Disruptive Technology 101

Cloud computing is a great example of a disruptive technology. The term was coined by Clayton Christensen and he developed the idea in both articles and books, The Innovator's Dilemma covers the concepts in great depth.

Disruptive technologies are, just that, to established markets and vendors. Think of MP3 players' impact on the market for CDs. Disruptive technologies put companies like Borders out of business.

Disruptive technologies often have common attributes. For example they are typically first adopted in seemingly insignificant markets and typically at lower costs than the established technologies. I was reminded again today of cloud computing's disruptive attributes.

First, U.S. News and World Report released their list of top 100 universities in the United States.  Google took the opportunity to announce that 61 of these universities are powered by Google Apps for Education. These students are learning new ways to communicate and collaborate.

Second, news about the finalists coming out of TechCrunch Disrupt, which is a conference geared at giving young new companies a platform to flash their stuff. One of the nice things about mail exchange (MX) records, which let people email each other, is that they're public. We can look at the MX records for some of the most exciting new companies around. Everpix, Bitcasa, Pressly - and on and on and on - these companies all leverage Google Apps for messaging. Next time you read about a cool new or young company, enter their url in http://www.mxtoolbox.com/ to see what comes back - chances are excellent you'll see the names of Google's messaging services.

Google Apps has moved well beyond education and new business, with clients like the General Services Administration, but its domination in these two critical sectors is telling.