John Weigelt, Microsoft Canada
To offer a broad community perspective in our most recent print publication,
Forecast 2012: Next steps in a slow path forward, vol. 3, no. 2, IT in Canada supplemented our regular commentary with the views of several industry practitioners on the pulse of change in six technology areas. For our cloud forecast, we spoke with a number of Canadian thought leaders on what they expect will drive domestic market adoption, what are the remaining hurdles that providers will have to negotiate and what they expect to see in terms of tech innovation. What follows is a longer version of the shorter conversation with John Weigelt, national technology officer for Microsoft Canada, that we included in the magazine. Weigelt has proved a tireless and knowledgeable advocate for the use of public and private cloud services. Here, he presents some intriguing observations on where cloud has been and what to expect in the year ahead.
IT in Canada: When I thought about an article on cloud trends for our forecast magazine, it was easy to associate that with informed opinion from Microsoft. As a cloud expert with lots of experience in the Canadian market, what do you see coming forward?
John Weigelt: A little bit of context from back in 2011 may help explain why we’re talking about certain trends for 2012. I really saw 2011 as the year of demystifying the cloud. There was a lot of uncertainty around different cloud models – the types of cloud and how people could apply cloud to their environments – that was kind of pushed by our use of the technology short form, cloud. I think different communities all had a different lens on what ‘cloud’ meant and CIOs were left with uncertainty around trying to figure out what this cloud thing was all about and why business leaders were so excited about it.
