by Anura Guruge
on January 12, 2022
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IBM has been doing cloud since the 1960s, if NOT earlier!
That is IBM’s current problem. People keep on saying IBM needs to ramp up its cloud business — BUT, that is a bit hard when they have been doing cloud all along.
‘Cloud’ is a MISNOMER — & widely misunderstood. That is a problem. So many of the ‘pundits’ that prattle on daily about ‘cloud this & cloud that’ have NO IDEA what the cloud is.
This cloud ‘thing’ all goes back to the late 1990s when ‘Sun Microsystems’, then a MEGA tech company came up with the slogan: ‘the network is the computer‘.
Well that was never the case, but it was an attempt to highlight that networking was becoming increasingly important.
What ‘Cloud Computing’ means, cut to the chase, is SERVER-SIDE computing.
OK. So what does that mean. It means doing most — if not all — your computing & data storage on a server, as opposed to your desktop, laptop, mobile device (whatever).
Easy example. If you still use a PC/laptop do YOU still DOWNLOAD all your e-mails before reading them? If so, you are NOT doing CLOUD. You are reading your e-mails, previously downloaded, on your PC/laptop. CLOUD computing is if you do your e-mails, reading & composing, using a SERVER somewhere (far away) accessed via a network (i.e., the Internet).
Server side (i.e., Cloud) vs desktop (i.e., local).
IBM basically pioneered server side computing way, way, way back.
In the late 1980s & 1990s it was SEVERELY criticized & chastised that it never really succeeded in getting into local/desktop computing. That is where Apple, Microsoft & PCs came in. IBM was entrenched with Server Side computing –> i.e., cloud.
Now it is ALL cloud.
But, IBM’s major customer base was already doing cloud.
IBM can’t SWITCH these folks to the cloud. They are already doing cloud.
Now you get folks prattling on about Linux etc. Yes. Yes. That is a different story. That is NOT just cloud. That is changing the server side technology. The cloud part is still the same.
IBM’s current management has NO CLUE!
They are as clueless as the media punits.
IBM needs OLD IBMers (like I) who know what this is all about. NO, I am not looking for a job. I am happy. Thank YOU. But, there are plenty others.
I will say it again. IBM’s current management has NO CLUE!
IBM can only do so much with the cloud because so much of its base is already in the cloud.
I had to get this off my chest.
Thanks. I feel much better now. SMILE.