Does an Azure sky with clouds in it rain on the Web 2.0 / Social Media parade?

Tuesday, October 28. 2008

Does an Azure sky with clouds in it rain on the Web 2.0 / Social Media parade?

Google Trends Web 2.0 vs Cloud Computing (Cloud is blue, Web 2.0 is red, Social Networks are yellow)

Microsoft has launched its long awaited Webservi...sorry Saa..sorry Cloud Service, Azure. I read it on Nick Carr's blog first but its now all over Techmeme. Sez Nick:

Microsoft will use the Azure platform to run its own web applications and will also open the platform to outside developers for building and running their own apps. Azure will compete with other cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine, and Salesforce.com's force.com, and, given Microsoft's enormous scale and influence in the software industry, its launch marks a milestone in the history of utility computing. The cloud is now firmly in the mainstream. Or, as Microsoft puts it: "The truth is evident: Cloud computing is here."

We await with interest the first Microsoft services, and to see the economics and service reliability. Thats what will make it fly. Funnily enough, for the first time I'm hopeful about a supplier actually getting something serious going, as Ray Ozzie is the first purveyor of Cloudy Delights to pinpoint his key hurdle:

"Cloud computing is ultimately going to be, do you trust this provider to have more to lose than I have to lose as a company if they mess me up?"

The issue being if them going into outage costs thousands in lost revenue from you, but your going down costs you millions from your customers, then the Cloud player who steps up to take the most risk on board will win this one, and these guys seem to get that (and have the size to do it).

But more interestingly from a blogmeme point of view, and judging by the Cloud of Hype of the last few months, I wonder if its the New Web 2.0. Look at the Google Trend Index above, for example. I rather fear its the latest Shiny New Hype thing. The eventual decider will be where and who makes profits (In this most post of Bubble 2.0 worlds) but that is still under some debate

Good news though is hopefully no oddly named Cloud companies, we hope. No Niiimbus or Fogr or Gloopl or somesuch

Posted by Alan Patrick in Web Services / Cloud Computing at 00:25 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

2294 hits

< The continually reforecast future of Online Ads. | Do you know who El Cid is? >

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Alan, any chance of putting some labels on those lines in the figure so we can tell what they represent? ta, David

#1 David Jennings (Homepage) on 2008-10-28 09:17 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry