#NodeSummit: Enterprises and the Cloud
Out in the consumer space on the Internet the services are cloud based that lets services expand and contract based on traffic. Like, you go to your iTunes to buy things. But you get to the office, and system changes done by filing trouble tickets that might take 3 weeks to be answered. What if enterprises were done with technologies like the cloud apps on the public internet?
More than half of all application at enterprises are running virtualized today. New enterprise apps have different scaling needs.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - VMWARE has 25+ SaaS services being used, but the CIO didn't approve any of them. Department head just provides a credit card, and approves it on their own. This is a different model than the one where the CIO is in charge of everything.
How/where do we compute - how do we write apps - how do we consume apps?
Notion of polyglot systems; e.g. Node, Rails and Spring .. three different languages, and three different popular app framework systems.
Business owners need developers and system architects who want choices to use the tools they like. Developers can be passionately interested in particular app frameworks.
Can the developers laptop be a "micro cloud" where they develop the system, and then move the app out to the real cloud?
Cloud Foundry is supporting Node 0.6.7, and users can select different Node versions.
How are apps consumed? Windows legacy apps, with desktop browsers, perhaps Java apps. Moving to SaaS services. Moving to Mobile device applications. Mobile apps and some users are getting accustomed to data cloud services like Dropbox where our data is accessible from anywhere.
IT might be accustomed to e.g. setting policies that everyone in the enterprise must adhere to. Does IT have to continue implementing policy by strictly controlling which devices can be used? Or should it shift to the people who are accessing IT services?
A Windows based legacy app could be stored as a Virtualized Windows computer, and you have an iPad based access to the virtualized PC.
"How many are using dropbox"? Everybody raises their hand. "How many are allowed to use dropbox by their IT department?" Nobody allowed. IT policies of course prohibit storing corporate data on external servers due to security issues. VMWare has a similar service but can be hosted by IT.
Could there be a model where a personally owned cell phone be brought to the office and also used as a corporate phone? It's a mix of two worlds that can be messy. But VMWARE has a model of a virtualized phone that runs inside a smart phone, your IT department lets you install the virtualized corporate phone in your personal smart phone and that virtual phone can be wiped if e.g. you lose your job or lose your phone without affecting the phone for personal uses.