{"id":18851,"date":"2016-12-28T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/?p=18851"},"modified":"2021-03-12T04:52:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T01:52:26","slug":"2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/","title":{"rendered":"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><small>This post is a part of the series that reviews the <b>Top 10 trends in enterprise IT<\/b> for 2016\u20132017:<\/small><\/p>\n<p><small><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/the-year-2016-in-review-top-10-issues-of-enterprise-it\/\">All Trends<\/a> | A &#8220;Varietal Cloud&#8221; and PaaS | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-neo-ai-and-neo-luddism\/\">Neo-AI and Neo-Luddism<\/a> |<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-blockchain-proliferation\/\">Blockchain<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-smart-cities\/\">Smart Cities<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-industry-4-0-or-industrie-4-0\/\">Industry 4.0<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-the-open-source-ecosystem-is-universal\/\">Open Source<\/a><\/small><\/center><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-transparent ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#A_year_in_a_nutshell\" >A year in a nutshell<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#Trend_10_%E2%80%9CVarietal%E2%80%9D_cloud\" >Trend #10: &#8220;Varietal&#8221; cloud<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#Trend_9_The_PaaS_revival\" >Trend #9: The PaaS revival<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#Related_reading\" >Related reading<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_year_in_a_nutshell\"><\/span>A year in a nutshell<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The year 2016 is going down as an <em>annus horribilis<\/em> (i.e., &#8220;horrible year&#8221;) for much of the world. It may over the long run be considered in the context of the revolutionary years <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Revolutions_of_1848\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1848<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Protests_of_1968\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1968<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A few of its developments include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A tediously long string of the deaths of iconic individuals, many of them transformational in their own ways<\/li>\n<li>Horrendous violence in parts of the world as the rest of the world watches<\/li>\n<li>Serious political upheaval in the UK, Europe, the US, and other countries including Brazil, South Korea, the Philippines, Venezuela, and even the small country of Gambia<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The year may also be seen as one of several inflection points in the technology industry, involving issues that are certainly less tragic than the big geopolitical stuff and unwanted death, but nevertheless important enough to evaluate. The issues can be expected to continue in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, I launch into a look at what I see as the <strong>Top 10 Issues in Enterprise IT<\/strong> in 2016-17. In this post, I cover numbers 9 (&#8220;varietal cloud&#8221;) and 10 (&#8220;The PaaS revival&#8221;), with the rest to come in similar paired fashion over the next few days.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Trend_10_%E2%80%9CVarietal%E2%80%9D_cloud\"><\/span>Trend #10: &#8220;Varietal&#8221; cloud<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Cloud is now a clich\u00e9. The word is thrown around with abandon, tossed out there as the remedy to all enterprise IT ills and the answer to all digital transformation questions.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of contradictions at work here. The first is that despite the ubiquity of its hyping (and as Conference Chair of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cloudcomputingexpo.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cloud Expo<\/a>, I&#8217;ve done some of this myself), cloud computing still commands perhaps <strong>10%<\/strong> of enterprise IT workloads worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>The second is that despite the belief that its overuse has rendered the term meaningless, the reality is that cloud computing is offered in a number of very specific varieties, and it behooves enterprise IT analysts and adopters to understand them all.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Hybrid is the intuitive approach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Within the context of cloud computing, the so-called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/all-the-worlds-a-hybrid-cloud-or-is-it\/\">hybrid cloud<\/a> is intuitively the safe way to proceed. It doesn&#8217;t mean pushing all your chips to the center of the table on one bet, yet it recognizes the need to at least test the features, cost, and reliability of AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or some of the others hanging in there in the public-cloud market.<\/p>\n<p>Research from the cloud management provider RightScale demonstrates this principle. Its <a href=\"https:\/\/fxb-buyer.com\/cloud\/cloud-industry-insights\/cloud-computing-trends-2016-state-cloud-survey#cloudleverage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cloud Survey 2016<\/a> found that enterprises are using an average of <strong>six clouds<\/strong> (!)\u2014three public and three private\u2014in their monkeying around, er, testing of cloud-computing infrastructures. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/cloud-computing-trends-in-2016-cloud-usage.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/cloud-computing-trends-in-2016-cloud-usage.png\" alt=\"cloud-computing-trends-in-2016-cloud-usage\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18943\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The survey asked 1,060 IT professionals about their adoption of cloud infrastructure and related technologies. 42% of the respondents represented enterprises with more than 1,000 employees. A growing number of these enterprises are getting aggressive with cloud computing, as shown in this graphic from the survey:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/cloud-computing-trends-in-2016-enterprises-1000-vms-yoy.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/cloud-computing-trends-in-2016-enterprises-1000-vms-yoy.png\" alt=\"cloud-computing-trends-in-2016-enterprises-1000-vms-yoy\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18944\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Going all-in with public cloud<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are some notable examples of companies contradicting this conventional wisdom. Netflix heads the list of enterprises going all-in with public cloud, and Netflix is one of the largest users of bandwidth in the world. Other examples include Expedia, Pinterest, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.computerworlduk.com\/cloud-computing\/guardian-goes-all-in-on-aws-public-cloud-after-openstack-disaster-3629790\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There is also the Warner Music Group, which found too many performance issues with a private approach and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/warner-music-migrates-its-cloud-foundry-deployment-from-openstack-to-aws\/\" >went all-in with AWS<\/a>. (This is an OpenStack deployment, by the way.) An irony with this deployment is its use of Cloud Foundry as a platform\u2014a technology that was originally designed for private, not public, cloud.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Let&#8217;s call it a &#8220;varietal cloud&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, here&#8217;s where I prefer the term \u201cvarietal\u201d over \u201chybrid,\u201d as I think it better describes the tremendous diversity we will see with cloud deployments in coming years. Today&#8217;s debate still seems stuck on a blunt, \u201ceither or\u201d decision of whether to go hybrid or not.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking in terms of varietals, we can imagine an enterprise that is <strong>99% on-premises<\/strong>, with <strong>65%<\/strong> of that virtualized, and <strong>1%<\/strong> of budget devoted to proofs-of-concept (PoCs) on Amazon. That may seem like a preposterously conservative approach to many analysts and conference speakers. However, there&#8217;s at least one big enterprise out there that looks just like this. Contrast this with a 100% all-in AWS shop, and imagine everything in between, and you have the picture of a varietal cloud.<\/p>\n<p>There is really no end to the combinations and permutations (i.e., the varietals) that can be developed under the rubric of cloud computing.<\/p>\n<p>If you know your Pinot Noirs from your Malbecs, your red table wines from your private reserve Cabernets, your grape-growing regions all over the world, not to mention your white wines, then you can appreciate the challenge in learning as much as possible about blending on-premises, co-located, and outsourced (public) cloud infrastructures on the one hand; with virtualization, microservices, and containers on the other.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18863\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Michael-Crandell.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18863\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Michael-Crandell-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"RightScale CEO Michael Crandell\" width=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-18863\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><small>RightScale CEO<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/michaelcrandell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Crandell<\/a><\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Looking again at the RightScale survey, we find the statement, \u201cin the twelve months since the last State of the Cloud Survey, we\u2019ve seen strong growth in hybrid cloud adoption as public cloud users added private cloud resource pools. (For example), we now see <strong>77%<\/strong> of respondents adopting private cloud, up from <strong>63%<\/strong> last year. As a result, use of hybrid cloud environments has grown to <strong>71%<\/strong>. In total, <strong>95%<\/strong> of respondents are now using cloud, up from <strong>93%<\/strong> in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I think we all understand that many enterprises still count routing their e-mail through Gmail as a cloud-computing service, which helps explain the seeming dichotomy between <strong>95%<\/strong> of enterprises using cloud versus <strong>5\u201310%<\/strong> of actual workloads on cloud.<\/p>\n<p>The trend towards varietal cloud will continue to create such seeming contradictions, while at the same time achieve a slow but inexorable transformation of enterprise IT.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Trend_9_The_PaaS_revival\"><\/span>Trend #9: The PaaS revival<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The increasing diversity of cloud varietals has played a role in what I see as a nice development: a great PaaS revival. Just two years ago, the \u201cPaaS Is Dead\u201d headlines were easily found.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Cloud-PaaS-is-Dead.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Cloud-PaaS-is-Dead.jpg\" alt=\"Cloud PaaS is Dead\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-18904\" \/><\/a><small>Image credit: blog.cloud66.com<\/small><\/center><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/clients.451research.com\/reportaction\/79800\/Toc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">report<\/a> from 451 Research led this charge, arguing that PaaS was being squeezed by more sophisticated public infrastructure offerings on the one hand, and more complete SaaS solutions on the other.<\/p>\n<p>Another famous piece of the argument came from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theenterprisearchitect.eu\/blog\/2014\/02\/26\/paas-shakeup-openstack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the idea<\/a> that the OpenStack and PaaS had become mortal enemies. (Note the mention in this piece of ecosystems, a big topic that will appear on this list before we reach the end of it.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_18862\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Krishnan-Subramanian.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18862\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Krishnan-Subramanian-150x150.png\" alt=\"Krishnan Subramanian\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-18862\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-18862\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><small>Krishnan Subramanian<\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The quick, surprising rise of Docker in 2015 led to further talk of nails in the PaaS coffin, though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theregister.com\/2015\/06\/01\/did_docker_kill_paas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">this article<\/a> from The Register reflected ambiguity on the issue. (Later, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/a-panel-will-docker-eat-cloud-foundry-s-lunch\/\">this panel<\/a> was wondering whether Docker would &#8220;eat Cloud Foundry&#8217;s lunch.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>And a general <a href=\"https:\/\/www.informationweek.com\/platform-as-a-service\/paas-is-dead-long-live-paas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">counterargument<\/a> was mounted by a noted analyst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/krishnansubramanian\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Krishnan Subramanian<\/a>, who at the time worked for Red Hat. Krishnan argued that PaaS was, in fact, in an evolving state at the time, handling services so smoothly it seemed to disappear on the one hand, while handling the new-ish container deployments on the other.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cloud66.com\/its-official-public-paas-is-dead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cPaaS is Dead\u201d<\/a> idea has lived on, so to speak, into 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>But, but, PaaS is not dead!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Cloud Foundry continued to develop. Its new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/cloud-foundry-cab-december-2016-open-service-broker-api-and-diego-1-0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Diego 1.0 implementation<\/a>, which simplifies much of the previous version&#8217;s complexity, was cranked up to <strong>250,000<\/strong> simultaneous containers in testing and was formally released in November.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the Cloud Foundry Foundation reported continued strong growth throughout the year, adding TIBCO Software, Armukani, and Fidelity Investments as new members. The number of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudfoundry.org\/trainings\/cloud-foundry-developers-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">certified providers<\/a> also grew from <strong>six to 11<\/strong>. OpenStack and PaaS (in particular, Cloud Foundry) are no longer considered enemies by rational observers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Cloud-Foundry-Certified-Providers.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Cloud-Foundry-Certified-Providers-1024x225.png\" alt=\"Cloud Foundry Certified Providers\" width=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-18860\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A spirited <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/programming\/comments\/40sfr7\/is_paas_hosting_dead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reddit discussion<\/a> on the topic in January 2016 yielded a lot of positive comments from everyday IT pros about the benefits of specific platforms, including Cloud Foundry. The essence of this conversation was expressed in practical terms by one commenter: \u201cJust use a PaaS where it makes sense and that&#8217;s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, in December, the big news hit: Google <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudfoundry.org\/blog\/google-joins-cloud-foundry-foundation-as-gold-member-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">joined<\/a> the CF Foundation, and a collective effort among leading contributors to Google Kubernetes, Cloud Foundry, and Red Hat OpenShift announced a new era of cooperation, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudfoundry.org\/blog\/open-service-broker-api-launches-as-industry-standard\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Open Service Broker API initiative<\/a>. IBM, Fujitsu, and SAP have also joined this party.<\/p>\n<p>Even as everyone involved realizes they will be aiding their competitors, they also agree that competing for pieces of a much larger pie is in everyone&#8217;s interest. This seems to be the rare example of humans successfully solving a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.econlib.org\/library\/Enc\/PrisonersDilemma.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Prisoner&#8217;s Dilemma<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, PaaS has gained grand new momentum as the year is closing.<\/p>\n<p>I like to refer to the layer as simply \u201cthe platform\u201d rather than PaaS. In my (perhaps incorrect) opinion, use of \u201cplatform\u201d removes the recondite, abstruse aspects of the term and concept. Everyone wants to build their structure on a platform, right? Semantics are not everything, but they are important to technical discussions, as a clear understanding of what is going on and why is never a harmful thing.<\/p>\n<p>Understanding and use of the platform can be extended beyond what we think of as traditional cloud deployments, as well. There&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/why-weve-entered-a-new-era-of-it-zettastructure-and-other-concepts\/\">ZettaStructure revolution<\/a> going on in the world of data centers, too (which will be featured on a Top 10 post to come), and the platform is that critical layer \u201cabove the rack and below the stack.\u201d Data center operators will be thinking less about electricity and cooling, and more about software, as their industry transforms before there eyes.<\/p>\n<p>So, over the next couple of years, the term PaaS may start to fade and ultimately fade away, but the platform looks to be stronger than ever.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Next up:<\/strong> Issues #7 (Neo-Luddism) and #8 (Neo-AI).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_reading\"><\/span>Related reading<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/the-year-2016-in-review-top-10-issues-of-enterprise-it\/\">2016\u20132017 Trends: Top 10 Issues of Enterprise IT<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-neo-ai-and-neo-luddism\/\">2016\u20132017 Trends: Neo-AI and Neo-Luddism<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-blockchain-proliferation\/\">2016\u20132017 Trends: Blockchain Proliferation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-smart-cities\/\">2016\u20132017 Trends: Smart Cities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-industry-4-0-or-industrie-4-0\/\">2016\u20132017 Trends: Industry 4.0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-2017-trends-the-open-source-ecosystem-is-universal\/\">2016-2017 Trends: The Open-Source Ecosystem Is Universal<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post is a part of the series that reviews the Top 10 trends in enterprise IT for 2016\u20132017:<\/p>\n<p>All Trends | A &#8220;Varietal Cloud&#8221; and PaaS | Neo-AI and Neo-Luddism |<br \/>\nBlockchain | Smart Cities | Industry 4.0 | Open Source<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A year in a nutshell<\/p>\n<p>The year 2016 is going down as [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":18922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[873,206],"class_list":["post-18851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-opinion","tag-cloud-native","tag-oss-cloud-foundry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival | Altoros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It&#039;s been a wild, historical year, so let&#039;s recall Top 10 Issues in Enterprise IT for 2016. Today&#039;s agenda: varietal cloud and PaaS revival\u2014in numbers and facts.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival | Altoros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This post is a part of the series that reviews the Top 10 trends in enterprise IT for 2016\u20132017: All Trends | A &#8220;Varietal Cloud&#8221; and PaaS | Neo-AI and Neo-Luddism | Blockchain | Smart Cities | Industry 4.0 | Open Source &nbsp; A year in a nutshell The year 2016 is going down as [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Altoros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-28T10:00:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-12T01:52:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roger Strukhoff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roger Strukhoff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roger Strukhoff\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/56ea20d6f280f7a442e89e5884b06fd8\"},\"headline\":\"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-28T10:00:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-12T01:52:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1671,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/12\\\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif\",\"keywords\":[\"Cloud-Native\",\"OSS Cloud Foundry\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\\\/Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/\",\"name\":\"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival | Altoros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/12\\\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-28T10:00:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-12T01:52:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/56ea20d6f280f7a442e89e5884b06fd8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/12\\\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/12\\\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif\",\"width\":640,\"height\":360},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Altoros\",\"description\":\"Insight\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/56ea20d6f280f7a442e89e5884b06fd8\",\"name\":\"Roger Strukhoff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/roger_strukhoff_user_icon-150x150.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/roger_strukhoff_user_icon-150x150.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/roger_strukhoff_user_icon-150x150.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Roger Strukhoff\"},\"description\":\"Roger Strukhoff is Director of Research at Altoros. He also serves as Executive Director of the Tau Institute for Global ICT Research, Conference Chair of Cloud Expo and Things Expo, Co-Chair of the Big Data World Forum, and Open-Source Chair for the global DCD Converged conference series. He received his BA from Knox College, and conducted MBA studies at California State University\\\/East Bay. Previously in his career, he was VP of New Products at International Data Group and Director of Global Publications at TIBCO Software.\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.altoros.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/rstrukhoff\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival | Altoros","description":"It's been a wild, historical year, so let's recall Top 10 Issues in Enterprise IT for 2016. Today's agenda: varietal cloud and PaaS revival\u2014in numbers and facts.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival | Altoros","og_description":"This post is a part of the series that reviews the Top 10 trends in enterprise IT for 2016\u20132017: All Trends | A &#8220;Varietal Cloud&#8221; and PaaS | Neo-AI and Neo-Luddism | Blockchain | Smart Cities | Industry 4.0 | Open Source &nbsp; A year in a nutshell The year 2016 is going down as [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/","og_site_name":"Altoros","article_published_time":"2016-12-28T10:00:03+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-03-12T01:52:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":360,"url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif","type":"image\/gif"}],"author":"Roger Strukhoff","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roger Strukhoff","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/"},"author":{"name":"Roger Strukhoff","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/56ea20d6f280f7a442e89e5884b06fd8"},"headline":"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival","datePublished":"2016-12-28T10:00:03+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-12T01:52:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/"},"wordCount":1671,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif","keywords":["Cloud-Native","OSS Cloud Foundry"],"articleSection":["News\/Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/","url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/","name":"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival | Altoros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif","datePublished":"2016-12-28T10:00:03+00:00","dateModified":"2021-03-12T01:52:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/56ea20d6f280f7a442e89e5884b06fd8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Year-2016-Review-Cloud-PaaS-v111.gif","width":640,"height":360},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/2016-in-review-a-varietal-cloud-and-the-paas-revival\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"2016\u20132017 Trends: A \u201cVarietal\u201d Cloud and the PaaS Revival"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/","name":"Altoros","description":"Insight","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/56ea20d6f280f7a442e89e5884b06fd8","name":"Roger Strukhoff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/roger_strukhoff_user_icon-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/roger_strukhoff_user_icon-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/roger_strukhoff_user_icon-150x150.jpg","caption":"Roger Strukhoff"},"description":"Roger Strukhoff is Director of Research at Altoros. He also serves as Executive Director of the Tau Institute for Global ICT Research, Conference Chair of Cloud Expo and Things Expo, Co-Chair of the Big Data World Forum, and Open-Source Chair for the global DCD Converged conference series. He received his BA from Knox College, and conducted MBA studies at California State University\/East Bay. Previously in his career, he was VP of New Products at International Data Group and Director of Global Publications at TIBCO Software.","url":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/author\/rstrukhoff\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18851"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60569,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18851\/revisions\/60569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.altoros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}