TechLines panellist profile: Gianpaolo Carraro
In the lead-up to the live TechLines: Cloud Control broadcast, we thought we'll give you a little more background on our featured panellists. We've asked each of them five questions regarding cloud computing and specified that they be as brief as possible in the answers (there will be plenty of time to go into more detail on 17 February).
Gianpaolo Carraro is director, platform & developer evangelism, for Microsoft Australia. Here are Gianpaolo's answers to our pre-event questions.
Microsoft's Gianpaolo Carraro
Why aren't companies moving faster to cloud computing?
Cloud is a new mindset, letting go of control can be hard; that said, all the companies I know that have moved to the cloud, have experienced great benefits and are not looking back.
Which business systems are best suited to move to cloud computing?
Every company will have a different journey to the cloud, some will start with their email and collaboration systems, others with their development environment, others with their CRM. An important question to first ask is where do I want to gain operational efficiency, and where do I want to drive competitive differentiation?
How easy is it to bring everything back in-house if a company decides to abandon the cloud?
It depends on the cloud provider, some cloud offerings are designed to allow this scenario others don't. Proper due diligence is key.
What's your response when someone says they "don't trust the cloud"?
There used to be a time where people did not trust banks and kept their money under their mattress — time is on the cloud's side, with the industry maturing, trust towards the cloud is growing steadily.
Tell us one thing cloud computing isn't. (What is a "myth" about cloud computing?)
Cloud is not virtualisation, virtualisation is part of it, but cloud computing is much more than that.
Hear more from Gianpaolo and our other panellists at the TechLines: Cloud Control live broadcast, which will take place on ZDNet Australia at noon (AEDST) on 17 February. Check out the calendar feature in the right column to get a reminder closer to the event.