our opinion matters less than we'd like to admit

Peter Coffee wrote a great post on The Cloud Blog yesterday.

I understand Peter's frustration. People have a limitless number of opinions about why Cloud Computing "isn't ready" or will never fully replace on-premise solutions. Peter points out that for all the opinions, most are not based on fact. Ironically, the less informed the individual, the stronger their belief in their opinion - part of the human condition.

At the end of the day our opinions don't mean much. Cloud Computing is already the primary way in which we interact with technology on a daily basis. The Cloud isn't "coming" or "someday will be good enough" - it's already here. Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Amazon Web Services, Workday, Taleo, NetSuite, Zoho, 37signals, and many more. There is a rich ecosystem of specialized technology service providers. "We can't trust 3rd parties with our data" - interesting, so that software and hardware jigsaw puzzle you have running is all custom built by your team? No. All of your data is already trusted to 3rd party products. Assuming there are technology services firms that are just as professional as the software/hardware product firms you're working with, it is more cost effective to consume services from the specialized provider than to buy products. This is because the resource our firm is seeking is the services, not the products. A server is an expensive paper weight without being implemented in a system to provide services.

Economics, not technology, will continue to drive Cloud Computing into every inch of the enterprise regardless of opinion. Companies WILL NOT have on-premise software and hardware products. Users will have their edge devices. IT teams will have more power to enable their users with technology services than they ever imagined.

How can I be so certain? A company is organized and managed to generate revenue in excess of cost while balancing the needs of employees, customers, and the community. Resources are finite. Time is the most finite resource of all. A firm that manufactures brakes should not build, manage and continually invest in a global messaging solution - because they should be manufacturing brakes! In order to consume technology services, on-premise client/server was a firm's only option but that is no longer the case. This is true regardless of one's opinion.

To quote William Gibson, "The future is already here - it's just not very evenly distributed."