Has the Cloud Killed IT? Part 2
Not only are consumers of Cloud Computing diluted about what pain points the Cloud addresses, IT professionals have bought into the ease of the sale. Make no mistake about it, IT professionals understand how the market place looks at Cloud Computing. Information technology professionals understand the market is gobbling up any technology which establishes itself as provided Cloud services.
Due to this, when it comes to making sales and marketing, IT professionals have become complacent, using “Cloud” as their pocket ace.
As bad as this is, the bigger issue in the IT market is the sheer amount of Cloud providers popping up on the market and the bevy of VC funding being thrown their way.
Too Many Companies, Too Many Clouds
We know, saying there are too many Cloud startups or companies in operation goes against the very grain of American capitalism. This said, if you look at the IT marketplace, it seems every day another “cloud” company pops into existence selling SSD’s, rock solid infrastructure, excellent scaling or newer platforms like Docker. While the proliferation of remote server companies shows the industry has a ton of growth within it, it also means IT professionals are running up the price and stacking the game.
Another way to say this, like the gold rush in the 1800’s and the Internet stock bubble of the early 2000’s, the Cloud market is starting to feel like a market on the verge of a large explosion. There can only be so many competitors in the field until a) the big boys (RackSpace, Amazon, Microsoft, Linode etc.) buy up the competition or b) the bubble bursts causing prices to plummet and VC investors to lose all their invested capitol.
Being honest, at Quotecolo we are leaning towards option a. It would make more sense for the bigger boys in the pool to swallow up the smaller fishes for the simple reason of protection against competition. While the Rackspaces and Amazons of the world can produce high quality Cloud hosting services, they cannot move with the agility or flexibility a startup can. For this reason, the bigger providers face a challenge from less structured organizations.
It would make sense, even though it runs against the open world spirit upon which most of these technologies are founded on, that the bigger boys would eat up the smaller players. Will this happen? Just ask IBM who only a few months ago purchased one of the biggest upstarts in the space, SoftLayer.
So, has the Cloud killed IT? No. But it certainly has made it a more interesting, dynamic and confusing playing field for both professionals and clients alike.