Alistair Croll of Bitcurrent, an analysis and research firm, set out to explain all about the cloud.  A big cloud advocate myself, I was interested in hearing his thoughts, and hopefully gaining some  tips and tricks along the way.

Alistair first highlighted Nicholas Carr’s “The Big Switch” which provides a analogy of computers to the electronic revolution.  I am definitely going to check out this book and I’ll let you know my thoughts.

Disruption and the Democratization of the IT – Mr Croll stated that IT used to be an oligopoly – where all the power and services rested in the hands of a few people.  Today, anyone can buy and outfit their own IT services.  Alistair believes that IT has become democratic, which is enabling the move to the cloud.  Alistair gives a great background and historical reference as to the key forces which drove us to the cloud.

It would be pretty much impossible to even synthesize Alistair’s speech in 1000 words.  But he is quite an effective speaker, and if you’re looking to hear a great outlook on the cloud, check him out.

Here are Alistair’s Conclusions

• Massive disruption is caused by the Cloud
• virtualization let gene out of bottle
• clouds start with separation
• business vs technology – clouds as tech : vitualized automated:
• two main division: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and public/private
• Ecosystem is in flux

Alistair’s Prediction:  Cloud computing will wind up looking like airlines:

• Every country will have their own cloud (maybe at a loss because it is a national asset)
• multiple airlines may compete in one space
• premium and economy pricing
• complementary and supplementary services
• some degree of regulation
• hubs where they might meet
  
  Check out  Bitcurrent here.