

How cloud computing changes IT economics - razorburn
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12411838

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drawkbox
When Larry Ellison says he has no idea what the cloud is, he is faking it, he
is shaking in his boots in terms of the IT industry as it is today (including
the decision makers).

Cloud computing takes power from hosting, it management, it infrastructure and
gives this gift to programmers/engineers and architects. This is a really good
time to be a programmer and aware of the power of this paradigm change.

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iigs
I disagree, or agree only superficially. IT departments start off as innocuous
places where the guy who knows how to fix the copier hides, but as things grow
they're responsible for maintaining the security and availability of the
company's information assets. So long as the data is not of strategic value it
won't rouse the attention of the executive level management, but as awareness
of the value of the data grows (read: data loss, security issue, or regulatory
violation) you can bet CIOs will create policies prohibiting use of external
systems, and crack down on violators.

So, I think cloud computing will afford a small window of flexibility for
companies, but will ultimately get rolled in to the larger IT picture. If so,
however, it will probably increase flexibility in IT department policies,
which is good news for everyone -- IT executives look good if they're
flexible, leaf nodes don't get any joy from telling people no, and the IT
department customers get more of what they need with less red tape.

