What’s in a name?

There are a handful of things I like about the term “cloud computing.”  It’s kinda ephemeral, mysterious.   Like a soft Monet watercolor.  Clouds themselves are evocative, and sometimes they scatter to reveal sunlight.  That said, most of the time they gather in a menacing formation to wreck havoc and misery – which, not coincidentally, is a more apt metaphor for the term in the context of the IT world.

I also like “cloud computing” because of the limitless pun options.  As a writer, this is pure gold.  So, you can expect a future blog post entitled, “Hey hey you you get off of my cloud!”  Or another: “Cloudy with a Chance of Infrastructure Optimization.”   And it goes without saying that I’m very excited to, somehow, incorporate one of my favorite Simon and Garfunkel songs in a post.  Ahhh someday.

But, shockingly, not everyone agrees with me.  Some corporate hot shots – what do they know about mystery?  ephemeral things? – apparently aren’t stoked on the term, and caused a minor buzz on the blogosphere.  In fact, Information Week asked their readers to submit their own suggestions.  Take a look at the list and hold your head, cuz it’s gonna spin.

For what it’s worth no one asked me for my suggestions.

 

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

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…)

James Madison and the tyranny of Joe from Sales

The political theory of our Founding Fathers was smelted in the crucible of two enormous event that rocked Europe to it’s core.  The first, the Enlightenment.  These dudes saw first-hand how religion ravaged the continent, and made sure we in the States never got hung up on a state religion.  They tended to be deistic, believing in a creator, but one that was ultimately hands-off, like a celestial CEO.

The second event was the French Revolution.  This was bad.  This was what happened when the common man ran out of bread (and were chided to “eat cake” instead) and ran amok; when ideas like “liberty” was pushed a bit too far.  Basically, the only thing worse that tyranny by a king is tyranny by the masses.  And while it started after the Constitution was drafted, The Founding Fathers nonetheless saw this and said, “gnarly.”

Think about it: back when the Constitution was drafted, the Supreme Court was appointed.  The President was appointed by the Electoral College (still is.)  The Senate was appointed.  If you were some hick, all you could do was vote for your hick Representative in the House.  Maybe it’s safer to say – especially in the context of the time – the Founding Fathers were suspicious of the common man.  And rightfully so.

Where am I going with this?   Good question.

Well, I read this article saying that one of the cool things about cloud computing is this idea of “employee-led IT.”  Cloud computing gives employees greater flexibility to deploy software tools and drive productivity, etc. yada.  Ignoring the practicality of this idea – how do they do this? – the bigger question is: is this a good thing?

I mean, have you seen the employees at your company?

Cloud computing is already rife with security concerns; how we’re going to empower Joe from Sales to upload some beerpong app on the network?  What would James Madison say?  I know.  He’d say, “Let them eat clouds!”