As the case unfolds, it is easy to get lost in the denials and daily news nuggets. But it is worth looking at the various players to understand who is hurt and who is helped by the kerfuffle around surreptitious smartphone data collection. This brief research note tackles the question of what the case means for consumers, device makers and, perhaps most important, the operators.

Companies mentioned include Apple, AT&T, Carrier IQ, Google, Metro PCS, Research in Motion, Skype, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.

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Driving this change are shifting traffic patterns, which in turn are being caused by a change in the computing paradigm to more widely distributed webscale systems and the economic need for the networking world to catch up to where the computing and server world is today.

These factors are steering the industry toward programmable networks. That’s a shift from the old way of keeping the intelligence inside the hardware that moves the packets around to a new way of letting the switches move the packets, putting the intelligence on a commodity server.

One way of doing this is the much-discussed OpenFlow protocol, which allows a server to tell a switch what to do. Once it becomes real, network virtualization can solve some of the technical and economic problems associated with the current way data centers are designed, as well as enable new applications and businesses.

All of this has huge implications for vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Dell and Intel, but it also could become the foundation for an entire new ecosystem of startups and value creation, much like what the creation of the hypervisor did for computing. In this research note we look at what network virtualization is, why we’re moving toward it, what OpenFlow is and what the opportunities are for companies, both large and small, beyond that technology.

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Infrastructure as a service has been talked about, alternatively in hushed and gushing tones. Grid computing, utility computing, on-demand computing — they were all ways to describe what Amazon Web Services had delivered. Fast forward to today, when Amazon and others are moving at Internet speed, trying to offer better security, faster networking, more compliance and a host of other products that are attempting to meet the demands of startups, consumers and enterprises alike. It’s not perfect, as Amazon’s two-day outage earlier this year attests to, but it’s certainly good enough – and getting better.

We launched our Structure conference in 2008 because we saw the cloud-based infrastructure revolution was going to create new opportunities. As observers, we’ve talked to hundreds of people about cloud computing and its ecosystem. On our Structure channel, we cover the gear and software that comprises the cloud, the services and the people who are changing the industry. Now for the first time, we’ve decided to condense that knowledge into the Structure 50, a list of the 50 companies that are influencing how the cloud and infrastructure evolves. These are the ones to watch — at least in 2011. You’ve heard of some – such as Amazon or Dell. Others – such as Nicira or Boundary – are probably not yet on your radar. But they should be. All of these companies, big or small, have people, technology or strategies that will help shape the way the cloud market is developing and where it will eventually end up.

To the companies who made it on the list, congratulations. For others who missed out, in the future anything is possible. And for those who are still drawing their plans on a piece of paper, we are patiently waiting for you to change the world.

The post The Structure 50: The Top 50 Cloud Innovators appeared first on Gigaom.

Even the government is using the cloud to process data. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association is using Amazon’s Web Services for its Ocean Observatories Initiative, a study surveying ocean temperatures to detect and predict climate change. And as James Watters, senior manager of cloud solutions development with VMware, notes, the coming trend will be moving your data to the cloud, rather than keeping it stored on hard drives or DVDs that are then uploaded to a supercomputer someplace, which makes the cloud a necessary tools for supporting future economies built around information.

Analyzing huge data sets with access to seemingly unlimited compute power isn’t just a benefit for climate researchers or those seeking to decode the latest H1N1 virus. The huge amount of digital information generated by financial monitoring companies, our interactions with people and products on the web, and government data (to name a few examples) is something that analysts, app developers and average citizens can all benefit from. The challenge is making that data intelligible and accessible.

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