Whurley's head in the clouds
whurley called yesterday, letting me know about his new InfoWorld blog on cloud computing. He's my friend, so I felt comfortable chiding him a bit. "Aren't you the one who told me last year that cloud computing was bull&!@*?", I asked him. Of course he was. But, he explained he is taking a contrarian approach. That makes sense to me.
His first entry "Romanticizing Cloud Computing Will Destroy It" is a bit dramatic. Cloud computing won't be destroyed by romanticizing it. His point is that he believes cloud computing is ill-defined and that it is practically the same thing and holds the same promise as grid computing, utility computing, and SaaS. Will it help the economy or decrease global warming? His questions are simply intended to make us all think.
whurley invites everyone to participate in cloud computing's definition. Jump on the cloud and give your two cents. The fact that whurley has joined the fray makes me happy. It's going to make the journey not only much more enlightening, but a lot more fun.
(Disclaimer: whurley makes me write his name with no caps, even when it's at the beginning of a sentence...)
Can't wait to see a real cloud service or product delivered by Sun ASAP. Here are some simple examples:
- Save OOo docs to cloud storage
- Run OOo apps on cloud servers over VNC or your Tarantella web interface
- Rent xVM Server and xVM Ops Center services with commodity prices ($/cpu hr, $/Gb)
- Rent storage services at various service levels, like Amazon S3
- Rent scalable MySQL database servers over the network, with a management interface
- Invest in Jini and JXTA scalable Java platforms for cloud computing
I'm sure there are many more examples of things Sun could sell. These are things Sun can do today to earn revenue. I'd prefer to see Sun deliver products/services than navel-gaze about the etymology of cloud computing. Please take this as encouraging "tough love", not a criticism. Best wishes for 2009. I'm holding onto my JAVA shares because I believe in *what* you're doing (even if I question the *how*).
Posted by Kevin Hutchinson on January 20, 2009 at 01:03 PM CST #
:) It's always nice to hear from you Kevin. I like your ideas and your enthusiasm. Best wishes to you, too, for 2009 and beyond.
Posted by Ynema Mangum on January 20, 2009 at 01:58 PM CST #