Cloud computing will kill these 3 technologies

Every technology wave drowns something. David Linthicum reveals the cloud's future casualties

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When looking at the space that cloud computing occupies in the tech world, it's almost difficult to imagine that cloud computing could actually push a few existing players into the sun. However, as with any new trend, there are winners and losers.

For instance, back in the early 1990s there was a big push for multiplatform application development tools. With the advent of the Web and the multiplatform nature of browser-based applications, these tools quickly faded away. Now I'm seeing much the same pattern with cloud computing.

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So what will cloud computing kill?

Design-time service governance. There are two types of service governance technologies: runtime, or the ability to enforce service policies during execution, and design time, or technology supporting the design and implementation of service policies. Policies are placed around services to control who can access those services and what they can do with them. Obviously, when using services you don't own nor host, such as the case with cloud computing, the need for service governance goes way, way up.

Today SOA is a huge reality as companies ramp up to leverage cloud computing or have an SOA that uses cloud-based services. Thus, the focus on runtime service execution provides much more value. Many of the existing runtime SOA governance players support enough design and implementation capabilities that separate design-time tools are not required. Cloud computing is simply accelerating the focus on the requirement for runtime SOA governance, and sooner or later design time will fall by the wayside.

Older and smaller clouds. Given how recent the cloud hype is, it's difficult to picture cloud computing providers that have been around for five years or more. But in fact, a few of them are out there. Ironically, some of these early cloud providers have not seen the implications of the recent growing interest in the cloud. These providers are typically bit players in the cloud, providing pieces of solutions, but not holistic solutions themselves.