Aaron Levie of box.net fame posted a really interesting article on that disruptive technology called the cloud. It’s on Techcrunch. I’m starting to see this a lot in the portal and collaboration world. You should read the entire article. It’s well worth it. Also, I couldn’t resist the Dilbert cartoon.
Cloud in the enterprise is a classic disruption story. It began as a way to deliver lower-end applications that we didn’t yet care about or know we needed. Most incumbent vendors ignored or tried to delay the early indicators. But that’s how all disruption stories start: from the low end, and as the technology matures – more security, uptime, traction – the wave builds momentum. Soon, the enterprise wakes up to the fact that this approach to doing business and IT is not only more time and cost effective, it’s transforming the way their organization operates.
If you had surveyed the market a year ago you’d have found many enterprises still wary about the state of cloud solutions for their business, but we’re now seeing the inverse become true: enterprises are no longer comfortable with investing in on-premise systems when trusted web-based alternatives exist.
Again, well worth it to read the entire thing.
And thanks to Erin for pointing me to it.