What concerns me about this cloud stuff is that it’s outsourcing on a massive scale, and no one has yet to really solve the problems associated with outsourcing, which are many. Privacy, security, vendor risk, down-time and outages, etc. Each of these risks have well-documented backstories behind them: the leaking of credit card information the most common. Fact of the matter is, centrallly managing these systems and applications is difficult. Managing relatively small outsourcing arrangements can be even more difficult. The mass outsourcing of major systems is another story entirely.
Of course, the principals of sound outsourcing/decentralized IT management will still apply: robust SLAs, strong measurement mechanisms like dashboards and scorecards, etc. But the trade-off is real: integration obstacles, potentially inferior support and maintence – in short, a relinquishment of control. No one likes giving up control.
This astute commentary pushes this discussion to it’s logical conclusion: how, then, is cloud computing any different from the age-old centralized vs. decentralized IT management debate? (And to what extent is it glorified vendor hype…)
Posted by IOD 
