I wonder how accurate this assumption is. People here in Haarlem, Holland care very little about how technology works. You see the same phone in everyone’s hand. You still see internet cafes with computers that “just work”. Watches are big, heavy, and ugly; ticking all the while. People are all over Haarlem, riding bikes. They are out drinking coffees, beers, smoking, and talking. Life is so relaxed here that if they went home, flicked a switch, and the power didn’t come on; they’d just open the windows and let in the evening lights. No big deal. In Haarlem, the locals are just concerned about their quality of life, not worrying anything more about technology than that it “just works”.
Cloud computing crossed my mind fleetingly. The concept of cloud computing is defined in many ways. Some do it through layers (SAAS, computing on demand, hardware on demand) and others are just lumping it into the concept of Utility Computing. Utility defined : when you need it, it is there, no matter how it’s presented to you (API, HTML, or true root access) .
In Haarlem, they might consider cell phones part of the cloud, as with televisions and GPS units on cars. If I were in sales in Holland, I could get away with selling a technology that “just works.” In San Francisco, I can’t. My thought on cloud computing in a single statement: it’s a Sales / Marketing pitch. The underlying technology is a business model. A business model that uses technology to distribute computing power across MORE users on LESS machines. What was once done with 100 machines can now be done with 40, saving power, resources, inventory, support people, and money.
Cloud Computing is going to stick if my assumption is true. Scarcity of resources could validate this statement alone. In 50 years(I shook the magic eight ball on this one), due to greater power demands, lessening fuel resources, access to computer components, the current dedicated server model should be too expensive. The question we should ask isn’t “What is Cloud Computing?” It is, “Which business model can give the majority of buyers the quality of service they’d expect?”
