The Big Switcheroo
This article seems to hit the same themes as the latest Nicholas Carr brainchild: The idea that computing and computer applications are becoming utilities that live in the cloud and come to you as a service, just like clean water, power and other utility services. It's particularly noteworthy here in the light of Matt's post below about the joys and tribulations of trying to generate your own heat--an endeavor that Matt concedes still holds uncertain prospects of payoff.
The problem is when people take their metaphors too seriously, or don't think them through enough. Is information technology really the same thing as water? Is it really comparable to electric current?
I'd suggest a different metaphor: If you're a fan of that "How It's Made" show, one of the things that strikes you is the incredible specialization of the machinery that produces and packages the Cheetos or candles or nuclear bombs or whatever. You couldn't exactly haul the Cheeto machine over to the candle factory and start making candles with it. Maybe you could adapt it to make some new kind of candle that you customers might or might not want to buy. But if you want to produce your product, you need your systems.
That's true in an intellectual sense as well as in a physical sense. Your processes require your gear, whether that specialty equipment is made out of aluminum or silicon.
The candle company doesn't make its own production equipment, just as an IT shop doesn't build its own PBX or its own ERP software. But they do take responsibility for spec-ing it and maintaining it.
More commodity computing functionality is going to go into the cloud, for sure. But the high-value stuff is going to stay in house.
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