CDR Sam

Who Wants to be in the Clouds: What Really is Cloud Computing

November 29, 2009 | Data Storage

ISPs have been providing what is now called ‘cloud computing’ for years.  AOL,  CompuServe,  Prodigy even the BBS were clouds in their own right.   The idea that somehow the ‘dumb terminal’ is a new concept

is a frightening thought.  The first mainframe computers used terminals and even today mainframes use terminals.

There has always been two camps on owning the software or ‘renting’ the software.  This also reflects on the equipment one uses too.  A cheap throwaway terminal (perhaps a netbook is a good example of this) compared to a full powered system that can run applications independent of the Internet or network.  The ‘sell’ is the classic razor blade sales model.   The person is given the razor holder and the cost of the razor blades is inflated to maximize profit.  Data is held hostage by design or poor design depending on ones point of view.  We have gone from ‘ASP’, for application service provider, to SaaS, or software as a service, to the newest coined phrase, ‘cloud computing’.    One can only hope they  rename SaaS to something more appropriate like ‘I hope the Internet keeps working computing’ or ‘the hare vs. the turtle computing’. Without the Internet connection the ‘dumb book’ is just that ‘dumb’

I’m certainly aware of the marketing hype of how SaaS brought on a new age with web based applications.  Really?  Where is Al Gore when you need him to confirm his inventing the Internet. Web based applications have been around a lot longer then SaaS or ASP.

Free applications with advertising.  It’s no accident Google’s earnings are 97% from advertising.  Renting the software does not always require paying for it.  It’s a new spin on giving an application away for visiting my site or telling my friends about it.  I’m not trying to sell you anything.  Just free services that happen to have a lot of advertising.  It is honestly an advertising distribution method and not for the greater good of mankind.

I certainly think that SaaS has it’s place as well as ‘cloud computing’ in that it does provide massive computing power for solving very complex equations.  However to try and sell it as a complete business solution when it can only operate with a Internet connection (and high speed at that)  is just looking for trouble.