However, the notion of ‘cloud’ computing has deviated dangerously away from a ‘premise’ into a ‘rivalry’. For instance, my company outsources dedicated servers. We pay for those servers to be managed, as we’re developers and don’t like configuring firewalls or patching servers. None of us have touched the hardware we’re paying for, and we can cancel servers, or add servers with just by picking up the phone. The billing isn’t quite as fluid as EC2, and the environment isn’t as structured as Azure, but there’s no lock-in greater than one month, and hardly any setup.

So with that said, do we have a sign that says “Cloud Computing since 2001″…nope. What we do have is time to specialize at what we do best…writing code. That is the premise behind cloud computing. Let the electric company handle the electricity, the plumber handle your toilets, the cloud handle your hosting, and you handle your application.

I am curious why everyone thinks that enterprise should be interested in cloud computing in the first place? Enterprise with existing architecture and infrastructure doesn’t think in terms of new or emerging technologies. Only in terms of proved and validated. My friend who works for national grid would not think about updating firmwire if it hasn’t been around for at least two years. EC2 has been around for nearly two years, so one may think it’s nearly a time when enterprise can start looking.

I think the issue is a quite different and it all goes down to personnel. Enterprise quite unlikely to have a personnel which is able to design scalable “cloud” compatible architecture. And posts like McKinsey only prove this point. It is much easier to write report why cloud is not ready for enterprise, then to design and implement application which will leverage advantages of the cloud. I bet people who are interested in new technologies work in startups and not in enterprise, so for a while it would be better to concentrate on small and medium size companies, with real money savings and less existing infrastructure to depend on.