Creativity in the Cloud

I teach a one-day class on Trends and Technologies for the Data Professional and here’s a summary of my definition of cloud computing:

Cloud computing is the outsourcing of software, platform, and/or infrastructure. It is the separation of What and How from Where and Who. Examples of cloud computing are web-based tax preparation services, sites to maintain photos and create albums, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and increasingly commercial applications such as Google Apps. Organizations can access their data through thin clients such as web browsers without control, concern, or knowledge of the exact location of their data.

Cloud computing is hot. If you’re at a party and start throwing around the phrase “cloud computing” be prepared to be the center of attention. If you own stock in a company that puts the word ‘cloud’ in a press release, expect to retire early when their stock price soars. If you attend a cloud computing conference, expect to wait in long lines to finally get registered and enter the exhibit hall. This last one is especially true for me. I recently attended the Cloud Computing Expo in New York City and was amazed at the crowds and excitement.

After making my way around the exhibit hall and filling my tote with conference goodies like t-shirts and bouncing balls, I made a startling realization: not much variety. I look in my tote (now weighing over ten pounds) and realize most of my goodies are t-shirts and bouncing balls. Where are the glow-in-the-dark pens or ice cubes that light up in your drink? Not much variety. The same is true from many of the offerings at this conference. The majority of vendors at this conference are selling storage on demand or security services.

I was hoping for some more variety among the offerings. Ok, I was hoping for at least one vendor to have something data management-related in the cloud. But no one! We have Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) which is the offering of servers, software, and storage space as a service. An example of an IaaS service we may be familiar with is web hosting. We have Platform as a Service (PaaS) which is the offering of tools for application design, development, and testing as a service. We have Software as a service (SaaS) which is the offering of applications to end users (often through a web-browser) as a service. But where is Data Management as a Service (DMaaS)?

For example, can you do Modeling as a Service (MaaS)? How about Data Dictionaries as a Service (DDaaS)? Or Generic business Rules as a Service (GRaaS)? (Reminds me I have to mow the GRaaS after writing this blog).

I remember within months after the web became mainstream there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of unusual and exciting ventures. Will the cloud follow a similar path? Hopefully soon. Today I read a blog from Information Week which raised cloud computing privacy as a primary concern. I have not seen privacy raised on a list of cloud computing concerns before (security is always on the list, but never privacy). Data privacy to me has more to do with understanding the data (e.g. social security number is more sensitive than shoe size), as opposed to security which I find in cloud computing has more to do with technology and preventing any unauthorized access to any data. So maybe we are starting to pay more attention to data in the cloud – possibly data privacy is a driver for Data Management in the Cloud.

Until the next blog…