IT people are enthusiasts, generally speaking.  They grab hold of a new interest or idea or technology, try it out, and if it  works for them, they become passionate advocates for it. Yet, despite their enthusiasm, many IT people remain balanced and open to the pros and cons of their preferred solution and others.  I have investments or relationships in most of the areas I’m going to mention today; for example, I’m an investor in Microsoft and Apple because I like their products and businesses, even though I use Opensource and Cloud applications on a Linux-operated netbook.  Unfortunately, some IT operatives and commentators become increasingly one-eyed in favour of their chosen way and blind to the merits of others, further inflamed if the object of their disdain does anything untoward.  I’m reminded of the unthinking political zealotry and bigotry shown by the more rabid members of the left and right.

This isn’t a new phenomenon:

• IBM v. the seven dwarfs IBM (Burroughs, Univac, NCR, Control Data,  Honeywell, GE and, depending on where you were, RCA or ICL)
• Mini-computers v. mainframes
• PCs v. everything
• Opensource software v. licensed software, especially Microsoft
• Apple v. Microsoft
• and now, Cloud computing v. on-premise computing.

Fortunately, more balanced viewpoints exist. In recent days, I’ve seen several commentators telling Cloud computing enthusiasts to come back down to earth.

Alan Moore at Definition:

... most customers would never sign up to these solutions if they really understood how shonky most start-up solutions are. The risk of committing to a service that has been designed badly is even greater with a cloud application, and the problems will always occur after you’ve entered all your lovely data.

Even when the solution has proven its worth customers have no protection against the commercial activities of their service provider. What happens if they are sold, merge or acquire other companies, what happens if the business model doesn’t stack up?

I know most of these issues will be sorted out and for them to succeed I’m sure the good companies will rise to the top but there is another risk to those customers… Trust me it’s hard enough to successfully move data around your own computer room never mind from a data centre in Minnesota to one in Kazakhstan through two companies who see themselves as competitors. While still trying to carry on your normal business activities of course.

In “Cloud computing evangelists are high on the fumes of their own vitriol“, Paul Quickenden from Unreasonable Men argues that many organisations will keep using managed or in-house private data centres:

In my opinion most [folks] will be in private and hybrid cloud space due to the enhanced security, [service agreements] and control it offers. There are also strong economic benefits. Some things will never shift out of the firewall [in-house IT network security barrier] .

I too have my prejudices.  I’m a proponent of Cloud computing, not because of any technological bias, but because I have a bias toward “Lean Business”.  Unless I’m in those businesses, I don’t need to own a phone company, I don’t need to own a trucking and logistics operation, I don’t need to own offices, I don’t need to operate a factory, and I don’t need to build and own IT.  None of which says I can’t have unique business concepts and processes for competitive and economic advantage.  I just need to buy the services which deliver the business outcomes I want.  So Cloud computing fits neatly into my worldview.

But I’m realistic. Large institutions eg. banks and government agencies, are unlikely to shift wholly to the Cloud for decades, although I disagree with “Some things will never shift out of the firewall“.  Never is an awfully long time!  If Cloud computing fulfils its promise - and accommodates such things as location-based imperatives for data storage and processing, easy transfer/backup, organisation-specific front ends and multi-provider application integration - if it can do all those things and be economically viable and trustworthy, then most organisations may not need anything more, except for embedded intelligence (eg in machinery and network equipment).

I’ll leave the last word to Dennis Byron at eBizQ:

The cloud is the intersection of a lot of very well researched and applied information technologies, some of which are up to 50 years old … Cloud computing is not “the next big thing.” It is “the first big thing” finally done right in the sense that all the stars are now aligned to deliver on the promises of the 1960s.