Convergence Conversation

About Cloud

Last night's Convergence Conversation was revealing in what it did not reveal. With experts from PA Consulting, Vizioncore, Memset, various analyst houses and the legal profession (including our esteemed hosts Bird & Bird), you'd think we'd have enough brainpower and complimentary skills to paint the finest picture of Cloud to help Cloud-newbies get in on the action.

But what is Cloud?

Some participants didn't think we needed to define it. Personally, I'm not sure how a group can discuss any thing without a common agreement on what the thing is, so, as I was in the chair, we attempted a definition off the bat.

Ah the wisdom of the chair, not.

• Cloud is just a new name for an approach to computing that's been around at least 25 years
• Cloud is the separation of the application of computing power from the physical infrastructure using virtualisation technologies
• Cloud does not require virtualisation
  
• Cloud computing is the same thing we were calling utility computing earlier this decade
• You can provide utility computing with a Cloud approach, but the two are different things
  
• Cloud is a marketing expression deployed to sell software-as-a-service
• Cloud is provided over the Internet
• Cloud isn't necessarily provided over the Internet
• You interact with the Cloud through the browser; no you don't

Super. Glad we've got that sorted then.

Apparently, Cloud comes in as many shapes and sizes as, well, can I say it... clouds. At one end of the spectrum, you have serious, so-called "enterprise strength" applications:

• Companies like British Midland outsourcing their most business critical applications for flight booking and management. Their supplier effectively provides the whole system, on a "Cloud" software-as-a-service basis, payable transactionally (pay-as-you-go)
• The Telegraph Media Group ditching client-side computing in preference of Google Apps
• Salesforce.com listed as Forbes number 3 in their "25 fastest growing tech companies" report
  
• And "Oracle CEO Ellison Changes Tack On Cloud Computing" according to the Wall Street Journal. Not an insignificant volte face given Larry's mocking of the approach in 2008.
  

At the other end of the spectrum you have "consumer strength" services, or is that "consumer weak"? In other words, services that may be unavailable from time to time, but the consumer doesn't care that much, or doesn't feel like they have cause to complain as they've paid nothing for the pleasure in the first place. Web-based email, Web-based photo services, Web-based file storage; can all be delivered with a Cloud approach.

The definition of Cloud is...

Perhaps then the definition of Cloud is... "a combination of technologies to deliver benefits, because we can".

• Because we can procure powerful physical servers cheaply
• Because we can virtualise these resources easily and reliably
• Because we can all make use of ubiquitous Internet connectivity
• Because we can all wield Internet browsers
• Because we can outsource applications to third parties whose core competence is just that provision, leaving us to focus more tightly on our core competence
• Because we can operate more cost effectively, saving money
• Because we can aggregate application service delivery and (ideally) reduce our respective carbon footprints
• Because we can flex and adapt our applications quicker to meet competitive pressures and opportunities
• Because we can then work any time, any place.
  

I look forward to revisiting the Cloud in a Convergence Conversation in 2010. Perhaps by then the definition will have matured so we all know what we're talking about. Perhaps the term will be on its way out, made redundant because it's just how information technology works.