Reading through various tweets today I came across one (thanks @RayDePena) where it was recommended to read "10 Cloud-Based Apps that give Mid-Sized Companies a Competitive Edge".  For some reason when I had seen the term "cloud" in this headline I instantly thought of rain clouds....

When it rains we all get wet, so what is the difference?  Imagine a group of 50 people walking through the city and it starts to rain.  Everyone would get wet, so there is no difference.  You would rarely just see one person with an umbrella, you would see at least 50% of the people with one.

Now let's think about this for a minute.......

If my company is one of these people with an umbrella and 24 others are using one then we are better than the other half.  However I have nothing better or better said no competitive edge over the other 24 people using an umbrella.  Perhaps the color of my umbrella is brighter or it may be bigger, but in the end all 25 stay dry.  No competitive edge at all here!

Let's now look at this in a real world IT situation:

Common "rain cloud" recipe:

• Amazon S3
• 3 Cups of Google Apps (email, collaboration platform and calendar)
• A pinch of OpenSource CRM tool

Mix everything together, bake for 2 minutes at 350 and (ta-daaaa!) you can now serve your (rain) cloud.

Does this make me a cloud adapter?  Does it give me an edge over my competition?

I guess you could answer NO to both questions.  Come on, just because I use a few applications in the cloud does not make me a cloud adapter.  It just shows that I know how to invest my money properly so that I can grow my company without outrageous costs of the infrastructure.  Most of all I do not know how on earth I have an edge over the competition if we all use the same simple recipe.

I do believe that people are getting caught up in this "bubble" called cloud (scary thoughts of 2002 enter my head).  I am not knocking these guys that are stirring up open source solutions with a twist of lemon.  They do have good products, but there is nothing different about them.  Everyone that is using such solutions MUST shape their business around what is available from them, again no difference!

I guess it is time for a company to come up with a software that has no boundaries, allows for commodity hardware (even old systems I have sitting around), and designs custom apps to help me achieve my business goals and increase the revenue that I can achieve with proper use of my most valuable asset - my DATA!

My personal opinion is that we are being taken down a dead end road with the current software offer for the cloud or "big data", which I feel is why wew are seeing the effect of no major move into the cloud by businesses.  These solutions do not help us use our data more effective nor do they shape to my business needs.  I only see a financial restructuring of how IT money is being spent, but it is not helping me become more effective and it only gives me an edge on spending if my competitors buy expensive infrastructure based solutions.

What I really want is a software that can assure me the proper governance of my data, lets me design my own cloud using commodity hardware or multiple cloud storage offerings, give me apps that I can have custom tailored for me and let me be creative so that I can actually have an edge over my competition.

Kinda like....  

"Give me a software that I can shape to my business, because I do not want to base my business on your solution!"

In the end this is what will make the difference, a software that can make me a leader in my market and not just a follower.

(just as a side note:  Did you ever see a successful follower?)

I guess to sum it up I can only say that there is much confusion in the cloud application world today.  When I look up I see only rain clouds and like most rain clouds they will dissipate eventually and what will be left behind is a few fluffy white clouds in a wonderful blue sky.  I figure it will take about 3-6 months for the sun to start coming through and force away some of the rain clouds, and about a year or two until it all clears up.  When it does it will be a wonderful sight with a few effective fluffy whites....

I can't wait to see who the few fluffy white vendors are when it all clears up, but I know one company that sure is trying to get their customers and the rest of the world out of the rain!