If you've been in IT long enough, you've probably heard someone observe that, for as long as there have been computers, there has been a long, slow pendulum swing between centralized and distributed computing paradigms. From mainframes, to remote terminals, to timesharing, to PCs, to client/server, to mobile devices, to cloud computing -- the pendulum has been easy to discern, though much harder to explain.
I've just published a new article in Tech News World to explain why I think cloud computing will soon cause the pendulum to stop swinging once and for all. Even though I published it elsewhere, I'd be interested in any comments my blog readers might have.
I think the basic substantive notions are right. They're well known and there's more details for some audiences but the basic points are right. The rhetoric - the pendulum thing - is a tiny bit, um, pardon but over the top. Too much drama on too thin a premise.
ReplyDeleteI think you underestimate, a lot, two things: (1) the amount of "new" there is to be had in this space -- I mean pretty deeply new; (2) the why-cloud-ain't-paradise angle along the lines of how a national power grid is damn nice to have but, if you've means and a brain, don't rely on it.