If there was any doubt about the place of cloud computing in the current landscape of business software applications(opens in new tab), NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson made his position clear in his keynote at this year’s SuiteWorld 16 conference.
“Cloud is the last computing architecture (and also the last business architecture) and it may not be surpassed until, say, the turn of the next millennium,” Nelson said.
Joining Nelson on stage were a line-up of innovative customers that share Nelson’s view of the future of the cloud.
Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop One, a company creating train-like transports using levitating pods and pressurized tubes, described how he was inspired by Elon Musk’s proposal for the technology and it drove him to leave Cisco and take up his new position. Now a NetSuite customer, Hyperloop One recently conducted its first public test(opens in new tab).
In leaving his previous role at Cisco, Lloyd has gone from a 42,000 company to a start up with what was initially just 40 people.
NetSuite, a brilliant decision
“In this size of company, everyone wants to move fast and be bold – and everyone wants to make decisions and get things happening,” Lloyd said. “We took on a lot of people and made the brilliant decision to make NetSuite our platform for ERP. It’s all about speed for us and we are building Hyperloop on top of some very tightly grouped milestones.”
Lloyd left the stage after giving NetSuite’s Nelson a ticket for a journey on the first Hyperloop – and can you guess which seat assignment he got? You guessed it, it’s 1A.
Use your (augmented reality) head
DAQRI(opens in new tab) was next up on stage. Essentially this firm produces an enterprise-level augmented reality smart helmet. The firm is aiming to power the future of work through innovative hardware and software products that deliver augmented reality uses in industrial settings.
CEO Brian Mullins explained how the device has seven cameras and a variety of sensors that will ‘listen’ to the sounds of a factory around a worker including measures such as temperature.
“Things tends to get hotter before they break,” explained Mullins.
The DAQRI helmet itself is designed to be ‘a platform’ to bring all the necessary information sources together so that users can make critical decisions in the place that they happen.
Zach Nelson’s rules of the cloud economy
Nelson helped finish up the initial keynote session by laying down his three core rules of the new cloud economy:
- Embed algorithmic driven intelligence
- Embrace hybrid business models
- Operate globally
With this intelligence on board, we can compute our way to a better business future. Will that be for all time? Well, at least until we start to embed circuit boards in human brains that is.