The Cloud Services Operating Model Race

There is an interesting race going on right now among some of the largest technology players. It is a race to fully develop out the new cloud services operating model. This race has long term implications for everyone in the technology space, because once components of this model become available as-a-service, the consumers of the services start to care less about what is running them. So, whether the back-end uses a database from Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, or the open source MySQL, it ends up not mattering as much. It simply becomes a service.

The big push so far has been with hosted virtual servers (cloud servers) and storage (cloud storage). These are the most basic commodity items, and will have the widest adoption. Amazon Web Services, Google App Engine and Rackspace’s Mosso have received much attention in this area.

We are starting to see the next big push in the traditional middleware space. Middleware is the software that sits “in the middle of” things, and is used to connect distributed components or applications. Examples include database systems, telecommunications software, transaction monitors, and messaging-and-queuing software.

An important challenge firms will have is to not just host traditional solutions (in-the-cloud), but to re-architect them so they become an easy-to-use service. I would wager that the firms that do the best job in leveraging the cloud to simplify complex solutions are the firms that will gain the most market share.

So far, I think Microsoft's Azure is the best publically documented effort in the cloud services operating model race. IBM took a stab at this space by making some of their servers available as Amazon EC images. Oracle, CISCO, EMC and Intel, although not all in the same lines of business, have all been getting involved in this arena as well.
The cloud services operating model will play an important role in the continual effort to diminish technical barriers-to-entry. Previously complex technology will gain wider adoption, and there will be a greater opportunity for small, medium and large-sized firms to more easily and efficiently build innovative products and services.