A final thought from The Wisdom of Clouds
As the cloud market matures, James Urquhart changes companies and changes his focus from infrastructure to applications. It's time to say goodbye to one of his great passions, he says.
Three years ago, Matt Asay (then-author of The Open Road) introduced me to Dan Farber, then the CNET editor in chief, who invited me to begin blogging as a member of the CNET Blog Network.
I accepted, and from that day forth, I made it my goal with every post to inform and educate you, my reader, about the varied nuances of this disruptive way of doing IT that we call cloud computing.
Since then, I've written several posts that I am very proud of:
- I covered the tenuous relationship between existing law and cloud computing in several posts, including the impact of an FBI raid in Texas on cloud consumer rights, and an in-depth legal analysis of the impact of cloud on the Fourth Amendment.
- I wrote a three-part series exploring various aspects of cloud interoperability.
- I made a clear, concise argument for why cloud computing is an operations model, not a technology.
- I outlined why cloud analogies to electric utilities miss a key difference between data and electricity.
- I did a five-part series on how cloud and virtualization are making us rethink the IT stack.
- I outlined a proposed "calling card" for applications looking for cloud services.
- I did a three-part series outlining the relationship between cloud computing and "devops."
- I updated my informal "Cloud Computing Bill of Rights," which aims to outline consumer and vendor responsibilities in the cloud relationship.
- I outlined the changing nature of IT operations in a cloud-computing dominated world (which I will be discussing with Bernard Golden at Cloud Expo in Santa Clara, Calif., next week).
There are, of course, many more posts that I am proud of than I could list here.
My ability to share all of this with the CNET readers was only possible because of the excellent support of CNET's editors and staff. I owe all of them a debt of gratitude for their excellent and professional work.
Unfortunately, as of today I must bring The Wisdom of Clouds to a close. There are several reasons for this. The most important reason is a new job that I am taking on as vice president of product strategy for cloud management software provider enStratus. This is a huge opportunity to take on a demanding role in what I believe will be one of the most important pieces of software in the enterprise in coming years.
There are other reasons, however. For one, cloud computing itself is no longer an innovative new field, but a growing marketplace of hundreds or even thousands of technology and service options. Covering cloud overall has become a journalist's job, and I see myself more as an analyst and essayist.
So, I will continue to write. I want to explore how application development and operations is changing in light of cloud computing, as well as understand what cloud service providers are doing right--and wrong. Look for occasional contributions to GigaOm, as well as my own blog, which I plan to resurrect. The best way to keep up with me (and even share your ideas or comments with me) is on Twitter, where I am @jamesurquhart.
Last, but perhaps most importantly, thanks to you, the reader, for making this such an amazing experience. I will always be grateful to CNET, its readers, and the technical community at large for giving me the wisdom of clouds.