A lesson for those who think the cloud is great

[suityou01]

Hang on. Who's this Plissken chap? 3 posts and he's got an avatar already. I smell something fishy and it's not mudskipper.

[Snake Plissken]

Someone who knows how to use a forum? Option was there, so I used it.

(Although, what you really should have said is "Snake Plissken? I heard you were dead.")

[VectraMan]

I don't see cloud as a threat. It's a massive opportunity. This is 1995 all over again.

That must have been about when the Java hype started. Java meant all software would compile to a common bytecode that could be run on any kind of device, including cheap as chips dumb terminals, sweeping away the dominance of Intel and Microsoft and turning us Visual C++ programmers into unemployable dinosoars.

Strangely enough, nearly 20 years later and I'm writing desktop software in Visual C++ on Windows.

It's just hype. Lots of people get rich jumping on the bandwagon, then when it fails to live up to the promise, they get rich putting things back the way it used to be. Good for IT contractors in the short term, but you have to wonder if sooner or later ordinary people will realise how much they've been ripped off.

[tomtomagain]

Do you think legal documents, which can potentially be accessed by some site administrator in Nob End, Nebraska, are going to be allowed?

So you think some sort of encryption solution is in order? What %age of documents *must* be located within a geographical boundary? It's going to be fairly small compared to the overall size of the problem.

Regional data centres are the obvious answer. That's part of the reason why Azure has such a global footprint. For example their new China DC. A Quick look at the Azure list shows that they have deployed to 12 regions. So If I don't want my documents leaving Europe I can simply deploy to the Western Europe region.

Indeed. Remind me how Netscape, Dreamweaver, Shockwave, Flash, Real Player, ICQ, AOL and Compuserve are doing again?

Well the guys who formed Netscape went onto become billionaires. Flash is ubiquitous, RealNetworks ( maker of Real Player ) bought a company called Slingo for $15M last year ... so they must be doing OK.

Amazon? You didn't mention them.

Plenty of companies in the internet boom failed. We all know that. But the internet didn't end with the dot-com crash.

Plenty of cloud companies may fail ... doesn't mean the model is wrong.

[tomtomagain]

That must have been about when the Java hype started. Java meant all software would compile to a common bytecode that could be run on any kind of device, including cheap as chips dumb terminals

And today I wonder what %age of code runs on either the JVM or a .NET Framework? It's going to be fairly substantial.

Of course there will always be exceptions to the rule. Some apps will need the power/flexibility offered by C++. Can't imagine writing SQL Server in Java. Hell there's still people out there coding in COBOL and FORTRAN.

And yes, there will be an awful lot of hype, and a big push by the consultancies and vendors to move companies onto the cloud solutions whether they are ready for it or not. And then probably high profile failures. And probably a backlash.

But that doesn't mean it's a flawed model.

[Sysman]

For example: How many companies run change management? Have CM systems in place, run change boards? Lots. But how many companies would list "Change Management" as a core reason for why they exist? None of them.

However they all have CM systems, with the their own business processes, servers, software licenses and people to feed and water the infrastructure .... Why wouldn't a rational companies sign up to a Change Management system delivered as a service by an organisation that specialised in it?

Yep. Payroll went that way years ago, fortunately.

The Register had a webcast a few weeks ago, called something like "Break the customisation habit". I didn't watch it all but one thing I did catch was an example about invoice matching. They reckoned that there are probably 4 or 5 main ways of doing this, If the package you go for offers another 4 or 5 options, and you still want an 11th way, it's highly likely that the 11th method was the result of some long forgotten office politics and you really don't need it.

[Sysman]

Indeed. Remind me how Netscape, Dreamweaver, Shockwave, Flash, Real Player, ICQ, AOL and Compuserve are doing again?

tomtomagain addressed Netscape and RealPlayer.

Dreamweaver, Shockwave and Flash belong to Adobe who are still with us (spit!).

AOL

In 2000, AOL purchased Time Warner, the deal structured as a merger under the name AOL Time Warner. The merger was not fruitful and on May 28, 2009, Time Warner announced it would spin off AOL into a separate public company. The spinoff occurred on December 9, 2009, ending the eight-year relationship between the two companies.

Since then, AOL has begun to substantially change its business model reinventing itself as a brand company under the guidance of CEO Tim Armstrong, creating and acquiring a range of content properties. Major acquisitions include the purchase of technology news blog TechCrunch in September 2010, and on February 7, 2011, the purchase of The Huffington Post. Other AOL brands include Moviefone, Engadget, Stylelist, MapQuest and Cambio.

ICQ

In April 2010, AOL sold ICQ to Digital Sky Technologies for $187.5 million.

CompuServe is dead I think.

[VectraMan]

And today I wonder what %age of code runs on either the JVM or a .NET Framework? It's going to be fairly substantial.

Only on the server, and there's a lot more desktops than there are servers. Java as it was intended to be used was a total flop; few people ever use Java anything on the desktop (Android excepted), and not much .NET either. That was a few years into my career, so my first real experience of a revolution in the industry that turned out to be hot air and not the last. You have to admit, when it comes to buzzwords "The Cloud" is a pretty great one, perhaps the greatest anyone has ever come up with, worthy of a Nobel Prize in Marketing surely. Which leads to the inevitable conclusion that it's just something everybody wants to be seen to be doing whether they know what it is or not.

But maybe I've become a bit cynical. Maybe I should get back to doing Web 2.0, whatever that is.

[NickFitz]

CompuServe is dead I think.

CompuServe lingers on as an ISP, a minor division of AOL. Its sole remaining offering rejoices in the name of CompuServe 2000.

How are the mighty fallen