I just figured out that I am suddenly in favour of “cloud computing”. I have switched my opinion 180 degrees on this just today. Here is my revelation…

Up until now I have been against the cloud computing catch phrase in principle, because to me it seemed like the same services that people have been offering for years under a new industry catch phrase. So to even mention the phrase left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I do not see cloud computing as a new paradigm – in fact, it reminds me of large mainframe computers and dumb terminals from decades ago. I’m not against cloud computing itself – I’m quite in favour of using the right solution for each problem, and some times that’s a locally installed application, and some times that’s a remote service. Either way, I was just against the new catch phrase.
(As an aside, what ever happened to the “B2B” catch phrase from the early 90’s?)
Anyway, today as I was driving in to work it hit me: I love cloud computing. I love it not for the name, but I love the service and what it means for ME, a person who is not using any cloud services. It means that my future problems with Usage Based Billing (UBB) might be solved for me!
Here’s the deal: as more people sign up for these cloud services, and they move more of their business off site and into remote data centers, then that means more network traffic between them and “the cloud”. More people signing up for Apple’s iCloud, or Microsoft’s Live@EDU, or Netflix, means more people running into their usage limits. More people running into their usage limits means more unhappy users.
Some of the unhappy users will complain to the ISPs. Some of the unhappy users will complain to their cloud service providers. Some of them will simply upgrade their data plans – but even those users will eventually hit the ceiling again, and then they will also start to complain. A whole new batch of people who will be fighting against UBB and not even realize they’re doing so!
The users who complain to their cloud service providers will eventually translate into some very large service providers complaining to the ISPs. The ISPs, I assume, won’t want to budge on their unfair billing practices because it would mean a loss of revenue. Eventually the large cloud service providers, who are much larger than the ISPs, will lobby government. It will take time, but this will eventually mean a forced change for the ISPs.
I love it.
Bring on the cloud computing – death to Usage Based Billing!