Inside Enterprise IT

Following CloudCamp last week was Structure 08, a new conference from GigaOM centered on the hyperscale infrastructure powering the clouds.  There is plenty of coverage of the event already out there so I won't waste digital ink here on everything that was discussed.   But the key takeaway: infrastructure matters.  A lot.  That was the message from speaker after speaker in the keynotes and panel discussions.   Why it matters:

1. TCO-advantaged infrastructure is a competitive differentiator for cloud operators.

2.  Infrastructure and application comprise one large machine and must be designed and managed together.  Infrastructure as an afterthought is a recipe for disaster.

This event brought some well-deserved attention to the hard work going on in the boiler room of Web 2.0.  Hats off to the team at GigaOM and all the participants.