Will Cloud Computing Rain On IT's Parade?
The latest and greatest business technology movement is almost always portrayed as inexorable and inevitable, whether it's on-demand computing or information life-cycle management or social networking. So it is with the very latest über-concept, "cloud computing," which holds that applications, storage, and other IT resources will shift from user desktops and company data centers to massive, often scattered server farms operated by third-party providers, accessible by users over the Internet.
In his book, The Big Switch, Nicholas "Does IT Matter?" Carr trots out the utility metaphor. Business technology organizations, he argues, will go the way of the electric power industry of the early 20th century, whereby lots of self-sufficient outfits made way for relatively few service providers. In the case of IT, the likes of Google and Amazon will supply much of the infrastructure, capacity, and services users consume--or so goes this line of thinking.
