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.