Computing on demand is the end game of information technology. Why? Because if you could flip a switch and pay for only what computing power you use, that`s pretty much all you ever wanted from zeroes and ones, right?
With on-demand computing there will be no new solutions and next big things every month, blueprinted and sold and integrated over more months. No more licences that irk financial departments. And thankfully, you`ll be rid of the complex mess of systems that break or sit there unused or go out of vogue and cost a lot of money to maintain and don`t deliver what you expected.
Not that innovation will end. It just won`t be the customer`s problem anymore. What goes on under the bonnet is for the guys with the ponytails in the server room in the basement or over at the service provider. They make sure things work and their software makes sure you get billed accurately, and that`s all you want to know.
Not that computing on demand isn`t the very essence right now of "the next big thing" either. But it promises to be the last big thing. Whatever innovation comes up after that is simply added onto the infrastructure, which you don`t see, because you don`t even go to the server room anymore. If you need the service, it has already been mapped onto the infrastructure, lying there dormant until you switch it on, like electricity.
IT would realise and have to own up to what it really always should have been - a commodity, like paper, like electricity.
Carel Alberts, technology editor, ITWeb
Ah, for such a life. It would put the IT industry in its place, customers would say. It would give a sense of reality to this unstinted innovation, this unbridled creativity, over decades now, which has never quite satisfied any real-world desire for immediate, tangible return.
IT would realise and have to own up to what it really always should have been - a commodity, like paper, like electricity. You buy it, and it`s yours. No claptrap about how it`s going to change your life.
No more carrots held in front of the nose of the poor CIO, of some mythical paperless office after you put in a mail server and an enterprise application, because ERP and e-mail created more paper than ever before.
"No," you say. "I`m the customer. It`s my money. I`m putting a halt to this."
You can imagine what the industry might say in response, and in fact has been saying for some time, before it even came up with utility computing.
It says: "You`re right. And what`s more, there are too many of us. Those who want to drop boxes must get out. Those who sell PCs must know how to put them in and keep them working. Those who sell printers had better be selling other things and only doing printers as a service to customers, unless, of course, they`re very nice printers. The customer is king. We must provide more value."
Privately, however, you never know with the IT animal. It believes in its value with unflagging zeal. It presses on and innovates, and gets the execution wrong and goes out of business, or it gets it right and becomes complacent and goes out of business, or reinvents itself, because... something, something is driving it. The knowledge, perhaps, that one day it will be vindicated.
And so it changes course in this conversation you`ve wanted to have with it for so long. "Hang on a minute," says the IT industry, never much good at getting scared. "We`ll provide value. We already do, but we`ll make it clearer, more demonstrable. We`ll show you the money."
"Where`s the money?" You ask, not expecting a straight answer.
"IT has always provided value," it says. And with this you have to agree, even if you have reservations about how much value, exactly.
"We know the execution hasn`t always been great," continues IT. "But all the solutions we`ve provided, from the PC to the floppy to the network to the GUI to the applications to ... OK, maybe we caused the need for storage and security to the extent that it is prevalent now. But you get the point - the Web, converging it all in several big... deployments. That was value."
You blanch. There`s clearly no talking to the industry.
"The point is that you want all of this to continue, only you want it to work better," the industry hastens to add. "Here`s how it`s going to be.
"We`ll make it so you don`t have to own any of the infrastructure we sell. We`ll own it. You don`t have to worry, ever again, about upgrading. We`ll do it. It`ll be better. It will be as fast as you want. It will be up all the time. You just link into it via the Internet. It will be secure. And if it isn`t, you don`t pay us. You just pay us for the power you use, not the stuff that goes into generating it. You flip it on, you flip it off. We meter your use and you monitor our metering. You pay one bill at month-end.
"And if we lose your data ... well, we won`t lose it. Or you don`t pay us. We`ll show you proof of concept."
"We don`t have to buy licences?" you ask.
"Well, we haven`t thought about it, but no, we suppose," says the industry. "We`ll buy them. The ASPs did it, didn`t they? By the way, this isn`t application service provision - the applications have been written to the Web, and they`re customised. They don`t even have to be off-site for you to access our computing pool."
"And we don`t have to worry about the server farm?"
"It`s ours," says the industry. "Or yours, if you want it. Then you just sell off spare capacity. It`s all very neat and easy."
"And you`ll store the files yourself?"
"The files, yeah," says the industry. "And all the other stuff."
"And if we lose it? I mean if a hacker gets it?"
"You don`t pay us."
"I don`t know if I want to lose my intellectual property."
"You won`t. Your files are on-site, your link is only through us, you can own your files and existing systems, which we merely integrate and tap into our pool, and we don`t lose things."
"OK," you say, looking a little uncertain. "But that`s what we`ve been saying all along. What took you so long about it?"
"Oh, I don`t know," says the industry. "We did some fun stuff, though."
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