Inside the cloud

Jim Warner | June 24, 2010

TM Forum

Cloud, cloud, cloud, cloud, cloud. Is that all everyone can talk about these days? From the sound of things, Cloud Computing or Cloud Services has the ability to heal the sick, feed the hungry and make life rosy for all. It’s talked about as if it were a cross between the invention of the PC and the development of the Internet. Wait… it is.

Despite all the annoying hype and hyperbole, Cloud Services are and will be a game changer; there is absolutely no doubt. The only debate is how fast will the rate of adoption be, how many of the promised benefits will prove accurate and what unforeseen applications will emerge. If Vegas had an over/under on Cloud Computing – bet the over.

At the core of the debate is what is cloud? Like any topic in our industry, we all immediately want to try and attach technical labels to it. And make no mistake; Cloud Services do involve a host of technologies. But if that’s your focus, you’ll miss the forest for the trees.

The cloud is, more than anything else, a new and game changing business model. It re-writes the rules in the same way that Word did away with typewriters. Think back to when we didn’t have the Internet and email (for those of you old enough). Hard to recall, actually. In 3 years, that’s the same way you’ll feel about Cloud. It will be such an ingrained aspect of your business (and possibly personal) life that it will seem normal and natural.

What exactly are Cloud Services? As everyone rushes to attach their products and services to the cloud bandwagon, we are seeing countless corruptions and misuses of the term. Today, almost any online service is being labeled as a Cloud Service. That’s one of the casualties of the hype.

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