Just found this video through Twitter (thanks @explainnation!)...  While it doesn't go into much detail on how Appirio works, it does a great job at explaining what Appirio does...  I loved the animation and it's funny to boot (the "plumbers" are classic).  

Also, in case you'd like to learn more about Appirio and the issues they address, here's a piece we did with Narinder Singh, CMO and Co-founder of Appirio, at the All About the Cloud event earlier this year:

April 22, 2010—SAN MATEO, CA—Appirio today announced the start of a new program that would guarantee at least $1 million in annual total cost of ownership (TCO) savings for qualified companies that cloudsource their entire IT infrastructure to Appirio and the public cloud - or Appirio will make up the difference. The program, which will run for the next six months, gives customers the confidence they need to get out of the business of running data centers and the inspiration to take greater advantage of the cost and innovation benefits enabled by cloud computing.

"We're putting our money where our mouth is," said Ryan Nichols, vice president of cloudsourcing and cloud strategy at Appirio.  "Companies are already moving more of their business to the public cloud, but we think this guarantee will encourage companies to take their cloud adoption to the next level. Running your business 100 percent in the cloud is different than piecemeal cloud adoption: Entire categories of spend just drop away, lowering IT costs by 30–50 percent. Our experience moving nearly 200 enterprises to the cloud, and our own experience operating as a serverless enterprise, gives us confidence that a million dollars in savings is just the tip of the iceberg."

Enterprise cloud adoption has reached a tipping point. An increasing number of companies are already moving their applications, platforms and infrastructure to the public cloud, drawn not only by the cost savings but the top line business impact—the ability to react faster, enter new markets or just work more productively.  In fact, Gartner predicts 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets by 2012 (1).

I ran across an informative article from Appirio ( www.appirio.com) - a cloud solution provider, predicting that innovation from cloud ecosystems next year will remove many of the remaining barriers to enterprise adoption of cloud. With so many clear demonstrations of business cases from 2009 (Avon, Japan Post, Starbucks) Appirio believes that the success of the cloud will continue its course to become mainstream in 2010, here's why-

 

Appirio’s 2010 predictions include:

1. Cloud developer community grows faster than open-source. Today's vendor-specific developer communities will be complemented by a community dedicated to the general discipline of building applications on the cloud, disrupting existing on-premise developer communities. The combination will launch a new generation of 'cloud developers.'
2. Cloud standards won't (and shouldn't) happen. The pace of innovation is so rapid in the cloud that the emergence of truly open cloud standards won't yet be possible, except at the lowest levels of infrastructure. Traditional vendors will attempt to muddy the waters across layers and claim the 'standards high ground' with efforts like the Open Cloud Manifesto.
3. Cloud providers tackle lock-in. Platform lock-in remains one of the major concerns keeping CIOs from building applications on PaaS. In 2010 we expect to see major initiatives from cloud providers to overcome this objection, either revolutionary (e.g., Force.com supporting other languages) or evolutionary (e.g., application migration frameworks or platform 'porting' toolkits.)
4. Cloud integration will get an enterprise poster-child. Boomi and Cast Iron have had a fantastic 2009 and we expect one will land a major enterprise customer in 2010 that replaces on-premise integration technology with a cloud-based alternative.
5. Enterprise apps get Googled. Google's investments in its cloud platform will transform Google Apps from a simple Exchange/Sharepoint replacement into a legitimate front end for enterprise applications (e.g., Google Web Toolkit, Secure Data Connector, and the Google Gadget Framework.)
6. Enterprise collaboration is a feature, not a business. Salesforce Chatter and Google Wave have shown the value of real-time collaboration that is seamlessly integrated with business applications. Standalone enterprise collaboration offerings will have difficulty competing.
7. Microsoft lets Azure cannibalize a global account. Microsoft has shown that it's serious about Azure at this year's Professional Developers Conference. We predict that Azure will cannibalize Microsoft's on-premise footprint at a global account.
8. Cloud computing consolidation. With 2000+ providers, the cloud ecosystem is ripe for consolidation. Salesforce.com and Google are likely to continue with point acquisitions, but they won't be alone. Having missed the first wave of innovation in cloud computing (and lacking any other on-premise technology to acquire) we expect Oracle to buy into the industry that Larry Ellison has dismissed as 'water vapor.' Maybe they'll finally snap up NetSuite.
9. Global Systems Integrators will do nothing more than cloud marketing. The most innovative thing we expect from Accenture next year is a replacement for its Tiger Woods ad campaign.
10. The real innovation will be in the business of cloud computing, not the technology. Cloud providers will become dramatically easier to do business with (e.g., Amazon Spot Markets) and new business models will emerge to make the cloud more consumable (e.g., cloud insurance providers, cloud security auditors, cloud brokerages.)

To weigh in on Appirio's 2010 picks, provide comment, or see those predictions that didn't make the cut, please visit www.appirio.com/predict10.