To cloud or to compute, that’s the question

The ultimate dream of any marketer is to have its brand become a verb. “Let me quickly Xerox that”, “I Fedexed it to you yesterday”, “I just Googled it”. In cloud computing I do not see that happening any time soon. At least I haven’t heard anyone say they Amazoned their intranet or forced their custom apps yet. But it is also unlikely we will be calling it cloud computing forever.

Cloud computing is not the first new kind of computing. Previously we saw “interactive computing” - indicating that it was no longer processed in an overnight batch – and “client/server computing” –indicating it ran with a graphical user interface and not on a boring green screen terminal. But pretty soon the new way became the norm and we resorted back to simply calling it “computing”.

For cloud computing there are basically two options, we will either call it computing again – meaning it is perceived as a slightly improved version of the same old, slow and expensive service they used to get from the EDP or IT department. Or users may start to use a new name: “Since we cloud our email, the cost has gone down considerably”, “Our new CIO agreed with the CEO to cloud as much as possible, and the results have been amazing”.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating to try and repeat the oldest trick in the IT book of putting a new name or label on old ideas. Like when we started calling everything e-something and we renamed our companies to Something.DOT.com. Some of that is already going on around as cloud washing (companies renaming their existing offerings to be perceived as cloud solutions, even if they have little to do with cloud).

Now it may take some time to get used to clouding as a verb - as I am sure it took some time to get used to texting as a verb. And what does not help is that - till now - the only things people clouded were issues.

For people that grew up in IT this idea of calling it cloud may sound silly. Why on earth would we use a new name for something that basically is computingas we invented it (or at least as we intended it). But it won’t be the IT people deciding what to call it; it will be the next generation of users. The same generation that – at least in Holland – massively adopted the verb computering. “What did you do last night?” “Oh not much, got pizza, watched a movie and computered a bit”. It’s the generation that came up with verbs like texting, computering and gaming. All not very results oriented activities, but that’s not the point.

The point is that if it feels like traditional computing – where you depended on an IT department to get service and decided what you were allowed to do - they will likely simply call it computing again. If it feels completely different, with more freedom, more possibilities and more speed and agility, it deserves to become a verb.

PS Anticipating the popularity of “to cloud” a Dutch vocabulary site is already showing the full conjugation here.

In cloud standards, it's all about survival of the fittest

The Kuppinger Cole European Identity Conference 2011 (EIC), which was held in Munich earlier this month, truly represented a ‘Who's Who' of cloud initiatives and standards.  Representatives from many influential, established and aspiring standards and industry bodies were on hand to showcase progress of the security initiatives currently in the works.

The number of initiatives is overwhelming. For years the joke was that any time two Dutch meet, they are likely to start an association or co-operative initiative, but apparently that is also true for security and cloud experts. I won't bore you with all the clever acronyms (it's a true alphabet soup), but I do want to highlight the more interesting overall findings.


In one of the first forum sessions - called "In Cloud We Trust" - Dr. Laurent Liscia of OASIS gave an interesting perspective on these competing standards. He compared the process of establishing an accepted standard to a Petri dish (no relation).  Multiple cultures in a nutritious environment all trying to do a land grab. A process that is not orchestrated, it's ‘eat or be eaten' and it is hard to predict the outcome because the process takes time.  No amount of pressure  or additional heat can accelerate it and watching a Petri Dish real-time is about as useful and as interesting as watching grass grow. Meaning, it's better to wait for history to run its course.

Having said that, there one initiative from this forum - which had participants from ENISA, The World Economic Forum, TRUSTe and CA Technologies - that I do want to highlight, even though the implementation is still in an incubation phase.

Earlier this year the World Economic Forum IT partnership - in collaboration with Accenture and with input from a steering group including representation from CA Technologies - published "Advancing cloud computing: what to do now?" with eight recommended action areas. 

The reason I mention this particular initiative is because of the enormous influence this organization has on governments. As associations all over the world realize that legislation and government stimulus may determine the success of their regional cloud industry - an industry that is likely to be the next economic engine of prosperity - they are rapidly publishing recommendations on what they feel their local governments should do to facilitate the success of cloud computing. So as not to be drowned out in the aforementioned alphabet soup of initiatives, it makes sense to anchor such local recommendations against the global guidance of the World Economic Forum. 

The recommendations are not earth shattering, but if governments and the cloud ecosystem participants could streamline their efforts around these eight, it would further these efforts in a useful and pragmatic way. For more info read the (very readable) full report, but in a nutshell the recommendations are:

1. Explore and facilitate the realization of the benefits of cloud
2. Advance understanding and management of cloud related risks
3. Promote service transparency
4. Clarify and enhance accountability across all relevant parties
5. Ensure data portability
6. Facilitate interoperability
7. Accelerate adaptation and harmonization of regulatory frameworks
8. Provide sufficient network connectivity to cloud services

P.S. During the event I participated as a forum member in "Cloud Standardization: From Open Systems to Closed Clouds?," and "Identity and Access in the Cloud." I will be speaking more about the topic of lock-in at the upcoming International Cloud Expo in New York (June 6-9), and I will cover cloud computing and risk during the Middle East Financial Technology Conference (MEFTEC) in Abu Dhabi (May 30-31).