We are suspicious that ‘cloud computing’ is one of those things that isn’t quite here yet, despite the fact that everyone seems to bang on like it is.  For example, the fountains of knowledge up at Gartner claim we will all be living in cloud cuckoo land by a week next Tuesday (OK so maybe it’s more like a sizeable minority by 2012 or something) but perhaps this is too premature. 

According to Computer Weekly, a recent cloud focused event found that many businesses who had embraced the cloud (that just sounds silly doesn’t it?) boasted IT savings of anything up to 90%.  It’s all to do with harnessing utility processing power at cheap accessible rates rather than running your own datacentre/s blah blah blah.

A cloud, earlier

Now permit us to skirt over all of the technical detail here but, merit-worthy as this all sounds, it doesn’t necessarily address all the niggly stuff that IT departments have to contend with on a daily basis.  More technology… pah…how about better processes for a change?  We are supposed to be masters of technology, but the development of cloud computing seems to have everyone contemplating radically different infrastructure set-ups in order to march to its tune.

In the next ten years, you will likely buy a hybrid car rather than an electric one.  Why?  Because the reality is that near-term.  As such, will all your IT really exist within a cloud, or is it more likely that the weather will gather from time to time and then blow away?