Cloud Computing: UK Expert Says Now It’s War

Grazed from Midsize Insider. Author: Doug Bonderud.

According to Simon Wardley, a UK scientist turned technology thinker, cloud computing has passed from the "growth" stage of its development to "war," where tech giants struggle with rapid change and start-ups plant their flags on virtual battlegrounds. If war is coming, how do midsize IT make the most of it?

Throw Down the Gauntlet

A recent Silicon Republic article quotes Wardley as saying "business is little more than warfare, a catfight." He contends that in the cloud age – just like the agricultural, industrial, and information ages – there are periods of peace, war, and growth. Thanks to the commoditization of technology, the IT industry has seen a long period of peace, which Wardley describes as a form of inertia. Now, he says, "New entrants, not the incumbents, are causing the greatest level of change." War comes…

He also cites the examples like the IBM 650 as a starting point for the commoditization of PCs, eventually leading to desktops, laptops, and now fully-featured smartphones. Past examples like Edison fighting AC current and Victorian battles over the classification of information are no different than NoSQL versus SQL or public versus private clouds. Wardley says this is "completely normal," citing predictions from Douglas Parkhill in 1966 that computing’s eventual future would closely resemble that of electricity.

All’s Fair

Of course, just because providers will fight to the death over storage, service, and uptime, this doesn’t mean businesses and consumers are ready to endure a lengthy battle. An article at The Times of Malta, for example, talks about the potential for a "cloud proactive" environment in the European Union…

Read more from the source @ http://midsizeinsider.com/en-us/article/cloud-computing-uk-expert-says-now-its