KEY CLOUD-COMPUTING TAKEAWAY: The network is broken.

Pacific Crest hosted seven panels and 30 company presentations on cloud-computing trends at the Fourth Annual Emerging Technology Summit in San Francisco last week. Despite the perception of the cloud as overhyped, it was clear that most, if not all, hardware, software and services companies are aggressively repositioning to participate in cloud computing — a multiyear architectural shift to new data-center platforms that support cloud workloads from legacy client-server workloads.

Cloud and mobility workloads stress networks to the breaking point. Panel discussions with the largest cloud providers — Amazon (ticker: AMZN), AT&T (T), Verizon Communications (VZ) and [privately held] TSystem — as well as the leading network-equipment suppliers — Cisco Systems (CSCO), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Brocade Communications Systems (BRCD), [privately held] Arista Networks and [privately held] Silver Peak — reinforced our bullish thesis on networking.

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