Keynote Q-and-A: Greg DeKoenigsberg

[Blogger's Note: SCALE 10X will be asking the keynoters and some of the speakers to weigh in on their presentations for the expo. This is the Q-and-A for Greg DeKoenigsberg, who will be giving the SCALE 10X keynote on Saturday.]

Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?

A: My name is Greg DeKoenigsberg; I'm VP of Community for Eucalyptus Systems. Before that, I spent many years with Red Hat, working to build the Fedora community.

Q: You're giving a keynote on "Amazon and the Future of the Open Cloud." Without tipping your hand on the actual talk, can you give us an idea of > what we might expect?

A: Sure. Amazon's explosive growth over the past few years has made AWS a de facto standard for cloud computing -- but is it an "open standard"? What does it mean to build open source products around APIs that are defined and driven by a single company?

Q: The title of your talk mentions the "open cloud," creating the assumption that there is more than one type of cloud. For those who may not know, could you briefly explain the difference between the open cloud and ones that may not be open?

A: It's about the user's ability to be in control of their infrastructure. In the world of cloud service providers, getting locked into using one particular cloud provider's services, without the ability to move to other infrastructure, is a big risk. It's important that users understand those risks, and even more important that the open source world provides alternatives.

Q: Is this your first visit to SCALE? If so, what are your expectations? If not, can you give us your impressions of the event?

A: It is my first visit to SCALE. From the praises that my friends have colleagues have heaped upon the SCALE experience, I'm expecting chocolate fountains and streets paved with gold. Don't let me down!

Q: Do you have any other plans around SCALE?

A: As a matter of fact, we do. We will be having our first Eucalyptus education session in the Los Angeles area right around SCALE, and we've arranged for a discount for SCALE attendees. Just use the "EUCASCALE" discount code when you register here.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

A: Can't wait.