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Posted on:Mar 162010

Are you prepared for “The Cloud”?

By Bob Austin

Seems all we are hearing about is “The Cloud”. As a diehard fan of the TV series Lost I fully expect them to rename the black smoke monster to something like the Cloud Monster to get in tune with today’s hype. Seems lately that references to the Cloud had made it on the front page of just about every IT magazine and while the cloud does offer a tremendous potential to institute enormous cost savings by effective management of apps, it is still seems to me to be the far off. That was until yesterday when both Cisco and Google announced their new products and services…Now, things are starting to come into focus.  

First, what did Cisco announce? Stats from the LocalTechWire (off wral.com website) state:  These new devices can route data at up to 322 Terabits per second. They can download the printed collection of the Library of Congress “in just over one second”. That “Every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.” Combined with Google announcements for a Cloud application marketplace along with the many other cloud-related announcements they have made lately make me wonder one thing.  

How do we, as IT educators, use this “cloud” to make progress in our industry?  

I make that statement that the future IT jobs are to be centered on “The Cloud”. For example, IBM recently opened a “60,000 square-foot center that is a showcase through which IBM offers “cloud computing” capabilities and other services. “ Google announcement of an online marketplace allows even the smallest players to join in on “Google's crusade to convert the world to cloud computing.”  

Why the hype now? Microsoft Hotmail, Google Maps and Wikipedia would all be considered Cloud Computing applications as each of these would previously have been installed on your computer as a desktop application. However, as you may know these applications have been around for years so why Cloud Computing is now referred to as a new phenomenon?  

The answer of course is with the right infrastructure (Cisco), the right business focus (IBM) and the right marketplace (Google), Cloud Computing looks like a new industry. The possibilities are endless. We know how this works. The big corporate are getting it and small companies such as AppZero, NetQoS (a Computer Associates recent addition) and dozens others(Cast Iron Systems, Citirx, Zeus, FinancialForce.com, etc) all offering new opportunities for IT Learners like us to educate and employ another generation of IT professionals.  

So, more than ever, we need more of us. More people like us are needed in our organizations looking after content, delivery and overall looking after the needs of the IT learner. As always, I look forward to your continued feedback and feel free to contact me anytime at bob.austin@itlearnblog.com

Posted in: IT Training

About the Author

Bob Austin

Bob Austin, BSCS and MaED, is presently a corporate trainer in telecommunications and has been in the IT industry for over 20 years. He has worked in programming, networking, training and certification as well as leading corporate training departments both in the statistical sciences and telecom industries. Located in the Research Triangle Park area in North Carolina, Bob has embraced the rich learning opportunities in the area working with the major universities in the area as well as many of the local IT employers including Red Hat, Cisco, Nortel, IBM, SAS and others. He is a father of four, enjoys every sport ever created and spends his spare time insuring his civil-war era house remains standing.

2 Comments

Thanks for your commentary. Of course, being addicted to Lost has its benefits, including being drawn to your blog by the mere mention of the show. Just as Smoke Monster (Man In Black/Flocke) probably had a real name in an earlier incarnation, so too Cloud Computing? What is the difference between Application Service Provider and Cloud? Online gaming? Thin client? Dumb terminal even? I think I am missing the point, but golly. Let's assume all the security and encryptions have been worked out. And also the warp speed of data transfer, which would make my Wed morning viewing on abc.com a heck of a lot smoother. And redundant pipelines that can reroute me to my destination as long as my device's NIC card (or whatever we will eventually call it) is uninfected. I still need Content. Learning Content. And a unique style delivering the Content. Will The Cloudminders facilitate Content, or control it, smothering my creativity? I think we make progress by making sure we can fight to own Content and can continue to create and entertain. Run-of-the-millstone learning sessions really don't cut the mustard, but they cut the cookie, something that is certain death (bored learners) for a competitive learning environment. I am happy that someone else is building the airplane and the airport. I just want to be sure I am not charged too high a fare, or be forced to sit in a certain seat, when I board Oceanic. Or even reach my destination in one piece. Perhaps Smoke Monster was once named Cain.

Stephen BalonApril 3 2010 (6:54 PM)

I will make sure to include TV series Lost references more often! I hear you. Cloud Computing is the latest name for a technology that has been around for awhile. Could this be the name that sticks? Certainly some big names are betting on it and like the big names betting on broadband awhile back, it still boiled down to content. Always will and user-defined content has matured to the point where it's quite easy to do now. And, the Smoke Monster. Imagine the content he would create...

bob austinApril 29 2010 (10:35 AM)

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