Had a great conversation earlier this week with Bob Scheier. He’s currently writing a series on cloud computing for InfoWorld – his piece from last week about CTOs managing the cloud was really thought provoking and on-target for what we’ve been talking about here on Edge of the Cloud.
From the article: “Not all compute clouds are created equal, and whether cloud computing gives you enough visibility and control for datacenter adoption depends very much on what type of cloud computing you’re buying.” While I agree that different elements of the cloud have different levels of concerns, what happens when you have an API that lives across multiple cloud providers?
For example, an application that works across EC2 and Force.com needs to address visibility and control holistically. The cloud provider is not at the center, it is the application that is the center and visibility and control needs to be provided from that point of view.
One of the major reasons people are standing behind the cloud today is cost savings. Another big cloud benefit that we’ve talked about here before is the ability for businesses to create new revenue streams with cloud computing. I think this is more important than cost saving – savings can take you only so far, whereas new revenue channels grow your business.
In discussions with many customers on the impact of cloud computing, one of the key takeaways is that it will make “IT more Strategic.” As always there will be early adopters and laggards. Look forward to seeing the rest of Bob’s series on the cloud.
