So everyone is talking about cloud computing. Too bad most of them don’t understand what it is, how it works, the benefits and pitfalls. Let’s make it clear: with cloud I mean some kind of service or application that runs outside your network, is multi-tenant and scalable, and that you access over the Internet, ideally over HTTP. Accessing your on-premise mail server via a web browser is not cloudy, Google Apps is.
Anyway, the real point is not whether the cloud is useful, reliable, cost-effective or cool. The point is that it’s inevitable, at all levels.
If you’re a consumer, you’re already using it, and you might not even notice it.
If you’re a non-IT enterprise and are not using the cloud already, then you’ll soon be because your partners, customers, suppliers and competitors will make the switch, and you’ll be forced to conform.
If you’re an IT company, then… well it’s up you to decide whether to provide cloud-based solutions. I guess you are already because many of your customers are demanding it.
Some food for thought: cloud-based solutions are moving complexity from the end user to the supplier, which is great, but also calls for unprecedented software architecture challenges. And weird data migration projects.