Interesting piece. There are many concerns and promises of cloud computing that make it enticing.

I believe Christensen's work has been misapplied in this matter though. While the methodology of cloud computing may place users in the driver's seat, it is compliance and sustainability that remains ITs stronghold.

Many companies are working to created on demand services within their infrastructure. This will give the clientel greater flexability and power. Never the less, compliance and sustainability must be integrated with any such service.

One interesting topic arising from these discussions is that of practicioner versus consumer. IT is unique in that most individuals fail to see a difference between using and providing IT services. It is commonly misunderstood that to configure an application or service for personnel use enables one to be able to deliver this service or experience to others.

Imagine the following statement - "I have been to the doctor for years, I can perform the operation on my brother or sister." Too many hold this view in regard to IT. "I can turn on and use my desktop computer, I will provision this new server/service in the cloud and solve our problems..."

Yes, the cloud is a promising model. Empowering our clientel is always a good business plan. Yet, we in IT have learned to serve in one hand and protect with the other. When the day comes for the audit, disaster recovery, etc., IT will be called into service. Let us begin to find ways to integrate and deliver cloud computing benefits while defending against its weaknesses.

Spot on! I believe it's disruptive, no doubt. Though security/compliance tend to be the biggest cited reasons not to move to the cloud today, these issues will have to be overcome, and I suspect they will, as there are too many cloud providers spending too much money to fail because of this. These vendors will work with the regulatory bodies to get these regulations updated to reflect a computing model they weren't originally written for, and once they do, watch out IT.

Today's IT simply wasn't built to deliver IT this way, and try as it has for at least the last decade to get closer and closer to delivering IT as services, it's just too big a ship to turn. I agree with the author, it's easier to just startup a new IT.

Cloud computing is still computing. The computers sit somewhere else. Big deal. Questions about the implications of any new technology should always be framed around value creation. The VAST majority of the time, new technology innovation simple sustains current value propositions. Ocassionally, it disrupts, provided the disrupter creates something that a large base of users or customers find real, new value in. So yes, cloud computing will enable some clever forms of disruptive innovation, but dont credit the technology, credit the innovators. For the most part, cloud computing will simple be a way to save money, which at the end of day is entirely the driver behind virtualization