Cloud Computing is like women’s fashion

Or so says Larry Ellison. (here is a shorter summary):

“The interesting thing about cloud computing is that we’ve redefined cloud computing to include everything that we already do. I can’t think of anything that isn’t cloud computing with all of these announcements. The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women’s fashion. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It’s complete gibberish. It’s insane. When is this idiocy going to stop?

We’ll make cloud computing announcements. I’m not going to fight this thing. But I don’t understand what we would do differently in the light of cloud computing other than change the wording of some of our ads. That’s my view.”

This from a guy that effectively pushed for cloud computing during the middle of the last decade, dearly funded the Network Computer concept that many cloud providers now see as the future and even powers the cloud computing’s shining star: SalesForce.

So what is pissing off Larry and Oracle?

The same thing that’s pissing off Microsoft, Apple and any other traditional infrastructure company. The fact that their premium solutions are becoming a commodity, that their premium solutions require so much training, upkeep and migration scenarios and planning that even the most skilled of IT staff need retrain every few years while the software companies themselves push for software licensing subscriptions while offering no compelling financial or operational reason to keep the data center in the office.

What’s more, guess what the kids are writing apps on these days. It’s not Oracle. It’s not Visual Studio.

This creates a huge problem for Software+MandatorySubscription+MandatoryMigration that companies like Microsoft offer. And as they struggle to implement the new partner programs and go to market as service organizations that they really are not, a whole new generation of application is coming with the next generation only bound by it’s creativity not by the built-in features it can afford or that the other vendors demand be in place.

Hardware has long been a commodity. Operating systems are almost there.

Where does that put guys like Larry, that make multimillion dollar sales orders for what is effectively becoming a near-free product?

Bashing the solutions they themselves envisioned and conceptualized a decade ago.

Evolution………… No, the dinosaurs aren’t going to disappear overnight, but their numbers are greatly diminishing. It’s not fashion Larry, it’s business, and I can assure you that lots of it is leaving your pipeline and going into mine.