"Big Data eliminates the data silos that formerly existed, improving the depth and quality of analysis that can take place," observed Scott Kinka, Chief Technology Officer at Evolve IP, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. "Without these barriers," Kinka continued, "we gain access to information that was never before available. We can see where there are underserved markets, opportunities, problems that need to be addressed."

Cloud Computing Journal: Agree or disagree? - "While the IT savings aspect is compelling, the strongest benefit of cloud computing is how it enhances business agility."

Scott Kinka: Agree and disagree. You can't really separate the two. Here's why: agility is the ability to not buy more than you need. It is the ability to add resources when you need them rather than having to overspend and overbuy upfront on the idea that one day you might need more.

Cloud computing gives organizations these capabilities. It enables organizations to easily scale resources up or down as need dictates. Therefore, they only pay for what they need when they need it. In this sense, business agility is cost savings and as such is a major component of any total cost of ownership calculations or analysis.

Cloud Computing Journal: Which of the recent big acquisitions within the Cloud and/or Big Data space have most grabbed your attention as a sign of things to come?

Kinka: ShoreTel's acquisition of M5, Oracle's acquisition of RightNow Technologies, and SAP's acquisition of SuccessFactors are three that immediately come to mind. What we're seeing in all of these (and in many others that would just take too long to mention) is traditional, premise-based application providers getting into the cloud game by purchasing SaaS and other "as a Service" providers. When companies are willing to bifurcate their business model and move into a space that, to this point, they had been staunchly in contrast to, it validates the new model. It says, "We recognize that the cloud is the future, and we're ready to get on board."

My guess is that this is just the beginning, that we'll continue to see traditional software and infrastructure companies either migrate their own models to the cloud or buy cloud companies to take them there. In the latter scenario, it will be interesting to watch if the purchased companies can maintain their value proposition or if they will become muddled after being assimilated into the old guard.

Cloud Computing Journal: In its recent "Sizing the Cloud" report Forrester Research said it expects the global cloud computing market to reach $241BN in 2020 compared to $40.7BN in 2010 - is that kind of rapid growth trajectory being reflected in your own company or in your view is the Forrester number a tad over-optimistic?

Kinka: Looking at the trend line of Evolve IP's growth over the past four years, I'd say Forrester's predictions are fairly accurate. In fact, we're on pace to potentially even exceed that growth rate.

Cloud Computing Journal: Which do you think is the most important cloud computing standard still to tackle?

Kinka: That's a tough one. There are so many ways you can approach this, from languages, to methodologies, to solution stacks on virtualization. But I think the most important issue that needs to be tackled is the standardization of operating system and software license models in virtualized environments. There needs to be some sort of industry-wide standardization on whether buyers will pay per named user or based on concurrent use. At the very least, there needs to be consistent recognition that a virtualized environment is no different than a physical environment. As such, there should be no additional restrictions on software use in a virtualized environment that are not part of the standard EULA (End User License Agreement).

Cloud Computing Journal: Big Data has existed since the early days of computing; why, then, do you think there is such an industry buzz around it right now?

Kinka: While it's true that there has always been Big Data, data sources have always been looked at as disparate islands of information. Without large investments in traditional BI tools, data could not be looked at as a holistic source of business information.

The proliferation of the cloud, both as an inexpensive repository for data and as a delivery mechanism for Business Intelligence and Data Visualization, has reignited interest in an asset we've always had access to.

Cloud Computing Journal: Do you think Big Data will only ever be used for analytical purposes, or do you envisage that it will actually enable new products?

Kinka: The reality is that data analysis is at the foundation of product development, so Big Data most certainly will enable the creation of new products. Big Data eliminates the data silos that formerly existed, improving the depth and quality of analysis that can take place. Without these barriers, we gain access to information that was never before available. We can see where there are underserved markets, opportunities, problems that need to be addressed, etc. - insights that will uncover opportunities and lead to the creation of new products, new services, and new methodologies. So by enabling analysis, Big Data does enable new products.