Irving Wladawsky-Berger

Cloud - the Emergence of a New Model of Computing

The buzz and excitement around cloud computing has been steadily building over the last year.  There is general agreement that something big and profound is going on out there, although we may not be totally sure what it is yet.  "There is a clear consensus that there is no real consensus on what cloud computing is," was one of the key conclusions at a recent conference on the subject. 

I believe that one of the major reasons for both the excitement and lack of consensus is that we are basically seeing the emergence of a new model of computing in the IT world.  For the IT industry, a new computing model is a very big deal.  In the fifty years or so since there as been an IT industry, this would be only the third such model, centralized and client-server computing being the two previous ones.

What characterizes a computing model?  There is no single dimension around which to define a computing model, which I believe accounts for the variety of definitions of cloud computing.  It’s like the fable of the blind men and the elephant.  Each one touches a different part of the elephant.  They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn that they are in complete disagreement.

The Entrepreneurial Society

The March 14th issue of The Economist included a special report on entrepreneurship.  The special report defines entrepreneurship as something that applies not only to new or small companies.  It uses the word in a more focused, narrower sense “to mean somebody who offers an innovative solution to a (frequently unrecognised) problem.  The defining characteristic of entrepreneurship, then, is not the size of the company but the act of innovation.”

There is so much talk out there about entrepreneurship and innovation that it is easy to forget that it is only recently, perhaps in the last decade or so, that entrepreneurialism has become cool, primarily driven by the profound technological changes all around us.  This is not only true in the US, which still leads the world in innovative new start-up companies, but in countries around the world, from giant India and China which are creating millions of new entrepreneurs, to small countries like Israel, Denmark and Singapore, each of which thrives in its own way.

I am particularly intrigued by the special report’s overall conclusion:  “The rise of the entrepreneur, which has been gathering speed over the past 30 years, is not just about economics. It also reflects profound changes in attitudes to everything from individual careers to the social contract. It signals the birth of an entrepreneurial society.”

Reflections on Smart, Global Leadership

Soft power is a term first coined by Joseph Nye, professor of international relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  At its essence, soft power is the ability to shape the preference of others to get the outcomes you want through attraction and co-option, rather than through threats, payments or coercion.

In 2006, the Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) in Washington convened a bipartisan, high-level Commission on Smart Power chaired by Professor Nye and Richard Armitage, to "develop a blueprint for revitalizing American's inspirational leadership." 

“America must revitalize its ability to inspire and persuade rather than merely rely upon its military might.  Despite the predominance of U.S. hard power, there are limits to its effectiveness in addressing the main foreign policy challenges facing America today.  Many of the traditional instruments of soft power, such as public engagement and diplomacy, have been neglected and fallen into disrepair.”

The Commission’s report, released in November of 2007, concluded that

“The United States must become a smarter power by once again investing in the global good - providing things people and governments in all quarters of the world want but cannot attain in the absence of American leadership.  By complementing U.S. military and economic might with greater investments in soft power, America can build the framework it needs to tackle tough global challenges.”

A Historical Perspective on the Financial Crisis

For quite a number of years, Carlota Perez has been predicting the inevitability of the financial crisis that ultimately engulfed us.  An expert on the historical links between technology and socio-economic development, she is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Judge Business School of the University of Cambridge, as well as being  affiliated with the University of Sussex and a number of other institutions,

I first met Carlota - a friend whom I therefore feel comfortable calling by her first name - when she visited IBM several years ago, shortly after the publication of her book: Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: The Dynamics of Bubbles and Golden Ages.  In her book, articles and lectures, she eloquently explains (see this excellent video, for example) how the combination of new, disruptive technologies and financial capital looking for the next big thing come together from time to time to usher massive new changes in society.  These changes are always accompanied by a financial bubble and subsequent massive crash.

She believes that the present financial crisis is indeed a “once in a half century event”, but an event that she argues has happened four times before in the last 200 years or so.  While each such technology-based revolution has its own unique dynamics, a lot can be learned by examining their common characteristics.  If you look at the historical big picture, patterns begin to emerge, which serve as a very good guide for thinking about and planning for the future.