Cloud Computing Will Cause Three IT Revolutions

Losers: IT operations. Putting provisioning in the hands of IT resource users inexorably results in less influence for IT resource "owners." As I was outlining this vision of end user-driven, automated provisioning in a workshop last week, one attendee said "I can see why it's so attractive, but I can't see IT operations accepting it. I think we'll hear something from operations groups like 'automated provisioning is great, but it should be done in my group to make sure requests align with accepted standards or the like.'" Of course. This is something like what ecommerce sites did 10 or 12 years ago, when the purchaser would fill out a web form, submit it, and it would result in an email to a clerk, who would turn around and type the order into the existing order management system. That's not what ecommerce sites do today, however. And with the continued cost pressure on IT, which I wrote about in my last blog post, it's going to be hard to justify this "man in the middle" staffing, though many organizations will no doubt attempt to do so.

Winners: IT operations. Huh, this is a surprise, eh Well, if the inevitable outcome of reduced friction (not to mention cost -- that will be addressed in my next post on Cloud Computing Revolutions) is to increase demand for IT resources, someone is going to have to do the capacity planning. In a sense, the impact of cloud computing will be to shift the tasks for IT operations from tactical resource provisioning to strategic resource planning -- with an emphasis on achieving the most efficient, lowest cost infrastructure possible. This is a far cry from the "your mess for less" outsourcing that has previously been the outcome of cost focus -- this is about creating an automated, immediate search for the lowest cost, most available, most appropriate computing resources needed to fulfill a provisioning request. The most successful IT operations groups will be those that stop thinking about controlling allocating resource and begin thinking about locating resource.

As I noted at the start of this posting, revolutions results in winners and losers after a period of chaos, in which conflict and strife occur. Technology revolutions at the level of platform shift -- think client/server or the move to web-based applications -- cause enormous upheavals in IT organizations as they struggle to adopt the new technology and obtain its benefits. Cloud computing undoubtedly represents the latest platform shift and is causing three simultaneous revolutions. This piece has focused on the revolution in operations. My next two postings will focus on cost/payment patterns and application implementation.

Bernard Golden is CEO of consulting firm HyperStratus, which specializes in virtualization, cloud computing and related issues. He is also the author of "Virtualization for Dummies," the best-selling book on virtualization to date.

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