industry stats, debates on legislation, an Open Source cloud stack and other news of note:

1. Since Congress has started to take up the question of whether airlines need to be transparent about ancillary fees across channels, in order to allow travelers adequately compare real costs of their choices, Timothy O’Neill-Dunne puts forward the definitive answer. Of course no one in Washington is listening, so this drama will surely last longer than the Microsoft Kin (what wouldn’t?).



2. On a related note, Sabre announces that it will update its “Air Total Pricing” system to enable travel agents and consumers see the total price of their trip, inclusive of ancillary fees before they book. The comparison shopping aspect will be addressed first, but the booking and fulfillment portion of the equation probably won’t be solved until later this year.
3. Forrester Cloud Computing analyst James Staten provides his view on Rackspace’s announcement to Open Source their cloud computing stack. NASA may not have found intelligent life out there, but must think the folks at Rackspace are pretty bright because they are amongst the first to deploy the platform.
4. Shortly after being identified as key competitors by Google, heretofore unheralded start ups Everbread and Vayant go mano-a-mano as Vayant alleges copyright infringement.
5. The continuation of a good week for Apple. First they declare there is no Antenna-gate and then they obliterate earnings estimates with their best quarter ever.  iPads almost outsold Macs and it was the most Macs ever sold in a quarter.
6. To patent or not to patent. That is the question. Great article by Pamela Samuelson from Cal-Berkley on why startups decide to patent…or not.
7. TopGuest, a new location-based travel rewards service has a bunch of notable investors, but more importantly nabs a partnership with the InterContinental Priority Club and IHG’s 4,400 properties.
8. Amadeus released preliminary results of their Guide to Ancillary Revenue in association with leading airline ancillary revenue consultancy IdeaWorks. Some good stats if you missed it.
9. While we have our survey out on what you think about the new Open AXIS Group, Professor Sabena gives us his take.
10. An entertaining and insightful view on the upside of newly passed legislation in NY outlawing the use of private dwellings short-term rentals. While decried by many as propping up the large hotel chains, there are real safety, health and security concerns that this bill protects unsuspecting travelers from.

Last week Red Hat’s CTO Brian Stevens introduced a new initiative called Deltacloud that has a very lofty goal of simplifying the process of invoking cloud services via a new unified standard.  It address interoperability which can be an important challenge in cloud computing for ISVs.  Out of the box they have some pretty good market coverage, supporting Red Hat’s own Enterprise Virtualization, VMWare ESX and Amazon EC2 with support for Rackspace to follow.

This is a good start, but I think that this is about as far as Red Hat’s going to be able to take this.  Nowhere is there any mention of, nor do I expect support for, some of the other leading Cloud platforms from Microsoft, Oracle or Salesforce.com.  And this highlights the both the problems with the mega-vendors and the open source movement.  Open Source levels the playing field, but that is diametrically opposed to what the mega-vendors like Microsoft and Oracle want, particularly Microsoft who loves their proprietary standards.  And between Microsoft and Oracle, they control so much of the ISV ecosystem, that I don’t see how Red Hat’s Deltacloud gets any traction.  Even Stevens’ own statement talks about “creating a buzz”.  Well maybe for one day.