Irving Wladawsky-Berger

What is Cloud Computing, Anyway?

In a recent blog I summarized the discussions around cloud computing at the conference I had just attended by writing that "something big and profound seems to be going on, although we are not totally sure what it is yet." 

Cloud computing is the kind of wide-ranging initiative that different people can look at from their own point of view and come up with their own, somewhat different definitions.  This is not surprising in the early stages of such a comprehensive initiative.  When the Internet first broke into the wider world in the mid 1990s, you similarly heard lots of different opinions on what it was and what it would be good for.

In reading through the assorted cloud definitions, five key themes keep coming up.  Let me say a few words about each of them.

Innovation and Evolutionary Biology

Innovation, like falling in love, requires a certain state of mind.  As I write this, I am well aware how incredibly nerdy I likely come across.  I am not about to suggest a whole rash of poems, novels and films celebrating innovation.  But please, bear with me.

A lot of work has been done in the last decade by well respected scientists, like Helen Fisher, on how our brains behave when we are falling in love.  Sophisticated functional MRI (fMRI) machines have demonstrated that being madly in love is actually a reasonably good description of the state of our brain when so infatuated.  If we have ever felt bewitched, bothered and bewildered when falling in love, it is because we literally were.

I don't need to spend much time discussing how this came to be from an evolutionary biology point of view.  Something like falling in love plays a very important evolutionary role in birds, bees, baboons - and humans.

How about innovation and creativity? Are there states of mind, measurable by fMRI and similar scientific tools, which strongly indicate that individuals and groups are solving complex problems and coming up with great new ideas?  Are there work and learning environments that are particularly conducive to help people achieve such states of mind?  Is there anything that companies, schools and other institutions that have a huge stake in being innovative can do to foster such work and learning environments in their midst?

The answer to all these questions is clearly yes.

The Promise and Reality of Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing continues to be a very hot subject.  At the end of June, I participated in a conference in Cambridge on The Promise and Reality of Cloud Computing, sponsored by Xconomy - a communications company whose tag line is Business + Technology in the Exponential Economy. 

The sense of the meeting was succintly captured by Bob Buderi, founder and CEO of XConomy: "There is a clear consensus that there is no real consensus on what cloud computing is,"  following his earlier summary:

"Our speakers put cloud computing in its historical context - from the Cambrian explosion all the way through the rise of electric utilities.  They showed how businesses today can use this emerging technology for cost-effective and powerful computing solutions. And they also gave us a feel for the real paradigm shift the cloud could bring to the computing world, especially how large software companies might find themselves vulnerable to disruption (although some firms are still in denial about this)."

In other words, something big and profound seems to be going on, although we are not totally sure what it is yet.

Knowledge Capital

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a conference at the National Academies on Intangible Assets: Measuring and Enhancing Their Contribution to Corporate Value and Economic Growth.  The conference was sponsored by the Board on Science, Technology and Economy Policy (STEP).   

What are intangible assets?  Wikipedia defines them as "identifiable non-monetary assets that cannot be seen, touched or physically measured, which are created through time and/or effort and that are identifiable as a separate asset."  A more vernacular definition might be "an asset that cannot be dropped on your foot." 

STEP convened the conference because "US investment in intangibles, according to a 2006 Federal Reserve Board staff analysis, exceeds all investment in tangible property and, if properly accounted for, would raise productivity growth significantly.  These assets - computer software, R&D, intellectual property, workforce training, and spending to raise the efficiency and brand identification of firms - are a subset of services, which now account for three quarters of economic activity. Increasingly, they are a principal driver of the competitiveness of US-based firms, economic growth, and opportunities for American workers.  Some intangibles, like intellectual property, are being securitized, auctioned, and traded; a few years ago hardly anyone contemplated the existence, let alone the extent, of such ‘technology markets.’  Yet despite these developments, many intangible assets are not reported and are treated in the national economic accounts as expenses rather than investments.  And there is no coordinated national strategy for promoting intangible investments apart, perhaps, from R&D."