Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

Ever since the Amazon cloud and its competitors took shape beginning in 2006, it has been an open question: Would the enterprise's use of cloud technology grow up from inside the data center, then proceed to a similar environment outside? Or would the public cloud architecture prevail and be imposed on commercial data centers?

These two models originated in different places. Google and Amazon offered the clearest examples of what scale-out architecture could look like. Compared to the typical enterprise, the Amazon model looked simple, uniform, highly automated and highly elastic -- more virtual servers could be added on command for a given workload, or physical servers could be added to the cloud's cluster itself, as needed. The fact that search and online retailing consisted of a few high-powered applications, designed to scale out, helped. They posed a completely different set of requirements than needed by the typical mixed-use enterprise.

Nevertheless, the new architecture appeared to offer an infinite capacity to expand; it could distribute seemingly endless amounts of compute cycles to a business or consumer. That was one of the distinguishing features of the cloud, along with its on-demand delivery and competitive pricing, compared to hosted services or other forms of outsourcing.

So why, then would VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger sound so dead set against the public cloud model in his remarks to partners at VMware's Partner Exchange Conference in Las Vegas Feb. 27, as reported by InformationWeek's sister publication CRN. "We want to own the corporate workload," said Gelsinger. "We all lose if they end up in these commodity public clouds. We want to extend our franchise from the private cloud into the public cloud and uniquely enable our customers with the benefits of both. Own the corporate workload now and forever."