I think from now on I am going to always try and include a link to a song, apropos to each. Or at least try to do so as best I can. This week, let’s run with Little Fluffy Clouds by the Orb.This song was released sometime around 1990, and was subsequently used in a VW commercial around 2000 which was when most folks became aware of it.

Wikipedia defines the cloud as follows:“cloud computing in general can be portrayed as a synonym for distributed computing over a network, with the ability to run a program or application on many connected computers at the same time. It specifically refers to a computing hardware machine or group of computing hardware machines commonly referred as a server connected through a communication network such as the Internet, an intranet, alocal area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN) and individual users or user who have permission to access the server can use the server’s processing power for their individual computing needs like to run a application, store data or any other computing need”. By way of this definition I can claim I had access to cloud computing resources as far back as 1983. Guess what ? that makes cloud computing older then the Orb’s song I mentioned at the outset of this piece, and in all of that time up to now, private clouds have been the coin of the realm. Gartner believes going forward this will be the case at least until 2020, or at least that is what the CEO of VMWare  claims Gartner says.

The enterprise community might find it prudent to invest in developing their infrastructure,and that goes counter to what passes for common wisdom in the “cloud” industry these days ;tuning it in ways that serve your concerns and business goals. Enable your people to develop skills and ideas which might give you the edge, the industry now calls them “doves” . Make sure however, you couple that investment with actual outcomes you can see and measure which enhance your business. Don’t get skittish just because you can hear public cloud footsteps in the distance behind you.

And then there is the intangible component of serendipitous innovation.If you have an advanced development IT team, preserve it and let it spread its wings to create, if you don’t, consider seeding one.

Public cloud providers will be driven to scale in order to be profitable while simultaneously having their margins  cut due to competition. Google was the first to shoot across that bow of engagement earlier this year (2014), ultimately that means going towards a model in support of the lowest common denominator. As an enterprise, are you sure that’s where you want to base your service/app deployment ?

You enterprise folk have been here for while with your infrastructure and expertise.Think hard before throw the baby out with the bathwater.