What Bilbo Baggins Teaches Us About Cloud Computing

Cloud computing and the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins? What might they have in common? On the surface, you’d have to say nothing. But I’ve been thinking about The Hobbit lately, with the much-anticipated Peter Jackson epic set to debut in theaters soon. Although I’m sure J. R. R. Tolkien had no notion of cloud computing, or computers for that matter, Bilbo’s story can still be read as an allegory for the journey that many IT pros take when they move to the cloud — with many of the same lessons to be learned.

At the start, Bilbo is quite content in his little hobbit hole, Bag End, in the Shire. Think of that as IT pros in the traditional mode of on-premises deployments. Had he been left to himself, that’s exactly where Bilbo would have stayed. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), Gandalf chose Bilbo to accompany the dwarves on their quest across the wilds to the Lonely Mountain. We can say Gandalf is like a CIO or CEO or some conglomeration of super powerful execs. And the dwarves? We’ll call them end users that Bilbo has to successfully move along to the cloud…


As long as Gandalf travels with the party, Bilbo does little of note. It’s when Bilbo finds himself alone that his abilities begin to shine through and he proves Gandalf’s choice of him — first when separated from his companions in the goblin caves when he encounters Gollum, and more importantly when he has to rescue the trapped dwarves from the spiders in Mirkwood. When he doesn’t have the wizard to fall back on, Bilbo proves quite resourceful and courageous…

Read more from the source @   http://www.windowsitpro.com/blog/cloud-computing-7/cloud-computing2/bilbo-baggins-teaches-cloud-computing-144897