IntelligentHQ.com in partnership with Groupe INSEEC London presents: A Beyond Cloud Interview with Jim Darragh from Abiquo.
The Beyond Cloud Series of video discovery discussions examines the viewpoints of some of the top minds in the UK cloud computing space as they share their views on the trends, issues and realities of the industry – and the industries which it impacts.
Two years ago, Abiquo, took advantage of significant market momentum. This coincided with a strategic recruitment drive and most importantly a sharp increase in adoption by enterprises such as Telefonica. Abiquo was also selected by Gartner as one of the “Cool Vendors in Cloud Management, 2011” for innovative approaches and technologies. An active member in the open source community, Abiquo is built on open standards, allowing organizations of all sizes to dramatically improve business agility, mitigate risk, and reduce costs.
Abiquo’s award-winning solution completely informs and empowers application and development teams and provides unprecedented levels of visibility and control for IT Operations, while mitigating data security risks, ensuring corporate governance, and facilitating ground breaking levels of datacenter efficiency and cost reduction. Highly rated in independent market and vendor reports by leading industry analyst firms, Abiquo’s customer base includes many Global 2000 enterprises, government contractors and leading MSPs.
Cloud computing is set to give agile firms far greater control over their systems and software whilst benefiting from a more flexible IT framework. With this orchestration in place, Firms can turn traditional hardware into cloud platforms by automating and streamlining the deployment while managing and provisioning those resources appropriately. Some immediate benefits are Visibility and Control, Cost-Efficiency and Self-service provisioning. Abiquo has been innovating here as their offering essentially allows businesses to not only utilise Cloud computing but to also effectively manage it through an easy to use portal.
In this interview CEO Jim Darragh and Daniel Steeves discuss the practicalities of moving to a cloud environment, Jim’s frank opinions on regulation and the fact that while we know what the end goal is, with respect to the cloud, we may not quite be there yet.
Series Questions:
Q1: You are here as the “Cloud Orchestrator”. Tell us about your role and how your business has changed as a result of today’s cloud computing environment, in terms of both risks and opportunities.
Q2: Why is this big thing different than the last big thing?
Q4: If you accept my premise that the cloud is a delivery vehicle, where is it taking us and what comes next along the way?
Jim joined Abiquo in September 2012 with a vision to aggressively grow the business and deliver shareholder value. Prior to this he held the position of SVP & General Manager of the Stingray business unit at Riverbed Technology, a role he began in July 2011 following his influential leadership as CEO at Zeus Technology. Jim was instrumental in the acquisition of Zeus by Riverbed in 2011, spearheading an award-winning exit that attracted considerable attention in the European equity markets. Prior to Zeus, Jim has a long history of building successful international software businesses across the industry at SAP, CA Technologies and BMC Software.
About the Beyond Cloud series
Taking a conversational, interactive approach, we pose four broad but critical questions on the issues impacting businesses today to perspectives including Technologists, Strategists, Users, CEOs, Marketers and other Business and Thought Leaders across the sector. Each session begins with positioning our guest, by means of what Cloud means to their role and their business – either the delivery or use of cloud – including views on the risks and the opportunities. The conversations – each unique but overlapping as a result of the various points of view on offer – then move to the outcomes and promise of this technology and, from there, where and when regulation and standards should (or shouldn’t) come into play. We close with their views on what this cloud thing really means and where it is might take us, going forward.
The nature of our guests and the variety of discussion provides a broad set of insights which in whole or in part promises to deliver some clarity and a framework for understanding of the impact of cloud technology to all audience. We welcome your comments and feedback.
Produced by IntelligentHQ, hosted by Groupe INSEEC London and presented by Daniel Steeves, Beyond Cloud is a “mostly pitch-free” environment: discussions will necessarily include product and company references but, hopefully, used to illustrate rather than to sell.
Daniel is a management consultant with Beyond Solutions Ltd. More a realist than a futurist, Daniel Steeves advises SMEs to transform and grow their businesses – and enable a different way of thinking – both as a Partner with James Caan’s Advisory Business as well as independently across the Digital, Social, Technology and IT sectors. Daniel is a growth-focused change agent with thirty years leading, brokering, designing and selling complex programmes. He collaborates at C-level, adding experience and perspective to fine-tune what your business says and does (and sells and delivers) with a focus on profitable, sustainable growth.
