Posts Tagged ‘Barriers to entry’
Heads In The Cloud
At the intersection of business and technology there is a cloud forming that represents a new paradigm for collaboration and decision-making, which will encourage invention and innovation to flourish. This cloud will make it possible for entrepreneurial ventures to scale like never before. We are soaring into world of Cloud Computing.
It is possible that The Cloud is talked about as much, and is as misunderstood, as the Internet in the early ‘90s. Like any new venture it is often explained using analogy. “The Cloud is like a Utility Grid.” The Cloud is like the early days of computing where organizations rented computing power from IT service bureau companies like IBM or University Computing Corporation. Much like the Gold Rush of 1849 or the Dot Com boom of the 1990s, few know exactly what it is or what it can become, but many want to be a part of it.
A look at the following definitions might explain some of the confusion.
“Cloud computing is Internet- based development and use of computer technology (“computing”). In concept, it is a paradigm shift whereby details are abstracted from the users who no longer have need of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supports them. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves the provision of dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources as a service over the Internet.” (Wikipedia)
Maybe a more technical definition would help.
“[Cloud computing] is “a computing capability that provides an abstraction between the computing resource and its underlying technical architecture (e.g., servers, storage, networks), enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.” This definition states that clouds have five essential characteristics: on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service.” (Wikipedia)
In his book Dot.Cloud, Peter Finger offers this definition:
“For geeks, Cloud Computing means grid computing, utility computing, software as a service, virtualization, Internet-based applications, autonomic computing, peer-to-peer computing, on-demand and remote processing—and various combinations of these terms. For non-geeks, Cloud Computing is simply a platform where individuals and companies us the Internet to access endless hardware, software and data resources for most of their computing needs, leaving the mess to their Cloud Service Providers.”
As with any disruptive technology the Cloud is seeing its share of controversy. A CNET article published in October of 2008 had this to say. “IBM argued that cloud computing is a way for businesses to draw more value from their existing IT infrastructures, since much of the work is offloaded onto remote servers, but the cloud-computing concept has received sharp criticism recently from the likes of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Free Software Foundation President Richard Stallman.
In an interview with The Guardian last week, free software pioneer Stallman said cloud computing is “worse than stupidity” because it leaves users vulnerable. ”If you use a proprietary program or somebody else’s Web server, you’re defenseless. You’re putty in the hands of whoever developed that software,” he said.
During Oracle’s annual financial analyst meeting in September, Ellison also criticized the companies rushing to roll out cloud services, saying the trend is “fashion-driven.” ”It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?” Ellison said.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, speaking to delegates at a Microsoft-sponsored developer conference in London last week, said the company will launch an operating system for the cloud in four weeks. Tentatively titled “Windows Cloud,” although Ballmer suggested it would have a “snazzier name” at launch, the product is designed to make it possible to “just…write an application and…push it to the cloud, Ballmer said.”
In essence the Cloud means different things for different people. For likely Cloud Service Providers like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo it means opportunity to get IT hardware, software, data resources and services to a much broader audience. To Venture Capitalist it may minimize the need for their investment dollars going toward data centers for their portfolio companies. For entrepreneurs it eliminates barriers to entry into scalable business opportunities that previously required large capital investments in server farms and software applications.
Just a few questions to consider:
- Is Cloud Computing mostly real or mostly hype?
- Is Cloud Computing likely to be a game changer for entrepreneurs that will level the playing field and break down barriers to entry?
- What, if any, issues should entrepreneurs be concerned with before launching their new ventures into the Cloud (eg. data security, over-dependence, scalability)?
©Mark P. Loschiavo
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