November 18, 2010
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Palmer Conference Center

Our instructor will be Timothy Chou: a lecturer at Stanford University and author of Cloud: Seven Clear Business Models. Full Bio>>

CATS 531: Cloud 101 – Cloud computing, SaaS, PaaS, Utility Computing, Hosted Services, IaaS, Grid Computing, ASPs, MSPs, outsourcing, On Demand, Online Services, are these all the same thing, or something different. Is everything the cloud, is nothing the cloud?

The last great shift in computing happened twenty years ago. Called client-server, it was driven by an order magnitude shift in the cost of computing. This era gave birth to companies like Oracle, Microsoft, NetApp, HP, and Sun that today are considered the giants of technology. Cloud computing is the next major wave and we’re at the very beginning of another twenty-year cycle. And, again it will be driven by order of magnitude shifts in the economics of computing.

This workshop is a primer for anyone trying to make sense of this next wave. While it contains some aspects of technology the workshop is first and foremost driven from a business perspective. Hence, we open with seven clear business models backed by numerous case studies. The course is designed for technology professionals with an interest in understanding economics as well as for the business professional that needs to develop a basic vocabulary. In that light we introduce a five-layer cloud services stack to educate you on many of the emerging cloud services.

Key Themes are:

• What is Cloud Computing, and how will it transform the way computing is delivered and consumed?
• Why is Cloud Computing set to become the next big technology?
• The business challenges, opportunities, and benefits that Cloud Computing addresses.
• Understand the different cloud services and examine how they might be applicable to you.