"We have seen excellent strength in social networking and gaming apps, the growth has been phenomenal," observed Cory Isaacson, CEO of CodeFutures Corporation, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. "Most consumers have no idea they are ‘playing in the cloud,'" Isaacson continued, "but that is where a majority of these apps are hosted - and very successfully so."

Scaling Big Data in the Cloud - Cory Isaacson's upcoming session at 11th Cloud Expo | Cloud Expo Silicon Valley [Nov 5-8, 2012].

Cloud Computing Journal: How fast will the last remaining barriers to enterprise-wide cloud adoption melt away - are secure public clouds feasible, for example, or only private ones?

Cory Isaacson: The barriers are evaporating quickly, but the database tier still remains a big issue. The reliability and performance need to improve so that enterprise customers feel comfortable trusting their environment to the cloud. Another factor that will help is using the cloud as a disaster recovery (DR) backup - that will be a smart strategy and a good early move for many enterprise organizations.

Cloud Computing Journal: What is the biggest new dimension of consumer cloud computing? Is it Cloud Telecoms, Cloud TV, Cloud Music, or what?

Isaacson: We have seen excellent strength in social networking and gaming apps, the growth has been phenomenal. Most consumers have no idea they are "playing in the cloud" but that is where a majority of these apps are hosted - and very successfully so. They need the scalability and reliability afforded by the cloud model, so it's a perfect fit.

Cloud Computing Journal: What impact does the arrival of Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, IBM, Cisco and the other giants have on the smaller cloud players?

Isaacson: This will help open up the cloud market for real, and also provide the needed competitive pressure to improve reliability, performance and economics of cloud computing. The next couple of years will be very telling. For smaller cloud vendors, they can make a play with specialized services, particularly those with cost-effective high-performance capabilities and excellent customer service.

Cloud Computing Journal: What can Cloud Expo attendees expect to see from you in Santa Clara?

Isaacson: Database scalability is still the fundamental barrier to full-blown cloud applications, both for leading-edge ventures and enterprise customers. We'll be showing our proven capabilities in this area to provide both the scalability and reliability customers are demanding for their database tier, as well as some very exciting new product announcements. They will also learn what it really takes to implement a 24x7 high-performance database tier using current cloud environments.