The last 7 days have been an eye opening experience. In case you missed it, I have been involved in what some have referred to as ManifestoGate for my participation in a document outlining the benefits of an open cloud. A rather simplistic document that on it's own is fairly tame.
Through all the excitement something has become very clear. Cloud Computing isn't about a particular technology, standard, or api but instead broadly represents massive platform shift. A shift towards a computing future that isn't tied to a static computing environment, be it desktop, mobile or server. It's represents a completely new way at looking at technology. One that the technology world has yet to fully grasp. What the major technology players do seem to understand is that it's going to be a very big change. Herein lies the problem.
The Open Cloud Manifesto has come to represent this uncertainty. It's has less to do with the content of the document and much more to do with the uncertainty the underlies the technology industry as a whole. It represents a power struggle for a piece of a yet unknown pie.
So what is cloud computing? Possibly the biggest platform shift in the history of technology.