Sunday, June 26, 2011

What I've Been Reading

Business in the Cloud: What Every Business Needs to Know About Cloud Computing by Michael H. Hugos and Derek Hulitzky (Author).

"Recent studies shows that IT, the business application systems it supports and the data centers and staff needed to run the technology and systems, average about 6% of business operating expenses. This 6% of operations budget has a critical leverage over the profitability of the business as a whole if it can be used to deliver better business as a whole if it can be used to deliver better business responsiveness and agility. More ironic is that, at present, about 70% to 80% of company IT budgets goes to the operation and maintenance of existing systems and data centers. So in many organizations, there isn't much money available to design and develop new systems."

Facts/Pros:
  • The obvious choices are $$ saving, seamlessly adapting to ever-changing technologies, faster project life cycle, security (that's debatable for now), less in-house "dissonance" and most importantly companies can concentrate on improving their core business.
  • What do you call a country where electricity, gas (heat), banking et al aren't centralized? A third world. And most recent obvious ubiquitous internet says it all. 
  • Going green - electricity consumption. Companies doesn't need to run quasi-factories in name of IT. 
  • Moore's law aside, there are limits to exploring and exploiting natural resources. In-satiatable appetite of IT infrastructure could be tamed by the cloud. 
  • Companies will be forced to stream-line and standardize the IT process, which in-turn would ease any existing and future interfaces with other business division, partners and companies.
  • The biggest revenue sources for cloud might be from home computing.
  • IT to "go" - "You can buy a gift card on Amazon and use it to setup our own data center." 
Cons:
  • Service provider could pull the plug anytime (Wikileaks vs Amazon), a libertarian nightmare (that said, what is not their nightmare?)
  • Creative destruction - unemployment (that's debatable too).
  • Of course, more interconnectedness, centralization and monopoly will lead to more complexity. We would be more vulnerable to that notorious Black Swans. Only solace when shit hits the fan - we will not be alone.
  • And so far, there has been this hidden irony
P.S. Cloud computing startup's like EucalyptusRightscale and Engine Yard are probably the one's to watch out for according to Bill Gurley


"We talk breathlessly about access and inclusion in a global communication network, but speak little of exactly why we want to communicate with one another on such a planetary scale. What's sorely missing is an overarching reason for why billions of human beings should be increasingly connected. Toward what end? The only feeble explanations thus far offered are to share information, be entertained, advance commercial exchanged, and speed the globalization of the economy. All the above, while relevant, nonetheless seem insufficient to justify why nearly seven billion human beings should be connected and mutually embedded in a globalized society. Seven billion individual connections, absent any overall unifying purpose, seems a colossal waste of human energy." - The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis by Jeremy Rifkin



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