I do wonder how central data centers, as we built when I was in Oregon, will react. The idea was that we had 17+ agencies with their own data centers and they all were technically obsolete. If each agency continued to pursue their own agenda’s the investment cost would have been off the wall. So, the State invested $20+ millions to build a “state of the art” facility and a consolidated network. However, the savings were hard to pin down.

If Oregon had it to do again, a cloud computing strategy might have had a better business case. It would be an interesting research project to see if the same or higher benefits could have been generated for substantial less cost/investment?

That’s the point, CIO’s need to investigate cloud computing as an option to building internal computing capability.

I do wonder how central data centers, as we built when I was in Oregon, will react. The idea was that we had 17+ agencies with their own data centers and they all were technically obsolete. If each agency continued to pursue their own agenda’s the investment cost would have been off the wall. So, the State invested $20+ millions to build a “state of the art” facility and a consolidated network. However, the savings were hard to pin down.

If Oregon had it to do again, a cloud computing strategy might have had a better business case. It would be an interesting research project to see if the same or higher benefits could have been generated for substantial less cost/investment?

That’s the point, CIO’s need to investigate cloud computing as an option to building internal computing capability.

Especially, companies find “spigots” compelling: that is, they like the idea of resources that they can turn on and off at a moment’s notice. No long-term commitments, in other words. Cloud computing promises this, at least to an extent. It’ll be a lot easier, in an environment that makes use of cloud computing versus internally-owned resources, to successfully argue for experimenting with a new product, a new offering, an expansion of testing, etc. Lower investment, lower risk, and an easy out: it’s all good.

Most people STILL miss this basic point, so I really appreciated your post.

Especially, companies find “spigots” compelling: that is, they like the idea of resources that they can turn on and off at a moment’s notice. No long-term commitments, in other words. Cloud computing promises this, at least to an extent. It’ll be a lot easier, in an environment that makes use of cloud computing versus internally-owned resources, to successfully argue for experimenting with a new product, a new offering, an expansion of testing, etc. Lower investment, lower risk, and an easy out: it’s all good.

Most people STILL miss this basic point, so I really appreciated your post.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by gsrturbos: Why Cloud Computing Has Legs: Photo by Catherinette Rings Steampunk For those who have been around IT for a w… http://bit.ly/coNwRB…