Shape up or ship out

As a commentator and analyst in the Cloud Computing space, I’m often involved in conversations with CIOs and CTOs around Cloud Computing. I also organise CloudCamps in Australia and New Zealand and these ‘unconference’ style events are focused on engaging the technical and business community around Cloud Computing topics.Often IT department executives have significant concerns about Cloud Computing generally, or even go so far as to dismiss it in totality. I wanted to counter that view with a discussion on just how impactful Cloud Computing will be, and what that means for IT workers.Many industry observers contend, and I agree with the viewpoint, that Cloud Computing is in fact a revolution for the industry. As such, I contend that Cloud Computing is fundamentally disruptive and changes the game for technologists, vendors and, most importantly, consumers of technology.So why is Cloud Computing disruptive? To give some context to that question, it is important to understand some fundamentals round Cloud Computing. To understand the revolutionary qualities of Cloud Computing, it is appropriate to utilise a well-worn but accurate analogy that compares Cloud Computing to a traditional utility service, like water or electricity.Nicholas Carr’s book The Big Switch is an excellent introductory read to this subject. In a previous article appearing in the Spring 2005 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review, Carr wrote that:"…As a business resource, information technology today looks a lot like electric power did at the start of the last century [when it was routinely produced by individual businesses rather than utility providers]… executives are routinely sidetracked from their real business… by the need to keep their company’s private IT infrastructure running smoothly.”Noting the similarities between computing and a technology that most would agree is best handled by specialists rather than individual firms, Carr then moves onto a discussion about the consequences of self provisioning infrastructure and the resulting overcapacity that often accompanies it:"When overcapacity is combined with redundant functionality, the conditions are ripe for a shift to centralised supply. Yet companies continue to invest large sums in maintaining and even expanding their private, subscale data centers. Why? For the same reason that manufacturers continued to install private electric generators during the early decades of the 20th century: because of the lack of a viable, large-scale utility model. But such a model is now emerging…”The model that Carr says is emerging is Cloud Computing. Cloud Computing provides specific economics that are beneficial under many situations – especially any time demand is erratic, the organisation is in a state of change, or when pressure comes to bear to move from CAPEX to OPEX.While the metaphor comparing Cloud Computing to utility power helps explain the nearly inexorable forces compelling business to adopt this new model, it doesn’t position this latest technology in the more recent context of massive technological shifts. For that, we can look at the shift that saw mainframes transformed into clouds over the course of only a few decades.This utility model results in a total democratisation of technology. This brings a level of service once only accessible to the largest of enterprises. It also empowers individual business units to make their own decisions about technology, unconstrained by the IT department.As I wrote in a recent report for Rackspace, "The availability of Cloud Computing solutions has led to a massive shift in the availability of computing power. It is now almost effortless for an entrepreneur to set themselves up with some infrastructure and applications upon which to run their business. No longer is enterprise scale infrastructure the exclusive domain of enterprises.”If you accept my contention that Cloud Computing is indeed a revolution, it raises some serious questions about what the IT workplace of the future will look like. I contend that if, as an IT professional, your role largely consists of maintaining software, managing servers, wrangling email servers and other such non-core activities, you will soon be looking elsewhere for work. The overwhelming advantages of moving these undifferentiated services off to providers who have the scale, expertise and economics to provide the highest levels of service at the lowest price will become compelling.Cloud Computing is a revolution that will change the working lives of IT professionals forever, but rather than a threat, this is an opportunity for IT staffers to  embrace the new world order and learn a new set of skills that the organisation will require. IT departments, and individual IT personnel, will need to move from being primarily technologists with a modicum of business knowledge, to being truly balanced professionals who can equally mix technical ability with an understanding of the business drivers. The world is changing, of that we can be sure. The opportunity exists to develop the skills useful in the new world, or stay firmly planted in a rapidly passing paradigm.